Site Development Costs Analysis - Research Paper Example

? inf206 social networking proposal assessment WORD COUNT: 1686 due september september TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary 3 2. Introduction 4 3. Discussion 5 3.1 Facebook 5 3.2 Second Life 6 4. Conclusion 7 5. Recommendation 8 6. Project Plan 9 7. References 10 1. Executive Summary Keeping up-to-date with technological innovation is critical to a library and information services. Social networking technologies offer the potential to create channels for improved social interaction across an organisation, supporting both learning opportunities and professional development. Two aspects of social networking, in particular the websites Facebook and Second Life (SL), will be discussed in this essay, providing an insight into how Web 2.0 technologies can meet organisational goals in libraries and improve operations at Erskineville Public Library through implementation. Key findings include: An overview of Web 2.0 technologies. Organisational needs of social interactions and the use of Facebook and SL. Pros and cons for both social networking tools. Expected outcome of the proposal includes a budget estimate for library implementation. 2. Introduction Web 2.0 is term that describes the use of the internet as a cloud platform whereby community members are enabled to express themselves, organise and collaborate in a multitude of ways through web software and applications. To achieve this and to use Web 2.0 functionalities popularly in business organizations, community members are using tools such as wikis, blogs, RSS feeds, podcasts and social networking sites to better equip themselves in today’s society. Some of the most important Web 2.0 sites are Wikipedia, Facebook, Digg, Delicious, SecondLife, mySpace, YouTube, and Google+. These sites specialize in social networking where an individual or company can communicate with distributed networks of individuals or groups by using the web software platform, its interface, and APIs to build a community of friendship, trust, and discussion of daily issues related to personal themes. After a thorough analysis and testing of the major Web 2.0 platforms, the Erskineville Public Library should determine a policy to build and implement a public relations strategy that leverages the power and influence of networks like Facebook and SecondLife for the organization. By developing popularly on these website platforms, the library can reach a larger audience of individuals online to distribute information about events, programs, and policies. Nevertheless, there are major differences in how Facebook and SecondLife operate as platforms on the web, making a detailed cost analysis of requirements to support these projects by the library required. 3. Discussion Both Facebook and SecondLife can be considered social networking websites and part of the Web 2.0 movement to build more extensive software platforms on the internet. However, in practice and use the two websites are very different, primarily because of the user interface used in the design. Because of this, the difference between the two sites practically should be understood in advance of using them as a platform for the Erskineville Public Library to conduct public relations and communication, for the costs of development may be very different for both websites. The differences in approach, user interface, information exchange, publishing, communications, and privacy on each website should be compared between Facebook and SecondLife to see how each site can best be used to be consistent with the goals of the library staff and management, as well as how it can be budgeted and implemented through development. 3.1 Facebook Facebook operates as a type of scrolling notepad or diary of a person or organizations daily activities, comments, thoughts, and recommendations that are printed on the person’s profile page in order to be read or distributed to friends. Facebook includes photo sharing and galleries so that personal photographs can be shared with the same community. There are a large number of social groups that can be joined on Facebook that facilitate communication across the shared themes of organizations. In general, Facebook takes the “yearbook” and “diary” models from traditional life and reformats them on the internet to enable social networking in groups through direct information sharing. 3.2 SecondLife In contrast, SecondLife is like a three-dimensional world that is explored like a traditional video game. In SecondLife, every user must have an “avatar” character which is used to navigate the website environment, which is immersive, exploratory, and chaotic. The avatar characters in SecondLife can be custom designed to appear in any form of dress, fashion, or costume, and the user designs. The avatar then navigates to different 3-D environments within SecondLife to meet people and exchange news. In SecondLife, the environment itself is programmed by users. In this regard, one may find a scale replica of the Empire state building, the IBM headquarters, or a 3-D graphics version of a popular store, restaurant, or church in the game’s media environment. Some of the world’s largest as well as smallest companies have created replicas of their own real-life stores and organizations in the SecondLife world, as well as fantasy architecture and environments. These can be used as meeting places for people inside the game, or for integration with real life sales, marketing, and public relations campaigns. 4. Conclusion After reviewing the websites Facebook and SecondLife individually, there are some concerns about the cost effectiveness and development on these platforms for the Erskineville Public Library. Shawn McCann, the Digital Projects Librarian at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, reported only limited success in leading a SecondLife program for a public library previously. He reported, “We held regular reference hours in Second Life for about 1 year. The project was somewhat successful in that we did answer around 200 questions during the pilot. Most questions were related to second life though and not really the type of reference questions we would get at a physical desk. I'll be honest though, I didn't enjoy working in Second Life. I found it to be clunky and unreliable. I was further disinterested in it when I found we really couldn't leverage it to our advantage...” (McCann, 2010) For example, a webpage for the library providing a description of services, operating hours, and photos of the building could be easily established on Facebook by an existing librarian on staff and maintained as a normal part of everyday operations. It takes no particular programming skill or custom developer to hire to create a Facebook profile page for the library. For SecondLife, however, the development of a full 3-D model or environment within the game’s landscape would require training and expense above and beyond the existing skill level of the library staff. To follow IBM and create a full “pavilion” atmosphere in SecondLife or a model of the library facilities with copies of books in miniature would require a skilled 3-D animation developer or programming team. Because of the cost requirements to develop on each platform, as well as the expanding nature of Facebook vs. the declining traffic of SecondLife, it is recommended that the Erskineville Public Library focus primarily on Facebook to develop a public social networking profile. 5. Recommendations In researching the development costs of each platform, it was determined that for the Erskineville Public Library to buy virtual real estate in SecondLife, hire a programming team to build a 3-D environment, and maintain the site publicly, it would cost between $2000 and $10,000 initially to fund and develop the project. (Giglio, 2007) In contrast, building a Facebook profile, business page, and using these social networking tools to build a public information website for the library would be free. Considering also that Facebook has hundreds of millions of more users than SecondLife, and that the latter site is also losing popularity, the recommendation for the Erskineville Public Library is that the group save public budgetary resources by developing on Facebook only at this time. While SecondLife is an innovative virtual world with 3-D avatars and an immersive environment, the relative utility of building a virtual branch of the library in the game environment is minimal, and it would probably not be popular with young game enthusiasts. On the other hand, building a Facebook page for the library would not only be free, but also make it simple for library patrons to add the page to their profile pages and for librarians to publish information on library programs and activities that are of interest to the public. Because building the Facebook pages requires no outside hiring of developers and can be done by existing library staff as part of their daily work responsibilities, it is recommended over SecondLife for formal implementation by the institution for social networking in the Web 2.0 environment. 6. Project Plan Facebook requires the use of real names to host a profile page, but allows institutions like companies, businesses, and non-profits to create groups and information pages that function as a social network within the larger Facebook community. The project plan would have the library manager open a business page for the Erskineville Public Library on Facebook and to establish the main librarians on staff as administrators of the page. The librarians can use the Facebook page for the library as a public relations announcement platform, to release news and information to the community for publication. This can include event notifications, policy changes, meeting announcements, new book arrivals, and other news that would be of interest to the existing user base. Erskineville Public Library community members already on Facebook can “friend” and “follow” the page in order to receive the latest information published directly to their Facebook Wall. In this manner, the Erskineville Public Library can leverage the social networking technologies and community of Facebook without having to produce the larger investment that building a pavilion or virtual real estate model on SecondLife would require. This conclusion is reinforced by the research of Shawn McCann, the Digital Projects Librarian at Wayne State University, who led a project implementing SecondLife at a public library there but did not find it useful or cost-effective for the institution. 7. References Giglio, Jason. (2007). [sldev] sl site development costs. SecondLife Lists, May 22, 2007. Retrieved from https://lists.secondlife.com/pipermail/sldev/2007-May/001904.html McCann, Shawn. (2010). Shawn McCann transcript. Games and Public Libraries. Retrieved from http://gamesandlibraries.wetpaint.com/page/Shawn+McCann+transcript Read More