Technical and Non-Technical Issues Surrounding Social Networks
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Contents |
Technical Issues
- Actuation & Body Sensing & Environmental Sensing - Capturing data for profile updates with sensors. Enabling social networks users to indicate what information to share in raw or filtered form.
- Communication R.F. & Firmware - Do devices speak directly to social network API’s or go through a middle layer? Danger of speaking directly to social network API’s is rapidly evolving nature of social networks.
- Middleware - Middleware could act as privacy guardian by filtering data before it reaches the social network, rather than filter on the social network. Reduces risk of exposure of private data. Could be designed to act as translation layer so can communicate with multiple simultaneous social networks.
- Software - Capabilities to communicate with Web 2.0 technologies and function in restrictive sandboxed environments. Applications that extend social networks often have various security restrictions to protect users. For example a malicious application could copy spam everyone in a friend’s network.
- Services - Who and what hosts applications written to run on social networks? The authors of the application or the entity running the social network?
- Mobile Aggregation - Multiple paths to access the content on social networks to suit device capabilities. For example RSS feeds of profile updates, which can be accessed by third party web based applications, such as Google’s feed reader.
- Security - Ensuring privacy of all data.
- Data Storage - Social networks often have massive data warehousing demands, as millions of users upload photos, make comments, etc.
- Reliability - Standard issues around very large-scale websites, e.g. distributed redundancy, peak loads, response times, etc.
- Communication Networks - Interoperability between social networks, as previously mentioned Open Social and FOAF are attempting to tackle some of the issues.
Interaction Issues
- Actuation: Screens/Designs/Communication Styles - Degradable interfaces and interaction techniques, i.e. interfaces and interaction models that are robust enough to work with different cognitive and physical abilities. For example don’t design system that require quick feedback, such as a keypress within a certain time frame.
- Design: Physical Detc - Currently social networks are accessed via standard computers. Are their affordances and opportunities to redesign social network interfaces to improve the usefulness and accessibility for elders.
- Compliance - Are a set of accessibility standards required for social networks, or are existing W3C / Design-for-all web standards suffice? A possibility opportunity for improvement could be enabling users to choose to have core functionality presented in a consistent menu structure and visual style across multiple social networks, i.e. decouple interface functionality from interface layout.
Policy Issues
- Business - Many social networks are isolated from each other. A profile on one network is completely separate from a profile on another. This has numerous disadvantages and increases the complexity of participation in social networks.
Disadvantages include an inability to carry out Friending across networks and share profile updates across networks. These disadvantages mean everyone must belong to the same network to interact in a social network, even if different people find some networks easier to use than others. Another disadvantage is an ability to migrate between social networks. For example if a social network is failing members cannot simply have all their profile updates, friend connections, comments and photographs migrate to a new network. Another facet of this is if many family members or friends take part in a few different social networks, then a person must maintain multiple profiles. This is advantageous for businesses as it leads to circles of friends joining the same network.
Recently there have been moves towards creating standards around profiles and friend networks, e.g. Friend of a Friend Project and Open Social.
- Privacy - Issues around privacy, both for the elder and those who interact with elders are a major concern with social networks. What right to privacy does the caregiver have? What right to privacy does the caregiver’s actions have when those actions directly impact upon the elder? This is relevant because a social network may share the points of interaction between an elder and those the elder interacts with.If an elder does share their caregiver’s actions, in a manner such that other’s can comment on those actions – what right to response does the caregiver have? See Privacy & Security link for further details on relevant issues here.
- Social Constraints - What benefits do social networks offer over existing offline social networks? Are their stigmas associated with publishing personal information online? Possibility of elders in social networks becoming targeted by sophisticated online criminal rings. Identify theft and impersonation becomes easier where people publish and share what has been previously private information. How can elder’s be educated about safe online practices?
- Dependancies - Social networks depend on friend actions. For example my profile gets updated when one of my friends updates their profile. How can dependancies between friends actions and what updates will or should occur be made clearer? For example if an elder asks a friend a question how do they know whether their question will be public, public only to friends, or a private communication between two people?
Environmental Issues
- Home & Clinical - If there is integration between social networking and technologies, such as ambient health monitoring, standard questions arise about energy use, network communication efficients, etc.
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