Are we facing a revolution of the Internet and how we, as users, access and publish information through the world wide web?
Community Next is a discussion of the present and future of online communities. Today, is the conference at Stanford University with 30 experts set to speak on the topic. Unfortunately, I am not writing this from Palo Alto, but this is a very interesting topic and one that has intrigued me for quite some time.
Here are the specific points that the conference will address:
Although, how the effects of online communities specifically affect SEO is still unfolding, but it is much more broad based on how it stands to change how we look at the Internet and how others (search engines and social portals) develop what, where and when information is accessible and relevant to our specific needs. The social aspect of the Internet potentially can be the next revolution for information, not just online, and how it can revolutionize our offline social groups.
Social search and traditional search portals
But really, how does Social Search enhance search, you ask? I think the following analogy captures the essence of that synergy. There are a number of raw materials required for the creation of “art”. The raw horsepower of machinery has made the refinement and access to these materials increasingly easier. But, no one would argue that simply blending these materials together results in art. It takes the human hands of an artist to create beauty and meaning. You need human talent to bring those raw materials together in a holistic way to create something that no machine could ever produce.
Search has increasingly become better at refining raw information into ever more useful materials. The powerful blend of Social Search with traditional search puts this material into the hands of real people and also creates something that no machine could really ever reproduce: A connection to the world’s knowledge. Yahoo!
Google addressed the concept of ranking results with the integration of editorial opinion:
A system and method, consistent with the present invention, address this and other needs by providing a mechanism that enhances the ranking of search results by integrating editorial opinion.
In accordance with the purpose of the invention as embodied and broadly described herein, a method that provides search results is disclosed. The method includes receiving a search query, retrieving one or more objects in response to the search query, determining whether the search query corresponds to at least one query theme of a group of query themes, ranking the one or more objects based on a result of the determination, and providing the ranked one or more objects.
In another implementation consistent with the present invention, a method for determining an editorial opinion parameter for use in ranking search results is disclosed. The method includes developing one or more query themes, identifying, for each query theme, a first set of objects as being favored, identifying, for each query theme, a second set of objects as being non-favored, and determining an editorial opinion parameter for each of the objects in the first and second sets. Patent
Why are social communities forming?
In a paper that was brought to my attention by SEObytheSea.com and written by professors from the Department of Computer Science at Cornell University:
The tendency of people to come together and form groups is inherent in the structure of society; and the ways in which such groups take shape and evolve over time is a theme that runs through large parts of social science research. The study of and communities is also fundamental in the mining and analysis of phenomena based on sociological data – for example, the evolution of informal close-knit groups within a large organization can provide insight into the organization’s global decision-making behavior…
Understanding the structure and dynamics of social groups is a natural goal for network analysis, since such groups tend to be embedded within larger social network structures. That is, given a collection of individuals linked in an underlying social network, the groups and communities that they identify with can be thought of as corresponding to subgraphs of this network, growing and overlapping one another in a potentially complex fashion. Group Formation in Large Social Networks: Membership, Growth, and Evolution
I have scratched the surface of socialization and the Value of Trust, but much still remains to be seen regarding the integration and further development of social networks online and their value to social networks offline.
The question remains, “What will be the result of a more social search engine?” One thing to consider when addressing this is what other areas are being addressed by search technology and how they are interrelated, specifically, the value of trust, link building, user intent, local search and others.
Is this the beginning of the revolution, or rather yet another way for the search engines to dilute the way things are ranked to keep the Internet a capitalistic endeavor?
It is certain that socialization is the basic building block of communities, but do the same aspects translate from offline to online communities?
What are your thoughts?
Related Posts >>
- Yahoo! Answers Gets Personal
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- Must Have for Social Optimization
- The Value of Trust
- MyBlogLog and Social Networking for Blogs
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m hoping that some attendees of the conference wrote some blog posts about it.
Social Networking is an area that I think anyone thinking about the web, and how it works will need to pay attention to. As social networking sites increase in number, and evolve, and I think that they will, I think that search engines will need to adapt to the way that people are using the web. And, if social networking sites can help search engines index pages better, it makes sense for the search engines to use them.
I actually wonder about the opposite, when will we see stronger evidence of online/social search facilitating offline. This is happening some today, but I think in relatively clumsy ways that really only serve a very small number of people. Offline community building has never stopped. Online just seems to run faster and scale in many desirable ways. When will convergence really enable something new as search + location based services + mobile technology really create something really new. Howard Rheingold wrote about “flashing” or “flash mops” years ago, but thus far it seems very gimicky vs practical and exciting. Politics provides an interesting example of where this could take off faster…look at http://www.barackobama.com and “find supporters near you.” For good or bad, with politics you get passion and necessity which may both be needed for this to get further traction. I hope you’ll give my blog a read, I share an interest in all things online community. (http://communitygrouptherapy.spaces.live.com) Let me know what you think.
Sean
Bill,
If you hear from any of the attendees, please share. I also agree that the ability to incorporate online social networks will be very important for the engines to figure out and provide this information to their users as they are also relevant to what they are looking for.
Sean,
I think that the social networking online has become something that offline communities could not accomplish. Basically, online communities have no interference with time and space that offline communities face. As these social networks expand, they are not limited to when and where communication and sharing of ideas can take place, and unlike other communication, like standard mail and even email, publishing to a group can allow each member the freedom to reciprocate or not. As long as there is some member of the community continuing, the network continues. I think, as I responded above, that online communities will continue to grow and expand, but they still are a function of any traditional community, a group of people that communicate. There really isn’t anything new here, however, the concept of the online community has given others the ability to expand beyond there limits of distance and focus on the substance of the relationship, namely, information. As these bonds gain strength, it will be very important that the search engines capture this information to provide it to their users. My opinion of politics is that the people that are trying to reach others, politicians, are finding a new social arena, hence, they are becoming more involved in the social online communities.
I have taken a glance at your site and it looks interesting. I will delve more into tonight. But I would like to thank you again for your interest and opinion, it is greatly appreciated.
I think we are saying the same things. Online communities facilitate in a very different way than offline. I do think some interesting converging scenarios will emerge, but not to the detriment of either, but to enhance. There’s like a good post to be done of the how online communities change the demographics of communities and the value that brings. I’ll have to think on this. A few quick thoughts are:
1) Inclusing of participants/members who could not participate in offline (location dependent or even disabled). I know an amazing community leader in South America who is a quadraplegic. To be fair, he works amazingly hard in offline too, but online community accessibility changed his life and that of many of his followers.
2) Persona differences – There are a lot of people who participate online in ways they never would offline (personality driven). This has a dark side too, but on the whole is very positive – you get a voice often missed by offline.
3) Scale – like #1, but you get critical mass faster and the ability to go global in scope which benefits the conversation in terms of diversity of perspective.
4) to be continued…I’ll think more on this.
Would love your thoughts on my blog. Thanks.
Sean
Sean,
I would tend to agree, we are on the same path, however, there are many detriments to converging online and offline communities. I’m sure that you know there are many deviants and predators online that should never see the light of day, but being an optimistic person, we shall stay off of this topic.
I think that the most important thing to consider when comparing online to offline communities, like I said above, there are many restrictions that online communities do not need to overcome. I would go further to say, in an online environment, the reason that a person joins a community is for the information exchange. This is extremely powerful. I am not judged by my appearance, but rather the (perceived) value of what I have to offer. Sure there are some that alienate others based upon differences (just as offline), but the limitations that we set, as falible humans, are at least lowered online. I am not treated better because of my looks or less because of the lack of money in my bank account, rather, I am what I bring to the table.
Along with this, those willing to share thoughts, opinions and ideas are empowered by others, as they should. The only thing that I wish I could improve would be the confidence that many have online should ease the transfer to their offline communities.
I know that I am a bit scattered on my response, but, I too, have been thinking about this (offline) and looking at it on a much deeper scale. Why? Because I want to improve, share how and why with others, so that they can improve and we can all be better members of our communities, online and off. It is this helping each other that is socialization and the foundation of communities and should become more important in our society (at least as far as I can see!).
Good thoughts…I will think on this more. What got me thinking about this is that ultimately I am an online community person (for tons of reasons that I prefer online), but the more I do this, the more I think of times where bridging back might be a uniquely cool and fun way to meet. I’ve also witnessed some online communities that were improved by an offline component. Classic example, sometimes online communities can get a little “heated” – I don’t mean the dark side of things, but let’s face it, people will say things to people online they would NEVER say face to face. Some of that has some positives – people can be more open and more honest, but it can also create a barrier to entry for newbees intimidated by the space. Once you meet face to face, the nature of the online dialog can change and improve. Now, all this being said, if I was forced to choose between online and offline, it would always be online:)
Anyway, thanks for “chatting” on this, it’s an interesting topic I think.
sean