Goodbye My Blogger. Goodbye My Friend.

The Beginning Of The End

Here we are finally. The end of the journey, the end of the path that I started this blog on. I definitely had a lot more fun then I anticipated I would when I first began this journey. There were a lot more fun activities that were undertaken, a new, strong online community that I hope will continue to communicate with each other after this uni semester is over, and a ton of new information about social tech that will hopefully benefit me in my future ventures in IT. So this post will be a recap of what I've achieved this semester within this unit. Of how I've grown new skills and knowledge and how I can utilise them in the future now. So take my hand and let's venture one last time, into my blog of dreams and wonders. I've decided to break this blog post down 2 weeks at a time, due to only doing one blog post every 2 weeks, and also to rein in the length of this blog post. Tread carefully, fair reader, and prepare for adventure and deep thoughts which await thee beyond the door of no tomorrow (or right below this in other words).

Week 1 & 2

I started off with minimal knowledge on social technologies, so when the first week came about, I was eagerly awaiting the first lecture and workshop. I was looking to improve my knowledge on Social Technologies, seeing as they are quite popular, and are one of the big reasons people go online nowadays. I wanted to learn more about them. And that's about the time that I found out there wouldn't be any lectures. Something new definitely, but in the end I definitely preferred this method over the lectures. The first week required us to move away from our traditional learning platform, blackboard, and into a website that had been created by the teaching staff of the subject. I had never had a subject that got rid of Blackboard so easily, so needless to say, I was a little nervous, but excited about the prospects that waited ahead. Everyone was also required to connect with the newly created Google Plus community, which would later on be used to interact with other students and teachers alike throughout the semester. The interactions on this community would later become one of my more favourite things about this subject. We were required to create our own blogging page. Most people were heading towards Wordpress, but I opted for Google's Blogger (what can I say, I make my own path instead of following the crowd). We also had to create and post our first and second blog posts for the class which was having a look at who I am as an individual and discussing my Online Identity that I portrayed. As I'm usually rather confused about the sort of person I am in general, I don't think I managed to portray this as well as I was hoping to, but it was a good attempt at trying to understand the sort of person I am, and it was helpful in helping me establish the basics of understanding what I want to portray to others with my online identity.

Week 3 & 4

Week 3 and 4 was about the time that this class properly started to take off for me. The first blog that I had to make for this week was the blog on Online Communities. This topic was a big eye opener for me by helping me learn more about Online Communities and the difference between them and Networked Publics. I completed this task, but sadly I didn't do a very good job of this due to not revealing more about my own thoughts on each of the topics I discussed. It was too methodical and full of facts instead of my own opinion. I believe that I did this because I was still trying to get used to blogging. I reverted to my usual way of tackling assignments, which was providing the facts that others had stated, instead of relying on my own take on the topic. I found out that we also had the option to fix up our work, but I opted to leave the blog posts as they were, without fixing them up, so as to show my progress through the semester, as I learned more about social tech and how to blog in general. I believe that as the weeks went on, I did learn how to blog better. Don't believe me? Have a look at my blog posts and critique them for yourselves! I feel like they are a good indicator of how I've grown this semester.

My Cluster Map of Facebook Friends Groups

Week 5 & 6

This period of time was a rather busy one for me. My focus this week was on Disasters and Crisis and how Social Media affected them. This, in my opinion was probably my favourite topic and also my best blog post. I was discussing the Boston Bombings and how Social Media was used when this crisis occurred, to help communicate to the people in the area about what they should do next, and to update them on the latest occurrences. Public Crowdsourcing was also used effectively by police in this event, to help capture footage of the bombings from all the people that were there and to provide more evidence for the police to utilise. I also learnt about how social technologies were used to inform loved ones of people who have been affected by a disaster, through the use of Facebook's Safety Check app and others. I feel like I was extremely passionate about this particular topic, because I had never heard of all the cool ways Social Technologies had been utilised in this instance to help people who were in distress or wanted to be updated on loved ones who were in the area that was affected.

I also had to work on my Persona and Identity Map Assignment during this week, and submit it in Week 6, around the same time as I submitted my Disasters and Crisis blog post, so it's safe to say I was extremely busy during this particular weeks (my poster can be seen here). The Persona assignment for me was a good chance for me to learn more about how I was seen online (my online identity once again). But it also allowed me to explore this to a deeper level then before, and I enjoyed learning so much about myself and how I presented myself online. I wasn't completely impressed with how my Persona Poster looked in the end (the background stars effect just never sat right with me), but I personally loved my Identity map, due to how I can definitely say I had the most fun during these particular weeks.

Persona Poster

Week 7 & 8

This time, the class was learning about the Quantified Self or LifeLogging. This topic was also quite an interesting one for me, because it talked about devices that kept track of our movement and daily activities. Ted McCarthy wrote about how these devices could track your activities and then utilise the data that they collected to help improve a user's life in small or huge ways. This could be as simple as using the application Google Now, which keeps track of a users daily events and locations that they frequently visit, and then starts notifying the user of when they should leave to make it to their destination in time. Or it even provides links to news articles on something that you might have googled about a week ago. These and many other types of devices were the main topic of discussion for my blog post this time round. I actually accidentally forgot to post about this until a bit later in this semester, I'm still not sure how I managed to miss this particular blog post. I believe it was due to getting distracted by other assignments that were due during this period of time in other classes. But I eventually did manage to complete a blog post and though it probably wasn't the best, it was still a reasonably good read (if I do say so myself). But I definitely think that I could have done a bit better, seeing as I was a little confused as well about the topic for a while, until I finally started to get a proper understanding as I wrote my blog post. I enjoyed learning about the Quantified Self, mainly because I used quite a lot of these devices and software, and had never actually put a name to them yet. They were just tools that I used (or got and completely forgot about) on a daily basis. So I thoroughly enjoyed this topic.

Week 9 & 10

The topic of discussion this time round was the Maker Community. The Maker Movement was a movement that utilised Social Media to allow it's users to share things that they may have made or created with material around the house. Because of Social Media, communities were able to be formed that focused on these groups of people, and the amazing things that they were now making at home. It helped grow this community into an extremely large movement that started making meet up's in the real world, such as the Maker Faire, where people could meet and show others what they had created, or go and see others inventions. DIY culture flourished because of the use of Social Media. I personally enjoyed this topic, because I have found that I quite enjoy using my hands a lot, and this seemed like a fun thing to try in the future. So I wrote a blog about it and I feel like I did a rather impressive job here as well. I researched into this topic quite a lot because of how much I was interested in the topic. But once again, like the last topic, I still feel like I had a bit of trouble understanding what I was meant to talk about in my blog until I had properly written half of the blog. This may have brought the blog post down itself, but I feel that I made a good attempt at it all the same. 

Gamification Experience

The Gamification Experience was probably the most exciting thing I've done in the 3 and a half years of university(ok that's a little bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point). This involved me completing tasks or even creating our own tasks for the other students to complete even. Some of the tasks even helped with this particular critical analysis, by providing us with opportunities to go back through the semester and review what we had learned. I enjoyed the activities immensely. Not to mention that it would add to my marks in a small way in the end as well. And it allowed me to learn a lot about Gamification as well and how it has progressed through the ages. I would definitely make sure to keep this activity in future classes. Forever. Never remove it. I mean it.

Some of the tasks I completed during the Gamification Experience

Learning Outcomes

I believe I've developed skills during this semester that have allowed me to accomplish the learning outcomes goals. I've been able to convey my analytical and critical thinking skills as well as how I assess and critically reflect on social technologies and their applications through my blog posts throughout the semester. Though I do admit that I did have a slow start, as can be seen in the earlier blogs. But isn't that just part of the learning process? Trying hard until you finally succeed? Assignment 1, which involved my poster displaying my Persona and Identity Map, also provided a good example of how I assessed and critically reflected on social technologies.

I feel like I have managed to convey my broad knowledge and of issues and topics related to social technologies through the conversation that I conducted on my blog posts with other users. I also managed to convey this through my actual blog posts content as well.

I also was able to apply my verbal, written and visual communication through interacting with the class, both online in the Google Plus community, and in person during the workshops.

My Strengths & Weaknesses

I think one of my weaknesses is that I don't actually trust my own opinion, and when it came to discussing topics with my opinion clearly stated throughout it, I had a lot of trouble with it. I do believe I have improved on this one weakness as I progressed throughout the semester, but I still believe that I could improve a lot more. 

A strength I found was that I always had a sound blog structure that I managed to follow each week. Though in the beginning I didn't put in titles for each section, I eventually got a hang of this particular technique. But the blogs were still being broken up in a certain structure that I knew was there.

Another weakness of mine would be how I researched some topics well and then other topics weren't researched as thoroughly. This is of course due to how interested I was in each topic. If I had to go back and change something, this would be on the top 5 list (though if I could go back in time, I don't think I'd be thinking about blogging, and more about giving myself advice and tips for the future).

My favourite part about blogging for some reason was creating the titles. This is a strength of mine, because I managed to come up with an interesting title for almost every week (I'm not so boastful that I would just assume all the titles I made were amazing). My personal favourite would have to be A Hitchhikers Guide to an Online Community. But the actual post itself for this one definitely needed some work done on it, I see that now. But come on. You have to agree that if you read that title, you would definitely click the link. So that's one more point I can add to my skills.

Key Take Away

This subject has actually divulged a lot of information that I didn't know about before I started, and that I didn't expect to learn either. One such thing that I discovered was how Social Technology could be used for more then just socialising, going as far as even helping to save lives. I found out about this particular way that social media could be used during week 6, Crisis and Disaster, and it is probably my biggest take away from this class. 

Another take away for me would have to be how communicating with the community that you're apart of can be an extremely effective way to make something that was already good to begin with become even more amazing. When everyone gets involved, it just gets that much more impressive. An example of that would be how people used Crowdsourcing to find and apprehend people who planted a bomb or committed crimes. The possibilities of Social Media's application to real life events could be endless.

To Conclude The Story

The use of social media has outgrown the expectation that people originally had for it. Social Media can reach millions of people around the world, many more then if trying to reach people through face to face interactions. Social Media can help change peoples lives, and those people could live halfway around the world from the original poster/creator. So though I have learnt a lot of things during this semester, I'd have to say the one thing that I truly understand now, is that theres still a lot to learn about Social Media and how it can benefit society. We've just scraped the surface.

This is Brian Fernandez.

Signing Out.

A Quantified Life is the Life for me

Sorry for this late post!

So firstly I thought I should quickly say that I somehow missed this activity and I'm still trying to understand how. To make up for it, I am posting it now and I apologise to everyone for this late post. We're talking about the Quantified Self, so hope you read it through.

The Quantified Self

What in the world are you on about this week Brian? Well let me educate you on what I've discovered about this topic. My research led me to a site called livescience which informed me that:

"The quantified-self movement refers to the increasing use of technology to collect data about oneself.

These technologies — such as smartphone apps, GPS devices, and physical activity trackers with accelerometers — allow individuals to track all aspects of their daily lives, including their total activity, number of steps, food they eat, amount of sleep, heart rate, and mood."

I personally have used several of these softwares and tools. I might have used even more and just not noticed it yet, that's how easily these tools integrate themselves into your life. One of the main reasons why people currently use Lifelogging tools is to improve their quality of life, as Nancy Messieh from the makeuseof website tells us. Lifelogging tools are great at keeping track of a users' fitness level and more, by tracking how many steps they take a day, the amount of calories they lose while running on a treadmill, a user's diet and so on. 

I decided to try out a tool

Google Now

Google Now is a software that is installed on certain android phones that provides the user with the right information at the right time. If a user has a hobby outside of the house that occurs the same time every week, this software will connect that with the location of the user during this time and then notify the user whenever the next event starts coming up the following week. It warns the user when they should leave so as to get to the location in time. It's a rather intuitive piece of software that is always entertaining to use and the possibilities for this sort of application is endless. Google has once again found created another great application which they can happily add to their collection of great pieces of software.

Google Now also shows you other pieces of information that the user may find useful by keeping track of what the user has searched up on google recently. It then provides links to the web of other information that is similar to the one that the user was looking at before. 

I rather enjoyed using this application, and will definitely make much more use of it throughout the rest of my time with an android phone. I reckon it's got a big future ahead of it.

Me as a Quantified Self Devotee

I truthfully don't believe that I class as a Quantified Self Devotee. Sure I have access to some of these tools and apps that exist, and I do make use of some of them, but I don't usually use the information that is then gained to further my own goals in health and fitness/the many other options that you can use this information for. So though I collect the information, I don't make use of it, and don't notice half of the tools/apps that are tracking my activities. The use of Google Now has definitely impacted my life socially though. It helps me out with when I should leave a certain location to make it in time to the next location, it provides updates on topics I may have searched on Google beforehand, and that's still just scratching the surface of it. This is just 1 of the tools I use as well.

I'm currently endeavouring to use Lifelogging tools to improve my diet as well as health in the form of fitness, which are two of the more popular uses for a Lifelogging tool. Many different applications and tools have been created to help assist and track users in the gym, or out running in their neighbourhood. Who know's I might just even join all of these users out there with a device of my own. I might just buy a FitBit as well, so as to track my heart rate and distance that I've run.

Conclusion

To conclude everything that I've said above, Lifelogging tools are already reaching far and wide and are mainly used as health monitoring apps. Google Now is one of the apps that have been created that I researched this week to learn more about Lifelogging. I would highly recommend anyone in the market for a cool application to start using this one, a very intriguing tool indeed. What other lifelogging tools have you used? 

I also don't believe that I am a full Quantified Self Devotee seeing as I collect information but don't do anything with it after its collected. I probably have A LOT of information collected on myself, yet when it comes to achieving something out of the data collected, I always seem to find something better to do. But I have already deduced that I have quite a lot of tools and from just looking around my bedroom now, I can already confirm multiple such devices that support the Quantified Self movement. Are you also drowning in Lifelogging tools too? Leave a comment below!

And as always
This is Brian Fernandez

Signing Out

Exploring Your Inner Maker: Social Tech and Copyrighting

So. The Maker Movement. Copyright. Social Technology. What are they? I asked myself the same question, and decided to research a bit more on them to better understand the topic for this weeks blog. 

The Maker Movement

Picture from SXSchedule

The first question I tackled was, 'What is the Maker Movement?' The site, Techopedia states:

'The maker movement is a trend in which individuals or groups of individuals create and market products that are recreated and assembled using unused, discarded or broken electronic, plastic, silicon or virtually any raw material and/or product from a computer-related device.'

Social Media helped with the Maker Movement by allowing online communities to form and provided new ways to share and create different things that interest different sorts of people. They are usually referred to as Maker Communities. The growth of makers also allowed creations of largescale events, such as Maker Faire, which is pretty much a giant show and tell for makers to meet in person and show what they've created. I found this particular piece of information quite interesting, I even made a mental note to see if I could visit one in the future to see what I'm missing out on. 

The creation of these Maker Faire's actually helped push the Maker Movement and made it even bigger then it originally was. Ian Cole, from the Raising Geeks blog went into amazing detail about the Makers Movement, providing me with a lot of the information that I needed for this blog.

3D Printing and it's impact on the Maker Movement

3D has actually had a very large impact on the Maker Movement. By providing people with the ability to create endless possibilities of creations easily, people are using it to create small and affordable every day objects and then selling them. Ashlee Vance from The New York Times writes:

'It is manufacturing with a mouse click instead of hammers, nails and, well, workers. Advocates of the technology say that by doing away with manual labor, 3-D printing could revamp the economics of manufacturing and revive American industry as creativity and ingenuity replace labor costs as the main concern around a variety of goods.'

The use of 3D printing in the Maker Community has vastly impacted it, once again making it even larger then before. And it's just going to keep on growing. I'm even thinking about throwing down with the other Makers out there just to get a go at using the 3D printing, after reading about some of the amazing things people are making with it, from prosthetic legs, doorknobs, handbags and jewellery to iPhone cases. The list just goes on and on. It really is looking like theres an endless possibility to the 3D printers use in the Maker Community.

Copyright

Having thoroughly researched the Maker Movement, I moved on to learning more about Copyright and how it impacts the Maker Movement. Copyrighting something allows a person to state that what they've created is theirs and no-one else can use it. If it makes money, then the creator is usually entitled to some of that money.

Copyright is especially useful for when you're making something that you don't want shared with anyone else unless they're willing to pay you for it. You get a lot of the profits from your product. If you were looking into sharing something that you created, you would look at getting a Creative Commons license, which allows you to share what you've made with others, but everyone can still see that you were the original creator.

If a Maker doesn't want other Makers to copy his/her ideas when he shares it, then putting it under a copyright is the best way for him/her to go. Otherwise, looking at a Creative Commons license is great for online communities that are focused on sharing and showing others how to make things that you created. FOR FREE!

Social Technology

Finally I turned my attention to Social Technology. What is it and how does it help the Maker Movement? Social Technology was a massive help to the Maker Movement. By providing online communities for makers to connect and share their ideas with others, Social Technologies was the main reason that the Maker Movement managed to gain momentum in its steady rise to popularity. It opened a world of unexplored possibilities by allowing users to share ideas through many online communities, one such community being MakerSpace. This is a purely Maker community which has been created for the Maker Faire events which were mentioned earlier in this blog. I think that the creation of these communities had a much bigger impact on the movement. Before people would only have been able to share it with their friends. But now they could share their ideas with the world.

The increase in internet speed as well as better technology has provided people with the opportunity to truly explore their inner maker. Because of all the shared creations floating around communities nowadays, people are able to learn how to DIY (do it yourself) or improve on other ideas and make something even more unique. This movement truly is amazing.

Conclusion

The Maker Movement has definitely impacted the internet quite a lot. I found a lot of information that led me to believe even I could become a Maker. Technically, I already am from past endeavours. I only just found out there was a community for it as well. Have you got any cool things that you've also made? Would you join one of the Maker Communities? Leave a comment below to let me know! I'm pretty interested in these Maker Faire events. That's the first step I'm going to take in my possible journey to finding my inner Maker.

Brian Fernandez
Once Again
Signing Out.

Social Media fights crime after the Boston Bombings

Social Media is helping to shape our world in all aspects, from online collaborations for projects and assignments to providing support during and after natural disasters and emergencies. The many different ways Social Media can be used during an emergency is still vastly unexplored but steps are already being taken to resolve this issue. An example of this can be seen during the aftermath of the Boston Bombings on April 15th, 2013. Two bombs went off during the Boston Marathon, during which 3 people died and up to 260 more people were injured. Authorities had come to the conclusion that when a large scale emergency such as this occurred, people retreated to social media to find out what was happening. Taking advantage of this, authorities used Twitter to instruct the general public in what they should do next.

This is the first example of how a Social Technology could be used in an emergency situation. After I completed research on some case studies, news reports, papers and articles on this topic, I began to have a better semblance of how the authorities handled the Boston Bombings using Social Media. Due to the speed of information that was being spread through twitter, it became the go to place for updates on occurrences in Boston during this troubled period of time. Through the use of social technology, information was distributed to the public much faster then any normal news outlet and people could easily be updated on what was happening without having to spend too much time searching for the information they required.

A coverage photo taken of the Boston Bombing incident.
Photo provided by vjeran_pavic, found here
Available through a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

Twitter was the main platform that was updated after the bombings occurred due to the initiative by a police commissioner who gave the order to use all forms of social media to communicate with the public, and this was a mere 10 minutes after the initial bombing had occurred. Information that was tweeted to followers provided updates on stages of investigation, casualty reports, road closures and more. Twitters followers rose to 300000 followers during this period of time.

Officials at the scene of the Boston Bombing incident.
Photo provided by vjeran_pavic, found here
Available through a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

Social Media was also utilised in another way to gain more information and evidence for the Boston Bombing incident. Images and video that had been gathered by two online groups were then shared with the FBI to further their investigation into the incident. I found this paper highly useful when writing this blog post because it revealed to me how crowdsourcing was used to help with the investigation, by utilising the 'virtual bystanders' that had been at the event. I thought this particular use of social technology was rather cool, as it took something as simple as taking a photo and sharing it, and transformed it into a means for the police to receive more information and footage of the event to help pinpoint the individuals who had planted the bombs in the first place. 

Bystanders and officials helping the wounded at the Boston Bombing incident.
Photo provided by smi23le, found here
Available through a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

Is this the first instance Social Media has helped?

This isn't the first time that investigators have used this method either. In 2011, investigators used up to 5,000 hours of video from the public to find suspects during a riot in Vancouver, though this time they used the information they found differently. They proceeded to post the news clips they had taken, and made them available in kiosks around Vancouver, urging ordinary citizens to look at them and see if they recognised anyone within the videos. They also posted similar images on Facebook, and allowed citizens to post videos, images and more of the event to their page to further their investigation. The use of this method allowed them to successfully capture the suspects and most of the data they had been looking for had simply come to them, instead of them looking for it as usual. 

In my Opinion:

I believe that these methods should be utilised all around the world during large scale emergency situations, to allow for better collaboration between the public and the authorities. Information would flow a lot more easily, officials would receive information more efficiently that could be relevant to the emergency/capture of culprits, and the world would be able to handle large scale events like this more effectively as a whole. Steps are already being taken by social media platforms to allow members of their platforms to check if loved ones are safe during a disaster. Facebook has utilised a tool that does just that. It works by letting people who are in a disaster area alert other friends to the fact that they are safe. Meanwhile sites like Crowdmap and Ushahidi update people on events that are happening and show you real-time mapping of these events.

In Conclusion:

Social Technologies are growing and becoming more integrated into our everyday lives, and what you have seen in this blog post is just one of the up and coming ways it can be utilised to better society. I believe it would be wasteful to not make use of social technologies when they're most needed. What do you think?

Once again, this is Brian.

Signing out.

Assignment 1: Critical Reflection

Presentation of oneself on Social Media. That's a big one for me. I've noticed on several occasions how I've evolved in my interactions with others on social media platforms through the years. It's only after enrolling into this unit did I truly understand the steps behind this process and the need for User Research. Without it, social technology would be severely underused and ill fitted to the modern day blogger/browsing social media individual. I came to this conclusion through research and hours upon hours spent discovering and constructing my own online identity, which I will explore and analyse here.

My use of Social Technologies

My use of Social Technologies was limited from an early age. I never saw the point of having more then one or two platforms to socialise with friends on. The idea that it could be used professionally never actually occurred to me till I arrived at uni. The main Social Media tools that I surrounded my online self with were Facebook, Youtube, Snapchat and Instagram. Snapchat and Instagram are still new additions to my social technology inventory. Google + was also added a bit earlier then Snapchat and Instagram, but because of its minimal use, it only just barely scrapes its way in as a social technology that I utilise in my daily life.

Myspace may have been the first social network I was a part of but what really gave me a proper greeting in the social technology world was Facebook. I became a member in 2009/2010, and after looking through my timeline, I realise that I was the sort of person that blurted out whatever was on my mind at the time. You can see how I've evolved overtime, from posting unnecessary posts about everyday occurrences to developing a personal filter for the content I posted. I currently see myself as the Lurker/Socialite on Facebook. I follow the updates on the people that have come through my life at some point mainly through Facebook, while posting and commenting on mainly my close friends walls. In the past Facebook was used for Student purposes which didn't work out to well, due to attempting to use several different social media platforms instead of one central one. Recently, my Facebook activity has been minimised due to Facebook's constant spamming of unneeded content and attention seeking articles from other sites. Yet whenever I'm bored, I will still find myself scrolling through it. This contributes to the vast amount of time spent on Facebook, which can be seen within my Persona Poster. Facebook for me is a mix of Personal and Student, as seen in my Identity Map.

Meanwhile, when I use YouTube, I've completely become the Lurker. While YouTube is used quite often by nearly all of my friends, the channel I have is mainly used by myself to watch random videos found through the internet and to keep up to date with vloggers and other subscription channels that are hosted on YouTube that I've found over the years. I've used YouTube as a Student on occasion as well, but my main goals for my YouTube channel will eventually allow me to evolve and use it as a Professional vlogger. Therefore, YouTube is kept for Student and Professional purposes.

Google+ is used mainly for Professional and Student exploits. It only occasionally gets updated because of how rarely I use it, so it is the most behind on information about myself, yet still the best place to find my professional self on any Social Media Platform. The Student side of my profile is another topic entirely. My circles have not been organised properly, communities weren't used efficiently (created a community for a university assignment, then never proceeded to use it due to finding a better suited platform), and overall profile not kept up to date as mentioned before, has led me to conclude my Student social media endeavours need to be better organised overall. Google+ is also seen as Professional and Student.

Instagram and Snapchat are once again more of a mixture between Lurker/Socialite. I use both of these often, Snapchat being the more popular of the two for myself. I often send snaps to friends throughout the day, but rarely post a story or Instagram photo upload. Instagram is the latest discovery for me, and it is probably one of the more interesting ones that I use. The fact that you can only upload an image or an image and text adds a new twist that other social technologies can't capture. The possibilities with Instagram are endless, and I'm extremely excited to get deeper into it. I see these two as a more personal platform for myself and keep it strictly close friends, but I have been known to add people who follow me on Instagram depending on if I know them in the real world. I see both of these platforms as solely as Personal.

My overall persona can easily be summed up as the Disorganised Socialiser, as seen in my Persona Poster. I'm a very social person with close friends, and even other friends that I have on Facebook and other platforms, but when we have a look at my Student side, things get rather unorganised. I believe I'm disorganised in my Student side of Social Technologies due to how new it is to me. I recently started using these platforms for more then just personal reasons, and theres a lot to get used to in terms of how I present myself to others in a Professional manner and as a student.

The Importance of User Research

The study of understanding how people use Social Technologies is called User Research. Or as James R. Lewis and Jeff Sauro explains in their book, Quantify The User Experience, 

'User research is the systematic study of the goals, needs, and capabilities of users so as to specify design, construction, or improvement of tools to benefit how users work and live.'

The research of User's who use Social Networks is useful when trying to understand how to improve a Social Technology to keep up with the people's needs. If a Social Technology becomes obsolete it's usually due to the Social Technology no longer meeting the needs of the user. The user will leave to find a better Social Network that fulfils their requirements of what they want in a Social Technology.

A great example of a Social Technology that couldn't keep up with the needs of its users and thereby eventually lost them all to another competitor is Myspace. Myspace was beaten when Facebook was finally released. In a month's time Myspace lost over 10 million users, and gave up all hope of staying a social network platform. The chief executive of Myspace even said, 

'Myspace is not a social network anymore. It is now a social entertainment destination.'

If Social Technologies don't conduct User Research and constantly update their product, they could go the way of Myspace. I think Facebook needs to pay attention to this, in my opinion they've started to let themselves go as a competing Social Technology.

What was learnt?

Through learning about how others interact with Social Technologies that I'm active in, I've learnt that there are more ways to utilise these technologies to better engage people. I've currently been using them as a personal connector with people close to me. I also learned the importance of User Research and how it's helped to shape Social Technologies into platforms that can be fully utilised by a user. Before this subject, I didn't even know User Research existed (but when you stop to think about it, I suppose it was obvious that this sort of thing existed). I believe if a platform doesn't grow with its users, the users will slowly grow tired of the platform and make the move to another platform, as seen with Myspace. 

I was a little shocked at how long I spent on Facebook per day, which then led me to reevaluate how I use Social Technology and what I could be doing instead. I have also begun to use some more of my devices after realising that I've technically wasted money on a few of them, namely my Tablet (I barely use it at all) and iMac.

I believe I accurately mapped my Persona within my Persona Poster as well as the Identity Map, but they probably could have been done a bit better (I was never happy with the design of the Persona Poster, but I was wasting too much time). If I had wanted to improve the designs of these two, I should have allocated time more efficiently and started a bit earlier. I didn't get the Disorganised Socialiser title for nothing.

Overall I have learnt about Personas, how to distinguish them and how people present themselves to others with these Personas online. It was a very interesting study and I look forward to the next step in my learning within the unit.

Assignment 1: Identity Map

Assignment 1: Persona Poster