Written+Report

In technology class we have been working on trying to find excellent social networking websites for the students who are going to Nicaragua in January 2010. Some expectations that the social networks need to have are, daily blogging, privacy, communication, lexicon, supports Spanish language, works in a foreign county, and able to post media. The following networking sites that we have found meet all of these expectations. They are, Webs.com, Yola, and Ning.com. We want to use one of these websites so that we can communicate with our families. Also so that we can post blogs, lexicons, and videos for our fellow students and teachers to see.

One of the first websites we researched was Webs.com. One of the main things Webs.com offers is that you can blog daily with people that you know. Privacy is a big factor that we have to have. It is not clear if we have to pay extra for privacy, but if we use this program, we would eventually find out. You can communicate with people in your friends list, or with people around the world, if you don't have the privacy setting on "private". Another big factor that we need is a lexicon. Webs.com supports lexicons. If we are going to a spanish speaking country, it's pretty obvious that the website has to support spanish, which Webs.com does. We are not sure that it works in a foreign county, but it could be determined. We could always use this website and if it doesn't work, we could just use a backup. Webs.com allows us to add videos, pictures, and status updates through the website. If we want any extra features we would have to pay extra.

Another one of the sites we found is YOLA at []. This site fits most if not all our qualifications

and needs. It allows you access to daily blogging, and gives you exceptional privacy and security. YOLA

makes it easy for communication between each other as well. So talking with friends, families, and even

teachers is safe and easy to do. There is a 1 GB file limit per site so what we were thinking that we

could have a site for each class. Video sharing is also possible; all you have to do is upload videos to

YouTube and than embed them in our site. Unfortunately we’re not a hundred percent sure wither or not it works in a foreign country. Nor do we know if it has any foreign language support what so ever.

One of our candidates for websites is Ning at [|www.ning.com]. Ning is a website that allows you to create your own website for personal customization and allows one to set it up anyway you choose. This website does have blogging features which allows one lets say to write down your experience that you had for a specific day on the Nicaragua trip. Another great feature of this site is the ability is to have privacy turned on if one wants. This does have basic communication features so no worries in that department. Since Ning is so customizable it will allow one to create a lexicion so we can share the wonderful joy one gets writing down Spanish words. Unfortunately right now we do not know for certain if it works in a foreign country but we will find out one way or another. Finally the last feature that was required was the ability to post media and guess what? You can! Ning allows you to post pictures and photos and as far as we know there is no limit.