Hi Linda, Yes, I agree. I used that nomenclature in my paper: Ackland, R. (2009), "Social Network Services as Data Sources and Platforms for e-Researching Social Networks," Social Science Computer Review Special Issue on e-Social Science, 27(4), Winter 2009. I use "online social network" to refer to any social network on Internet e.g. organisational hyperlink networks and social network services/sites. I agree with you that an SNS is a particular type or class of online social network. Rob Linda.Olsen@infomedia.uib.no wrote:
Hi Kevin.
I think the reason why some researchers still use "online social networks" is that not all social networks on the Internet are bound to a SNS.
The way I see it, a SNS refers to a service that supports online social networks (such as Facebook or LinkedIn). It would, however, be quite tiresome and redundant to refer to them as "online social network services", when SNSs no doubt all exist online. Social networks, however, do not.
Now, I don't know if some researchers also use ONS when they write about Facebook or LinkedIn, but I would expect the term to appear when dealing with social networks on the Internet in general, and not when dealing explicitly with SNSs.
Anyone agree/disagree?
Linda
Siterer Kevin Guidry <krguidry@gmail.com>:
All,
Much of the available research refers to services such as Facebook and MySpace as "social network(ing) sites/services (SNS)." Let's ignore for the moment the differences between those four permutations as I'm more interested in learning about why some researchers use "online social networks (ONS)." SNS seems to be much more common, particularly in the wake of the late 2007 JCMC special theme issue focusing on SNSs.
Given that both terms are still in use, is there some sort of subtle cultural or discipline-based divide of which I am unaware? Or is this just an oddity that isn't important or indicative of anything more than personal preference?
Kevin _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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