Module 1.

Reflection on how social media creates a new life for information, generating flows and conversations between businesses and customers, governments and citizens, even teachers and students.

Gary Hayes (2008) reiterates the importance in creating a social media campaign in engaging with a community, by conversing and being  consistent with responses, confirming renown “influencer” Charlene Li’s (2010) podcast, where she provided a good angle from the workplace environment in how to engage and to create a culture of sharing and to “repeat, repeat, repeat.” I also appreciated Li’s opinion on how an organisation must be prepared to "have a dialogue and not just be a promotional page!" It was heartening that she too still reads a lot of traditional media, which I thought I was guilty of in this web 2.0 world and that it is okay to decide on the limits of how much social media you need to be involved with.gue and not just be a promotional page”.  I have come across many Facebook accounts such as this where content and conversation is lacking by the community.  Even if the persistent and imaginative manager of the social media medium is creating questions and trying to engage their community by asking questions to stimulate usage.  My workplace university Facebook page is an example of this and maybe it is early days but where is the community? Are students just still conversing with their friends and don’t want to seem a little exposed by engaging with the frontline university Facebook account. How light should the conversation be and how heavy?  Gary Hayes’s (2008) presentation touches on how effective social network marketing can come from understanding a particular community, knowing how they operate and the need to motivate them by not just throwing them the latest cool technology application, but to “learn the culture and language” before involvement.

In Li’s (2010) podcast it was heartening to hear that she still reads traditional media because that is what her customer base mainly reads.  I have guilt still reading papers such as The Australian and the Financial Review in this Web 2.0 world!  Li also admits that she sticks to a strict social media diet that it is okay to decide on the limits of how much social media you need to be involved withand that it is okay to decide on what social media you don’t need to be involved with, admitting she uses Twitter for certain followers and reads only a few blogs. Now I don’t feel so bad in even filtering my Facebook account! Please excuse me while I now do some spring cleaning in my Twitter, and Bloglovin accounts!

In searching for more meaning for what social media creates between people I looked up both well known and respected human “Brands” on the subject Tim Berners-Lee and Don Tapscott.  The latter  expressed how social media is not about just going online but that it has become a “social production”.  He says that social networking has opened up collaboration and the capability for people and organisations to innovate and produce. However he stresses that first comes integrity and trust before we collaborate, stating that “openness is about collaboration.”   After reading his transcript I was heartened by the direction he thinks social media is going. Tapscott (2012) holds hope that “this smaller, networked, open world that our kids inherit might be a better one, and that this new age of networked intelligence could be an age of promise fulfilled.”

Tim Berners-Lee (2009) simply described social networking sites as taking data (our lives, knowledge and experiences) and using it, or “re-purposing it” or adding it to other data to make data more interesting. He explains that “that is what linked data is all about, it’s about people doing their bit to product a little bit, and it all connects.”

Evan Williams (2009) one of the founders of Twitter states that when you give people easier ways to share information, more good things happen. From these readings it seems possible that through social networking a new way of revealing data can give new life to information.

It was very hard to extract myself away from the TED website, I kept digging deeper and deeper.  Very addictive!

References:

Berners-Lee, T. (Presenter). (2009, February). TedGlobal. Retreived from http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/tim_berners_lee_on_the_next_web.html

Gary Hayes. 2008. The Future of Social Media Entertainment. Retrieved  from http://www.personalizemedia.com/the-future-of-social-media-entertainment-slides/

Schwartzman, E. (Producer). (2010, September 14). Selling Social Media Strategy to Leadership with Charlene Li [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from http://ontherecordpodcast.com/pr/otro/selling-social-media-boss.aspx

Tapscott, D. 2012. (Presenter). Four principles for the open world. TedGlobal. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/don_tapscott_four_principles_for_the_open_world_1.html

Williams, E. (Presenter). (2009, February). Evan Williams on listening to Twitter users. TedGlobal. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/evan_williams_on_listening_to_twitter_users.html

Module one... Web 2.0 terminology


O'Reilly.com founder Tim O'Reilly and Dale Dougherty first coined the term web 2.0.  Five years on from this original label they confirm that it is web network platform made up of many different software applications mechanised by the amount of people using them and their contributions.  The other web 2.0 labeller Darcy DiNucci in the Wikipedia site described Web 2.0 as a fragmented future.

Tim O'Reilly says....
Technologies have a social dimension beyond their mere mechanical performance.  We adopt new technologies largely because of what they do for us, but also in part because of what they mean to us. Often we refuse to adopt technology for the same reason: because of how the avoidance reinforces, or crafts our identity. 

In the modernized west, our decisions about technology are not made by the group, but by individuals. We choose what we want to adopt, and what we don’t. So on top of the ethnic choice of technologies a community endorses, we must add the individual layer of preference. We announce our identity by what stuff we use or refuse. Do you twitter? Have a big car? Own a motorcycle? Use GPS? Take supplements? Listen to vinyl? By means of these tiny technological choices we signal our identity

In the modernized west, our decisions about technology are not made by the group, but by individuals. We choose what we want to adopt, and what we don’t. So on top of the ethnic choice of technologies a community endorses, we must add the individual layer of preference. We announce our identity by what stuff we use or refuse. Do you twitter?

Sourced from:

http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2009/03/ethnic_technolo.php  10 March 2009





The term "Web 2.0" was first used in January 1999 by Darcy DiNucci, a consultant on electronic information design (information architecture). In her article, "Fragmented Future", DiNucci writes:<sup>[6]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0</sup>
As quoted in O'Reilly.com 2009 http://www.web2summit.com/web2009/public/schedule/detail/10194
Chief among our insights was that "the network as platform" means far more than just offering old applications via the network ("software as a service"); it means building applications that literally get better the more people use them, harnessing network effects not only to acquire users, but also to learn from them and build on their contributions.
From Google and Amazon to Wikipedia, eBay, and craigslist, we saw that the value was facilitated by the software, but was co-created by and for the community of connected users. Since then, powerful new platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have demonstrated that same insight in new ways. Web 2.0 is all about harnessing collective intelligence.

Module 1

Module 1.  Summary

Social media is a rich ecosystem with perpetual evolution. A very good thing for users who can benefits from a large array of online services and social platforms, but a jigsaw for brands and marketers which have to face audience fragmentation. “Audience fragmentation”.

Facebook can be seen as the mall of social media: a convenient place where one can find every services offered elsewhere but in a single location.

It is interesting however that he says not to rely on Facebook as it would be a reductivist approach and suggests to research into other more subtle online social mechanisms that can help understand how social media works.

This was quoted in Fred Cavazza.net 14 December 2010 http://www.fredcavazza.net/2010/12/14/social-media-landscape-2011/

Starting to work through modules and understanding Assignment 3!

Check out stumbleupon for a new site sharing platform http://www.stumbleupon.com/

This quote was interesting.....http://www.personalizemedia.com/the-future-of-social-media-entertainment-slides/ Gary Hayes 26 October 2008

I was keen on trying to get under the skin of what new forms are being developed by the audience themselves ......

First posting for Assignment 3

To successfully meet the requirements of Assignment 3, students must create an online learning journal (OLJ) using a social networking site (e.g., a blog, wiki, ning, etc.), and complete the first entry for their OLJ. In this first entry, briefly:

(a) define what social networking is (in your own words);
(b) list what social networking technologies and sites you already use (for personal, work and study purposes); and
(c) describe what you expect to learn from completing INF506.

Social networking is a web platform that creates communities where participants stimulate and share discussion via text, photos or video.  CSU students in their introduction have said they use facebook to connect with family and friends. This is the community they participate within.  In an enterprise level it is used for marketing by stimulating discussion or for employees or colleagues to have their voice heard.


The technologies I currently use on a personal level are Facebook to keep in contact with good friends I don't see much due to distance and Twitter to read comments by my favourite music personalities or writers.  However I am guilty of being reluctant to give any of my ideas or post information frequently.  My contacts are people I know well.    I admire the "Like" button on Facebook, responding without fanfare! Within my library workplace it is not a platform that we communicate with or even view frequently, using email still to communicate between colleagues.  However the liaison librarians for each faculty do promote their facebook pages which are becoming more popular in keeping staff and students in the loop on new texts and electronic publications. Student Services use facebook to stimulate discussion and post events and photos.   I did start using Delicious and Bloglovin to bookmark favourite sites for study but interest faded or was forgotten over time.  I feel that there is so much information stored in these sites that I prefer to mostly go directly to a handful of favourite blogs or websites.


In regards to this subject I hope to grow more comfortable in using the social networking platform to properly promote an organisation in a professional application by scratching more than just the surface with technologies such twitter, facebook, youtube and flickr by interchangeably integrating them within each tool.