A social network is a social structure made up of individuals (or organizations) called “nodes,” which are tied (connected) by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.

Social network analysis views social relationships in terms of network theory consisting of nodes and ties. Nodes are the individual actors within the networks, and ties are the relationships between the actors. The resulting graph-based structures are often very complex. There can be many kinds of ties between the nodes. Research in a number of academic fields has shown that social networks operate on many levels, from families up to the level of nations, and play a critical role in determining the way problems are solved, organizations are run, and the degree to which individuals succeed in achieving their goals. In this post I’ve gathered top 9 scripts and websites that can help you start building your own social network site:

1- Boonex

Available at: www.boonex.com.
Use flexible and powerful community software to implement your own brilliant idea in real life. Boonex Dolphin makes it easy to deploy and manage dating sites, social networks, online clubs, or web- communities. We run community sites ourselves, and we pass this experience on to you.

2- BuddyPress

Available at: buddypress.org.
BuddyPress is completely free and open source. Unlike hosted services, BuddyPress allows you to stay in control of your site and create a totally customized, unique experience.

3- elgg

Available at: www.elgg.org.
If you are looking to create your own social application, want to build and run a site for your organization, or introduce a social layer into your technology stack, Elgg is a great choice.

4- jomSocial

Available at: www.jomsocial.com.
Now everyone can create a thriving, unique and interactive Joomla! community… effortlessly!

5- NING

Available at: www.ning.com.
Create Your Own Social Network, Organize around your favorite cause. Build a hub for your online activity. Have a deeper conversation in a space all your own.

6- phpFox

Available at: www.phpfox.com.
phpFox is a featured packed social networking solution. Our goal is to provide your community with features found on major social networking websites like Facebook and MySpace. phpFox is built on a platform that gives you full control with your websites layout giving you the ability to easily create a unique look direct from the comfort of your Admin Control Panel.

7- PHPizabi

Available at: phpizabi.net.
PHPizabi is one of the most powerful social networking platforms on the planet. With literally thousands of websites powered by PHPizabi including everything from simple friends sites to the most complex networking super sites out there. Easy to install, use, and raising the bar on what it is to provide a reliable, fast, social networking package to raise your business to the next level.

8- SocialEngine

Available at: www.socialengine.net.
SocialEngine 4 is a modular platform for creating unique community-driven sites that run on your own web server. Start small, or go feature-rich with plugins.

9- SocialGO

Available at: tweetbird.net. Looks like this site has been hacked or soemthing
Whether you’re a beginner or seasoned developer, build a feature-packed Social Network customized for your group on SocialGO. No software, hosting or coding required just pick your features, monetization options, support package and GO.

If you use other scripts or software please tell me about it and let’s review them together. Have a great day…