What Questions Do You Have About Social Networking?

[Michele Martin]

We're hard at work putting together the first module for the course and would love your feedback on any questions you have about social networks. Are there particular networks you'd like to learn more about using? Do you have any burning questions you'd like answered?

Leave us a note in this forum to let us know.

[Skyden]

My understanding of the current social networks

1. Facebook - The network everyone and their mama is on, however, privacy issues arise and many drunk pictures are taken by individuals who later regret it.

2. LinkedIn - The network catering to professionals who use it to network, ask questions and find a job. Not so many drunk pictures as they have already had that experience with Facebook.

3. Ning - The network which focuses on creating groups, so the concept is more group oriented than Facebook or LinkedIn (both individual oriented)

4. Twitter - Sort of a mini blog, people can follow each other, use cell phones or computers to announce to the world what you are doing this very moment. (Do people care ?)

Feel free to share other tools out there and your own experiences.

[Matt Blackstock]

How do people currently use social networks in their professional lives? Are there any particular ways participants currently use social networks for training and educational purposes? Is it advantageous to you or just 'techno-fluff'?

I have had the facebook experience, although the drunken photos were of other people :). I am currently playing about with 'LinkedIn', and this is my first experience with 'Ning'. I am curious to find any 'outside the square' uses people have discovered.

Feel free to give examples, no matter how 'out there' they seem ;D.

[Rheinard Korf]

The question about social networks is an interesting one. Recently at a conference here in Australia there has been some mention about students wanting their social life to be theirs and keep teachers out of their "space"... but I still get students sending me invites on Facebook.

One of our teachers have had the unfortunate experience of a student sending him photos that could've landed him in quite a bit of trouble. He's since stopped accepting student invites and I've stopped quite a while ago.

I have a LinkedIn account, but as yet, only one friend who happened to find me. Being on too many social networks just doesn't appeal to me... keeping track of facebook, linkedin, ning groups, wiziq etc... becomes a bit much and can have a negative effect on my productivity... I cant imagine a world without RSS to help keep me sane :)

[Catherine Lombardozzi]

My biggest concern is about risks associated with sharing information. I spend a lot of time telling young people to be careful about what they say about themselves on line, and yet I am pretty exposed myself - even before I join a LinkedIn or other social networking site. I'd like to understand better what is possible and useful in social networking sites like LinkedIn and Facebook before I sign up - Ning seemed a safer choice as a first place to start, and I now belong to two groups.

[Hilda Cove]

I too would like to learn how people use social networking professionally. What’s the time commitment for the average user? How do people manage the multiple networks? Specifically, I’m interested in LinkedIn and Ning – two networks I’m not familiar with.

[Douglas Flather]

I use Linkedin (it helped me land my current job), my teenagers are hooked on facebook, Ning is great, and I've used Wikis for project collaboration, but I just don't get twitter. I'd love to learn about how people use this tool in ways that don't seem to simply broadcast the trivial. [smile]

[Skip Olsen]

I went to Pageflake site. Clicked on random flakecasts. How can i search for pageflakes that are related to a topic?

[Michele Martin]

These are all great questions, everyone--very helpful for us to consider in putting together the first module. Keep them coming!

[Michele Martin]

Hi Skip--I'm not a big PageFlakes user, but I believe that if you go here and type in the keywords of topics that interest you, you will probably find some things.


Skip Olsen said:

I went to Pageflake site. Clicked on random flakecasts. How can i search for pageflakes that are related to a topic?

[Cicero Mukes]

I have no problem using Facebook or LinkedIn for staying connected with existing relationship or initiating mutual relationships; however, for people that I don't know and where there may only be an implied connection of "I'm trying to figure out how to utilize a wiki on a training project." I'm not sure how to make that connection.

Time is also a factor. I'm finally at a point in my life where I'm ruthless with cutting out activities that don't align with my personal and professional goals. Now that I'm not constantly checking email, the last thing I want to do is to continually check my wall on Facebook or look at tweets.

So I'm looking to find out how to participate so that there is mutual benefit.

[Virginia Yonkers]

I would like to know how to manage the information flows in social networks. I have been part of Ning groups before, but find it overwhelming, very quickly because there seems to be multiple inputs for information. It sort of feels like a classroom with too much noise and side conversations. As a teacher, we learn how to manage that. As a student we learn how to ignore the chatter. How do we do this in the social network environment? (I find LinkedIn is much easier to navigate through the networks, partly because of the contact list features and degrees of network).

[Collin Kromke]

I'm struggling with the separation of Personal 2.0 and Work 2.0. For example, I have 2 twitter accounts - one for work and one for personal. I don't know if this course will answer that, but maybe others are struggling with the same issue and can help with a solution.