Get out of my face (book)! Facebook, Social Networking and the web 2.0 generation George Siemens –elearnspace 09/11/2007

What distinguishes web 2.0? Web 2.0 is a “perceived second generation of Web-based communities and hosted services — such as social-networking sites, wikis and folksonomies — which aim to facilitate collaboration and sharing between users”. (Wikipedia) Web 1.0 Web 2.0 Britannica Online -> Wikipedia personal websites -> blogging Publishing -> participation

What distinguishes web 2.0? Tim O’Reilly, joint originator of the term web 2.0

What is social networking and haven’t we been here before? “It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace are nothing more than glorified blogs…..most such services provide a web-based outlet for publishing opinion, but it’s the ease with which this content can be shared among a network of friends, and the ease with which discovery tools allow that network to be expanded, that really make social networking the phenomenon it is today. The true power of social networking sites lies in the ability both to make connections and to exploit the potential of the knowledge pool created.” IWR review 06/09/2007

So how does this affect us? In June 2007 there were over 52 million users on facebook and over 114 million Myspace users. Facebook took second place word of the year in the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary Word of the Year for facebook (verb) : To upload a photograph to Facebook so that it may be viewed by others. Have you facebooked those photos from the party last weekend? Submitted by: Don Brady from Louisiana on Dec. 12, :34 (verb) : To create an event entry on facebook I am going to facebook the party on Friday so everyone knows about it. Submitted by: Anonymous on Dec. 12, :13 (verb) : To get on a facebook website. Did you facebook today? Submitted by: Anonymous on Dec. 04, :04 (verb) : to look up someone's profile on the popular Internet social network Facebook. I facebooked Sarah the other day and posted a comment on her wall, but she has yet to reply to my comment. Submitted by: Anonymous on Dec. 14, :09

So how does this affect us? Cambridge University, Learning Landscape Project: Cambridge Student ICT Survey, Easter Term 2007 A survey of Cambridge students on their use of Information and Communications Technologies was conducted as part of the Learning Landscape Project in Easter Term, In all, 1923 students responded to the survey (1898 online and 25 on paper) over approximately three weeks. Responses were received from students in all 31 colleges and across all subject areas. In total, roughly 10% of the current student population of undergraduates and postgraduates completed the survey.

So how does this affect us? Techniques/technologies sorted by frequency 77% use social networks – and that was nearly a year ago!

So how does this affect us? Techniques/technologies sorted by confidence

So how does this affect us?

JISC Learner experience project : Phase 1 conclusions (2007) `We know that (young) learners are spending a lot of their social time in online social spaces, and we can be sure they are learning things from this experience. We know that the ‘underworld’ of social interaction that has always been part of students’ learning strategies is shifting to MySpace or Facebook, and to txt, MSN and skype. And we know that learners are sharing their work to a greater extent than ever before, due to the freedom of distribution and the inherently social nature of the technologies they use. Many, if not yet most, learners are exploiting technologies such as social tagging to gain advantages in their studies – advantages which are being lost to learners with lesser skills.

So how does this affect us? JISC Learner experience project : Phase 1 conclusions (2007) Jisc report that 65% ‘regularly’ use social networking sites,such as Facebook, MySpace or Flickr (females more than males - 71% and 59% respectively) and only 5% ‘never’ use them A quarter (27%) ‘regularly’ use wikis, blogs or online networks Very few ‘regularly’ take part in an online community, for example a “virtual world” such as Second Life (8%)

Do we have a place? There is a great deal of library activity on facebook……

Some comments……… Facebook and other online services are important to our patrons, and we would do well to think about how information is exchanged using those technologies. We would do well to build services that interoperate with the internet that people are using.

Some comments……… While some critics will tell you that Library 2.0 is no different from previous service models, others will say that services like Facebook pose a problem largely because of library culture. I concur with the latter view, not because I think Library 2.0 strategies are always better, but because Library 2.0 strategies require librarians to unlearn certain things in order to be truly effective. Ok. So let me start with the Facebook library search application. It is fine, but my opinion is that few people besides librarians are going to add the applications to their profiles. The technology is Web 2.0, but the strategy is still Library 1.0. Why? Because the model is still, “I am librarian. I can help. Come to me (ie. my Facebook page) and I will serve.” The applications, though offering marginally better service for little cost, are not taking advantage of what Facebook offers its clients. A Facebook application should be something your average person wants to show their friends. Ryan Deschamps http ://otherlibrarian.wordpress.com/

We may not be welcome! And even if we can do it – we may not be welcome…. The JISC report concludes that the message is : "Get out of MySpace!" "Students really do want to keep their lives separate. They don't want to be always available to their lecturers or bombarded with academic information."

Do we have a place? A LIBRARIAN'S GUIDE TO ETIQUETTE A POLITE LIBRARIAN IS A GOOD LIBRARIAN. “Keep up to date with new technologies that you can co-opt for library use. So what if no one will ever listen to the pod casts of your bibliographic instruction lectures, subscribe to the RSS feeds from your library’s blog, send your reference librarian instant messages, or view your library’s profile on facebook.com? At least you did your part to make all these cool technologies a little bit lamer.”