With the close of Hollywood movie award season, we look back one last time at the success of The Social Network. This is not a reflection of the outcome of the Academy Awards but the effect Facebook has had on the internet, personal interaction and society itself. As the internet grew exponentially throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, much of that growth could be attributed to a desire of its users to connect socially to one another. Whether it was via email, chat rooms or bulletin boards, the internet helped bring people closer together. Today, with dramatically increased bandwidth and accessibility via handheld devices, social networks have become more and more accessible. With Facebook being The Standard for social networks, most internet users have an account in at least one social networking site.

Even with an enormous user base, many adults choose to avoid Facebook since it appears to be overrun by teenagers posting pictures of themselves taking their own picture in a bathroom mirror. Social networks need not be a generic virtual candy store. They can actually be built to allow members to collaborate on creative endeavors or share knowledge on common interests. Thanks to the success of Facebook, a number of software vendors have jumped into the market with software to produce a rigid social network. So, there are now many small social networks developed for company personnel, dating services and sports leagues. While the development time is decreased with these offerings, they do not allow for much flexibility in website development.

Maximum Fantasy Sports faced that obstacle when tasked with developing a social network for the Lingerie Football League. It was a goal of the Lingerie Football League to bring their fans closer to the talented stars of the LFL and allow them to get a first hand account of game action, behind the scenes details of training camp and practices, locker room speeches and any personal thoughts of its players. This goal was realized with the LFL FanZone social networking site.

To complete the design flexibility that was needed, Maximum Fantasy Sports eschewed pre-packaged software solutions in favor of building the LFL FanZone social network application from scratch. This approach allowed for integrating website registration, security, blogs, personal statuses, chat and sharing of pictures and videos with other members. Writing all the code enabled MFS to build multiple types of users, each with different roles and authorizations. Customized member types include multiple levels of security administrators with different roles and access levels, league writers, league office personnel, team coaches, players and fans of players and teams. The LFL FanZone contains common networking features with the code written in a fashion that its components could be ported for use in other types of networking applications with further customization. Because of that, MFS could re-use the core functionality to deliver flexible social networks to allow interaction amongst the site members in many other industries. Social networking is not a fad. It is an interactive environment that will continue to grow and mature.

Author Bio: Bill Parsons is the owner of http://www.MaximumFantasySports.com and a rabid fantasy sports participant. Maximum Fantasy Sports is a real-time fantasy football league website that includes all of the best features and some of which have never been attempted at any other website. MFS offers Free Fantasy Football leagues, Free Pools and Public Fantasy Football Leagues with cash payouts.

Category: Internet
Keywords: social network, social networks, social networking, social network software, social network developm