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The social web, mapped since September 2009.
A method with a public record: dated press coverage of Sten Franke's earlier companies and the dated Social Media Prisma editions from 2009 to 2017/2018.
- Sep 2009
- first German Social Media Prisma publishedethority.de release post, 21 Sep 2009
- 7
- German editions, Sep 2009 to Oct 2017ethority.de release posts 2009–2017 (company archive, WordPress export 2022)
- 261
- platforms and tools in Version 6.0ethority.de release post, 22 Oct 2014
- 2003
- earliest dated coverage, heise onlineheise online, 30 Oct 2003 · heise.de ↗
Two years, 117 new platforms.
Between Version 5.0 (September 2012) and Version 6.0 (October 2014), 117 platforms joined the German map.
ethority.de, 22 Oct 2014
More than half the map turned over.
By the 2017/2018 edition, more than half of the platforms of 2014 had left the ranking.
ethority.de, 16 Oct 2017
The map entered the academic literature.
A Springer chapter discusses the Social Media Prisma and reproduces the 2017/2018 German map.
Säugling, Springer, 21 Sep 2021
Sten Franke legacy
Sten Franke’s legacy, chapter by chapter, from media-time.de to the Good AI Prism. Each stop names its own organisation and source. Roots: ETHORITY.AI and STEN.AI.
- 1997
media-time.de. Sten Franke starts mapping markets with a Yahoo-like web directory for Germany: the young German web, sorted by category. Online as MEDIA-TIME INTERNETSERVICES, with captures through 2004: see the 1998 Internet Archive capture.
Sten Franke, career record, Oct 2026 · Internet Archive, capture of media-time.de, 11 Nov 1998
- 1997–2005
1a-Suchmaschinen.de. In the mediatime years, a commercial SEO software service that helps companies be found in search engines.
Sten Franke, career record, Oct 2026
- 2001
Gridpatrol. An early internet-monitoring service built on machine learning, the start of brand-image research online.
Sten Franke, career record, Oct 2026
- 2008
BITKOM. Sten Franke chairs the BITKOM working group Customer Satisfaction and writes for the Marken-Management Jahrbuch 2008/09.
ethority.de, 4 Jan 2008
- 2009
Social Media Prisma. The first German edition appears on 21 September 2009, the first of eight dated editions up to 2017/2018.
ethority.de, 21 Sep 2009
- 2026
Good AI Prism. Sten Franke & ETHORITY® map 961 AI offerings across 24 topic areas, 8 data types and 6 technology layers in the Good AI Prism study.
Good AI Prism Market Study 2026/27, Oct 2026
Coverage
- 2003
heise online · 30 Oct 2003 · “Siemens mit dem besten Markenimage im Internet”. Boi Feddern reported on a mediatime study that used Gridpatrol to examine the web image of 125 brands. Read the heise online report, 2003.
heise online, 30 Oct 2003
- 2007
ethority announcement (openPR) · 27 Feb 2007 · “bobi – brand online buzz index”. ethority announced bobi for 1 March 2007: a monitor of consumer conversation about nearly 500 brands in 25 industries. Read the openPR announcement of bobi.
ethority announcement (openPR), 27 Feb 2007
- 2007
ethority study announcement (Portal der Wirtschaft) · 24 Jul 2007 · “Automobil-Trends im Web 2.0”. An ethority study of 23,298 forum posts from ten forums (March to May 2007), 1,262 of them in the sample. Read the Portal der Wirtschaft release.
ethority study announcement (Portal der Wirtschaft), 24 Jul 2007
- 2008
manager magazin · 28 May 2008 · “Deutsche-Bank-Chef Ackermann hat das schlechteste Image im Netz”. The publisher announced a study commissioned from ethority on the online image of German corporate leaders, based on about 60,000 opinions. Read the manager magazin study announcement.
manager magazin, 28 May 2008
- 2008
ADZINE · 5 Nov 2008 · “Brands in Social Media 2008–2009: Hohes Markenbewusstsein”. ADZINE covered ethority's analysis of about 1.1 million online expressions about brands. Read the ADZINE study report.
ADZINE, 5 Nov 2008
- 2009
BVDW (PresseBox) · 23 Sep 2009 · “BVDW veröffentlicht Social Media Kompass zur dmexco 2009”. Germany's digital-industry association named Sten Franke as a Social Media working-group lead and contributing author of its first Social Media Kompass. Read the BVDW Kompass release.
BVDW (PresseBox), 23 Sep 2009
- 2010
Cool Infographics · 16 Apr 2010 · “Social Media Prism 2.0 – German Version”. Randy Krum covered ethority's German Social Media Prisma 2.0. Read the Cool Infographics feature.
Cool Infographics, 16 Apr 2010
- 2010
Jörg Hoewner / K12 (SlideShare) · 20 May 2010 · “Social Media als Innovationsquelle”. A third-party presentation that names ethority among providers combining data mining with human analysis. Read the K12 presentation on SlideShare.
Jörg Hoewner / K12 (SlideShare), 20 May 2010
- 2010
marketingshop / Media Innovation · 29 Jun 2010 · “Social Media Marketing: Irgendwie sind wir alle schon drin – Interview mit Sten Franke”. An announcement with excerpts of an interview with Sten Franke for the marketingshop blog. Read the marketingshop interview announcement.
marketingshop / Media Innovation, 29 Jun 2010
- 2012
marktforschung.de · 11 Jun 2012 · “Marktforschung 2.0 – Vom Fragebogen zur Real-Time Research durch Social Media Analyse”. A bylined article by Sten Franke; the author record is public, the full text is for subscribers. Read the marktforschung.de author page.
marktforschung.de, 11 Jun 2012
- 2021
Springer (Carolin Säugling) · 21 Sep 2021 · “Wissensgenese 2.0: Social-Media-Analysen”. An academic chapter that discusses the Social Media Prisma and reproduces the 2017/2018 German map. Read the Springer academic chapter.
Springer (Carolin Säugling), 21 Sep 2021
The Social Media Prisma, edition by edition
- 2009
21 Sep 2009 · Version 1.0, the first Social Media Prisma for the German market, adding services such as Xing and StudiVZ to the landscape.
ethority.de release post, 21 Sep 2009
- 2010
15 Apr 2010 · Version 2.0, revised with suggestions from users in comments and e-mails.
ethority.de release post, 15 Apr 2010
- 2011
19 Sep 2011 · Version 3.0, released for dmexco, with newcomers such as Google+ and Facebook Places.
ethority.de release post, 19 Sep 2011
- 2012
14 Mar 2012 · Chinese edition 1.0, mapping China's own platforms from microblogs to Q&A sites.
ethority.de release post, 14 Mar 2012
- 2012
28 Mar 2012 · Version 4.0 for Germany, adding Pinterest among others.
ethority.de release post, 28 Mar 2012
- 2012
12 Sep 2012 · Version 5.0, with new categories for social media tools and mobile apps.
ethority.de release post, 12 Sep 2012; artwork footer 09.2012
- 2014
22 Oct 2014 · Version 6.0, the 261 most important platforms and tools; 117 had joined since Version 5.0.
ethority.de release post, 22 Oct 2014
- 2017
16 Oct 2017 · The 2017/2018 edition with DataChamp24, “change through disruptive innovation”: more than half the platforms of 2014 had left the ranking. Printed as a poster.
ethority.de release post, 16 Oct 2017
Edition gallery
2017 · The print poster of the 2017/2018 edition.
Global Social Media Prism, first international edition.
Global Social Media Prism, later international edition, with monitoring tools and mobile companions.
All editions: Social Media Prisma by Sten Franke & ethority. Shown as published, under the licence printed on each edition (CC BY-SA).
The historic paper
Sixteen years of the Social Media Prisma, in English and German.
From the Social Media Prisma to the Good AI Prism
Sixteen years of mapping fast markets.
From the first German Social Media Prisma in September 2009 to the Good AI Prism: how ethority mapped a market that kept changing, what the editions recorded, and who reported on it.
ETHORITY · LONG READ
Sixteen years of mapping fast markets.
From the first German Social Media Prisma in September 2009 to the Good AI Prism: how ethority mapped a market that kept changing, what the editions recorded, and who reported on it.
A map for a market that would not sit still
In September 2009, social media in Germany was often treated as an American phenomenon. ethority, the digital intelligence company Sten Franke founded in 2005 (see our company history), set out to show the German landscape as it was: one picture, with every relevant platform in its category. The first Social Media Prisma for the German market appeared on 21 September 2009. It included services that hardly existed outside Germany, such as Xing and StudiVZ.
The habit was older than the Prisma. Sten Franke had started in 1997 with media-time.de, a web directory for Germany, followed by 1a-Suchmaschinen.de, a commercial SEO service.
The map caught on because the market kept moving. Version 2.0 followed in April 2010, revised with suggestions that readers had sent in by comment and e-mail. Version 3.0 arrived for dmexco in September 2011 with Google+. In 2012 ethority published a Chinese edition in March, Version 4.0 for Germany two weeks later and Version 5.0 in September, with new categories for tools and mobile apps. International editions of the Global Social Media Prism carried the same method to a worldwide audience.
What the editions recorded
The editions are a record of change. Version 6.0, published on 22 October 2014, showed the 261 most important platforms and tools; 117 of them had joined since Version 5.0 two years earlier. The 2017/2018 edition, made with DataChamp24, found that more than half of the platforms of 2014 had left the ranking, while categories such as health and fitness, lifecasting and chatbot services moved in. It was printed as a poster and found its way into teaching: a Springer chapter of 2021 discusses the Prisma and reproduces the 2017/2018 map.
Coverage followed the work. The Cool Infographics feature introduced the German map to an English-speaking audience in April 2010. Earlier, heise online had reported on a mediatime study built on Gridpatrol monitoring in 2003, and manager magazin had announced a study it commissioned from ethority in 2008. Each entry on this page names its outlet and date and links to the original source.
From the social web to the AI market
The Good AI Prism takes the same idea into a harder market. Social platforms could be placed by category; AI offerings also differ by task, data, hosting, rights, cost and evidence. The Good AI Prism therefore records each offering from the provider's own pages with a dated source, and maps 961 AI offerings across 24 topic areas, 8 data types and 6 technology layers in the Global market study. The historic editions stay as they were published, so readers can see how a mapped market changes over time. The Social Media Prisma paper tells the full story.
Sources and further reading
- ethority präsentiert: Das erste Social Media Prisma für den deutschen Markt (ethority.de, company archive) · 21 Sep 2009
- Social Media Prisma Version 6.0 mit den wichtigsten 261 Plattformen und Tools (ethority.de, company archive) · 22 Oct 2014
- Das neue Social Media Prisma 2017/2018 (ethority.de, company archive) · 16 Oct 2017
- Cool Infographics: Social Media Prism 2.0 – German Version ↗ · 16 Apr 2010
- Säugling: Wissensgenese 2.0: Social-Media-Analysen (Springer) ↗ · 21 Sep 2021
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