Recently in Social Networking Category

I didn't have to wait until Easter to learn that my grandniece got into graduate school. (Go, Briana!)  Dave forgot to tell me that Bonnie got a Group 4 at the dog show last week. But now I know. In all the years that we've been taking a family picture at Christmas, I've never seen the final product.  Until this year.  And I have Facebook to thank for it.

I've been connecting with my professional network via LinkedIn for some time, and then there's Twitter, but I wouldn't dream of subjecting other librarians to the details and video of my latest dog agility run. So I'd been thinking a personal social network for sharing information about my dog-related activities would be fun. But what good is a social network, if none of your friends are there?  Then, a couple of months ago, my friend Sally said she'd joined Facebook and suggested I'd be surprised at who I might find there.  She was right.  I found friends, relatives, and an easy way to keep up with them all. 

I'm not the only one.  The number of Americans over 35, 45, and 55 on Facebook is growing fast. In the last 60 days alone, the number of people over 35 has nearly doubled.  (Inside Facebook:Number of US Facebook Users Over 35 Nearly Doubles in Last 60 Days)   Women over 55 are the fastest growing demographic. Yes, this is the same Facebook that started as an online haven for college students. As I told my nephew when I found him in Facebook, it's the invasion of the baby boomers. 

So how long before the kids run screaming from the virtual room because their aunts, uncles, parents and others are now watching their every move on Facebook?       

I've got a Twitter theme going here, so I might as well run with it!

In blogging's early days, blogs weren't recognized as a valuable information source but as time went on, researchers acknowledged that there was some good content out there. Now, perhaps it's Twitter that's underestimated, especially if you're looking for what's being said about a company or product.

That didn't occur to me until I ready this LawyerKM entry, Twitter as a Knowledge Base and Expertise Resources, and I started searching Twitter.

You could be excused for not realizing you can search Twitter. There is no link to the Twitter search that I could find on my Twitter home page. But go to http://search.twitter.com and give it a whirl. I searched for a fairly unique company name, which is how I found out that Bloomberg has a Twitter, as does Singapore News. Since I'm researching rumors about said company, I added an RSS feed to Google Reader so I could continue to monitor new tweets on the subject.

Here's another example for you. I'm was quite enamored with the Roomba I purchased last year. However, after months of diligently cleaning up after my dogs, the little guy just couldn't take it any more and Roomba was retired to the trash bin. I'm in the market for another one, but am hesitating because I don't want to pay $300 for a cleaning device that is just going to choke on dog fur. I searched Twitter to see how others like the cleaning robot and cool, someone mentions a new version of irobot's Pet Series Roomba has just been introduced. Life is good.

There's an advanced Twitter search in addition to the basic if you need more specificity.

If you want to know what web pages Twitterers are talking about, try Twit(URL)y, as recommended by Stephen Cohen in Top Tools for the Twittersphere, (Information Today, June 2008). I'm adding this one to my RSS reader. When I visited, a video of a couple of Repulican pundits talking on MSNBC about Sarah Palin when they thought the mic was off was at the top of the list. Now I'm watching Jon Stewart's take on Sarah Palin. Okay, I could do this all day.

Everybody's talking...

This is day 2 of my Twitter experiment and I must say it's not really what I expected. I thought I'd be throwing isolated tweets out into Twitter-space, similar to blogging. Blogging is generally a solitary endeavor. You write a blog entry and publish it. If you're lucky, you get some comments and some interaction, but often not. Twitter is a big group conversation, and it just keeps going and going.... As jbnann said "It's evolving into a gigantic party with brief conversations with interesting people. You swoop in and trade and move on."

Of course, there's a certain amount of pressure. People are following me! I should I think of something witty and intelligent to say! Ummm, yeah, well, some days are better than others in that area. :-)

The tool I'm using to monitor Twitter, Twhirl, was recommended in Stephen Cohen's article "Top Tools for the Twittersphere" in the June 2008 issue of Information Today. I have a twhirl window open right now on my second monitor, and the tweets just stream on by.

It's a little ironic. I've been working hard this month to get some control over my email. I'm diligently unsubscribing from the inevitable spam in my inbox. I'm creating filters to direct email to the proper folder. I'm trying to reduce email distractions. So now I can concentrate on the distraction that is Twitter. I probably need to ration my Twitter-ing.

So, this is fun, but is it useful? I actually CAN see some benefits in an enterprise environment. Maybe you're on a project team, and you follow your team member's Twitter stream, so you know exactly what they're doing, what they need help with, etc. It definitely has potential as a collaboration tool.

If you want to know more about Twitter you can hear Jim Milles talk about Twitter with Richard Leiter on BlogTalkRadio. He also wrote about Twitter and Online Community on his blog Buffalo Wings and Toasted Ravioli.

Only time will tell if I end up with a Twitter hangover. :-)

I've always considered myself a practical person, especially when it comes to technology. I didn't warm to computers right away, until I started to see real benefits. I don't really "play" with technology.

So, that brings me to Twitter. I've been struggling with the idea of Twitter for a while now. I have to admit, I don't really get it. For those of you who don't know, Twitter is a social networking tool that let's you log very short (140 characters) entries. Your friends can subscribe to your Twitter, and know your every move, should you be inclined to post updates regularly. Many Twitter'ers (?) use cell phones and PDAs to post tweats wherever they might be.

Similar to blogs when they first became popular, Twitters are known for being fairly banal. Have a good dinner? Send out a tweet to all your followers. Bored? Let the world know.

I noted my favorite useful application of Twitter during the last fire season. I can see some uses at work, for example, you could use a Twitter like application to let your co-workers and/or boss know where you are and what you're doing every minute of the day. Hmm, that has its downsides, too.

I'm making an effort to revisit Twitter as a result of a couple of blogs on the topic of Twitter and KM: LawyerKM has a Twitter. Kevin at Lexblog claims that there are actually law firms on Twitter in his entry, Twitter use among legal professionals is growing. He claims Twitter grows on you. Okay, well, we'll see.

I'm going to try to Twitter for a week. I promise not to tweet about missing my train, or the sandwich I'm having for lunch. But I WILL try to note various and sundry thoughts that cross my mind about topics similar to the ones covered in this blog. It is probably inevitable that I include a few dog-related tweats. I'll embed my Twitter stream here, and you, my fair readers, can tell me if you think Twitter is a useful tool, or a waste of time.

If you know nothing about Twitter, and are wondering how to get started, here's a Common Craft video, Twitter in Plain English:

Live! From Internet Librarian!

There's been a lot of talk about social networking sites, including Facebook. So just for fun, here's a video posted by Darlene Fichter at today's mashups program - Facebook Song