Blog: Dan Power: Twitter, Ning and Social Networks

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Twitter, Ning and Social Networks

I have had a Twitter account for about 3 months and various Ning accounts and I started my LinkedIn page a year ago. How is it going? Slow!

I haven't found much use for Twitter (twitter.com). What is Twitter? "Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?" A few of my BEYENetwork friends are experimenting with Twitter, but I don't need minute by minute updates on any of them. They most likely don't need updates on me either.

Ning (ning.com) let's you create your own social network for anything. I have created 3 targeted social networks and all have been flops. You can check my IowaMetaverse Ning (http://iowametaverse.ning.com/). Recently my students have joined that Ning and one I created for my course "Using Second Life for Decision Support". None of the Ning's have really been active or useful.

What about LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com)? "LinkedIn’s simple philosophy: Relationships Matter.
Your professional relationships are key to your professional success. Our mission is to help you be more effective in your daily work and open doors to opportunities using the professional relationships you already have." Currently I have 125 connections; I check LinkedIn approximately monthly. I like getting the email updates on my friends. In the past month, my profile has been viewed by 1 person. In the last 10 days, I have appeared in search results 14 times.

Basically I don't have time for Social Networking!

Friends please email me, read my blog or read DSS News. My column in today's DSS news, Vol. 9, No. 20, October 5, 2008, is titled "What are physical database design tradeoffs for decision support data?" You can read the full article at http://dssresources.com/faq/index.php?action=artikel&id=176 .

Your comments, questions and feedback are appreciated. Also, I am looking for interesting case studies and articles for DSSResources.com.

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