ARCHITECTURESOCIAL NETWORKING ARCHITECTURE sites allow people to connect with others and share their feelings and opinions. The users of social networking can create their contents for their friends such as videos, pictures, and interesting links etc. users can also access the contents of their friends.  Social networking is based on definite structure that provides facility of independence of expression and meeting with different people of similar interests SOCIAL NETWORKING sites allow people to connect with others and share their feelings and opinions. The users of social networking can create their contents for their friends such as videos, pictures, and interesting links etc. users can also access the contents of their friends.  Social networking is based on definite structure that provides facility of independence of expression and meeting with different people of similar interests both.  Social networking sites are end hub for individuals to establish their relationships and develop a sense of community in a voluntarily and informal way.

There are several social networking sites like, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Blogger, MySpace, Orkut, Beboo, Hi5, Pring, and many more. Popularity of social networking sites has increased many folds for last few years and today only Facebook users are expected to be exceeding from 150 million.

Architectural components of social networks

Social networking sites are the place where you can put your own information like where you live? How old you are? What are your interests etc? You can say that your profile is the place where you can tell the world about yourself.

Usually friends are your trusted persons of the site they can post comments on your profile and can send public or private messages to you. You are allowed to keep tabs on how your friends are using social network. Generally friends are the important part of your social network but not all social sites refers them as “friends” like linkedin refers to them as “connections”.

Social network sites have facility to create or join groups. You can create your own group or you can join groups on social networking sites. Most of the social networking sites use groups to help you to find people with same interests. You can make interact with them.  It is a way to connect like minded people and a way to identify your interests.

The primary focus of these groups is to communicate each other in the form of discussions. Some social networking sites mentions the boards of discussions and group members are allowed to post videos, clips and pictures related to group.

Another component of social networking architecture is to make your own blogs entries, which is more or less like a personal diary. Blogging through social networking is ideal for keeping people inform on what you are up to.

A famous way of scripting your personality shine through is by gracing your social networking profile with web widgets, which is so called a readymade template. Some social networking sites provide facility of multiple widgets. You can frequently discover interesting and attractive widgets, situated on widgets galleries on certain sites.

Social networking and information architecture

There are multiple structures used for social networking and information architecture.

Index structure: This model can work well for social networking sites with small number of users because the index structure is the web equivalent of a directory and home page. This acts as index navigating for you to the right page within the directory. Index structure is not the good choice for large number of users social network.

Strict structure: This structure is more suitable for social networking sites because if you have different categories then you can easily use strict hierarchy for your social networking sites architecture. Like if you have a file a in a category A then A will the parent of a. you can drill down as home>category>file. Each file ha s single parent.

Multidimensional hierarchy: In multidimensional hierarchy there can be more than one parent of a single file. You can use multidimensional hierarchy when there is need that of file can have multiple parent categories.  In other words we can say that if there is requirement that one file must be present on multiple categories then we can implement multidimensional hierarchy in the architecture of our social network because multidimensional hierarchy allows multiple directories for single file while strict hierarchy only allows single directory for single file.  Most social network use multidimensional hierarchy for usability and navigation goals.

Searching architecture

The fundamental task of any social network architecture is its search. Without search users exist in pockets of followers connected only by disparate connections, search adds a discovery mechanism to content and people. On some social networks, search behaves as a means of short-circuiting the hierarchical structure or in simple words, search makes hierarchical structures superfluous. Normally search works in one of two ways in a social network. First, it allows you to search within a particular parent, and secondly it allows you to search across parent to find profiles. And, sometimes you can do both task at the same time.

Distributed Semantic Social Networks (DSSN) architecture

The semantic representation of personal information is facilitated by a WebID profile. The WebID protocol allows the use of a WebID profile for authentication and access control purposes. Semantic Pingback facilitates the first contact between users of the social network and provides a method for communication about resources (such as images, status messages, comments, activities) on the social network.

The personal information can be represented by WebID. Friend of a friend (FOAF) + Secure Socket Layer (SSL) all the use of a WebID for authentication and access control purposes. A FOAF+SSL WebID is a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) that refers to a person (Agents or Robots are ok too) via a uniquely identifying description placed on the web.

WebID is simple technique to create the digital id for end users. It focus on simplicity and requirements of WebID are minimal .The WebID has RDF triples which have IRI which detects the owner as subject. The description of owner can be performed in any appropriate vocabularies.

The aim of FOAF + SSL is to include authentication functionality in to the WebID concept. To allow the owner of FOAF + SSL enable WebID for authentication herself/himself at third party website by link as SSL client certificate to web ID.

By semantic pingback in distributed social network provide facility of the first content between different people using the network. The semantic pingback is the extension of famous pingback technology. By semantic pingback mechanism the bidirectional links created between web ID, RDF resources, web blogs and websites. Semantic ping back is the successful factor of the social web.  Semantic pingback provides faultless connections and interlinking of resources on the social web with resources on the data web.

PubSubHubbub-based subscription services allow obtaining near-instant notifications of speci?c information as WebID pro?le change sets and activity streams from people in ones social network. Combined these standards, protocols and technologies provide all necessary ingredients to realize a distributed social network having all the crucial social networking features provided by centralized ones. PubSubHubbub is an open server to server web hook based publishes or subscribe protocol realized as an extension to ATOM.

Distributed Social Network Protocol (DSNP)

Distributed Social Network Protocol (DSNP) is a protocol for distributed social network and it is used to create decentralised social network like internet.  DSNP allows the private communication.  By DSNP the users can choose that where they want to host their profiles. Without imposing separation of users the DSNP introduces competition between providers.

In DSNP the reference implementation come in two parts DSNPd daemon, and Choice Social. DSNPd daemon handles the identify authentication, encryption verification and message distribution. If another project wants to communicate over DSNP then DSNPd is reusable for them. And the content of manager is called Choice Social; it is a PHP application and user can access it from usual browser based way for managing and view the content.  It communicates DSNP daemon by socket.

Social engine architecture

Social Engine is the in-charge of social networking sites, it manages profile, search, privacy, messaging, notifications, requests and most important of all social graphics. Social engine has become heart of the modern social networking sites but older social networking sites such as myspace.com has no social engine in their architecture.

Social graphing

Social graphing; so called The Network in social networks. Social Graphing is the reason of people to join social networking sites, it provides opportunities not only to connect each other but to share their activities and remain in touch. In other words it is the technical relationship between people described as friends or contacts.

Currently, the Social Graphing consists of two models implemented in existing social networking sites i.e. lead, follow, mutual model, and enforced mutual fried model. The lead, follow, mutual model has flexible and generic nature. Mostly this model is being used in modern sites like Twitter and Digg. The other enforced mutual fried model is inflexible and specific. It was used in some older social networking sites but facebook is also using the same model.

Information architecture making

Making Information Architecture is another important task in building social networking architecture. The architect must have clear idea of web site objectives, content requirements, and users group. These three components produced digital structure of social networking website.

It is vital that the social network should be easy to navigate. This process involves site mapping, task flow and wire frames.

Site Mapping is the visual way to show that how the social network will be organized. In this step architect assign names to pages and place them in order that makes sense to human users and social engines.

Task Flow is similar to site map but it has additional information, because it also shows how users will navigate the site. Site map only shows the page but the task flow shows that what will happen if the user interacts with that page.

Wire Frame is a grey scale digital skeleton that helps to visualize how website pages will layout.  Headline, sub-heading, text, images, navigation, advertising, and other required content will be added to show the informational architecture and users can view when they visit the site.

Azeema Sadia, Abdul Haseeb Khan, and Sehrish Malik are the students of Bahria University. This is an extract of their paper.both.  Social networking sites are end hub for individuals to establish their relationships and develop a sense of community in a voluntarily and informal way.

There are several social networking sites like, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Blogger, MySpace, Orkut, Beboo, Hi5, Pring, and many more. Popularity of social networking sites has increased many folds for last few years and today only Facebook users are expected to be exceeding from 150 million.

Architectural components of social networks

Social networking sites are the place where you can put your own information like where you live? How old you are? What are your interests etc? You can say that your profile is the place where you can tell the world about yourself.

Usually friends are your trusted persons of the site they can post comments on your profile and can send public or private messages to you. You are allowed to keep tabs on how your friends are using social network. Generally friends are the important part of your social network but not all social sites refers them as “friends” like linkedin refers to them as “connections”.

Social network sites have facility to create or join groups. You can create your own group or you can join groups on social networking sites. Most of the social networking sites use groups to help you to find people with same interests. You can make interact with them.  It is a way to connect like minded people and a way to identify your interests.

The primary focus of these groups is to communicate each other in the form of discussions. Some social networking sites mentions the boards of discussions and group members are allowed to post videos, clips and pictures related to group.

Another component of social networking architecture is to make your own blogs entries, which is more or less like a personal diary. Blogging through social networking is ideal for keeping people inform on what you are up to.

A famous way of scripting your personality shine through is by gracing your social networking profile with web widgets, which is so called a readymade template. Some social networking sites provide facility of multiple widgets. You can frequently discover interesting and attractive widgets, situated on widgets galleries on certain sites.

Social networking and information architecture

There are multiple structures used for social networking and information architecture.

Index structure: This model can work well for social networking sites with small number of users because the index structure is the web equivalent of a directory and home page. This acts as index navigating for you to the right page within the directory. Index structure is not the good choice for large number of users social network.

Strict structure: This structure is more suitable for social networking sites because if you have different categories then you can easily use strict hierarchy for your social networking sites architecture. Like if you have a file a in a category A then A will the parent of a. you can drill down as home>category>file. Each file ha s single parent.

Multidimensional hierarchy: In multidimensional hierarchy there can be more than one parent of a single file. You can use multidimensional hierarchy when there is need that of file can have multiple parent categories.  In other words we can say that if there is requirement that one file must be present on multiple categories then we can implement multidimensional hierarchy in the architecture of our social network because multidimensional hierarchy allows multiple directories for single file while strict hierarchy only allows single directory for single file.  Most social network use multidimensional hierarchy for usability and navigation goals.

Searching architecture

The fundamental task of any social network architecture is its search. Without search users exist in pockets of followers connected only by disparate connections, search adds a discovery mechanism to content and people. On some social networks, search behaves as a means of short-circuiting the hierarchical structure or in simple words, search makes hierarchical structures superfluous. Normally search works in one of two ways in a social network. First, it allows you to search within a particular parent, and secondly it allows you to search across parent to find profiles. And, sometimes you can do both task at the same time.

Distributed Semantic Social Networks (DSSN) architecture

The semantic representation of personal information is facilitated by a WebID profile. The WebID protocol allows the use of a WebID profile for authentication and access control purposes. Semantic Pingback facilitates the first contact between users of the social network and provides a method for communication about resources (such as images, status messages, comments, activities) on the social network.

The personal information can be represented by WebID. Friend of a friend (FOAF) + Secure Socket Layer (SSL) all the use of a WebID for authentication and access control purposes. A FOAF+SSL WebID is a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) that refers to a person (Agents or Robots are ok too) via a uniquely identifying description placed on the web.

WebID is simple technique to create the digital id for end users. It focus on simplicity and requirements of WebID are minimal .The WebID has RDF triples which have IRI which detects the owner as subject. The description of owner can be performed in any appropriate vocabularies.

The aim of FOAF + SSL is to include authentication functionality in to the WebID concept. To allow the owner of FOAF + SSL enable WebID for authentication herself/himself at third party website by link as SSL client certificate to web ID.

By semantic pingback in distributed social network provide facility of the first content between different people using the network. The semantic pingback is the extension of famous pingback technology. By semantic pingback mechanism the bidirectional links created between web ID, RDF resources, web blogs and websites. Semantic ping back is the successful factor of the social web.  Semantic pingback provides faultless connections and interlinking of resources on the social web with resources on the data web.

PubSubHubbub-based subscription services allow obtaining near-instant notifications of speci?c information as WebID pro?le change sets and activity streams from people in ones social network. Combined these standards, protocols and technologies provide all necessary ingredients to realize a distributed social network having all the crucial social networking features provided by centralized ones. PubSubHubbub is an open server to server web hook based publishes or subscribe protocol realized as an extension to ATOM.

Distributed Social Network Protocol (DSNP)

Distributed Social Network Protocol (DSNP) is a protocol for distributed social network and it is used to create decentralised social network like internet.  DSNP allows the private communication.  By DSNP the users can choose that where they want to host their profiles. Without imposing separation of users the DSNP introduces competition between providers.

In DSNP the reference implementation come in two parts DSNPd daemon, and Choice Social. DSNPd daemon handles the identify authentication, encryption verification and message distribution. If another project wants to communicate over DSNP then DSNPd is reusable for them. And the content of manager is called Choice Social; it is a PHP application and user can access it from usual browser based way for managing and view the content.  It communicates DSNP daemon by socket.

Social engine architecture

Social Engine is the in-charge of social networking sites, it manages profile, search, privacy, messaging, notifications, requests and most important of all social graphics. Social engine has become heart of the modern social networking sites but older social networking sites such as myspace.com has no social engine in their architecture.

Social graphing

Social graphing; so called The Network in social networks. Social Graphing is the reason of people to join social networking sites, it provides opportunities not only to connect each other but to share their activities and remain in touch. In other words it is the technical relationship between people described as friends or contacts.

Currently, the Social Graphing consists of two models implemented in existing social networking sites i.e. lead, follow, mutual model, and enforced mutual fried model. The lead, follow, mutual model has flexible and generic nature. Mostly this model is being used in modern sites like Twitter and Digg. The other enforced mutual fried model is inflexible and specific. It was used in some older social networking sites but facebook is also using the same model.

Information architecture making

Making Information Architecture is another important task in building social networking architecture. The architect must have clear idea of web site objectives, content requirements, and users group. These three components produced digital structure of social networking website.

It is vital that the social network should be easy to navigate. This process involves site mapping, task flow and wire frames.

Site Mapping is the visual way to show that how the social network will be organized. In this step architect assign names to pages and place them in order that makes sense to human users and social engines.

Task Flow is similar to site map but it has additional information, because it also shows how users will navigate the site. Site map only shows the page but the task flow shows that what will happen if the user interacts with that page.

Wire Frame is a grey scale digital skeleton that helps to visualize how website pages will layout.  Headline, sub-heading, text, images, navigation, advertising, and other required content will be added to show the informational architecture and users can view when they visit the site.

Azeema Sadia, Abdul Haseeb Khan, and Sehrish Malik are the students of Bahria University. This is an extract of their paper.

By Web Team

Technology Times Web team handles all matters relevant to website posting and management.