Social networking in the 21st Century

Social Networking and communication.
Times are changing rapidly with today’s technologies. It used to be if you wanted to talk to a friend or colleague that you picked up a phone. Then the later part of the 20th Century brought bulletinboard, listserves, instant messaging, and chatrooms into focus. Today the tools for the 21st Century have provided a wealth of tools to connect, collaborate, and share information and experiences with others.

Some of those 21st Century tools are:
Bookmarks (Del.ici.o.us )
SMS Messaging
Chats (audio & video) – iChat Av, Skype, Voice thread, various web-based apps
Video Streaming
Blogging
Podcasting
Nings
Digg -- Stumbleupon -- Technorati
Tagging, Folksonomies

What are some of these tools?
Digg http://digg.com/about
Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, Digg surfaces the best stuff as voted on by our users. You won’t find editors at Digg— they are set up to provide a place where people can collectively determine the value of content, and we’re changing the way people consume information online.

Stumbleupon http://www.stumbleupon.com/ Channel surf the internet with the StumbleUpon toolbar to find great websites, videos, photos, and more. StumbleUpon learns what you like and brings you more.

Technorati http://technorati.com/
Technorati is an Internet search engine for searching blogs, competing with Google and Yahoo. As of June 2008, Technorati indexes 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media. [1] The name Technorati is a portmanteau, pointing to the technological version of literati or intellectuals.

Tag (metadata), a keyword or term associated with or assigned to a piece of information. (Wikipedia)
Tagging- The idea of “tagging” content is suddenly everywhere. With Flickr and del.icio.us and Technorati embracing the concept of tags, suddenly it’s getting some broad acceptance.

Folksonomy (2004)- Folksonomy (also known as collaborative tagging, social classification, social indexing, and social tagging) is the practice and method of collaboratively creating and managing tags to annotate and categorize content. In contrast, to traditional subject indexing, metadata is generated not only by experts but also by creators and consumers of the content. Usually, freely chosen keywords are used instead of a controlled vocabulary. [1] Folksonomy is a portmanteau of the words folk and taxonomy, hence, a folksonomy is a user generated taxonomy. Two widely cited examples of websites using folksonomic tagging are Flickr and del.icio.us.
The term folksonomy is generally attributed to Thomas Vander Wal. [5] It is a portmanteau of the words folk (or folks) and taxonomy that specifically refers to subject indexing systems created within Internet communities. (Wikipedia)

Bookmarks – Delicious – makes use of tagging and networking
Using Del.icio.us http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1pOsYjCvE8&feature=related
Networking with: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uyw_wJr3zwQ
Quick tour: http://del.icio.us/help/firefox/bookmarks/quicktour

Ning
“is an online platform for users to create their own social websites and social networks [1], launched in October 2005? Ning was co-founded by Marc Andreessen and Gina Bianchini. Ning is Andreessen's third startup (after Netscape and Opsware), and gets much of its notability from Andreessen's successes with those companies.” Wikipedia
What is a ning? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVHzeF_zoTc
Ning by an employee http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPPtsC1bhSo&feature=related
Ning as a private network http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVhCUp2Tef0&feature=related
Gina Bianchini, the CEO of Ning

How to set up a ning
Part1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeArbJ8JxrI&feature=related
Part2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paG7ycKQuk0&feature=related
Part3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLDlHrWq3bU&feature=related

How to set up your BASIC NING in 9 easy steps

1. First start by going to Ning.com and sign up for an account with NING.
Then click on the button that asks you to start your own network.
2. Choose a name your network and choose an address
(most choices can be changed but not the web address).
3. Create and enter a description of your ning’s activities and
upload a logo (if you want).
4. Then choose the features you want to start with for your layout. Don't panic- you can change this at anytime. Just think about how you want your participants to interact: writing stories and commenting in BLOGS, having debates or conversations in FORUMS and etc.
5. Choose your color scheme for your layout pattern.
6. Choose to make it public or private. You will be able to change this choice later.
7. Choose what questions your participants will answer in their profiles.
8. Click Launch! You are now ready to go live!
9. You are now up and running. Everything can be altered and changed by using the MANAGE toolbar at the top. Now why don't you invite your friends to join you?

In summary this is what you need to think about beforehand.
Name:
Address: _______. ning.com click create your network. Go to next step
Next add details:
Tagline
Description:
Keywords: collaboration, macintosh, Apple, MacUser, Web2.0, graphics, multimedia
Decide which features are included and where laid out. Drag and drop into one of three columns.
Click on next when you have decided on format
Next step is to decide on color theme and change the various colors and fonts to taste

Last decide about information about members……public or private
Send out information (can even import address book
Decide what none members see when they come on the page and your automated message
Next stage… decide on questions to ask members (ex. Do you have PS or elements?)
Get a summary of what you decided as a summary

Now launch your site and start connecting with your colleagues and students. A word of caution when working with students. Using first names and/or initials will protect their privacy.