Social Networking Micro-blogging

Here to stay or just another fad?

Who Me?• Craig Murphy• http://www.craigmurphy.com/blog• Craig.Murphy@craigmurphy.com

• http://www.twitter.com/CAMURPHY

• Scottish Developers• Agile Scotland• DotNet Developers Group

• Author, Reviewer, Podcaster

Social Networking

• FriendsReunited• Friendster• Plaxo• LinkedIn• MySpace• Bebo• Facebook

Social Networking – What’s it about?

• Generating a network of friends and colleagues– Understanding what they are doing and when– Sharing content, videos, photos, etc.

Social Networking – Finding People

• Search– Issues related to security

• [Facebook] Appears to attract folks who you may not have kept in touch with– Why is this?

Social Networking – Addictive?

• A lot of employers/corporates have blocked social networking URLs

– Staff are spending too much time getting their “Facebook time”

– Facebook is by no means unique

Social Networking – Ease of Use

• Networking code and user interface attracts folks from all generations– Many use “cool Web 2.0” features– Ease of use– Massive “reach out” to a variety of data sources

Social Networking – Internal Use?

• Can we take this code inside the firewall and use its functionality in-house?

• Many organisations implement their own “people” systems– Rarely are they feature rich user interfaces– Lack “reach out” and integration with other data

sources

Social Networking - Security

• How do such sites verify who you are?– A valid e-mail address?– Some sort of human interaction via an SMS and

your mobile ‘phone?

• A lot of fake celebrities on many social networking sites

Social Networking - Security

• Employees often sign up to more than one social networking site...

– They provide a range of personal details to each

– Trawling through the sites can reveal a lot information that could be used to steal identity

Micro-Blogging

• Twitter• Pownce• Tumblr• Jaiku• MySay• Moodhill• Frazr• IRateMyDay

Microblogging – What’s it all about?

• Short trickle fed group messaging– “in a micro-presentation about Web 0.2 by Phil”– “packing for MIX07, travel to London at 1400”

• Vertical stacked news feed applications– E.g. TeleTwitter

Micro-Blogging – Community Spirit

• I am enjoying a real community spirit – [from Twitter]

• It’s great knowing what the [UK] Community folks are doing– I meet a lot of folks 3-4 times per year– Using Micro-Blogging helps keep me aware of

what they are doing

Social Networking - Conclusions

• The Future?– Bring the social networking concept in-house– Make it work internally– Harness the power of the rich UI and data

integration– Enjoy cross-company data collaboration

Micro-blogging - Conclusions

• Micro-blogging

– Globally share knowledge and activities across your organisation

– Try it: set up a Twitter feed of your own...– Take a look at http://www.twitter.com/LAFD

Last Words...• Sheer profusion of social networking sites and

micro-blogging facilities is a problem– “no need for that”, Phil Winstanley 1158 today!

• Some sites offer post once propagate to many

• Some sites, e.g. Facebook, offer extensibility via applications– Security concerns (access to contacts, etc.)– Scalablity