Sweet find: Directory of Communities

Start exploring online community here. I am always collecting useful online community/social media/social networking sites, articles, resources, and experts, and I hope others find them useful. I will be updating this list regularly. If you have ideas or suggestions for this page, please let me know at skarasic[at]yahoo.com.

online community & social networking super list | shara karasic | social media design

Wow wow wow.  Holy manoly.  Check out Shara Karasic’s

Online Community/Social Media SUPER List

It’s an uber-list of awesomeness.  Need to find some information about online communities & social networking– no matter the topic/genre/etc?  Looks like Shara might just have it for you.  Yahoooo!

[Personal note on the constant "yahooing" by yours truly.  When I was working at an after school "extended time" program there was this cute little 6-year-old "Fred Flintstone" boy (visually speaking, his head was 1/3 his body). Whenever he got really revved up about something, his little legs would run in place (just like Fred's), kicking up dust, and yell "Yahoooooooooooo!" in his best Mario/Mario Cart voice.  His Yahoo's go through my head at least 200 times a day.  Oh, I miss the tater tots.  So interesting. Anyway, so that's that ]

technorati tags:online, communities, social, networking, experts

Screening Youth Online: Good or Bad?

MySpace + SecondLife / Ponies!1 = BarbieGirls

Over at Wired, Annalee Newitz’s post entitled MySpace + SecondLife / Ponies!1 = BarbieGirls describes one of the scariest side effects of all of the predator panic.

What does it mean that an entire generation is growing up to believe
that the only way to be safe is to be constantly surveilled?
::shudder:: I’m rather concerned about the longterm implications of all
of this monitoring and control. Aren’t we supposed to be raising a
generation of creatives? Le sigh.

apophenia: MySpace + SecondLife / Ponies!1 = BarbieGirls

Here’s an interesting debate over at Danah Boyd’s profound blog “Apophenia”…

Take a gander if you’re interested in the creative freedom of U13 communities versus invasive monitoring/screening.  My thoughts are in the comments section of Danah’s post. 

technorati tags:Danah, Boyd

Top Social Networking sites

There are a bunch of other statistics on compete.com regarding social networks.  It’s definitely worth a gander!