Social Software
by Heather Wik ~ June 8th, 2011. Filed under: Tool Kit.Looking into social software has been an interesting undertaking. I chose to look at Facebook (because I am a user), Twitter (because I just don’t get it), Flicker (because I love photos) and Delicious (because I had never heard of it).
I was quite impressed with Flicker. Each photo is licensed and that license is attached to its photo. Users can control who have access to view and use their content. It’s an easy way to share large quantities of photos with family and friends. It’s a great way to keep digital photos safe…just in case your computer crashes and you haven’t done a recent backup (not that we would ever expect that to happen). I like that users are required to moderate their content, and that safety is a priority. Their terms of use and guidelines are easy to read, free of a lot of jargon, and to the point. I love their statement, “Don’t be creepy. You know the guy. Don’t be that guy”. I can see some great possibilities for using Flicker with students….elementary through post-secondary. When I taught grade 7 and took my class on field trips, I would have loved to post tons of pictures for students and families to see. There’s lots to consider in terms of art, research, writing prompts. The longer I set, the more things I think about. A definite possibility for students!
Delicious was totally new to me. What a great concept. I’ve lost my bookmarks more than once (let’s not even go there!). To have all my bookmarks available on any computer….gotta love that. I’m now thinking about how I can use this with my college students next fall. I’d love to develop an activity for my students to gather and share web-based resources. Very cool!
Twitter. To be honest, I just have never got it. My mom and sister both twitter, and when I look at their twitter pages, it’s a pile of short phrases that pretty much mean nothing to me. But if I’m trying to keep connected with family and friends throughout the day, this app may have some potential. Quick updates, comments, notes…I can see that. I’m not too sure I see a way to use this meaningfully with my college students, but perhaps if I had a professional tweet account I could post reminders, cool links, and updates. I don’t think I’d want to view all of my students personal tweets (nor them mine!) but if we all had college based tweets, perhaps more exchanges would happen. It might be interesting for my distance students who don’t run into me in the hallways!
And Facebook. I am a user of Facebook, but after discovering that I could not delete my account (you can only deactivate it….and can always come back and activate it) I was not impressed. Yes, there are a lot of privacy settings, but there are so many 3rd party apps and advertising, information sharing runs a the speed of light…or faster! I do love my facebook, but I’m very vigilant in checking privacy settings and I take what I tell my students to heart…..I never post anything I wouldn’t want to be completely public. It’s a great communication tool, and I love reading tidbits about my friends. We have a “guideline” at my college that we cannot accept friend requests from current students. I could see having two accounts…one personal and one for professional use. My college does have various facebook accounts for students, but they are not extensively used.
| Flicker | Delicious | |||
| What is it? | Flicker is a photo management and sharing web-based application | Facebook is a web-based “social utility” designed for social networking. | Delicious is a web-based application that allows you to save, tag, and share your bookmarks. The service is provided through Yahoo and is owned by AVOS. | Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service, utilizing instant messaging, SMS or a web interface. |
| Who owns materials posted by its members? | The individual who took and posted the photo/video | Individual users own all the content and information they post. | Individual users control their bookmarks and who has access to them. It is not “content” driven, so ownership is not an issue. Any trademarks are the property of their respective owners. | Users retain the rights to any content they post on Twitter, but by posting you grant the service the right to make your Tweets available for the rest of the world to see. |
| For what purposes can these materials be used? | Members determine their privacy settings. Photos can be public or private. Content can be posted to other websites but must contain a link back to flicker.com. | Members can share information, photos, links, videos, questions, and more. They can comment on friends’ posts. There are personal and professional user pages, and pages dedicated to causes and individuals. Events can be created with invitations that are both private and public. | By posting on Delicious you automatically grant permission to others to access and use it. You can mark content as private and restrict access to only users whom you grant access. | Members post very brief statuses and comments with other members. Can be used for personal or business exchanges. |
| Would using the site be appropriate for your students? | Members must moderate their content – code it as “safe”, “moderate”, or “restricted” using the provided content filter. My students are adults, so using Flicker would be appropriate, but any images shared for class purposes would need to be field appropriate. | Yes, Facebook would be appropriate for my adult learners. As a side note, children under the age of 13 are not permitted to create an account. | Yes, this app would be appropriate for my adult learners. | Yes, this app would be appropriate for my adult learners. |
| In my opinion, how well are the privacy interests of members represented? | Flicker’s “Community Guidelines” clearly and simply state the privacy options for its members. Security options are clearly outlined. Each image is licensed. Members’ privacy and copyright is a high priority. | Users can control privacy settings to determine who sees what information. Accounts can be set as inactive, but cannot be deleted. Policies are updated and changed, so regular monitoring of individual settings is necessary. Facebook has a lot of third party accessible applications, so users must be cautious about access. Facebook is designed to share information…so know that this is the intent and be aware of what you post. Privacy isn’t the driving force behind this app. | Personal information and cookies are stored and used for Yahoo research and diagnostic purposes, but are protected from being shared with third parties without user consent. Accounts can be deleted. User privacy is a moderate priority. | On their terms of service they state, “What you say on Twitter may be viewed all around the world instantly. You are what you Tweet”. You may own what you post, but it can be shared with anyone. |
