Facebook.....MySpace.....LinkedIn

Assignment #22 Face-to-Face Space: Social Networking Communities

I joined Facebook a couple of years ago after hearing an OU speaker on a technology panel held here in the library. The speaker espoused all staff joining Facebook as outreach--just part of the job at an academic institution. As Women's Studies bibliographer, Facebook has helped me keep in touch with Women's Studies students and various student groups working on women's issues. It has been effective for me and I would recommend it to other library folk. I also belong to several library interest groups.

Recently I joined the LinkedIn business network and am having fun with it. I've invited both OU and colleagues from the archival community to join. A newer feature in LinkedIn is "groups," --I need to explore that further.

I don't know that I'll ever join MySpace...it's way too UGLY and bandwidth-intensive for me (remember I'm on dial-up at home). But really it's the general ugliness and bad usability of most of the pages and interface that keeps me away.