7th Post - Testdrive 4 Social networking

Hi Blog,

PERSONAL: here I am again at the end of my short working week and staying back to blog - I enjoyed the Commoncraft video as usual - a great start to looking at the latest testdrive despite the apalling accent - this time much shorter but very good and sharp. TWITTER has amazing ramifications - for politics that is, and maybe libraries too but that still has to be proved - and the THESIS I looked at the other week that wasn't about wikis it was about TWITTER AND CATALOGUING/THE CATALOGUE - not that I've really read it but I will - to prove to myself that the astounding success political parties have created with twitter also applies to libraries - maybe not yet ...

The EXPLOSIAN talked about, by organising tweets and making them searchable is proved by the events in IRAN - the opposition used twitter to organise their huge massive street rallies whilst the government was trying to shut down all social network sites - when Twitter was going to shut down for an afternoon for housekeeping they begged it not to because they relied on it totally for their communication

PROFESSIONAL: Libraries use of social network sites

IFLA's use of FACEBOOK:
they supply a website which interestingly is an old archived one which says "check back later" Maybe Facebook has taken over the role of providing content and discussion.

ALIA'S USE OF NING:

For their symposium using FACEBOOK and ninging - noticed the GOOGLE ADS at the right hand side
Networking for library workers sounds good. "UNDERGOING MAINTENANCE" was prominent - a work in progress.

GAMING NING:
An important public library issue - gaming learning - hard to see if you don't actually join in - a few members which is good and growing - "2 new members"

UQ - SEARCHING THE CATALOGUE VIA FACEBOOK:
Well, not really huge success yet .... but maybe potential ... has 5 monthly users which is a good start - presume they are students or maybe staff. I visited their wall and no recent posts , reviews or discussion - BUT MAYBE SOON! it's all set up ready to go

NON LIBRARY USE:
BIFF'S USE OF MYSPACE
This was the best looking site, well designed, very colourful - the VODCASTS using UTUBE were pretty blurred and the voices indistinct - but maybe that is from my end. Had clear info. on opening nights and volunteers.

All in all the explosian seems to have happened outside library arenas - in the political hotspot of the world. But very much a work in progress and libraries have been quick to use TWITTER - now if only I had the time to read that thesis!!!.... on twitter and cataloguing ..... at twit treat to come... over and out for no. 4

BIFF ON MYSPACE