• 12/14/2007 - ArtistServer News and a new site: FreeMusicLicensing.com
• 09/18/2007 - AritstServer and ToneThis Serve Up Indie Ringtones
• 09/11/2007 - Running LightTPD and PHP on Windows
• 09/06/2007 - Compete.com -vs- Alexa.com - Comparing Website Rank
• 08/29/2007 - HostMySite.com Limits ColdFusion, Does Not Tell Customers
• 08/14/2007 - New Song: Chocolate Rain - Sonic Remix
• 08/03/2007 - If You Use Open Source, Leave the License and Credit
• 07/31/2007 - Add Links to Profiles on MySpace, Facebook, and More
• 07/23/2007 - SocialNetwork.in API Promotes Cross Site Networking
• 07/22/2007 - AddToBookmarks.com Script Updated to Version 1.1

• The Name of the site - example: Site Name
• The full URL to the site - example: www.sitename.com
• A link to a user/member URL on the site - example: http://www.sitename.com/ProfileName

You do have the option of adding profiles and links to other people's profiles as "private" links, although these links will only be available to you on the SocialNetwork.in site.

Why do you want all your profiles linked together?

This helps people connect to you, when they see that you are on some other site, the site visitor may click on the profile link and visit you there. If they are on that site too, they may add a link to you or add you as a friend.  With this tool, you'll greatly increase your cross-site networking and begin driving more traffic around to all your profiles. Start thinking about your 'core' profile, and not about having dozens of identities scattered around the Web - this tool helps make this happen, not only here, but any site that selects to adopt the SocialNetwork.in API.

Why signup at SocialNetowork.in?

Because the services it offers can be 'plugged in' and used at any Web site, which would allow you to benefit from greater levels of integration with the sites you use.

For example, lets say you are a member of SocialNetwork.in, and you are a member of Flickr.com - then you go out and join some new social/travel site that uses SocialNetwork.in's API to connect to our data and your profiles. By adding your SocialNetwork.in profile name to your account on the new site, they can now locate your photos and display them on your new profile without you having to reupload or import them in.

What is an API?

An API is an acronym for "Application Programming Interface." API's are VERY cool because they allow developers to connect to different sites and services and utilize the data and information in their own applications. You may have heard of the term "Mashup" being used on the Web - this relates to the process of connecting to at least one API and blending your own data with the data being offered by the API.  For example, all the various maps you see on the Web which display various types of data or photos or icons, etc are usually "Map Mashups" that use either Google or Yahoo Maps API.

Enjoy!

Oh... BTW... ArtistServer and IndieMobile now have 250 free Mp3/Realtone Ringtones available for download. All ringtones are provided by the artists at ArtistServer.com
 

Create Profile Widgets and More

• The site is once again functional in Internet Explorer (6 and 7), sorry about that!
• We now provide traffic charts from Compete.com on the category and site profile pages.
• Slight design update - the backgrounds for the site ratings, site icons, and number of people rating have all been replaced so they fit the site design more.

As you can see, I haven't been blogging much over the last month, and today, I'm announcing why!

I'm launching a new site today at: http://SocialNetwork.in

It's a cross between a social aggregator, and a social directory, with ratings and reviews.

While the site doesn't aggregate content from social sites, it does help people aggregate links to their social profiles, links to friends profiles, or simply to just link to their favorite social media sites.

Both profiles on the site, and any links a member adds to their SocialNetwork.in profile can be made private, allowing people to aggregate their online profiles in privacy.

The site also provides a means for members to rate and review social sites and services. Ratings are based on a 1-10 scale, with the site displaying averages. Clicking on any 'line chart' icon next to any site, will open a space where you'll be able to compare the selected site with up to 5 others by generating Alexa comparison charts (once www.compete.com offers a chart widget, I'll add it as an option or replace Alexa's charts if works well).

Sites and services are also organized by category, in addition to having their own site profile.  On the site profile pages, visitors can get a better view of the service by reading over reviews, clicking through Alexa traffic charts, and viewing data from both del.icio.us and Technorati.com.

I hope to have a widget available by the end of February, which will list your public profile links, and another update soon after, where I'll add support for RSS feeds per each site on SocialNetwork.in - and possibly for members too.

There are other players in this space, offering deeper integration with social sites, mainly focusing on content and friend aggregation (Mugshot.org, ProfileLinker.com, Spokeo.com). I may offer deeper integration with key sites once the service grows and users request these features, but for now, I'm looking to provide profile URL/link support for all social sites. Currently, the site has support for 97 social sites, with more on the way.

For those who are monitoring the social network/media market, I hope that this site becomes a tool that makes their job easier. This was the idea behind the comparing options on the site, in addition to providing members with a rate and review tool.

The primary criteria for which sites get added to SocialNetwork.in, is that they need to provide a profile site, and a Username, or UserID. Although, I've also added support for sevices like Netflix, which offer RSS feeds to your data. I plan on adding a means for displaying RSS feeds on your SocialNetwork.in profile at a later date.

On the tech side of things:

• Developed in ColdFusion MX7, MSSQL Server
• Built in 35 days by 1 developer
• Uses jQuery javascript library
• Data/Services integrated: del.icio.us, Alexa, Alexaholic
  

Visit the site - take it for a spin - sign up - and if you have some feedback, let me know!

As a followup to yesterday's post, where I announced the plans for SocialNetworkServer.com, I feel it would be a good idea to cover some of the competition in this space.

Obviously, all the top social networks are competition, although I'm sure many users of the current social networks will continue to experiment with other sites and services as they go online. This current wave of social networks is loosely called Social Network 2.0. While we can't ignore these sites, they do not (yet) provide a service for launching social networks.

I've collected a list of a dozen companies who either currently provide a social network service, or some form of community platform. I'm sure there are more, especially when you consider how many open source content management systems have evolved to be social platforms. Again, this is a competitive group to be aware of, but the soltuions lack the 'service.' You need people, a great network, the fastest hard drives, a load balancing system, etc - if you don't, then your social network will not scale nor will it stay online, and you'll find yourself working on administrating a site instead of having fun with your social network.

This brings us to the actual group of competitors of SocialNetworkServer.com - each of these offers similar things as my platform, although, none are using the idea of a network of networks with shared resources.

• CommunityServer.com
• CollectiveX.com
• CrowdFactory.com
• FiveAcross.com
• KickApps.com
• PeopleAggregator.com
• PHPfox.com
• SelectMinds.com
• SmallWorldLabs.com
• SocialPlatform.com
• SpartaSocialNetworks.com
• Wetpaint.com

A few of these are not providing the services aspect, but only the solution as explained above. I've added them to this list since they could very well add the services portion of the pie, and elevate themselves to become a greater competitor. In particular, PeopleAggregator.com.

If you feel there are others in this space, let me know, I can add them to this list and to the one on http://www.socialnetworkserver.com/about.htm

BTW... it's my birthday tomorrow :)

Services like mp3.com in 1999 could be considered Social Networking 1.0 - where there wasn't much more than loosely organized profiles, music downloads, and forums.

Years later, many new sites pop up on the Web, with photos and videos, friend linking, and widgets and we find ourselves in the 2.0 stage of Social Networking. At that time, I took notice of these changes, and began adding several to ArtistServer, bringing it up to date with what people call "Web 2.0." While the vast majority of the world knows nothing of Web 2.0, they are starting to hear about it, especially about Social Networking.

As you can imagine, after 2.0 is 3.0, but have you thought about what 3.0 could be?

What will change between 2.0 and 3.0?

I've been thinking about it, and I'm getting ready for it.

Fortunately, I was thinking about the future when I started the development of my platform, and I coded the whole platform from the ground up with the idea that other companies would license my application to launch their own sites. Then it hit me earlier this year, that there was more value in running a service which creates a network of social networks. This would allow for a fluid environment for users, greater exposure for content creators, a better use of network resources, in addition to supporting the 'long tail' by allowing companies, groups and individauls to launch niche social networks.

The main push behind this idea, was the realization that others would come along as I did, and find what I'm doing to not meet their direct needs, just as I found mp3.com to no longer meet my needs. Therefore, I should support these people and this behavior. I should give people the tools they need and to support change and evolution. By empowering the wheels of change, I can better position my platoform for the future. Some of you may have heard the term "future proof," and while it tends to be applied to technical things like protocols, there's no reason why you can't start looking for ways to future proof your business. I suggest you start considering how you'll empower people, and how you can incorporate change, because that's what 3.0 is going to be about: Empowering people by embracing change.

With that said, I'd like to introduce http://SocialNetworkServer.com

Please visit the site and look over the information - and keep in mind that the service is not yet available. I have several changes I'll need to apply to the code so it can support multiple sites on a single codebase, in addition to building a team and securing some startup capital. Just a quick note to the artists on ArtistServer.com, you'll ALWAYS have full control over your content, and will have control over what sites you don't want your content displayed on. Ok - now on with the future! Here's a quick description of SocialNetworkServer.com

Our service allows you to launch your own social media network without having to do any programming, and little customization (unless you want to). When you create your site with us, it will be generated using our system, and your domain name. You'll then have many options with site customization from skinning the whole site, to designing the layout of the homepage.

We offer this as a shared service, which means all the content, music, members and artists who participate on a site on our service, are also potentially available on all other sites. Artists and members can select if they do not wish to show up on specific sites, and retain full control over their content. Site owners can select to feature specific genres, content and artists, which allows each site on our network to express it's own unique pressence.

Our service also provides potential revenue streams by sharing profits from ad revenue and account upgrade revenue with site owners, and ad revenue with artists who have upgraded thier accounts.