JUST BACK FROM Harvard (blogs) where I read about the distinction between social media and social habitats in the online world. As we know from the Social Media module in the creative multimedia degree at Tipperary Institute, the media and the habitat can look like a Venn Diagram. Searls explains that Jaiku and Twitter are social media. MySpace and Facebook are social habitats. Many elements of social media have evolved from blogging. Searls sees Facebook like many others. "Facebook is a walled garden: a place you have to go to be social in the ways it facilitates and permits. In this respect Facebook is AOL 2.0." One of the distinctions made in the social media module involves definitions of the terms of reference. We need to keep microblogs like Jaiku separate from walled gardens like Facebook. The distinction ensures we can progress towards higher levels of online activity. Searls thinks, "We need a Linnean taxonomy here. And we don’t have one. Yet. For those so inclined, that’s an assignment." Noted.
Doc Searls -- "When social media are neither"
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