My interest in studying social technologies began during in the Spring 2008 semester course IS 306 – DATA COMMUNICATIONS AND TECHNOLOGY. In researching how social networks form I focused on the impact of social technologies. I have attached below the powerpoint presentation prepared from my research paper.

IS346 caused me to learn how to implement established applications and presented the opportunity to experiment with how they function as collaboration tools. This led to my final project using TWiki http://twiki.org, a browser-based wiki tool. Here is a link to a demonstration that I posted in the TWiki SandboxWeb. I have documented my work with TWiki in the KEEPtoolkit http://keep.curtiscomp.com/html/snapshot.php?id=81014896445922 that we worked on in class.

Social technologies are becoming more accepted as a communication medium between health care providers and their constituents. The hospital where I work decided against initiating a community dialogue concerning its ongoing Blue Cross contract termination this summer and then saw how a hospital system in Illinois and a hospital in Philadelphia used discussion boards very effectively. Our hospital is now gearing up to use MS Sharepoint for internal collaboration and I will be able to provide leadership on this effort thanks to what I learned in class.

Social techology is obviously a burgeoning field, and will probably be one of the ways in which computer technology fundamentally changes the world.  This course introduced me to social techologies with with I had little exprience (especially the KEEP toolkit), and added quite a bit of new knowledge regarding the ability to modify and customize technolgies with which I was already quite familiar (especially blogs).  

Social technologies (taken as a whole) are clearly in their embryo stage, as evidenced by complexity of the installation and modification procedures, as well as the shear number of practical software choices in each category.  As each category matures far fewer, more solid and less complex (to install) choices will be available. 

Social techology is obviously a burgeoning field, and will probably be one of the ways in which computer technology fundamentally changes the world.  This course introduced me to social techologies with with I had little exprience (especially the KEEP toolkit), and added quite a bit of new knowledge regarding the ability to modify and customize technolgies with which I was already quite familiar (especially blogs).  

Social technologies (taken as a whole) are clearly in their embryo stage, as evidenced by complexity of the installation and modification procedures, as well as the shear number of practical software choices in each category.  As each category matures far fewer, more solid and less complex (to install) choices will be available. 

Social techology is obviously a burgeoning field, and will probably be one of the ways in which computer technology fundamentally changes the world.  This course introduced me to social techologies with with I had little exprience (especially the KEEP toolkit), and added quite a bit of new knowledge regarding the ability to modify and customize technolgies with which I was already quite familiar (especially blogs).  

Social technologies (taken as a whole) are clearly in their embryo stage, as evidenced by complexity of the installation and modification procedures, as well as the shear number of practical software choices in each category.  As each category matures far fewer, more solid and less complex (to install) choices will be available. 

Social techology is obviously a burgeoning field, and will probably be one of the ways in which computer technology fundamentally changes the world.  This course introduced me to social techologies with with I had little exprience (especially the KEEP toolkit), and added quite a bit of new knowledge regarding the ability to modify and customize technolgies with which I was already quite familiar (especially blogs).  

Social technologies (taken as a whole) are clearly in their embryo stage, as evidenced by complexity of the installation and modification procedures, as well as the shear number of practical software choices in each category.  As each category matures far fewer, more solid and less complex (to install) choices will be available.  

Since I started my PhD program at CGU, I have been asked to participate in some of online applications as assignments for my classes. However, I wasn’t aware of how those applications were built in a way to enhance the knowledge sharing between me and other classmates. Taking this class gave the opportunity to deal practically with building websites for knowledge sharing. The class was organized in a way that enabled me to deal with various applications ranged from the easiest to the hardest levels. Through this class, I came across how to create blogs, wikis, forums, mashups, and e-portfolios. I have learned by working with each application the strengths and weaknesses for each application. Moreover, I have learned also how to organize the content in a manner that facilitates knowledge sharing and encourages participations. The final project’s deliverable for this class also gave me the chance to come across Elgg application that has not been covered in the class. Asking us to build our own individual project was of great value because it enabled us to choose different tools and present them to each other in the class. At the end of our final project presentation, I wasn’t only familiar with Elgg application I used for my project, but also with other tools chosen by my classmates. This increased my knowledge with a wide range of multiple applications other than discussed during the class. In general, this class was of a great value to me because I can now build a social platform for sharing my ideas and not only being just a user who may not be familiar with what is going behind the scenes. 

Since I started my PhD program at CGU, I have been asked to participate in some of online applications as assignments for my classes. However, I wasn’t aware of how those applications were built in a way to enhance the knowledge sharing between me and other classmates. Taking this class gave the opportunity to deal practically with building websites for knowledge sharing. The class was organized in a way that enabled me to deal with various applications ranged from the easiest to the hardest levels. Through this class, I came across how to create blogs, wikis, forums, mashups, and e-portfolios. I have learned by working with each application the strengths and weaknesses for each application. Moreover, I have learned also how to organize the content in a manner that facilitates knowledge sharing and encourages participations. The final project’s deliverable for this class also gave me the chance to come across Elgg application that has not been covered in the class. Asking us to build our own individual project was of great value because it enabled us to choose different tools and present them to each other in the class. At the end of our final project presentation, I wasn’t only familiar with Elgg application I used for my project, but also with other tools chosen by my classmates. This increased my knowledge with a wide range of multiple applications other than discussed during the class. In general, this class was of a great value to me because I can now build a social platform for sharing my ideas and not only being just a user who may not be familiar with what is going behind the scenes. 

My first contact with social technology is from, like many others, facebook and MySpace. I think it's really a great idea that people can form a community over internet that focus on certain object. It brings you to know people from the other side of the globe.

Although I'm active in some web forums, and visit blogs often, I never really run or manage, or even write a blog of myself. IS346 is really a great opportunity to get behind those things and know how they work. I think my biggest problem in the class is that I have to decide how the web pages look and feel like. I'm very much a technology guy. Art, esp visual art is never what I'm good at. As for technological aspect of the class, I really enjoy how the class is organized. All the studio sessions have very detailed instructions. Most of the time installing and configuring a software is as easy as operating your dish washing machine with a manual. It obviously takes a lot of work for Sonya and Lorne to prepare the class. Props!! 

The problems I run into included for a long time I can't get my phpbb mods to work untill I learned you need to purge the caches and things like that. But generally speaking, the biggest problem in learning social technology, I think, is how to create an environment that's convenient for the community member. That takes time and experience. Anyway, IS346 is definitely a good start.

The way people utilize the Web has resulted in Web 2.0 phase. Social technologies are the major players of Web 2.0. This course has given me a better idea about the general trend of the online knowledge utilization. I have been a regular user of the discussion boards and a light user of blogs since the late 90’s.  I always have had ideas which I would like to share with others and let them discuss and participate. But developing such websites was an issue for me. Before this course, I believed it was not that difficult but I did not know that it is very easy, free, and has interesting and wide range of technical tools and support.

The technical side of the social technologies websites does not impress me as before. I am now able to build a blog, wiki and a forum using the most updated software versions, enhance their functionality with different add-ons, and customize them to suit my preferences and objectives. In addition to these three important technologies covered throughout this course which has put me on the cutting edge of conversational technologies, mashup was a great selection. I view it as a shortcut to a beneficial and innovative kind of online services without worrying about technical complications and data collections. It is another important new trend of web technology utilization I learned about.

This course was designed and managed in a very good way. Through the Claremont Conversation Online, we shared the knowledge we gained about knowledge sharing technologies. I recommend this course to every student as I believe that knowledge management is the only field where any IT or non IT student might need to be a developer one day, in addition to being a user.

The way people utilize the Web has resulted in Web 2.0 phase. Social technologies are the major players of Web 2.0. This course has given me a better idea about the general trend of the online knowledge utilization. I have been a regular user of the discussion boards and a light user of blogs since the late 90’s.  I always have had ideas which I would like to share with others and let them discuss and participate. But developing such websites was an issue for me. Before this course, I believed it was not that difficult but I did not know that it is very easy, free, and has interesting and wide range of technical tools and support.

The technical side of the social technologies websites does not impress me as before. I am now able to build a blog, wiki and a forum using the most updated software versions, enhance their functionality with different add-ons, and customize them to suit my preferences and objectives. In addition to these three important technologies covered thought this course which has put me on the cutting edge of conversational technologies, mashup was a great selection. I view it as a shortcut to a beneficial and innovative kind of online services without worrying about technical complications and data collections. It is another important new trend of web technology utilization I learned about.

This course was designed and managed in a very good way. Through the Claremont Conversation Online, we shared the knowledge we gained about knowledge sharing technologies. I recommend this course to every student as I believe that knowledge management is the only field where any IT or non IT student might need to be a developer one day, in addition to being a user.