UF Social Media Scholars

"All too frequently, someone makes a comment about how a large number of Facebook Friends must mean a high degree of social capital. Or how we can determine who is closest to who by measuring their email messages. Or that the Dunbar number can explain the average number of Facebook friends. These are just three examples of how people mistakenly assume that 1) any social network that can be boiled down to a graph can be compared and 2) any theory of social networks is transitive to any graph representing connections between people. Such mistaken views result in broad misinterpretations of social networks and social network sites."

"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."

"Those who are seeking social media careers need to remember to remember that social media technologies are secondary to meeting business and customer needs."

"Social media strategy doesn't require dozens of corporate subcommittee meetings and a 70-page master plan. In fact, all you really need is one sentence that can keep you on target and on customers' minds."

The usage of these technologies in learning processes is not a fad, it is just a normal reflection of the evolutionary development of internet. Our students like YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, ect. and spend much time in these virtual places. The informal learning based on Web 2.0 exists and functions like a "university in shadow" with possibilities of a borderless digital learning environment. So, why don't the educators present the power of social media for learning and better strategies for its utilization?

Basic guide to Twitter, why you'd want to use it, how to use it, etc. Created for businesses so there's case studies and other resources for business.

CNet review of Google Wave.

Conversation by CNet editors on the features and process of using Google Wave.

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.

"CoTweet allows multiple people to communicate through corporate Twitter accounts and stay in sync while doing so. With CoTweet, you can: * Engage people throughout your company - Share the job of being on duty. Tap the collective wisdom of people across functional areas like marketing, PR and customer service. Assign tasks and track follow-ups. * Focus on the conversations that matter - Know when you need to jump in. Track your exchanges through simple case management. Schedule updates to make company announcements. * Keep your brand human - Automatically include signatures in your updates to identify who's talking and keep conversations personal."

White paper on the proper way to think about social media for proijects and as part of the enterprise.

Twitter parody of scientific discoveries

For the last few years, I've been spoiled. I've been surrounded by people who, when asked a question, immediately bring out a digital device and look it up. The conferences that I've attended have backchannels as a given. Tweeting, blogging, Wikipedia-ing... these are all just what we do. It's not all there - it's still broken. My cohort is still always in search of a power plug and there's a lag between the time a question is asked and the point at which the iPhone's slow browser is loaded, the query is entered, and the answer is given. Still, we're getting there. Or so I thought.

A conversation with Chris DeWolfe And Tom Anderson, founders of Myspace.com

A conversation with Marc Andreessen, co-founder and chairman of Ning and an investor in several startups including Digg, Plazes, and Twitter.

From the site: The new head of MI6, Sir John Sawers, is at the centre of a security breach after his wife published family holiday photographs and other personal details on the Facebook website.

Recent Ted Talk from Clay Shirky presented at the Ted@State conference. Description from the site:\n\nWhile news from Iran streams to the world, Clay Shirky shows how Facebook, Twitter and TXTs help citizens in repressive regimes to report on real news, bypassing censors (however briefly). The end of top-down control of news is changing the nature of politics.

"Does the label Twitter Revolution, which has been slapped on the two most recent events, oversell the technology?"

NPR piece on business models for social media and how to find some that work.

"...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.