- Blogs
- Wikis
- Tagging
- Mashups
- Social Networking
- RSS
- Gaming and virtual worlds
- Photo and video hosting
- Communications: VoIP and Web conferencing
- Podcasting (and webstreaming)
Blogs
We looked at the various blogging platforms (eg: Blogger, Wordpress, Typepad, etc) with a glance at microblogging (eg: Twitter, Yammer, Jaiku, etc).
I used to enjoy blogging more regularly but found it to be a bit of a time-sink - mostly due to my tendency to spend about 25:1 of my time reading other people’s blogs rather than writing my own. I currently love and practice microblogging via Twitter, which is my baseline current information awareness supplier - if I haven’t checked it every 2 hours I’m probably asleep, watching a 3 hour media block, or my phone is dead!
The workplace opportunities offered by Yammer and similar micro-blogging services are quite enticing. Back at my last workplace we had a communal document called the Works In Progress (but referred to as the WiP - pronounced like the productivity spurring implement), where each worker recorded the current status of in-progress, planned and completed works (including who was working on it, what it involves and when it’s due for completion). The WiP, when updated regularly and accurately, was a powerful management tool - I see Yammer as an opportunity to evolve that level of oversight towards an even more effective model.
In my current job where I spend lots of time on reference desk, an application like Yammer could prove useful for linking staff in the backroom or on standby with staff who are at the customer service front - it could enable faster delegation and research followup than the current model of phoning one individual and giving them a list of tasks, as an entire group would be able to monitor the feed and react to tasks with specialist efficiency.
Wikis
We looked at various free wiki platforms: wikispaces, wikidot, wetpaint (a personal favourite) and zoho. I actually arrived relatively late to the game re: wiki editing - jumping aboard a doomed project to try to establish a WA Government Library Information Network Wiki within GovDex in 2008 and more recently, generating a few entries within Wikipedia (resisting the urge to astroturf with only limited success). There’s a whole research project out there waiting to happen about how Wikis (and really, almost every other Web 2.0 platform) has effectively displaced the extrinsic motivation associated with the labour activity with its primary contributor groups who must be doing what they do for some other reason than than traditional rewards (eg: money). Leaving Wikipedia’s much discussed gender balance issue aside, what will really be of interest for the maturing Social Networking platform developers will be how Wikipedia manages to attract and sustain its volunteer workforce with such success.
Tagging
Pretty much the premier social bookmarking service - in that they did it best and were adopted widely- was del.icio.us (now known simply as Delicious). Enabling individuals to share links via a common interface and/or subscription service is an idea that has since been widely adopted either as intended design feature a la Facebook’s “Like” function or as a user-generated feature as with Twitter users’ inserting URL shortened links into their tweets. The approach of Delicious has remained relatively stable, with a users combining their efforts to generate a folksonomy which is more targeted (and may be more powerful) than the clumsy “Like” of Facebook.
The site is pretty easy to get around, and relatively simple to get to grips with (although a screencast with a voice-over or similar intro video would be slightly better than the comic book-style about screen). The existence of web browser plug-ins increases the affordance of the service – although I note that the Firefox plug-in hasn’t been updated for version 4 of Firefox yet (which means the service has disappeared from my home browser for the moment).
By harnessing the massive cumulative browsing activities of its users and employees, an information organisation could very effectively maintain its own in-house web-based news and research archive using this service. As a librarian who used to maintain industrial relations-specific current information awareness services for over forty researchers and professionals, a group which generated ongoing monitoring briefs covering over 160 subjects and external organisations – the ability to instantly recall all news items associated with industrial action published in Western Australia via the tags “Western Australia” and “Industrial action” is a killer application (and one that I would have adopted if not for the issue of uncertainty about the future of the service and IT issues with installing plug-ins on 86 user terminals without admin rights).
Mashups
As mentioned in the module notes, a mashup is a combination of more than one online data source to create a new digital object or service. Mashups have become easier to find online since the creative commons/open source movement has driven much of the code needed to share data out into the light of day, and the degree to which social networks seem to be successful (both in terms of market penetration and accessibility) seems to be correlated with the degree to which said networks are willing to share data or provide a space within which other platforms can propagate.
The dynamic sharing of data across multiple platforms - and the generation of unique applications using APIs - could almost be a course in itself.
Social networking
Social networking is defined in the module notes as “an extension of personal relationships and community into the online environment”. As covered in my comments re: professional social networks and privacy, there are some concerns regarding privacy, security and trust online, these are raised in the article by Steckerl (2007) which aimed at promoting best practice for people using social networks for both personal and professional reasons. Some of the information in the article is somewhat old or outdated - Facebook notifications and requests are far more manageable now, and the question of free versus paid social networks has mostly been resolved by advertising-financed platforms, but it’s otherwise quite a useful read.
Chapman (2009) is pretty-much a blow-by-blow account of what best practice social networking design looks, feels and intergrates like with a slight bias towards Google’s OpenSocial application platform, a legacy of the context of when the article was written (during an era when it looked like Google “got” social networking). It’s a good little introduction to how to generate a social network even though it feels like a checklist for Facebook’s design features.
- Steckerl, S. (2007). Survival guide: Online social networking. FUMSI, (September). Retrieved from http://web.fumsi.com/go/article/use/2346
- Chapman, C. (2009). Social network design: Examples and best practices. Smashing Magazine, (13 July). Retrieved from http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/07/13/social-network-design-examples-and-best-practices/
I remember trying to explain what Twitter is to a group of fifty-something executives a couple of years ago as they were trying to establish whether there was a business case for their Department’s online team to take the plunge with a presence on the Twitter and Facebook networks. I vaguely recall trying to explain Twitter as a form of “socialized” RSS feed which allows individuals to subscribe to a steady stream of information relevant to a topic (as per RSS’s primary use) but which also integrates signal boosting capability (via “retweets”) and interaction with the source (via reply tweets).
Given the Division had a stake in being able to push users relevant information while at the same time being able to react to questions about that information, there was some keen interest in expanding its meager RSS feeds as well. At the time the Division’s feeds were restricted to a feed for the Division’s externally-focused newsletter, a feed for updates to work conditions in various industries, and a generic “what’s new” feed which existed to draw attention to new content on the website.
The State Library of Western Australia’s RSS feed is mostly about advertising events at the State Library. Given many customers probably don’t visit the front page of the website and see news of the latest exhibitions or events for that institution, I’m not surprised that there is a feed of this kind to draw attention to potentially overlooked yet rewarding information. I couldn’t find a feed to the library’s recent acquisitions of note – which is something that South Australia’s Library does (and does well) with links to the catalogue record of notable additions to its collection.
The Supreme Court of Western Australia maintains an extensive list of RSS feeds which assists the legal profession within Australia maintain awareness of the latest judgments, sentences and practice directions. The content is spread across six separate feeds, with some of the feeds generating multiple articles daily.
Gaming and virtual worlds
See my posts about Second Life for a bit of a rant about this.
Photo and video hosting
Meh. I’m not all that big on either of these activities in my personal life, and haven’t had much cause to pursue them professionally. I find the legality of most photo and video hosting sites to be intriguing though (sort of like how society continues to tolerate political corruption intrigues me) - and I think how these sites meet the logistical challenge of organising their metadata and responses to legal issues would make an excellent case study in the future for other social networks, who (if they aren’t already hosting such content, eg: Facebook) will eventually need to confront the implications of similar activities on their networks.
Communications: VoIP and Web conferencing
Instead of audio-only phones running through telephone cables we now have platforms which enable internet audio and video conferencing services. Not much for me to say about this one.
Podcasting (and web streaming)
The radio and audio book’s unregulated, rebel stepchild. What the aforementioned mediums do well, web streaming (such as liveblogs, live chats and other communal online audio collaborations) and podcasts can do better and for posterity!
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