High Tech Household » Social Networking http://hightechhousehold.com Technology for Living Fri, 09 Apr 2010 00:32:04 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Going Social: An Introduction to Social Networking, Part 3 – Social Bookmarking http://hightechhousehold.com/2009/11/19/going-social-an-introduction-to-social-networking-part-3-social-bookmarking/ http://hightechhousehold.com/2009/11/19/going-social-an-introduction-to-social-networking-part-3-social-bookmarking/#comments Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:15:27 +0000 Mike http://hightechhousehold.com/?p=259 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.

The Social Bookmarking Sites

Delicious: Delicious (formerly del.icio.us) was the first of the social networking sites.  It simply allows people to link to interesting stories, and the more times a story is linked to, the higher it ranks.  Delicious was bought by Yahoo! recently, and has undergone a face lift.  While still very popular, it goes simply by number of links and doesn’t have the voting features of the others.

Digg: Digg touts itself as a social news aggregator, where its users find and link to news stories.  Digg added the concept of voting to allow the wider Digg community to vote the story up or down.  As stories gain in popularity, they become more visible on Digg, with the most popular stories making it to Digg’s front page.  Digg also acts as a social networking site, allowing users to friend or follow those whose links they generally find interesting.  Some have criticized Digg for becoming too cliq-driven and too slanted in its views, but it remains one of the popular bookmarking sites.

Yahoo! Buzz: Yahoo! Buzz was Yahoo’s answer to Digg,  Yahoo had the advantage of being the first major search engine/aggregation to add social bookmarking functions to its offering.  While featuring many of the features of Digg, Yahoo! Buzz offers the publishers of web content the ability to go in and modify entries linking to their content.

Reddit: Reddit is an open-source social bookmarking site that performs many of the same functions of Digg.  Where Reddit differs, however, is the way that it responds to user’s criticism and feedback of its features, and has a robust discussion community that debates and talks about the stories posted.

Stumbleupon: StumbleUpon is a different kind of social bookmarking site.  The idea of stumble upon is that, when browsing the web and funding an interesting article/page/etc., you mark it.  Then, users go to the StumbleUpon site (or use the StumbleUpon toolbar), and browse sites that others have stumbled on.  StumbleUpon is different in that it is not limited to news/content sites but can be any interesting Internet site or page.

Technorati: Technorati is a social bookmarking site specifically focused on the blogging community.  Blogs create their own feeds, where their blogs latest stories are automatically posted in Technorati.  Users can also flag blogs or stories that they follow, or find interesting.  Technorati is more of a blog search engine, which popularizes entries based on tags and user voting.

Whatever site you choose to try, Social Bookmarking gives you an option to explore the wider Internet, and find content that one would not have found otherwise.  Some have compared Social Bookmarking to an online Reader’s Digest, but with the users/readers as the editors.

]]> http://hightechhousehold.com/2009/11/19/going-social-an-introduction-to-social-networking-part-3-social-bookmarking/feed/ 0 Going Social: An Introduction To Social Networking, Part II – Twitter http://hightechhousehold.com/2009/10/22/going-social-an-introduction-to-social-networking-part-ii-twitter/ http://hightechhousehold.com/2009/10/22/going-social-an-introduction-to-social-networking-part-ii-twitter/#comments Thu, 22 Oct 2009 11:35:46 +0000 Mike http://hightechhousehold.com/?p=219 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?

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a communication service in which users send short, 140-character messages called “Tweets”.  The service was originally intended to be integrated with cell phone SMS text messages, hence the 140 character limit.  When a tweet is posted, it goes on the general timeline, which is a reverse-chronological list of all tweets worldwide.  Obviously, with millions of users, following the general timeline is a virtual impossibility.  Luckily, over the years, Twitter has come up with a variety of ways to filter these tweets.  This includes following and hashtags.

Following: Much like friending someone on Facebook, when you follow someone, they show up in your personal friends timeline.  This allows you to follow the tweets of people you are interested in rather than the general timeline.  This is much more manageable, but can get unruly once you follow a lot of people.  People can also follow you as well, which means that they see your tweets on their personal timeline.  You do not have to follow everyone who follows you.  It is good to be selective to match the type of tweets that you are interested in seeing.

Hashtags: Hashtags are topical tags placed in twitter that are easily searchable.  A hashtag is a topical keyword or phrase preceeded by a # sign.  For example, if one wanted to view all tweets surrounding Windows 7, one could search (at search.twitter.com) for #Windows7.  Additionally, if I wanted to tweet on the topic of Windows 7, I would include #Windows7 in the text of my tweet.  Multiple hashtags can be included in a tweet, and groups have also formed that have their own hashtags.  Most twitter tools out there allow you to create and store hashtag search results as virtual timelines (more on twitter tools in a bit). So if I wanted to tweet about the Windows 7 launch because I want to set up my home theater PC (htpc for short), as well as have it show up in the technology category on twitter, I could tweet “Looking forward to picking up #Windows7 and setting up my #htpc.  #technology”.  This would show up under three Twitter searches:  #Windows7, #htpc, and #technology.  Notice that I included hashtags in both the body of my tweet and after the main content of my tweet.  Twitter is also very useful for asking questions:  “Anyone know about what features are in the latest release of #firefox?”  Hashtags are a great way to get targeted information and sort through the banal “I am walking the dog right now” type tweets.

Communicating with Others

Twitter allows you to send both public messages, known as mentions, and private messages, known as direct messages, to other users.  There is also the option to forward a tweet that you find interesting to your followers (known as “re-tweet”).

Mentions: A mention is a public message or reply to another Twitter user.  To send a message directly to another user, you simply type the user’s twitter name preceded by an @ symbol.  For example, if you wanted to send a tweet to us at High Tech Household, you’d simply take our twitter account, “HTHTweets” and use it in the message.  For example: “@HTHTweets, I really enjoyed your post on #Windows7.”  That tweet would both show up directly in our mentions timeline and in the #Windows7 hashtag search.  When browsing the timelines, if you hit the reply button that twitter uses, it simply places the @twittername in the tweet entry area.

Direct Messages: To send a private message to another user, you simply type a D followed by the username.  For example, “D HTHTweets Thanks for the tip on how to use twitter.”  This message would only be viewable by the HTHTweets accound and no one else.  It is important to know that in order to send a Direct message, that user must be one of your followers.

Retweet: Retweet is not an official Twitter function, but has become very commonplace.  It is a way of taking a tweet you find interesting, and forwarding it onto others.  A retweet is almost the same as a mention, except that it is preceded by the letters RT.  So if I wanted to retweet to my followers that someone liked our Windows 7 post, I would tweet “RT @JoeUser @HTHTweets, I really enjoyed your post on #Windows7.”

Twitter Tools

Truth be told, the Twitter web user interface is not very intuitive or practical.  Because of that, and because Twitter has an open API, a variety of twitter tools have surfaced to allow for aggregating tweets in a way that makes sense.  Most have the ability to show multiple timelines in columns, and the ability to add, show, and hide columns.  Columns can include your own followers, the general timeline, your mentions and direct messages, and any number of hashtag searches that you decide to add.  So these tools can allow you to view and communicate with multiple timelines at once.  The most popular (and best, in my opinion) tool for this purpose is TweetDeck (pictured below).  Other popular tools include TweetGrid and Twhirl.  Numerous tools also exist for mobile smartphones such as UberTwitter and Twitterberry for the Blackberry, Tweetie and Twitterlator for the iPhone, and AndTweet and TwiDroid for Google Android phones. There are also other auxilliary tools such as Twitpic for sharing photos, Twitterfeed which posts tweets on a user’s blog.  An extensive list of the top 21 twitter tools is available at TechRepublic.  If you are serious about using Twitter, using these tools is essential.

Tweetdeck

Tweetdeck

Conclusion

Twitter is one of the more complicated and hard to explain of the social networking tools, but is useful for communications on various topics.  It is probably one of the more conversational social networking sites (limited to 140 characters, of course), and has taken the tech world by storm.  This article barely scratches the surface on how to use Twitter or its many uses (including Microblogging, news, networking, and general  conversation around various topics and events).  In the next post in this series, we will review sharing of information on the web through social bookmarking.  In the meantime, happy tweeting!

]]> http://hightechhousehold.com/2009/10/22/going-social-an-introduction-to-social-networking-part-ii-twitter/feed/ 1 Going Social: An Introduction To Social Networking, Part I http://hightechhousehold.com/2009/10/06/going-social-an-introduction-to-social-networking-part-i/ http://hightechhousehold.com/2009/10/06/going-social-an-introduction-to-social-networking-part-i/#comments Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:45:27 +0000 Mike http://hightechhousehold.com/?p=193 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.

The Major Social Networks

Social Networks are sites that typically allow users to create a profile page for themselves, and then find other people that they know (“friends”) and interact with them.  Social Networks allow people to interact by posting updates on what they are doing, and often provide apps to allow for expandability.  The major social networking sites are Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Bing.

Facebook:  Facebook is currently the largest of the social networking sites.  It began its life as a way for college students and professors to interact (in fact, you used to have to have a .edu email address from a university to join).  Since it has opened up to the rest of the world, it has become the de facto social network.  Facebook offers good control of who can see what on your profile, and allows you to maintain a large friend list with limited profiles, and have an expanded profile for your closer friends.  Facebook also provides the ability to create and join networks, which allow for users to interact around a group, a company, or an event.  If you are new to social networking, Facebook is the place to start.  Facebook has become the site of choice for keeping up with old friends, posting photos online, and just catching up.

MySpace: Before FaceBook, MySpace was the most popular of the social networking sites.  MySpace offered greater flexibility in the creation of pages, but it was harder to set up a profile/page than it was on FaceBook.  MySpace has become very popular in the music industry from aspiring musicians to major headliners to post news to their fans and provide samples of their work.  Originally not as secure as FaceBook, MySpace has made strides in recent years in providing some of the same security control and featuresets as FaceBook.  MySpace is still very popular, and allows users to easily post multimedia, something that is not as common on FaceBook.

LinkedIn: LinkedIn is the social networking site for business professionals.  It allows professionals to post their resume, info about their company, and network with each other for business purposes.  I have personally witnessed the importance and effectiveness of LinkedIn.  My company was looking to partner with another company because they provided a service that would be beneficial to our product.  We had tried to contact someone at the office via traditional means, but always reached dead ends.  Finally, our CEO decided to find and contact their CEO via LinkedIn, and we had a meeting set up for the following week.  LinkedIn is a great source for professionals to discover new opportunities.

Ning: Ning is one social networking site you probably have not heard of, but is the most popular of the Social Networking Sites beyond the “big three” mentioned above.  It is important because Ning is a platform that allows users to create their own social networking sites.  Ning has been used to create social networking sites for educational institutions, political activism, corporate branding, artists, churches, computer programmers, etc.  The possibilities are limitless.  Ning allows extendability through its OpenSocial API, which allows any developer to extend the functionality of Ning.

Other Social Networks

There are many other smaller social networking sites that aren’t as big as the four above, but they deserve mention:

  • Bebo: Bebo is a smaller Social Network, which recently created hooks into other social networks to allow users to view their profiles across networks in one place.
  • Orkut: Owned and operated by Google, Orkut is a popular social networking site in countries other than the U.S., particularly Brazil and India.
  • Hi5: Never been able to compete with the top 3, Hi5 is similar to FaceBook but popular in Central America.
  • Frendster: Frendster was actually the first of the modern social networking sites.  Competitive with FaceBook and MySpace in regards to features, it just doesn’t have the same marketing presence as the other two.
  • Xanga: A niche social networking site, Xanga is focused on video, photos, and blogging.

What About Twitter?

Ah yes, Twitter.  Twitter is in and of itself its own animal in the Social Networking world.  It is also the most complicated to explain and describe.  For this reason, I have decided that it deserves its own post in part 2 of this series.

Wrapping It Up

Social Networking has overtaken the web, and has changed the way people interact using the Internet, and it has proven itself to be beyond just a fad.  While newer technologies and sites may eventually overtake the sites mentioned in this article, social networking is here to stay as a medium.

]]> http://hightechhousehold.com/2009/10/06/going-social-an-introduction-to-social-networking-part-i/feed/ 2 Blogging To Keep In Touch http://hightechhousehold.com/2009/09/14/blogging-to-keep-in-touch/ http://hightechhousehold.com/2009/09/14/blogging-to-keep-in-touch/#comments Mon, 14 Sep 2009 10:52:50 +0000 Mike http://hightechhousehold.com/?p=138 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.

Creating your own event blog is easy.  There are many sites dedicated to personal blogging that can be used to start an event blog easily and without much effort.

  • Blogger: Blogger is Google’s blogging platform.  It is very easy to set up and has many templates that can be set up to match the theme of your event blog.  The interface is straightforward, but it lacks some of the features that more advanced bloggers like.  For a limited time event blog for the novice blogger, it is the ideal platform.
  • WordPress.com: WordPress is the premiere blogging platform for bloggers (High Tech Household uses a stand-alone WordPress blog).  Their hosted blog service, WordPress.com, is not quite as easy as Blogger, but still is quick to set up and fairly easy to use, and offers a higher range of features.
  • TypePad: Typepad is a paid blogging service that offers more features than blogger and is very easy to use.  However, the price tag may not be worth it for an event-driven blog.
  • LiveJournal: This free site run by TypePad is good for a quick down-and-dirty web journal without a lot of features.

There are also a few sites that specialize in event-type blogs for general or specific events:

  • CaringBridge: This is a free site dedicated to people who are going through a difficult illness.  I have personally witnessed the power of this site.  It is very easy to use and really builds a small community of people providing support as family members chronicle their difficult journey through an illness and recovery.  More than any other type of event blog, I have seen the positive impact that this site has had on people’s lives, and how this type of event blog can be a source of strength for people who are facing a serious illness.
  • The Knot: The premiere wedding site of the Internet allows brides to create their own blogs and chronicle their wedding preparations through their wedding day.
  • MyEvent.com: A paid service that allows you to set up your own website and blog for many different types of life events, such as a class reunion, wedding, etc.

There are many more blogging sites and specialized event sites that allow blogs to be set up quickly and easily.  Event blogs are a good way to keep in touch, and chronicle both the exciting and the difficult times in life, keeping a close-knit community of family and friends in touch.  As creating your own blog is now easier to do than ever, it is an option that everyone should consider.

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