Do Social Networking Sites Work?

So I was reading the article on CNet (http://www.cnet.com/4520-6033_1-6240543-1.html) about whether or not social networking sites really work, and it made me think about my own experiences with them. I have never used sites such as MySpace or any of the other popular sites. I am however a member of Facebook. I never really had an initial interest in joining such a site, but there seemed to be so much buzz about it beginning senior year of high school that it seemed strange to not even check it out. I wanted to fight the mainstream culture and not give in by joining. That lasted until about halfway through my first semester as a freshmen in college. Everyone went on and on about how wonderful Facebook was that I just had to join to see if it was all true. Since I joined, I have been disappointed with the website. While it does encompass many interesting features, I think it changes the social dynamic of campuses and now society. More and more of these Internet based programs, beginning with email and instant messaging and now social networking sites are eliminating the need for people to have any human interaction. While this may seem very "cool," I don't think it is taking us down a good road. Do you think that the decreased amount of interaction between people as a result of new technologies is a positive or negative thing? Further, do you even think that technology has had this affect?

Finding Jobs on Facebook?

I find it interesting to read that Facebook and Jobster are joining forces to create a job search site geared towards college age students and those who utilize the social networking site. I began reading about this while researching for my presentation on online job searching. The article posted about it on careerjournal.com was also interesting. I think that utilizing the technology of a site that is as popular with the current college generation will serve as a powerful tool for both job seekers and employers. With that being said, it is concerning to me that a site which has already sparked so much controversy over individual profiles will be used for something as important as a job search. So many people have already experienced problems where information posted on Facebook profiles has been used against them with current and potential employers. Will the partnership between Facebook and Jobster perpetuate that problem, or will they figure out a way to use these systems in the best interest of the job seekers?

Security Concerns

One issue that I was curious about when reading some blogs that have been hosted by large corporations are the security implications with publicly available posts. Members of these companies are posting about topics that could compromise the integrity of the corporations. The chapter in "Naked Conversations" talks about how in a corporation of over 86,000 employees, the actions of one individual compromised the integrity of the entire company. Even if a company were to establish intranet pages, internal company blogs, or establish blog rules, how does the company go about ensuring that the information posted on these sites will not leave the confines of the company?

Online Collaboration

Having recently completed a group assignment using Google-Docs, I am new to the concept of online collaboration software and websites. Apparently there are many of them. I had mixed reviews of working on this assignment with this technology because I felt as though there were not enough means to communicate with the group. Each person logged on to edit and add their parts, but there was not really a sense of collaboration. However, this project was also completed without ever meeting in person which save a lot time. The article from BusinessWeek addresses these issues. One aspect to a successful site is ease of use. The article is sure to address the importance of that. The reading gives an example that says productivity was increased to such a degree that some projects that would have normally taken two months simply took minutes. It is impressive that tasks that are completed on such a regular basis can be so drastically impacted by a relatively simple technology.