Summer homework

Yeah, I know, summer is vacationing. You did not give your kids summer reading, research or practice. You did not lend out a math text book for a kid to skip ahead. So why in the world, would you want to give yourself homework. Well, in a word: Time.

When school starts in a few weeks (yikes!) you will simply not have time to do the one thing you should do: Explore social networking. It is not just a fad like pet rocks. It is not going away. And your students are already connected. Today’s homework: Facebook.

What is Facebook? You could view it as a simple personal blog–like an online journal. But there is more to it: Facebook (and sites like myspace and friendster) is a place to meet. Like the mall. Like Xintandi. Like the Cote De Mil on a Sunday morning. Like Starbucks (now open just down the road from the school I work at in Shanghai). And you students are hanging out there. Why in the world would you want to go to where your students are hanging out? If you see students in a mall, you take a quick about face and hide in Target. It is precisely for this reason you need to spend time in Facebook. Facebook is not for students anymore. In fact, over half the users are not students.

• It is growing by 3% by week
• It ahs over 31 million active users
• The fastest-growing demographic is the 25+ age group.
• Facebook is the sixth-most trafficked site in the United States*.
• Users spend an average of 20 minutes on the site daily*.
• The site is the No. 1 photo-sharing application on the web*.
• Photo application draws more than twice as much traffic as the next three sites combined*.
• Canada, with more than 3 million active users, has the most users outside of the US.
• The UK has the third-largest user-base, with more than 2 million active users.
• Over 1,800 applications have been built on the Facebook Platform.
• More than 75 percent of Facebook users have used at least one Facebook application.

Facebook in five easy steps

1. Create a free account
2. Put some basic info about yourself
3. check out some of the applications that allow you to personal and expand your facebook experience.
4. Search for existing groups–like your school, the city you live in, your alma mata, your favourite team etc.
5. Search for old friends–and poke them
6. Respond to other’s pokes and see what happens.

A friend created a facebook account last spring and she reconnected with student she taught in South America more than ten years ago. They are now in university.

Whether you stay active in Facebook or other social networks will be your choice after you explore it. Some of you will be hooked. Some will roll your eyes. Some will just forget about it when you have face time. Some will want to have more faces in books.

But facebook is more than just social networking. Webworker daily presents 12 ways of using facebook professionally:

1. Think of it like personalizing your desk.
2. Look for old co-workers and current connections.
3. Add friends selectively.
4. Add apps selectively.
5. Edit your news feed preferences.
6. Edit your profile and security settings.
7. Incorporate the tools you’re already using into your profile.
8. Join Groups related to your business interests.
9. Limit time wasted on Facebook..
10. Be philanthropic.
11. Ask Questions.

Some interesting bits on Facebook:
Robert Scooble reports that 6000 Siemens uses Facebook with the campany’s blessing:

watch my videos on my Facebook profile. Tonight I interviewed Siemens Web Strategist. He noted that at Siemens they already have more than 6,000 employees on Facebook (most added in the past month). So, apps for Siemens employees will come soon. Why? I bet more employees will soon be checking Facebook than checking their own intranets.

To people who think this is just hype: you’re wrong. I’m willing to make a $100 bet that’ll go to charity if it turns out that Facebook goes away. This one isn’t going away and is going to be HUGELY successful. You don’t get 6,000 employees at Siemens (and they are FAR from the only one) to join without getting value back in return.

Facebook is fast becoming the destination of choice, ahead of start pages like My Yahoo, Netvibes or pageflakes. Some predict it will be THE destination in ashort order. The argument focuses on the social.

Facebook is becoming the home page for many of us. Why? Because our friends are a lot more interesting than anything over on Yahoo News or TechMeme or other places. And because Facebook has become the fastest-moving application platform around. Every day someone sends me another application (or four, like showed up today without me asking for them — I didn’t add them cause I don’t add stuff that’s obviously aimed at a younger demographic, but, still, they are there, and SOMEONE is using them, otherwise I wouldn’t get them sent to me).

There are arguments against Facebook. You can think of them for yourselves. But would you react as Telstra did by banning its 45000 employees from accessing it? This is a telecommunications company people!

“This would be a retarded move for ANY company, let alone a company that is trying to position itself as a company that “gets” online.”

Of course, Telstra is good company given that 70% of London’s companies also ban facebook.

And once you have an online presence? Should that be held against you? It is already and it will only get worse.

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