According to Wikipedia (as of 2/5/18): Facebook is an American online social media and social networking service company. […] After registering to use the site, users can create a customized profile indicating their name, occupation, schools attended and so on. Users can add other users as “friends”, exchange messages, post status updates, share photos, videos and links, use various software applications (“apps”), and receive notifications of activity. Additionally, users may join common-interest user groups organized by workplace, school, hobbies or other topics, and categorize their friends into lists such as “People From Work” or “Close Friends”. Additionally, users can complain about or block unpleasant people. Facebook is compatible with a number of devices with internet capacities, such as desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones. Facebook can be operated via both personal and business accounts equipped with branding, marketing tools, and analytics. Some features particularly relevant to online democracy include: Groups (from Facebook’s Help Center on groups ): Groups provide a space to communicate about shared interests with certain people. You can create a group for anything — your family reunion, your after-work sports team, your book club — and customize the group’s privacy settings depending on who you want to be able to join and see the group. Learn how to create a group or join a group you’re interested in. Pages (from Facebook’s Help Center on pages ): Businesses, organizations and public figures can connect with their customers or fans on Facebook by creating a Facebook Page. Anyone with a Facebook account can create a Page or help manage one, as long as they have a role on the Page. People who like a Page can get updates about the Page, such as posts, photos or videos, in their News Feed. Events (from Facebook’s Help Center on events .) Events let you organize and respond to gatherings in the real world with people on Facebook. You can create or attend an event for anything from a birthday dinner to a school fundraiser. When you create an event, you can control who sees or joins your event. Videos (from Facebook’s Help Center on videos .) Videos are one of the most immersive ways to share and discover on Facebook. You can share videos and discover videos in your News Feed. Facebook is developed by Facebook, Inc. headquartered in Menlo Park, CA (US).
Tools (16)
According to Wikipedia : Facebook Connect, also called Log in with Facebook , like OpenID, is a set of authentication APIs from Facebook that developers can use to help their users connect and share with such users’ Facebook friends (on and off Facebook) and increase engagement for their website or application. When so used, Facebook members can log on to third-party websites, applications, mobile devices and gaming systems with their Facebook identity and, while logged in, can connect with friends via these media and post information and updates to their Facebook profile. […] Log in with Facebook cannot be used by users in locations that cannot access Facebook, even if the third-party site is otherwise accessible from that location. For those wishing to incorporate Facebook Connect or Log in with Facebook in their applications or website signup, visit Facebook’s developer guide .
According to Wikipedia : Flickr is an image and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community platform. In addition to being a popular website for users to share personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers as a photo repository. As of October 2009, it claims to host more than 4 billion images.
From Wikipedia + (retrieved 2013/07/05): Google+ (pronounced and sometimes written as Google Plus) is a multilingual social networking and identity serviceowned and operated by Google Inc. It is the second largest social networking site in the world, having surpassed Twitter in January 2013. It has approximately 359 million active users. As of May 2013, it had a total of 500 million registered users, of whom 235 million are active in a given month. Google has described Google+ as a “social layer” that enhances many of its online properties, unlike conventional social networks generally accessed through a single website.
GovLuv is a Twitter aggregation tool that illuminates the conversations between citizens and government representatives and simplifies citizen engagement by connecting citizens to their representatives based on their home address, and uses that same information to differentiate constituents from non-constituents. In a GovLoop article published about GovLuv, How does GovLuv work? […] At its core, GovLuv provides a list of representatives on the left and a tweetstream down the middle. The tweetstream shows tweets that are both to and from the selected representative – everything that they’re saying, and everything that is being said to them or about them on Twitter. In addition, GovLuv provides two additional features: # Trending tags. At the top of the tweetstream, the 10 most commonly used hashtags are listed. You can instantly tell what most of the people are talking about. # Constituency. GovLuv tracks constituency of twitter accounts. This enables it to provide an accurate list of representatives, and to highlight the true currency that elected officials value – the ability to vote! This is done through a combination of methods, including the Twitter bio location, hashtag zipcodes in tweets (eg, #20009), and asking people who visit GovLuv to enter their address. What can a person expect to do when visiting GovLuv? GovLuv is designed to be easy: * Learn about your representatives: When you first visit the site, it will guess your location and give you a list of your representatives. […] See how many constituents they have on Twitter. Read their tweetstream – everything they’re tweeting, and everything being tweeted to them and about them. * Focus In: Click on a Trending Tag to narrow the tweetstream to a specific area (or maybe get some context for that new hashtag that you haven’t seen before). Filter the tweetstream so that it only shows Official tweets or so that it only shows Official and Constituent tweets. * Engage: Tweet your representative – GovLuv knows their @name. And if they aren’t on Twitter, GovLuv will provide you with other means of contacting them. If you see an interesting tweet in the stream and want to reply or retweet it, of course you can do that too. GovLuv is developed by Naomi Williams, Jim Gilliam, and Christina Aretta. It is a project of Act.ly, a suite of activism tools for Twitter, and the Open Forum Foundation, a non-profit advocating for improved communication between government officials and their constituents. Update : GovLuv has been discontinued. In order to access the website, view an archived copy .
From Wikipedia: Instagram is an online photo-sharing, video-sharing and social networking service that enables its users to take pictures and videos, apply digital filters to them, and share them on a variety of social networking services, such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Flickr.
According to Wikipedia : LinkedIn (pronounced /ˌlɪŋkt.ˈɪn/) is a business-oriented social networking site. Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. As of 9 August 2010, LinkedIn had more than 75 million registered users, spanning more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. The site is available in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. LinkedIn allows members to create groups, within which discussion board functionality is available.
According to Crunchbase : MySpace is one of the world’s largest social networks, with about 125 million users. Originally inspired by Friendster, MySpace quickly grew to become the world’s largest social network, before being overtaken by Facebook. User pages are highly customizable and support integration with widgets such as Slide or YouTube. MySpace provides users with a way to connect around content and culture.
Ning is an all-in-one social media site creator and manager. The website builder utilizes a simple drag & drop builder as well as custom CSS and Javascript design. Content on the site can be posted in the form of blogs, forums, photos, videos, and events. Administrators can also utilize monetization strategies (through the use of advertisements). Within the site itself, members can customize their profiles, connect with other social networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+), be given permissions, join sub-groups, view their activity feed, and like and share posts. Every Ning site comes with its own analytics and SEO tools in order to track views, interaction, and other metrics. A video introduction of Ning can be found here . Ning is available in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. Ning is developed by Ning Interactive based in Menlo Park, CA (US).
From the about page: orkut is an online community designed to make your social life more active and stimulating. orkut’s social network can help you maintain existing relationships with pictures and messages, and establish new ones by reaching out to people you’ve never met before. orkut makes it easy to find people who share your hobbies and interests, look for romantic connections or establish new business contacts. You can also create and join a wide variety of online communities to discuss current events, reconnect with old school mates or even exchange your favorite recipes. Orkut is owned and operated by Google Inc.
From the about page : Pinterest is a place to discover ideas for all your projects and interests, hand-picked by people like you. From Wikipedia (retrieved on June 8, 2015): Pinterest is a free website that requires registration to use. Users can upload, save, sort, and manage images—known as pins—and other media content (e.g., videos and images) through collections known as pinboards. Pinterest acts as a personalized media platform. Users can browse the content of others on the main page. Users can then save individual pins to one of their own boards using the “Pin It” button, with Pinboards typically organized by a central topic or theme. Users can personalize their experience with Pinterest by pinning items, creating boards, and interacting with other members. By doing so, the users “pin feed” displays unique, personalized results. Pinterest is headquartered in San Francisco, CA ( USA ).
Text, voice and video chat.
From the about page : SlideShare is a business media site for sharing presentations, documents and pdfs. SlideShare features a vibrant professional community that regularly comments, favorites and downloads content. Content also spreads virally through blogs and social networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook and twitter. Individuals & organizations upload documents to SlideShare to share ideas, connect with others, and generate leads for their businesses. Anyone can view presentations & documents on topics that interest them. The site is growing rapidly with over 17 million monthly visitors.
Telegram is a cloud-based, encrypted, and open-source mobile and desktop messaging app that can be used for personal one-to-one chats, as well as for groups up to 100,000 members. Public groups are open and can be joined by anyone; while “Secret Chats” offer end-to-end encryption for more privacy. The messaging app supports replies, mentions and hashtags. Multiple admins with advanced capabilities (such as, imposing partial bans, editing group info, managing messages) can be appointed in “Supergroups”. Admin activities are logged in the “Recent Actions” page. The platform also allows users to send documents, send timed self-destructing messages, and build custom tools using Telegram’s API . Telegram’s Channels function enables users to broadcast their messages to a large audience (unlimited members). Browse through the website’s extensive FAQ page here . The iOS version was launched in August 2013, and the Android version in October of the same year. Many of Telegram’s developers are originally from St. Petersburg, Russia, but the team has migrated to Dubai, UAE , due to local IT restrictions. Telegram also has offices in Berlin, London, and Singapore.
According to Wikipedia , Twitter is “a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to the author’s subscribers who are known as followers. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service ( SMS ) or external applications.”
From the website : Founded in February 2005, YouTube is the world’s most popular online video community, allowing millions of people to discover, watch and share originally-created videos. YouTube provides a forum for people to connect, inform, and inspire others across the globe and acts as a distribution platform for original content creators and advertisers large and small.