An Introduction to Social Networking Tony Hirst, OU Library Staff Development Hour, 25/10/06

Social Networking vs Social Software “ A social network is a map of the relationships between individuals, indicating the ways in which they are connected through various social familiarities ranging from casual acquaintance to close familial bonds.” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking “ Social software lets people rendezvous, connect or collaborate by use of a computer network.” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_software

“ A social network is a map of the relationships between individuals, indicating the ways in which they are connected through various social familiarities ranging from casual acquaintance to close familial bonds.”

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking

“ Social software lets people rendezvous, connect or collaborate by use of a computer network.”

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_software

Social Networking Sites

Haven’t we been here before?

This Time, It’s 2.0 …

The Anatomy of MySpace Personal info Photo uploads Movie uploads Calendar Blog Address book Customisable layout ‘ Make Friends’ Add graffiti

Personal info

Photo uploads

Movie uploads

Calendar

Blog

Address book

Customisable layout

‘ Make Friends’

Add graffiti

Making it Social

“ Professional” Social Networking

Alumni Contact Management

Social Content Management Systems Personally useful Easy upload, free storage Big name sites focus on a particular media or resource type Informal, user and community supplied metadata – “tags” – as well as contributor metadata Sharing / favorites / bookmarking Widgets – embed content in your own web pages Web feeds – syndicate your content/collection data

Personally useful

Easy upload, free storage

Big name sites focus on a particular media or resource type

Informal, user and community supplied metadata – “tags” – as well as contributor metadata

Sharing / favorites / bookmarking

Widgets – embed content in your own web pages

Web feeds – syndicate your content/collection data

flickr

YouTube

Library Thing

del.icio.us

citeUlike

Tags, Tagging and Folksonomies Tags – user contributed keywords/descriptive terms Uncontrolled vocabulary Subject to change, ambiguous Synonyms, plurals, etc but Statistically significant Support resource discovery Low barrier to entry

Tags – user contributed keywords/descriptive terms

Uncontrolled vocabulary

Subject to change, ambiguous

Synonyms, plurals, etc

but

Statistically significant

Support resource discovery

Low barrier to entry

Neat navigation  http://nonfiction.ig-gestaltung.de/wp-content/web20map.png

Social Content Generation Tools Tools that support collaborative content generation activities

Tools that support collaborative content generation activities

Wikipedia

Google docs ( Writely )

Gliffy

Zimbio – A Social Portal Builder

Social Recommendations & Search User generated search rolls User flagged content <=> social bookmarking Digg

User generated search rolls

User flagged content <=> social bookmarking

Digg

Social Recommendation Engines

DIY Social Apps Ning Bookmarks Videos Photos Groups

Ning

Bookmarks

Videos

Photos

Groups

“ The future is here. It’s just not evenly distributed yet.” William Gibson http://www.donnarosenartists.com/artists/dale-rutter/big-art/minority-report.jpg

“ The future is here. It’s just not evenly distributed yet.”

William Gibson

Clone Your Own…

Take Home (1) The social space is very diverse, and still finding its way Possible to distinguish between: personally customised pages/applications intended for sharing collaborative applications

The social space is very diverse, and still finding its way

Possible to distinguish between:

personally customised pages/applications intended for sharing

collaborative applications

Take Home (2) Personal social networking sites may offer: privacy groups “ friends”

Personal social networking sites may offer:

privacy

groups

“ friends”

Take Home (3) The widgets are coming portable functionality republish your own content share other people’s content

The widgets are coming

portable functionality

republish your own content

share other people’s content

Tony Hirst Dept of ICT Faculty of Technology The Open University [email_address] http://ouseful.open.ac.uk/blog

[email_address]

http://ouseful.open.ac.uk/blog