#22 Face-to-Face Space: Social Networking Communities
Many social networking tools are comprised of networks based on geographic regions, workplaces, schools or interests. Within this virtual community, you can search for long-lost friends, people with the same interests, or just keep up with what your friends are doing. You can view each other's profiles and friend lists, send email-type messages to each other, and comment on each other's posts and photos.
Some popular social networking tools are Friendster, around since 2002, now overshadowed by the more popular MySpace and Facebook. LinkedIn was founded in 2003 as a business network, designed to help professionals connect with jobs, people and services.
MySpace and Facebook are probably the two most popular social networking sites. MySpace came first in 2003, and its music-driven format quickly overtook Friendster. Though MySpace was open to anyone who wanted to join, it immediately became very popular with high school students.
Facebook began as a college campus-specific site in 2005 but expanded last year to let anyone join. As a result, Facebook is now not only still extremely popular with college students, but quickly catching on with high schoolers, giving MySpace a run for its money. Not surprisingly, this year's SEOmoz Web 2.0 Awards named Facebook the #1 social networking tool.
Now that Facebook has opened its networks to anyone, adults-older-than-college-age are quickly adding their faces. A recent Newsweek article states Facebook executives claiming that "more than half its 35 million active users are not college students, and that by the end of this year less than 30 percent of Facebook users will sport college IDs."
For this discovery exercise, you will take a look at some news items about Facebook and the social networking phenomenon, explore a few social networking sites, and comment on the usefulness of social networking sites in personal and/or work-related contexts.
Discovery Resources:
View this 2 minute YouTube video, Social Networking in Plain English to get an overview of how social networking works.
Listen to this recent Newsweek audio, The Facebook Challenge (located in the middle of this page; there is a short video advertisement first)
AND/OR
Read some short articles about Facebook, including a testimonial from a 40-something user and college students commenting on Why I love it and Why I hate it
Discovery Exercise:
1. Briefly explore these social networking sites (joining is optional):
- Take the Facebook tour (click sidebar links on the right to see screenshots of what a facebook profile looks like) -- you must join facebook to search for and really see anyone's profile, but you can get a pretty good overview with these links.
- Explore MySpace's home page to get a feel for its general setup and look. Explore the category links across the top of the page (music, video, etc.) or try searching for a friend. MySpace has recently begun allowing users to restrict who can see their profiles, but you should be able to see some profiles, at least in part. To see a MySpace group, take a look at Desk Set, a MySpace librarian group.
- Explore some profiles on Friendster
OPTIONAL:
Join Facebook and create a profile. Join the Ohio network, where you can search for and network with many of your library colleagues already on Facebook. Here also are some optional Facebook applications you can add to your profile.
Or join another social network of your choice. You may run into someone you know!
#23 Is this really the end? Or just the beginning ...
Wow! Congratulations!! You’ve reached the 23rd thing. Be sure to give yourself a pat on the back for completing the program. Your reward for completing this journey before the deadline is a useful and handy MP3 player. But before sending this off to you, we ask for one last discovery post.
For your last and final exercise for this program, please reflect on your learning journey and post a few thoughts. Here are some questions to prompt you if you're drawing a blank ...
- What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
- How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
- Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
- What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
And last but not least…
- If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate? Or would you be interested in helping to post to a learning blog similar to this one?
In closing, we want to thank each and every one of you for joining us on this journey. Our greatest hope is that this is not the end of our learning journey together as a staff and a library, but rather just the beginning … Thank you, The Learning 2.0 Team
UPDATE: Helene Blowers,* the creator of the original Learning 2.0 program that this one is modeled after, has now created Learning 2.1: The Adventure Continues. If you're interested in continuing your Web 2.0 exploration, this is a great place to start (sorry, no prizes this time!) You can participate by exploring more "things," by subscribing to the RSS feed, or by even contributing as a guest blogger. Have fun! (for comic relief, check out the LOLCats activity)
#20 You too can YouTube
Universities and Libraries and utilizing YouTube as well. Here’s a YouTube video about Web 2.0 created by a professor at Kansas State University. Thomson Gale, a library database provider, recently sponsored a I Love My Libary video contest by asking people to post their videos to their YouTube channel.
Do some searching around YouTube yourself and see what the site has to offer. You'll find everything from educational themes such as Did You Know? to 1970s TV commercials to library dominos here. Of course, like any free site you’ll also find a lot stuff not worth watching too. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t explore and see for yourself! :)
Discovery Exercise:
1. Explore YouTube & find a video worth adding as an entry in your blog.
2. Create a blog post about your experience. What did you like or dislike about YouTube and why did you choose the video that you did? Can you see any features or componets of the site that might be interesting if they were applied to library websites?
NOTE: If you like, you can login to YouTube with your Google account.
OPTIONAL: Try placing the video inside your blog using the copy and paste code labeled "Embed." The HTML code can be used for when you want to provide a link to the video at the YouTube site.
Note: when embedding a video in a blog post, switch from the Compose tab to the Edit HTML tab and then paste the Embed code. You can also use this code as a Page Element in your blog's sidebar (select HTML / Java)
Note: Due to frustrations that many users have with Internet Explorer 6.0.2 crashing when trying to open some videos, it is recommended that for this exercise you use the FireFox browser. It is installed on all public computers in the library, or you may easily download it to your computer from here.
Other popular video hosting sites:
NOTE: Videos, like music downloads, are bandwidth hogs. It is recommended that you complete this exercise during light internet usage times, and on a computer with a fast internet connection.
#21 Podcasts, Shmodcasts!
What differentiates a podcast from regular streaming audio or video is that the delivery method for podcasts is often done automatically through RSS technology, so once you subscribe to a particular podcast with a service, it can be continually updated when new podcasts from that same provider are available.
Here is an example of each from NPR's website: streaming audio that you can listen to using Real Player or Windows Media Player on your computer, and NPR's RSS podcasts that you can subscribe to through a service such as iTunes, where you will get new podcasts each week automatically.
In 2005, "podcast" was named the "word of the year" by New Oxford American Dictionary and with the growth of podcasting over the last 24 months, it's easy to see why.
Podcasts take many forms, from short 1-10 minute commentaries to much longer in-person interviews or panel group discussions. There’s a podcast out there for just about every interest area, and the best part about this technology is that you don’t have to have an iPod or other MP3 player to access them. Since podcasts use the MP3 file format, a popular compressed format for audio files, you really just need a computer with headphones or speakers.
iTunes, the free downloadable application created by Apple, is the directory finding service most associated with podcasts, but if you don’t have iTunes installed on your computer there are still plenty of options.
For this discovery exercise participants are asked to take a look at some popular podcast directory tools. Do some exploring on your own and locate a podcast that is of interest to you. If you like you can easily pull the RSS feed into your Bloglines account as well, so that when new casts become available you’ll be automatically notified of their existence.
Discovery Resources:
- To find out more about podcasts, start with the Yahoo: What is a podcast tutorial
- There are many, many podcast directories and finding tools out there. Here are just three of the more popular ones that, unlike iTunes, don't require a software download:
Podcastalley.com
Yahoo Podcasts
- What? You want to learn how to be a podcaster too? (Optional Resources for those who want to learn create podcasts)
Odeo’s Studio – online recording studio.
How to podcast tutorial
Discovery Exercise:
1. Take a look at one or two of the podcast directories listed and see if you can find a podcast that interests you. See if you can find some interesting library related podcasts here, like book review podcasts or library news.2. Create a blog post about your discovery process. Did you find anything useful here?
Optional: Add the RSS feed for the podcast you have chosen to your Bloglines account
Optional: If you're ambitious, why not try out Gabcast.com or Gcast.com and add an audio post about your experience to your blog.
