Research on Social Networking Sites

TheResearch

Hello all, I’m a postgraduate student at UL doing my dissertation on social networking sites in relation to young peoples friendship. I’m focussing on Bebo as a case of interest.

I’m looking for 18-24 Bebo users to take part in interviews lasting no more than one hour, at a time and place convenient to them. Participants would be preferably in the Limerick or Galway area although anyone anywhere else would be very welcome. I’m planning on conducting my interviews from 25th May to 30th June so I’m really only looking for names and contact details of anyone interested at this stage.

I’m not sure if this forum is the best place to start this thread, as I’m really hoping non-students will take part as well as students. I’m posting an internal e-mail to all UL students, but can't get access to the the internal mail system at the mail system in LIT (against college policy), and im waiting for NUIG and GMIT to get back to me . Any advice on where to find/contact potential participants, or which forums would be useful to post in would be really helpful (im not sure if i can post the same thread in multiple forums??).

Anyone interested can contact me for more in-depth info or just send me their contact details (name/e-mail address/number) via private mail on boards, or e-mail at CaillinR@hotmail.com or CaillinReynolds@hotmail.com Thanks!

Red Alert

One idea is to put up old fashioned notices on campus. Ethics can sometimes prevent you offering incentives for participation, but in general it should be no problem.

(Mod mode: We hadn't dealt with this type of post in the charter, but I'm happy enough for it to stay.)

Corkette

This is very weird OP, I've just decided to do my FYP on a similar subject!

What angle are you taking on it?

Was just about to tell u about mine but dont want some mean person stealing my idea.....so I'll drop u a private messagel.

Tom Dunne

Wouldn't Boards.ie be considered a social networking site?

I've got to know loads of people through this site.

Corkette

tom dunne wrote:

Wouldn't Boards.ie be considered a social networking site?

Good point!

Blowfish

tom dunne wrote:

Wouldn't Boards.ie be considered a social networking site?

I've got to know loads of people through this site.

I suppose it is, and actually OP, John Breslin (aka. Cloud) who is a cofounder of boards would be a fantastic person to talk to, as social networking is one of his main research areas.

TheResearch

Boards.ie could be considered a social networking site, and i imagine someone may use it as a topic for a paper/FYP/ thesis. I would personally classify it as an online forum, used predominantly as a means to voice opinions, seek info, talk about general stuff etc. through which you might make new friends or talk with people you know, rather than a site used specifically for people to meet and stay in touch with friends.

Online forums and communities have been the subject of a lot of academic research, but social networking sites seem to be something different. Sites like Bebo/Myspace/Facebook are 'designed' specifically for the purpose of making new friends and staying in touch with old ones, rather than any other purpose that faclitates this (e.g. Boards). Plus a lot of other stuff that diifferentiates SNS sites:
For a more coherent definition see danah boyd's definition at http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2006/11/10/social_network_1.html

cruiserweight

Blowfish wrote:

I suppose it is, and actually OP, John Breslin (aka. Cloud) who is a cofounder of boards would be a fantastic person to talk to, as social networking is one of his main research areas.

Yeah he was involved in a workshop on the topic in NUIG that I attended last month. There was some interesting stuff at it

http://webcamp.org/SocialNetworks/

dK1NG

TheResearch wrote:

I’m not sure if this forum is the best place to start this thread, as I’m really hoping non-students will take part as well as students. I’m posting an internal e-mail to all UL students, but can't get access to the the internal mail system at the mail system in LIT (against college policy), and im waiting for NUIG and GMIT to get back to me .

Just for the record, I'm in UL and havent received any email like that...

Maybe its cos it hasnt been sent yet, but just to let u know, just in case.

TheResearch

Thanks for the warning dK1NG. But yes i havnt sent it yet , they're pretty tight about using the distribution lists if you're not staff, still in the process of gettin access to them! Trying to get hold of SU officers to do it for me, have only had a bit of help from them so far.

Would you like to volunteer?!

Check out Socialresearch.bebo.com for more details for the mo.