HighEdWeb 2008 Session - Social Networking [The Game Changer]

This session is presented by OmniUpdate. To be honest, had I known before selecting the session, I wouldn't have attended. I'm not a fan of vendor "solutions," but nonetheless they have filled a need in the market in one way or another, so let's see what they have to say.

Lance Merker, the CEO of OmniUpdate is the presenter.

In theory, Social Network started when man first existed. The campfire created the first social stickiness by giving many something in common to discuss and create groups around (physically). Throughout history, many inventions added to the social grouping; with none greater than the internet. "The greatest single platform ever created to allow to allow for social networking," Lance Merker.

Three Killer Apps on the Internet:

1. Email
2. The Web
3. Social Network (goes beyond just the web)

Social networks are more than just the websites, they are the defining identities. The groups and like-mindedness extend beyond what is displayed in the browser.

How did we get to this realm when social networking is the primary focus of our prospective and current students?
Our students have grown up with technology - cell phones, email, text messaging, personal laptop. Check out the Pew Internet report on Teens and Social Media.

What do social networks replace?
Email: a new messaging system is fundamental to social networking.
Chats: same as email.
Blogs: status is updates are quicker/easier.
Photo & Video albums/sharing: Why do you need a youtube/flickr account? If your purpose is to share with your friends, then why not use Facebook?

Public vs. Private Social Networks
With public networks, all content is open to the world (unless steps are taken to create private content). Facebook, MySpace are public social networks. They allow institutions to create pages for your public information.

Private Social Networks
Ning is the best example. Lance discussed examples like HighEd and UWEBD. Only a small portion were members of both networks. Only a handful have a private social network for their institution.

What can you do right now?

1. Assign responsibilities - You need a social network manager. The tools are easy to use, they don't require a significant amount of resources to begin. You need to funnel through a person/group with the responsibility to oversee the connections.
   
2. Participate - Figure out how all this works. Don't read about it, do it. There isn't a magic bullet out there, but many clues. The only way to find out is to participate.
3. Connect everything - Use the easy and available tools first. With RSS you can add news/events to each of the networks.

To wrap up the presentation, Lance walked through some quick how-tos for signing up and creating social networks.

Lance did a great job presenting social networks. He tied back the theories and philosophies of social network back to real-life throughout history. In actualtity, social networks have been around since the begining of time, however the digital existence has brought it to mainstream reality. He spent five minutes creating a Facebook page and a Ning site. These tasks are simple.

The best item to take away from this presentation is the idea of connecting all areas. In other words, use the content you already have to fill out the social network. You might have news, events, photos available on RSS or iCal feeds. Leverage these to add to the social networks. Before you start, assign responsibility. Find out who will be in charge of this and give him/her the resources needed to get started and participate.