Social Networking

Ah, feeling smug again, since I was able to sequester my spot and get logged in before the event began!

The huge stacks of handouts vanished quickly.

Now, standing room only....

However, you must reenter to access wifi and then the actual blog each time you switch sessions. Ah, the joys and pitfulls of blogging.

Shhhhhhhhhh. Here we go.

Linda Braun is introducing herself. She is an independent educational consultant. She wants social working both ways: to be safe and to promote social working.

If you missed the handouts, it is at del.icio.us/mla_social

Linda is describing social networking:
Amazon to Justin.tv to webct
chat, im, all are social networking.
Talking to other people via computer,
sharing information
real time
You have to register and create a profile.

She is an easy going, savvy presenter.

Her non-hidden agenda is not to ban social networking, but to use it safely.

Web 2.0 is webcasts, twitter, im, youtube, rss, wikis, blogging
Interacting with content
You can find other people with the same interests you have
For example, you can watch a video on youtube and talk with other people and share that experience.

She recommends:
Totally Wired: What Teens and Pre-Teens are Really Doing on the 'Net.
MySpace Unravelled
Cyber Bullying and Cyber Threats
Tech Savvy Kids

Now she'll take us on a tour.
Firstly, Delicious is social networking.
It is a social bookmarking site.
Other people can view your bookmarks and add their own.
You can find other people that share your interests.
Building a community of people who saved their links and share them with others.

Now, she asks who has a myspace account, either personal or library.

Why a library acct? Because it's cool - to get more teens to participate and being part of the library.

Now she is logging into her myspace account.

She is talking about setting it up. You can change your profile and look, week to week, day to day, etc.

It is powerful because you can change your identity.
It gives others the chance to know them better.
This is the part that scares us as adults.

Safety is a big concern.
Linda involved the audience, made us laugh.
She related story about how teens used the acct,
and most set up profiles to be private.
We need to recognize this.
Have teens teach other kids to use myspace wisely.

You can insert your favorite videos
You can use I like feature
You can decide how much you want to share.
You can be a friend to whomever you want.
Your friends can make comments.
Set up so that comments can't be posted until reviewed.
It's all about choice.

If you are not registered, you can view anything that is not private.

Someone in the audience asked if there are ads on each page.
Linda said yes.
If you are going to have a library myspace, you need to have guideline. YALSA has a myspace account.

Hennepin Library MySpace was an example.
The Teens can search the library catalog from MySpace or FaceBook.
Hennepin is getting more hits this way then ever before.
It is a very interactive place to learn about the library.

She then talked about bulletins.

Friends post bulletins.
It's a great way to reach your YA kids.
You can advertise programming.

Now we are looking at who might want to be a friend on Linda's site, and whether or not she will accept a new friend. She stresses that she has criteria, and that all teens should also have criteria.

Young people do not read "old fashioned' email. (30 yrs. old and younger)
They read MySpace.

Now she wants to talk about FaceBook.

They are similar. FaceBook is more controlled. Older teens like FaceBook more.
Younger teens like the changeability. Older teens like their sites to look more serious.

One way that FaceBook helps: shy teens who were going to college in the Fall connected with others going to the same school.

FaceBook used to be restricted to .edu but that opened up. FaceBook and MySpace fills different needs.

One member said "if we go to MySpace, won't they go somewhere else?"
The elders in our room laughed about this.

You are NOT invisible. You think you are INVINCEABLE.
You are neither.

Potential employers are now questioning candidate's MySpace account.
What kind of pictures do the kids have posted there? Kids are not as invisible as they think they are.
There are many many others. It doesn't end with MySpace.

Here are some others:
Club Penguin
Webkins
Verb
Ing
Parents have to approve up to age 13.

I'm multitasking again.
I'm going to MySpace in my "spare time" to see what kids from our community are using it.
It is amazing.

Now, I am scattered in my thinking, so my notations are more random:

ElderVoice is for elders who want to stay connected.

Now we're talking about the laws:
Deleting Online Predators Act of 2007

Open Congress is an open website that keeps you up to date on any new developments.
RSS feed.

MySpace can be used for educational use with adult supervision. This is a new addition.

Protecting Children in the 21st Century
About child pornography
Ted Stevens talking about revising this legislation because MySpace and others are being safety minded.

States are now proposing legislation regarding social networking.

She talked a little bit about encryption and thanked us for coming.