Title of the Article: Social networking and cloud computing: precarious affordances for the “prosumer”
Author: Jamie Skye Bianco
Abstract of the Article:
“Social networking” as a descriptor makes a huge range of personalized cloud computing platforms and functions of interaction on the web. “Cloud computing” refers to the use of a network- based applications that also handles user data storage. In other words, both the program of any documents, files, or data generated through this programs all reside on the host’s remote networked server and not on a user’s own hard drive.
Bianco shows different examples of cases related to social networking and cloud computing that are carried out on such sites as MySpace, Facebook, Flicker, YouTube, Twitter, and Delicious.
Three Things I learned from my Reading Assignment:
1. Privacy, monetization, proprietary issues with user generated content, and network failures reveal precarious aspects of social networking.
2. We should have control over our personal information. We must choose what information to put in our profile, including contact and personal information, pictures, interests and groups we join.
3. We should also read and understand the Terms of Service (TOS) in the End Use License Agreement (EULA) of any sites we join.
Implications / Applications of the new things I Learned:
1. We must be aware the consequences of using social networking and cloud computing. Because social networking and cloud computing might have provocative issues for knowledge production, public disclosure, politics, journalism and activism.
2. As users of different social networking sites such as Facebook, Yahoo, Google, Twitter, YouTube, we should read the licensing agreement as we make an account on these sites. We should also be careful to the different information we put and share.
3. Technologies like cloud computing and social networking cannot address all our concerns. So we must take an active role and be an instrument of right information. As librarians, let us log-in and participate to spread the good and right information to the right clients, at the right time.
