Exploiting The Potential Of Blogs and Social Networks Introduction

Exploiting The Potential Of Blogs and Social Networks: Introduction Brian Kelly UKOLN University of Bath Bath, UK Email [email_address] UKOLN is supported by: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/blogs-social-networks-2007/talks/introduction/ Acceptable Use Policy Recording/broadcasting of this talk, taking photographs, discussing the content using email, instant messaging, blogs, social networks, etc. is permitted providing distractions to others is minimised. This work is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence (but note caveat) Resources bookmarked using ' blogs-social-networks-workshop-2007 ' tag

About This Workshop
About The Workshop
The workshop will provide an opportunity to:
Hear about approaches institutions are taking in the provision of or use of blogs & social networks.
Discuss appropriate deployment strategies
The workshop aims to help you to:
Gain an understanding of blogs & social networks
Learn how they can support your institution’s aims
Discuss the challenges in providing such services
Develop strategies for addressing these challenges across a diversity of institutional requirements

About The Workshop Organiser
Workshop Chair: Brian Kelly
UK Web Focus: JISC and MLA funded Web adviser to UK HE/FE & cultural heritage sectors
Discovered the Web in Dec 1992 and promoted its use afterwards (to an initially sceptical community)
Currently developing best practices for Web 2.0
Writes on the UK Web Focus Wordpress blog: see <http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/>
UKOLN:
National centre of expertise in digital information management
Located at the University of Bath

About The Format
Plenary Talks:
Six plenary talks which set the context (institutional case studies in morning; broader context in afternoon)
Discussion Groups:
Discussion groups in afternoon
Feedback from discussion groups (in Wiki)
Technologies:
WiFi network provided to support event
Please use responsibly (see AUP)

Workshop Wiki
A Wiki is provided for reporting on discussion groups:
Keeps a digital record (better than flip charts; more open than PowerPoint)
Allows you to look at others notes
Note have one Wiki reporter per group. A reporter should have been selected in advance of the workshop.
WetPaint Wiki provided:
For note-keeping in discussion groups
As a record for use after the event

Streaming Of Talks
Being Brave!
We intend to provide a live video stream of the plenary talks (using Web-based Veodia service).
Being Foolhardy?! We intend to stream the live video into second Life. Second Life users will see (a) the speaker and (b) the slides Acknowledgements Thanks to Andy Powell, Eduserv Foundations and Veodia for providing the streaming service And to the remote users for their tolerance if it goes wrong 

About You
Which sector are you from:
IT Services • Library
E-Learning • Research
National role • Other public sector / other
What technologies do you use on:
Blogs (as author) • Read blogs
Facebook
Other social networks e.g. MySpace, Bebo, ...
Does your institution have a formal policy on:
Blogs
S ocial networks

Timetable Chris Sexton & Paul Hollins Report Back 15.40 Coffee 15.15 David Harrison, Cardiff Disruptive Technology and its Implications for University Information Services 13.20 Lunch 12.20 Stuart Lee, Oxford The Hidden Dangers of Social Networks: You can log-on but you cannot hide 13.50 Discussion Groups 14.20 Tom Milburn, Bath The Student Perspective 12.00 Finish 16.15 Alison Wildish, Edge Hill Put Yourself Out There 11.30 Melissa Highton, Leeds Leedsfeeds: a Blogging Service based on the Open Source Elgg Application 11.00 Stephen Clarke, Birmingham Blogging In A Managed Environment 10.30 Brian Kelly, UKOLN Introduction 10.15 Speaker Session Time

What as a Blog / Social Network?
“ A blog (a portmanteau of web log ) is a Web site where entries are written in chronological order and commonly displayed in reverse chronological order. ”
“ A social network service focuses on the building and verifying of online social networks for communities of people who share interests and activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others, and which necessitates the use of software.” Wikipedia Wikipedia

Blog Example
Blogs aren’t just for student e-portfolios! Chris Sexton (IT Services, Sheffield U.) set up a blog recently

Facebook Example
Chris is also one of my Facebook friends
Notice what she is revealing about herself to her other Facebook friends
Image used with permission of Chris Sexton

Facebook Example
Chris is also one of my Facebook friends
Notice what she is revealing about herself to her other Facebook friends
What are the long term implications of such sharing Image used with permission of Chris Sexton

Challenging The Consensus
We’ve Turned Into Parents
“ Don’t take photos of yourself which may be embarrassing”
“ Don’t say anything that might embarrass you or might cause problems to future employers”
But:
We don’t take the photos; others do and add notes
We might say things about non-Facebook users
Isn’t there an argument for a non-intervention policy: “ I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a policy for what to do when you pass a peer / colleague / superior / lecturer / student in the street - why do we need one for online social behaviour? ”

Not Just Individuals Warwick University’s MySpace page Aberdeen University’s Bebo page
Facebook recently announced that organisations (not just individuals) can have Facebook pages.
Flurry of interest (and concerns) from UK HE:
Must have one
One already exists (squatters)
Successful student sites exists (is this OK?)
Why are we doing this? Who is the target audience? What are the resource implications, copyright implications, …?
UCLan had one of the first UK HE pages on Facebook

What If They Won’t Come?
But what if:
Users don’t trust our organisations?
Staff & students feel freer to criticise on commercial services
They prefer the disinterested approaches of commercial providers
An OCLC report on “ Sharing, Privacy and Trust In Our Networked World ” argues along these lines:
The social Web is not being build by augmenting traditional Web sites with new tools
We should “ open the library doors, invite mass participation and relax the rules ”
It will be messy, but “ mass participation and a little chaos often create exciting venues for collaboration, creativity, community building and transformation ”

What’s Our Interests?
Why should institutions have an interest in blogs and social networks?
Enhance learning
They can enrich learning: e-learning portfolios, collaborative learning, informal learning, …
Enhance research
They can enrich research: engagement with peers, feedback, social support, …
Community benefits
Engagement & dissemination e.g. by support departments (IT services, library, …)
Role of institutions in developing digital citizens

What Are The Challenges?
Many challenges (real and imaginary):
The purpose(s) of the service
The resource implications
The deployment strategies (in-house vs external)
The evaluation and selection
The training and support
The legal issues: privacy, copyright, accessibility, …
The institutional concerns: reputation management, sustainability, preservation, …
…
“ I don't see the point in ISS running blogging servers unless we want to automatically create and populate groups based on modules. Why not just encourage people to sign up for an account with Wordpress? It's better than anything we could offer. ” Nigel Bruce, ISS, Leeds Uni.

Developing Best Practices
UK Web Focus blog has regular posts related to these issues
UKOLN publishes briefing documents on Web 2.0 areas
These:
Have CC licence
Aimed at policy makers & support services
Feedback welcome

Community Development
The workshop provides a forum:
To be informed by case studies illustrated diversity of approaches being taken
To hear about the broader challenges to be addressed
which aims to lead to
Agreement on the key issues which need to be addressed
Identification of the key players who can support a community-wide approach to resolution of the issues (JISC, UCISA, UKOLN, JISC CETIS, JISC infoNet…?)
As well as providing an informative and enjoyable event for the participants

Questions?
Any questions

Exploiting The Potential Of Blogs and Social Networks Introduction

by Brian Kelly on Nov 27, 2007

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