Getting Social The History of Social Media

“Man is by nature a social animal;”-Aristotle

O Lisa Higgins & Brent Mannarino

OverviewO The history of social media coincides

with the history of the internet. O Social media has had a profound

impact on the way we communicate (news, politics, business, & personal).

O Twitter and Facebook have deep-rooted origins without which they would not exist.

O Developed in 1979 by two Duke graduate students, Tom Truscott & Jim Ellis

O Integral in development of the internetO Hybrid between email and web forums.O Still around today with approximately

100,000 posts per dayO Started the Bulletin Board System (BBS)O First electronic discussion network for

posting social & science topics

Internet Relay Chat (1988)O Internet Relay Chat (IRC) was created by

Jarkko Oikarinen at the University of Oulu, Finland.

O A real time discussion system used initially for group discussion but also allowed private person-to-person communications.

O Chat room style layout called channels.O Still used today, is free from advertising

and spam.

Internet Relay Chat (1988)

First Personal Blog (1994)O Created by Justin Hall in 1994, titled

Justin’s Notes from the Underground O Composed of more than 4,800 pages

from nearly 10 years of writingO Introduced a new form of personal

expression that could reach a large number of people.

O Started in 1995 by Randy ConradsO Social service to connect former

classmates.O Free membership with option for

“Gold” upgraded membership.O Originally lacked any direct contact

features, only gave users access to email addresses of members.

O Developed in 1996 by four Israelis

who formed the company MirabilisO Real time direct peer-to-peer

communication over the internetO Many of the core features of ICQ are

used by most instant messaging services today

O Bought by AOL in 1998 for $400 million.

AOL Instant Messenger• Created by America Online in 1997• Instant messaging and presence computer program• Allowed users to keep in touch with many people

through text and multimedia chat still in use today, are able to communicate

through video• Chatrooms• Turning point for social networking, first to

introduce instant messaging

AIM

Blogger• Created by a company called Pyra Labs in 1999, but

was later bought by google• Blog publishing service• An easy way to share your thoughts with the world• Created to make blogging as simple and effective as

possible• Still used frequently today and in many different

languages

Blogger

MeetUp• Created by Matt Meeker, Peter Kamali, and Scott

Heiferman in 2001• Facilitates offline group meetings in various

locations around the world• Brings users together that have common interests

MeetUp

StumbleUpon• Created by Garrett Camp, Geoff Smith, Justin

LaFrance, and Eric Boyd in 2001• A “discovery engine” that helps users find the best

of the web according to their interests and preferences

• Allows users to find content that they normally wouldn’t even search for

• Very popular today, one of the most traffic generating social medias

StumbleUpon

Friendster• Founded in California by Jonathon Abrams in 2002• One of the first social networking sites to boom• Based on a circle of friends and techniques used to

socialize with those friends virtually• Connects like-minded people in order to share

information and network• Site is struggling because of competition

Friendster

O Founded in August 2003 by Chris

DeWolfe, Brad Greenspan, Tom Anderson and Josh Berman.

O Allowed users to optimize their profile using HTML (pro or con?).

O Included options to add music, photos, and videos to profile page.

O After a peak of more than 100 million users, it’s currently struggling to survive.

O Myspace still used as a marketing

tool by amateur musicians.O Don’t forget about your first

myspace friend and co-founder, Tom Anderson, who has a current net worth of over $60 million.

WordPress• Founded by Mike Little and Matt Mullenweg

in 2003• Free, open-source content management

systemOpen source: Site that allows users to contribute to its design and content

• Hundreds of people working on the site• Able to download and install a software

script• Most popular blogging system on the

internet• Allows anyone to create a free and simple

site or blog with little to no web development knowledge.

WordPress

O Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg as a

Harvard undergrad with funding from Eduardo Saverin

O Originated from “Facemash” (2003) developed by Mark Zuckerberg as Harvard’s “Hot or Not” site.

O February 2004 available to Harvard studentsO March 2004 available to Columbia, Yale &

StanfordO December 2004 theFacebook (changed to

Facebook in summer 2005) reaches 1 million members.

O Currently there are over 1 billion

active user accounts.O May 18, 2012 Facebook IPO

available, currently down 31%O Employs approximately 4,000

people.O People upload over 250 million

photos each day.

Flickr• Created by Ludicorp in 2004, but later adopted

by Yahoo!• Photo sharing website• Online community platform• Widely used by bloggers as a photo repository

Flickr

YouTube• Founded by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and

Jawed Karim in 2005• Allows users to upload and share videos• Displays a wide variety of user-generated

videos

YouTube

O Developed in 2006 by Jack Dorsey and Evan

Williams as a means to send text on their cellphones.

O The name Twitter was inspired by the name Flickr.

O The dictionary definition of twitter is "a short burst of inconsequential information.“

O A tweet has a maximum length of 140 characters (SMS limits + username)

O Powerful tool in distribution of news, political communication, and business communication.

O Obama’s “Four more years” photo

was the most retweeted tweet ever, bumping out Justin Bieber.

O Barack Obama has over 23 million followers, Lady Gaga has over 31 million.

O Used in the Egypt crisis last year to relay information about the revolution.

Pinterest• Created by Ben Silberman, Paul Sciarra, and

Evan Sharp in 2012• Social scrapbooking site• Users are able to create and manage image

collections that include things like events and hobbies

• Similar to bookmarking systems

Pinterest

For more info:O http://www.irc.org/history_docs/jarkko.

html

O http://links.net/vita/web/start/original.html

O http://www.icq.com/info/icqstory.htmlO http://

www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/history-of-social-media_b30226

O http://www.oldapps.com/O http://archive.org/web/web.php

For more info:O http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogger_(servic

e)

O http://observer.com/2011/01/the-long-and-curious-history-of-meetupcom/

O http://www.blueglass.com/blog/what-is-stumbleupon-the-history-and-timeline/

O http://webupon.com/social-networks/the-history-of-friendster/

O http://wordpress.org/O http://artlaco.articlealley.com/history-of-yo

utube-1482289.htmlO http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinterest