Social Technology Deep Dive

Your readings have exposed you to some of the common “social platforms” currently in use. In order to go beyond the text and learn about the latest features and issues surrounding these platforms, you will be creating a brief “whitepaper” that describes more fully the features, underlying technologies, integration opportunities, best practices, issues and solutions regarding the technologies you select.

When you are writing your whitepaper, you are trying to convince the reader that the products you are selecting are suitable to solving a particular problem (you can frame the problem depending on the product you select – e.g. how to increase engagement with a specific target audience for a specific purpose i.e. educate, sell, recruit, etc.).

If you aren’t familiar with what a white paper is intended to do, or the general format, there are some links to helpful articles included below.

This assignment will be a combination of a technical and a marketing white paper. You are essentially to consider that you are working for the company that you select, so it is assumed that you will be taking a favorable position to the technology you are examining. However for sections 5-7 it is assumed you will take a critical approach and make strong recommendations as to how to overcome these.

Your white paper must have the following sections:

A compelling problem statement (to engage the reader and demonstrate that you have a clear understanding of the purpose of the product).
Product Overview (history, market penetration, other competitors in the market).
Identification of Underlying Technologies and any specific rationale for these (e.g. open source technologies to keep costs down, or interoperability with other products, etc.). (Note: this is not intended to be particularly deep or challenging, but there are often times reasons why certain tools have been built using a specific set of tools).
The solution to the problem that the technology provides, clearly demonstrating that, although social technologies are not a one-size-fits-all set of solutions, your product is appropriate for the problem you identified.
Standard features and tools associated with your product.
Risks and Weaknesses associated with your selected product and how users can overcome these challenges.
Security considerations.
Ethical considerations.
Opportunities to leverage mobile platforms.
Features and/or enhancements: a) recently introduced, and/or b) in the planning/design phase and c) features or changes that you would recommend be introduced after you have reviewed the product in detail.

Choose a product from the following list to focus on:
• Facebook
• Flickr
• Foursquare
• Google+
• Hootsuite
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Livestream
• Mailchimp
• Pintrest
• Reddit • SecondLife
• Skype
• Twitter
• Ustream
• Vine
• Wikipedia
• Yelp!
• YouTube
• Other (see note below)
Note: You can choose another product, but the instructor must approve it no later than October 10, 2013. Keep in mind, not every social media platform is listed above, and you are welcome to explore others.

Your paper will need to be ~2000-2500 words (not including the title page, headers, and references), completed following APA style standards (including your labeling of any tables, graphics, charts or other figures). Your paper should be between 8-10 pages (considering APA is double spaced with 12 point Times New Roman and will likely need to incorporate one or more graphical elements).

Given the nature of this assignment, your references will more than likely be online resources including product websites, trade publications, review sites and reputable news outlets. Note: Wikipedia may be a good starting point for you to explore your topic, but it is not considered an academic source and it should not be a reference).

To help convey your information, don’t hesitate to use bulleted lists (e.g. lists of features, etc.). However, please be sure you are adhering to proper style guide requirements on the matter of lists (the six part blog starting at the link below may be helpful).

http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2010/02/lists-part-1-parallelism.html

Whitepaper Resources – For reference only
Note: Where they refer to hiring a professional writer, consider yourself the writer that has been hired!
• http://www.dirjournal.com/business-journal/how-to-write-a-white-paper/
• http://www.idemployee.id.tue.nl/g.w.m.rauterberg/lecturenotes/Eight-Rules-for-Writing-Great-White-Papers.pdf
• http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/6496/How-to-Write-a-Whitepaper-That-Will-Capture-Leads.aspx