My name is Phillip Jeffrey. I am a Masters of Science Student in Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of British Columbia. My research falls in the area of Human Computer Interaction and my home department is the Media and Graphics Interdisciplinary Centre (MAGIC). My thesis project explores digital spaces which use user-generated content (tagging environments such as del.icio.us and flickr) and I conduct ethnographic studies in the areas of ubiquitous computing and pervasive games.

Since 2005, I have been using Facebook, a popular online social networking service started in 2004 at Harvard University. It was originally restricted to college and university students and is now available to the general population.

I would like to briefly discuss what Facebook is, how students are using it, and then use the majority of time for a group discussion about this shared space.

I won't be using Powerpoint, I will display my own account to explain how Facebook works.

See you at 3pm!!!

Speaker Points:

What is Facebook?

• launched Feb 2004 by Harvard undergrad students as an interactive student directory (class schedule + social network)
• now 15 million unique visitors per month, 6 billion page views per month, universities and colleges through North America/Europe initially, now everyone

How does Facebook work?

• Public feed
• Personal page
• Notification system
• Network system

Who uses Facebook?

• students
• ordinary people

How are students using Facebook?

• Communication tool (status, relationship status, wall, events)
• Social Space (notes, photos, groups)

Questions for Facebook group discussion? (add your own here)