In April, I read about 40 papers on technology issues for my New Technology course. I plan to post some of these papers here. The first one is by Christine Leypold and is about social networks. In this paper she tries to answer the biggest question about this emerging past time: what is the business model?
Abstract from the paper: This paper deals with the business aspect of social networks. Social networks are full of structured information and this paper tries to figure out how this information can be used to make money. The focus of this paper is on business ideas for individuals, companies and social networks themselves. Business ideas for individuals represent also one-man companies, where the business is dependent on one individual, as well as employees who want to enhance their network. Furthermore the paper figures out what kind of new marketing strategies are available for companies through social networks. The paper also points out the questions whether it is possible for social networks themselves to make profit or not. In addition to this, the paper focuses on future trends of social networks.