Thing 21 - other social networking sites

My kids all have MySpace or Facebook pages and I worry a little about what is public for them. Yet, exploring other social networking sites has made them more familiar to me and not so strange. Their appeal to people is more understandable to me now.

I joined WebJunction when it was fairly new, but have not used it much. I can see I did not take advantage of the opportunity to interact with other library professionals. Now that I understand more how these sites work, I will be more comfortable joining the discussion.

Ning was fairly easy to navigate and use. I am amazed at the number of librarians doing the 23 Things on a Stick program. I don't have to feel so alone in my position. I did have to look a little while to find the badge, but it was easy to add to my blog. I put it on the side at first, but some of the words got cut off, so I moved it to the bottom. I thought about changing the html to adjust the width, but decided it would look funny.

While exploring the Library 2.0 networking site, I discovered a video tutorial on Diigo, another social networking site. It looks very cool, though, as it incorporates a toolbar into your browser that lets you highlight things on webpages, share bookmarks, and email contacts without leaving the webpage you are reading. Many of the things I come across on the web, I intend to send to colleagues for their information. It would make it much easier using this tool.

I'm not totally convinced I need to join a social network, but I am seeing more and more benefits. It can be confusing to remember so many passwords and tools, so it is appealing to have the tools you want to use all in one place. I might check into diigo.com this summer when I have more time.

Thing 20 - Facebook and MySpace

Thank goodness for snowstorms. I’m getting more Things done.

Library sites on MySpace offer the content they think teens will be looking for directly from their MySpace page. It would be interesting to know if they can tell how many use the databases from the link on MySpace. Denver Public Library used warnings about following an external link that seem kind of unnecessary when it opens in another window. Hennepin County Library opened in the same window and only had warnings sometimes. Denver’s links sometimes came up with errors. A library supporting both a webpage and a MySpace page has many links to check and keep up-to-date. The integration of YouTube and Flickr shows exactly what we’ve been learning about in these 23 Things. I also saw plenty of slideshows on pages. The music, videos, and artwork all work together to appeal to that age group in a forum they are apt to use. I noticed, though, that most of the “friends” listed were authors or other library groups.

I only was 20 minutes into investigating MySpace and I stumbled on something exciting: book trailers. Since I have my elementary students giving booktalks every class, I have drawn the parallel to movie trailers and that booktalks are an advertisement. I felt that there must be something like book trailers out there in cyberspace. Now I’ve found some on Book Divas. The video of Jodi Picoult I’m sure would interest my high school students. I just have to figure out how to get them there. This is why Denver Public library has a MySpace page!

I read the article on using Facebook professionally. It still seems that it is something a private person, an introvert, would never feel comfortable using. I guess such a person still might create a profile with limited information. The biggest asset I can see is to organize all those nifty things from the Web in one place to make your life easier. My feeling is, though, that it would be a greater timewaster than any useful purpose it would serve.

Thing 12 - Social media sites

So much sharing going on! While the lack of editors seem to democratize content, it also is quite a detriment. Some of the most inane things are near the top of the list of things people want to share. I’m also a bit appalled at the language. The article I read from Reddit was a diatribe on inventors who stole the inventions they are famous for. We face an uphill battle trying to teach kids to support their opinions when such items are commonly dispersed. I know the internet allows all kinds of people to put in their two cents, but these social media sites seem to spread opinions quickly and easily, like viruses.

It definitely makes for eclectic reading! I chose to scan the list of stories from the last 24 hours on Newsvine and read about an 11-year-old that died because her parents believed God would heal her. They didn’t realize she had diabetes. Another article predicted the fallout Microsoft would experience dropping Windows XP. Still another commented on the cover of Vogue and people’s reaction to it. I thought Newsvine’s color-coded barometer of most voted on and most commented on articles kind of clever. Mixx just sorted articles into categories right away so a reader could read in an area of interest.

I think these sites would be a productivity detractor. I kind of got sucked in and followed link after link as interesting titles caught my eye. I can see, though, how it would be helpful to be aware of what is considered “popular” reading since people would be talking about it and wanting to find out background information. It also could alert you to coming issues.

It was extremely easy to share an article. News sites can only win as people read articles and then end up exploring other content on the site. I was glad I didn’t have to create an account to just share an article. I suppose what happens is that once my comment is posted, I will follow the discussion that could follow on Newsvine and then want to eventually become a member. I have emailed articles to targeted people in the past, which in some ways I think it more useful to me. It starts a conversation on the topic, but with people you know and with whom you share a vested interest. The whole democratic public sharing of ideas the social media sites are promoting is good in a way, but I don't see it being for me.