Social networking services focus on building online communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Most social network services are web-based and provide a variety of ways for users to interact, such as email and instant messaging services.
#34527
"With My Head Up in the Clouds": Using Social Tagging to Organize Knowledge 
Social tagging ranges among the ``killer applications'' of Web 2.0. An ever-growing international community uses Web sites such as the photo database Flickr and the bookmarking service Delicious. In addition, a number of other portals use tagging to compile user-specific metadata on information on any subject—whether it be travel destinations, personal contacts, films, or museum exhibits. Retrieving and storing information via tagging seems to meet users' needs for a number of purposes and in many contexts. Starting with a synopsis of the current literature on social tagging and then focusing on the results of two surveys—qualitative interviews and an online questionnaire—this article explores the potential and limitations of tagging as a tool for organizing shared and personal knowledge.
Panke, Stefanie. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2009). Articles>Information Design>Taxonomy>Social Networking
#34528
This article examines the characteristics of collaborative work and overlapping activity systems in the popular online game World of Warcraft. Using genre theory and activity theory as frames to work out the genre ecology of gameplay, the article focuses on how players coordinate ad hoc grouping activity across and through genres. It articulates the related development of open systems in online gaming in a discussion of interface modifications (AddOns) and online information databases that players generate, drawing on De Certeau's formulation of strategies and tactics and Warner's discussion of publics and counterpublics. The article concludes by discussing implications of online gaming for an open-systems approach to information design in professional communication and for professional communication in general.
Sherlock, Lee. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2009). Articles>Collaboration>Social Networking>Games
#34540
A Map Of Social (Network) Dominance
Even on the Web, world dominance must be achieved one country at a time. While Facebook has long been the largest social network in the world, and should soon pass MySpace in the U.S., it is not the largest social network in every country.
Schonfeld, Erick. TechCrunch (2009). Articles>User Centered Design>Social Networking>International
#34544
Dividing It Up, With Any Crowd
When you think of the crowd, you probably think about a specific mass of people who use the software and hardware that we document every day. The interesting thing about the crowd is that it doesn’t necessarily mean people outside of the enterprise in which you’re working. There are people in your enterprise who can do a lot to help you with the documentation, too. Developer, product managers, QA analysts. They all have knowledge that you can and should tap.
Nesbitt, Scott. DMN Communications (2009). Articles>Documentation>Social Networking>Technical Writing
#34584
Twitter: Who Cares What You're Doing Right Now, Anyway?
An introduction to the Twitter micro-blogging web service, with quotes from people who use it for professional/business purposes.
Abel, Scott. SlideShare (2009). Presentations>Collaboration>Social Networking>Blogging
#34647
The Social Buzz: Designing User Experiences for Social Media
There is a lot of excitement about efforts that are currently underway to explore what social technologies can offer—the boundaries they can cross that the traditional Web could not. Similar to users’ need to cope with the problems of adapting to the ever-changing face of social media, addressing the needs of social media in design requires additional effort and interest on the part of UX designers, to keep track of the capabilities and limitations of emerging technologies.
Asad, Junaid. UXmatters (2009). Articles>User Experience>Social Networking
#34649
Twitter as a Medium for Release Notes
I’m going to start with a short introduction to Twitter, mentioning particularly the aspects that I found useful when tweeting release notes. If you’re already a twitterologist, you may want to skip that bit. Then I’ll describe how we’ve used Twitter as a method of communicating the highlights of our release notes.
Maddox, Sarah. ffeathers (2009). Articles>Documentation>Social Networking>Technical Writing
#34668
Should the CEO do Social Media?
Should CEOs tweet, poke and generally 'get social' online? It's a good question. One that Fortune 100 CEOs are apparently answering 'no' to. That's according to ÜBERCEO, which looked at how Fortune 100 CEOs are using social media. The result: they're not.
Robles, Patricio. Econsultancy (2009). Articles>Management>Social Networking
#34696
Google Wave Changes Everything You Know About Agile Collaboration and Technical Documentation
Beyond the obvious impact on the Social Web, Google Wave is also going to change aspects of every business that currently relies on communication and collaboration tools of any sort, including the ubiquitous but lowly email.
Greywalker, Shannon. Greyfiti (2009). Articles>Documentation>Social Networking>Collaboration
#34707
Social networking and social media have been touted as giving us a never-before possible opportunity to connect with and influence and work with others. The board might be new, but the game is essentially the same.
Nesbitt, Scott. DMN Communications (2009). Articles>TC>Social Networking
#34818
No Place to Play: Current Employee Privacy Rights in Social Networking Sites
Employers have legitimate business interests in monitoring workplace Internet use: to minimize legal exposure, to increase productivity, and to avoid proprietary information loss. Since employees arguably have no expectation of privacy in their work on employers' computers, there are few grounds for complaint if they are disciplined for straying from corporate policy on such use. In this heavily scrutinized work environment, it is no small wonder that employees crave a place to unwind and play “electronically” after hours. In unprecedented numbers, America's workers are visiting online social networking sites (OSNs) and posting tidbits that might not be considered job-appropriate by their employer. Here, many postulate they do have an expectation of and indeed a right to privacy, especially in arenas used to express personal freedoms and exercise individualism that has no bearing on their workplace.
Genova, Gina L. Business Communication Quarterly (2009). Careers>Workplace>Privacy>Social Networking
#34820
Employment recruiters often maintain that business-oriented social networking Web sites offer a fertile source of information concerning “passive” jobseekers. These individuals, according to placement specialists, are persons who are currently employed and not seeking a career change. Many human resources professionals maintain that passive jobseekers are especially desirable because they represent an untapped pool of potential candidates who are not already associated with placement agencies or other recruiting professionals. Also, many passive candidates are considered to be especially stable employees. Although special effort may be required to convince the passive jobseeker to seek employment elsewhere, this effort is worthwhile because of the quality of the individual and the ultimate payoff to the recruiter who successfully places the candidate . The managers of business-oriented social networking sites do not dispute the notion that their services are oriented toward passive jobseekers. Indeed, some of these sites, such as LinkedIn and Power Search, explicitly promote their networks as providing vast databases of passive candidates accessible to recruiters. However, the assumption that members of business-oriented social networking Web sites are passive jobseekers has never been validated. The purpose of this study is to examine the accuracy of this assumption.
DeKay, Sam. Business Communication Quarterly (2009). Careers>Unemployment>Social Networking
#34821
Enterprise Networking Web Sites and Organizational Communication in Australia
This article aims to report initial findings about networking in organizational settings in Australia through the use of enterprise social software.
Zhang, Allee M., Ynxia Zhu and Herbert Hildebrandt. Business Communication Quarterly (2009). Articles>Business Communication>Social Networking>Organizational Communication
#34824
Increasingly, individuals across the world seek relations of cooperation and collaboration rather than that of command and control. This need has influenced the rate at which individuals have allowed the Internet to intricately weave itself into their everyday lives in just over a decade. For many people, human interaction has truly adopted a virtual dimension. Online communities now link to one another and form a complicated technical web of interactions. Social networking Web sites (SNWs) are online tools that have transformed the virtual encounters of the past that were technical and impersonal to today's virtual socialization that is truly nontechnical, social, and interpersonal. The purpose of this article is to report the findings of a study we conducted among university students. We developed a survey to identify the reasons for which individuals use SNWs. We believe that these findings contribute to understanding future workplace expectations and arrangements.
Agarwal, Shaijila and Monika Mital. Business Communication Quarterly (2009). Articles>Education>Social Networking>India
#34896
Social Networking on Intranets
Community features are spreading from "Web 2.0" to "Enterprise 2.0." Research across 14 companies found that many are making productive use of social intranet features.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2009). Articles>Web Design>Intranets>Social Networking
#34980
Looking for a Job? Try LinkedIn or Twitter
Social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are transforming the job search process, enabling more and more people to connect with potential employers, promote their own skills, set up support groups and search for job leads and contacts.
Zeidler, Sue. Washington Post, The (2009). Careers>Unemployment>Social Networking
#35015
There's a shift happening in the way in which documentation is produced. We’ve all seen the beginning of it: the growing volume of what’s called (among other things) user generated or crowdsourced documentation. That trend is growing. And while a number of people in our profession are still resistant to the idea, it’s only a matter of time before users are our main partners in creating documentation.
Nesbitt, Scott. DMN Communications (2009). Articles>Documentation>Technical Writing>Social Networking
#35027
This chapter explores the idea that a small group of people who have a sense of belonging in an online community may provide content much like a technical writer does. Regardless of their background, education, or training, more people are becoming providers of technical information on the web.
Gentle, Anne. XML Press (2009). Articles>Documentation>Content Management>Social Networking
#35083
Conversation and Community: a review (of sorts) in about 1,700 words
Technical communication is changing rapidly. If you’re not ready for that change, it’s going to really catch you off guard. Anne Gentle's book Conversation and Community is an excellent guide to rolling with those changes, and for staying ahead of them. This article takes a close look at the book.
Scott Nesbitt. DMN Communications (2009). Articles>TC>Social Networking>Documentation
#35084
Twitter for the Social Media Fledgling
New media should be accessible to everyone, not just marketing, public relations and web professionals. Here, I aim to help all people navigate the new media landscape.
Devlin, Emma L. New Media For Everyone (2009). Articles>Web Design>Multimedia>Social Networking
#35093
While the design of democracy is a wonderful thing, democratic design is less positive. We’ve heard over and over that “everyone is a designer,” and that through a combination of user-generated content, ubiquity of access, and new tools, design has finally made its way out of an ivory tower and into the grasp of the masses. What, exactly, have the masses gotten their grubby paws into? Can one truly claim to be a designer when they upload a picture to Facebook or remix a video for YouTube?
Kolko, Jon. Interactions (2009). Design>Content Management>Social Networking>Participatory Design
#35099
Defining Social Media Settings
As we explore what social technologies can offer and the boundaries they can cross—boundaries that had confined the traditional Web—UX professionals must now take up a new design challenge. We must address the changing needs for social media and facilitate users’ taking better advantage of everything social media has to offer.
Asad, Junaid. UXmatters (2009). Articles>Web Design>Social Networking>User Experience
#35103
Twitter Postings: Iterative Design
We made a timeline message more punchy, credible, and viral through 5 rounds of redesign.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2009). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Social Networking
#35104
Social Media Outsourcing Can Be Risky
Hosting a company's content and services on 3rd-party social networking sites involves both tactical risks (lower usability) and strategic risks (less user loyalty).
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2009). Articles>Web Design>Outsourcing>Social Networking
#35114
Clive Thompson on the New Literacy
A description of Andrea Lunsford's argument, from research with the Stanford Study of Writing, that technology isn't killing our ability to write. It's reviving it—and pushing our literacy in bold new directions.
Thompson, Clive. Wired (2009). Articles>Writing>Social Networking
