Social Networking Communities and E‐dating Services: Concepts and Implications

Citation

du Preez, M. (2009), "Social Networking Communities and E‐dating Services: Concepts and Implications", Online Information Review, Vol. 33 No. 3, pp. 623-624. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684520910970068

“Social networking” refers to communities that focus on sharing information and expertise to collaboratively achieve a similar goal. These communities offer a range of services which, in the online environment, could be weblogs, newsgroups or online groups. Researchers from various disciplines such as information science, information systems, marketing, political science, psychology, linguistics and management are studying social networking from various perspectives in an attempt to better understand the phenomenon and better serve social networkers' needs.

In this book, editors Celia Romm‐Livermore and Kristina Setzekorn bring together a diverse range of academic and practice‐oriented articles on social networking communities. They employ a business model to chart social networking communities, and in the process discover four types of networking communities or services:

1. 1.

   Blogging services, such as MySpace or Facebook.

2. 2.

   Groups creating services, such as Yahoo Groups or Google Groups.

3. 3.

   Support services such as Amazon.com (these online support services are in essence social networking communities that were established by companies for their customers).

4. 4.

   E‐dating services, which dominate the e‐commerce market and are one type of service information systems researchers seem to ignore.

The book is organised in two major parts: social networking communities and e‐dating services. Each part is further subdivided into subsections. The articles in the first part investigate why people join social networking communities and discuss social networking as a community building experience. This section also explores social networking sites for teenagers and young adults. The researchers analyse both the advantages and disadvantages of participating in these networking communities. A discussion of the cultural and philosophical aspects of social networking forms the nucleus of the last section of Part 1 in an attempt to place social networking research in a global context.

The second part, on e‐dating services, is organised in a similar way. The articles in this part first explore the individual aspects of e‐dating. Then follows an examination of how e‐daters behave and evolve. The concluding section discusses e‐dating as a global phenomenon and introduces one of the most important growth areas for industry: the matrimonial e‐dating sector in developing countries.

Romm‐Livermore and Setzekorn have managed to bring both practical and theoretical ideas about the processes of collaboration and competition among people together in one volume. They also rectify the absence of e‐dating literature and establish e‐dating as a new research discipline.

The volume is intended for academic researchers as well as those persons interested in exploring people's interests and activities. It is an extremely useful reference for all interested in future directions for theory development and empirical research on social networking. A rather extensive preface places the different parts and subsections of the book in context. Each chapter concludes with a list of references. A compilation of all the lists of references appears at the end of the book. A very useful index concludes the volume.