Transforming social networking from a service to a platform
Vedran Podobnik, Ignac Lovrek · 2011
In this paper we discuss how a synergy of fundamental concepts standing behind the Facebook (i.e., social networking) and the iPhone (i.e., mobile and pervasive platform) can generate a sustainable business model for the ICT industry. Namely, we will show that a transformation of social networking from a service to a mobile and pervasive platform can produce multiple benefits for both social network service providers as well communication operators/smartphone manufacturers, while provisioning end-users an added value. Additionally, we will demonstrate our proposal through a case study presenting ad-hoc social networking, a platform for managing ad-hoc social relationships (i.e., set up by (mobile) users located in a limited geographical area during a certain period in time).