Social networking tools

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OVERVIEW

Social networking tools as the name suggests, allow online users to communicate and to work independently or together to create, share, re-use and annotate digital content over the Internet.

How social networking tools can be used in digitisation

They have a variety of applications for those engaged in digitisation:

Publishing/communication tools. Blogs can be used to communicate with an existing and known audience or to "broadcast" to a wider one. They can be used to foster dialogue, through a function whereby readers of the blog can post their own comments (visible or not to the wider public depending on how the blog is set up). Comments can also be moderated prior to being made visible to the wider world.

Online networking tools (such as MySpace and facebook) can be used in a similar way to alert registered users to events and activities and to communicate with one another as a community of interest. Similarly professional networking tools such as Linkedin or Ning can bring practitioners with similar interest together even if they operate in different countries/time zones.

Bookmarking tools permit the storage and retrieval of favoured resources in an online space so they can be used and retrieved wherever there is internet access. They can also be shared online with known and unknown people online, providing an opportunity to collaborate with others that share your interest/expertise

Project management and collaboration tools. Wikis allow people to collaborate over the internet and to trace and retain the iterations of their work through the wiki features of noting who has made which contribution and of recording the history of a document. Alert functions prompts people working remotely from one another to see when changes have been made.

Distribution tools: YouTube (moving image); Flickr (still images); Slideshare (presentation slides) are all tools for sharing visual content online and can be used as marketing tools for digitised content and for building online communities of interest.

Social networking tools and online learning

As the Digital literacy of teachers and learners develops there are opportunities to deploy social networking tools in learning in particular

to foster collaboration between teacher and learners and between learners themselves
in scenario setting
in building academic communities of interest
for online discussion to review and develop critical thinking
to point to and recommend other peoples' work
to share one's own work
for scholarly communication

These same functions can apply to people in a work setting, who may be collaborating across physical or temporal boundaries.

Additional OpenSource tools are available to create social network platforms like WordPress extensions

Further information

25 useful social networking tools for librarians

Linked Information

Get the message: New strategies for museum marketing: This conference presents new approaches to marketing and communications that ensure you get the right message to the right people. It examines how best to take advantage of cutting-edge technology [?]
Social Media Basics: Using practical, hands-on training, this one-day workshop will explore the opportunities that social media offers your museum or cultural institution. It will help you understand the jargon and wi [?]
Collections Trust announces partnership with TalkWebSolutions: Collections Trust and Brighton-based online consultancy TalkWebSolutions have announced a new partnership to re-launch the award-winning Collections Link service for [?]

[[role::newcomer]] [[role::strategy manager]] [[role::policy maker]] [[role::content manager]] 
[[role::acquisitions manager]] [[goal::developing]] [[goal::audience]] [[goal::education]] [[goal::sharing]] 
[[goal::content]] [[level::basic]] [[level::medium]]

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