There are places that will tell you it is a great way to learn new and interesting things about people.  Seeing there micro blogs on there daily activities gives you a glimpse into their personal lives. This to me is a great point for the general public. Most people will be shocked to find what I do when they are not around.It is a way to learn about people with out actually having to be with them all the time.  Yet, there needs to be some line on what people put out there. There is still a line where people can divulge TMI.

This idea of TMI brings me to my next point:  Who has access to your twitter?  When anybody can go around looking at you tweets you need to be cautious of what you put. Especially if you co-workers, supervisors, and bosses all have access to this information. This leads me to an article I read about establishing your on-line Identity written by Sarah Evans.  In this article she talks about business using social media and how to present themselves.  I want to take this a bit farther to looking at yourself as a brand, and how would you want people out there to view you. It is basically marketing yourself to people. Why do you think Celebrities are so cautious of there images, because that is what they are marketing, that is the way they sell themselves to the people.  This should not be limited to just celebrities but everybody, you need to be careful how you present yourself.

This is not a new idea, we have been taught this from birth of how we should act and behave in public, yet with the onslaught of Social Media it seems that many people of forgotten. What you post to the Internet most people will be able to see, it does not make you immune.  So please be cautious.

Twitter can be a great place to network and learn about people, but it must be done in such a way as not to present yourself in a negative light.  What you and your friends find funny, is not necessarily funny to other people. So when you post to twitter be careful of what you put there, everybody can see it.  This goes to all forms of social media from Myspace, Facebook, on down to Twitter. When your boss logs on to twitter and sees you acting a fool, what is he going to say and think about you.  I hear people say that they don’t care what other people think, and that this is just for them and their friends.  That is a novel idea, but don’t expect to get far in certain fields.

Twitter is an amazing tool with far reaching applications, yet like most tools it needs to be used with some restraint. This is your image you are putting out there where everybody in the world can see it. Most people do not understand that, they think it is just them looking at it, but in the end you do not know who is looking at it.  So be weary of taking it to far, it could cost you in the end.   I now that sounds way dramatic, but it is none the less true. So to all of those who want to see what I am up to..you can follow me under the screenname Scombes.

Sources:

Why Twitter Matters by Stephen Baker

Social Media for Business: The Do’s and Dont’s of Sharing by Sarah Evans

Why Twitter Isn’t a Waste of Time by Sheila Scarborough

For me COP’s are an essential tool for working with people to find answers. If all goes back to not being able to know everything. Like the video pointed out, school, books, and the internet can only take you so far. A COP is what allot of people need to go that extra step. I see it as a way to talk things out with people in a similar situation. I imagine a room filled with people who are in the same boat working together to find the answer. More heads are better than one. Somebody else is going to see it differently than you are.  COP is a great way to get to the answer

The only downside I could see about COP’s is creating a crutch for someone to stand on. I think it would be to easy to allways run back to the COP to find the answer without having to really give it thought on your own. For a COP to truly be successful one has to know when to use it. Simply put COP’s are not a substitute brain.  Also this idea of COP’s relies heavily on people willingly sharring ideas. If there is not a free flow of information then there is no COP.  Luckily with the internet pretty much based on the free flow of knowledge this is not such a critical issue.

If you have not figured out the major part of Web 2.0 is collaboration then you are living under a rock. The majority of Web 2.0 is based on collaberation from social networking to COP’s.  The internet is a way for people to come together and share ideas and find information. A COP is an essential part of that process for many people looking for answers.

I Highly recommend the following videos and articles if you want to know more information about COP’s.

COP: Best Practices by Etienne Wenger

Caterpillar- Collaboration Through Communities of Practice

Communities of Practice Using Wiki by Dr. Brand Niemann

It is really amazing that we can have such unfettered access to information from such a wide source of people. It does seem though, that you do have to play the game of networking to get noticed. This is no different from the real world of business where most of the time it is who you know that gets you ahead. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because in the cyber world all it takes is visiting blogs, commenting, and getting your name out there.  This is not difficult to achieve as long as you have somthing valid to say.

So, in the end, professional blogging is a great tool. It gets people the information they need from a more real world persepective. Most people do not write blogs to be like encyclopedia’s or wikipedia, they write from their point of view. It is a more humanist touch. So, to al those people who sit at home in ther underwear helping the rest of us out, I say thank you.

Sources:

How To Be Heard by Stephen Downes

Interview: Professional Blogging at Happinessisbetter.com

Professional Blogging in Practice: Part 2 at Trendpreneur

I see RSS feeds as a way to stay constantly plugged in, this is going back to my Web 2.0 analogy about the Internet becoming the collection of knowledge. The RSS feed is simply a tool to allow that knowledge be sent to me, depending on what I am looking for. Now I don’t have to delve into the ether, I can have what I need come to me. This is also a major component in my PLE. I find a place that provides the information I want to see, I use an RSS and bring that information in to my Personal Learning Environment.
Sources:

Introduction to RSS by Hillsy

Why RSS: The Really Simple Guide to RSS

CommonCraft Introduction to RSS Feeds.