Facebook

[|Facebook]

//** Facebook is a web 2.0 tool that allows users to connect with one another to meet, mingle, collaborate, and learn interactively through a personalized home site. **//

Description of technology and explanation of what makes it a Web 2.0 technology

Facebook is a social networking site that allows users to connect with other people via an online platform. According to CNET News, Facebook is a “service that lets you connect with friends, co-workers, and others who share similar interests or who have common backgrounds. Many use it as a way to stay in touch after finishing school, or as a way to share their life publicly” (Lowensohn, 2007). The site allows you to “friend” people by searching for them by name or e-mail. Users can also invite others to join Facebook via an e-mail. By creating an account, you set up your own profile including as much or as little personal information that you want to give, including likes, interests, and photos. To communicate with one another, you can send personal messages, write on another user’s Wall, or chat in real time.

 In an article by David D. Oberhelman, web 2.0 is described as “web tools that, rather than serve as a forum for authorities to impart information to a passive, receptive audience, actually invite site visitors to comment, collaborate, and edit information, creating a more distributed form of authority in which the boundaries between site creator and visitor are blurred. Web 1.0 gave us Britannica Online and many other reference works, but Web 2.0 encompasses the “Wikipediazation” of the internet, the reference works that are the shared products of many users' efforts” (2007). Facebook is considered a web 2.0 technology because of its collaboration potential. It is not a one-way communication site, it allows the user to actually contribute, read others responses, and then comment again. Users are as active as they want to be when using Facebook.


 * Special features
 * Added content linked from outside sites or files from personal computer or cell phone
 * Synchronous chat with other users
 * Many applications for individualization
 * Privacy settings chosen by user
 * Games

//Collaboration//:  The ability to add content allows users to share images, videos, and information from other internet sites, personal computers, or cell phones with friends and others who have access to their page. Synchronous chat makes it easier for users to communicate amongst each other in real time while still having full access to Facebook and all of its features. Both of these features help to build the collaborative strength of Facebook by making communication and information sharing easy to use and access in a centralized location.
 * Strengths

 //Personalization//:  Facebook is easy for users to personalize to their own preferences. Many different applications can be added to a user’s profile, including a family finder, games, trip tracker, polls, and more. Also, Facebook offers many privacy settings that each user can set and tailor to his or her needs. Privacy settings can delineate what information is shared, who is allowed to view a user’s information and who is allowed to post content to the user’s page. Personalized settings help users protect their information and make their Facebook page a comfortable and enjoyable place for sharing.

Facebook is host to a number of advertisements. Different companies pay to have their advertisements placed on appropriate user pages. Mark Memmott, who writes on an NPR interview with Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg, tells that Facebook uses data mining to determine which ads should go to which users based upon the information that users choose to input and share (2010). Also, applications that can be added to user pages are not necessarily created by Facebook and are, therefore, not always reliable programs to download. The applications can bring problems such as viruses or trojans to a user’s computer. These programs also ask for user information that Facebook would not normally give out, allowing the creators of applications access to profiles and information that users may not intend to share (Memmott, 2010).
 * Weaknesses

Comparison to similar Web 2.0 tools
 * [|MySpace]
 * MySpace has many of the same applications as Facebook. MySpace users have a profile and can message, chat, and comment on one another’s site. MySpace also has additional applications like a blog and customizable wallpaper. MySpace, however, does not have as many options for privacy as Facebook does.
 * [|LiveJournal]
 * The LiveJournal website describes itself as a “community publishing platform, willfully blurring the lines between blogging and social networking. Since 1999 LiveJournal has been home to a wide array of creative individuals looking to share common interests, meet new friends, and express themselves” (2009). Users have their own personal journal as well as other interest journals, which they can comment on. They have a list of friends, which is similar to Facebook and MySpace, but not as many applications for communication.
 * [|Bebo]
 * Bebo is an acronym for “Blog Early, Blog Often”. It is also a social networking site like Facebook because it incorporates personal profiles, photos, music, videos, friends, and messaging. Unlike Facebook, Bebo has a feature called Lifestream Platform, which delivers “real-time, chronological updates from all of your friends. Lifestream updates are available from your friends from Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter and Delicious” (2010). This is a significant difference because Facebook only allows a user to see other Facebook user updates. Bebo allows its users to get updates from many other social networking sites.

Learning Connections Description of Link to Curriculum Activities

Tutorial [|Facebook Tutorial]

References, Articles, etc.

(2010). //About Bebo.// Retrieved July 16, 2010, from Bebo, California. Web site: [].

(2009). //About Us.// Retrieved July 16, 2010, from LiveJournal, Inc., California. Web site: [].

(2007). //AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner//. Retrieved July, 22, 2010, from American  Library Association, Chicago. Web site: [].

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">(2007). //The ISTE National Educational Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for Students//. Retrieved July 22, 2010, from International Society for Technology in Education, Eugene, OR. Website: [|http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForStudents/2007Standards/NETS_for_ Students_2007_Standards.pdf].

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">(1996). //Learning Standards for Languages Other than English//. Retrieved July 22, 2010, from New York State Department of <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Education, Albany, NY. Website: [].

Lowensohn, J. (2007). // Newbie's Guide to Facebook. // Retrieved July 16, 2010, from CNET News. Web site: [].

Memmott, Mark. (2010). Zuckerberg: Sharing is what Facebook is About. //All Tech Considered. NPR.// [|http://www.npr.org] [|/blogs/alltechconsidered/2010/05/27/127210855/facebook-zuckerberg-privacy].

Oberhelman, D. D. (2007). Coming to terms with web 2.0. // Reference Reviews //, //21//(7), 5-6.