The Connector Website Model New Implications for Social ... - PRWeb

41 See Reuters, “MySpace Overtakes Yahoo! Mail,” Reuters Online, July 12, 2006. Validity of the
Hitwise measurement is disputed by Yahoo!.
42 Email exchange with Danah Boyd, August 11, 2005. Also see Frederic Stutzman, “An
Evaluation of Identity-Sharing Behavior in Social Network Communities,” Ph.D. Working Paper,
University of North Carolina, July 2005.
43 See Linda Hanson, “Student Networking Is In-Your-Facebook,” Knight-Ridder Newspapers,
November 16, 2005; Suzannah Gonzales, “Trend-setting Website Snags 40,000 at UT,” Austin
American-Statesman, January 2, 2006, p. B1. For more information about Facebook, please go to
the following URL: http://www.facebook.com/about.php
44 A brief description of the LinkedIn approach can be found at the following URL:
https://www.linkedin.com/static?key=company_info_more
45 The data do not allow a distinction between the online community’s attributes and those
associated with the host organization. In this study the online community of users and
organization are treated together as a single social institution.
46 Tim O’Reilly, of O’Reilly Media, offers a thorough description of Web 2.0 – see the following URL:
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html . Also see
Scott Kirsner, “Champions of Web 2.0 See a Shift to More Participation by the Public,” The
Boston Globe, October 10, 2005, p. F1.
47 Thank you to Andrew Lipsman and comScore Media Metrix for providing me with this data.
comScore Media Metrix is a leading website tracking organization that is based in Reston, Virginia.
The more than 2 million participants in the comScore Global Network drive the company’s
audience measurements and analytical reporting. The Advertising Research Foundation recently
issued some very high praise for comScore’s methodology. The ARF review can be found at the
following URL: http://www.comscore.com/method/arf_cs_review11502.pdf
48 I obtained this information from the website’s main webpage, “About Us” webpage, media
reports, and (if applicable) the website’s Wikipedia entry.
49 A preliminary analysis in January 2006 used Alexa website traffic data. Serious concerns of
sampling bias prompted me to switch to comScore Media Metrix, another website tracking
service that is more widely cited in the news media. Alexa has a selection bias toward those
people who use Alexa “outlets” such as Amazon.com and Internet Archive, as well as the Alexa
toolbar. A non-response bias likely exists as well. Alexa toolbar users are likely to be more
willing to download software, trust interaction on the Internet, and be more active online than the
average Internet user. To access this earlier Alexa analysis, see Paul DiPerna, “The Connector
Website Model (Alexa version),” Brookings Working Paper, March 2006. This paper is available
online at the following URL http://www.blauexchange.org
50 MSN Spaces relaunched as “Windows Live Spaces” on August 1, 2006.
51
Volatility defined here simply as the variance of a website’s “monthly percentage change” over
the fourteen month time period.
38