ITM 525 2

In this module, you’re going to explore some of the technological underpinnings of the Internet and Web 2.0, and understand what is about current information tools that make them particularly potent facilitators of existing and potential social networks. Social networking itself is, of course, as old as humanity itself—but it is not until recent times that technologies specifically focused on the creation and expansion of social networks have come to prominent public attention—to the point where they, arguably, have fundamentally reshaped the information environment. How many of us would like to return to the Bad Old Days of a decade ago, when user concerns were of only minimal interest, most of the Internet still featured one-way information distribution, “friends” were people we actually knew, and dancing cat videos were few and far between. Well, perhaps the latter two aspects still have some merit—but going back from an Internet where users are equal if not more important as content providers and participants of interest to the old one-way channels and Information gods is unlikely to ring many chimes.