Week 5 (Jun 21 - 28)

Learning 2.0 @ HKUST Week 5 Activity: Social Networking Services & Facebook

Social Networking Services

The advent of Web 2.0 technologies are fundamentally changing the way we live, work and interact. Some of the applications that we have looked at earlier, such as del.icio.us, do allow groups to work together and facilitate collaboration. In particular, there are social networking services that have been created to draw groups of people together to share interest and knowledge. You have probably heard about Facebook, and we will look at this popular Web 2.0 application this week.

The online social network services build communities by connecting people who share interest or activities on the Web. They provide a variety of ways for users to interact including e-mail service, instant messaging, etc. More or less, these social networks do share some common characteristics:

(I) Creating Profile

When you sign up for a social networking service (e.g. Facebook), the first thing you have to do is to create your profile. The profile is just like your online resume that used to keep your up-to-date information.

(II) Connecting with Friends

In fact, this is the most important characteristics of a social network service which allows to add another user as a friend or a contact. For example, Facebook was initially started by Mark Zuckerberg and his friends in 2004; they use Facebook "to stay in touch with each other and to create a better understanding among college students" [1].

(III) Creating/Joining Groups

Groups are mostly used for discussions and events; they offer a good channel for people who share the same interest or specific topic. Utilizing "Groups" with a business context is extremely popular. For example, Sony Hong Kong use Facebook Group as a medium for engaging customers and building loyalty. Flickr, an online photo management and sharing application; also allows users to create groups and share content/discussions (we'll cover Flickr later in the program). Libraries also use Facebook Groups to communicate with, educate and attract new users. Here are a few examples:

• Hong Kong University Libraries
• Lingnan University Library
• MIT Lewis Music Library

In addition to Facebook, some of the popular social networking sites are LinkedIn, MySpace, Friendster, Meebo, Twitter, QQ, etc. For example, LinkedIn, is a tool for connecting with people specifically for career networking. In some cases, these sites have slightly different goals and target users than Facebook.

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Introduction to Facebook

Facebook was started in 2004 by a Harvard student, Mark Zuckerberg; it was intended to profile his friends in school. Since then, it becomes one of the most popular social networking sites with more than 400 million active users (Source:Facebook Statistics). New tools and services have been added to Facebook over the past few years which all aim to provide connectivity along entertainment to users.

Facebook Features

Again, many social networking sites have very similar functionalities such as tagging, instant messaging, searching friends, etc. Below is a list of some interesting applications in Facebook.

Wall - the wall is just like a notice board that allows you to "update your status and share content through many different kinds of wall posts" (Source: Facebook Help Center).

Poke - there is no clear definition about poke; it can be considered as an easy way to call attention to yourself and interact with friends on Facebook.

Gift - the gift is a very popular application on Facebook. It has been commonly used by Facebook users to "exchange social capital, express affection, and build rapport" [2] between friends.

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Weekly Activity

Finding out about Facebook:

You don't have to sign up for a Facebook account to complete this activity, but if you do, you will have a better understanding of how the sites works by joining it.

1. Go to HKUST Learning 2.0 Group on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=135105719836783)
2. Explore various features on this page (e.g. Discussion, Photos)
3. What do you think about Facebook? Leave your comment on this blog post.
4. If you already have a Facebook account, join the HKUST Learning 2.0 Group. You are welcome to give us feedback about the Group on the Wall. We would also like to know if the Library is going to create a Facebook account, how can we attract more students/staff to join us?

That's all for this week. If you have any questions about using Facebook, contact your group leader or Kevin. Please also feel free to visit our villagers' blogs. Some of them are very good and interesting. See you next week!

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Further Readings (Optional)

There are lots more to say about Facebook, and I would recommend these books to anyone interesting about Facebook.

[1] Brown, R.W. (2009). Facebook advanced 2.0: the social networking and web marketing guide for Internet and computer guru's everywhere! Scotts Valley, CA: CreateSpace. p7.

[2] Shih, Clara (2009). The Facebook era: tapping online social networks to build better products, reach new audiences, and sell more stuff. Boston: Prentice Hall. p178.