Practicum Journal
This is what Socialight looks like:
Today (4-10) was my first real time spent on Socialight. I had watched the video when deciding which practicum project to do, and researched it for an hour or so but today was the first time i became a member. I spent a little over 1 hour today setting up my account, sending invite requests to two of my roommates, posting two sticky notes and joining a golf channel.
Setting up the account was standard precedure, and I did not have any trouble with it. It gives you the option to put a picture up to represent yourself, and I picked a rowing picture that I have on my harddrive.
I find that unless you know what you are doing, it is hard to meet friends. the Website encourages you to invite your friends and offers help to locate your friends on the websites if you know their usernames or email. But as far as trying to meet new people it is very hard! I tried to randomly invite people to be my friends, but I have not heard back from anyone!
I do not think there is a real sense of community to Socialight, because there is virtually no communication (as far as I have found). It is a site that is to be used more as a utility and not a social networking site. By this I mean, the real goal of Socialight is to help invididual people find places to eat, shop, golf, etc but there it does not stress direct interaction between its members. Instead, you are helping out people that might use Socialight that might live in the particular area that you are posting places of interest. I have spent a few hours on Socialight, and so far I find it kind of dull. I try to meet people and send messages, but you can not send a person a message unless you are friends with that person.
Today (4-22) I finally have friends! Three people friended me (all working on the Socialight project) and I gladly accepted. I still have not heard back from a member of Socialight that I friended, maybe it was too weird for that person that I did not know them...
here is a screenshot that shows that people have invited me to be their friends:
At this point I have not returned their friend requests, but I will soon.
I am still really confused as to how to use Socialight from your cellphone. I tried looking everywhere on the website but I could not find it. I found a number to message, and I recieved a message back, but I don't have internet on my phone, so that could potentially be the problem. I am hoping to find out how to do that soon, so I can really utilize the site to its full potential.
4-24
So turns out you need a cell phone with an internet browser, which was not something i was aware of at the start of the project. the requirement just said you need a cell phone. I guess it just assumed that most people are living in the 21st century. I however seem to be behind in the times.
4-25
i was able to use my friends iphone to recieve some sticky notes, it was very weird though and i did not understand it very much, it was like a flood of information, i may have severed my relationship with my friend...hopefully not.
On another note, I have been 'exploring' a lot lately. Which is fun because socialight uses google maps so you can get very close to buildings and parks and restaurants, etc.
Here is a picture of the explore page on Madison:
4-26
I started my powerpoint today and started to get information together to present. I wish i did not have a million other assignments due at the same time, but the powerpoint is going well and i have a good idea of what i want to say.
I spent another hour or so on Socialight today mainly being a lurker and browsing interesting channels in search of a queston that I have yet to be able to answer: how many people are using socialight? You would think that it would be easy to find, but I have looked everywhere! If all else fails I might try to email Socialight through their contact page. It says they are really good about answering emails, so hopefully that will solve my question.
4-28
I finished my powerpoint for my presentation yesterday and presented today. I was worried at the last minute because I use a Toshiba laptop and Germaine has a Mac, so the powerpoint would not open. but luckily we were able to use my computer for all of the presentations for today.
I have spent much more time on Socialight since my last addition to the wiki. Mostly i have been browsing other people's posts and channels. I occasionally add my own sticky notes to places around campus as well. here is a screenshot of the last sticky note I added :
I emailed the founders of Socialight with a few questions about their company a while back. Finally, after a week or two I recieved a reply on May 4th (after my presentation, where I could have used the information):
Thanks for reaching out to us. It's great to hear you're doing a
research project based on Socialight.
Find answers to the questions we can answer below.
My name is Darren Gary and I am a undergraduate at the University of
Wisconsin - Madison majoring in Communication Arts.
I am taking an Internet studies course at the University and for my
final project I am doing a research project based on Socialight. I
have been using Socialight for only a few weeks now, and I have some
general questions that I could not find answers to and I was
wondering If you could help me out.
They are as follows:
1. How many users are on socialight now? An approximate number is
fine, I just couldnt find a number anywhere...
2. What is the rate of new users per day or week? How fast is
Socialight growing and is it above/below expectations?
3. What are your thoughts about the future of Socialight now that it
is a tangible and growing company?
Whether you're on the web, using your cellphone, or in your car, in
the future, we aim to make Socialight the best way to find the best
places to go and things to do near you. We will continue to grow the
company by expanding the amount of great places people talk about, the
number of people talking about them, and upon the ways that people can
access the service.
4. How do you believe Socialight mediates physical and virtual space?
on top of physical space. That media comes from people who've been to
the places before and have something to say: a story, a review, or a
recommendation. You can only see the virtual layer of media (what
we've called Sticky Notes) if you look at the physical space through
Socialight.
Keep in touch. We'd love to see the results of your project.
Cheers,
Dan
Good News: I recieved an email back from someone named Dan
He answered some of my questions
He wants to keep in touch
Bad News: I do not know who Dan is, except that he works for Socialight
He did answer the two questions I really needed him to answer
He wants to keep in touch to hear about the results of my project (this is bad because when looking back at my powerpoint, I seem to be bashing about the limitations of the site rather than praising the idea of the technology
It was nice to get the email back from Dan and it inspired me to go back to the site and mess around for a little while longer, but after racking my mind for a new sticky note to post/wondering if anyone is benefiting from my posting, I wasn't on for longer than 45 minutes or so.
Socialight seems like a very good idea and it could be a useful tool if you live in a big city and have a cell phone with an internet browser on it. Unfortunatly, I do not meet any of those requirements, so it is not the tool for me. I hope to see Socialight continue to grow and prosper on the Internet and advance the technology even further so it is easier and more fun to use!
Darren Gary
Experienced Socialight
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