« Bill Brown on Tag Punctuation |
Main
| Death By Powerpoint »
December 06, 2005
Social Media, Defined
Posted by Stowe Boyd
I was having coffee with Ian Kennedy and Havi Hoffman of Yahoo this morning in Palo Alto, just catching up, and Ian asked me for a short definition of "social media". I temporized, saying I would root around in the archives and see what I had in the way of elevator-speak on the subject.
Here's an attempt:
Social Media are those forms of publishing that are based on a dynamic interaction, a conversation, between the author and active readers, in contrast with traditional broadcast media where the 'audience' is a passive 'consumer' of 'content'. The annotations or social gestures left behind by active readers, such as comments, tags, bookmarks, and trackbacks, create an elaborate topology resting on the foundational blog posts, and this enhanced meta-environment, the blogosphere, is the context for and the realization of a global collaboration to make sense of the world and our place in it.
Comments (8)
+ TrackBacks (1) | Category: Technology
- RELATED ENTRIES
- › Reminder -- /Message
- › /Message - A New Blog
- › The Individual Is The New Group -- Part 1
- › 1000 Tags: Tag Advertising
- › Social Ethics And Technology Design
- › Nancy Hass on In Your Facebook.com
- › Black and White and Dead All Over: Is Newsprint Dead?
- › Anonymous Trolls, Beware: You Are Breaking Federal Laws
1. Jon Husband on December 6, 2005 05:27 PM writes...
Not bad .. can I try ?
user-managed media that helps bring individual understandings and meanings together into the creation and interpretation of additional or deepened meaning or utility.
Permalink to Comment2. Ian on December 6, 2005 06:29 PM writes...
It was great to see you Stowe. Thanks for getting the ball rolling. I'll post a follow up later and trackback to you.
Permalink to Comment3. Michael Gersh on December 7, 2005 03:11 PM writes...
A challenge when attempting to define all things social ("software"... "networking"... "media") is that the word social itself is not clearly defined. From one person's perspective social is used with a scientific connotation. (See "Social software vs. sociology software" linked to via my name.)
From another person's, social quite simply represents interactions that are not professional in nature. Consider an individual, a real estate broker perhaps, who might tell you he has no "social life" because he spends too much at work…work that does indeed involve frequent conversations and dynamic interactions with others.
I'd like to see social media defined by taking into consideration the intended purpose of the producer of the media. My first crack at a simple one-liner: Social media represents material produced with no financial nor professional incentive for the purpose of sharing with one's friends, family, or others with similar non-professional interests.
Permalink to Comment4. eric on January 17, 2006 03:44 PM writes...
http://www.monsitexxx.com/fetiche/astromag/fat/dj6ps4/amy.html fistheaterstiniest
Permalink to Comment5. skills on February 10, 2006 06:01 PM writes...
http://www.citristrip.com/wwwboard/messages/17545.html garyhoodlumnow
Permalink to Comment6. pouting on February 28, 2006 02:51 PM writes...
http://amateur.anzwers.net/pporn/hckdowg/beaststorieszoophile.html complimentwhosewondered
Permalink to Comment7. pouting on February 28, 2006 02:51 PM writes...
http://amateur.anzwers.net/pporn/hckdowg/beaststorieszoophile.html complimentwhosewondered
Permalink to Comment8. pouting on February 28, 2006 02:52 PM writes...
http://amateur.anzwers.net/pporn/hckdowg/beaststorieszoophile.html complimentwhosewondered
Permalink to Comment