Social Networking Conference
Monday 7 April 2008 10:00 - 16:00
Ofcom. Riverside House, 2a Southwark Bridge Road, London SE1 9HA
Schedule
The three sessions will have both academic and practitioner aspects, with short presentations followed by comments from expert panellists and a round table discussion.
| Time | Sessions |
|---|---|
| 09:30 | Registration with coffee and tea |
| 10:00 | Setting the Scene: Welcome and introduction by Ellen Helsper (OII) and Robin Blake (Ofcom) |
| 10:15 | Carmen Aitken presents the results of Ofcom's research into Social Networking |
| 10:30 | Session 1: Online Social Networks William Dutton (OII): 'Social Networks: Reconfiguring Access to People'; Godfried Williams and Johnnes Arreymbi (UEL): 'Cyber tribes and information warfare'; Tim Davies (Practical Participation): 'Youth Work and Social Networking'. Panellists: Denise Carter (University of Hull) and Rebekkah Willet (IoE); Chair: Ian Hargreaves (Ofcom) |
| 11:30 | Coffee break |
| 12:00 | Session 2: Intimate Relationships and Online Social Networks Ellen Helsper (OII) and Monica Whitty (NTU): 'Netiquette within Married Couples. Are online interactions a source of conflict in intimate relationships?' Lilian Edwards (University of Southampton) 'Stalking 2.0. Social Networking and Privacy: Incompatible Ideas?'. Panellists: Jason Stockwood (Match.com) and Ian Brown (OII); Chair: William Dutton (OII) |
| 13:00 | Lunch. |
| 14:00 | Session 3: Businesses and Online Social Networks Richard Allan (Cisco): 'Social networking and business practice: A case study in the telecoms industry'; Ruth Ward (Allen & Overy): 'Social software in a hard world'; Matthijs Den Besten (OeRC): 'Wikipedia: the organizational capabilities of a peer production effort'. Panellists: Nathan Marston (McKinsey) and William Dutton (OII); Chair: Ellen Helsper (OII) |
| 15:00 | So What?: Reflection on the day's events by Meg Pickard (Guardian Online) |
| 15:20 | Wrap up: Ian Hargreaves (Ofcom) closes the conference |
Conference Summary
The conference turned out to be a great success, with interest for the topic and the event from many different corners. Attendees represented a varied group of policymakers, academic, businesses and civic practitioners.
The presentations were selected to represent a wide range of perspectives on social networking, both as regards the interpretation of social networking and as regards the way to approach people's interactions with Social Networking Sites. Positive and negative aspects of different types of social networking were put on the table and discussions followed about who should regulate the more negative aspects of social networking, if it should be regulated at all.
Literacy, default privacy codes by providers and parental awareness were all offered as potential ways to help social networkers take up the opportunities that these sites have to offer while simultaneously avoiding the risks. The feeling was that the positive experiences and benefits outweighed the negative aspects and risks. There was a clear call for more evidence about the effectiveness of literacy and industry self-regulation strategies and about the negative experiences that people have with social networking sites.
Our thanks go out to all who made it such a wonderful day.
Ellen Helsper, OII.
Organisers
This event was organised by the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) in collaboration with Ofcom.
