Module 6 - Facebook, Ning and LinkedIn

About the same time as starting this Web 2.0 learning experience, I decided to get in on the facebook act.  It was the mention of facebook that drew my attention to this online learning, as I was interested in it for catching up on long lost school friends.  After looking at MySpace I sure prefer facebook.  It is easier to use and has a community feel that I didn't get from MySpace.  

Back in the old analogue days of pen and ink, I travelled to the USA as an exchange student during year 11 of high school.  The 20 year anniversary of which is looming, and I was wanting to make contact with people from school prior to a planned return visit.  In the last few weeks I have been able to find three old school mates in the US, plus a bunch of other people.  I can definitely see the attraction for people to facebook, it is very easy to loose track of time whiling away the hours searching for friends, and wasting time with all the applications available.  

Of course, I am now a fan of Yarra Plenty Regional Library and I have added the YPRL application to my profile for searching the catalogue from facebook.  

When reading the resource material, it was interesting to see how the ability to spread information and contacts has been capitalised upon by companies creating facebook applications.  The idea of applications spreading like a virus is easy to witness amongst my own friends.  As soon as one person adds an application, it only takes a short while before others follow suit.  I can only see FB getting bigger and bigger and bigger.....  

I also joined up with Ning and LinkedIn, the other networking sites mentioned on the Web 2.0 blog.  For me, Ning was great and I lost a few hours wondering around sites related to my field of work.  LinkedIn was much the same, there were a number of groups related to my field of work, but they were created for and by overseas organisations.  At this time, I don't really have a need to create a network of professional contacts, particularly overseas.  It would be more relevant if there were Australian based groups, and I suspect it is only a matter of time.  

Next stop, second life...?