We’ve been talking about social technologies like blogs, Flickr, Meebo, YouTube, and MySpace for quite a while. A friend recently pointed me to a website that lists over 1200 different social technology sites! Trying to use all of those technologies would be overwhelming (and kind of silly). How do you decide which ones are worth your time?
I don’t think there’s an exact science to determining which to explore. A few things that would encourage me to explore a particular technology might include:
- I know that it is a technology that is really, really, really popular with the general public (MySpace would be in this category with me – I had to know, what’s all the hype?)
- It fits a need I have heard expressed by our member libraries…. (blogs, Meebo, and Flickr would fall in this category for me).
- My friends and family keep sending me things from the site (… like all of the YouTube links people have sent me — library stuff like March of the Librarians and funny stuff like the OK Go video)
Beyond those reasons, a social software can “catch me” by appearing on my radar at just the right moment (when I’m at the right place to explore something) or if I keep seeing it referred to on the different library blogs I read. In the last week, I’ve joined two social software sites for that latter reason. Twitter and the Library 2.0 network Bill Drew started on Ning. I have spent a little bit of time playing with each of them. The dollar investment was $0.00 and the time investment was small, too. I’m not sure if either of them will become a part of my regular routine, but I do think it’s important to try a new thing now and then.
What’s on your social technology radar this week?
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