Social Network Technologies - Report Example

Type the company name] [Type the document title] [Type the document subtitle] ahmad mukhtar Table of contents 1.0 Evaluation of Ideas- IDEA 1- Healthcare social networking It is an online social networking site which will enable users (patients, doctors, practitioners, nurses, labs etc.) to have an online presence with all the information, health care tips and tricks available through the links. The information will be exchanged and sorted from user to user separated by their search terms. The site will have audio/video streaming/sharing capability and will also feature interactive elements which include chatting, voice commands and so on. The users are primarily the general population. Secondly doctors, practitioners, nurses, laboratories and other healthcare entities. 1.1 Market Valuation – 9 An effective way to value a particular user is based on the average Internet advertising spent per person in the country they live in. The higher the spend, the more value the social network can get out of the user by serving them advertising and other products. That means that, for now, users in a handful of key countries are worth far more in terms of revenue potential than those in the rest of the world The ultimate financial value of any asset is, ultimately, what the market will pay for it. Facebook, Bebo and LinkedIn are worth $15 billion, $850 million and $1 billion, respectively, based on relatively recent valuations The last valuation of MySpace was just $580 million, back in 2005 when it was acquired by News Corp. Reference- http://www.nasdaq.com/investing/glossary/m/market-value From the statistics above we can clearly perceive that there is massive popularity in the field of social networking. The idea has great potential as it focuses on Health Care, which is and always will be a persistent issue in our everyday lives with the help of this booming age of social networking. 1.2 Profitability- 10 In the previous section, it can be seen from the statistics that social networking sites have massive potential in terms of profits with adequate popularity. Since the idea is focused on the subject of Health Care it is almost a given that a site dedicated to Health Care solutions will reach grounds immediately. One way social networking sites manage to make money is through investments from venture capitalists. These investors are essentially making a bet that the site they're investing in will become popular and will eventually find a way to monetise that success. Getting in early can mean a huge payoff down the road. There are several examples of large corporations buying out Internet start-up companies for millions, or even billions of dollars in the recent history of internet based sites. The most common way for Web sites to generate revenue is to allow companies to advertise on the site. Web advertising is still an emerging market. Marketing experts are continuously trying to find the best way to insert advertising into the Web experience without impacting users in a negative way. In general, the more popular the Web site, the more money it will be able to generate through advertising. A social networking site like Facebook has millions of active users. Access to that enormous user base is a valuable commodity. 1.3 Concept clarity- 8 The idea has clear vision- Provide Collaborative Health Care solutions which are easy to access, cheap, quick and reliable for almost anyone ranging from general users to multi-million dollar corporations and research facilities. 1.4 Service Competitiveness- 8 Currently there are no sites of this sort anywhere in the world. There are some which are mainly local, used by an individual health care institution and only by its users. To name some of them Alabama state hospital, DOC Hospital, Massachusetts Institute of Health Care solutions and so on. So, the idea will have an immediate edge over other interested parties for its originality 1.5 Ability to complete- 10 We have a vision, a mission to bring this idea to reality. With the right funding and man power we will be able to complete our task. 1.6 Build Economically- 8 Developing a social networking site can be very costly, especially where people from different fields of work need to come together and serve their purposes. We need high quality networking and computer equipment, contracts with doctors, labs, skilled technicians and workers to build a database and infrastructure, administrators, website developers and so on. These can be very costly. To have an impact we will need all of these elements to be of high quality and high reliability. 1.7 SWOT Analysis 1.8 Value Analysis The cost of products that needs to be purchased can be expensive. The core requirements for this idea are to have a large, secure database with social networking infrastructure. This necessitates purchasing of networking equipment of high quality to assure performance for the targeted operational strain, and also signing contracts with governments and other entities as such. The site will also need skilled web and networking technicians and designers which can be costly as well. The specialist collaborative teams within the organization will have to be of high quality as well. To carry out this idea the company will need a fairly large amount of funding. 2.8 Selection of Idea Taking into account of the feasibility and profitability, we chose ‘Social HealthCare Network’ as our main idea. Due to the booming popularity of social networking sites it gives the idea an edge over the other. The impact of social networking is nothing less than massive in our everyday lives in this era of amazing computer technology. Social networks are used primarily as a recreational tool but it is becoming increasingly important to business and organizations. Public, Internet-based social networks can enable communication, collaboration and information collection and sharing in the health care space. This in turn facilitates major business opportunities through advertisements and investments from external business entities. Medicine Printing lacks the collaborative aspect and also threatens to be a risky concept in terms of feasibility and chances of success. 3 dimensional printing is a must for this idea to flourish as it has to take advantage of some of the already done research into this technology. Though it has great potential in terms of business, the chances of success are a lot less comparatively and has the risks of being lengthy and over-costly due to the lack of available knowledge in this field. 2.9 Responsibilities The Social HealthCare Network requires two main roles. They are: IT/Operating team leader and Business/Marketing team leader. The IT/Operating team leader oversees: Specialist teams- which are dedicated to providing live help, investigate, provide solutions to any health related program which is in turn led by the team leader Website development teams- The website needs to be developed and kept in check constantly to have a clean and high quality social networking site Network/database administrator teams – Secure network and database capabilities within and outside the organization. They are dedicated to securing constant connectivity and solving any issues related to the network as it is vital to have a powerful network system for the site. Programmer/technician teams- Building and maintaining the site necessitates skilled programmers dedicated to developing and maintaining the website and network technicians for the operating capabilities of the services. Validation teams – They are collaborative teams that find solutions to specific topics raised by the users Live help team leader- A live help team needs to be constantly monitoring their secure lines for any queries from users led by the ‘Live help’ team leader The Business/Marketing team leader oversees: Business partners - may include HealthCare enterprises, organizations and research labs and so on, mainly providing funding for the project. Advertisement teams- Accommodates advertisement from external entities or even internal and make deals with interested parties. 3.0 ESN Diagram: Social Technologies Using social media which is the means and avenues through which individuals interact by creating, sharing, as well as exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks (Keim, 2011). A group of internet-based applications that are created based on the ideological foundation of Web 2.0, that allow the creation and exchange of user generated content will help the health care organization reach and server many people. It is vitally important to note that social media primarily depend on web-based technologies in order to develop highly interactive platforms through which people and communities share, co-create, discuss, and transform user-generated content (Otto, 2012). This new technological invention has had substantial as well as pervasive changes to the interaction and communication between organizations, communities, and individuals (Furht, 2010). With regard to this, the health care organization using these social media technologies will highly influence its users. This form of communication can be differentiated from the traditional mode of communication in many aspects including quality, reach, usability, frequency, efficiency and permanence thus will empower the health care organization in many different ways. The studies have established that internet users tend to spend more time on social media sites than any other internet-based sites (Kiesbye, 2011). Following this observation, social media integrates technology, social interaction, together with content creation to connect collaboratively online information. In addition, through the social media individuals and groups have the capacity to create, organize, edit, comment on, combine, as well as share content in the pursuit of helping the health care organization to accomplish its mission goals (Pinheiro, 2011). The following are technologies widely used by business enterprises to further their business operations and processes: Microblogs Microblogging involves writing extremely short blog posts that are similar to text messages. The currently most popular microblog service is Twitter which is vital in letting users post entries of up to 140 characters long (Furht, 2010). Accordingly, users of this technology are able to read messages online or have them transmitted to their cell phones as well as other mobile devices. Social networking websites like Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn have also Microblogging features incorporated in the name of status update. Having these feature on the health care social networking site will allow in these regard, users to share text, audio and video content efficiently and effectively. Microblogging is regarded as not only a random burst of text, but is characterized as a short conversation that allows users to listen and share ideas (Pinheiro, 2011). Once one subscribes on the health care organization’s microblog, he/she can get going with a set of people who will mainly be patients, medical practitioners, doctors, nurses and medical research corporations to follow and have other people follow them, it is virtually an unending conversation that allows the user to use it at his/her convenience. The importance of this technology in the health sector is that it provides a two-way communications; it can be used for engaging patients about the best practices of health living as well as other different aspects that can affect their lives. Accordingly, it can be used by in the health sector to engage the community in a public forums in order to come up with better and health living. As already mentioned, this technology allows users to reply to posts and get feedbacks of their posts automatically; for instance medical researchers and other medical stakeholders can exchange ideas with regard to given strains of diseases. In the same line of discussion, the health organization can guide readers to its content by including hastags (Microblogging funnels) Another crucial use of Microblogging is outbound communications; the latter will help the health enterprise to get information to people without forcing or coercing them to visit their site (Pinheiro, 2011). For instance, the RSS feed to post are extremely essential in this regard. By using the RSS, the health organization will post its content in one place like news releases and the Microblogging will automatically pick up the content and post it into its microblog (Furht, 2010). It is also important to note that Microblogging sites will allow the health organization to change their account settings thus enabling their messages to be viewed by anyone or be restricted to a specific group. Content communities This technology allows users to share online multimedia materials; the most popular content communities include YouTube, Flickr, and SlideShare (Furht, 2010). Once after a user subscribes to the content community he/she will be able to upload their materials, describe them, as well as make them publicly available. In this essence, visitors are able to search the content community using keywords, subscribe individual users as well as provide feedback. This technology is defined by a group of people coalescing online around an object of interest held in common. For instance, YouTube is an online community focused on sharing audio and video content, it is a non-profit channel to which non-profits can apply, and brands can subscribe. By using this feature, the health care organization social network site will provide a platform for users to share audio and video content. Flickr on the other hand is an online community on sharing photos and photography related things. In this regard, having a Flickr feature on this site will provide users an online space to document photos, research events, as well as medical problems/solutions. Content communities will be very essential for health organizations particularly in terms of research and development activities (Pinheiro, 2011). It is a vital resource as it is an online database; like geological databases, the users can search content communities for information that is related to the health organization, their ailments, available medical solutions, and even provide solutions to posted medical problems. For instance, YouTube channel can be used for the latest health news and videos with regard to new medical procedure. In the same line of discussion, content communities are essential for recruitment of qualified medical practitioners for the Health Care Organization. Multimedia presentations that describe one’s skills, qualifications and experiences in the medical field are effective recruiting tools. For instance, in content communities, health organizations will be able to recruit qualified health practitioners describing their qualifications and experience. Social networking sites These sites provide a platform that connects people together with allowing them engage in different matters (Furht, 2010). The most popular and frequently used social networking sites include Facebook and MySpace that have groups and listing features that are very essential in dialogue organization and information sharing (Pinheiro, 2011). By incorporating this feature in the Health Organizations social networking site it will also allow users to share commends, links, photos, videos, and any other relevant information in relation to health. Accordingly, a professional social networking site like LinkedIn have a section exclusively dedicated for jobs, recommendations, as well as questions. These sites are designed in a manner that enables users to connect easily with others who share same interest or afflictions thus establish contact networks. These sites have different useful tools that allow efficient sharing of content such as Instagram and FourSquare. Social networking sites will be very instrumental in promoting the health organization’s information and services (Pinheiro, 2011). For instance, the organization can use MySpace or Facebook to connect various medical experts around the organization’s work and information. Similarly, they expand the organization’s outreach capacities as well as improve its ability to interact with and serve a wide range of patients. Consequently, the Health Care organization will use social networking sites like LinkedIn to advertise jobs together with answering questions about different medical problems. Customer value propositions The customer value proposition for a health care organization social networking site will include: This site will be a text based site integrated with audio and video capabilities: this will be essentially helpful for users with limited capabilities; for instance users with impaired sight can turn on the audio function in order to get full content. Consequently, the video function will be helpful for those users who need visual content for extended understanding. The site will also allow users to upload and download text, audio and video content: this function will empower user to have easy access to valuable medical information and thus allowing them to save the content on their PCs The site will allow collaboration among patients, doctors, and medical practitioners: the site will be more reliable as real solutions for real world medical problems will be discussed where patients and doctors collaborate for better solutions. The site will also have a rating system that will rate outcomes of real users: this will assure users of obtaining best and reliable solutions The validation feature will provide better solutions to problems: this feature will ensure that specialist medical teams provide best medical solutions. The friendly graphical user interface: this will ensure ease of use of this site by all users thus making it a popular site. The discussion board: this feature will ensure that users exchange, share, research and gather information. Chart facility: this feature will enable users to exchange ideas, information and other related aspects of human health care. Live Video conferencing: this feature will help users to visually and verbally collaborate and exchange, research and gather information in real time. References Furht, B. 2010. Handbook of Social Network Technologies and Applications. London: Springer Publishers Keim, S. 2011. Social Networks and Family Formation Processes: Young Adults’ Decision Making About Parenthood. New York: Springer Publishers Kiesbye, S. 2011. Are Social Networking Sites Harmful? California: Greenhaven Press Otto, A. 2012. Success of political communication on social networking sites. London: GRIN Verlag Papacharissi, Z. 2010. A Networked Self: Identity, Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites. London: Routledge Publishers Peacock, M. 2011. Drupal 7 Social Networking: Build a Social Or Community Website with Friends Lists, Groups, Custom User Profiles, and Much More. London: Packet Publishing Ltd. Pinheiro, C. 2011. Social Network Analysis in Telecommunications. New York: John Wiley & Sons Ryan, P. 2011. Social Networking. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group Read More