Social Networking

While working on our last assignment and thinking about the different social networking sites that are out there, I began to wonder what makes one more successful than another. So many of the different sites have many of the same features, yet sites such as Facebook and MySpace have much more national and international recognition. Not only do they have a higher number of registered users, but they their name recognition has gained the respect of communities around the world. Why do you think that these certain websites have succeeded as opposed to certain other ones?

Semester in Review

This has been a good semester overall. We have had some really good class discussions, good guest speakers, and have learned a lot about social networking. Don't assume that the course is easy and does not involve a lot of work because it does. Writing a weekly blog and keeping up with commenting on classmates work on a regular basis is more challenging that I initially thought it would be. Blogging seems to come naturally to many people, and not as much to others (namely me!). However, the workload is manageable and Professor Melander is great about asking for feedback and making changes accordingly. Class discussions often spark some interesting opinions or facts about someone that I would never have known. I would recommend this course overall.

Blogging and the Law

I enjoyed listening to Tom speak about his experiences both in and out of Oracle. The thing that really struck me about his talk were the legal aspects involved in blogging. I think that it is very interesting to see how some older laws are translated into modern day context. This is a problem with many laws; technology is being developed too quickly and the government is not able to keep up. Therefore, its seems as though in decided some of these cases, the verdict is somewhat arbitrary. How do existing laws regarding printing libel and slander translate into something that is not actually "printed?" I don't think that the laws are as clear-cut as some might make them out to be.