When I think of graphs, I think of math's problems with an x and y axis and scratching my head trying to work out how to complete the problem! In respect of Social Media it is a different animal altogether. There are various definitions in respect of it floating around the web.

From what I have read, in general, it can be looked at as a web of data or a data structure. Looking at the graph below it can be you in the middle and all the bits and pieces of data you have online in social media sites and everywhere else on the web and how that connects you to your friends, other people, companies, events, communities and vice versa. From getting tagged in a photo or liking a posting on Facebook, to liking a song on Pandora or posting on a community website, these all are part of the social graph. Per businessinsider.com the social graph "draws an edge between you and the people, places, and things you interact with online."

(Image courtesy of http://socialgraphcentral.wordpress.com/)

This data is very important to many parties outside your immediate circle of friends, communities etc., it is important in a commercial sense. Our habits on these sites, our likes, dislikes, recommendations are important to advertisers and companies targeting goods at not only us but the people we know, the communities we are part of. Those recommendations that turn up on Facebook are carefully targeted to you. It drives on-line commerce by increasing the seller's audience and the follow-on sales. It can also enrich the user. It can provide opportunities to people either through increasing their job prospects, drumming up business, selling things on-line, to putting people in touch with others who in everyday life would not meet, allowing access to communities dealing with particular problems. The list is endless.

By engaging in this whole new world the user exposes both himself and everyone he is involved with to the joys of online advertising through the personal information put up in the internet. This is where the open graph can come into play. Per mashable.com an open graph refers to the Facebook Platform that "provides a set of APIs and tools which enable third-party developers to integrate with the "open graph" — whether through applications on Facebook.com or external websites and devices." For example there are numerous sites who can sign into with your Facebook name and password. Spotify for example then uses this technology to post what you’re listening to onto your friends’ news feeds. Your friends can then comment, like, or listen to the song you have been listening to.

This can then be self-propagating. Your friends can log onto Spotify with their Facebook information and do the same thing as you, increasing interest and probably sales. Countless enterprises has access to your news feed and all that precious data about everything and anything. This makes feel a bit uneasy as these companies are getting exposure to your thoughts and opinions, things that you can choose to keep private on Facebook if you choose to or other social media sites. This new technology should come with a warning, something similar to the old phrase of "buyer beware."



 http://mashable.com/category/open-graph/

http://www.businessinsider.com/explainer-what-exactly-is-the-social-graph-2012-3#ixzz2tPDZUcu9