This Social Network

For the collaborative discussions with my teammates for our Documentation Project for Translation, our course directors suggest Sulis platform but we are allowed to use any kind of other tools if they are more convenient.

Sulis includes a forum, a chat room and a space where you can store and share your work or submit your assignments. It is used essentially for academic purposes.

Actually, in the end, we couldn't really choose the platform we wanted because my French teammates are graded on their use of Sulis. It disappointed me because Facebook would be much easier. Let me give you the reasons why I think Facebook is a good platform for collaborative work.

• Familiarity. Everyone uses Facebook. My teammates and I go on Facebook everyday. We are very familiar with Facebook. On the contrary, only my Irish classmate and I use Sulis, that means our four teammates first have to learn how to use it.​

• Notifications/alerts. Facebook notifies you when a new post, a new comment, a new message or a "like" of your post/comment happen. Of course, Sulis does show you when a new topic, a new comment, happen too. However, with Facebook, the notification appears immediately and depending on your settings, you can receive the notifications in your mailbox. Just let your Facebook page opened and the notifications will come to you. On Sulis, you have to refresh the page to see that a new comment is posted, and there's no notification neither when you receive a private message... I am even sure that only few users know they can also interact with one another by private messages! This feature is hidden on Sulis. Conclusion: you get faster information with Facebook.

• ​Number of views of a post. On Facebook, just under your post, you can read "Seen by A" or "Seen by 3 -A, B, C" or "Seen by everyone". Everyone must take part in a collaborative work and this feature allows you to know that at least, your teammates got your message, even though they're taking their time to answer back. On Sulis, nothing shows if your post has been read or not... and it can be very frustrating when you're impatiently waiting for your teammates' replies. Also, on Facebook, when your post/comment is "liked", that means this post/comment has been seen, while on Sulis, this feature does not exist. The "like" avoids useless floods.

• ​App. Facebook is available as an application. Most smartphones users have the Facebook app on their phones, so can get alerts fast. An application of Sulis doesn't exist.​

​

These are the pros that hit me the most. A classmate of mine said Facebook is more a social network (and it indeed is) while Sulis is more for work. Facebook may be distracting as a friend can suddenly chat with you, a video posted by another friend attracts your attention, while with Sulis, it's only work, work and work.

Nevertheless, this point depends on your own self control. Therefore, I believe Facebook is a great platform for a collaborative work and am still disappointed by the French coordinator's decision... but that won't prevent me from working in the end!