Author: Michael C. Habib

coComment: comment and conversation tracking


This service is wonderful. I have only just started using it, but am very impressed. coComment is exactly what Web 2.0 is about in that it increases the ability for users to hold coversations between websites. It allows you to track all of your comments from various websites (even those without comment features). It also allows tracking of whole conversations. Additionally, it seems to integrate very well with most major browsers and platforms.

Once I accumulate more conversations, I am probably going to replace the recent comment feed on my sidebar with my coComment feed.

On libraries and social bookmarking sites

Amanda at blogwithoutalibrary.net has posted about libraries using del.icio.us. I have been thinking about this a lot recently and am now going to share some of the random thoughts I have been having.

I am surprised more libraries aren’t integrating social bookmarking into their websites. I wonder how many have opened accounts to their patrons? How many allow patron tagging? Do any libraries offer classes in how to use social bookmarking applications? Is there anyway libraries could get their patrons working together to rank and order bookmarks related to local interests? Maybe a library could work with local newspapers to develop such a system. Maybe a library could work with local schools to help students collaborate on research projects using social bookmarking applications. I wonder if any teachers or school librarians have experimented with anything like this.

It is cool that San Matteo uses Dewey, but isn’t that making a simple concept overly complicated? Dewey was designed for classification of physical objects where each item could only be located in one spot. Tagging allows digital objects to exist in many places at once.

I need to look more closely at what libraries are already doing with social bookmarking sites. I also need to look more closely at what libraries are doing with Flickr and social photosharing sites. I will share more ideas on this later.

Social networking site usage: An explanation for Facebook

Social Networking Traffic Chart Fred Wilson created this chart to display the traffic of some of the major social networking sites. Fred Stutzman has posted an argument as to why the Facebook numbers might be misleading. While I am not sure I agree fully with Fred’s explanation, I agree with him that Facebook has a winning model.

The chart shows increase in users. MySpace has shown a dramatic increase in users. However, its general nature makes it hard to determine whether users will be loyal, or if they will turn to the next big thing. On the other hand, Facebook has one primary audience, college students, and a number of secondary audiences, everyone else. As Fred’s research and theories demonstrate, Facebook is an extremely valuable tool for college students. His data shows that in both 2005 and 2006, virtually 100% of UNC-Chapel Hill freshman chose to participate in the Facebook. Furthermore, there is plenty of reason to believe that this is not unique to UNC. This would mean that the Facebook has already maxed out on new users in their primary target market. While this might impede growth at the rate MySpace has shown, this is excellent as it means that Facebook cycles through new primary user groups every four years. Furthermore, given their complete market dominance over college students, it would be very difficult for a competitor to take take their primary business away.

The one place that I feel Facebook is vulnerable to competition is on the Academic side of their services. If course management software either integrated better with how students study and work, or integrated better with other datasets and resources on campus, then students would come to rely on them more. I will be discussing this idea further in my Master’s paper.

technorati tags: facebook myspace social networking

BarCampRDU this Saturday!

BarCampRDU is this Saturday. It should be an exciting event. So far there are discussions scheduled on everything from hardware to juggling. I am looking forward to the discussion Fred is leading on Social Networks:

We’ll spend a session talking about Social Networking Websites, such as Myspace, Facebook and Linked In. We’ll look at them, figure out why people use them, and share ideas about how businesses can leverage social networks.

However, I have to admit I am most fascinated by this proposed session:

Refactoring Your Wetware – Andy Hunt of the Pragmatic Programmers likes to talk about how your brain works. Pole-bridging, pragmatic learning, the Dreyfus model of skill acquisition, and even a little of Getting Things Done are all fair game.

The t-shirts look pretty cool too!