I think you should start by reading both Wikinomics and Everything Is MIscellaneous, then go from there. Obviously it´s impossible to know what your project will look like at the end, or even a month from now. I am assuming you will be working with some deadlines, but that doesn´t mean the project can´t evolve. If I were you I would look into the fragmentation of the internet. I would look into identity, identity 2.0, open id efforts etc. as a means to combat fragmentation. I would look into the semantic web and the efforts being made toward that end. I would look into hierarchical tagging. I would look into the widgetization of the web, and by that I specifically mean the interoperability and interconnectedness of services and tools via open APIs and user creativity. The fact that we are increasingly able to build on existing platforms to create new platforms and new services. Just as all this is building on ones and zeros.

Of course all this is dependent upon use. Who is using what? Is the web that important? Quite frankly, I think this issue is up in the air. When I look around the world I see millions using this stuff, but when I look around Manhattan, KS, I see just a handful. Perhaps there are more important things to be doing with our time? (that could be a research project in itself)

Just as your focus was on YouTube, I think there is a whole project to be done on Facebook as one web service that has seen widespread use and popularity (specifically in Manhattan, KS). Why do people use it? What sorts of good and bad things is it producing?




abo46n2 wrote:
> I'm doing an independent study this semester and am looking for ideas for a research topic. I'd like to focus on something that others could benefit from, so is there anything that anyone has been dying to know more about? Maybe I'd be interested too.
>
> I've thought about researching ajax and the web 2.0 environment since I seem to talk about it a lot but I still don't have an absolutely precise idea what it is. I figure, since I have to apply some sort of anthropological theory to my research, that the web 2.0 environment (whatever that is) is a social phenomenon created for whatever reason that has the ability to transform culture in a variety of ways. I could explore ideas of identity, diversity, homogenization, globalization, cosmopolitanism, the list goes on. Broad, I know. Any ideas?

Library:

https://catalog.lib.ksu.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&SL=none&Search_Arg=wikinomics&SL=None&Search_Code=TALL&CNT=50
https://catalog.lib.ksu.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&SL=none&Search_Arg=everything+is+miscellaneous&SL=None&Search_Code=TALL&CNT=50

abo46n2 wrote:
> Did you purchase those books or are they from the library? I think I'd like to read wikinomics first.
>
>
>
> kjc6688 wrote:
> > I think you should start by reading both Wikinomics and Everything Is MIscellaneous, then go from there. Obviously it´s impossible to know what your project will look like at the end, or even a month from now. I am assuming you will be working with some deadlines, but that doesn´t mean the project can´t evolve. If I were you I would look into the fragmentation of the internet. I would look into identity, identity 2.0, open id efforts etc. as a means to combat fragmentation. I would look into the semantic web and the efforts being made toward that end. I would look into hierarchical tagging. I would look into the widgetization of the web, and by that I specifically mean the interoperability and interconnectedness of services and tools via open APIs and user creativity. The fact that we are increasingly able to build on existing platforms to create new platforms and new services. Just as all this is building on ones and zeros.
> >
> > Of course all this is dependent upon use. Who is using what? Is the web that important? Quite frankly, I think this issue is up in the air. When I look around the world I see millions using this stuff, but when I look around Manhattan, KS, I see just a handful. Perhaps there are more important things to be doing with our time? (that could be a research project in itself)
> >
> > Just as your focus was on YouTube, I think there is a whole project to be done on Facebook as one web service that has seen widespread use and popularity (specifically in Manhattan, KS). Why do people use it? What sorts of good and bad things is it producing?
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > abo46n2 wrote:
> > > I'm doing an independent study this semester and am looking for ideas for a research topic. I'd like to focus on something that others could benefit from, so is there anything that anyone has been dying to know more about? Maybe I'd be interested too.
> > >
> > > I've thought about researching ajax and the web 2.0 environment since I seem to talk about it a lot but I still don't have an absolutely precise idea what it is. I figure, since I have to apply some sort of anthropological theory to my research, that the web 2.0 environment (whatever that is) is a social phenomenon created for whatever reason that has the ability to transform culture in a variety of ways. I could explore ideas of identity, diversity, homogenization, globalization, cosmopolitanism, the list goes on. Broad, I know. Any ideas?

Yeah, I don´t like that either. I think partially it is designed that way so that you can reply to any post on in the thread of the forum, rather than just being able to reply to the most recent. This way each thread could potentially have multiple conversations going on in a non-linear weblike way. I think they could do a lot better on the aesthetics of this forum.

As with anything though, you can just hack it. When replying you have the option to modify the existing text. As you will notice, this post has no back-posts.

One of my big gripes is that they don´t have feeds for each thread. This means that the only way I know conversations are going on is by checking the actual forum or getting emails. Neither options I particularly like.

If you know of anyone else who should be invited to this group, respond here.

This is really a test to check out the forum and get it started.

However, I have spent the last two years of my life thinking about community, so I might as well offer up some thoughts.

So... community

I think we lack it
I think what we do have of it is incredibly fragmented
I think the web offers very intriguing examples of it
but those examples are modeled after the "real" world
in the "real" world I think it is incredibly fragmented
everywhere I find it, everywhere it is specialized
I want less specialization, less fragmentation, more meaning
I think I need community
I think the internet can help
if we/it do it right
I get online to commune with people
with people I know
with people I can meet and talk to face to face also

Why do you get online? (not so different from why do youtube?)
What do you think of community?
What is community?

BTW, we may end up renaming the Quorum online to, "Adam and Kevin talking online cause they're the ones who will actually use the stuff"

The idea would be to Create community. Not community online. The online part is just a potential enhancement. One that does not currently exist here, and perhaps in very few places. The online part can be a lubricant keeping the community machine running. My idea of community online and in the real world has one strong delimiting factor, physical location. To extend real life conversations in an online environment holds real potential in my mind. It extends the possibilities to a new medium, and thus a transformation of message, not too dissimilar from the difference between talking to someone on the phone and writing them a letter. Different medium, different message, both with benefits and both with drawbacks.

The whole idea is to make online much less about information and much more about connection. About using the information to get more connected. Inherent to getting more connected is the constant dialectic and fluidity of the question of identity and search for identity. There is no greater or more primary concern to us than identity. The possibilities of the online environment allow for an intense experience of the quest for identity.

The key to all my thoughts are not now, in the future. Not what is going on now, but possibilities for what could be going on. Not what we can think of, but what we have not yet thought of. I currently don´t find any sense of community online, but I imagine the potential. All my attempts are to try to inspire myself and others to create it. All my attempts are failures in that regard. The internet, like identity, like the world, are what we create it to be. Why not take this opportunity that no one has every had before in the annals of history to try to take it in some amazing direction? The tools are here, and simultaneously are coming; are you up for the challenge? We didn´t choose where we live or what we have available to us. Afro Reggae is not talking about internet movements and enhancing online interfaces. But put them in our shoes, and maybe they would be.