Friday, March 28, 2008

Thing 21 -- Ning & Other Social Networks

03/28/2008
Ning -- Ok so I joined 23 Things On A Stick Ning. I posted a comment (liked the Dewy pic) on Cheryl's Ning. I changed my settings on my Ning. I've added a Ning badge to the right. And I uploaded some pics ... see widget below:

[will have to come back to this ... can't get it to work right now ... bummer!]

I think it would have been a good thing to have had us all join the 23 Things On A Stick Ning near the beginning of the Learning Program. I think it would have provided us a better way to interact with each other. At times I felt like Darin -- am I the only one out there? do they know I'm here? Especially since we were supposed to be commenting on other participants' blogs. Oh, well .... Ning was/is fun from what I've seen in this little glimpse.

WebJunction -- I've glanced at this site a few times but I usually forget about it until I get an e-mail that mentions it or something on the site. I did sign up for a freebie self-paced class but I put that on hold until I finish with the 23 Things.

gather -- I snooped around the site but that's about it ... maybe I'll come back to it another time.

Thing 20 -- Facebook and MySpace

03/28/2008
Facebook:
I've had a Facebook acct for a little while ... I set it up originally with the intent to see if it would be a good way to connect with students at our college. We have enrollment of about 1100 but our Facebook network only has about 70 members (including alums) so for the time involved I decided not to pursue it ... but I will keep it in mind for the future.

As for personal use, I keep in touch w/a friend but we were doing that anyway via e-mail. I "friended" Lydia from our 23 things learners after I read her plea that she was feeling pitiful without friends. From the assignment instructions I wrote on several walls, and I joined a few more groups (ALA, Library 2.0, AILA, Librarians and Facebook) -- I had done both these things previously but what the heck. I looked around for additional friends to add, but I wasn't too successful in finding people I knew in my age group (yes, over 20 or so!) I did find lots of my daughter's and son's friends (okay that gives you a clue as to my age ... but it's only chronological not in mind & actions!!). I sent a msg to one of my daughter's best friends who has always called me "mom" ... I didn't want to invade her life by asking to be "friended" ... I just wanted to say "hi". Well she "friended" me! Something I'm sure none of my kids would do!! Even so, this is my pledge that I will NOT be a noisy snooper in Laura's Facebook so her friends can rest easy.

MySpace:
I've been out on MySpace before but I've never setup an account & I probably won't do so for personal use. And even though libraries are out there on MySpace I don't think at this point in time that I'd take the time & effort to create a site for our library.

I've thought of MySpace as "wilder" than Facebook but after reading in HS Media Musings that he found (accidently) a Facebook group for having sex in the library I'm not too sure about that statement anymore! I view MySpace as more of a private (that does get public) way for people to express themselves and interact with friends. And I'd take bets that my kids and their friends would not add me as a friend and that's okay. I should add that my "kids" are adults (20 somthings) not teens.