Mannderings

Social Networking

The Internet has already changed our lives. The more I look at what's happening out there, the more I feel we are on the leading edge of one of the most significant changes in history. When I first started speaking about the Internet about ten years ago, I used the following quote:

…the Internet has changed our civilization permanently and has introduced us to two completely unexpected ideas.

First, tens of thousands of people have been laboring to build the Internet, alone; in small groups; within organizations; but always like many ants in a global anthill…like the ants, they serve the common good while having no conception of the order and the compelling forces that drive their work…Deep inside us, there is a voice that we hear only subconsciously and only as a species; a voice that commands us to take these computers, connect them into networks and… communicate.

Second, when we connect computers we invariably create something that is much more than the sum of its parts… I sense that we are near the beginning of a great and important change in human affairs. Personally, I don't understand the change. Indeed, I suspect that it is beyond the capabilities of any of us to completely appreciate what is happening…there is a reason why we built the Internet and that, as human beings, we have an obligation to learn how to use it and to participate.

Hahn, Harley The Internet Complete Reference. Osborne McGraw-Hill, Berkeley, CA: 1994, p. xix.

Feeling the power of this statement, I should have foreseen the trend for social networking. It is changing the world and most of us don't really see the change. A recent posting on YouTube (social video posting service) stated "The bottom line is if you want to communicate to the youth of today, you need to be into social networking." (Demetri Martin, TrendSpotting).

In genealogy, we are trying to achieve worldwide family collaboration, a common (or social) pedigree, and a sense of community. We are well behind many other disciplines and forms of social interaction. The youth of the world are way ahead of us, of course. You've probably heard a lot lately about MySpace and the potential dangers it poses. MySpace now has 60 million users and is the second most used web site in the world (considering that number 1, Yahoo, has been around a lot longer, MySpace may soon pass them by...).

The social networking site for college students is FaceBook. FaceBook is now the seventh most used web site in the world, frequented by 6 million college students an average of six times per day. To put this in context, number 6 in the most used list is Google. Started by three students in 2004, FaceBook is now more visited than Amazon, Disney, and nearly every other web site. The founders are trying to sell the site and recently rejected an offer of $750 million. This is clearly a significant trend. (Source for statistics - comScore Media Metrix and BusinessWeek Online)

What does this mean to libraries? It means that we need to be looking now (if it isn't already too late) at how we can incorporate social networking concepts and practices into the Library of tomorrow (Library 2.0--I plan to post soon on this subject).

What do YOU think?

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posted by Alan @ 01:31