Various organisations and professions around the world embrace a profound aspiration for the power of social networking. The study of social networks and the propagation of social networking tools have developed into a popular approach for accomplishing individual and communal goals. Social network analysis refers to the study of social structure by methodologically mapping the relationships, interdependencies and information flows between associated agents through the representation of nodes (dots) and ties (lines). The study of social networks has become a profound and dynamic method for collaborating, collecting and piecing together information about network structures. It is a prevalent technique used to understand the underlying patterns of interaction between individuals, organisations, communities and groups of various scales. Investigating social network structures are essential in the process of understanding and identifying emerging or existing patterns within a network; the associated agents, their behaviours and their relationships. The steady proliferation of innovative technology has certainly contributed to the power of social networking and the trend has been predicted to flourish in the future. This expanding phenomenon of social networking has become significantly important in many case studies undertaken by a variety of fields; such as national security, terrorism, business development, marketing and political campaigns. The power of social networking has become imperative in the global network; whether the intended goals are classified as positive or negative.
The global network is a relatively large social network that consists of individuals, communities and countries sharing social, economical and political relationships. We are all tightly connected in this world and linked to an immeasurable amount of individuals, sometimes closer than we expect. The small world phenomenon is omnipresent in the global network. A social psychologist by the name of Stanley Milgram conducted the “small-world experiment” and discovered that the human society can be referred to as a ‘small world’ due to the short path lengths connecting any two individuals in the world. By tracing chain letters and investigating the short chain of acquaintances, Milgram established that a chain letter required five to six intermediary steps before reaching the desired destination; this is commonly referred to as “six degrees of separation”. “Six degrees of separation” is a fundamental principle that suggests that every actor in the world is connected to another actor via a chain of acquaintances of no more than five intermediaries. The associated agent and the relationships they share can influence the behaviour of their social network to a great extent. The actions or behaviours of a single agent could potentially affect the entire network. This is evident in the event of the 2001 September 11 attacks of the World Trade Centre in the United States. The world instantly collapsed from a robust connected network to one that was immediately fragile. The countries that share a social, economic or political relationship with the United States were instantaneously affected by the exhaustive terrorist attack. They did not have to be physically situated in the vicinity of the horrendous event to experience the effects. This horrendous incident clarifies that distant events can be closer than we imagine.1
National Security Agencies implements social network analysis in their case studies on terrorism. Countless unconfirmed conspiracy theories in relation to the September 11 attacks continue to circulate, particularly on the Internet. Mapping out terrorist networks is a vital procedure when investigating, analysing and understanding the structural operations of a terrorist group. Valdis Krebs, the founder and chief scientist of orgnet.com and the developer for social and organisational network analysis, uses the power of social networking to map out the terrorist network that attacked on September 11 in hope to uncover and confirm the underlying conspiracies. While there are individuals like Krebs exercising the power of social networking aspiring to uncover the conspiracy theories of terrorist attacks, there are groups of harmful individuals simultaneously exploiting the power social networking and its technology with the ill intensions of initiating what is known as ‘Cyberwar’ or ‘Cyberterrorism’.
Cyberterrorism arises when individual and groups of terrorist take advantage of information technology to further their agenda in achieving their detrimental goals. The foundation of their goals may surface from political, ideological, financial or religious issues. Cyber terrorists exploit information technology to organise and execute attacks against networks, hack into computer systems and telecommunication infrastructures, destroy websites, launch viruses into vulnerable networks and also exchange and formulate terroristic threats electronically. 2
Gerald-Mark Breen and Jonathon Matusitz are long-term partners who focus their research on emergency management, government, politics, health communication, and the prevention of terrorism and cyber terrorism. Gerald-Mark Breen is a research associate and doctoral student in the Department of Public Affairs at the University of Central Florida, and Jonathon Matusitz is an assistant professor in the Nicholson School of Communication.3 Matusitz states that social networking is a theory that analyses how people unite forces. The pair of research associates applies social network theories to investigate and identify cyber terrorist networking methods which traditional terrorist lack the ability to implement. Cyber terrorists and traditional terrorist networks adhere to extremely different social structures; however, they all function with similar goals to cause intentional harm and destruction. Traditional terrorists are controlled within a hierarchical structure often represented by a pyramid with the leader situated at the top. They are the superior individuals who control and command the associated terrorist positioned in the lower levels of the pyramid. The structure within a cyber terrorist network can be represented by a horizontal configuration where each cyber terrorist is situated on a common level and there are no leaders to manage the social structure. Every agent is equal without any superior or dominating individuals. Cyber terrorist networks are driven by common goals and operate at best when interacting with fellow cyber terrorists.
One of the greatest advantages for cyber terrorist is the anonymity they possess when using the Internet. Being anonymous makes it ever more difficult to trace and identify the source of a malicious cyber attack. Identify theft is one of the common issues in cyber terrorism. This is when cyber terrorists unlawfully acquires another individual’s identity without their knowledge and exploit it to attain their ill-defined goals. Breen states, “You can steal and destroy life.” 4
Furthermore, an additional advantage is their ability to prevail over time and space via the Internet. Distant and location is barely an issue for cyber terrorists. They have the capacity to maliciously attack another computer at any place or time provided they have access to a computer with an Internet connection. The vulnerability of infrastructure targets will persistently swell as the future of technology continues to advance. At this point in time, Europe, East Asia and North America are most accustomed to technology and are therefore the eminent cultures for producing cyber terrorists. Both Breen and Matusitz believe society will not realise the extent of cyber terrorism threats and outcomes until a disaster equivalent to the September 11 terrorist attacks strike the cyber world. Therefore, they have commenced collaboration with experts from a range of disciplines and have aspired to join forces with additional faculties in order to educate the public and promote cyber terrorism awareness. Breen and Matusitz have also begun executing their own social networking methods in action to prevent cyberterrorism.
Business organisations are also after the power of social networking to increase their level of efficiency, productivity, profit and performance. Many businesses sought the power of social networking to improve the structure of their organisation and further develop their general operations. Social network analysis is a technique that has the aptitude to visually map relationships between people in large distributed groups. This is a powerful technique, which assists business managers in drawing out the visual framework of associated agents and their relationships with their business structure. Activities may entail the way employees communicate, collaborate, accomplish tasks, and the way external entities react to the product or service the business offers to the market. Visual frameworks facilitate the identification of methods that may be applied to influence the performance and innovation process within a business structure.5 Social network analysts comprehend the vital importance of each individual and their aptitude to influence the behaviour and structure of their social network. Rather than studying a business network as a frozen embodiment of entities that revolves around the influence of social forces, it will be more effective to analyse the allied individuals and their behaviours. Existing and emerging social network patterns can miraculously be revealed through relevant and appropriate data collections; such as information on individual employees and their methods of interaction. Monitoring the structure of a business and collecting data can further assist business managers to establish effective approaches in altering the business culture to one that suits their goal. For example, they may establish the need to rearrange or restructure their business by introducing new technology or communication system. It is important to interpret the structure and goals of an organisation under the perspectives and goals shared amongst the individuals involved. Other than monitoring the current structure of a business, social network analysis can also aid businesses to apprehend and recover from unexpected catastrophes.
The power of social networking has become evidently popular amongst the many individuals who connect to social networking tools such as blogs, discussion groups, forums, social networking websites and many other websites that display user-generated contents. Social networking tools provide the public with the ability to generate and customise website contents. It allows us to amplify and express our personal opinions to a wider spread audience. Social networking tools have brought an upsurge of ‘customer power’ to society; where customers are presented with the power to share their perspectives and experiences on specific companies or brands. These personal opinions circulate through the power of online social networking and can be either beneficial or harmful to the subjected company or brand. Although positive statements can be ‘effective marketing’, negative statements may subsequently cause serious damage to their health. Techno savvy executives have simultaneously taken the upsurge of ‘customer power’ to their advantage by accessing data via social networking applications. Social network analysts utilise this to gain a clearer understanding of the links and relationships shared between the company and their external agents, such as their clients and customers. Collected data and information can be used to develop and examine the framework of a company or brand. Marketing, sales, customer support, operations, research and development departments would use this to their utmost advantage. The potential benefits of social networking tools have the capacity to assist companies in generating research insights, extending the reach of marketing, revitalising sales effort, eliminating support costs and encouraging the innovation process. 6 An enormous segment of the Internet revolves around users, the content they generate, the social networks structures they form and the online activities they exercise.
Companies savvy enough to profit from the power of social networking comprises of Ernst & Young, Hewlett Packard and BMW’s Mini Cooper. These companies take part in the social trend where people employ technologies to exchange their wants and needs. Ernst & Young recruits their team of college graduates via a careers group on Facebook. This careers group permits job information postings and additionally answers any individual questions from prospective employees. Hewlett Packard possesses fifty executives who log onto their individual blogs on a daily basis to join the continuing online conversations in regards to their product lines. They use the power of online social networking as a platform to provide customer service by responding directly to postings about customer problems and concerns. Mini USA captures every comment made about their brand online and uses this data as effective customer feedback. They use the collection of customer feedback to further guide their advertising campaigns. Comments can be collected via blogs, discussion groups, forums, MySpace pages and many other websites that display user-generated contents. Companies are encouraged to go well beyond the traditional user surveys and further study the manner in which people interact on the web and their approach to utilising online collaborative tools. The understanding of complex and rich social network requires both qualitative and qualitative data from large and small scales. Quantitative data is collected from large groups and answers ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’ and ‘how’. Qualitative data answers ‘why’. Companies who understand their customers and their underlying criticisms are able to use the new social networking phenomenon to their maximum advantage. 7
Politics are also after the power of social networking to gain more control in their operations. Various political parties are searching for effective ways to adopt the power of social networking. Social networking websites are effective tools for reaching individuals from various communities in the global network and is constantly accessible at almost any location and time. One of the most successful political campaigns is the Barack Obama online campaign: my.barackobama.com. This customised networking tool adopts new media strategy through the inspiration of popular social networking websites like MySpace and Facebook. This political online campaign permits supporters to join local groups, create events, sign up for updates and launch fundraising pages. The online campaign raised over two million donations and brought together masses of supporters from various locations. The tremendous success acquired numerous new members and triggered an abundance of real-world behaviours. Obama personally credits the Internet social networking tools as an essential part of his success.8 Many other political parties are attempting to employ the new media strategy to amplify their political party, directions, goals and their need for support. Powerful online campaigns require the community to engage with its social networking capabilities in order to effectively reach an audience at a large-scale. Therefore, the scale and culture of the intended audience needs to be considered in the implementation of customised social networking websites. A political campaign must determine and estimate whether an online campaign will have enough members to actively participate and engage with the website to support their party. The democratic potential of social networking applications is still uncertain but perhaps in the very early stages of its revolution.
The power of social networking has become imperative in the global network. Many organisations and professionals are taking part in this ever-developing phenomenon. Social networking connects agents, individuals, entities, communities and organisations situated around the world. Every person is considered an agency and a critical entity of the global network. Social networking studies and applications have become a popular method for examining and understanding network structures of real-life phenomena for both small and large scaled structures. We are able to employ social networking studies to sample and simulate real-life situations and detect the underlying benefits that may accelerate the achievement of individual and group goals. Investigating social network structures are essential in the process of understanding and identifying emerging or existing patterns within a network; the associated agents, their behaviours and their relationships. Simultaneously, the information obtained from these studies can assist in the efforts to influence and change certain trends and behaviours within a network. The steady proliferation of innovative technology has certainly contributed to the power of social networking and the trend has been predicted to flourish in the future. There are many benefit and possibilities that underlie the power of social networking, some that are yet to be defined. At this point in time, we can only live, learn and experience this evolving social networking phenomenon that continues to escalate with the constant proliferation of innovative technology.
References:
1. Duncan J. Watts (2004).
Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age
London: Vintage
2. National Conference of State Legislatures (2008). Cyberterrorism.
Retrieved October 7, 2008, from http://www.ncsl.org/programs/lis/cip/cyberterrorism.htm
3. Selected Works (2008). Selected Works of Gerald-Mark Breen
Retrieved October 18, 2008, from http://works.bepress.com/geraldmarkbreen/
4. William Richards (2008, August 25). Seeing Facebook’s link in cyberterrorist hierarchy strategy.
Retrieved October 7, 2008, from http://www.centralfloridafuture.com
5. Robert L. Cross & Andrew Parker. (2004).
The Hidden Power of Social Networks: Understanding How Work Really Gets Done in Organisations.
Harvard Business School Press.
6. Josh Bernoff & Charlene Li (2008, February 14). Harnessing the Power of the Oh-So-Social Web.
Retrieved October 7, 2008, from http://sloanreview.mit.edu/smr/issue/2008/spring/01/
7. James M. Kaplan and Kreg Nichols. (2008, July). Tapping The Power of Social Networking
Retrieved October 7, 2008, from http://www.ciozone.com/index.php/Editorial-Research/Tapping-The-Power-Of-Social-Networking.html
8. Brian Steller (2008, July 7), Obama harnesses power of web social networking.
Retrieved October 3, 2008, from http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2008036639_obamaface07.html
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