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Today’s Class

• Units of Competency
• Evaluate Social Networking Websites
• Discuss Benefits of Social Networking
• Discuss Negative Aspects of Social Networking
• In-class Task

Units of Competency

This class is a cluster of:

• ICAWEB403A Transfer Content to a Website Using Commercial Packages
• ICAWEB417A Integrate Social Web Technologies

There will be one assessment delivered from:

• ICAWEB413A Optimise Search Engines
• ICAWEB424A Evaluate and Select a Web Hosting Service

Evaluate Social Networking Sites

Before you will be able to evaluate Social Networking (Web-)Sites (let us call them SNS to make it easier) you need to define what a SNS is.

SNS – Definition

In our first class we looked at how to define a SNS. We seemed to agree that it needed to allow you to create a profile as much as to share information with others, to upload content and to be able to leave comments. It should allow you to chat to others.

This is a pretty wide approach and I believe applies to Facebook, YouTube and any other SNS.

Let us look at some other definitions:

‘A SNS is a web-based service that allows users to share a public or private profile with common users and explore connections with others within the site.’

(Boyd & Ellison, 2007 – Boyd, D. M., & Ellison, N. B. (2007). Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship.  Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication)

This is a fairly wide and inclusive defintion that applies well to SNS.

List of SNS

How many of the sites above have you come across? They were listed as 40 of the most popular SNS on SocialMediaToday. Here is a list of popular sites (source: Wikipedia)

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Google+
• Qzone
• Sina Weibo
• Formspring
• Habbo
• Vkontakte
• LinkedIn
• Bebo
• Tagged
• Orkut
• Netlog
• Friendster
• hi5

How would you evaluate SNS? What criteria would you apply? Have a brainstorm with your colleagues (or alone) and afterwards discuss what makes a good SNS in your opinion.

Compare your notes with these two studies:

• 2013 Best Social Networking Site Reviews and Comparisons (ToptenReview)
• Heather Jennings Evaluation of SNS

Based on the brainstorm and the studies above put a list together of 5 – 10 criteria to evaluate a SNS and place responses against it for one SNS.

Discuss Benefits of Social Networking

In your opinion what are the benefits of Social Networking?

Contribute to the discussion on MyKangan.

Discuss Negative Aspects of Social Networking

In your opinion what are the negative aspects of SNS?

Contribute to the discussion on MyKangan.

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