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Nice essay on online culture - how online social networks are "places"

"This paper explores key issues people experience managing personal boundaries within and across social technologies. We look in particular at email and online social networks. We offer a theoretical framework for understanding the errors in assumptions about the singularity of identity that are currently inscribed into the sharing models of social technology systems. Through a questionnaire study we examine how people facet their identities and their lives, and how these facets are expressed through use of technology. We found for more mature users family was an extremely important context for sharing online, and that email was still a preferred form of communication for private sharing across facets of life. Single, working men had the highest level of incompatible facets, and a higher level of facet incompatibility was correlated with increased worry about sharing in the context of social networks."

"Too often lately it seems journalists are caught publishing faulty information or photos found through Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and other social or online media. As a result, several journalists have created lists of tips for fellow journalists learning how to vet online information."

A Map of Online Communities

I came across this thanks to StumbleUpon which explains the big, red "SU" with the arrow pointing to StumbleUpon island.

"Iranians are blogging, posting to Facebook and, most visibly, coordinating their protests on Twitter, the messaging service. Their activity has increased, not decreased, since the presidential elections on Friday and ensuing attempts by the government to restrict or censor their online communications."

Amy Gahran talks about steps to keep online communities civil and contributing

Research on whether online social networks affect social capital

The largest online database of social media policies from companies, governments, non-profits.

Short list of free writing classes - always good to improve your writing.

essay in TIME on weakness of online friendship ties

Scholars, advertisers and political activists see massive online social networks as a representation of social interactions that can be used to study the propagation of ideas, social bond dynamics and viral marketing, among others. But the linked structures of social networks do not reveal actual interactions among people. Scarcity of attention and the daily rhythms of life and work makes people default to interacting with those few that matter and that reciprocate their attention. A study of social interactions within Twitter reveals that the driver of usage is a sparse and hidden network of connections underlying the "declared" set of friends and followers.

Nice article on the right way to create community and integrate social marketing into a web site.

"Old scams never die, they just move to new venues. The Better Business Bureau has put out an alert that many of the dubious ads that have long popped up in e-mails and on websites are now invading online social networks, such as Facebook."

Social networks typically promise to remove "personally identifying information" before sharing this data, to protect users' privacy. But researchers from the University of Texas at Austin have found that, combined with readily available data from other online sources, this anonymized data can still reveal sensitive information about users.

"...as more and more elements of everyday life move online, the lack of Web access also puts certain populations - the poor, rural residents, those with less education - at risk of being marginalized and left without an important tool for connecting to education and health and social services, advocates say."

A good newspaper account of the "digital divide" problem.

"I have written before about Shiv Sena's militant approach towards Orkut communities critical of the party, its leader Bal Thakeray, or its Hindutva ideology. Caste-based communities on Orkut are another disturbing example of online communities mirroring the dysfunctions in Indian society."

"'hanging out with people online' is supposed to the be promise and the potential of social media today, not something from days gone by...so what's going wrong here? Have the trolls ruined social media for good?"

"It's difficult for some industry observers to see a comeback for MySpace, the large online social network that has seen its popularity flatline and its hipness surpassed by younger sites like Twitter and Facebook in recent months."

Learn how to contribute to Wikipedia, the user-generated online reference for the 21st century.

nice list from College Degree.com