Danah Boyd has asked for feedback on an article she is writing with Nicole Ellison on the ‘History of Social Network Sites’. Here is an excerpt:
The first recognizable social network site launched in 1997.  SixDegrees.com allowed users to come to the site, create profiles and list their Friends.  The site promoted the ways that users could connect with and send messages to Friends based on degree (SixDegrees.com, 1999). While SixDegrees attracted millions, it was before its time (Weinreich, 2007). While people were already flocking to the Internet, most did not have extended networks of friends who were online. Some participants also complained that the site provided very little incentive to return following the articulation of one’s network; meeting strangers was not in vogue.  SixDegrees closed its doors in 2000.
In October 2007, Mediamatic will be running a workshop on ‘Games in Crossmedia’:
Virtual worlds such as Second Life are gaining popularity fast – they are places for acting out fantasies, but also for film making and telling stories. Techniques like machinima offer new possibilities for creating films and television in the 3D worlds of popular computer games – as for instance the BBC and Endemol are doing. There is a huge window of opportunity for media makers interested in the collaboration and exchange between games and other kinds of media.
In this 5-day workshop, Mediamatic will bring professional media makers, producers, broadcasters and production companies up-to-date on game culture and will provide makers with the tools to incorporate game aspects in crossmedia projects. […]
During the workshop, participants will build a prototype of their crossmedia project and develop and visualize its user-scenarios. Participants will learn the basic principles of creating machinima, designing 3D game spaces and developing game play and game rules. Participants will also learn about trends in game culture such as massive multi-player games and new kinds of game interfaces like the Nintendo Wii. Besides this, participants will be updated on the new web culture of creating, matching and sharing user-generated content, which is very influential in game culture. Through the course of the workshop many practical examples of crossmedia projects which feature game technology such as Historic Battles (BBC), and Bamzooki (BBC), Peter Greenaway’s Tulse Luper Suitcases and Endemol’s Second Life projects, will be viewed and analyzed.
‘Factory Girl’ has started a blog about her research: ‘Game Across media: exploring cross media and play’. Here is some info from her blog birth post:
I am a creative individual who got a serious crush for interactive narrative some years ago and another crush, just as serious, for cross media communication around 2004. My background in films and anthropology (and a bit of new media too) unfortunately didn’t allow me to plunge into these for me new topics immediately, so, after abandoning my old fashioned PhD studies in Anthropology of Communications, I had to take some time to “upgradeâ€.
Through a lot of effort, heavy conference attendance, internet networking and many many readings (ah, those Amazon bills..) I managed to to feel somehow at ease with a topic that in any case until a couple of years ago didn’t feature in university courses.
Waiting to find an enlightened institution to sponsor my studies, I will post here the advancement of my solitary research, hoping that way it will be less solitary.