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Stephen R

Anonymous: serious threat or mere annoyance? - 5 views

www.sciencedirect.com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/...S1353485811700046

NET308_508 Anonymous hacktivism hacking activism collaboration organisation tools LOIC low orbit ion cannon twitter internet relay chat IRC

shared by Stephen R on 25 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Stephen R on 25 Mar 12
     
    Steve Mansfield-Devine, editor of Network Security, analyses the threat of the Anonymous activist hacking group. In doing so he discusses the collaborative tools used to organise the members of Anonymous into a focussed effort. The tools discussed include the Low Orbit Ion Cannnon (LOIC) and various spinoffs, Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and Twitter. Mansfield-Devine's discusses the Anonymous group's usage of the LOIC as a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) weapon. Mansfield-Devine makes a clear point that only with enough users is the LOIC effective, making the effective usage of the LOIC a collaborative operation. The more users collaborating with the tool, the more effective it becomes. Mansfield-Devine discusses how Anonymous members are coerced into participating in an LOIC attack, specifying IRC and Twitter as the main forms of mobilisation of members. His discussion highlights IRC as a primary form of organisation, with Twitter being taking a more secondary role in directing potential participants into IRC channels. Mansfield-Devine does note that Twitter became an integral part of Anonymous organisation when their domain names were taken offline by authorities during Anonymous operations. Tweets were sent out to redirect the Anonymous participants into new IRC chat rooms to continue the attack. Overall, this article concisely covers IRC, Twitter and LOIC based aspects of Anonymous collaboration and organisation. Mansfield-Devine, Steve. 2011. "Anonymous: Serious threat or mere annoyance?" Network Security 1: 4-10. http://dx.doi.org.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/10.1016/S1353-4858(11)70004-6
  • Kate Namestnik on 10 Apr 12
     
    In this article Mansfield-Devine explores the threat of the organisation Anonymous and the collaborative tools they use to organise the group. In relation to this, he specifies that Anonymous uses "Low Orbit Ion Cannnon (LOIC) and various versions, Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and Twitter" as his key tools for facilitating organised attacks on institutions (Mansfield-Devine, 2011, p. 4). This article links to the article 'Kony 2012: The Template for Effective Crowdsourcing?' by Olubunmi Emenanjo, on more than one level, they are both about outside organisations against institutions, and they both undeniably rely on social media and the power of the crowds for the mobilization and facilitation of their actions and recruitment (Emenanjo, 2012). The success of the Kony 2012 campaign and Anonymous's attacks can be pin-pointed to how the organisations are aimed at a particular audience, reinforced by social media platforms, and most importantly how they harnessed networking tools to deliver their messages. However a major difference between the two groups is that the Kony 2012 organisation has a consistent online identity, while Anonymous has anonymity. Little is known about the organisation itself but the tools they utilise (LOIC, IRC, and Twitter) lead us so assume that their audiences engage with the organisation. References Emenanjo, O. (2012). Kony 2012: The Template for Effective Crowdsourcing? Communia. Retrieved from http://stipcommunia.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/kony-2012-the-template-for-effective-crowdsourcing/ Mansfield-Devine. (2011). Anonymous: Serious threat or mere annoyance?. Network Security, 1, 4-10. http://dx.doi.org.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/10.1016/S13534858(11)70004-6
  • ianzed on 10 Apr 12
     
    Although much of this article is not particularly useful to my focus on Anonymous, this article still raises some interesting notes. The way in which the author plays down the impact of Anonymous' actions towards the end of this article is of particular interest. The author often refers to the disorganized nature of the Anonymous movement, and suggests frequently that although a number of individuals may be involved, automated 'botnets' are often more effective than Anonymous members (Mansfield-Devine, 2011). For my focus, this is the most important part of the article because of the way in which the author neglects to take note of Anonymous members who do more than simply use LOIC and other DDoS attacks. Although it may be true that Anonymous DDoS attacks may not result in significant, long term damage to their targets, the disruption caused by such attacks can often provide enough distraction for Anonymous hacktivists to retrieve data from said targets. With hacktivist groups within movements such as Anonymous being responsible for the largest amount of stolen data in 2011 (AFP, 2012), Anonymous DDoS attacks could pave the way for much more damage to be done to websites than the temporary service disruptions noted by the author of this article. Mansfield-Devine, S. (2011). Anonymous: Serious threat or mere annoyance? Network Security 1: 4-10. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/science/article/pii/S1353485811700046 AFP. (2012). 'Hacktivists' biggest data thieves in 2011: Verizon. Retrieved from http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/world/13242086/hacktivists-biggest-data-thieves-in-2011-verizon/
Dean Strautins

Internet Based Collaboration and Organisation in Education Institutions - 20 views

I will post not much to try to draw these papers to the top of the list in an attempt to attract comment as it now is listed as 85 of 86 posts.

Collaboration in Higher Education

started by Dean Strautins on 22 Mar 12 1 follow-up, last by Dean Strautins on 07 Apr 12
ianzed

Making the News: Movement Organisations, Media attention and the public agenda - 18 views

This article very loosely relates to my focus on Anonymous. Although not particularly relevant to my focus, it does provide a decent contextual setting for explaining why Anonymous receives so much...

Net308_508 collaboration community Crowd participatory

started by Jannicke Rye on 25 Mar 12 3 follow-ups, last by ianzed on 10 Apr 12
Mitchell Houwen

The Wiki: an environment to revolutionise employees' interaction with corporate knowledge. - 0 views

www.ozchi.org/...hasan-p377.pdf

shared by Mitchell Houwen on 21 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Sian Cooper on 21 Mar 12
     
    Hasan, H., & Pfaff, C.C. (2006). The wiki: an environment to revolutionise employees' interaction with corporate knowledge. OZCHI. 11(24-26). Pp377-380. Retrieved 19th March 2012 from http://www.ozchi.org/proceedings/2006/sessions/short-papers/social/hasan-p377.pdf This article focuses on collaborative social software, such as wikis, being used by members to communicate and collaborate electronically within corporate organisations. The authors use the term Knowledge Management (KM) to describe the ways in which wikis can be used within these organisations to share knowledge, create content, distribute documents and edit files. The advantages of using wikis within corporate organisations are that knowledge can be shared quickly and efficiently, allowing editing of pages to be recorded and information to be kept up-to-date. New pages are able to be created and old ones deleted. Editing of pages and knowledge contribution is relatively easy when employing a wiki, even for the novice user. Overall the "wiki takes advantage of the collaborative efforts of all members of the organisation to create an effective library of knowledge" (p.378). Major corporations such as IBM, the Disney Corporation, and British Telecommunications, are three major organisations that have been noted to employ wikis to assist with KM amongst workers. However, some corporate organisations choose not to employ wikis to organise KM for a number of reasons. Wikis may appear to change the organisational structure within companies such that "senior executives may be reluctant to share power with their subordinates" (p.379). There are issues surrounding intellectual property and quality control of information. Privacy concerns also come into play, and conflict may arise if workers are contributing more information or less information to the wiki than other employees. However the authors note that through offering corporate incentives, implementing revision control, and employing u
  • Mitchell Houwen on 25 Mar 12
     
    Corporate knowledge pertains to the inside information that companies need to operate. Internal wikis allow companies to coordinate and collaborate their internal information to streamline the normal business processes. This also allows businesses to spread their business network across many areas and still work cohesively on a common task. Wikipedia can be considered one enormous organization that serves the single purpose of supplying information to the entire globe through the detailed and yet at the same time brief articles. Global networks like this are true representations of collaboration and how steps can be taken in an effort to allow and access the knowledge of crowds. The knowledge of crowds is an idea that there is a bank of information that can be attained by taking the small pieces that each person in the crowd holds. Can corporations use wikis effectively to store information? Who holds the power? With any type of wiki it is important to remember that someone must be in charge of moderating and filtering the information. Or if a wiki is used inside a corporation does that remove the need for a person in charge of filtering? Either way a wiki can be an effective tool in allowing businesses to collaborate without the need to be in the same geographic location.
Jocelyn Workman

Yates, D & Paquette, S. (2010) Emergency knowledge management and social media technolo... - 2 views

www.sciencedirect.com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/...S0268401210001453

Net308_508 social media knowledge management disasters emergency wikis collaboration

shared by Jocelyn Workman on 24 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Jocelyn Workman on 24 Mar 12
     
    This article looks at the value of social media as a knowledge management platform for managing emergency responses by organisations to disasters, based on a case study of the 2010 Haiti Earthquake. The US was a major stakeholder in coordinating the emergency response to this humanitarian crisis and had, prior to this event, relied on manually intensive and centralised knowledge management systems. This was the first time the U.S. Government "relied on social media to coordinate knowledge and action between cooperating agencies" (p. 7). Data was gathered by one of the participating authors assigned to AFCAT (U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff's Crisis Action Team) to configure social media tools. SharePoint, newly introduced to the organisation, provided a new basis for knowledge sharing. Previously, the only opportunity for staff to find out what others were doing was during information briefings. The SharePoint platform supported mechanisms for knowledge sharing within the team, and Haiti specific wiki pages were developed by participating agencies using a common government MediaWiki platform. Together, these social media tools increased the flow and form of knowledge as they allowed knowledge to be: o shared - it was now visible and accessible within and between agencies o reused as new knowledge o verified and usefulness rated o removed duplication of effort o facilitated collaboration and cooperation between groups Conversely, this study found that the uncontrolled uploading of information to wikis required organisations to put systems in place to manage and monitor the content of wikis. Accuracy of information for emergency response by organisations is critical. This peer reviewed article provided a theoretical framework for social media as it applies to disaster management. I found it took several readings to absorb the content and it was difficult to work out what social media tools were actually created beside wikis.
Dean Strautins

How organisations framed the 2009 H1N1 pandemic via social and traditional media - 5 views

This paper dazzles me with non stop cramming of terms and references. I simply can not hold all those reference points in my head at the one and same time to be able to come up with insightful lear...

Net308_508 community social media Crowd participatory technology

started by Jannicke Rye on 25 Mar 12 1 follow-up, last by Dean Strautins on 25 Mar 12
Victoria Jobling

The Revolutions Were Tweeted: Information Flows during the 2011 Tunisian and Egyptian R... - 4 views

ijoc.org/...643

Net308_508 community Twitter social media collaboration organisation movement revolution activism political protest

shared by Victoria Jobling on 25 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Victoria Jobling on 25 Mar 12
     
    Lotan, G., Graeff, E., Ananny, M., Gaffney, D., Pearce, I., & boyd, d. (2011). The Revolutions Were Tweeted: Information Flows during the 2011 Tunisian and Egyptian Revolutions. International Journal of Communications, 5, 1375-1405. Retrieved March 24, 2012, from http://ijoc.org/ojs/index.php/ijoc/article/view/1246/643 This article investigates how information was disseminated via Twitter during the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions. It is clear that there were advantages in relying upon Twitter and social media during this time, because these sites provided real-time updates that mainstream media could not convey, due to the limitations of the platform, or censorship (Grossman, 2009; p.1399). The use of hashtags or key words assisted in the organisation of information, such as #sidibouzid and #Tunisia (p. 1376; p. 1395). However, the constant and rapid flow of content made it difficult to determine what is false and what is legitimate information - Twitter's strength and weakness in this situation. It is essential to understand how information can be organised and filtered through the positions of 'actor types' (classification of users in this study), making this article valuable to the study of political protests. There were many different actors mentioned but the most important contributors to the dissemination of content were journalists, bloggers, and activists. These actors had a tendency to retweet information from the same actor type or amongst the three aforementioned categories, to essentially create a sense of reliable organisation to the Twitter chaos (p. 1393). The study also concluded that individuals, rather than organisations, were considered more reliable during the uprising (p. 1398). This appears to demonstrate the scepticism associated with mainstream media in a society that no longer wishes to be talked 'at', but rather invo
  • Stephen R on 10 Apr 12
     
    This article relates my topic in its discussion of Twitter usage in online activism. The online activist group Anonymous (my topic of choice) also performed activist activities surrounding Egypt and Tunisia. Much of Anonymous' activities were organised through the use of Twitter making this article quite relevant. As suggested in the article, Anonymous did appear to have certain high powered actors who highlighted information of particular relevance to the operations, affecting the flow of information through the Twitter network. The article is published in a peer-reviewed journal making it a highly reliable source. It is also quite recent, written in 2011, which is a huge asset given the rate at which social networking technology progresses. The article is also perfectly relevant to the discussion of Twitter usage in political protests. The way that information flows and is determined critical or irrelevant through various actors' retweets is an important topic. I found the article quite useful as the topic is closely related to the online activism performed by the Anonymous group. This article contributes a great deal of value to this collaborative resource development project on a whole, as it is a reliable source, is very recent and it is highly relevant, dealing with Twitter as a collaboration and organisation tool.
Velia Torres

Interactive of reactive? Marketing with Twitter - 15 views

This paper aims to analyse the effectiveness of Twitter usage across six different organisations, holding twelve different Twitter accounts. Despite the high amount of organisations using Twitter t...

Net308_508 collaboration community Crowd participatory technology

started by Jannicke Rye on 25 Mar 12 1 follow-up, last by Velia Torres on 06 Apr 12
Jarrad Long

The Wisdom of Crowds - 26 views

This Wikipedia article presents a summary of the 2004 book of the same name by New York Journalist James Surowiecki. Initially it explains Surowiecki's ideas about how crowd intelligence works and ...

Net308_508 Collaboration organisation kony 2012 social media wise crowd wisdom of the crowds

started by Kate Namestnik on 24 Mar 12 4 follow-ups, last by Jarrad Long on 08 Apr 12
Emily Lloyd

A knowledge sharing and collaboration platform. - 33 views

A Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration Platform provides a good summary of some of the advantages wikis provide for businesses. Written by Dr Donna Hendrix, and Griet Johannsen, both part of the She...

Net308_508 wikis education corporations collaboration

started by Sian Cooper on 21 Mar 12 2 follow-ups, last by Emily Lloyd on 06 Apr 12
Victoria Jobling

Digital Prefigurative Participation: The Entwinement of Online Communication and Offlin... - 0 views

nms.sagepub.com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/...153.full.pdf+html

Net308_508 collaboration social media movement environment protest organisation activism

shared by Victoria Jobling on 25 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Victoria Jobling on 25 Mar 12
     
    Mercea, D. (2012). Digital Prefigurative Participation: The Entwinement of Online Communication and Offline Participation in Protest Events. New Media and Society, 14(1), 153-169. Retrieved March 25, 2012, from Sage Journals Database. http://nms.sagepub.com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/content/14/1/153.full.pdf+html In this article, the authors aim to identify the use of computer-mediated communication prior to two offline protests, to determine the role and impact it plays on participants. Social media evidently played a strong role in the recent Arab uprising, but unlike the environmental protests studied in this article, there was a widespread urgency for change influencing the use of online resources. The study included FanFest, an environmental festival supporting change in Romania, and Camp for Climate Change, a traditional and direct style protest involving damage to property and blockades, in the UK (p.158-159). FanFest was considered a low-risk event, and Climate Camp was deemed a high-risk event (p.158), due to the level of activism involved. This article is valuable as it determines a correlation between individuals not associated with any activist organizations and their involvement preceding offline events. The idea that potential activists are more likely to attend low-risk events was reinforced, as a large percentage of people who attended FanFest fit this category (p.159-160). The online organization of the festival attracted new participants, as people were able to discuss the event online and collaborate, by offering suggestions to improve future festivals (p.163). The event aimed to engage the public in environmentalism, rather than demand change, like Climate Camp. This enabled people to freely discuss ideas online, without needing to meet in person. This contrasts with Climate Camp, as many participants d
  • Kate Namestnik on 10 Apr 12
     
    In this article Mercea (2011, p. 155) observes how computer-mediated-communications are contributing to "participation in protest events run by social movement organisations". He aims to study specifically what role online communication plays in the relationship between online and offline environments in relation to activism. This article ties in well with the Kony 2012 campaign I am currently observing and has strong links to an article I read called 'Online Activism' by Guobin Yang. In the two cases Mercea presents, the power of the crowds mediated through computer-communication allows online activism to occur (Yang, 2009, pp. 33). Through interactions on Web 2.0 outlets, Social Movement Organisations have become a force for social change (Mercea, 2012, p.156). Mercea and Yang both agree on the idea that organisations that utilise Web 2.0 platforms are more successful at harnessing crowds, and in doing so promote discussions, real life meeting points, and ultimately plan towards a groups next step in action. The Invisible Children organisation is classified as a 'Social Organisation Movement' and is a prime example of how computer-mediated-communication combined with Web 2.0 platforms facilitates participation. Interactions on Web 2.0 outlets have allowed the Invisible Children's Kony 2012 campaign to become a force for social change. The Kony 2012 campaign reinforces Mercea's observation that interactions online can encourage activism to cross over into the offline environment. The Invisible Children's action plan, focused for April 20th 2012 dubbed 'Cover the Night', enables audiences to actively become involved with the campaign offline while engaging with it online. The success of the Invisible Children's campaign can be pin-pointed to how it was aimed at a particular audience, reinforced by social media platforms, and most importantly how it has harnessed Web 2.0 tools to deliver the mission of the Kony 2012 campaign, to make J
Tamlin Dobrich

Wikipedia: organisation from a bottom-up approach - 3 views

arxiv.org/...0611068v2

Net308_508 Wikipedia Bottom-up_organisation

shared by Tamlin Dobrich on 25 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Tamlin Dobrich on 25 Mar 12
     
    Jaap van den Herik, H., Postma, E., & Spek, S. (2006). Wikipedia: organisation from a bottom-up approach. Maastricht University. Retrieved 2012, March 19th from http://arxiv.org/pdf/cs/0611068v2.pdf The article Wikipedia: organisation from a bottom-up approach is a study into Wikipedia as a successful self-managing team via the analysis of the Dutch Wikipedia. The study explores how Wikipedia successfully creates a cohesive and logical data structure through bottom-up organisation in which labour division is autonomous. The article suggests that this bottom-up structure, with many contributors working towards a common goal, enables greater speed and efficiency subsequently allowing Wikipedia to update new developments faster than other encyclopedias. Additionally this structure, coupled with the online nature of the information network, encourages more communication and cooperation between divisions, increased enthusiasm in participants, and decreased managerial overheads. In terms of Wikipedia's content organisation, a sample study of Wikipedia articles demonstrated article clustering, scale-freeness, and potentially even small-worldliness indicating that Wikipedia's content is itself an organised network. Finally the article looks into the varying Wikipedia pieces and author types and analyzes their relationship. The study found that articles which receive a low average of edits per author (average of edits = number of edits on an article divided by the number of unique authors on the same article) in general "deal with topic areas that most people have at least some expertise in, or topic areas that everyone claims to know about". Contrastingly articles with a high average of edits per author were generally more specialized topics. What this means is that articles, which cover mainstream topics, attract a larger and more diverse crowd of authors (
Stephen R

Online Activism - 14 views

My topic of choice is the Anonymous activist group who's activities are often, but not exclusively, enacted online. The online activism by Anonymous is similar to the online activism described in Y...

Net308_508 collaboration organisation crowds china kony 2012 online activism

started by Kate Namestnik on 26 Mar 12 2 follow-ups, last by Stephen R on 10 Apr 12
Jocelyn Workman

Social Media and Disasters: Current Uses, Future Options, and Policy Considerations - 17 views

This CRS (Congressional Research Service) Report for Congress by Lindsay, provides an organisational perspective of how social media have been and might be used to improve emergency response and re...

Net308_508 Twitter social media community collaboration Wikipedia Crowd

started by jessica_mann on 26 Mar 12 2 follow-ups, last by Jocelyn Workman on 07 Apr 12
Sian Cooper

To use or not to use web 2.0 in higher education? - 11 views

Grossek, G. (2009). To use or not to use web 2.0 in higher education? Procedia Social and Behavioural Sciences. Pp478-482. Retrieved 21st March 2012 from http://webpages.csus.edu/~sac43949/pdfs/to%...

Net308_508 web 2.0 wikis education

started by Sian Cooper on 21 Mar 12 no follow-up yet
Victoria Jobling

The truth about Twitter, Facebook and the uprisings in the Arab world - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...-facebook-uprisings-arab-libya

Net308_508 collaboration social media Twitter Facebook political protest revolution organisation activism community

shared by Victoria Jobling on 25 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Victoria Jobling on 25 Mar 12
     
    Beaumont, P. (2011, February 25). The Truth about Twitter, Facebook and the Uprisings in the Arab World. The Guardian. Retrieved March 24, 2012, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/25/twitter-facebook-uprisings-arab-libya?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487 This article discusses how political activists harnessed the web for their benefit, during the Arab revolutions. Unlike other resources, this article is of great value as it reveals that written tweets were not the only way that protestors and activists utilised the web. The people involved used phones to capture images and videos of the destruction around them, to not only inform their fellow protestors, but also to provide credible evidence to the outside world. People also contributed medical information and important phone numbers to assist and organise others involved in the uprising. This indicates the power of the 'other' described in "The Revolutions Were Tweeted: Information Flow during the 2011 Tunisian and Egyptian Revolutions" as ordinary people provide the bulk of the information. Each of these contributions demonstrates a form of collaboration, whereby; participants worked towards a common goal and participated in knowledge sharing (Blau, 2011, p.23). The article conveys that this provided a clear image of what was happening where, via specific sites. It is also noted that each uprising used the web differently, due to constrictions and organisation of the group. Facebook provided the voice to people in Tunisia as it was one of the only social networking sites that had not been shut down, despite the government's desire to do so, they feared it would cause more unrest. However, Egypt appeared to be the most organised group, as "details of demonstrations were circulated by both Facebook and Twitter and the activists' 12-page guide to confronting the regime was distributed by email" (Beaumont, 2011). The author also comments on the Western media's quick judgments on how social media was used
Oliver Hennessey

Relax: Twitter's New Censorship Policy Is Actually Good for Activists - 6 views

mashable.com/...twitter-censorship-activism

Net308_508 Twitter community organisation political protest censor

shared by Oliver Hennessey on 26 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Oliver Hennessey on 26 Mar 12
     
    Catone, J. (2012). Relax: Twitter's New Censorship Policy Is Actually Good for Activists. Mashable. Retrieved March 23, 2012 from http://mashable.com/2012/01/27/twitter-censorship-activism/ This news article from the online news site Mashable takes a look at the announcement that Twitter will now censor tweets on a country-by-country basis, and argues that this is actually a good thing for online activists. This is contrary to the widespread backlash that has been made against Twitter with users pledging to boycott the service over its new censorship rules. The author points out that Twitter has always been subject to takedown requests, and that this was on a global scale so that if a tweet or user was removed it had to be done for everyone in the world. The author believes it is a lot better that "now, Twitter can remove that tweet in that country, but allow the world to see it". His rationale is that everyone outside of the offending country can still see the tweets, and that if Twitter were to refuse a takedown notice from an oppressive regime it could have its service totally blocked for all users in that country. The fact that Twitter has pledged to increase its transparency in dealing with takedown notices strengthens his argument. I agree with the author on this and find this an especially useful resource as it provides links to circumvent Twitter's technology in an effort to get around censors, and arguments that this new change could even allow the message of censored activists to be more powerful.
  • ...2 more comments...
  • Dean Strautins on 27 Mar 12
     
    Listen to how people can create thousands of unique Twitter accounts to manipulate the messages on Twitter http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/dont-trust-the-web/3725726 Therefore Twitter needs some rules.
  • Victoria Jobling on 09 Apr 12
     
    This article discusses Twitter's announcement that they can "censor tweets on a country-by-country basis" (Catone, 2012). This policy change initially received backlash online, as users did not understand how beneficial this could be for some activists. In comparison to other articles shared in the project, this news report is not of as great a value, however, it is still relevant to the topic and highlights the importance of sharing information with the world, rather than a local community. The significance of censoring on a country-by-country basis is that when a tweet or user is blocked in a specific country, like Egypt, people outside of Egypt can still view the blocked user and their tweets (Catone, 2012). Prior to the policy change, a censored user or tweet was blocked worldwide, meaning that people can still communicate with the rest of the world (Catone, 2012). This change is of great importance to political activists in many countries like Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, because it means that they can continue to update other nations of the latest circumstances and events. During the Arab Revolution, people captured photos and video footage, not just to show to their local community, but also to provide credible evidence to the outside world (Beaumont, 2011). Clearly, this highlights Twitter's support for protestors in developing or struggling nations, as they have provided an outlet for activists to reach and inform a wider audience. While this article was not as useful as others, it is relevant to the topic and appears to be a reliable source. It, quite simply, demonstrates the importance of being heard in an online environment. Reference: Beaumont, P. (2011, February 25). The Truth about Twitter, Facebook and the Uprisings in the Arab World. The Guardian. Retrieved April 9, 2012, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/25/twitter-facebook-uprisings-arab-libya?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487
  • Stephen R on 10 Apr 12
     
    This article is of relevance to my chosen topic (the Anonymous online activism group) as it deals with Twitter and the way oppressive governments seek to deal with it's collaborative and organisational power. Mansfield-Devine (2011) discusses how Anonymous use Twitter heavily as a method of collaboration during their activism operations. Though the article says otherwise, if Twitter's censorship were to inhibit this kind of collaboration this could affect the way in which Anonymous organises itself. The reliability of the source is reasonable. Mashable may be a somewhat sensationalist online news website at times, but this article in particular has many links within allowing one to see the sources behind various claims. The article is of considerable relevance to the topic of online movements as it deals with threats to online activism. Twitter itself is subject to pressure to silence of voices of dissension in certain rendering Twitter less useful for activism purposes. I found the article somewhat useful. It highlights that Twitter impervious to control and censorship. It also highlights that Twitter is a powerful tool for organising uprisings and political movements. This article is quite valuable to the overall collaborative resource development project as it is reasonably reliable, deals with the collaborative potential of Twitter and highlights some of the threats to online movements. Mansfield-Devine, Steve. 2011. "Anonymous: Serious threat or mere annoyance?" Network Security 1: 4-10. http://dx.doi.org.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/10.1016/S1353-4858(11)70004-6
  • jessica_mann on 11 Apr 12
     
    Prior to reading this article, I had not been aware of Twitter's new censorship policy related to each individual country. After reading the title of the article, I failed to see how censorship on Twitter could possibly be considered to be a good thing for activists so I was interested to see the writer's arguments. I definitely agree that Twitter's opting to censor certain tweets is the more desirable outcome than a whole country be denied access to the site. Twitter's approach to censorship, something that they don't seem to be able to avoid on some level, has been handled in the best way possible given the circumstances. I believe that transparency of the 'take down requests' has real potential to alleviate some of the frustration users may feel when they notice that something that was there yesterday is suddenly gone today. This method of publically displaying the reason why something has been removed seems to work well for YouTube in similar censorship cases, particularly in relation to copyright cease and desist claims.
Velia Torres

FreeBSD - A pioneer of online development practices - 10 views

Watson, R. (2006). How the FreeBSD Project Works. Retrieved on March 20, 2012 from http://www.watson.org/~robert/freebsd/2006eurobsdcon/eurobsdcon2006-howfreebsdworks.pdf This paper present...

FreeBSD OpenSource Wiki community developers JuryTheorem collaboration online quality Net308_508

started by Velia Torres on 24 Mar 12 no follow-up yet
Victoria Jobling

Protest 2.0: Online Interactions and Aboriginal Activists - 1 views

mcs.sagepub.com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/...923.full.pdf+html

Net308_508 collaboration organisation community social media political protest Facebook activism

shared by Victoria Jobling on 25 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Victoria Jobling on 25 Mar 12
     
    Petray, T.L. (2011). Protest 2.0: Online Interactions and Aboriginal Activists. Media, Culture and Society, 33(6), 923-940. Retrieved March 25, 2012, from Sage Journals Database. http://mcs.sagepub.com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/content/33/6/923.full.pdf+html This article conveys, that while it is necessary to utilize the tools made available by the digital age, they "should be used to enhance offline activism, rather than to replace it" (p.936). The author has studied an Aboriginal community in Townsville, and the difficulties that activists have faced in gaining momentum in a digital space. Unlike the young tech-savvy protestors in the Arab uprising, or the destructive youths in the London riots, the participants in this community are older and not comfortable with new technology. In this remote community, emails have been favoured when conveying information and organizing meetings online (p.927). However, this has caused difficulties in the disjointed fragmentation of messages, as well as, interfering with a culture that values visual storytelling over the written word (p.930; 927). Similar to, Climate Camp in the UK, the community may have benefited from using some Internet tools, however, face-to-face meetings were found to be more effective when collaborating and organising events. To further their presence online, the group created a Facebook page, allowing people to donate money and support them. However, the lack of success in gaining political momentum is linked to the participants and the current nature of online activism. Whilst the page can facilitate collaboration and organisation, it lost its momentum in the lack of group activity and recent updates (p.933). Due to the current nature of online activism, people can simply 'like' a page or sign a petition to show their support towards a cause, with little to no effort (p
  • samara hartnett on 06 Apr 12
     
    Whilst I totally agreed with the concluding points of this article I found it very hard to identify just which topic this article had the greatest relevance to. It is a reliable source as it is associated with the James Cook University and the author has positioned themselves within the community they are researching. I could draw similarities with one of my articles, Public Radio's Social Media Experiments: Risk, Opportunity, Challenge, (Levenshus, 2007) in that they both reference a resistance to social media opportunities. The reasons for this 'resistance' in both articles could be put down to a lack of knowledge, resource allocation and institutional culture or 'cultural explainations' (Petray, 2011, p. 927). The understanding that 'push-button activism' was more of a feeling of evolvement rather than the translation of any 'real participation', supports the articles offer of a resolution. Any negative ideals about cyber-activism are squashed by the simple resolution of combining offline infrastructures with the online and not just relying on either one. Overall I thought this article was a breath of fresh air. Whilst I realise that 'cyber-activism' has been in the spotlight a lot lately due to the Kony 2012 campaign, I was delighted to read an article that turns its attention to local activism. Aboriginal cultures have always maintained my interest and just recently I viewed the 'Tall Man' exhibition that dealt with the Palm Island death in custody referred to in the article. It had a profound affect on me. I also appreciate that preserving oral histories and the rite to communicate in ones own language has deeply embedded social issues within Australia. This is another reason why this articles direct referencing of Aboriginal activism is refreshing and of great value. Equal access to social technologies is so very important in closing the digital divide both globally and locally. As the article points out only '25%' of the globe have such access (P
  • samara hartnett on 07 Apr 12
     
    Reference: Levenshus, A. 2007. Public Radios Social Media Experiments: Risk, Opportunity, Challenge. Retrieved from http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/sites/default/files/public_radio_report3.pdf
Emily Lloyd

Resource 4: Collaboration in context: Comparing article evolution among subject discipl... - 4 views

www.uic.edu/...2034

Net308_508 Net508 Collaboration community Wikipedia wikis organisations Collaborative Resource Development Katherine Ehmann Andrew Large Jamshid Behesht article disciplines The Wisdom of Crowds Talk Pages coordination

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  • Emily Lloyd on 25 Mar 12
     
    In the article, Collaboration in context: Comparing article evolution among subject disciplines in Wikipedia, the writers Katherine Ehmann, Andrew Large and Jamshid Beheshti, compare a small selection of articles - some newly created, and some well-established - from three subject disciplines - the hard sciences, soft sciences and humanities - in order to examine the article quality, how it differs from discipline to discipline and if it changes over time (Ehmann, Large & Beheshti, 2008). One of the most interesting findings that was published in this article was that, contrary to previous research (Brandle, 2005; Dondio, et al., 2006; Lig, 2004; Stvilia, et al., 2005a, 2008; Wilkinson and Huberman, 2007), the articles used that had a greater number of edits than the others, were not the articles of the highest quality (Ehmann, Large & Beheshti, 2008). Wikipedia articles on average retained 90.3 percent of their original text and in general, only small edits were made over time (Ehmann, Large & Beheshti, 2008). I believe these new findings still support, 'the wisdom of crowds' theory though (Surowiecki, 2004, p. 5). Even though a large portion of the text remains from the original contributor, the small edits by other contributors over time, still help to fine-tune the article's meaning and readability. The authors' exploration into Wikipedia Talk pages is also of interest, especially how these places aided the collaboration and coordination process and how this in turn contributed to the quality of articles in Wikipedia (Ehmann, Large & Beheshti, 2008). While Ehmann, Large and Beheshti only studied a small number of articles, and another study is required which examines a larger number of articles, in order to make more conclusive findings, I think this article is still a useful resource (Ehmann, Large & Beheshti, 2008). It is constructive to compare this article's findings to the findings in the Rosenzweig article (Rosenzweig, 2006).
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  • Emily Lloyd on 25 Mar 12
     
    References Ehmann, K., Large, A., & Beheshti, J. (2008). Collaboration in context: Comparing article evolution among subject disciplines in Wikipedia. First Monday, 13(10). Retrieved from: http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewArticle/2217/2034 Rosenzweig, R. (2006). Can History Be Open Source? Wikipedia and the Future of the Past. The Journal of American History, 93, 117-146. Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org/ Surowiecki, J. (2004). The wisdom of crowds: Why the many are smarter than the few. New York, NY: Doubleday.
  • FARNAZ SHAMS on 08 Apr 12
     
    I think this article is interesting and pointed wisdom of crowd cannot bring high quality for Wikipedia's article. Talk pages are playing important role in Wikipedia, editors post their suggestion there and other active editors come and follow them or put other suggestion to make a more credible article (in Talk pages the most request belonged to the suggestion for editing and completeness had the less request followed by accuracy and accessibility) (Beheshti, Ehmann & Large, 2088). According to my own research, one of the important things, which mentions in talk pages is about sources of articles which can take a place as print resources, deep web resources external links and inexact references. Disagreement about content of articles is another important subject in Wikipedia and before an article edited, editors discuss in talk pages about adding controversial material or removing content, and then they get a decision to how edit the article. Talk pages may use to notify other users to know this article had recent edit or editors ask their questions there from other or they request for help. However, the author mentioned participation of contributors on different topics is different. There are many articles which have only one comment on their talk page and there is large number of articles who has various comment and suggestions on their talk page (Breslin, Passant & Schneider, 2010). Breslin, J, G., A, Passant. & Schneider, J. (2010). A content analysis: How Wikipedia talk pages are used. 7. Retrieved from http://journal.webscience.org/373/2/websci10_submission_80.pdf
  • michelangelo magasic on 08 Apr 12
     
    Collaboration in Context takes an in-depth view at the collaboration which produces Wikipedia pages. I was attracted to this resource in that I imagined it would assist me in understanding how users interacted in a organised context - ie. the mindsets of users collaborating on a specific, and, in the case of many Wikipedia pages, complex, task. Whilst the paper examines the development of pages from a 'contributor's' point of view, it does this through statistical interpretation of a set of data the authors assembled on page edits. The result is that the paper doesn't so much uncover the nuances of collaboration in an organisational setting, as relate the nuts and bolts of page editing. Perhaps, the mores of collaboration might be inferred from this reading of Wikipedia's collaborative process, though I found it difficult to see this in numbers rather than testimony from wikipedians themselves. What this paper does do is highlight the efficacy of 'talk pages' in the process of building of 'rich' Wikipedia entries. These forums provide the engine of collaboration on Wikipedia - users able to get together as a group to uncover the most efficient ways to combine their work - the paper concluding, "Talk pages - in addition to article edits themselves - provide wikipedians with a powerful means of shaping the presentation of knowledge. (chap.8)" This information is useful to me in the way I will be able to compare it to the, say, simpler, and more spontaneous collaboration of strangers in bittorrent which does not require a 'talk page'. What I would have liked to have known is how the 'talk' on these pages allowed networks of 'equal' users to perfect articles on complex topics, and what the users themselves thought of the arrangement.
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