The Social Media Phenomenon
Online social networks are expanding relationships rapidly across the globe and providing interactive experiences never before possible.
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A Social Media World
Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, the iPhone, and programs like Adobe Connect are all tools of the trade. In the relatively new landscape of social media, users are seeking solutions that seamlessly cut across mobile, Web, and live interaction—while bringing back the human element to digital interaction.
Facebook is now a giant in the business, exceeding 175 million active members worldwide in February 2009—twice the population of Great Britain. RIT faculty and students have embraced the social media phenomenon in the classroom and through investigation and innovation at RIT’s Lab for Social Computing.
Innovation and Education
“People create, join, and seek social networks that enable them to have meaningful and relevant experiences with each other,” says Dr. Susan Barnes, professor of communication at RIT’s College of Liberal Arts and associate director of the Lab for Social Computing (LSC). “At RIT, we’re studying the online environment as well as using it.”
Dr. Elizabeth Lawley, associate professor of information technology in the B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences, founded the lab in 2004 and now serves as director. As the first university-based lab on social computing for undergraduate and graduate studies in this new area of technological research, the LSC vision is to leverage the power of social media through new innovations and provide information about social computing in business and industry contexts through publications, workshops, and Web-based resources.
The lab provides an interdisciplinary meeting place necessary for campus collaborations. “We’ll be able to combine human sciences like communication with technical sciences such as information technology, to conduct research and development related to a wide range of social activities,” Lawley says.
Lawley and her students are partnering with Microsoft on the Personal Ubiquitous Library Project. PULP is a software application that will enable mobile phones to capture a picture of a bar code on specific items—a book, CD, DVD, or game—and upload the bar code image to their personal digital library. The software would recognize the photographed bar code and provide information about the product. Users would then upload their findings to their social networks to share similar interests, spark discussions, or simply promote the product.
“The benefit of using PULP software is less waste of personal time and money,” Lawley says. “Take a quick picture of a bar code with a cell phone, download it and you won’t waste your time reading a book with poor reviews or buying a game you can’t play with your friends.”
Another collaboration underway is with Gannett’s Rochester Democrat and Chronicle to develop an Alternate Reality Game (ARG), called Picture The Impossible. ARG has been used for TV shows like ABC’s Lost, but this is the first time someone has tried to do this with the newspaper as it transforms with the realities of online communication. RIT students will serve as writers, puzzle designers, artists, coders, and project managers to develop the game.
Picture The Impossible will not be a game where people sit in front of their computers; instead it sends people out into the community on a virtual treasure hunt to take pictures and find hidden clues in various parts of the city then log their results into Democrat and Chronicle’s online network. “There’s some mystery, problem-solving, and collaboration components to the game and the idea is to get people excited and involved in all that Rochester has to offer, while learning more about its history as a city of innovation,” Lawley says.
Building upon research at the LSC, Barnes, along with faculty members Dr. Christopher Egert and Stephen Jacobs of the B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences, and Dr. Nicholas DiFonzo of the College of Liberal Arts, is researching Theoretical and Applied Approaches to teaching social computing in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education through a grant from the National Science Foundation. Six graduate students are examining how STEM students establish social networks when they interact in online learning environments.
According to Barnes, the primary goals are to improve technology education by introducing the new discipline of social computing into the STEM curriculum, and to prepare undergraduates for positions in the social media sector of the technology industries.
“Measurable outcomes are to evaluate the level of student understanding of social media before and after they have taken the course, as well as the student’s perceived awareness of the technology marketplace,” Barnes explains.
Social, Learning, and Business Networks
Dr. Neil Hair, assistant professor of marketing in RIT’s E. Philip Saunders College of Business, says the online interactive classroom can become a network and meeting space with businesses and professionals across the globe—as well as a virtual laboratory to create and test product concepts before they make their debut in the real world.
“It’s all about the networks,” says Hair. “We’ve got social networking in terms of Facebook and MySpace; we’ve got a virtual world like Second Life. And finally, we have partnerships we’ve formed using our professional contacts to help form that wider social network.
“It’s not just about the students. It’s also about the faculty; it’s about real-world companies and organizations that want to get involved; it’s about research to help us understand the strategies behind the use of social networks.”
Navigating the virtual world is an overall mission for RIT’s Online Learning department, which provides support for all RIT computer-collaborative communication. “We use a Web-based system called myCourses that adds an option for discussion groups, but we also have added tools like wikis and webinars through Adobe Connect for streaming support lectures and communication venues that stretch beyond the physical classroom,” says Online Learning director Joeann Humbert. “We provide wraparound support for these technologies, and that includes RIT’s island in Second Life.”
“Business and education are the two highest users of Second Life right now,” says Katie McDonald, instructional technologist at Online Learning. “Yes, the tools have great learning applications and obviously that’s why we are using them, but just the fact that students are exposed to this simulated 3-D environment has a benefit without even talking about the content of the course.
“Within these worlds, users can communicate with high-fidelity, interact with other avatars, and immerse themselves into activities not possible in the real world. It’s a huge asset to learn how to navigate and how to communicate in Second Life.”
RIT Island in Second Life was selected by Linden Research Inc. (the software developer), as a showcase for new and existing residents to explore and discover what’s most exciting in the Second Life world.
Humbert says the RIT Island was completely developed by students. It’s a meeting place and a great social environment, but it’s also an educational tool for RIT students who are interested in 3-D development and now have this opportunity to design and create on the island for their work portfolios.”
According to Humbert, social media technology allows people to work together in ways never before possible by introducing a global perspective in the classroom. “It transcends any disabilities whether it’s blindness, deafness, attention-deficit, social issues, or shyness. In an online world, the playing field becomes even.”
Experience in the Virtual World
RIT’s first online cross-listed undergraduate course in Second Life—Online Advertising—was co-developed by Hair and Barnes through the Provost’s Learning and Innovation Grant. The virtual course taught students to develop online advertising campaigns for companies existing in the virtual world and those interested in building a presence there.
“Our students worked with real clients who owned businesses in Second Life and are making a living from it,” Barnes says. “This is where innovation comes in because we went into Second Life and said let’s look at this unique environment and bring in those people as guest lecturers to teach our students how to use it.”
Three of the top ten richest avatars, according to BusinessWeek, agreed to work with students in the class. “No one has ever given a guest lecture inside Second Life from a commercial perspective. Our students ended up working for real clients on consultancy projects and helped them make money,” Hair says.
The classroom benefits are huge, says Hair. For example, IBM Europe and Xerox in the U.S. are very interested in this interrelationship because they understand its number one application—to hire graduates who understand Second Life and can help build branding strategies for their businesses in this new social medium.
“You’ve got the trinity: the academics, business practitioners, and bright young students—three parties that are playing very well,” Hair says.
As a result of the course, Barnes is partnering with the Relationship Networking Industry Association, which builds communities of trust to manage the exponential growth of virtual networks. Barnes is helping to build RNIA’s education component of social networking for the university.
“Education has always been about the experience, about creating that social experience that students find memorable, find pleasant, find exciting, find engaging,” Hair says. “Online social media has allowed us to extend that experience beyond the classroom, beyond the confines of time and place so students can continue to connect with us and each other long after graduation. Social media has fundamentally transformed the educational experience in this country and the world over.”