ROLE OF SOCIAL NETWORKING (SN) SITES
Technological innovation is prone to happen, and with the expansion of any such innovation, it is the responsibility of those involved companies to proactively change with expansion -
The two areas that I would like to touch upon for SN companies are the following:
1. As the SN sites size increases and decentralization widens, SN companies should consider applying appropriate control measures at different levels.
2. SN sites also has the responsibility to be neutral in certain areas, and one primary area being, politics. SN sites should provide pointers/directions to all the concerned parties in elections, and let the merit, performance, policies of the candidate take them through.
Note: In this information world, citizens around the globe are becoming more and more knowledgeable about the real world events, and over time with more availability of information combined with right education, people would easily identify right leaders at various levels with great success.
Interesting article - Friends more than algorithms direct viewership towards opposing political viewpoints - I guess this further supports the need for Privatebook.
Updated: 8/11/15
Can SN companies develop a business model to limit giant network structure, and also distribute the wealth to smaller units similar to Google? I have my own ideas, but there are smart minds out there, who can come up with great ideas.
Updated 8/19/15
Professional networking sites (such as, LinkedIn) - my recommendation would be again to make the size of the network smaller to implement better control measures. May be, provide a new platform to connect graduating students and alumni network with employers/venture capitalist etc (there are sites out there, but are not effective yet). Professional networking sites can provide such a bridging platform through two forms of services (this comes from personal experience, and researching on the network for a while) -
1. directly bridging quality universities and colleges with employers, and
2. through reputable recruiting agencies where the individuals working for those agencies are qualified, have worked in that industry, and understands the nuances of the job demands/description for a particular job.
Going this route would also increase demand in the server/data storage space.
Universities and Colleges, In this changing world, it is better to have consistent revenue stream rather than rely on future contributions (it would be nice, if those University/College employees with compensation worth multi-million dollars or 10 times median household income would donate on a regular basis), and this would be one way to help the graduating students while generating revenue, and also employ qualified alums over a course of their career. As part of this process, Universities/Colleges should establish a solid career center that include employees' from different backgrounds, and real world experience.
Note: I am basically giving away my private-book idea. I also strongly believe that Dr. Robin Dunbar's anthropological theory pretty much works in this arena.
Please pay for this recommendation. :-)
Updated 8/27/15
This story further shows that when family members can't agree with each other, how can a giant network help in bringing unity. If individuals were to point out to the Virginia incident, it is not the way to bring unity. Humans, as long as we have our own views, ideas, affinities, liking, greed, jealousy, anger, will have differences irrespective of who they are or where they come from. Building a giant network is not going to help with this intrinsic human behavior. In the long run, it can cause more problems rather than reduce differences. The best way to reduce differences is by getting right education (structured - preferably) combined with the inclination to be a continuous learner, building exposure through experience in the real world, traveling around the world, building tolerance to others' views to name a few.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/on-air-killings-gripped-millions-in-social-media-storm/ar-BBm8WDR
Here is one example showing potential issues with technological addiction -
https://news.yahoo.com/wife-company-she-needs-her-electronic-devices-050022683.html
Updated 8/28/15
I came across these two interesting articles -
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/27/facebook-milestone-1-billion-people-used-it-in-a-day.html
I am curious whether Facebook knows what fraction of the 1 billion users tend to be social bots or phony profiles created by the same user. I am certain social media companies are looking into addressing social bots, and other kinds of bots. If such phony profiles, and social bots continue making real profits, it will be a matter of time before the value of money gets further questioned.