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What This Site Means to You (read this first!)
04.14.2011 by Jeff Ginger
When Facebook first launched much of the academic world didn't know how to make sense of it. Some thought it was just another fad or an over-hyped phenomenon like Second Life. Initially very few people bothered to collect data or write critically about the social implications of the site, other than issues related to privacy. The Facebook Project came about as an answer to that gap in scholarship: information sharing between researchers interested in Facebook and related online communities. Now, the trend has almost reversed entirely, as throngs of students take to picking the site apart from every discipline and angle imaginable on a semesterly basis. Facebook has even sponsored fellowships for research themselves, and entire blogs and companies are dedicated to being aware of its undertakings. As this happened over the years this website drifted from being unique and cutting-edge to become just one of the many, albeit with a high rank in Google search returns. I leave it now as a record of what was (in 2006-2009) and as a limited portal.
To be clear, what you CAN find here:
- Some papers and publications on Facebook from a few years back, mostly by graduate students
- Some very limited data sets on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign student population's use of Facebook back in 2006-2009.
- A minimally developed wiki with a listing of other researchers, an outdated bibliography (early 2008 or so), and the outline for a sort of Facebookapedia Just a few links to guides related to Facebook
- Some ideas for interesting interview & research questions
- A place to get your own work up online, informally published, but placed in a relatively high-profile position (good SEO here, still)
- A partial log of email discussions I've had with people about Facebook research
What you CANNOT find here:
- An all-encompassing or large-scale dataset on Facebook
- A company, team or community of researchers ready to help you out with your thesis
- Any kind of official or formal affiliation with the Facebook Corporation
- Direct connection to any of the major professors, graduate students or company researchers interested in Facebook
- Please do not email me with questions or requests for help - I'm no longer able to dedicate time to this project, sorry!
So! With that in mind, feel free to explore.