Ning

I have always been a little curious about the rise of Ning. For me I guess I just don't see the utility in a way that is fruitful beyond just having yet another tool. I know that there are social benefits to interaction in Ning that go beyond just normal wiki collaboration and that that is something can could be desirable in some instances. However, Ning for me walks the thin line between useful innovation and a mashup of content already in use in other ways by its potential users.

In a work environment, I think it could be handled in a way that could be most fruitful. I see work users as more willing to take on another service because it is "for work." It also could be more useful to encourage a work atmosphere "away from the desk," so to speak. A place to contribute to work online, or share ideas in a way that has a little more utility than, as I mentioned above, a wiki or collaborative document.

Casual potential users like myself may have a harder time adopting because they are already using facebook, delicious, instant messaging and Twitter (or whatever else suits your fancy). I suppose my parenthetical shouldn't be. The point is that users will decide for themselves what services they find useful and fulfilling. If a Ning network is exactly what you are looking for because a facebook group just isn't enough, then by all means, don't let my grump get in the way of that experience. Continue reading...

Boyd readings

Boyd's writing was very enlightening to read, I thought. First of all, it was intersting to see the world of social networks broken down and explained in a rational and methodological way. Moreover, the social impacts of this new style of technological interaction, which are indeed present and undeniable in a colloquial sense, need to be explained in a way that is digestible by many people. It was great reading both her blog post on the social strata delinieated by Facebook and MySpace, and it was even more enlightening to read the response that she posted subsequently in which she addressed the critical (and otherwise) reponses that that blog post generated.

Understanding how social networks impact society is a fascinating topic for me, becuase it would be so easy to dismiss social media as a whole, or part by part, as a fad. In spite of the transitory nature of many individual services, it is clear that interaction mediated by social computing can no longer be viewed in that sense (even though it continues to be by some).

It is imperative now for research following Boyd's methods to be continued, if only to explain or at the very least identify how people are interacting in the new social milieu online. Because it is becoming such an essential part of life for so many (myself included) it requires study if the mandates of sociologists and psychologists and computer scientists (and philosophers and semioticians, not to mention librarians) everywhere are going to be fulfilled.

I have sensed the social boundaries surrounding the division that Boyd highlights between MySpace and Facebook. Though I guess I don't feel that I would have fit entirely into the category that she places around hegemonic teens (or would have when I was a teenager), the demarcation lines she draws are at most problematic, but at the least revealing or enlightening. Taking her post with the large grain of salt that she offers before the first paragraph, the importance and relevance of her writing can be understood.

For librarians in particular, understanding the modes and venues for teens' and young adults' online social lives is required to plan and create effective and safe programming that encourages social behavior, while creating boundaries that can ensure safety and positive outcomes from social networking. Not "getting" what is happening for teens online may lead to a withdrawl from the generally positive nature of social netowrking, and lead to harmful or risky behavior. I believe that it is within the mandate of librarians to ensure unfettered access to information, but it is resonable and should be expected that librarians can at a minimum make known and encourage the benefits of that information that can lead its fulfilling use. Without that, the library is just a building with free internet. Continue reading...

Social Networking and "sticky" content

The key to any social network making themselves "sticky" is that they need to create a unique product. Alternatively, they need to isolate their user group so that you can only access certain people using this one specific product. A social network or Web 2.0 tool may do both of these things, and those are perhaps the most successful. Anyone can have a forum on a specific topic that wants users to come back to get the right content, but without either making it unique or trapping those users, anyone else could do it, too.

Take Facebook for example. They grew in popularity and stickiness by first creating a social network for college students. They succeeded in being the "place" to be for college kids, and, by limiting their membership created a feeling of uniqueness around their product. By college kids, for college kids. Even though that no longer holds, the unique character of the facebook brand, combined with their limited data portability (try pushing your facebook status updates to Twitter, instead of the other way around...), makes them a super sticky product. I can't think of anywhere else that I can check up on the relationships of people I knew from fourth grade.

MySpace is another good example of this. The uniqueness of MySpace lies perhaps in its catering towards musical endeavors. Facebook is a personal brand, MySpace has found its niche in presenting musical content automatically, making it a commercial brand. What other product allows an automatic music player to bombard visitors against their will? Not saying it isn't annoying, but it works. And it has stuck.

Twitter, too. Their uniqueness is in the format. "Microblogging" conforming to SMS standards so you can interact on the go. That data is portable, and you can find Twitterers elsewhere on the web: their homepages, blogs or social networks, but you can't find that unique content presented in that way without interacting with their Twitter profile. Continue reading...

MySpace Screencast

I have been embroiled in learning how to do anything in MySpace for the last half hour or so. After spending way too long searching for how to update my status (hint: small update link right where it should be, I am just stupid), I decided I would record a small screencast on customizing your profile.

This way, you don't have to feel silly trying out all the different menu options like I did. Link. Continue reading...

My favorite videos

I identified two favorite videos that were produced by our class, but given the time constraints and lack of any actual equipment (or, at least, this is the situation I am taking for granted based on my own experience) I thought everyone did a really nice job.

I found jsscils598s09's videos to be my favorites. Reading Call Numbers was a fairly well-paced and practical explanation on LC Call Numbers, that I can see actually being put to good use in a library setting.

As for Laser Bugs, well, I just thought that was a clever use of old footage, and a great idea. I struggled with coming up for a good idea for my entertainment video and enjoyed this one quite a bit better.

Reading Call Numbers


LaserBugs


Continue reading...

Nambu: the screencast

I made a little screencast about a new Twitter client for the Mac called Nambu. Even if you don't have a mac, it's nice to know about some other ways than just the web view to see and interact with your Twitter profile. Grouping and searching your incoming tweets becomes almost essential, I find, if you want to move on from just following those of us in the course.

You can check out the screencast here. Some other popular (and cross-platform) Twitter clients are TweetDeck and Twhirl./span> Continue reading...

Entertainment vs. Educational Videos

Do educational videos stand a chance vs. entertainment videos? Why/Why not?

It is difficult to say what exactly the separation between those two categories is, and therefore it is further complicated to answer this question. Take for instance, TED, a global lecture series that produces high-quality videos of most of their talks available for free online. Perhaps I am a huge nerd, but these videos are both entertaining, and in most cases, astoundingly educational. There is a special skill held by great educators that combines those two facets into all of their learning experiences.

YouTube is an incredibly popular search engine, not only for the funny things you can find, but also apparently for much more educational information. Though the two are often separate, there is no inherent reason that entertaining videos must win out over educational ones. If the educational videos are boring, well, then that seems to me to be a separate issue.

One example of a funny and educational video is the You Suck at Photoshop series. This is a very popular series of tutorials on how to use basic to advanced Photoshop features, but that are presented in such a way as to make them engaging and even have a narrative flow across the different "lessons."

Given the ease with which anyone can record and upload their own entertainment or educational video, the potential for the two to merge becomes stronger and more realistic every day. Continue reading...