The Social Networking Girl

I’m not sure if it’s because I’m getting older or wiser, but I find that more and more of my time these days is spent putting things into perspective and making decisions about what is important to me. I started out this year telling myself that I would only spend time doing things that were ’soul-stirring’ for me. So far I think I’m doing a decent job of that, but I have to stop occasionally and reevaluate where I am.  I know that I’m the kind of person that can get very wrapped up in things. I’m really eager to participate and join new communities and make a difference.  I’m also the kind of person that has had trouble saying ‘no’ to things in the past.

I’m doing better with it though, and starting to make decisions based on how valuable my time is to me, and how much of an impact I think I can have on things I’m doing and.. here’s the big one - how IMPORTANT is this to me in the whole scheme of things.

I read an older post today on 43 Folders and the very last item on the list helped, once again, to bring things into perspective:
Get pickier - You are the sole person in your life who gets to decide where your time and attention can go. Take that responsibility seriously by not wasting time on junk. You know in your heart what’s really important to you — does the current direction of your time and attention reflect that? Is “kid hugging” time where it should be in proportion to “Blackberry checking” time? Be mindful at the highest level about where you focus your energy, and always strive not to squander it on undeserving activities.

And there it is. Perspective.  For me though, it’s not that activities are ‘undeserving’ - not at all, in fact. Most of the things I’m saying “no” to these days are very deserving and are things that I’d probably enjoy doing - *IF* I had unlimited time - but I don’t.

Social media and social networking are powerful amazing things. I thank my lucky stars every single day to be part of such wonderful online communities.  That being said, if I let myself get completely wrapped up in every single community, every single event, every single committee, every single meeting.. I have no time for me.  I need time for me. I’m better for everything else, when I take care of “me” first.

The new CEO of Linden Lab visited Global Kids today where a group of teenagers were working in both New York and Chicago learning about Tanzania as part of the “I Dig Tanzania” program.  Mark Kingdon spoke with the students and seemed to be really impressed with the work they’re doing.

Some quotes from the video where Mark talks about his feelings related to Global Kids and Second Life:

I, for one, couldn’t agree more.

The blog post and video are here.

Saw this post this morning on one of my favorite blogs, The Bamboo Project Blog, by Michele Martin. I love her blog and find something valuable there on a daily basis. Truly.  Michele’s post refers to a post by Christine Martell that refers to a learning framework by Ray Jimenez on social media and learning.

In reading Michele’s post I was thinking about how this still relates to the discussion that we’ve been having in our local learning community recently about “open invitations” to participate and the desire to involve everyone.

As Michele points out, some of our learners might certainly be ready to participate, but perhaps not in the way we would want them to, or in the way we think they should.  I think this is really important.  We may feel that it’s easy and perfectly natural to comment on blogs, edit wikis, and take part in online conversations and even if we extend an invitation to others, it may not work.  We can open our arms as wide as we can, have snacks and refreshments waiting for them, and we may still not have anyone come to our party. Why? Not because they are refusing to participate.. they’re uncomfortable with the ways we’re asking them to participate.

Not only do we need to think about inviting people to be part of our community, discussions, and learning but we need to be aware of the different levels and know where our co-workers are.

I think most of us agree that we want our learners and co-workers to be creators and contributors, but they may not be ready for that. They may not feel comfortable starting a blog, creating virtual content or even editing your wiki. In fact, I feel completely comfortable as a content creator and even I’m intimidated by editing a wiki. No idea what it is, but I’m always a little hesitant to do it.

That being said, these are all things to think about as we think more about “Open Content” and invitations to participate.  Not everyone’s ready for the four-course meal. We might need to just offer some appetizers at first. At least that way, everyone’s at the party.

There’s been a lot of discussion happening in my world related to learning design and learning spaces. The local Penn State community has been talking about the Learning Design Summer Camp and the way that it’s being organized.  The entire concept behind it is that it’s now up to the community to organize it, plan it, and make it happen.   The recent blog posts by Cole Camplese and Chris Stubbs talk about this, and start the conversation about Web 2.0 and open participation.  You should really read both if you have time.. they’re worth it.

Those posts have now led me to think about learning spaces as well.  I will be speaking at several upcoming conferences related to virtual learning spaces, and how we are rethinking where learning can actually take place.  As I start to toss all these things around in my head, it’s as though our entire culture is so close to the edge of change that I feel as though I should put up some signs or something to let everyone know that it’s all about to explode… and in a big way.  I think that the more we dive into the meaning of community and participation online, the ‘water cooler’ no longer exists in the back corner of the office, but on websites, mobile phones, and in these tools of technology that are changing our lives.  We’re no longer stuck asking our office mate if they know how to do something, because we truly.. have a world of knowledge at our fingertips. If we’re feeling particularly personal we can twitter a request that no doubt, several people will answer. If we’d rather remain a little more quiet, we can ask Google who will provide us with so much information on any particular topic that we’ll have to filter it ourselves.

I’ve been asked to participate in several EDUCAUSE sessions this fall and winter to discuss learning spaces and initiatives. Initially I was really focused on the spaces I’m creating in Second Life for our online students.  More and more though, I’m seeing that almost every online community and conversation is a learning space in itself.  Like so many other people have been saying lately, this is a very exciting time to be thinking about our culture and how we learn and communicate.

Yay Ning. I’m supposed to love Ning, right? I have to say that I belong to several Ning groups and so far, I’m just not ‘getting’ it. Hopefully some of you can help me shed some light onto why this is something I should become really passionate about and invested in.

Every time I get an invite to join a Ning group a little shudder of excitement comes over me. I love being part of online communities and being invited to join one always makes me happy.  Then when I sign in, I am asked, every time mind you,  to create a profile page. Every time. I’m uploading the same photo, entering the same profile info.. every time. Is this something I can just save somewhere because wow is that a pain. Anyone?

I’m also just not sure what value Ning will add for me. Right now it just seems like one more place to say the same things I’m saying elsewhere. I don’t want to make another blog, I don’t want to make another profile and I don’t want to have one more thing I have to check-up on, or keep up with. Again, if there’s something I’m missing with Ning, let me know.. because right now.. I’m not sure I “get” it.

I think maybe if you were someone who didn’t have your own blog (blogs?) or domain, or twitter feed, or friendfeed, or jaiku, or plurk account, or Facebook page, or Flickr account, etc… then maybe Ning would be  a neat place to put all those things, but as it is.. well, I’m just not sure.

I completely understand the value of networks and online communities. I definitely also think that Ning has some great features and would be a fantastic spot to have your own ’social network’ if you didn’t already BELONG to a bunch of different social networks.  I am sure there’s some benefit to Ning that I just don’t know, or that I don’t understand at this point, but from my own experience so far.. I’m not getting a ton of value from it.  Value is a big deal to me these days. I’m finding more and more that the most valuable thing I own is my time and unless a new tool can either save me time or make it worth my time then I’m likely to not fall in love with it.

We’ve had some discussion recently among the local twitter community here at Penn State about how many people we all follow on twitter.. and why.  The consensus was that most of us try to follow no more than 100 people and all for the same basic reason… it’s not beneficial. At more than 100 people, conversations begin to become fragmented and you can’t really feel connected to more than that many people.  While this may not be the case for everyone, the majority of the people I’ve spoken with at Penn State feel this way.

It was interesting then, to read this post from ReadWriteWeb today discussing this very thing. An excerpt from the post here:

“Research by Robin Dunbar indicates that 100 to 150 is the approximate natural group size in which everyone can really know everyone else. “Human beings ought to live in groups of around 150 people, judging from the logarithm of our brain size; and sure enough, studies of hunter-gatherer groups, military units, and city dwellers’ address books suggest that 100 to 150 is the natural group size within which people can know just about everyone directly,” writes Jonathan Haidt in the book “The Happiness Hypothesis,” drawing on research by Dunbar.”

The post also discusses the difference between the amount of friends a person might have on Facebook as opposed to twitter and for me there’s a difference.  I feel as though I could have a million ‘friends’ on Facebook and be fine with that because it’s not conversational in the way twitter is.  It’s like the difference between a dinner party and attending a Penn State football game. I’m ok hanging around with thousands of people as long as I don’t really want to get to know all of them. If I want to spend quality time with them.. then I’d prefer the dinner party.

A few weeks ago I received an email asking me if I would be interested in trying out a new tool/technology called Vivaty.  I did a quick twitter poll asking if anyone knew anything about Vivaty to which NO ONE responded (Seriously people.. what the heck). So that told me that either no one knew anything about Vivaty, or no one felt like telling me about it so I figured I was on my own and I’d give it a whirl just to see what it was about.

This past week I was able to take part in a conference call and demonstration with Keith McCurdy, the President and CEO of Vivaty, and I gotta say.. I think this has potential. Keith introduced himself by saying that he worked previously for Electronic Arts and had developed Vivaty as a platform and wanted to get my impressions.  We used WebEx so Keith was able to walk me through some “scenes” and show me what you’re able to do while we discussed it.

In a nutshell, from my point of view, Vivaty allows you to log into a ’scene’ which is your own personal virtual environment. You have an avatar that you create with very simple choices.. not great amounts of avatar customization right up front but in my opinion.. that’s a good thing. Sometimes that stuff can be a little (a lot?) overwhelming at first. So anyway.. you log into your ’scene’ and you’re able to invite others to come join you. The scene that Keith showed me was sort of a patio area with a pool and some outdoor furniture but apparently there are/will be many others to choose from as well.  As we were hanging out at Keith’s pool he showed me how users can move objects/furniture around to customize their area and make it more unique.  It felt to me very much like a Second Life environment, but with one difference.. it’s web-based. No intensive graphic requirements, no huge processor, no leaving people out because they don’t have a powerful graphics card capable of running it.. very nice.

Another fantastic thing Vivaty can do is take YouTube URLs and allow them to be embedded in the scene and viewed by anyone that’s present in that area. There were also photos on the wall that were brought in from a Flickr RSS feed.  Vivaty is almost like a big mash-up of web content in a fantastically neat virtual package.

Vivaty is currently in beta and being used in Facebook. I’ve been invited and if any of my readers are interested, I do have some other beta invites that I can toss your way and get you included.. PC only at this point, it seems. I was a little disappointed with that because I do prefer my mac, but it’s not a deal-breaker.

Vivaty Pros:
Web-based
Immersive
Customizable
Can pull web-content from other sites into environment (YouTube, Flickr, etc)
No risk of ugly, inappropriate ’scenes’ to interfere with your space
Seems to be very user-friendly and easy to understand/navigate
More control over your environment/space

Vivaty Cons:
Still in beta
Other than the discussion with me, there was no real consideration about educational uses, but in all fairness, they did say that these were things they hadn’t thought about, but would now consider.

From my perspective, Vivaty has a lot going for it. If you can restrict your logins to a specific group (or class) you can easily have a defined, secure, virtual environment that’s community-based where groups of people can meet, discuss and view web-content together. If we were able to use a tool like this within ANGEL, for instance, allowing each online class to have their own virtual room where the entire class could meet I can see a lot of potential there for some really wonderful interactions.

I’m pleased to have been asked to provide some input and check things out and I’m looking forward to playing around with Vivaty.  I’m hopeful that they’ll keep educational institutions in mind as they progress forward and I can’t wait to see what opportunities this will present.  A big thank you to Raksha, Keith and Heidi.

A few months ago I saw on someone’s blog (I’m so sorry I can’t remember where) that the Women’s Technology Empowerment Center was looking for volunteers for their “Networking for Success” program. This program teaches women in Nigeria how to use Web 2.0 technologies and tools to advance their work, network, and manage projects.

I’m received an email today that I have been selected and they will be sending out the schedule within the next two weeks. I have to say that I am so looking forward to this opportunity and can’t wait to get involved. The program runs May - July with each volunteer being asked to give a week of their time to blog and engage in discussions with the participants. I think I’m slotted for July so I have to wait for a few weeks, but I’m sure I’ll blog here about the experience.

The older I get the more I seem to be drawn to the fact that what it’s “all about” is really and truly just helping others and doing what you can to make this world a better place. I know that sounds very “*eye roll*” but I honestly think it’s true. Whether we’re helping someone else learn, grow or adapt, I’m not sure there’s anything more fulfilling, and I always seem to end up learning twice as much as I’m teaching.

Just came across this post on ReadWriteWeb that references a study that will appear in New Scientist Magazine that has found that things like blogs, instant messaging and social media sites are better than traditional media in times of emergency because they connect people and provide warnings in real-time.

It’s a really great post and definitely worth reading. I love that they’ve used real examples of how all of these sites and tools have really been useful recently. They’ve also shown the real value of using these things in emergency situations.

I wonder.. with the proliferation of blogs, twitterers and people using these tools, if at some point “traditional” media will disappear. It seems, at least for myself, that more and more I’m tired of the ‘drama’ that old-school media brings to the table and I just want to get the quick, honest assessment from a ‘real’ person on the front lines.

My job is all about bringing people together through the use of technology. I absolutely love it and have no qualms about saying that I think I have one of the best jobs ever. I would never have thought in a million years when I was playing L.O.R.D. on my friend’s BBS in 1994/95 that I’d now have the job title of “Social Networks Adviser”.  I’ve said before though (and I’m saying it again) that I truly and strongly believe that there is such power in online communities. It becomes so much more than the sum of its parts and even saying that it’s synergistic seems to be an understatement.

My journey into social networking started on a friend’s BBS. I met the friend because she hired me (in an interview at my local Dairy Queen, no less) to work in the chiropractic clinic that she managed. She started her own BBS and told me about it. After we purchased our first computer (Macintosh PowerPC) and I connected to her local BBS, I was hooked.  Not long after that the internet arrived in our little town (oooooo). A friend I met on the BBS told me about IRC and I started hanging out there.  That friend led to others and over the course of time, I grew to know many people and became an IRCop on dal.net  (It was a big deal at the time, trust me).  During those “IRC” years, I met and made so many connections online that people started hosting offline ‘gathers’ in their area and friends would travel all over the country to meet people in person. I attended several of these events and it was like a family reunion each and every time.  In 1999 while I was hanging out in an IRC channel on dal.net called #ircbar (which is funny because I really don’t drink that much) I met a man who would later become my husband, but I certainly didn’t know that at the time either.

Skip forward a few years and now social networking takes on an entirely different meaning with completely new tools. We’re using twitter, virtual worlds, blogs, video, podcasts, etc.. to connect with people in ways we never could before. We’re chatting and connecting and making new friends that might live halfway across the world from us, without batting an eye.

My job, I think, is really intended to help our students make these connections with each other, and grow a true sense of community from that.  We’re working on that, and getting there with small steps toward that goal and I think we’re doing a good job.  In doing this, though, there have been some connections that were not intentional and have come to be some of the most amazing people I’ve met.

I feel almost as though I’ve spent so many years connecting with people from all over the US and the world, and now that’s almost completely spun around for me and the most powerful connections I’m making are right here in my small town.  At the same time, though, I honestly believe that even though these people work for the same university I work for, and live in the same town that I live in, I would never have been able to connect with them like I have.. without the use of social networking.

There’s something about online conversations and online community that lends itself so beautifully to opening doors. I’m not sure if it’s the lack of traditional barriers or if it’s just the ease of communication, but once again.. online connections are changing my world. I couldn’t be happier.