Would it be possible for me and some friends to make a large social networking site?

[pennys2dollars]

We are developing the idea which is unique and good, the only problem is I would be the business side of the company. I have some friends who are into programming but I'm not sure HOW complex social networking programming is.

However, my Great Uncle is a professor of Computer Sciences at the University of Alberta. Would that mean that he knows how to do this stuff?

[Seay]

Well.. it is extremely complex. Nothings impossible but none the less, unless you got a zuckerburg on your team its going to be difficult and no offense probably extremely vulnerable and full of other bugs completely discrediting your social network. Pardon my assumption if this is not the case.

Unless you would like to find investors, advertising & marketing schemes early on, the business side can wait. The programming is going to the bulk of this and by far the longest part of the process.

Its one thing to create the skeleton of a social network site. Once this is finished and it looks and works the way you want you have to add to it. For example, apps.

My advice would be to gain as clear an understanding of the upper and lower bounds of the site. What its going to do and what its not. All of this information is in the Web Based Software Development Process.

Your uncle would be able to help with the logic behind the site but depending on what he teaches and has been exposed to over the past 15 years he may be a bit behind on web technology.

Anythings possible...Look at facebook... Good Luck!

[darin s]

You great uncle being a professor of Computer Sciences does not necessarily mean that he knows how to do this type of programing. There are many types of programing and NO ONE knows how to do all of them. That is why companies that program games and those sorts of things have so many employees. And even if he does know how to do some of the programing he might not want to take the very large amount of time to work on this project that it will surely take even for a team. One thing you might want to consider is working out a conceptual contract with a company that is already set up like Facebook. What that contract would do is allow you to work with them on your project but keep them from flat out claiming it as their own. Many sites like Plenty of Fish ( a dating site ) do things like work with other companies that are up and running because not only can the help you with the programing but also with other issues like financing and advertising.Before you take any ideas to another company talk to a attorney to protect your self and your product.

[David Harris]

http://facebook.com

Please stop.
"They made lots of money off of it, so maybe we will too!"

[Louis]

As many others want to create social networking sites I wouldn't recommend it since as it's a social network site people want to be on the one with all there friends on and there all on facebook

Anyway it would be hard to do the code for this - In fact really hard - you'd need to be organised and have strong knowledge in html, css and php especially.

[just "JR"]

Making a social network is relatively easy (if you have experience in server-side programming and databases). You can write a Facebook in a few weeks. (I have done a clone of Y!A in 5 weeks).
Making it "successful" is another matter.
A matter of advertising, and a matter of MONEY... and a LOT of it.
Zukenberg made Facebook for his University Campus. He only had some of the student from the same University and never grew from there, until he found 34.5 MILLIONS us$ to promote and market his site.
So...
Unless you have the knowledge and experience, AND a fair bit of cash, forget it: it will NOT work.
You may reach a few hundred users after many months, but it will stop there.
Don't waste your time.

[jplatt39]

In theory he knows how to do this stuff. The issues though are access to computers and money. While Mark Shuttleworth for example WAS able to run a business from his parents garage as a poor grad student -- he was selling Security Certificates to web sites. His bandwidth usage was something a middle class South African family could afford so he could get financing for it, and with Slackware which is a reliable OS (I'm using the current version as I type) the hardware costs were very low.

Google got so big because they buy a lot of parts and make a lot of cheap hardware -- and they are actually more tied to that redundancy than they are to ANY OS. Forget about what you hear about them using Linux. They use *nix which is a term we use to cover a FAMILY of operating systems INCLUDING Mac OS X and have only cut back recently on their use of Windows because M$'s determination to NOT interoperate with *nix means it is less useful to them. That most currently available *nixes are free isn't going to affect your costs much if you go with it -- and free is supposed to mean as in freedom -- that is to customize it -- not free as in beer. Some of the best LINUXes you pay for.

You need bandwidth which will accommodate your users. You need HARDWARE which will accommodate them. While to some extent costs have fallen the Telcos DO engage in price gouging and financing is going to be both very complex and the thing your business will stand and fall on. Talk to your great uncle. And draw up a business plan to talk to a venture capitalist. Social network programming takes a lot of work, but it's doable. It's not easy but it's straightforward if you have the resources. And they are available, but some of them take money.