Thanks for the info, Barry. I certainly am aware of the older and broader sociological research and debates on 'social networks'. I was only referring to the current, mundane and fashionable use of the term, i.e. groups/communities/collectives that are being supported by 'social software'. ...and I totally agree with you. Dr. José Abdelnour Nocera  Senior Lecturer Institute for Information Technology Thames Valley University Wellington Street Slough - England SL1 1YG Tel [work] +44(0)1753697887 / [home] +44(0)1908648376 Fax +44 (0)1753 697750 http://sirius.tvu.ac.uk/~abdejos/  -----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Barry Wellman Sent: 15 September 2007 15:51 To: aoir list Subject: [Air-L] "social networks" preceded "network community" Jose wrote in the last digest: "I think that this comparison is similar to that of VCs and 'Networked Communities', a term that has been there long before 'social networks'." Sorry, Jose, but I think you're wrong. I. The explicit use of the term social network goes back to the 1950s, with J.A. Barnes, the Cambridge anthropologist. Wikipedia has a handy historical section on this, and for more detail, see Linton Freeman, The Development of Social Network Analysis: A Study in the Sociology of Science. Vancouver: Empirical Press, 2004. (I have a shorter article, as the first chapter of Wellman & Berkowitz, _Social Structures_). What's happening is that the social software mavens have been taking over "social network" as their own. There's been a lot of fuss on Wikipedia differentiating between the "social network" and the "social network service" article. II. I think I invented the term "networked comunities". Certainly I started using it much later -- in the 1970s. Dredging my vitae, it was probably used early on in: Barry Wellman, "The Network Nature of Future Communities." Society for the Study of Social Problems, Aug., 1972. New York.(if you want to consider conference papers) and in print: Paul Craven and Barry Wellman, "The Network City". Sociological Inquiry 43 (Winter, 1973): 57-88. Barry Wellman, "The Form and Function of Future Communities." Pp. 301-313 in Futures for Central Canada, edited by Larry S. Bourne, et al. Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press, 1974. Barry Wellman, "Community Transformations: Present and Future." Pp. 213-26 in Participatory Democracy in Action, edited by Dan Chekki. Sahibabad, India: Vikas, 1979. Barry Wellman, "The Community Question: The Intimate Networks of East Yorkers." American Journal of Sociology 84 (March, 1979): 1201-31. Barry Wellman and Barry Leighton, "Networks, Neighborhoods and Communities," Urban Affairs Quarterly 14 (March, 1979):363-90. Barry Wellman, Peter Carrington and Alan Hall "Networks as Personal Communities." Pp. 130-84 in Social Structures: A Network Approach, edited by Barry Wellman and S.D. Berkowitz. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. You could look it up as Casey used to say, as my vitae is online. Alas, these papers were written before word processing, so I don't have a handy search mechanism available. And I'd rather write new stuff that search old. Barry Wellman _______________________________________________________________________ S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC NetLab Director Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Room 418 Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman fax:+1-416-978-7162 Updating history: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php Elvis wouldn't be singing "Return to Sender" these days _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________ 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 Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/