Projects:fb4sci

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A Critical Analysis of Online Social Networks for Scientists

Following on from previous rants, and triggered by announcement of two large NIH grants to support the development of social networking tools for scientists I returned to the idea of doing a critical analysis of online science social networking sites that I never followed through on from last year. This page provides an index to the plan and outputs from that effort. The main trigger for this was this Friendfeed Thread set off by Michael Habib and is documented more fully on Friendfeed here.

Plan

Assemble a group of interested parties and spend a week on examining each social networking site or service that makes the list. For each attempt to obtain specific pieces of information but also to form a subjective impression of usability, functionality, and "pull" to return back to the site on a regular basis. This will require a schedule and specific criteria as a list of target sites.

Schedule

Start assessments in the week commencing February 1st 2010 and attempt to work down the list one service per week, faster if there are accessibility problems or other issues that prevent a complete assessment. Stack overflow instances can probably be treated as one service.

Criteria

An initial stab at "objective" criteria

  • What is the immediate impression on signing up?
  • Is there a pull for people to come back?
    • If not, can the account be easily deleted?
  • What functionality is being offered (publicly/ upon registration)?
    • How much of it is public or restricted to registered users?
      • If it requires registration, is it available immediately thereafter?
    • What privacy/data protection options does it offer to users?
  • How dependent is it on having a network of scientists in place?
    • Can it pull in contacts via social graph?
  • How does the site perform (HTTP errors, download time, mobile accessibility etc.)?
  • How portable is the user-generated data?
    • Does it have an API?
  • Funding model and stability
    • Freemium, subscription, haven't figured it out yet
    • Is it just an experiment?
  • User numbers, ideally active users and accounts, but whether we can get those is another question.
  • Does the site support Open Access, Open Science, Linked Data, etc?
  • Are the site or user base transdisciplinary and international or concentrated on specific disciplines or geographical regions?

Target sites and services

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