The Power Source – User Generated Content.
The web is awash with online social networking sites ranging from those targeting a very broad audience group (such as Facebook, Bebo, Twitter, Flickr) to more niche communities (such as LinkedIn, A Small World, Couchsurfing).
User generated content dominates the scene by forming the source of power for popular social networking sites as well as giving users power to create their space.
An example of this is the power source of Twitter being the high participation rate creating a wealth of ‘content’ that entices users to join. Meanwhile users are able to engage with that space in their own way so a variety of causes and events have used Twitter as a vehicle for connection – including the use of hashtags to create momentum for a cause such as the protest against the #IranElection.
The extent to which personal information is freely offered by users to social networking sites – in particular Facebook – creates a different level of information that now competes with the more uni-directional medium of websites. In fact Facebook seems to be throwing down the gauntlet to