When I look at
Frank Cavazza’s Social Media Landscape 2011 I see a number of sites that I am a comfortable user of (Wikipedia, Facebook, YouTube, Club Penguin). There are other SN tools/sites that I have dabbled with, but am not a constant or confident user of. They include Slideshare, Living Social, Groupon, Vimeo, Twitter. Many of Cavazza's examples I have never even heard of. I also came up with a number of SN sites that were not listed - Taste, Moshi Monsters, Edmodo - I'm sure there are more, as 2 years (since the diagram was done) is a lifetime in the digital world.
Here's my ideas on and use of some of those SN tools currently
:
Facebook - currently used by me for personal, social, sport and now study purposes.
I do enjoy the ability to connect with family/friends who I am
not in regular physical contact with. Being able to have mini-conversations
with nieces, nephews etc who are in QLD, NT, ACT or even overseas is
fabulous. I love seeing what my old school mates are up to or viewing
photos/videos put up by friends/relatives that I would never normally get to
see.
As the primary means of communication within this subject Facebook is fabulous! I have to agree with student comments noted elsewhere - the CSU forums are clunky and not particularly
flexible or easy to use. Being able to upload videos, images, links and
to comment (or even just
like) quickly & easily is wonderful.
The only "glitch" I have noticed is when I click to access the most
recent post in our "OLJ URLs doc" (for example) Fb takes me to the top of the list of
posts, rather than to the bottom where the most recent entries have been
made.
Taste.com.au - although I don't use it super-regularly, I really love the way this site meets my needs - not only can I look up recipes, I can also see what others who have made those recipes have said about them - extra things to add, leave out, substitutions, tips etc. The collective wisdom of the crowd at its best! (
Surowiecki 2005) The recipe rating system is also a feature. I can store my favourite recipes for future use and participate in forums with those with similar interests. Love it.
Twitter - I really have been unable to see the attraction or benefits of this SN tool.
There must be some really good ones because there are obviously
a lot of people who use it. I have recently pledged to try to become a more proficient user of it - in the 3 and a half years I have been a member, I have made 3 posts, sorry 3 tweets and have had 4 tweets done for me on behalf of an Australian Open Tennis promo I was involved with!
I am following a couple of people and I have got 1
follower – a local real estate agent! I’m not sure how or why he decided to
follow me, because I am really a waste of space on Twitter at the moment! Have a good friend who is a bit of a Twitterer so he may be able to assist me in becoming an effective user of it.
Delicious, Second Life, Flickr, LinkedIn – I have
recently signed up to these as part of the INF506 course and will be interested
to see how they go. I like the concept of Second Life, but to be honest, am disappointed at the number of "skanky" people walking around in sometimes bizarre and often suggestive or sexy clothes!! When I tried to adjust my own avatar's wardrobe I was presented with a lot of slutty looking outfits and not many that I really liked the look of. The platform does not operate very well on my computer (could be that I don't have a decent enough graphics card, I don't know...) so I did not persevere with the clothing. Have a feeling that (perhaps) people may use this site to live out some of the things they don't have the guts to do in real life - you can be risque and naughty, without every really having to face anyone in real life.....
I have used my Delicious account a couple of times since opening it. Great idea to have a place where you can store web links that you want to come back to. Up until now I have stored them in various Word Docs depending on the nature of the site - which sometimes results in me having to spend time searching my computer as I could not remember where I had filed them. I'd like to think that I will find a way in Delicious to categorise my links so that I can put them into some sort of order. Will have to check that out later - when I get time.
Which leads me to my last point for today - finding the time to check out everything that's out there! Obviously you can't, but I do often find myself overwhelmed with the amount of sites and possibilities out there. They are all screaming at you "Try me! Try me!" or "I'm the best for what you need." It's really hard to find the time to go through all of them and work out which ones are actually the best for what I need to do. I guess it's a matter of trial and error. See something, try it - like it and use it or don't like it and move on.
Moving on......
References:
Surowiecki, J. (2005). When social media became news. Ted Conferences LLC. Retrieved 25/11/13 from
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/james_surowiecki_on_the_turning_point_for_social_media.html
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