Any article or conversation about Web 2.0 will inevitably stress the newly acknowledged primacy of the experience of the Web for the user. And the vehicle for converting the user’s experience from that of a solitary, passive viewer (as in what might be called Web 1.0) to one of rich, dynamic content and broad, interactive participation is social networking. In other words - you can join a social online community of your choice.
Defining Online Social Networks
As with a lot of 2.0 tools, pinning down a definition of a “social network” is difficult — it’s one of those “you’ll know it when you see it” tools! But how do you know what to look for? Here are a few characteristics of social networks:
- profile pages: when you sign up for an account on a social networking site, your “profile page” becomes your home base. Most social networks allow you to add as much or as little information about yourself as you’d like. Common fields include your name, contact information, interests, and a photograph of yourself. Some social networks allow you to customize your profile page by changing the design, color, or look of the page (MySpace is an example), whereas other social networking sites use the same look & feel for all profile pages (Facebook is an example).
- “Friending”: this is probably the most important characteristic of a social network because finding friends (existing or new) on a social networking site is pretty much the point of being there in the first place! So, most social networks allow you to add another person/profile as a “friend” or a “contact” and your collection of friends becomes your own personal social network (not dissimilar to the way social networks form offline too!). The “friending” aspect of an online social network often accounts for why some social networking sites are popular with specific groups. For example, Facebook began as a social network for college and university students; it has since opened up to allow anyone to join the network, but it still remains most popular with students. Why? Because people go where their friends are!
- Groups: with real life social networks, groups tend to form around common interests, therefore most online social networks allow users to start a group or join a group based on their interests or common goals. Depending on the social networking site, you will probably find a group that represents your interests, regardless of what that interest might be!
- For those of you interested in just short bursts of information about yourself or observations, then Twitter is the way to go. Twitter is generating a lot of attention these days as it's being used to discuss elections, social lives and work.
Assignment:(Thing 11)Sign up for either a Facebook, MySpace or Twitter account! Look for people you know in the social network you choose and "friend" them. (Thing 12)
Optional:
If you’re not comfortable creating a Facebook, MySpace or Twitter account, for an alternate exercise:
- Find 3 articles on these or other social networks(Thing 11.)
- Blog about your thoughts on these tools and how libraries are using them. (Thing 12)
Go to our Week 8 wiki page for more resources or for a break click here and find out how libraries and librarians are using social networking.
