Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, and YouTube are a few examples of social networking sites that are popular these days. If you are involved in more than one of these communities, is there a way to make the sum of social networking sites greater than the parts (the individual sites themselves)?

Flock is a web browser, based on Mozilla Firefox, that attempts to unify social networks. Read a Technology Review article about Flock.

WRAL has an article on one of Google’s latest initiatives, called “Friend Connect“. “Friend Connect” provides a framework, no programming required, that will enable people to interact with their friends and use favorite applications they have accumulated on social networks even when they aren’t visiting those sites.

And to consider future possibilities with social networking read the Technology Review article about MIT students who are exploring the power of an open source cell phone operating system, provided by Google. One idea is a social-networking program that helps people make new friends in their area using geolocation. It doesn’t seem too much of a stretch to imagine how a service like this could be integrated with social networking sites. For example, the cell phone software could help create spontaneous in-person connections leveraging connections made online through social networking sites.

Share This

It is becoming common for users of Twitter to associate images with their “tweets”. The two services used most frequently are TwitPic and Twitxr. Images can be uploaded from a desktop machine, but the intended purpose is for people to send images from their cell phones or other mobile devices. From a phone, one can e-mail the image to the service and that generates a Twitter message, which includes a link to the image. It is also possible to look at the service’s website directly and see all of a user’s images with their associated messages.

Twitpic requires a Twitter account and the functionality is currently limited to posting through Twitter. Twitxr is a social networking site in itself, in that you can have “friends” and “follow” other users. You can also specify locations for each image and then view maps that display where all of the recent images were posted. Twitxr also allows users to send images to Facebook and Flickr, in addition to Twitter.

Share This

More and more people are starting to use “hashtags” or “twemes” on Twitter. On Twitter, using a phone or an IM client, you can track a specific keyword and people are using these hashtags to track particular topics or facilitate communication within a group. This also allows for communication at a gathering, such as a conference, without having all the Tweeters follow one another. For example, people at SXSW will be adding #sxsw to their tweets. The hash convention was derived from IRC channels.

http://twemes.com is a convenient way to see tweets on popular topics.

http://hashtags.org tracks the use of hashtags of those that follow hashtags on Twitter.

See http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Hashtags and http://twemes.com/p/about for more information.

Share This

Several manufacturers have released pens over the past few years that do more than just let you write text - many, released by companies like Cross and Logitech, convert written words and scribbles on a page into images that can be manipulated on your computer.

LiveScribe is releasing a pen, dubbed the Pulse, that can provide some interesting functions.  In addition to capturing what you write and downloading it to your computer, the pen can also record a meeting and synchronize your written notes with the audio recording.  If that isn’t enough, the Pulse can do rudimentary language translation or act as a calculator - simply write down some numbers and it will display results on a screen on the side of the pen.  The company is also making a software development kit available to allow third parties to develop their own applications for the device.

A slideshow highlighting features of the pulse is at news.com:

http://www.news.com/2300-1041_3-6227830-1.html?tag=ne.gall.pg

Share This

Have you twitted? Twitter can be used to track friends and send short messages either to a select group of people or the world, online and by mobile phone. My colleagues use it as an in/out board. Can it be used to facilitate learning? Apparently, yes. AcademHack: tech tools for Academics describes a Twitter assignment in which students virtually followed classmates over a weekend to explore new media. The success of this assignment inspired 13 (thirteen!) ideas for using Twitter in the classroom.

For more, see the Educause Learning Initiative 2 page document “7 things you should know about Twitter“.

Share This

A recent new blog, From Toy to Tool Cell Phones in Schools, highlights new developments in web 2.0 applications focusing on mobile learning in k-12 and higher education. With the high proliferation of cell phone use among k-12 and college students across this country, more and more applications seek to structure niche social networks and experiences based solely on how users access information through cell phones. With the cost and use of cell phones significantly lower, than acquiring a computer with high broadband internet service, educators are designing course curricula around cell phone technology and the way their students communicate and access information.

Share This