Topic 1 - Social networking, workgroups and workflow

Exercise 1 - Social networks

Since the introduction of computers many things humans did in the “real world” have been introduced into the computer processing form as "online world". For example people used to go to the bank to do banking but now they conduct banking online
– by logging in into the bank website. Similarly interaction among people in the real world has been transformed in to computer use in the form of social network sites or social networking sites.

The main characteristics identified are the ability to maintain a profile about who you are, include a picture, set up the people whom you want to be connected with , allow others to post comments on your site enabling an interactive experience & categorise information that you post in your site.

New emerging technologies such as ability to interact with mobile devices, posting information in a variety of formats, chat functionality to communicate with your network of contacts are also being introduced in to new sites.

A social network has been defined as a web based service that allows individuals to create a profile, maintain a list of users with whom they share a connection, view and traverse the list of connections and those made by others according to article
social network sites: definition, history and scholarship by Boyd M. and Ellison B. Further according to this article the unique feature of a social network isn’t to allow individuals to meet strangers, but to enable users to articulate and make their social network visible.

Online communities

Online communities are about a group of people who share a common interest and want to exchange information & resources on their desired topic.

In his book Viirtual Community Howard Rhiengold mentions while he wanders through information space if he finds information that does not interest him but he knows of a friend from the world wide affinity group of online friends that will find the information useful, he would send them a pointer or simply forward the entire text. And others have been doing the same help for him. This would be an important aspect for online communities to exist and sustain and Rhiengold identifies this as an informal unwritten social contract.

Exercise 2 - Would you change your profession

I think a study into social networks and online communities would not change my professional practice. But definitely this study already has influenced a better perception about social networks and ways these could be used to achieve positive results.

Reference URL
http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html

http://rheingold.com/vc/book/2.html

What is a folksonomy?

Due to the increase in social network sites and their applications a new form of categorising or bookmaking and annotation of photographs became popular. This facility is also known as social classification, social indexing and social tagging.
This was required because the site users were the content creators as well as opposed to earlier systems where site creators were the creators of content.

The result of this new tagging process is Folksonomy.
according to an article on internal corporate blogs

Another interesting thought on Folksonomy is found at Folksonomy as Symbol which shows how embracing Folksonomy changes the way essentialism, Western tradition began with. As an example using a hammer as a doorstop is an oddball use of a hammer according to essentialism. However this inhibits thought, reflects cultural hegemony, it is unenforcable and alienates meaning. Folksonomy returns meaning to us.

Refernce URL
http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/_file_directory_/papers/341.pdf
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/node/3281javascript:void(0)

Exercise 3 - Heuristic evaluation results

Subject: Commonwealth bank: Nielsen's Heuristic Evaluation
Sender: sanjeewa_f@hotmail.com
From: sanjeewa_f@hotmail.com (NHE)

system=Commonwealth bank
date=2009-08-11 07:47:47
comment=
q1=7
q2=7
q3=7
q4=7
c4=Very consistent look and feel
q5=7
q6=7
q7=5
q8=7
c8=Identifies requied fields, error messages clearly indicate
the field they refer to
q9=7
c9=Provide available or applicable values for most selection
q10=5
c10=Good detail of help documentation available. But this is
displayed in a different browser window and can be obstructed
by the current browser giving user the impression nothing
happened.

This test was done using
Nielsen's Heuristic evaluation form