Social networking

Social networking Nigel Gibson AL Conference 07/06/08 What are we going to do? I • We‟ll look at what we might mean by “social networks” X • We‟ll look at the topography of online social networks • I‟ll offer a fast pass over some current technologies and SociaLearn • We‟ll have a chat about all this stuff Before we start • • • • • • Do you read Wikipedia? Do you use Amazon? Do you use IMDB? Do you edit Wikipedia? Do you offer reviews on Amazon? Do you offer reviews on IMDB? In the beginning • As a basic unit a family is a social network • And it‟s part of a wider network So…… • The relationships might be through work, children‟s school or activities, wider family, neighbours • We might not know all the people a partner or child or parent knows • This means we can access different networks through our closest network A network • My friends • …………. all have friends You get the idea People • So you have friends and they have friends • You might know some and you might not know others but they are FOAF • Friends of a friend Online social networking Primordial soup • • • • • In the beginning there was ARPA net (1969) And CYCLADES (Early 70s) And ALOHANet (1970)(My favourite) And other local and national networks And, finally, The Internet linked them all together into a network of networks (from 1974) • And what drove all these developments was people wanting to talk to each other Online • One of the first viable online communities was The WELL (the Whole Earth „Lectronic Link) established in 1985 and still going strong • Started in the Bay area of San Franscisco on a bulletin board • They “engineered” the start by charging membership but inviting “interesting” people to join for free • Then, in 1991, the web arrived The kids are alright • Fast forward because the birth and development of the WWW is a whole different story • As of 31 March 2008, 1.407 billion people use the Internet according to Internet World Stats • Friends Reunited - launched 2000, sold in 2005 for £120M with 15M users • MySpace started in 2002 - 110 million members • 15 million people use Geni.com to build their family tree • Other SNS include Bebo, Hi5 and FaceParty http://xkcd.com/256/ Blogs • As soon as people could write to the Internet some started keeping online journals • This became more widespread as the web made setting up and keeping a blog a simple task – a blog is a “web log” • Some are influential in specific areas – frequently American politics FaceBook • Originally started so that US college graduates could keep in touch • 70 million users So people are talking • • • • • • • And sharing things Flickr to share photos YouTube to share videos Slideshare to share presentations Share bookmarks on Del.icio.us We can aggregate what we are doing on FriendFeed And in doing so we create networks Instant • • • • • • Twitter is a microblogging site Messages (tweets) limited to 140 characters Can be sent from mobile devices Delivered in real time Can be distributed to other applications Find and follow friends and friends of friends So what is it all for? • • • • • • We “manage” who we talk and listen to Some of my FOAFs are very smart indeed I can access a network of experts Relationships of trust “Hive mentality”, synergy, power of collaboration About psychogeography So what is it all for? http://nogbad.wordpress.com/2008/06/03/how-social-networks-work/ Someone can answer my question Why do people contribute? • Gift economy – not a new idea, dates back to the Stone Age • Reciprocal altruism • By contributing we create capital – we increase the chances of being helped if they have a question • We add value to the global commons SociaLearn assumption • There is a major shift in society and education driven by the possibilities new technologies create for creating and sharing content and for social networking • NB: This is a dialogue about futures – not a prediction • SociaLearn suggests that instead of a VLE we‟ll create personal learning environments http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/socialearn/index.php Image by M Weller and taken from presentation, Social:Learn on SociaLearn site To quote a good book Image from: http://is.gd/rH1 Summary • • • • • we can use the web as passive consumers or we can become activists and contribute but whatever we do we can still turn it all off If you want to try • Take a look round • Find somewhere you feel comfortable – Blogger – Wikipedia – Twitter • Watch what others are doing • Dip your toe in the water Any questions?