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Samantha Gilham

Call for Papers - SocInfo 2012 - 0 views

www.socinfo2012.com/call-for-papers

papers projecttopic social informatics

shared by Samantha Gilham on 05 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • Computational models of social phenomena, social simulation Social choice mechanisms in the e-society Social networks: discovery, evolution, analysis, applications Social Behavior Modeling Web mining and its social interpretations Social Influence and Diffusion Models of Social Influence Security, privacy, trust, reputation and incentive issues Social Communities and Social Network Analysis Design and analysis of social/collaborative Web applications Social Interactions and Collaboration Algorithms and protocols inspired by human societies Socio-economic Systems and Applications Mechanisms for providing fairness in information systems Virtual communities (e.g., open-source, multiplayer gaming) Impact of technology on socio-economic Recommendation systems Visualization of dynamic social networks Social applications of the Semantic Web Social Informatics Theory Social system design and architectures Trust, Privacy, Risk and Security in Social Contexts Social Intelligence and Social Cognition Social media analytics and social media intelligence Emotional Intelligence and Data Mining
  • Samantha Gilham on 05 Jun 12
     
    Page shared by another classmate, topics page may be a good brainstorming page to think of project topics/focus
Jennifer Bradley

FarmVille: The Garden in the Machine | In Media Res - 4 views

mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/...farmville-garden-machine

Social Informatics social media networking gift economy online community

shared by Jennifer Bradley on 04 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • Jennifer Bradley on 04 Jun 12
     
    Here's an interesting article about the social mechanics of Farmville and how it mimics the ideals of "gift economy" often demonstrated by non-western, "primitive" cultures, such as those of native Papua New Guineans.
  • ...9 more comments...
  • Jennifer Bradley on 04 Jun 12
     
    The in-text link to the article: " The High-Tech Gift Economy" is also worth a read. It compares the proliferation of shareware and open source software to the political movement of anarcho-communism.
  • Meaghan Corbett on 04 Jun 12
     
    Oh dear. I wasted many an hour on Farmville back when it was big...way more than I'd like to admit. That's a neat connection between the digital farm and the real world--and how people's obsession over the game (though I don't know if it's still the case...I deactivated my Farm because it was, well, eating up my entire life!) speaks to something deeper, like the desire for community.
  • Anton Angelo on 04 Jun 12
     
    There are some failures in the analysis made in the "High Tech Gift Economy". Thinking that the internet was created by the military is a bit of a canard: in my opinion it was the most inventive misuse of military money by a university. Also there is a conception that the 'net runs on the love of pixies and nerds, where in reality it runs on commercial networks successfully making money. I'd much prefer pixie net, but it just ain't so :(
  • Jorge Arganza on 04 Jun 12
     
    I remember playing farmville and cafeville for a few months. They were catchy, but I felt they were a bit off. The idea of being chained to the computer so my crops would not spoil or my food would not overcook was draining, so I finally gave them up. Plus, the more I read about Zygna, the less I liked them as a company. Here is an blog post about how farmville and the like induce anxiety by design. http://consumerist.com/2010/12/game-developer-says-farmville-is-designed-to-be-negative-and-draining.html
  • Anton Angelo on 04 Jun 12
     
    That's really interesting Jorge: I used to play civilization, but it doesn't help me relax, it just winds me up for hours, in much the same way. Then I discovered Osmos, and have a game that actually feels calm and meditative, bizarrely enough. I had enough of those damn smirking pigs, that's for sure: no wonder the birds are angry.
  • Natalie DeAngelo on 04 Jun 12
     
    I never got into Farmville myself, but I do remember my news feed on Facebook being overrun with notifications that friends wanted to share their crops and farm animals with me. I got the feeling there was a mob mentality to the game and I was personally turned off by the idea of buying into a product simply because many of my friends did so. The game shows how much our lives can be affected by technology when a "game" dictates how we schedule much of our time just to ensure our imaginary crops don't wither before we can harvest them.
  • Jorge Arganza on 04 Jun 12
     
    Anton, I agree, Civ would keep me up for hours and hours, but I would argue that Civ is different from the farmville model because it is not oriented towards a repetitive (and time based) requirement that one has to come back to the computer a certain time later to click on stuff. Even the social aspect of farmville is a kind of pressure to get more friends into the game just to unlock more stuff, rather than to share in a community effort or a competition.
  • Lilia p on 05 Jun 12
     
    You should definitely look at Jesse Schell's lecture (I think maybe next week?) I put it as optional but do take a look.
  • Carrie Pyne on 05 Jun 12
     
    I do not understand the appeal of Farmville or any other of the 'games' on FB. I guess I also don't understand some people's obsession with their FB or Twitter accounts. If I want to keep in touch with my friends and family, I text or phone them directly - I feel more connected by having direct interactions with them versus reading their wall or sending them a 'gift' for their fake farm. I feel relieved that I no longer have a FB account, and stay in close contact with those people that I really want to keep in contact with. I don't think the 'social' aspect of FB is a substitute for F2F interactions with people you actually like instead of Like.
  • Jennifer Bradley on 05 Jun 12
     
    Jorge, that's an interesting blog post, and does point out one of the big reasons why I stopped playing. It was fun for a bit, watching my crops grow, and even uplifting when my facebook friends helped out my crops or sent me gifts without my ever asking, but the planting schedules and need for "x" amount of friends in order to expand made it get old pretty quickly. And I refused to spend real money it.
  • jcinthelibrary on 06 Jun 12
     
    I am sadly one of the people who is currently in the middle of an obsession with a Facebook game. I was able to get away without ever touching Farmville but then they introduced a Hunger Games-based Facebook game... which is basically Farmville with Hunger Games characters. So, yeah, I know how many hours can be wasted on such games. It's really sad; I try to keep my feed as free from my posts about it as possible for my friends' sakes. I remember there was an article in the NYT a while ago about the fact that these games can be just as much of an addiction as more nefarious-seeming things. I didn't think it was possible but then again... I've also spent quite a lot of time collecting hundreds of items that I will probably never use for a mediocre game. :(
Ronald Jay Gervacio

Inside Social Games - Tracking Innovation at the Convergence of Games and Social Platforms - 1 views

www.insidesocialgames.com

Social Gaming Gaming Blog Social Media

shared by Ronald Jay Gervacio on 06 Jun 12 - Cached
  • Ronald Jay Gervacio on 06 Jun 12
     
    An inside scoop in the social gaming industry, including all the latest news, game releases and studies.
Ronald Jay Gervacio

How Facebook is ruining sharing - 5 views

news.cnet.com/...ow-facebook-is-ruining-sharing

Social Intelligence Facebook Frictionless Sharing Open Graph

shared by Ronald Jay Gervacio on 05 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • goal of the initiative is to quantify just about everything you do on Facebook
  • turning out to be really annoying in practice
  • it's killing the possibility of viral hits by generating such an overwhelming flood of mundane shares
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Sharing is the key to social networking
  • hurting sharing is a disaster for a social network
  • Sharing and recommendation shouldn't be passive
  • Frictionless sharing via Open Graph recasts Facebook's basic purpose
  • Ronald Jay Gervacio on 05 Jun 12
     
    This article discusses about the negative impact of Facebook's Open Graph (frictionless sharing") in the world of social networking. It gets really annoying when someone would share an article/news/video etc, the user would first have to install an app into their profile!
  • ...8 more comments...
  • Jorge Arganza on 05 Jun 12
     
    RJ, this is a great article. I had noticed those 'trending articles' and spotify things on my facebook page, and I have been avoiding the opt-in's but I wasn't aware of what was going on. This article explains it well.
  • Ronald Jay Gervacio on 05 Jun 12
     
    I know right.. me too! I usually have to circumvent the process in order to avoid installing the apps. I would go straight to the website where the news/article is posted instead of clicking the link directly from Facebook.
  • Pamela Hawks on 05 Jun 12
     
    Yes, thank you. I was treating all those "trending articles" like spam. These types of posts have been a recent annoyance with my FB (I've been on since 2007), and I was starting to get the nagging feeling that FB was going to be slowly taken over by information not related to your chosen friends group. I was envisioning having to weed through pages of passive posts to get to your real information. Would this not be the death knell of the service?
  • Meaghan Corbett on 05 Jun 12
     
    I'm not a fan of the news sites social readers; most of my network uses the Washington Post one and Yahoo. At first I thought it was cool, but then I got weirded out at the thought of my network being able to "see" what I'm reading at any given time. What if someone made assumptions about me based on what I was reading at any given time? I really wish Google Plus would take off...the only reason I, and I suspect a lot of other people, are holding fast to Facebook is that our friend networks aren't making the switch...and what's the point of being in a social networking site if you're the only person there?
  • Samantha Gilham on 05 Jun 12
     
    I really liked the quote "sharing is the key to social networking" and it shouldn't be passive, but not aggressive either. Oversharing becomes a problem where soon newsfeeds are clogged with a million stories and recommendations. Like others above, I'm immediately turned off when I go to read an article and have to download an app first, it's frustrating when clicking an article becomes a long-winded process. @Meaghan I was also a huge proponent of Google + at first, was one of the only people who originally had it, waited for it to catch popularity, but here it's almost a year later and I still haven't gained any new friends. I wonder what the hesitancy is behind not using Google+. It's interesting to think about the decision and thought processes social media users go through when deciding what forums to use or not use, why do some people actively use Facebook, but not Twitter? I'm guessing theories such as media richness (lean vs rich messages) and other factors come into play, as well as ease of use.
  • Amanda Jacobsen on 05 Jun 12
     
    I have to say I've never heard of Google +, and have often thought about shutting down my facebook account for good...I wont do Twitter. What does that mean for me as a MLIS major I often thought? Should I be more "plugged in"? I'm becoming nostalgic about old means of communication (letters, books, even phone calls) This is also troubling because I feel that the new open graph is very overwhelming, have have clicked on links and then shut them right back down, because you must enable MORE links, apps, programs, all wanting to get my inforamtion. It's also scary that facebook is becoming a necessity, rather than just a fun social networking site. My old high school depends on it to contact us for reunions, my aunt uses it as her main way of contacting me, and its often the only way I'll ever see those photos my sister took at the beach! We've Created a Monster! Keeping it a simple model would be preferable.
  • Samantha Gilham on 05 Jun 12
     
    Great points Amanda. On the other side, I would say forums like Facebook has allowed us to keep in contact with those we wouldn't normally have access to, or find those we wish to contact but can't find in just the yellow pages. I agree there are times when I wish someone would pick up the phone and just call instead of trying to have a text conversation or email conversation. However in terms of using Facebook and other e-vite sites/modes, sometimes it is the cheapest and easiest mode to send out a mass message i.e. school reunion invite, in as little time and for as little money as possible. Also you can get real-time RSVP, which I'm guessing from the views of the event administrator can be super helpful when trying to get an idea of attendees. I do also feel nostalgic about old means of communication and often wonder how people will communicate in the future, what communication choices they will make, etc.
  • Anton Angelo on 05 Jun 12
     
    I found Open Graph for the first time writing an report for Library School on my favourite site, Board Game Geek (boradgamegeek.com). It's kinda worrying, in the same way thrid party cookies worry me: it a use of technology that can be used for good that could be so easily subverted. That would make a good project, I reckon.
  • Brian Peters on 05 Jun 12
     
    People shouldn't be that surprised that a company that just went public with great fanfare is looking to monetize every single possibility it can. Like Samantha says, Facebook is a great, inexpensive tool for keeping in touch with old friends as well as meeting new friends. Just like with Gmail ads that are based on the contents of the user's emails, there is a price to pay for these 'free' services. As consumers of these services, we all have to decide at what point has the commodification of our private lives gone too far.
  • Amanda Jacobsen on 06 Jun 12
     
    Brian, I think you really sumed it up when you said "As consumers of these services, we all have to decide at what point has the commodification of our private lives gone too far." This hits home with me because I've been feeling that way lately. Ever since my son was born, and everybody wants pics of him up on facebook, I've been thinking worried, and wondering if it's worth it? How exposed do I want my newborn son to be?
Natalie DeAngelo

MMOs and a second (or third...) identity on the web - 2 views

us.battle.net/en

shared by Natalie DeAngelo on 04 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • Natalie DeAngelo on 04 Jun 12
     
    I have never played WoW, but I do enjoy the idea of playing a game while simultaneously adopting or constructing a new persona or identity as part of the game. WoW and other online MMOs have vast communities with diverse members interacting in various online social setting both within and outside the game realm. I have a particular interest in the way that social media and technology shapes and affects the construction or reconstruction of "our" identities, and how intertwined much of our lives are with the technology we use.
  • ...2 more comments...
  • Amanda Bailey on 05 Jun 12
     
    When thinking about how technology molds our own identities, it is intriguing then to consider how it helps us create these secondary or multiple identities for MMO's and RPG's. I feel we could even take this one step farther to the relationship between technology, the internet and fandom, where online communities created and populated by fans of a certain artifact create, in a sense, a whole new world to inhabit.
  • Ronald Jay Gervacio on 05 Jun 12
     
    @Natalie: Have you tried playing The Sims (http://thesims.com/en_us/what-is-the-sims)? This game is a perfect example of what you're trying to achieve, "playing a game while simultaneously adopting or constructing a new persona or identity as part of the game".
  • Meaghan Corbett on 05 Jun 12
     
    I've never played WOW either but I do buy into the whole idea of an online identity. Non-gamers create one, too, by way of social networking sites--LinkedIn, facebook, Myspace--and some via usernames on online messageboards. It's possible to have several different online identities; the clean and presentable one you use to promote yourself to employers and work colleagues on LinkedIn, the slightly more laid-back Facebook profile, and with the promise of anonymity on message boards and forums, you can really let loose!
  • Britt Johnson on 05 Jun 12
     
    My husband and I have spent hours upon hours playing Everquest, so I know first-hand the draw of creating an online persona/identity. It's a way to step out of your everyday life and become someone or something you aren't. For instance, in one game I'm a Dark Fairy with magical powers. Who wouldn't want to be one? It's also a way to have relationships with people all over the planet without giving too much away about your true identity, so the draw for those that are less than comfortable in real-life situations is huge. Not to mention you learn all kinds of things about different areas of the world, so it's a learning experience too!
Maranda Ward

SocInfo 2012 - 3 views

www.socinfo2012.com

Social Informatics ICT Conference SocInfo

shared by Maranda Ward on 05 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • The 4th International Conference on Social Informatics, 5–7 December 2012
    • Maranda Ward
      Maranda Ward on 05 Jun 12
       
      It might be worthwhile to review the previous conference abstracts/programs, as there might be more literature on these topics since they are from a year or two ago.
    • Maranda Ward
      Maranda Ward on 05 Jun 12
       
      The topics link provides a list of the topics being covered at the conference. Might be worth exploring for terms to use in searching in Google, or for possible final project topics.
  • Maranda Ward on 05 Jun 12
     
    Hey guys, Found this conference on Social informatics. Has some interesting topics for the conference. Maranda
  • ...1 more comment...
  • Ronald Jay Gervacio on 05 Jun 12
     
    Thanks for the link! I found an interesting potential topic for my final project: Social Gaming!
  • Samantha Gilham on 05 Jun 12
     
    Thanks Maranda, found this super helpful!
  • Karen Carter on 09 Jun 12
     
    Yes, I find it really useful to look at the past conference programs to see the hottest topics.
Britt Johnson

Violent Video Games: A Social Informatics Perspective - 1 views

www.youtube.com/watch

video games social informatics research violence

shared by Britt Johnson on 07 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • Britt Johnson on 07 Jun 12
     
    A thoughtful video about how society blames violence on video games, ironically from a Rutgers student!
Jennifer Bradley

Duolingo Wants To Translate The Internet By Helping You Learn Another Language | WebPro... - 2 views

www.webpronews.com/learn-another-language-2011-11

social informatics online community networking barter translation

shared by Jennifer Bradley on 05 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • Jennifer Bradley on 05 Jun 12
     
    Duolingo's premise is quite simple. How do you get people to translate the web for free? Their answer is to turn it into an experience that is part game, part language instruction, and all ambitious crowdsourcing.
  • Anton Angelo on 06 Jun 12
     
    I have a friend who wangled an invitation to Duolingo, and she loves it. If I wasn't at library school, and had a life, I'd play with it too. Here's a TED talk about Duolingo and CAPTCHA http://www.ted.com/talks/luis_von_ahn_massive_scale_online_collaboration.html
  • Jennifer Bradley on 07 Jun 12
     
    Yeah, I managed to get on the program. It's fun; feels like I'm playing a game.
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