182591 social networking site

Subject: Requirements document for a social networking site. This document provides a high level overview, not a detailed requirements document for the creation of a social networking site that allows people to find other people (aka friends) with similar profiles. This social network is designed to allow people with similar disease states to find each other and build either private or public networks. Admission to private or public networks is determined by the members. They have the ability to make the existence of the network public or private, and admit people without or without existing member approval. I am not a programmer, so we will need to work collaboratively on this document. I have done some preliminary reading on the release of Google's opensocial code and I wish to incorporate this into my portal. My proposed social networking architecture the following characteristics: A public website hosts the software necessary to enable members to create a profile, find other members with similar profiles, and join social network communities by asking permission from existing members to join established networks. The core module is made up of five elements: 1. Profile Host . The core module provides the ability to host one or more member profiles and publish these publicly or privately on the Web and to directories that categorize members based upon self selected characteristics. 2. Profile Editor . The Profile Editor is a Web-based profile builder like Facebook's own or Friend of a Friend (FOAF). The editor makes it easy for members to build and update their profiles with personal information. The profile editor allows members to describe themselves with text and photographs and categorize themselves as having certain disease states such as osteoporosis or diabetes. 3. People Finder. The People Finder is both a Web-based user interface and a Web service for browsing and finding people across this network. This finder tool will allow users to find profiles based upon certain characteristics that can be dynamically changed by the members of the network. For example, if someone creates a profile with a new category of disease state, then other members can search within this category. This function will be similar to Facebook's ability to locate people based upon a list of colleges. 4. Social Networking Web Services. This is an application that allows people to create social networks. 5. Ability to modify by hosting gadgets, widgets, etc. The software has the ability to allow users and communites to incorporate a variety of web gadgets and widgets such as google maps that may allow communites to view the distribution of their members geographically, for example.