tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74870777244507083052024-03-05T17:57:22.739-10:00ICS691 HeyJudeHey Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15713036019848567433noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487077724450708305.post-56234319405182230042011-02-13T23:55:00.001-10:002011-02-14T01:31:12.831-10:00Session 3<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">Summarizing the articles, or how I was tired and not in a charitable mood:</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">“Why We Twitter: Understanding Microblogging Usage and Communities”</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;"><a href="http://www.theonion.com/articles/twitter-creator-on-iran-i-never-intended-for-twitt,6783/">http://www.theonion.com/articles/twitter-creator-on-iran-i-never-intended-for-twitt,6783/</a></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">This article makes the shocking observation that “users participate in communities which share similar interests.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It also categorizes the different user intentions for twitter as:</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">Daily Chatter</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">Conversations</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">Sharing Informations/URLs, and</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">Reporting News</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">I can’t help but want to group the first two and second two categories together.</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">For a conclusion, the article states that there are high levels of close mutual connections on this social networking site and that determining the user intentions of individuals is difficult.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">“Using Social Psychology to Motivate Contributions to Online Communities”</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">Mentions that under contribution is a problem for online communities, and devised and completed several inconclusive experiments to test social psychology theories and their application to increasing contribution to online communities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were several variables that were tested in the experiments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One variable was the user’s feeling of uniqueness of their contribution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The experiments seemed to conclude that increasing this feeling would lead to greater participation by the user.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seemed to me that giving the users a feeling of having unique contributions was a bit like patting a dog on the head for rolling over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It works for getting the dog to roll over, but requires you to continue patting the dog’s head each time you want it to roll over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m sure it is possible to create a program, for these online communities, that occasionally pats each contributing member on the head, but I wonder if a computer response will continue to get the same effect over time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wonder what a more long term experiment would find.</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">This article also points out that one reason why their experiments failed to agree with the social theory predictions is poor implementation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They found that similar groups did not participate as much as dissimilar groups in experiment #1, but later realize that all the groups are in fact similar, as all were composed of movie buffs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seems correct to assume that people need a similar ground to beginning conversing, but if you’re too similar the conversation just ends up being “I agree. <silence>” “<silence>”…</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">“Virtual Community Attraction: Why People Hang Out Online”</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">This article gives the following reasons for joining an online community:</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">Information Seeking/Exchange</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">Social Support</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">Friendship</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">Recreation</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">The article also connects those reasons for joining an online community to the type of online community, noting that more serious topic communities (such as professional communities or health and welfare communities) are more likely to have member that joined for information seeking/exchange or social support.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the other hand, more recreational communities, like forums about pets, are more likely to have people join for recreational or friendship reasons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I mentioned in my previous blog, I joined the Missy USA site, which has an area for health and welfare, mostly for information seeking or social support reasons, so this article did match with my own experiences.</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">“Examining social media usage: Technology clusters and social network site membership”</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">This article was interesting partially for being dated to 2009, but still mentioning MySpace so much. It seems like a very good example of how quickly times change and the issues researchers face in publishing their findings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The article even mentions this fact in the conclusion as it mentions the moving target of SNSs.</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">The article notes that previous findings, in other studies, found extroverts to be unlikely to substitute internet interactions for real-life interactions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This seems to be another example of the moving target of the internet and SNSs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The study in this article found that extroverts are more comfortable in the newer SNSs, where they can post pictures and videos of themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seems to simply be a movement of their extroverted ways from real-life to the internet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The study also notes that computer anxiety was negatively correlated with information seeking and downloading but had no effect on the use of one-to-one or many-to-many “clusters.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The article states this, and I agree, that many one-to-one or many-to-many “clusters” such as email and SNSs like Facebook are relatively easy to use and therefore people who are not good with computers can still use them without fear.</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">One interesting point from the article is that women are more likely to use SNSs than men are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wonder why this is?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Part of me wants to say that the stereotype that women are better at interpersonal relationships is the reason why we flock to SNSs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps the answer is even more sexist and has to do with having more free time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or perhaps, the majority in the study is not statistically important and just an error from the study’s sampling process?</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">“Motivating Content Contributions to Online Communities: Toward a More Comprehensive Theory”</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">This article, like the first is trying to determine ways to increase online community contributions and keep the communities alive and thriving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One item this article touches on that the first ignored is the idea of types/levels of participants in the community. In the Missy USA community I joined, I would call myself a type two lurker.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I typically just search for the information I want and if I can’t find it I may post a questions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t usually respond to other members when they ask questions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do have a friend who spends a lot of time on certain “forums” and probably considers himself a type four contributor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He sometimes brags about threads on one forum specifically asking for his response/help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wonder if this “they need me” feeling is one of those intrinsic motives or if the praise it gathers counts as an extrinsic motive.</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">This article talks about personality characteristics and environmental factors as part of the equation in determining/affecting contribution levels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It also mentions reinforcement factors as an area that online community organizers might use to help increase contributions. <br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">Part 2, or watching over my friend’s shoulder:</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">I would never join a site on wargaming, but as my friend is a type 3 or 4 contributor to a site, I followed his lead to < <a href="http://privateerpressforums.com/">http://privateerpressforums.com/</a>> an online community dedicated to wargames produced by the company Privateer Press.</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">A little background information from my friend:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Privateer Press released a game called Warmachine in 2003 and recently went through a complete revision of the game performed via online open playtesting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Participants on the forum were given (for free) the rules for the new version of the game and were requested to play the new rules a provide feedback for the game.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Per my friend, during this time (late 2009 early 2010) there were 1000s of posts per day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">As I look at the forum now (near midnight Hawaii time), there are 216 active users, 62 of which are registered members.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The forum also tracks certain other statistics and notes that the most ever users online at one times was 898.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are 50,864 threads, 722,045 posts, 39,808 members, of which 4615 are considered active.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One interesting thing to note is that there are subforums in: Italian, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Dutch, Scandinavian, and Polish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I did note, however, that these language subforums are fairly empty.</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">The largest sections are the general “Privateer Press Discussion” sections and the ones dedicated to the various in-game “armies”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Other areas with a large number of posts include the section for “Rules Questions” and a section dedicated to “Miniature Painting and Modeling.”</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">With so many posts, I clicked on the link “Todays Posts” to narrow down my focus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because of this, I might not have seen the full picture of these forums.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Additionally as I have no knowledge of the game, my friend helped “translate” many gaming terms.</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">Modes of Participation:</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">-Members can Post Threads</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">-Members can Post replies to thread or to other replies</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">-Members can send each other “Personal Messages” though my friend tells me that the option to send or receive those “PMs” can be turned off.</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">-Members can upload pictures or other files, which included applications for Android.</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">-Members can add friends</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">-Members can join groups within the forum</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">-Members can flag posts that are against forum rules</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">-Members can update their personal profile, like a lesser version of Facebook</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">-Members can search for other members to see what those other members have posted</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">-Members can subscribe to threads to get email updates</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">-Non members can read threads and download the uploaded files (as they are hosted offsite)</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">How is Participation Encouraged:</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">-Members receive “titles” based on post count, and post count is tracked and publically shown.</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">-New members who post an introduction in the new members area are greeted by one of the veterans of the forum, who is also a “moderator.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This moderator, who does not work for the company, usually posts a cutesy response such as “<span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma", "sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Welcome to the Iron Kingdoms! *gives <forum name> a cookie and a Defender plushie* ^_^</span>”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to my friend the “plushie” type depends on the “army” the new member says they are interested in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This shows the personal touch given to new members.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am surprised that a male dominated wargame would use a cutesy welcome greeting, but I did not notice any case where the new member responded poorly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, it seems to be a sort of internet Meme?</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">-The company Privateer Press, has several employees who post semi-regularly on the forums.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It does seem that their posts are highly valued and generate large responses.</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">-A large number of posts seem to be self-generated by the community, with no attempt by the company or the moderators to encourage greater participation.</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">-There is also an “off topic” section where members can post about subjects that have nothing to do with the company or the game.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe this section allows members to stay at the site and blow off steam before contributing more game/company related posts.</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">Which types of content draw the most responses:</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">Type of Post: # of threads (total # of posts on counted threads)</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">Question about army list, what model to take, competitiveness, how to win: 22 (291)</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">Question on how to play game, rules question: 7 (40)</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">Posts about Miniatures (pictures of model painted by members): 4 (44)</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">New information for game (new models releases and speculation): 3 (136)</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">Reports of games played: 3 (31)</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">I noted that how to win threads were the most common, but also that these threads could perhaps be split into smaller categories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Threads asking about the competitiveness of a specific army list (collection of game models) were frequent threads but usually had few responses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Threads about the competitiveness of a specific model were not as frequent but had a large number of posts.</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">Questions about how rules worked were fairly frequent, but they often stopped once the question was answered.</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">According to my friend, the painting aspect of the game is fairly important, so it wasn’t surprising to see members showing off their painting skills.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of these threads had many posts by the same person as it appears there is a maximum number of pictures allowed per post, and some had many pictures to show.</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">Posts about new information for the game were not frequent, but generated a large number of replies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seems this community responds quite well to teasers.</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">Finally, in my sample of 50 posts, the 5<sup>th</sup> most common type of posts were those detailing games played.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This seems exhibitionist, and some posts got many responses while others received few.</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">Oddly enough, despite the claim in “Virtual Community Attraction: Why People Hang Out Online” that recreation type communities gather people who joined for recreation or to gain friends, this forum for gaming seems to be heavily populated with posts asking for or sharing information.</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: auto auto 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">Additionally, it seems that the forum generates contributions primarily through the efforts of the participants in the community, with members trying to make other members better at playing the game.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There seems to be a small amount of “play nice” from the moderators, but little extrinsic encouragement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I still find the cutesy greeting to be a bit surprising, and noticed it used outside in new member introductions area of the forum.</div></div>Hey Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15713036019848567433noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487077724450708305.post-25479909694582744912011-01-30T23:54:00.001-10:002011-01-31T00:09:31.820-10:00Session 2<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">My selected readings are:</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">-</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Galston, William A. (2000). Does the Internet Strengthen Community? National Civic Review 89(3), 193-202.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">-</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Weeks, Linton (2009). Social Responsibility and the Web: A Drama Unfolds. 8 January 2009. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99094257</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">-</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Albrechtslund, Anders (2008). Online Social Networking as Participatory Surveillance. First Monday 13(3). </span><a href="http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2142/1949"><span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2142/1949</span></span></a></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">-</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Rosen, Christine (2007). Virtual Friendship and the New Narcissism. The New Atlantis 17, 15-31.http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/virtual-friendship-and-the-new-narcissim</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">-</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Bigge, Ryan (2006). The Cost of (Anti-) Social Networks: Identity, Agency and Neo-Luddites" First Monday 11(12). </span><a href="http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1421/1339"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1421/1339</span></a></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">While I was reading those articles, I found some similar concepts and connections within them and some contradictions as well.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Virtual Community as Actual Community</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">While Galston noted that ‘the Internet’s virtual communities are not communities’, Weeks’s article quoted Evans, ‘unlikely to change core human concepts of friendship and community’. Albrechtslund also says that there is a reciprocal action between online and offline and online social networking is not distinct from offline networking. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From my experiences of participating on online communities, it’s hard to define what an online community is that is really separate from offline communities. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m not sure if this is just because most of the online communities that I had joined were merely ‘offline’ gathering communities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because of this I didn’t think there was a big difference between virtual communities and real life communities. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The following is an example of one of online communities that I have joined.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is online community for fans of a specific Japanese band. It is a certainly a group by ‘a fascination with a narrowly defined topic’, so in J.Snyder’s view from Galston, this online community is not a community. However, I continued to use my pseudonym at offline meetings of this community, and we all called each other by our pseudonyms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The members of this online community were bound by not only a perception of self-interest, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>which is that of the Japanese band, but also by affective ties as well because ‘we’ became ‘friends’ who had the same interests . Whether the ties are as strong as those of purely offline communities or not is different story, however.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Online Social Networks as a Tool for ‘Managing’ Friendship</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Rosen indicated many people take advantage of one of the virtues social networking website, which is to maintain their relationships with their offline acquaintances or friends who haven’t kept in touch for a long time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Albrechtslund also noted that many teens use online social networking to maintain friendships with a large circle of friends. They find it easier to keep in touch with them online and to update their information on these websites, rather than face to face. I have friends, friends who are considered acquaintances, and “friends” who are almost acquaintances from all over the world – Japan to Argentina. Of course I can use email to contact them, or to update my personal info, but by having them connected on my social networking site – Facebook it is much more convenient to ‘just’ keep in touch with them by commenting “Happy Birthday” or simply “poking” once in a while. Also, I can easily just let them know about changes in my personal information, like graduation, going on a business trip to<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tokyo, a family member’s illness, without having to individually call or email all of my ‘friends’.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Voluntary Community vs. Enforced Volunteerism</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Galston pointed out that online groups are typical examples of voluntary community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is low barrier to entrance and low exit online communities. Despite of its lack of obligation and a certain reinforcement to join ‘majority’ communities, online groups are still considered as voluntary communities which can fulfill our emotional needs.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Bigge claims that we, who live in web2.0 era, have no choice- whether join up online social networking website or not. If we don’t have online identity it means we don’t exist. It is an interesting comparison to say that social networks work as a ‘guest list’ in club culture or to say that social networks can be used as tools of exclusion. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Under this social (at least online social) pressure, we need to join the online social networking to have an online identity, to be, to exist. So this is not exactly ‘voluntarily’ being a member of an online community. Although there is not a requirement to join, still there is pressure. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of reasons why I signed up for Myspace and Facebook is because most of my friends have at least one of them, and they consistently asked me to join. Finally I realized that I had to have one when friends of mine had conversations, excluding me, about photos they posted or ‘quizzes’ like ‘what’s your color?’ from Facebook, and I had no idea what they were talking about. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Quantity > Quality</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Both Rosen and Bigge indicated number of friends as social status. How many online ‘friends’ you have shows your online social status, so people compete with others who have more ‘friends’ and race to see how quickly they can get more friends, and some are even anxious about it. In this case, who are your real friends or how we define ‘friends’ doesn’t matter anymore. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only ‘how many’ is all that matters. I am reminded of one of my friends who is on my Facebook list. It was a couple of days after I ‘invited’ him to add me as his friend. In a few days, I noticed he had over 800 ‘friends’!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only thing in my mind was ‘is he insane?’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why, and what makes him, who is a super popular guy in the offline world, that obsessed with his ‘friends’ count?</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Question Raised:</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Weeks article leads me to ask one question: according to Fogg in Weeks article, “people use Facebook as a ‘call for help’. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Facebook, blogs, or tweets are actually based on interaction with revealed identities, at least the identity of the one who establishes the message. In other word, we know who is screaming for help. Then, what about using random online communities as an anonymous ‘call for help’? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Will readers of the message still feel responsible for responding to the message?</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I selected a huge online community as called ‘MissyUSA’ which is a community for Korean-American ladies who live in the USA. Members who use this community share their information about all sort of things related with Ms’s, such as where are good SAT prep schools, what is the best cleansing cream, etc. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I did not need to use my pseudonym to post my comments, instead my comments appeared under my partial IP address. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This means it is almost impossible for other members to identify who I am. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I posted to say I’m so sick and I have a pain whenever I take antibiotic pills. Please excuse that the post is in Korean (as I mentioned, the community is for Korean Americans, so most posts are in Korean).</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0IOdrhgs1xePQ6crxevYJffgYgtxGova-xrEVNybLkyInEhazUY9nxPJlFuyVyZwa-QGUjeqIu_ugEMGB4SdzVqjTytZUV3rZB33V-F-IaUiextWdx7zzo01tnK-xi_UI9iwcwG_iTVXR/s1600/ics-screenshot+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="243" s5="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0IOdrhgs1xePQ6crxevYJffgYgtxGova-xrEVNybLkyInEhazUY9nxPJlFuyVyZwa-QGUjeqIu_ugEMGB4SdzVqjTytZUV3rZB33V-F-IaUiextWdx7zzo01tnK-xi_UI9iwcwG_iTVXR/s320/ics-screenshot+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-no-proof: yes;"><shapetype coordsize="21600,21600" filled="f" id="_x0000_t75" o:preferrelative="t" o:spt="75" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" stroked="f"><stroke joinstyle="miter"></stroke><formulas><f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"></f><f eqn="sum @0 1 0"></f><f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"></f><f eqn="prod @2 1 2"></f><f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"></f><f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"></f><f eqn="sum @0 0 1"></f><f eqn="prod @6 1 2"></f><f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"></f><f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"></f><f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"></f><f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"></f></formulas><path gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect" o:extrusionok="f"></path><lock aspectratio="t" v:ext="edit"></lock></shapetype><shape id="Picture_x0020_6" o:spid="_x0000_i1025" style="height: 289.5pt; mso-wrap-style: square; visibility: visible; width: 468pt;" type="#_x0000_t75"><imagedata o:title="" src="file:///C:\Users\QUEENJ~1\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.png"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></imagedata></shape></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The first response was posted two minutes after my complaining. It’s not really a helpful comment, and it says that “in my case, I have diarrhea when I take antibiotics” But soon after the first response, rapidly other sympathetic, and yet helpful advice and comments followed. I omit translation on all comments since it’s about how to deal with my symptom.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1-mMvz3im2lpV1SUJpGl5HU2R0k0v1PHaLAngO3JpxVFG9tKqV5_1eOA0D6rSvHC0cp6EZauG_OdEEvVoeQsLK77bCN6ydQAdUe7hGoqluBK3mDjen-qDG01fozUhgpDOZffLE4-LSEBk/s1600/ics+screenshot3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="243" s5="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1-mMvz3im2lpV1SUJpGl5HU2R0k0v1PHaLAngO3JpxVFG9tKqV5_1eOA0D6rSvHC0cp6EZauG_OdEEvVoeQsLK77bCN6ydQAdUe7hGoqluBK3mDjen-qDG01fozUhgpDOZffLE4-LSEBk/s320/ics+screenshot3.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The point is, although it’s not a life threatening situation, nor an actual ‘cry for help’ (I even didn’t ask about what I should do for this, nor did I use the word ‘help’ in the subject), a total of ten people responded immediately. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is this because of the users’ gender – which tends to be feminine, or did it captured the users’ attention because of its extravagancy (not a typical subject in this community)? Unless I investigate more with other online communities, I cannot be sure what motivates this response. However, I got an answer for my question – people still feel responsibility in reading online comments even it’s anonymous. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like Weeks noted Fogg’s statement – “people will respond to people who sound like they are in trouble – online or off” and I’m glad I find there is normal human behavior exercised even online, despite of all of the negative aspects of a virtual community.</span></span></div>Hey Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15713036019848567433noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487077724450708305.post-82450076302456719122011-01-16T23:48:00.000-10:002011-01-16T23:48:56.168-10:00Session 1, Week 1<span style="font-size: small;">Regarding articles with references to the role of social media, in terms of what motivated the recent tragedy and people's reactions to it, I found two I would like to discuss.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2011/01/09/20110109gabrielle-giffords-arizona-shooting-social-media.html">Gabrielle Giffords shooting: Social media's power, limits on display</a>(by Bill Goodykoonstz)<br />
<h1 class="title" style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://inventorspot.com/articles/social_medias_dark_side_casts_long_shadows_beyond_tucson_shoppin"><span style="font-size: small;">Social Media's Dark Side Casts Long Shadow Beyond Tucson Shopping Mall (by Ron Callari)</span></a></h1><h1 class="title" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">Both articles point out the negative aspects of the 'role of Social media' and I tend to agree with these two articles' point. The shooting of Arizona Rep.Gabrielle Giffords and other people reflects many aspects of Social media, includes it's role.</span></h1><h1 class="title" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">First of all, I would like to point out the media's erroneous reporting, which said 'Giffords was killed.' Later then, they admitted their shameful mistake. I am not sure which one leads which, but it is certain that people deliver "news" - we can say here, 'posting', 're-posting' and 'tweeting' and 're-tweeting' - without checking the source's authority, and so this incorrect information spread out. Like Goddykoontz's writing, many people, including himself, followed the story on social media. This leads me to remember 'rhetoric of democratisation' in Beer and Burrows' '<u>Sociology and, of and in web 2.0: Some Initial Consideration</u>'. Unlike traditional media, "people" take control of the contents of information, but are not able to control who might be their audience in social media. In this case, it seemed that it did not really matter to the posters if the "news" was true or false, the only thing that mattered was delivering 'hot' issues to their "friends" via social media. I liked the idea that blogs are defined as being like radio in<u> 'Blogging as Social Activity, or Would You Let 900 Million People Read Your Diary?'</u> Just as with radio, the blogger can 'broadcast' whatever they want to say, but without responsibility for their messages. This 'democratizaing' effects of social media runs into my next point.</span></h1><h1 class="title" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">Then, what about 'motivation' of this tragedy? Callari's article says, " radical rhetoric expressed on social networks can also cause hundreds or even thousands of followers to impulsively act out based on the belief that their actions are in alignment with a greater mission, condoned by political leaders." We saw Sarah Palin's infamous 'crosshairs' map posts all over the place - friends' facebook, blogs, and even major media. Obviously, we don't know what was the real trigger to make the shooter take action at this point. However, many social media users assigned political motive to this incident. It reminds me of Tenopir's article <u>'Online Databases - Web 2.0: Our Cultural Downfall?</u>', Keen warns about losing the accuracy that comes from reliance on experts. </span></h1><h1 class="title" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">I like the description of social media as "pushbutton publishing for the people". It is efficient, easy, and democratic in a way. While I was reading Boyd's '<u>Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship'</u>, I agreed that social network sites are unique because on not only they allow individuals to meet strangers, but also they enable user to make visible their social networks.</span></h1><h1 class="title" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">Although I don't agree 100 percent with Keen's "ignorance meets egoism meets bad taste meets mob rule", but deeply agree with his warning of traditional media's danger of being replaced by widespread social networking sites. Because still there is a good role of social media, which is rapid dispersion, and it's "democratization", ironically.</span></h1><br />
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</span></h1>Hey Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15713036019848567433noreply@blogger.com8