Cherie DarganEnglish Round Table, April 2009

Define Social Networking Sites & micro blogging and look briefly at the most popular ones (Face Book & Twitter), and the larger trends they represent (mobile computing)

Present a few ideas about how people and organizations are using these tools—and a few assignment ideas. Are you using them?

Look at how policies are evolving towards them on campus—what is happening on your campus?

Give you a few recommendations for some good books, websites, and resources to learn more. 

Free wireless access great marketing tool for restaurants, hotels, coffee shops, public libraries—and campus libraries & buildings

Twitter – most popular tool for micro blogging. Messages limited to 140 characters, often from mobile phone, typically in response to prompt, “What are you doing right now?”

You can sign up to “follow” other people’s tweets, and they can follow you. You can also send personal messages, and flag favorite tweets.

Social Networking sites – Myspace used to be number one, but Face book has taken its place.

Face book has added a status box at the top of the page that looks like Twitter and there is an application that makes it possible to Tweet a new message & update your Face book page

Larger trend – mobile computing and micro blogging reflect busy people connected 24/7

To engage people in discussing topics, sharing ideas, interacting online (a church in Seattle)

To let people “follow” others and get quick updates on their activities (Rachel Maddow, Barack Obama)

To keep people updated on breaking news (CNN, Rick Sanchez, Courier, DM Register, KWWL)

To support people’s efforts working on common goals (Weight Watchers, Hungry Girl)

To mobilize people to act (or vote or buy or show up someplace) – many examples in Clay Shirky’s book

To strengthen interpersonal relationships (Demi Moore and Ashton Kuchter twitter each other!)

He talks about the larger trends of mobile computing and how people are using Twitter, text messaging, and Face book to organize political protests, flash mobs, and social action.

He has a great story about getting back a stolen cell phone.  

“Revolution doesn’t happen when society adopts new technology, it happens when society adopts new behaviors.”

“the ability of people to share, cooperate, and act together is being improved dramatically by our social tools….” (Epilogue, 321)

A SNS is a website where users add content and interact in an online community, posting messages and photos, exploring shared interests and making new friends. Examples: MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

SNS sites are part of Web 2.0, which Netlingo describes as the second-generation Web, or collaborative Web. It emerged in 2005.

http://netlingo.com is a great resource for internet terms

Facebook just had its 5th birthday. It is the number one SNS. It makes profits of $10-50 million every year (from advertising) The demographics are changing. Between June 2008 and January 2009, number of people 35 to 54 quadrupled, and people over 55 tripled according to a report by iStrategylabs. They cite Facebook as having 175 million users. Most of the users are under 35; but only about 41 percent are college age.

Source: “Older Members adds to Facebook Surge.” Waterloo Courier. March 8, 2009.

As I sat in one of the sessions, googling the speaker to find her blog, the person in front of me was twittering--so I opened a window for twitter as well! The conference posted its schedule and some announcements on its Facebook page.

Micro blogging tools let you post short chunks of content, using preformatted templates. The two most popular: Twitter and Tumblr.

http://twitter.com/professorpost Tumblr – I used Tumblr as a journaling tool for

students in my Technology in the classroom course, and they liked it.

http://cherieedtech.tumblr.com/ Cherie’s Tumblr page

Tumblr gives you a way to share content, collect great quotes, show off pictures, report progress, collaborate with others, and present quick thoughts.

Twitter gives you a tool to share your reactions, document experiences, reflect, and connect with others—finding out what they think, comparing reactions, sharing an experience, and capturing the moment like a cyber/verbal snapshot.

Twitter is just three years old. Many people twitter from their cell phone or Smartphone. Twitter "tweets" (individual messages) are limited to 140 characters

Wikipedia lists Twitter as the third largest SNS, with Facebook as the first and MySpace as second. They estimate that there are 6 million users of Twitter, with 55 million monthly visitsAnother source said that approximately three million twitter messages are sent each day

Articles now refer to the Twitosphere (remember when blogs were new and we read about the blogosphere?) to refer to the people online on Twitter

I was amazed at how many cartoons mentioned twitteringAlmost every media outlet, politician, and VIP has a twitter presence.

You can read about twittering in blogs, newspapers, books, and even PEOPLE magazine.  Jennifer Aniston may have broken up with her boyfriend John Mayer because he was so hooked on Twitter that he wasn't paying enough attention to her! 

Several years ago students and staff could access Face Book on campus; however, it became problematic in labs and computer classrooms

Then campus IT began to block Face Book; however, there were ways around it, and we could still get to many other SNS & microblogging sites like Twitter & Tumblr

Now we use Facebook to recruit new students and post links to it on our official HCC webpage

Banned totally? No ban – anyone can get on? Banned on the wired network; however, we can

get on wireless laptops (this was the situation at HCC earlier this year)?

No official policy? School using it to recruit students?

Organize a group -- like Mike's Library group, with 400 plus members Post pictures from a recent trip -- like my son, Jon, who went to Vegas with his wife and her parents over Spring Break Catch up on news from your friends Read about what some of your local politicians are doing Get more information about a special event or activity, as with the Library Tech Conference Face book page.

Find some of your professional organizations & publications (NCTE/CCCC and Chronicle of Higher Ed!)

Mike uses it to let his librarians know where he is working that day -- as well as share insights, wisdom and commentary I use them as places to share great articles or websites (if you see a link for sharing, Twitter is showing up as a choice. Click on it & it opens a new Twitter message and dumps the URL into the text box) I also use them to get support for my efforts in Weight Watchers, to follow newsmakers like Rick Sanchez and Rachel Maddow, get news updates, and find out what politicians are doing at a statewide or national level  

I would not encourage students to create a page for a class assignment, and I generally only friend former students

HOWEVER, many students have an account already and there are many ways to use SNS to teach a variety of things. You could ask them to analyze typical pages

--From a college recruiter’s perspective. Do you want to give this person a scholarship?

--From a prospective employer’s perspective. Would you interview this person?

--From a general perspective. How do we judge a person’s page? What creates a positive impression? What makes us cringe, frown, or have a negative response?

Analyze how groups are using Facebook to promote a cause and gather support

Analyze how groups are using Facebook to promote a special event or activity, such as a breast cancer walk, Earth Day

How is the larger trend of social networking changing how we communicate and collaborate across the miles?

How is mobile computing shaping us? Do we want to be “connected” 24/7?

Research how job hunters are using Face book & other sites, as well as how companies are using it to advertise and promote their products and services.

1) Are micro blogs and SNS like Twitter and Facebook a waste of time and resources? Are we so obsessed with the web that we are isolating ourselves from family and friends in the "real world" in order to have a life online?

2) Are Twitter and Face book encouraging people to be even more self involved, posting the silly trivia of their day?

3) Are features like the 140 character limit of Twitter and Face book's brief postings on the other person’s “wall” making us fragmented in our thinking and communication style?

4) Are we losing our sense of privacy by posting so publically? 

5) How are our reading skills and habits being affected by posting short messages on Face book or Twitter: are we more distracted and less able to focus on creating or processing longer chunks of text? 6) As more people use Face book and Twitter, are the lines between our personal and professional lives blurring?

7) How do we help our students determine what is and is not appropriate to post on their Face book pages?

7) Shirky points out that the line is also blurring between cyberspace and IRL, as people make plans on FB & Twitter to meet up

Silverman, S. C. (2007). Creating community online: The effects of online social networking communities on college students' experiences. How can student affairs professionals best respond to this emergent phenomenon.. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Southern California.

Vanden Boogart, M. R. (2006). Uncovering the social impacts of face book on a college campus. Unpublished Master of Science Thesis, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas.

Vie, S. (2007). Engaging others in online social networking sites: Rhetorical practices in MySpace and Face book. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Arizona.

Vitak, Jessica. (2008). Facebook "Friends": How Online Identities Impact Offline Relationships. Master's Thesis. Georgetown University: Communication, Culture & Technology.

Williams, I. M. (2008). The Effects of Anticipated Future Interaction and Self Disclosure on Facebook. Masters thesis, Texas Tech University.

Researcher danah boyd (did her doctoral dissertation on identity, teens and SNS (it’s posted online)

http://www.danah.org/papers/ Writer Lev Grossman. “Why Facebook Is for Old Fogies. “Time Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1879169,00.html Face Book In Reality - idiotsofants.com and BBC's The Wall.

This video pokes fun at Facebook, and shows how silly it would be in “real life” to have someone show up at your front door, asking if you want to be their friend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrlSkU0TFLs

The Pew Internet Research Project http://www.pewinternet.org/Media-Mentions/2009/Facebook-

takes-strides-toward-Twitter-territory.aspx Writer Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody: The power of

organizing without organizations. Penguin Books, 2008. http://www.shirky.com/ (his website) http://www.herecomeseverybody.org/ (his book’s blog) Scott Simon speaks with NPR's Social Media Strategist Andy

Carvin about Face book's fifth birthday. Feb. 7, 2009 · http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?

storyId=100377329

http://tumblr.com http://twitter.com http://facebook.com

http://cherieedtech.tumblr.com/ Cherie’s Tumblr page   http://twitter.com/professorpost Cherie’s Twitter page   http://twitter.com/MikeDargan My husband’s page

I will post the entire PPT on my HCC website. I will also post a shorter one with only the

cartoons. http://www.hawkeyecollege.edu/faculty/cpost/ Cherie Dargan, cdargan@hawkeyecollege.edu Hawkeye Community College—Waterloo, IA