Researchers study the structure of social networks to understand relationships people form with one another. These networks are often based on a clustering concept, where connections are formed between individuals with a common theme, such as a shared interest or mutual friend. With the increased popularity of simplified personal homepages on social media sites such as Facebook, researchers can easily gathering information about social community formation, relationships between users, and the major influencers or mavericks within each group.
Mind mapping is a visual method of collecting images, words, thoughts, and subjects, and clustering them around a central word or idea. Users create diagrams in order to depict interactions and connections within large amounts of data. Similar to brainstorming, this method of data collection is non-linear, and encourages a radial approach to collecting thoughts associated to the main topic. This often results in users discovering new interconnections between two entities that were previously considered radically disconnected.
TouchGraph considers the notion of combining these two ideas together and creating a visual representation of social networks, allowing users to further explore connections between people, thoughts, and interests. On Amazon.com, TouchGraph introduces consumers to new products based on past purchases or browsed products. Instead of being “sold” recommended products by Amazon.com, consumers have the ability to discover how one product is related to another. This visualization may increase the recommended products’ relevance; thereby increasing a consumer’s interest in the product and lead to increased purchasing behavior, while expanding a consumer’s initial purchasing set.
This sounds great for marketers, doesn’t it? How about using this technology to allow users to further explore social networks? TouchGraph also allows users on Facebook to see how they are connected to people in different geographic locations and to explore relationships further by giving them a preview of those people’s friends. This means, people using TouchGraph who do not know you may have actually come across your profile, no matter how high you’ve placed your privacy settings. The issue is that you don’t even need to be using TouchGraph for users to see your profile.
When does data collection and visualization become too intrusive and how can it be monitored on the web? If this is the direction we are moving towards on the web, should we consider limiting the amount of personal information we post online? While TouchGraph is an amazing platform to understand more about consumer behavior and improve relationship marketing between buyers and sellers, it is also inhibiting our freedom and choice for privacy?
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Andrea good...
ReplyDeleteI specially liked your last part which is the visionary aspect--the most important part of this assignment.
My advice is to go deeper into your vision and actually state your position. What do you think will happen? Will people shape technology to have more security and less exposure to their likes and connections? Or will we move to an open environment where retailers and people have access to our information and we get bombarded with targeted marketing of all kinds?
I look forward to your next post!
ACP- TA