Social networking

The educational technology and digital learning wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Draft

Definition

In educational technology, social networking refers to the professional or education/pedagogical use of social networking software.

On may distinguish two basic genres:

  • Social linking platforms' that mostly just promote links between entries describing persons
  • Social network sites: Platforms that promote media-rich webpages and "frieds" that can have various access to contents. The best known example is probably Facebook. A variant of these are platforms to create networks, e.g Ning.

Social network sites

According to Danah Boyd, social network sites can be defined through three features: profiles, friends and comments.

Standards

  • FOAF, a RDF standard for linking people (for which various applications exist)
  • API standards to script platforms like Facebook and Ning (more details needed plus links to other web 2.0 standards)

Examples of social networking platforms

Examples of linking platforms

Example of platforms to promote exchange

  • Ning social network platform. "Create Your Own Social Network for Anything". This is quite interesting, also more interested in web 2.0 standardization efforts than Facebook
  • Think.com
  • Facebook (not just homepages for the idle, it does have some interesting features and networks, including an API)

Links

References