What is eBay ("echo bay")?

...an auction website that connects buyers and sellers in an online international marketplace. It was created in 1997.

What is Twitter?

...a popular microblogging service site where users share random, brief thoughts (>140 characters) to the question: "What am I doing?"

What is e-mail?

...This is one of the oldest online tools and a technology still used to send messages to others via an online address. Some feel that social tools like Twitter and Facebook are changing the use of this technology.

What is Twitter?

...a very popular microblogging tool in 2009 with increases in use in excess of 2500% in 2009

Who is Tim Berners-Lee?

....the man who worked at CERN in the 1990s and now the W3 consortium. Widely-considered to be the inventor of the WWW

What is an RSS Feed?

...a form of simple syndication where users "subscribe" to receive updated content from blogs, news or other websites.

What is Craigslist?

...this network of online communities permits free classified ads for housing, employment, items for sale, services, community events and discussion. Its rise is linked to drop in revenues at newspapers worldwide.

What is blogging (or blogs)?

....one of the oldest web 2.0 tools that archivists and librarians can use to engage users. Its format is well-known as an online journal where posts are listed chronologically in reverse order.

What is information overload? (or information glut)

...a phenomenon when someone feels overwhelmed by data, website URLs, tweets and the sheer number of social tools

Who is Tim O'Reilly?

...the current CEO of O'Reilly media who coined the phrase "Web 2.0"

What is social tagging? (also, folksonomic tagging)

...a social form of description where users catalogue and classify by assigning words, names and other labels to collate and rank websites

What is a wiki?

...this social tool can be used to create documents (and see histories of changes). Many are open source and hosted locally on servers ...or, users can sign up for web-based accounts where data is stored remotely

What is Facebook?

...even though many librarians believe it is inappropriate for outreach to their communities, some libraries have used its simple, popular "face" as a library homepage...

What is Geo-tagging (or geo-coding)?

...to add metadata and location coordinates using latitude and longitude identifiers to text, pictures and videos

Who is Stephen Abrams?

...a male librarian, working and blogging for SirsiDynix Canada, is widely-known as an outspoken advocate for web 2.0 use in libraries through his speaking engagements at conferences....

What is Metcalfe's law or the network effect?

....a phenomena observed when a network becomes more and more valuable to members as more and more people join it

What is open-source software (OSS)?

...software completely 'open' and free to change as needed by members; the ultimate goal is to improve and enhance code as required locally. It is a noncommercial (non-proprietary product) that enables collaboration. One popular example is Ubuntu.

What are Meebo, GoogleTalk and MSN?

...a service embedded as a widget on a website to reveal when an archivist or librarian is digitally available for help and instant messaging

What is "It takes too much time" (or I don't have enough time)

....for busy archivists and librarians, this is one of the most common complaints about not using social media

Who is danah boyd?

...a hip American academic who works for Microsoft in Boston and uses lowercase letters in her name (and on her blog)...Widely seen as an important voice in understanding social networks...

What are social networking sites (SNSs)?

...websites to help people find new friends (and build 'social capital') by revealing shared interests and related skills. Leading examples include Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.

What is virtual learning environment (VLE)? (Or, Personal learning environment)

...refers to a web-based platform to assist learners in participating in a learning community. Content management tools such as BlackBoard and Vista are two examples; aggregators such as PageFlakes and Netvibes also facilitate creation of this type of community.

What is YouTube?

...an extremely popular video-sharing site increasingly used by libraries and archives as a channel for promoting events.

What is computing 'in the cloud' (or cloud computing)?

...a trend that refers to services that provide access to a range of social tools online via web browsers even though the information is stored 'out there' on remote servers

Who is Amanda Etches-Johnson?

....an academic librarian at McMaster University and the first Canadian librarian to teach a course on social software at a Canadian LIS school