Social Network Services as development platform: An industrial case study

Abstract

In recent years online social networking services like Facebook and Twitter have become increasingly popular with a large number of active users. The introduction of developer platforms like the Facebook Developer Platform encourages developers to develop and integrate third party applications on the huge user base of these services. The role and use of the information generated by these social network services and applications is not yet well understood in software engineering although they influence software development practices. In this thesis, we investigated the feasibility of developing corporate solutions on social network services. We used Facebook to develop an application for Commute Greener (Volvo IT) using its open API for traffic data. Further interviews were conducted targeting product owners and developers at Volvo. Based on the outcomes of the study eight key themes, which determine the benefits, risks and limitations of such social network based applications are presented and discussed. Volvo IT grants to Chalmers University of Technology and University of Gothenburg the nonexclusive right to publish the Work electronically and in a non-commercial purpose make it accessible on the Internet.