Nothing demonstrates the wildfire spread of online social networks such as MySpace and Facebook better than the experience 73 Stanford students had last fall. They were enrolled in the computer science course Creating Engaging Web Applications Using Metrics and Learning on Facebook—and did they ever engage. At a public session held at the Arrillaga Alumni Center toward the end of the quarter, 500 people heard how “10 million [users] in 10 weeks” were expected to have installed the students' free applications, some of which were reportedly generating enough ad revenue to pay tuitions.
Most of the apps resemble party games or amusements—ScribbledPhotos lets users draw graffiti on Facebook photos; with KissMe, members can bestow kisses—although some focus on generating useful information. But co-instructor BJ Fogg, an experimental social psychologist whose Persuasive Technology Lab studies how computer technology changes people's beliefs and behaviors, dismisses critics like one blogger who called the applications “monumental drivel.” The point was for students to learn how to think, using psychology and metrics to make their applications more appealing. And by quarter's end, 10 million proved an underestimate: “What other class in the history of the world created student projects that reached 16 million people in 10 weeks?” asks Fogg, MA '95, PhD '97.
It's that kind of dramatic result that has a growing number of academics starting to look at how online social networks function and what they deliver compared with traditional, offline connections. Fogg can envision revolutions; others are not so sure.
