A social (media) network experiment

How I used social (media) networks to tell you about social (media) networks
Kosie Eloff http://bit.ly/keloff

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Do you recognize any of the following?

Or does anyone close to you?
By the way, the speaker notes often have an invite to comment. Tweet or comment

There are many more examples of social (media) networks

These were just for fun.

By the way, tweet your questions to @kosieeloff, use #ictsa2011 tag if you can.

Definition(s)
A group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content. Social media are media for social interaction, as a superset beyond social communication. Enabled by ubiquitously accessible and scalable communication techniques, social media substantially change the way of communication between organizations, communities, as well as individuals. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media
Also, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media#Distinction_from_industrial_media

Social (media) networks aren't just for entertainment

Though that's a fine enough purpose!

Why I became involved

with social (media) networks

Have you Googled yourself?

Have you Googled someone you know?
(Everyone does it)

I Google myself View slide notes for an explanation of each result.

So I started thinking...
1. I want my web presence to be controlled by me, not by anyone else
Of course, this bring in all kinds of considerations: privacy, the nature of identity online & responsibilities for educators. Here's where lolcats become serious.

2. Integrating social (media) into my life has been an interesting experience

I've been living on the internet since I was a kid, so I'm fully aware of the dangers. "Here be dragons", in cyberspace, translates to "here be trolls, flamers and griefers"

I'm connected to lots of networks now

How many are you connected to?
I ask, because this is what I found when I connected:

I've only started experimenting

(example follows)
But there are so many connections still to be made & media to share.

First step: added Google+ and Twitter widgets

I decided to make a QR code to paste on my door

(or wherever else)

Links to http://bit.ly/keloff

So that's the (hopefully) inspirational part

Popular social (media) networks

- Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn - Google Plus (Google+)

Google+

Facebook

LinkedIn

Twitter

Issues related to social (media) networks

No-one has the all the answers to these issues, but people are working on them

Challenges for higher education

Teaching
How do we connect to students? Should we connect to students? Should we use existing social (media) networks, or use our own? How do we create/share digital media responsibly & effectively?

Research
How do we connect with other researchers / institutions? Which aspects of social (media) creation are related to our own research?

Organizational
Can social (media) networks improve the way we do our everyday work? Do we have the technical infrastructure and media expertise to support all of this?

Social (media) network criticisms

Privacy
How much about your life do you want to expose to not only others, but to the data centres of large multinationals?

Behavioural effects
Is the use of social (media) significantly changing how we communicate / work / play?

Usability
Can't leverage the most promising aspects of SMN if they aren't simple to use.

Sustainability
How much can these networks scale? Twitter's overflowing, for instance. How can digital media formats persist / be archived? Who owns these media (especially user information)?

Shall we connect?
http://bit.ly/keloff

My social (media) networks on 19 October (date of release)

Network
Facebook

Shared to
Public

Connections
Friends: 139

Sharing since...

Notes

A few months after I think that most of my launch shares will go through here. 24 November 2010, but only active since May 2011 Around July 2011 Challenge: communicate intent in 140 characters or less.

Twitter

All followers

Following: 129 Followers: 51

Google+

Extended circles

In my circles: 107 Have me in their circles: 99 Connections: 71 People in my network: 3 338

LinkedIn

Connections only

October 2011

I decided just to share with connections (not "anyone" to see what happens). Here, I didn't just share a link. I shared a derivative work.

Scribd

Followers

Reads: 0 Uploads: 0 Followers: 21

N/A; not very active (yet) September 2011

Slideshare

N/A, as I'm sharing this Following: 6 presentation via all the Followers: 2 other networks. Social media: 594 views

Let's see how this experiment goes! Share this with anyone you think will find it useful.