High Tech Household

In part 1 of this series, we looked at the phenomenon that is social networking, and the various social networks.  In part 2, we looked at Twitter, what it is and how it works.  Here in part 3, we will explore social bookmarking, a way of aggregating the Internet and sharing content.  While the various social networking sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook can all be used to share content and bookmark, there are several sites such as Digg, del.icio.us, and Reddit that are specifically created to share good content from around the net.  Bookmarks end up being ranked based on user recommendations, and tags are added to allow for the indexing and searching of resources. Read more…

In part 1 of this series, we looked at the major social networking sites and their uses.  In this part II of the series “An Introduction to Social Networking” we will try to answer the question “What is Twitter.”  Created in 2006, Twitter has become an international phenomenon especially within the last year.  It was used heavily in the last Presidential election, it has become a favorite communications medium for many celebrities, and in its most prominent role, it played a key part in getting news out from the Iranian elections by allowing protesters to get their story out without the filter of the Iranian government.  Millions of users from around the world assisted the protesters by setting up proxy servers to get around government blocks, and protesters gave constant updates, uploaded pictures and video, and produced a groundswell of support from the worldwide community.  The most surreal moment for me came that Saturday when I was flipping through the cable news channels, and they were all reading off of Twitter live on the air to report what was happening. So what is Twitter, and how does one use it effectively?

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Despite popular perceptions, Social Networking has been around for as long as networked computers have existed.  Early computer enthusiasts would connect their computers over phone lines through the use of modems and communicate through message boards or forums.  Online services such as Compuserv, AOL, and Prodigy gave ways for more people to interact via message boards, chat, and email.  When the Internet first came on the scene, sites such as GeoCities and Tripod gave users the ability to interact, as well as set up their own web pages.

In the last few years, social networking has exploded with sites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and LinkedIn.  Social Networking also includes blogs and social bookmarking sites such as Digg, del.icio.us, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.  Social Media sites such as YouTube and Flickr round out the social networking platform.  This series will look briefly at all of these types of sites.  Further information and tutorials will be provided in future posts beyond the scope of this series.  Part I of this series will focus on Social Networking Sites in particular.

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Blogs have exploded on the Internet in the last 10 years, covering a wide variety of topics.  They have ranged in scope from personal diaries to blogs such as this one that cater to a wider audience.  More recently, people have started using  blogs as a means of updating family and friends of an important life event.  These “event blogs” are being created to write about everything from the preparation for their wedding day to the difficult journey of a family member undergoing a serious illness.

These blogs differ from the wider-audience blogs in that they are catering to a select group of family and friends, and differ from personal diary blogs in that they are created to chronicle one specific event with long durations.  For example, we have a family friend who’s daughter spent a semester abroad in Europe, and she started a blog to post photos and details of her travels.  She was able to keep in touch with a wider circle of people than she would have been able to by individual emails and phone calls, and was able to circulate her photos and chronicle her travels across Europe in detail.

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