Social Networking

During Week 8 we were to learn about social networking by starting a MySpace, Facebook or Twitter account. I selected to do the optional assignment which was to read 3 articles and post thoughts about them. We were also to consider the way social networking can be used by libraries. I began the assignment by reading through the other participants' comments posted on the 23 thingsnat blog. This technique has been a very helpful way to gain insights into both the the subject matter at hand and how to possibly tackle the assignment. From other participants' comments, I learned that MySpace and Facebook have very different flavors. MySpace seems to appeal to the younger crowd; it was suggested to be flashy and some what superficial. Facebook could have professional applications and appeals to an "older crowd," who may use it as a vehicle for keeping in touch with geographically separated family members.



In the next phase of this assignment, I went on a link clicking spree. I watched the slide show about Facebook and libraries provided by Perth Australia. www.facebook.com/pages/perth-australia

I also discovered Michael Stephen's site www.tametheweb.com He promotes technology as a tool to create community, on-line. This new & emerging sense of community in a space that is not your everyday reality is a very interesting and potentially powerful idea. I will need to keep visiting his site.

One of the issues that intrigues and also sometimes paralyzes me is how the concept of "privacy" is evolving. Social networking offers a transparency that does not appeal to me. There is a blurring of reality and imagination. You can say anything, be anything but who are you really? ..and what if I only want a few select people to know? In response to this I found an article "How not to lose face on Facebook for professors," which told the tale of a professor who blasted some personal thoughts about her coworkers to the entire faculty rather than her "friends". She was very lucky to have had the department chairman come to her defense, or a very different scenario would have played itself out. I also read about the "10 privacy Settings that every Facebook user should know" on ilibrarian at www.oedb.org/blogs/ilibrarian.

David Lee King had a series of posts about "friending" on his site davidleeking.com. This is another crucial concept in the idea of on-line community. How & who should you friend?
He strongly suggests that libraries avoid making their Facebook page look like an ALA reunion or their patrons will not get on board.

The purpose of Twitter was escaping me until I read a post by Michael Arrington at www.techcrunch.com "It's time to start thinking of Twitter as a search engine." People, overwhelmed by all the info available, often go to Twitter to find short bursts about brand name items, restaurants, hotels, businesses etc. Wow! Couldn't libraries do this with new book titles, or upcoming programming? Short & but hopefully sweet bits of info would be out there where they could be seen. The author of the post admits that tweets are like a bit like grunts. They could have their place though, if info is being communicated.