13 March 2011

Social networking and genealogy

For the third successive month BIFHSGO had a record turnout for its monthly meeting, this time for Marian Press presenting on Social Networking and Genealogy. 

Marian put emphasis on the general social network sites Flickr and Facebook. She was less enthusiastic about Twitter complaining that often it is used to routinely announce every genealogy blog posting. This does get tiresome, especially when several people retweet the same item.

Social network aspects of the broader genealogy sites Ancestry, Footnote and Genes Reunited were also stressed. She was less enthusiastic about the genealogy specific social network sites, although noting that some of them link to the general sites like Facebook.
 
A non-copyright infringing version of the slides used are on Slideshare at http://www.slideshare.net/skottowe/bifhsgo

6 comments:

DWP said...

When I tried to print the
"Bifhsgo - Presentation Transcript", (pages 2 and 3 of 4) page 3 was blank.

(I know I shouldn't use paper this way, but please don't berate me for this. At least I have it in case the electronic version disappears. I printed the page 3 information from a succession of print screen catures. )

direcleit said...

I couldn't disagree more regarding the invaluable networking tool that is Twitter.

I, and many others, use it to exchange information and ideas, to assist and collaborate and, gosh, we do so with a bit of friendly 'banter' along the way!

PS We also notify folk of our blog posts on it, naughty us!

Peter

ADB said...

Twitter is invaluable for sharing links, and that includes the tweeting of blogposts. Each social networking service has its own role to play in this field, Twitter as much as Facebook and others.

Guido

GeniAus said...

Twitter is used to routinely announce every genealogy blog posting - why is this bad?

It is used too often for personal banter but the value of the information and links disemminated far outweighs these inconveniences.

The key is to follow people who use Twitter responsibly and to encourage good twitter etiquette.

Astrid said...

Heeeyy... I just started using Twitter, and I like posting my blog through it. My blog posts are very interesting... really... go read one:).

Amy Coffin, MLIS said...

Perhaps Marian is following the wrong people on Twitter. There are ways to filter out repetitive information on all social networking sites, including Twitter.

--Amy (@acoffin on Twitter)