Youngstown State University

College of Engineering & Technology

Civil  and Chemical Engineering Program

ENGR6923: Information Technology Tools for Engineers

This learning unit will  continue with the topics started in the previous unit. Namely Social Networking software, collaborative creation of shared documents, Social bookmarking and the group topic on how people are manage many different information sources.

I described the knowledge creation process in a blog post on word press. It consists of gathering information, processing it into the form of document,  this document is discussed to facilitate the knowledge creation process. These steps are common and constitute the core processes in creating shared knowledge. The software is created to assist  and enable these process.es.  For example Google search engine aids in gathering information.  Social book marking can also aid this process of information gathering. The word processors and equivalent programs allow to synthesize all the information into one single document. These documents are discussed in the groups and forums of social networking software to create shared knowledge. This process is also known as constructivist approach to knowledge creation process.

To complete these steps we need three types of software:

1. Social Networking software

 2.  Word processors

 3. Search engines and Social Book marking software

All these areas are fairly new and most of the software in these areas is still maturing. We have used

Facebook

Ning

LinkedIN

Pownce

Friendfeed

Twitter

There are others but these Six provide us with sufficient  experience on what to expect from Social Networking Software.

For word processing we have used

MS word

ZOHO writer

Google Docs

Wetpaint Wiki

and for social book marking we all have used

del.icio.us

stumble upon

digg

This learning unit will introduce one more social networking website

http://www.scribd.com

that will accept documents in all the major formats and display them and also allow to download documents in all major formats.

There are four main task we all will do as part of this learning unit.

Task#1

We all will use  a shared Google doc and write an article on the Social Networking. It will be introductory in nature and it will use all the information we have: Mainly the videos I uploaded on the Ning Website, the references I have provided and the references I have bookmarked on the del.icio.us. Your own experience in using these networks. There will be just one document and every body will contribute to it. Once it is completed each one of you will save it on your hard disk and upload it on scribd.com website and add the url to your blog. In last report most of you picked Facebook  and we will examine in depth on how we should make an intelligent choice.

Task#2

We all will use wetpaint wiki and create a document that will discuss the four major word processors listed above. You all already have done this but now we want to combine all that into one single document. Last time overwhelming choice was MS word. We will go more in details on this in here.

Task #3

We will use only the del.icio.us and stumble upon to find software that can be used in audio processing and podcasting web sites. Also the software for video/animation, interactivity and for real time communication. The best way to go about will be to join me at del.icio.us and stumble upon to collect web addresses that are related to these topics. The once that get picked by the most will be chosen.

I am not a big fan of real time communication. The reason being that Internet is based upon asynchronous communication that is how the data is moved between point to point. This is a very efficient way to push the data through communication pipes but it also causes  problem for real time communication software tools. First of all the latency is very high and secondly their is significant data loss when one tries real time communication leading to poor quality of audio and video. It can be done but the users have to lease dedicated data lines from telephone companies and it is very expensive

Task #4

We will continue discussing the issue of "how to manage many different information sources" in the NING group that was created specifically for this purpose. A minimum of one entry is required by each one of you in that group. I will encourage to do more. Those of you who have already made at least one entry can  help others in formulating an entry by them.

Please try to stay within Forum and make your entries related to questions within the group  for this learning unit number ten.

This document  may under go some changes but the main content will not change.

What we should have at the completion of this learning unit:

1. A Google doc that discusses the issues related to social networking software and each one of you will save this document on your area of scribd.com and provide access to it and place it address on your blog.

2. A wetpaint wiki document that discusses the four major word processors.

3. A list of software tools that can be used for audio and video processing. websites where these videos can be stored. Flash based animation tools. Real time communication tools.

4. Entries from all of you in the Ning group "How to manage many information resources."

The project completion date is Sunday midnight next week. please start contributing early to this report.