CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Social networks have become very popular in recent years because of the increasing proliferation and affordability of internet enabled devices such as personal computers, mobile devices and other more recent hardware innovations such as internet tablets. This is evidenced by the burgeoning popularity of many online social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Such social networks have led to a tremendous explosion of network-centric data in a wide variety of scenarios.
Social networks may be defined either in the context of systems such as Facebook which are explicitly designed for social interactions, or in terms of other sites such as Flickr which are designed for a different service such as content sharing, but which also allow an extensive level of social interaction. Charu (2016) has defined a Social network “as a network of interactions or relationships, where the nodes consist of actors and the edges consist of the relationships or interactions between these actors”. A generalization of the idea of social networks is that of information networks, in which the nodes could comprise either actors or entities, and the edges, denote the relationships between them. Clearly, the concept of social networks is not restricted to the specific case of an internet-based social network such as Facebook; the problem of social networking has been studied often in the field of sociology in terms of generic interactions between any group of actors. Such interactions may be in any conventional or non-conventional form, whether they be face-to-face interactions, telecommunication interactions, email interactions or postal mail interactions.
One of the first online forms of social networking was Usenet, created by Duke University graduate students, Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis. Usenet was similar to a discussion forum where students can share their opinions and suggestions. In 1984, similar method of online interaction called Bulletin Board System (BBS) was introduced. Later, the emergence of social networks rocketed with the invention of World Wide Web by a British scientist, Tim Berners-Lee, in 1991
One of the most dominant social networks in history, Friendster, was founded by Jonathan Abrams and launched in 2003. Along with Friendster, LinkedIn and MySpace also become popular in their respective fields. After 2003, the social networks become so popular that, by the time Facebook was launched in 2006, the Internet users had more than two hundred social networks to choose from. Nowadays, Facebook is regarded as the most successful social network with over 1.06 billion monthly active users, 680 million mobile users, more than 50 million pages and 10 million apps.
1.1 BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Founded in 2009, Wellspring University is a private higher institution located in the large city of Benin City with population ranging between 1,000,000 and 5,000,000. The University is officially accredited by the National Universities Commission, the regulatory agency for Universities in Nigeria. Wellspring University (WU) is a co-educational higher education institution. The University offers courses and programs leading to officially recognized higher education degrees in several areas of study.
As regards the University’s interface with the outside world, Wellspring University has an official website (wellspringuni.edu.ng) whichupdates the public with latest news and events in the school and serves as a portal where prospective students can apply for admission online (Wellspring University, 2014).
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Apart from its online presence in generally used social networking platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter; Wellspring University does not have a social network tailored for its private use. The University does have an official website but the website does not incorporate a social network media platform. Hence, there is a need to develop and implement a social networking media platform for the University.
1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The aim of this study is to design and implement a Social network media platform for Wellspring University. The objectives are:
i. To evaluate the current communications and social network platforms used by the Wellspring University Community, identify its strengths and drawbacks as well as propose an improved solution.
ii. To develop and implement a system which improves upon the current system. iii. To make recommendations that will benefit other institutions
1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This study is centered on designing an automated and web-based social network platform for Wellspring University. The social network platform in question is personalized in that only the staff and students of the University albeit prospective students are permitted on the platform. Every user of the platform must be identified using verifiable authentication and authorization measures.
1.5 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
The limitations of this study are summarized as follows:
i. Limited time. Further study on other communications problems in Universities especially as it affects the subject matter would have been made but owing to the limited time, the problem domain was tailored to a particular University.
ii. The frequent power failure affected the programming phase of the project.
1.6 FEASIBILITY STUDY
Feasibility study is a study that enables a project team or researcher to establish whether or not conditions are right to conduct an conclude a particular project. Feasibility study is done for many reasons, and is sometimes done in Information Technology Projects in order to evaluate the suitability of the project as it affects concerns in technology, technical expertise, economy,
etc.
1.7.1 Technical Feasibility
This component focuses on the technical resources available to the organization. It helps organizations or project leaders determine whether the technical resources meet capacity and whether the technical team is capable of translating the ideas into functional system.
1.7.2 Economical Feasibility
This component typically involves a cost/benefit analysis of the project. This section documents the viability, cost, and benefits associated with a project before financial resources are allocated. As regards this study, Technology and Software costs were minimal as open source Technologies such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP and MySQL, etc. were employed in the creation of the proposed solution. Hosting of the system was offered for free through free hosting providers such as 000WebHost.
1.7.3 Operational Feasibility
These components usually specify how well the organization’s needs could be met by completing the project. It is used to analyze how a project plan satisfies the requirements identified in the requirements analysis phase of the system development.
1.8 TERMINOLOGY
i. PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor): PHP is a widely used open source server-side scripting language designed for web development but also used as a general purpose programming language.
ii. Social media: Are computer-mediated technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, career interests and other forms of expressions via virtual communities and networks.
iii. Database: Database is a collection of related data in an organized form.
iv. MySQL: MySQL is an open source relational database management system.
v. Web page: A web page is a document commonly written in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) that is accessible through the internet or other network using an Internet browser.
vi. Web Application: A web application is a computer program that utilizes web browsers and web technology to perform tasks over the internet.
vii. Processing: To deal with somebody or something according to an established procedure viii. Communication: Interaction between two or more person or sending of message from one place to another
ix. Online: Connected via computer attached to or available via a central computer or computer network.
x. System: Set of computer components i.e. in assembly of computer Hardware,
Software and peripherals functioning together.
xi. Automation: The replacement of human workers by technology; A system in which a workplace or process has been converted to one that replaced or ministries human labor with electronic or mechanical equipment.