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.