Any article or conversation about Web 2.0, the Read/Write web, will focus on the 'experience' of the Web for the user. The platform that moves the user from passive information (as in what might be called Web 1.0) to one of rich, dynamic content and broad, interactive participation is social networking.
Web 2.0 has extended this concept to include user-generated content -- users create their own social networks, sharing experiences and events, communication, news, photographs, music, video, and other content with not only their real-world family and friends but also the virtual world of ‘friends’ on-line with whom they share interests.
As with a lot of 2.0 tools, pinning down a definition of a “social network” is difficult. Here are a few characteristics of social networks: profile pages: when you sign up for an account on a social networking site, your “profile page” becomes your home base. Most social networks allow you to add as much or as little information about yourself as you’d like. Common fields include your name, contact information, interests, and a photograph of yourself. Some social networks allow you to customize your profile page by changing the design, color, or look of the page.
MySpace and Facebook, for example, are two of the most popular social networks. "Friending" is probably the most important characteristic of a social network because finding friends (existing or new) on a social networking site is pretty much the point of being there in the first place! So, most social networks allow you to add another person/profile as a “friend” or a “contact” and your collection of friends becomes your own personal social network (not dissimilar to the way social networks form offline).
The “friending” aspect of an online social network often accounts for why some social networking sites are popular with specific groups. For example, Facebook began as a social network for college and university students; it has since opened up to allow anyone to join the network, but it still remains most popular with students. Why? Because people go where their friends are and where people share common interests.
With real life social networks, groups tend to form around common interests, therefore most online social networks allow users to start a group or join a group based on their interests or common goals. Depending on the social networking site, you will probably find a group that represents your interests, regardless of what that interest might be! While many 2.0 tools use some of these elements (e.g. “contacts” on Flickr, “friends” on Digg, profile pages on YouTube), most sites that are considered to be online “social networks” have all these elements in common.
Another way of looking at it then is that “social networks” exist primarily to help people keep in touch personally or professionally. These sites, such as MySpace, Facebook, and Ning, provide users the freedom to add pictures, slideshows, audio and video excerpts, and even custom designs. The other sites concentrate on users’ specific common interests such as video (YouTube), photography (Flickr), music (last.fm), or books (Library Thing).
Because Myspace is popular among teenagers and young adults, some libraries have used Myspace to connect with their younger patrons. Read through the Discovery Resources links below to get an idea of what different libraries are doing in Myspace and what librarians are saying about it.
Unlike the other major social networking services, Ning distinguishes itself by focusing on the creation of groups and offering the user a fully customizable space to ‘create your own social network for anything.’ Using tags to describe these networks, users find groups with which they have common interests, with less emphasis than the other sites on finding individual friends.
A number of libraries, public and school, have started to explore the potential of online social networks to reach their users. Here are a few examples:
Explore a couple of Ning groups, such as:
Discovery Resources
Discovery Exercises:
- After reading through some of the resources above, what do you think about libraries using social networking sites?
- Are you a member of any social-networking sites?
- Post, on your blog, your reflection on social-networking sites and add any other thoughts you might have about social networking in general.
