Life on the Web: The Web as a Social Place

Life on the Web: The Web as a Social Place For Ex Libris Association (November 5 2007) Gwen Harris

Students Today A Vision of Students Today . Created by Michael Wesch, Digital Ethnography, Kansas State University “ a short video summarizing some of the most important characteristics of students today - how they learn, what they need to learn, their goals, hopes, dreams, what their lives will be like, and what kinds of changes they will experience in their lifetime. “ http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v =dGCJ46vyR9o

Five digital natives

My Small Survey 5 2 1 3 4 2 40% Write a Blog 100% Shop 20% Play Online Games 60% Get Music / Podcasts 80% Watch Video 40% Facebook

Agenda

Internet – Stage 2 well under way especially for digital natives.

Social networking - Facebook

Twittering

Virtual worlds

Social media – videos and photos

Reading news and blogs – sharing opinion

OCLC Report 2007

International study on online social spaces, including social networking attitudes and habits of both end users and librarians.

Being Social

Searching for information, banking/investing, purchasing items, e-mailing and instant messaging are now standard online activities conducted by more than half of the total general public surveyed.

Life online is moving beyond browsing and searching to interacting, creating, collaborating and community.

Canadian Usage of Web

Social Networking

The practice of using a social network to establish and enhance relationships based on some common ground—shared interests, related skills, or a common geographic location—is as old as human societies, but social networking has flourished due to the ease of connecting on the Web.

PEW: Social Networking and Teens

55% of online teens (12 – 17) use a social networking site.

Especially girls – reinforce friendships

Boys make new friends and do some flirting

Stay in touch with friends, make plans,

85% use MySpace, and 7% Facebook

50% visit at least once a day

Communicating

Post to a friend’s page or wall – open communication

Send private message (ie email)

Post comments to friend’s blog or photos

Send bulletin or group message

Wink, poke, give e-props or e-gifts (less used)

Facebook Tour

Facebook

TD Bank has a Facebook page – Money Lounge

Ryerson and University of Alberta libraries let students search the library catalog thru Facebook

Ernst & Young - recruiting

Politicians – all the national political party leaders in Canada

Social Networking Growing

MySpace has 114 million members

Facebook has 50 million. 250,000 register every day.

Over 40% of Facebook members are over 25 years old. Over 35 fastest growing.

Facebook is available on Blackberry

Datamonitor projects 230 million active SN members by end of 2007

Older Demographic

Eons.com , a sort of MySpace for grown-ups. Eons is full of ads chasing boomer purchasing power. Online groups include investing, bookaholics, boomer music, and one geared for the single boomer called simply, "Hot Tub." Another site, boomergirl.com and made for "Boomer Babes," offers advice for elder care, financial planning, and girlfriend getaways.

Appeal

Less for older people to do: “Students define themselves through membership in many social networks in the real and virtual worlds, including classroom, dorms, extracurricular activities and hobbies. “There are fewer of those for adults,” Ms. Ellison said, who “will not be as interested in sharing their love of R.E.M.” “

But Some Get Value

Family

Friends

Groups – hobbies, church, community, volunteer

Games - scrabble

Twitter - microblogging

Twitter PatrickD

Patrick Danowski http://twitter.com/PatrickD

Also http://plazes.com/users/27401

Microbloggers

More often male, younger and more affluent than average. Six percent of online US adults use Twitter at least monthly or more frequently.

Twitter users are, on average, 78% male and 31 years old, and they draw an annual income of $78,000.

Heavily into social computing

Virtual Worlds

A virtual world is a computer -based simulated environment intended for its users to inhabit and interact via avatars . This habitation usually is represented in the form of two or three-dimensional graphical representations of humanoids (or other graphical or text-based avatars). [Source: Wikipedia]

Second Life - FLickr

Introduction to Second Life

Second Life Introduction – explanation for people in the business world not yet familiar with virtual worlds or Second Life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b72CvvMuD6Q [4.13 min]

Second Life

3D multi-user online digital world

Avatars

Buildings

Commerce - money

Info Island - libraries

Schools, universities

Underworld and vandalism

Second Life Figures

Members: 1.3 million over 15 years old (March 2007)

16% 207,000 USA 16% 209,000 Germany 61% 777,000 Europe

Infoisland

Virtual Hangouts Barbie Girls, Gaia, Neo-pets Pre-teens Red Light Center “ Adult” Active World, Second Life General – 3D CyWorld, Habbo Hotel Teenagers Club Penquin, Webkinz Children

Future for Virtual Worlds

Gartner Group: Over 80% of Internet users will use an avatar to interact with the web by 2012.

Forbes: 80% of users will participate in a virtual world by 2011

IBM proposes universal avatar

Social Media

Video – YouTube, Yahoo Video

Photos – Flickr, Picasa (Google)

Maps – combine with video and photos

Online Video

57% of US Internet users have watched videos online and most share what they find.

65,000 new videos are uploaded everyday

50% of viewers are outside the US

Online Consumption of Video

Viewing Online Video – Why?

“ So, what prompts my nephews, niece, colleagues, and me to go to MySpace and YouTube to view grainy, unprofessional, uploaded videos and audios recorded on camera phones and camcorders versus searching the music label or movie studio Web sites for the originals? The answer lies in the ease and convenience of MySpace and YouTube. “

What do people watch?

Viewers are not alone

57% of online video viewers have watched with other people – mainly friends.

Young adults are the most social online video viewers; three out of four video consumers (73%) ages 18-29 say they have watched with others.

Examples of Videos

StonewallStudios Vistorys

Bird Lovers only Rescue

A Day In The Life Of An MC Escher Drawing (Short Film)

Technology, Entertainment, Design -- TED – Ideas worth spreading

Les T ệ tes à Claques (Canada’s top francophone destination on the web)

Photos

“Thanks to cheap and easy-to-use recording devices — digital cameras, camcorders, camera phones — today's kids are the most documented generation ever, as parents, relatives and friends capture forever the first, second and hundredth smile.”

Online photo sharing