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Virtualizing Social Networks – Part 2

Hello again! I guess Charlie is in a generous mood.  He decided to let me post Part 2 on using a virtual directory to create social graphs. Yesterday in Part 1, I presented the case for using a virtual directory to integrate social networks for the identification and representation of relationships.

Here was the model I presented:

Real-time searches of the networks for user information are possible by hooking the virtual directory connectors up to the various social networks. By allowing users to setup their own accounts, you can ensure that the data is accurate and that users have opted-in to having their information included. Attributes of the correlated user identities are used to represent the relationships and types of relationships that user has in the context of the configured social networks. User information can then be pulled together across the social networks creating a unified profile in the virtual directory. These profiles allow applications to derive the links between the defined accounts and others with accounts defined in the virtual directory by crawling the relationships to contextually understand the users’ relationships.

So the next question and the focus of this post is what value a system like this would bring. Jeremiah Owyang has a nice post outlining how to explain the social graph:

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2007/11/10/what-is-social-graph-executives/

In the post he outlines the following benefits:

“Users: For users this means efficiency and control over one’s personal data, their relationships, and how they are deployed on different social networks, it makes navigating the web better.

Social Networks: For companies that are social networks, they can benefit by increasing the amount of users as the social graph will populate all of a users network they permit.

All other websites: For companies that are not currently social networks, (like a corporate website) expect these social features to be part of your site. People will co-surf and share information about your content whether you like it or not.”

Creating this model in the virtual directory provides a significant advantage for companies building applications for both internal and external consumption. All applications can leverage the virtual directory as a hub both for the creation and retrieval of account information and to easily understand the relationships between the registered users. New applications can instantly take advantage of this information to make recommendations for interest-based connections to other users and display targeted information. The virtualization platform creates an extensible model for building viral applications without each application having to understand the underlying social networks. This model also lends itself to being able to layer on additional services like single sign-on and federation (e.g. Facebook Connect). As I browse across the various sites, identity information relevant to the network can be presented allowing me immediate access into the system without being re-challenged.

As we move more towards an interconnected world, the value of virtualization becomes more significant. Companies will need the capabilities to quickly leverage new social networks and to easily allow users to collaborate across networks and to participate in those conversations.

Any additional ideas or feedback would be appreciated. In Part 3 I plan on covering a possible real-world use case for this type of a solution.

Thanks,
Todd

Posted by: charlie  |  April 7, 2009  |  categories: Social Media  |  tags: identity, Social Media, virtual directory, virtualization