In this post, I compared Facebook with the SJSU-sponsored SLISLife and also touched on what are the benefits of subscribing to a social network that caters to a particular group, read on.
Signing up for an account for SLISLife is similar to Facebook, basic information like name,email address and type of user is required. Type of user refers to whether the user is a student, member of administration or faculty within the SLIS community. SLISLife does not harvest the contacts on your email address since it is a network only for members of the SLIS community in SJSU. It does however run you through several questions to form a brief profile, which is similar with Facebook. You can be selective in what you provide, just like in Facebook, or skip it, to edit later. All in all, signing up was also a breeze and it only took a minute or two to be up and running.
In terms of layout, I am partial to the simple white and blue color scheme of Facebook, compared to SLISLife’s use of more than three colors. In terms of use of page space, I am not a fan of SLISLife’s use of just the middle part of the page creating these two wide vertical columns at either side. I guess it is similar to how most blogs are styled, and the designers of SLISLife probably got their design cues from that. One thing that I like though about the SLISLife page compared to that of Facebook, are the absence of those annoying advertisements at the margins of the page. No adverts about being lazy and earning thousands or pictures of yellow teeth and how to whiten them, since the SLISLife site is not a commercial site.
Information on SLISLife can be accessed through two levels of menus. The first level is more of general menu choices that give access to the user to blogs, forums, groups that exist in SLISLife. The next level contains information about the user divided into the following categories, namely: basic, contact, work, education, personal and SLIS. It has a resume feel to it that Facebook does not have.
Adding friends is the same way as Facebook; you can look them up, invite them, or join groups which can lead to friends. However, the only limitation here is that they are part of the SLIS community. I wonder what the percentage is, of the LSIS community that are members of SLISLife as a search of two professors and three current SLIS students indicated that they are not members of the online community. I also wonder if it is small, what strategies are being employed to encourage membership among the SLIS community.
The similarity with Facebook is superficial, as SLISLife is more of a social networking site for the SLIS community to connect with each other and share work, research and ideas. The content tends to be more scholarly compared to what can be found in Facebook. In addition, SLISLife based on my experience, does not offer 3rd party applications and there is no way to add or embed video. It does provide the user a blog, a mail application, group membership within the community, and a message board. It also has the benefit of becoming the so-called third place for library students or information professionals. Some of the groups or communities formed within SLISLife are location-based. As the demographics of the members of the LSIS community is diverse and dispersed, such groups can therefore connect students within a certain geographical area together so they can be their own support group and resource leads. Another benefit of such an exclusive social network is that it focuses the activity and interaction within the site to interests that are related to the profession. This can be leads to research, job opportunities, issues and trends affecting the profession. It also provides a forum for like-minded individuals to discuss something they are passionate about with people who are also passionate about the topic.
In closing, both Facebook and SLISLife have what you might say their niche market and serves different purposes as social networks. I see SLISLife as more of a support group for library students and information professionals within the SLIS community, while Facebook provides the opportunity to reach other communities that one is a member of (i.e. our family, co-workers, and college friends).