THINK:

What value does a user-generated folksonomy offer in comparison with a taxonomy designed by information professionals?

 

I would determine the biggest advantage of folksonomy to be its flexibility; as users are not confined to an established set of tags, they are able to quickly add any tags which they believe are relevant. This articlefrom D-Lib magazine provides a handy summary of the issues surrounding user-determined tags.

THINK:

...about how social media creates a new life for information

I can think of a few examples of this. Firstly, a mother's complaint to Target on Facebook was shared by an amazing amount of people (including someone I know) and made news headlines; a complaint which prior to social media, would probably have been ignored by Target or treated only superficially. I came across a website which lists a few more social media debacles. On the other hand, social media is doing amazing things like helping volunteer organisations to seek help fast - they can post a message and receive replies from multiple volunteers in a much shorter timeframe than ringing a list of people.   

 

                                        by Vincenzo Cosenza www.vincos.it

OLJ Post 1 

What is social networking?

 

I define social networking as people using a particular website/s to communicate and share online. It allows people to connect across great distances and the platform has the capacity to drive huge changes in society. The social networking phenomena has made it in to the Oxford dictionary, and as you would expect, Wikipedia provides a handy list of social networking sites and data on their usage. It's funny to think that I remember a time when we didn't have social networking, or the Internet as it is now - but my daughter will be raised in a different world.

                                               by Dave Fayram

Social networking sites I currently use

 

I use Facebook regularly, for personal use and for a small hobby business. Interestingly, it is entirely banned at my place of employment (non library related), though the Facebook page of my employer contains quite a lot of unanswered criticism! I do connect with work colleagues on Facebook though, and also with fellow CSU students that I met at residential school. 


I use Pinterest which is a great source of inspiration for crafty people (in the law abiding sense). I've never been a fan of Twitter, I find the concept a bit pointless. I was surprised at how few of the social networking sites listed on Wikipedia that I actually knew, and how few I use regularly.

Expected INF206 learning outcomes 

I am looking forward to discovering how library and information services worldwide are implementing a social networking presence, and how they prioritise which service to utilise. I will be specialising in the Information and Knowledge Management stream of this degree, so I anticipate I will need to address social networking in a professional capacity at some point in my career.