Social networking platform change the way of communication before.
Talking about social networking, I used to physically link this concept with developing relationship with friends and it is popular online due to the widespread use of Facebook and Twitter/Weibo which change the information distribution from 'one-to-one' to 'one-to-many'. Without the Facebook, how could the 'Jasmine Revolution' and the 'Occupy Wall Street' propagate to the rest of the world in a minute.
After taking the course of Social Networking for the first three weeks, I realize the online social networking demonstration is far more than 'talking' or sharing pictures with friends on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other platforms with similar characteristics. It involves the knowledge generation from the interactive and constructive communication that can create more value for the human being.
But how could 'social networking' bring along such a great value? After learning the social and cognition theory, I figure out how it make things happen. Actually, a great amount of online communities like MSDN which group professionals together and provide a social environment for participants to discuss about topics and exchange ideas other than developing social relationship.
How social networking generate knowledge?(e.g. wiki)
The word 'wiki' was first introduced in my internship project experienced in the undergraduate period. Back then, we had no idea of what was the difference between wiki and those traditional forums. We posted the development problems on the internal wiki platform to ask for help and tried to answers others' questions if we could. Now I realize that this is how we learn and get information and even knowledge. After digesting the useful data we gathered, we brainstormed online and shared useful tips to others. One could update the information when he/she encounters the similar problems with better solutions. This iterative process lead cognition level to meta-cognition and epistemic cognition, creating new ideas and new knowledge in people's mind unconsciously.
Wikipedia, as the most successful free knowledge sharing platform, is a typical example to demonstrate how social networking environment brings knowledge to people. Every time when a participant search some key words of what kind of subjects and read the articles of Wikipedia, the first level(Cognition) is involved. After getting to know something, he/she could take some notes and make a rating for the pages which achieve the second level(Metacognition). Base on the learning process and the information he/she absorb, if the participant was inspired to reach some knowledge advancement that could make a new post or improve the existing articles for benefiting others, it would arrive at the Epistemic Cognition level, the highest one in the cognition hierarchy.
Something to share & discuss:
Wikipedia blacked out its site at 18th of Jan. to protest against legislation of 'Stop Online Piracy and Protect Intellectual Property Acts' in the US congress. People afraid the legislation would give US government the power to censor the internet using the technical approaches like the ways China, Iran do. This incident aroused a big controversy on the internet because hundreds of thousands of people especially students who get used to find information on this online encyclopedia and they can't imagine the world without the this free knowledge sharing platform. The site urges Wikipedia readers in the US to contact their local congressman to vote against the bills. Whether you agree or not. The online social networking platform do exert an incredible impact on the world we live.
With regard to PIPA/SOPA bill protest, over 8 million people wrote to their senators by 19th January according to the news. This led the US congress to reconsider it. Once again, we witness the great power of Social Networks. It gets everybody involved. Shout out for your right. Even as one of 8 million, your voice won't be neglected.
ReplyDeleteThat's true. The penetration and dissemination power of social media is what traditional media could not reach. It make the world more transparent and more democratic-_-May be in the future, people could shout out their voice and make a vote base on the online social networking platform.
Deleten the era of social media, our networks are much larger than they have ever been, and we have more ways to communicate with those in them. Even if you are not very active on Facebook or Twitter, my guess is that your sphere of communication has expanded significantly in recent years. Who you communicate with and how you communicate has changed radically. This new connected era brings both opportunities and challenges.
ReplyDeleteIn the past we had a set of contacts, all of whom generally knew how to reach us — via phone, e-mail, or regular mail. Today, thanks in large part to social media, we have many different levels of communication, each with a specific purpose and etiquette. When we do not understand the role of these levels, they can become huge time wasters. When we do understand them however, they can help us more effectively engage and navigate these new waters.
Yes, a bunch of youngsters indulge into the cyber space especially the social networking platform which is really a time consumer. At June 2009, according to the market research of AC Nielsen, American users devoted less than 5 hours to Facebook on average per month, but this number increased to over 7 hours at January 2010, such a crazy growing rate. And it is more than the total amount of time used on Google, Yahoo, YouTube, Microsoft, Wikipedia and Amazon.
DeleteI agree with you that the wiki had been used for knowledge sharing popularly. Many newspapers and magazines will use the wiki contents for reference. I think that the most difference for wiki and traditional platform is the information can be searched easily in wiki than traditional platform. Knowledge is collected in a specified page in wiki.
ReplyDeleteYes, I really agree with your point about the online social networking platform do exert an incredible impact on the world we live. And I also agree with the 'Online Piracy and Protect Intellectual Property Acts' in the US congress. I think the protection for the copyright of the information is needed to be in the serious considerations. Maybe what we should do is not to follow which queue but find out the balance between share and care.
ReplyDeleteConvenience and regulation are usually two sides of a coin. I don't know how encyclopedia like the well-known 'Encyclopædia Britannica' deal with the copyright issue. I think the online encyclopedia websites can take the paper publish counterparties as reference to make a tradeoff.
DeleteYes,I agree with you that social network has become an important way for us to maintain and broaden our relationships with others.In the past,without the help of social network,people may loss connect with each other after graduation or resigning jobs,however,people now can strongly be connect with each other no matter where and when. I think it is a great breakthrough in changing the way of living.
ReplyDeleteYou raised a question of what was the difference between wiki and those traditional forums. I think you have provided a good answer. It is really an evolution from traditional forum to wiki, with new way of knowledge collecting and information retrieving. However, beyond wiki, can any new type of knowledge aggregation exceed wiki? Quora or Zhihu in mainland China? Or something else? Anyway I think such new evolution should involve more interaction of users so that the knowledge can be updated and spread quickly.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your opinion, wikipedia has been used for knowledge sharing popularly. Many newspapers and magazines will use wikipedia content, only for reference. I think the most different platform is wikipedia and the traditional information can be found easily wikipedia than traditional platform. Knowledge is in a specified page collection in wikipedia.
ReplyDelete