Social Networking

Slide 1: Social networking – the advantages and disadvantages Phil Bradley www.philb.com 17th April 2008

Slide 2: Social networking sites • Once upon a time we thought it was

Slide 5: Statistics Flickr 4,000,000 • LinkedIn 20,000,000 • • Bebo 21,000,000 • Hi5 70,000,000 • Facebook 100,000,000 MySpace 110,000,000 •

Slide 6: So what can be done with a social network?

Slide 8: Key elements • Locate and connect with friends or colleagues • Connect to friends of friends (FOAF) • Share information back and forth • Keep up to date with events • Find new friends • Join discussion groups

Slide 9: And a few more… Instant messaging • Private messaging • • Ask questions • Answer questions • Import content from different places

Slide 10: The case against • They can waste huge amounts of time • Privacy issues • Danger – strangers!

Slide 11: Continued • Individuals not representing company policy • Keeping work/home personas apart • Security concerns • A nomadic lifestyle

Slide 12: … and again

Slide 13: The case for… • Contact experts in subject areas

Slide 21: Some other social networking options • Community search engines • Spokeo • Start/Home pages

Slide 22: Other options… • Chat rooms • RSS feeds • Social bookmarking

Slide 23: The case for getting involved • Go to where the communication is • Facebook is more popular than Google for 18-24 age range • 25%+ 8-11 y.o. have networking profiles • 85% of students have a Facebook account • Create your own pages, group(s) for promotion, information provision • Provides more flexibility and functionality

Slide 24: The case against getting involved

Slide 25: Thank you! • Phil Bradley – http://www.philb.com – philb@philb.com

Slide 26: Thanks to: • http://www.mediabistro.com/avantguild/images/social_networking_wheel.jpg • http://www.mysocialnetwork.net/blog/481/r10/2006-10-25%20Blog%20Posting%207%20Picture.bmp • http://polymer.bu.edu/~amaral/Sex_partners/images_klovdahl_small.jpg • http://digitalwaveriding.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/map.jpg • http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/02_04_08_ofcom.pdf