Following article is on my reflection of the social mobile computing tools. I have selected few tools to reflect which gives different services such as social bookmarking (del.icio.us), sharing pictures/photos and information (Facebook), connecting with mobile phones (Twitter), web posting (Blogger) and adding web sites together - Pipes (yahoo). I will discuss each tool separately under the heading of the main service provided. In that, firstly I will describe the tool and then my own experience of using the tool followed by pos and cons of the tool. I will conclude the article based on the discussion.
Social bookmarking
What is bookmarking? The ordinary bookmark provides the reader to keep tract of a particular page. Similarly, the internet user can remember a web page in their personal computer. Although the user can import/export bookmarks, it is still limited for individual level. However, social bookmarking provides opportunity to create specific web pages which enables user not only to mark websites personally but also to share with others. The sharing can be controlled (limited to a specific group) while enabling the functions such as sorting, organizing, storing ect ect possible.
del.icio.us is a social bookmarking web service that is owned by yahoo which has more than 3 million users.[1] I have exposed to use this service during my COMP course. I made an experimental bookmark called http://del.icio.us/rohanabm. The mail advantage i realized is that I can have access to the bookmark on the net. It also allows me to share my bookmark with other members as well. Similarly, I can add other members’ bookmarks to my list. Therefore, it will save my time.
The particular interest of del.icio.us is its simplicity. It also allows making tags, which are some kind of “keywords” that can be used to organise websites. However, del.icio.us looks boring; although you can have a small picture of the website, it is not much attractive especially with the different font sizes and with monotonous background.
Other similar services are Furl (from File Uniform Resource Locators) which is little bit of eye catching. SimPy is an open source service similar to del.icio.us. The faves.com is much more attractive and has a more functions to communicate with others; it has a function of ‘rating’ of the contents of linked web pages.
In summary, social bookmarking has place to keep interested websites in one place that can be access through web by one or more people.
Sharing pictures/photos and information
Facebook is social software in which pictures or videos can be connected apart form sharing with your personal information by text. Current usage of Facebook is about 64 million.[2] It was originated and initially and limited to Harvard University students only, but now the service is free to anyone. It provides sharing of pictures and videos with a group together with some personal details. Similar to basic e-mails, any message posted by a friend will appear in the inbox. If gives you some information about your friend such as ‘coming birthdays’. It also provides some advertisements. I registered in this service as an exercise for the COMP course. The first thing I noticed is that already I had received some invitations form my friends which I have kept for years. Anyway, once I replied to that particular friend, I received a reply back very soon.
What I understood by using this social software is that even though I haven’t used them, there are people who are waiting for me to join. I consider it is a some kind of social responsibility. Apart form sharing pictures and information, Facebook will also giving access to several discussion boards which are on different themes.
However, since Facebook it is open to public, it has a privacy issues such as data-mining. However, facebook will give a chance to the user to delete the data permanently if they needed.[3]
There are books and articles written on facebook.[4]
In summary, Facebook is an attractive service which you can post pictures and videos with group of your fiends.
Connecting with mobile phones
Twitter is one of a service thru which user can ‘tweets’ or send short updates to either to a mobile phone (sms) or via some other web services such as Facebook. It can be consider as a micro-blogging service.
I have started it very recently, it is something like sending ‘sms’ messages using a PC. It is convenient when you are not connected to the web but you have a mobile phone. However, the information you could send is limited. Sometimes, I will not receive a reply form the other end in-time contrary to its objectives. Although, the service does not charging for its messages the local rates will apply for the sms since the message is going through a mobile service. It also gives feeling of little ‘discomfort’ as someone is following you which is similar to ‘big brother’.
Connecting PC with mobile phone is a very attractive concept. However, with exposure to the web, there is a chance of overcrowding of your mobile phone.
Web-posting
The Blogger is a website in which your can create a records and keep updating. The most recent updates is usually appears in the first. It is something like a diary but can be accessed to the public. You also could limit the access to a defined group of people.
The advantage of a blog over personal web site is that the blogger allows the content to be kept ‘adding’ by various people while having a similar web address. Since it is a free service, you don’t have to pay for the domain. You can still choose a format similar to a web page. However, there is a danger as well. The political/sensitive information will have bad consequences.
I knew the Google blogger site before the COMP course, but I haven’t used to it frequently. However, I have gained much experience during the course and I am happy to use it now.
Adding web sites together - Pipes (yahoo)
The ‘Pipes’ is a web application which provide user to add more websites and search engines (yahoo and Google) together. Unlike just bookmarking, this has many advantages.
The most useful web application I got to know is the pipes. That is because, I have added both search engines together, yahoo and Google, to search for a ‘keyword’. It has saved my time in searching, otherwise I need to do searching daily and also each search engines separately. Using the pipes, the output can be received as an e-mail which comes daily so that every new resource related to the keyword will appear in my mail.
In summary, pipes is a fantastic tool I have used. I am experimenting with adding more search engines to pipes.
Conclusion
Although, social software can be categories on the basis of most prominent service provided, they share features. The peculiar feature is the ability to access through the web by a group of people. Some functions such as social bookmarking has place to keep interested websites in one place that can be access through web by one or more people. The pipes is a tool to feed one or more web sites together. Facebook is an attractive service which someone can post pictures and videos to share with a group. Google blogger is similar to a web site but can add on information. Connecting PC with mobile phone is a very attractive concept although having some limitations. However, maintaining of privacy and confidentiality is an issue with most social softwares, a wise use of such services will help people to save people time and resources while keeping their social life healthier.
Ref:
[1] http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/09/06/exclusive-screen-shots-and-feature-overview-of-delicious-20-preview/
[2] Statistics. Facebook. Retrieved on 2008-01-14.
[3] Privacy and Security. Facebook. Retrieved on 2008-03-15.
[4] 1. Abram, Carolyn (2008-02-11). Facebook For Dummies. For Dummies. ISBN 0470262737.
2. Alba, Jason (2008-02-01). I'm on Facebook--Now What???: How to Get Personal, Business, and Professional Value from Facebook. Happy About. ISBN 1600050956.
3. Feiler, Jesse (2008-02-11). How to Do Everything: Facebook Applications. McGraw-Hill Osborne Media. ISBN 0071549676.
1 comment:
Hey
The inclusion of mobile phones into social networking was well covered in your article and it was a fluent read, the screenshots were to small to see at that size but most seemed to be there only to illustrate the appearance of the facebook website and detail was not crucial.
Some really good work and i hope you do well from this.
Alan J Lambert
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