The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project has released 65% of Online Adults Use Social Networking Sites.

Here's an excerpt:

Two-thirds of adult internet users (65%) now say they use a social networking site like MySpace, Facebook or LinkedIn, up from 61% one year ago. That's more than double the percentage that reported social networking site usage in 2008 (29%). And for the first time in Pew Internet surveys it means that half of all adults (50%) use social networking sites. The pace with which new users have flocked to social networking sites has been staggering; when we first asked about social networking sites in February of 2005, just 8% of internet users — or 5% of all adults — said they used them.

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The Research Communications Strategy project has released Social Networking Sites and Their Role in Scholarly Communications.

Here's an excerpt:

In particular, the Centre was interested to determine to what extent social networking sites are usurping the role of Open Access repositories and to what extent they are likely to do so in the future. The study therefore naturally needed to consider the relationship between Open Access repositories and social networking sites, both now and in the future. Furthermore, the study needed to examine the behaviour patterns of researchers in using different web locations for research communications and to attempt to predict future trends.

| Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography 2010 | Institutional Repository Bibliography | Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography | Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography 2010 |

The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project has released Social Networking Sites and Our Lives.

Here's an excerpt:

Questions have been raised about the social impact of widespread use of social networking sites (SNS) like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Twitter. Do these technologies isolate people and truncate their relationships? Or are there benefits associated with being connected to others in this way? The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project decided to examine SNS in a survey that explored people’s overall social networks and how use of these technologies is related to trust, tolerance, social support, and community and political engagement.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography 2010 |

The Library Research Service of the Colorado State Library has released U.S. Public Libraries and the Use of Web Technologies 2010.

Here's an excerpt:

Since the first Web Technologies study, public libraries across the United States have made varying degrees of progress in adopting Web 2.0 tools. Using the 2008 results as a baseline, the 2010 study was an opportunity to identify new web technologies and track changes in what libraries are adopting, as well as identify characteristics of those libraries.

In general, the results of the 2010 study reveal that most web technologies are increasing in use on public libraries' websites, with some tools gaining in popularity rather quickly and others appearing to stagnate. For example, libraries' use of social media sites took off while adoption of earlier tools including blogs has slowed, and new options such as SMS reference have not yet had a chance to gain much traction. Regardless of the tool in question, most growth was concentrated in the largest libraries, where adoption of new technologies increased at a faster rate than in smaller libraries.

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Yahoo! Research has released Who Says What to Whom on Twitter.

Here's an excerpt:

We study several longstanding questions in media communications research, in the context of the microblogging service Twitter, regarding the production, flow, and consumption of information. To do so, we exploit a recently introduced feature of Twitter—known as Twitter lists—to distinguish between elite users, by which we mean specifically celebrities, bloggers, and representatives of media outlets and other formal organizations, and ordinary users. Based on this classification, we find a striking concentration of attention on Twitter—roughly 50% of tweets consumed are generated by just 20K elite users—where the media produces the most information, but celebrities are the most followed. We also find significant homophily within categories: celebrities listen to celebrities, while bloggers listen to bloggers etc; however, bloggers in general rebroadcast more information than the other categories. Next we re-examine the classical "two-step flow" theory of communications, finding considerable support for it on Twitter, but also some interesting differences. Third, we find that URLs broadcast by different categories of users or containing different types of content exhibit systematically different lifespans. And finally, we examine the attention paid by the different user categories to different news topics.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography 2010 |

W3C has released "Standards for Web Applications on Mobile: February 2011 Current State and Roadmap" by Dominique Hazaël-Massieux.

Here's an excerpt:

This document summarizes the various technologies developed in W3C that increases the power of Web applications, and how they apply more specifically to the mobile context, as of February 2011. . . .

The features that these technologies add to the Web platform are organized under the following categories:

• Graphics
• Multimedia
• Forms
• User interactions
• Data storage
• Sensors and hardware integration
• Network
• Communication
• Packaging
• Performance & Optimization

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview |

The Research Information Network has released Social Media: A Guide for Researchers (see also "Web Materials 1: Links And Resources" and "Web Materials 2: Researcher Case Studies").

Here's an excerpt:

This guide will show how social media can change the ways in which you undertake research, and open up new forms of communication and dissemination. The researchers we interviewed in the development of this guide are using social media to bridge disciplinary boundaries, to engage in knowledge exchange with industry and policy makers, and to provide a channel for the public communication of their research.

The guide is rooted in the practical experience of its authors and of the ten social media users we interviewed as part of the project. We are not trying to present social media as the answer to every problem a researcher might experience; rather, we want to give a "warts and all" picture. Social media have downsides as well as upsides, but on balance we hope that you will agree with us that there is real value for researchers.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview |

The EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative has released Privacy Considerations in Cloud-Based Teaching and Learning Environments.

Here's an excerpt:

In this white paper, we outline the privacy issues relevant to using cloud-based instructional tools or cloud-based teaching and learning environments for faculty members and those supporting instruction. Our discussion of how teaching and learning in an increasingly technological environment has transformed the way we interact and interpret FERPA will help inform various choices that institutions can consider to best address the law, including policy and best-practice examples. We highlight practical suggestions for how faculty members can continue to use innovative instructional strategies and engage students while considering privacy issues. Finally, this paper discusses ways to further explore and address privacy locally and includes a comprehensive resource list for further reading.

| Digital Scholarship |

The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project has released Wikipedia, Past and Present.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The percentage of all American adults who use Wikipedia to look for information has increased from 25% in February 2007 to 42% in May 2010. This translates to 53% of adult internet users.

Education level continues to be the strongest predictor of Wikipedia use. The collaborative encyclopedia is most popular among internet users with at least a college degree, 69% of whom use the site. Broadband use remains another predictor, as 59% of those with home broadband use the service, compared with 26% of those who connect to the internet through dial-up. Additionally, Wikipedia is generally more popular among those with annual household incomes of at least $50,000, as well as with young adults: 62% of internet users under the age of 30 using the service, compared with only 33% of internet users age 65 and older.

In the scope of general online activities, using Wikipedia is more popular than sending instant messages (done by 47% of internet users) or rating a product, service, or person (32%), but is less popular than using social network sites (61%) or watching videos on sites like YouTube (66%).

| Digital Scholarship |

The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project has released 8% of Online Americans Use Twitter.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Eight percent of the American adults who use the internet are Twitter users. Some of the groups who are notable for their relatively high levels of Twitter use include:

• Young adults—Internet users ages 18-29 are significantly more likely to use Twitter than older adults.
• African-Americans and Latinos—Minority internet users are more than twice as likely to use Twitter as are white internet users.
• Urbanites—Urban residents are roughly twice as likely to use Twitter as rural dwellers.

| Digital Scholarship |