I had a lot of fun hacking my way through the social network jungle. Web Junction and its usefulness to librarians was familiar to me since last year I tried to participate in their online class on library service to Spanish speaking patrons. I got a taste of what it is like to take an online class. Ning has a fair amount of depth but Gather seems too new to have a well stocked list of interests. The Ning participants were more knowledgeable about their individual adventures and interests. I tried putting in "Knitting" in both Ning and Gather and got the best return from Ning. Browsing through the Educational social networks gave me the idea to pass these on to my sister who is a professor of elementary education. She is always looking for ways to keep up with her young students. The What's on My Book shelf site presents a unique way to network: trade books with others. For public libraries, LinkedIn, the social network for aspiring business people could prove a helfpful resource in helping the public with their job applications, and goals. After this long slog through the social network environment,I loved the windup of this section with the humorous article from PC Computing. I thought the writer's comparisons of various social networking sites to a list of his favorite bars and his evolution away and out of them was spot on.
