Blog - Cool Infographics Social Networking in Plain English - Common Craft - Our Product is Explanation Networks get things done. Whether it's sending a letter or lighting your home. Networks make it happen. To get from Chicago to Santa Fe, we need to see the network of roads that will get us there. Of course, people networks can help us with finding jobs, meeting new friends, and finding partners. The problem with social networks in the real world is that most of the connections between people are hidden. This problem is being solved by a type of web site called a social networking site. Here's how it works. When you find someone, you click a button that says, "Add as Friend". What's really cool, is that you can see who your friends know, and who your friends' friends know. This solves a real world problem because your network has hidden opportunities. Like a map for a highway, they can show you the people network that can help you get to your next destination, whether it's a job, a new partner, or a great place to live.
Social Bookmarking in Plain English - Common Craft - Our Product is Explanation It's just too much. Did you know that there are over 15 billion web pages? To make sense of it all, we need to pluck out the best pages and save them for later. We have choices. There's a new way that doesn't use a browser. We'll focus on three things: How to get started with bookmarking, how bookmarks are organized by tags, and why this kind of bookmarking is social. First, go to delicious.com to sign up for a free account. Consider this example, you are a teacher who often uses the web to find math lessons for 8th graders. Here's what happens when you tag a site: a new window opens and asks for more information. When you save a page like this, two things happen. Let's fast forward two months to make our second point: Why tags are so important. To find all your sites about algebra, you click the algebra tag, and voila, one hundred becomes three. Think about your fellow teachers. Think about it this way. Remember there are three steps to get started.