CCLlearn: CCL2.0: Social Networking

This module provides an introduction to the concepts of social networking and some of the available tools. It also encourages exploration of some social networking services and of the role of social networking within library space.

The names of some web based social networks such as Facebook and MySpace are well known to us, even if we are not really sure how they work or what use they would be to us. We have an impression that large numbers of people, mainly young, use them. The Techcrunch Blog suggests that Facebook drew 222 million unique visitors in December 2008. MySpace drew 125 million. It’s not clear how accurately these figures enumerate membership, but it is clear that these networks draw huge numbers of people.

So, why should they interest us, as librarians? There are a lot of reasons. Libraries have always been part of the social infrastructure of institutions and society. Library involvement in social networks is traditional. Previous involvements would have focused on reading groups or learning or community development. In that sense, we are simply maintaining our tradition and shifting our platform or methodology. Learning more about social networking will help us to:

Maintain our awareness: Increasingly this how people interact. We need to be aware of how our customers are interacting with their worlds.

Grow professionally: Librarians and library staff can use social networking sites to stay in touch and work though issues with colleagues (new and old) anywhere in the world.

Interact: Many libraries already have social networking pages. After all, these sites are where customers are often to be found. Libraries are using these networks to advertise, to keep their customers informed and perhaps to appear more friendly and approachable. For examples see the Library Success Wiki or Rodney Libraries efforts.

What are social networks?

Web-based social networking tools enable the creation of online communities. These communities may be geographical or interest based, or linked by connections such as family or friends. They may also be professional or business networks.

Earlier social networking services tended to focus on the creation of lists of contacts and profiles. Examples include the old friends site and long-established services such Friendster. Subsequent services have enabled members to interact with others in their network.

The benefits of belonging to a social network are obvious to many. These networks allow old contacts to be maintained and new ones established as well as interests and concerns to be shared and developed. In short, the benefits are similar to those of physical social networks. However, they do defeat the tyrannies of distance and time and they offer opportunities to those with physical disability or those for whom meeting people and sharing ideas is difficult.

It’s been suggested that there are a number of elements which characterise a social networking service (see below). Each service possesses at least some of these. All have an identity element and some means of establishing relationships or conversations. If you want to probe this more, start by reading this.

Background Reading

Choose some (only some) of the reading below:

Wikipedia on social network services

About Facebook

About MySpace

About Bebo

About Twitter (and follow sidebar links)

LibraryStream Learn More Blog

Activity

Choose one or more of the services listed above that you read about and sign up. Follow your nose and see where you get to. Share your thinking on your blog.

Professional/Business Use

Increasingly, the value of social networking services to professions and businesses is being recognised. There are already a number of specialised networking sites. For example, Eduspaces aims to link people with an interest in learning, particularly e-learning and Linkedin is a popular professional/business networking service.

Library staff, like some other professions have been long term users of listservs like NZ-LIBS or PUBSIG_L which to some extent function as social networks but without the degrees of usability or user control which today’s social networking tools offer. Today, more effective participation can be gained through discussion forums like Libraries of The Future to complement listserv activity.

A lot of professional sharing happens at slideshare.

Other Uses

There are other uses emerging. These uses cover many areas but include the e-democracy movement. One such service is the Canterbury Public Issues Forum.

DIY Social Networks

A number of services now allow the creation of individual social networks. We will have a look at two: OnlineGroups.Net and Ning. We will then explore the use of Ning further.

OnlineGroups.Net styles itself as a collaboration tool. It does have a number of the capabilities of a social networking service. This is from the about page:

“People who want to collaborate with each other are often frustrated by working at different times, and places and using different computer systems. At OnlineGroups.Net, we lower these barriers by making collaboration software that is useful and easy to use.

Our priority is making it easy for people to get their work done, while protecting their privacy. A collaboration tool will work best if everyone in a group uses it. It is likely that everyone will use the shared tool, if it helps them achieve their own task.

At OnlineGroups.Net, you can start a site and groups of your own, without installing any software.”

OnlineGroups.Net has a Christchurch connection. Dan Randow is well known for his commitment to and involvements in collaboration and e-democracy.

Activity

Have a quick look around the OnlineGroups.Net site. Perhaps take the tour.

Ning is a social networking service which allows anyone to build their own free social site via a set of Web tools. It’s a free service - display ads on Ning pages provide revenue. Features include the creation of groups or subgroups, forums, blogs, RSS feeds, tag clouds, video and photos, and the ability to create a personal Ning page.

Activities

Join Ning. You can do this by going to the site and signing up, or you can do it as part of the response to the invitation which you should have received to join a CCLlearn Ning group.