Welcome to MDIA 1045 - Fall 2011

Welcome to our class blog. This is a place to learn from one another and to add to the learning that happens in our course.On the right hand side you will see a number of different items to provide new information daily if you are seeking knowledge constantly. Each of these 'widgets' was created at http://twitter.com/widgets. This is something we will learn about in Week 3/4 but if you are keen follow the link.

Do you have a Google account? If not you will need one for this course. Please sign up now.

The course will be structured into two halves. The first half will focus on personal social networking. The half will focus on the business of social networking and how businesses can utilize and quantify the use of social technologies for business purposes.
The purpose of this format is to demonstrate the many parallels between personal and business use of social networks. This format also helps to show the differences for both personal and business social networking. Each week participants will be directed to local offline networking events.

Today's class will be rather straight forward and involve introductions to the course, one another, Google, social search and social networking. Today we will focus on Google Applications, Twitter, Advanced Search and if time allows RSS.

As an assignment in the future students will be required to attend one event and write a short synopsis of the experience. You first exercise is to give me some information about why you are taking this class by completing the survey below. We will then work on creating a short survey of our own. This survey will then be completed by the other members of the class.



We will go through the events, the class blog, the class hash tag (#MDIA1045) and get to setting up Twitter accounts for use in the class and optimizing them.
We will be using Twitter to share information before, during and after class so a Twitter account is something you will need. This account can be totally anonymous if you like. You can also change your name later on without reprecusions from Twitter. To take full advantage of what social networking has to offer it is advised that you use an identifiable picture, name and bio. For those looking for some more information to learn the ins and outs of Twitter this free resource is the Twitter "textbook": http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/. I am also available via Twitter, Facebook or email to answer your questions on any topic at anytime.
It is important to understand social networking in both an online and an offline capacity. The real benefits of digital social networking come when that digital connection becomes a face-to-face meeting. As part of this class it is important to attend at least one offline event. One of your assignments will involve you evaluating and analyzing networking and how to best take advantage of the time you spend at offline events.

Let's finish by discussing the listening part of social media including Google Alerts, Google Reader and Netvibes.

What is RSS (Really Simple Syndication):


If you would like to add this blog to your RSS feed please add the URL as: http://mdia1045.blogspot.com/feeds/default?alt=rss

HOMEWORK:
Be sure to read today's class reading as homework for next week. Please tweet about this story and include #mdia1045.

The course marking structure:
In-class exercises
Assignments x 2
Final Project
Professionalism & Participation
25%
25%
30%
20%

Offline events locally (FREE unless otherwise stated):

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