Why Web 2.0 Matters: Preparing for Glocalization

Technologists and designers have differing views focused on either the technology and standards or the experience. Even Wikipedia seems confused and cumulative definitions are not inclusive. Buzzwords associated with Web 2.0 include: remix, tagging, hackability, social networks, open APIs, microcontent, personalization. People discuss how the web is moving from a read-only system to a read/write system and they focus on technologies like GreaseMonkey, Ajax, RSS/Atom, Ruby on Rails. Of course, others talk about the paradoxical relationship between openness and control. The reality is that when people talk about Web2.0, they're talking about a political affiliation with The Next Cool Thing, even if no one has a clue what it is yet. Personally, i don't find comfort in any of the business, technological or experiential explanations. Yet, i do believe that a shift is occurring and i find myself emotionally invested in it. So then i had to ask myself: what is Web2.0 and why does it matter? The answer is glocalization.

Boyd, Danah. Zephoria (2005). Articles>Web Design>Localization>Social Networking

Wiki-fying Docs: Is Using Customer-Accessible Wikis for End-User Documentation Gaining Momentum?

While the effort to provide more interactivity and power to the end-user seems to suggest that we open up a wiki to allow them to add and edit content, the basic idea of a set of edited documentation is now challenged with a social network of participating customers, all of whom may now edit, add, and delete content. How social can you go? This article is an attempt to look at the process of evaluating the use of a wiki for end-user documentation, if such a thing can exist. Are the two types of customer content--wikis and end-user documentation--mutually exclusive?

Albing, Bill. KeyContent.org (2007). Articles>Documentation>Wikis>Social Networking

WriterRiver

When you read something interesting online, you can submit the article’s link to WriterRiver.com through the Submit a Story tab. Everything that looks like a post on WriterRiver.com is really just a link to an article online.

WriterRiver. Resources>Web Design>Technical Writing>Social Networking

Turning Web 2.0 Into Business As Usual

Web 2.0 is hip, trendy, and reminiscent of catch-phrases from the Dot-com boom when just about anything related to binary was so “Now.” Experts are frantically pushing non-digital natives to get on board with Web 2.0 absolutely yesterday, if not sooner. The good news is if you’re reading this article online, there’s a good chance you have already been onboard with Web 2.0 principals for quite some time. The question is, have you been using them effectively?

Harris, Kerri. TechCom Manager (2008). Articles>Web Design>Business Communication>Social Networking

Social Software: Fun and Games, or Business Tools?    

This is the era of social networking, collective intelligence, participation, collaborative creation, and borderless distribution. Every day we are bombarded with more publicity about collaborative environments, news feeds, blogs, wikis, podcasting, webcasting, folksonomies, social bookmarking, social citations, collaborative filtering, recommender systems, media sharing, massive multiplayer online games, virtual worlds, and mash-ups. This sort of anarchic environment appeals to the digital natives, but which of these so-called `Web 2.0' technologies are going to have a real business impact? This paper addresses the impact that issues such as quality control, security, privacy and bandwidth may have on the implementation of social networking in hide-bound, large organizations.

Warr, Wendy A. Journal of Information Science (2008). Articles>Software>Business Communication>Social Networking

LinkedIn: A User's Perspective: Using New Channels for Effective Business Networking    

Blogs, mailing lists and networking sites are much in the news, but how effective are they for business users? David Thew is Joint MD of an executive search and recruitment consultancy with an active need to identify and contact people on a targeted basis. In this article he profiles LinkedIn, the business networking membership site that has become a key channel for him and his staff. David looks at key features and benefits and also discusses areas where he feels there is room for improvement.

Thew, David. Business Information Review (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Online>Social Networking

Information Behaviour Meets Social Capital: A Conceptual Model    

Much research has been done on the favourable influence of social environment and social networks on knowledge production. The aim of this article is to design a theoretical framework where both information behaviour (IB) research and social capital (SC) research are integrated. Integrating these areas is seen as an advantage when focusing on the social construction of knowledge, and a model is proposed to illuminate sources and consequences of social capital and knowledge sharing. This framework will function as a basis on which to build when the authors proceed with a number of empirical studies involving the university context, social networks of the unemployed, and virtual networks of young people.

Widén-Wulff, Gunilla, Stefan Ek, Mariam Ginman, Reija Perttilä, Pia Södergård and Anna-Karin Tötterman. Journal of Information Science (2008). Articles>Knowledge Management>User Centered Design>Social Networking

Best Practices for Facebook Fan Pages: User Types

The average Facebook user doesn’t want content pushed to them, particularly contests or other promotional programs that don’t speak to their overall enthusiasm for a brand. These types of promotions can be supported on the Facebook Fan Page, but should not be the primary focus and should be housed in other digital arenas. Successful communities on Facebook offer an attitude of openness, transparency and enthusiasm - not a technology platform for advertising.

Douma, Collin. Social Media Today (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Marketing>Social Networking

Facebook Groups vs. Facebook Pages

Many nonprofit early adopters of Facebook set up groups as their organizational hubs because that was the only option. Later, Facebook Pages were introduced and many nonprofits have set these up as their institutional hubs. There has been some discussion in nonprofit forums, blogs, and listservs about the pros and cons of Facebook Pages versus Groups. Below are the notes I've drafted on the topic so far.

Davies, Tim. Tim's Blog (2008). Articles>Web Design>Community Building>Social Networking

How and Why to Build an Online Community

A community has to be grown wild and organically or it will fail. Control comes with time and growth. The success of a community and its size may vary. The effort may not give expected results but the work still pays off in knowledge and experience. Community members will change and accept different roles and participate in different manners. Being user friendly and being willing to allow change to happen is most important.

Hiveminds (2008). Articles>Web Design>Community Building>Social Networking

Why Are Online Communities So Popular?

In An exploration of the internet publishing revolution, I discussed the implications of the increased self-publishing on the web. The discussion covered general concerns and possible impacts of the sudden growth, but not the reasons behind it. What has prompted the expansion of people’s voice on the web? Where have these communities of bloggers and posters come from? Why have they arisen? In this article I intend to find answers to these questions and ask: ‘What makes online communities so popular?’

Mercurytide (2006). Articles>Web Design>Community Building>Social Networking

A Life Online: Living Decentralised

As the computing world becomes more and more decentralised, people are realising more and more ways to free themselves from a single PC, work socially, and live a life online. This paper discusses how you can take to this new way of working, how you can decentralise your tasks and methods of working. It discusses the online applications you can use to replace your PC‘s programs, identifying both benefits and drawbacks.

Mercurytide (2006). Articles>Collaboration>Online>Social Networking

Web 2.0: A Very Short Introduction

A profound change is happening on the cutting-edge of web development: we are relinquishing control of information. No longer are sites working independently from each other; no longer is information sitting in isolation with no interaction between sites. Rather, the best web programmers are now creating sites that allow information to be reused anywhere.

Mercurytide (2005). Articles>Web Design>Interaction Design>Social Networking

Portable Social Networks, The Building Blocks Of A Social Web

Social networks as we know them—MySpace, Facebook, Twitter—each keep identity and personal relationships separate from one another. Every time you join a network, that information has to be duplicated, by hand, by you. It’s a familiar process, but in 2008 we have the tools to break that trend.

Ward, Ben. Digital Web Magazine (2008). Articles>Web Design>Wireless Web>Social Networking

Integrating Social Media into a Web Content Strategy

Outside of the tech industry, skepticism and fear are the norm when it comes to social media. But it is simply about finding the best way to communicate with an audience. Social media consists of the same content already in use: text, audio, images, and video. The difference lies in its ability to open up new channels of communication.

Parrott, Britt. Digital Web Magazine (2008). Articles>Content Management>Web Design>Social Networking

Building Viral Marketing Tools  

One of the best ways to spread the word about your website is to let your audience do it for you.

Walter, Aarron. Building Findable Websites (2008). Articles>Web Design>Marketing>Social Networking

Bokardo

A blog about interface design for social web sites and applications. I write about recommendation systems, identity, ratings, privacy, comments, profiles, tags, reputation, sharing, as well as the social psychology underlying our motivation to use (or not use) these things.

Bokardo. Resources>Web Design>Blogs>Social Networking

Collaborative Knowledge Gardening

With Flickr and del.icio.us, social networking goes beyond sharing contacts and connections.

Udell, Jon. InfoWorld (2004). Articles>Knowledge Management>Metadata>Social Networking

Folksonomies? How about Metadata Ecologies?

Folksonomies are clearly compelling, supporting a serendipitous form of browsing that can be quite useful. But they don't support searching and other types of browsing nearly as well as tags from controlled vocabularies applied by professionals.

Rosenfeld, Louis. Louis Rosenfeld (2005). Articles>Information Design>Metadata>Social Networking

Social Consequences of Social Tagging

Too many of the paeans to tagging that I’ve read have completely ignored some of the key social and cultural issues associated with public and collaborative labeling of content, opting instead for a level of technology-driven optimism that I see as overly naive.

Lawley, Liz. Corante (2005). Articles>Information Design>Metadata>Social Networking

Using Twitter, 'The Smart Way'

Twitter is now a must-have tool if you're publishing content, undertaking online marketing, or looking to keep up with the latest trends in anything web related.

SubHub (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Blogging>Social Networking

Social Publishing ≠ Social Networking - So What Is It?

John Willis recently published a post that equates social publishing with social networking. While the post is pretty good, and I agree with most of the points, I need to correct the bit about the definition of social publishing. It’s way more than social networking. Let me explain.

Whatcott, Jeff. At First Light (2008). Articles>Content Management>Web Design>Social Networking

Experience Attributes: Crucial DNA of Web 2.0

The industry has spent a lot of time defining Web 2.0 and mapping its DNA. But as we attempt to emulate the fast-growth success of the Web 2.0 darlings, we need to zero in on the parts of the DNA that actually create this noteworthy new value.

Schauer, Brandon. Adaptive Path (2005). Articles>Web Design>User Experience>Social Networking

A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy

We've had social software for 40 years at most, dated from the Plato BBS system, and we've only had 10 years or so of widespread availability, so we're just finding out what works. We're still learning how to make these kinds of things.

Shirky, Clay. Shirky.com (2003). Articles>Collaboration>Online>Social Networking

Convergence Technical Communication: Strategies for Incorporating Web 2.0

"Convergence Technical Communication" (CTC) is technical communication that provides information in several forms, including Web 2.0 delivery mechanisms, to improve the user experience. Most of the content is generated by technical communicators; a portion by users. Web 2.0 makes it possible to create additional deliverables that enhance the user experience several different ways. First, it engages the different learning styles of our audience. Second, it improves user satisfaction with your product by creating communities of practice that allow users to participate in the conversation. Finally, any feedback and suggestions obtained can be used to improve the core deliverable set.

Bleiel, Nicky. Content Wrangler, The (2009). Articles>TC>Content Management>Social Networking