Networking People

Social network sites, like MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Bebo, just to name a few; are full of people networking to their friends, family, business associates, clients and their bosses. Networking makes the world go round.

Axel Bruns mentions in his podcast, 'Networked People' (http://www.slidesharenet/Snurb/kcb201-week-5-slidecast-networked-people), that there are three levels of understanding technologies.

Firstly, technologies as tools, for example the physical network of the Internet.

Secondly, technologies as contexts of use, for instance browsing, bookmarking and blogging. Therefore, creating content, sharing it with other users and managing this content.

Lastly, technologies as systems of knowledge, in other words how we create meaning from the physical network of the Internet and how we create meaning from the contexts of use.

Bruns states that the 'contexts of use and systems of knowledge are (in part) constructed by us as we use technologies - technologies are socially constructed'. Therefore, technologies are being constructed by the users; and when a user adds content, shares content, manages and creates content, then as users we are transforming these technologies to suit our social networking lifestyle.

Bruns goes on to mentions in his podcast that the way we operate as networked people is due to the system of knowledge, that also incorporates the context of use, when it comes to people networking:

Browsing - recipitents of information

Bookmarking - managing the information

Blogging - creating the information

By employing this system of knowledge when it comes to networking people it reveals the idea that we are all sharing, managing and creating content, to further our own knowledge, and to also further our knowledge of these technologies.

As networked people we are able to reach information at the tips of our fingers and therefore be exposed to an abundance of information, knowledge and meaning.