Steve Dembo posted an excellent look at Plurk on his blog today and did a great job of outlining what many of us in the Plurk community have seen in the last few days. I certainly don’t want to duplicate his great overview, but I’ve been reflecting quite a bit on Plurk in the last few days and want to build on his thoughts and why I see Plurk as an even more powerful tool to build a Personal Learning Network than Twitter…
Point 1 – Plurk supports conversation rather than pontification
Steve (teach42 on Plurk) mentions one of the most powerful tools of Plurk – the ability to follow a conversation because all replies are threaded under the initial post. It’s almost like a threaded discussion on a bulletin board website. For me, it’s a great tool to hear replies from others in response to a specific discussion starter.
An example is this post started by BlakeJ on LoTI training.
Our school purchased LoTI reporting for the 2007-2008 school year and I have been looking for resources and fellow teachers who have made use of the LoTI tools. In one conversation, I found 4 resources who I can turn to when I have questions. Plus as a result, I had the opportunity to begin a conversation with new plurker Dean Mantz (dmantz7 on Plurk) about LoTI and 8th grade Tech Assessment that never would have happened with Twitter. So that’s point 1 I’d like to make about Plurk. You’ll find deeper discussions about a single topic than Twitter can support. Plus, because Plurk reminds you to check out new replies through a small link at the bottom left of the screen to “View New Responses”, you’ll know you won’t miss out on the good stuff when you go away for a while and come back.
I guess that’s the one thing that’s always bothered me about Twitter. It’s easy to post a comment, link, quote or opinion, but not easy to get into a conversation about it other than one on one with the original Tweeter. Plurk invites everyone to ask questions and add to the conversation – and even lets you see the replies of those you don’t follow. There’s no getting away from the people here – everyone in your network and those in the network of your friends are given equal access to the full conversation, which I think is a much more democratic way to build a discussion. Pontificating without conversation isn’t going to work here; I’d guess that those who like to have lots of others listen while not interacting won’t much like Plurk…
Point 2 – Plurk’s Karma is gonna get you!
When you first join Plurk, the biggest thing you’ll notice is that everyone is a bit obsessed about their Karma. It’s kinda like the badge of honor people feel when they have lots of followers in Twitter. However, I’m finally starting to get the whole Karma concept and actually like what it supports.
In Twitter, following few while being followed by many seems to be the goal. Twitter seems to promote the thought that if you are important, you’ll have hundreds (thousands!) of people hanging on your every tweet while you only listen to the few tweets from people who are more respected than you. I’ve never gotten this part, but see it in action with lots of people I follow. I pretty much follow anyone in Twitter who follows me; as long as they are related to education and keep their posts “clean” (nothing like showing off Twitter to your principal just as a choice 4 letter word comes across the network…). I started Twitter by following only those I knew personally to keep up with their personal and professional life and only recently branched out to following those who I respect in the EdTech circle. However, in terms of Twitter, I’m probably not seen as a “power user” because my follower-followee ratio is pretty much 1:1.
Twitter also promotes posting of the basic everyday happenings in your life. “What are you doing today?” means I’ll hear about your new blog post as well as your broken A/C, your sick kid, and your dinner plans. Works great if I know the person personally, (and even led to an interesting meeting in the Atlanta airport with several friends who Twitter and happened to be there at the same time!) but for EdTech contacts I don’t know personally, I’m not sure I need that much info.
In Plurk, Karma helps change that conversation in a way that I like. How does Karma do that? By encouraging you to have deep discussions; to follow and be followed by only those with whom you will actively communicate. Karma encourages good interactions – connect with a smaller number of quality friends who will read and reply to your posts, keep it interesting and “respond-able,” respond with quality comments to those you follow, and you will be rewarded with Karma points.
Trying to build a huge following by risking friendship invites on people you don’t know well, posting plurks that don’t invite conversation, becoming unpopular and losing friends by plurking information no one cares about (yes, that’s a little harsh, but it’s the plurk way…), plurking inconsistently by going days or weeks between updates and plurking too much by writing about every detail in your life will cause you to lose Karma points.
Funny thing is, this is pretty much the same technique classroom teachers have used for decades – desired behavior results in positive consequences while unsocial behavior results in negative consequences. You can choose to ignore the Karma (it’s hard) but you can’t ignore the type of interaction it promotes – it’s what we as educators have always wanted.
Point 3 – Plurk takes time to understand and grow
I’ve seen lots of people come into Plurk in the last few days, post a couple of comments, and then leave. If you are truly interested in giving Plurk a try, you’ll have to be willing to invest some initial time into building a network and getting used to the interface. Now that I’ve been immersed heavily for several days, I can say I truly prefer it to Twitter but I didn’t feel that way at the start. First, Plurk’s interface takes getting used to. Liz Davis (lizbdavis on plurk) created an excellent intro to Plurk that’s worth watching to get the basics, but really, you have to be willing to jump in and stick with it for a while before it makes sense. Here’s what I’ve learned:
- Before accepting friend invites or inviting someone to be your friend, check out their profile and take the time to watch their timeline for a few days. If you like what they say, but aren’t sure you have enough in common to become mutual friends, add yourself as their fan. If they notice you, they can add you as a friend, or you can continue to follow until you’ve had enough mutual conversations to feel connected. It’s good for Karma (more about this below above) and it keeps you from getting overwhelmed with too many people. Remember, Plurk is about quality rather than quantity!
- Update your profile so others know something about you. Again, it’s a Karma boost and it allows others to decide if they have something in common with you.
- Use the Mute function on conversations you don’t care about so that the quality stuff is easy to find. You’ll receive a little update in the lower left every time someone leaves a new reply or adds a new plurk. It can get busy and you’ll quickly become overwhelmed if you don’t manage your timeline wisely. If a conversation doesn’t interest you, use the Mute function to remove it from your updates notice. I do this often after the first couple of Good Mornings and Good Nights so I don’t feel like I’m back in the Walton house… (Good night, JohnBoy; nite, Mary Ellen….) When people first join, the conversations are light, but we’re quickly getting past the fluff to the real content potential.
The biggest thing I’ve learned: Plurk isn’t about “What are you doing today?”, instead it’s about “What do you want to discuss today?”
Here are some thoughts that have surfaced recently:
- Polling with Pollk (read Steve Dembo’s post for more info.
- Creating live blogging sessions as Ginger Lewman (gingerTPLC on Plurk) so powerfully did during an NECC workshop.
- Hosting Book Discussions
- Sharing related weblinks and sites in one threaded plurk discussion
I’d love to hear your comments about Plurk and invite you to find your own PLN on Plurk – you’ll be glad you did!
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June 30th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
I am just starting out with Plurk and it is the threaded discussion feature that I seem to like best.
As for the Karma, well, the rewards give the application a video game feel, which probably adds to the buy-in.
You’re right about getting to know it though. It might take awhile before I figure it out.
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