When she gets home, Sophie looks at the photos Tania took. She posts a few of her favorites to TV Club’s social media site, tagging #FindingAlyssa and several club members. Because Sophie created those tags, the posts and photos are added to the timelines of those individual social media pages.
The next day, Aileen and Antonio notice a post from one of the Finding Alyssa actors on the TV Club’s page. It reads:
“Thanks to the #BayviewTVClub for your support of #FindingAlyssa! Look for a surprise at your next meeting.”
Antonio says, “Look! The cast found out about our club.” Aileen says, “I wonder what the surprise is!”
Metadata
Your social media post starts with the photo and the text associated with it.
But a social media service requires more specific data to perform the functions you expect of it. This information is called metadata—data about data. Metadata is essential for organizing and managing information.
Metadata is essential for organizing and managing information. For example, to organize all the posts in your timeline in chronological order, the server has to know what day and time the post was created.
Changing the post’s metadata, such as the number of Likes, doesn’t change the data itself.
At the next club meeting, dozens of cupcakes arrive from the local bakery, courtesy of the cast of Finding Alyssa! The entire club is thrilled with their surprise.
The community center director is less enthusiastic. Along with the cupcakes, dozens of fans show up hoping for a glimpse of the show’s stars. The director has to manage the crowd, ultimately turning people away because of fire code regulations.
At the meeting, the club members discuss all the excitement. They agree that all their posts and tags had a positive impact by generating so much interest in the club, but Antonio and Aileen remind everyone that they didn’t anticipate the negative consequences for the community center. They all agree to be careful about mentioning locations in public posts.
Building Feeds
Watch this video to learn more about building a feed.
Parallel and Distributed Computing
Watch this video to learn more about parallel and distributed computing.
