#22 Face-to-Face Space: Social Networking Communities

Social networking tools allow users to create a profile with text, photos and other Web 2.0 applications. The idea is to link your profile to other people using the same tool, over time creating a network of people you know, and people known by the people you know. Some social networking tools allow organizations to have profiles, while others only allow individual profiles.

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.

OR,

• Explore some profiles on Friendster
  

2. Create a blog post about your exploration. What do you think of social networking in general? What features do you like or dislike? Do you see social networking applications for libraries?

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!