Module 1- INF506

Reading about the social media revolution. This You Tube video was posted. Our pastor at church showed it as part of his sermon about social networking over the Christmas holidays and I wanted to get my hands on it because the stats were so fascinating.
anyway here it is.....

INF506- Introduction

Well the modules are online so it looks as if the semester has now started.

Introduction

According to my notes there are a few definitions that I should refer to for the sake of continuity throughout the course. They are:

Social networks in a Web 2.0 world are “designed to allow multiple users to publish content themselves… The published information may be on any subject and may be for consumption by a select number of friends, employers, employees, etc., or for general consumption by anyone on the Web…. Social networks include commercially published content or editorial content, or may be entirely user driven. Content is text, images, video or any other media. (p.2-1) 

Social networking sites are websites “primarily designed to facilitate interaction between users who share interests, attitudes and activities, such as Facebook and MySpace”, and “typically allow users to create ... ‘profile[s]’ describing themselves and to exchange public or private messages and list users or groups they are connected to in some way.” (p.2-2) 

Social media sites refer to websites “that allow individuals to share content they have created, such as YouTube (video sharing) and Flickr (photo sharing). While interaction occurs on social media sites, the primary purpose of the site is to publish and share content.” (p.2-2) 

Social software refers to “software that supports the ability to collaborate online” (also known as collaborative software) (p.B-12) 

Social computing refers to “The use of social software.” (p.B-12)

These definitions were taken from the OCLC report, Sharing, Privacy and Trust in our networked world: A Report to the OCLC Membership. (2007).

I may need to rework my definition of social networking that I submitted for the first assessment item of the subject.

Facebook, and what next?

Now what do I do?
I have set up my facebook account and have joined the group for my uni subject this year, so what comes next???
My kids tell me I have to get lots of friends, so I have 2, my husband and a good friend who I went to school with, but what next?
So far I fail to see the attraction of this new social networking tool and I really have no desire to increase my friend base. They say that I could look up friends that I went to school with, but really if I wanted to stay in contact with them I already would be so I don't think I will be doing that. also I stay in contact with the people I care about by phone and even in person so I can't see facebook taking the place of that.
I guess it's early days yet though so I may change my mind.
Setting up my account was fairly easy, I didn't even need my 16 year old son's help which was impressive.
The next pressing thing though is to find a half way decent photo to put on my profile. The other day the computer had a hissy fit and now I have lost most of my photos. I have no idea where they have gone and either does my husband or techno whiz friend. Oh well I keep hoping they will turn up one day when I turn the computer on.

The beginning of a new semester- INF506 assessment 1

What is Social Networking?

I really have no idea so I guess this is a great place to start for this subject.
I guess I would define social networking as being a method to stay in contact with friends, groups or organisations. As the name implies it is a fairly social activity done online.

I am a huge fan of networking whenever I go to an event because you never know when a person you have met may be helpful to you, so I guess that social networking can be used in the same way, just online instead of in person.

It is also a relative new concept and is growing in popularity is the web2.0 era of communication.
I found this cute diagram to help explain what social networking is and so I thought I would include it.

Social technology I already use
I use a blog for the purposes of my study because it is a course requirement.
I had to create a pathfinder on a wiki for a subject but I haven't used a wiki since.
I have used Youtube a few times if the kids tell me about a funny clip.
I don't have a facebook account.
I don't have a twitter account.

Actually, looking at this I really am not up to date in the technology age of social networking at all.

What I expect to learn in this subject

I will be happy to learn how to use facebook and know a bit more about all of the other social networking sites.
I would love to gain in confidence and knowledge when using these tools and develop ways to implement this in my teaching because there is huge pressure in the workplace to be on top of all of this technology.
As I know absolutely nothing anything I gain from this course will be a huge step forward.