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Jorge Arganza

Google - 2 views

shared by Jorge Arganza on 05 Jun 12 - Cached
Britt Johnson

Just for fun - 1 views

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    How to understand and communicate social informatics
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    this is not bad!!
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    Cool, we're already doing almost all of these! I'm always in favor of step by step instructions.
Ronald Jay Gervacio

Is texting ruining the art of conversation? - 8 views

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    An example of the negative impact that technology can cause. Personal face-to-face conversation is becoming less meaningful because of texting.
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    Great article! I have a younger sister who is 15 and I constantly worry about her possible future inability to carry ftf conversations, conduct herself professionally in job interviews and in the classroom. I find we never talk via the phone but always via text. However, when you spend most of a workday on the phone or on conference calls, sometimes text provides an alternate way to communicate quickly with others.
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    I think texting is a valuable form of communication under certain circumstances, however, like you said, it should only serve as "an alternate way to communicate quickly with others". It shouldn't be the other way around!
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    Perhaps it's not so bad anymore, but I have friend who's an associate professor that teaches writing classes. And in the past five years, he's had to grade papers where the student's literally used texting jargon/leet speak in their writing.
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    This is something that I've been wondering about since texting became so ubiquitous. At first it was a novelty, then something to do for a quick conversation, and now it's moved into full dialogues between people. I, too, wonder about the future generations and the impact this can have on their grasp of grammar. This is the same problem that I have with more and more people moving to telecommuting (even though I do it myself). When is it just TOO much?
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    I worked on a university IT helpdesk for years, and we used to get emails written in text-speak, but then teachers cottoned on to the fact they needed to teach "how to write an email", rather than "how to write a busines letter", and I haven't seen a text-speak email for years. In fact, those that do text me in text speak tend to be older now, as they have not grasped predictive texting!
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    @Anton I think that's a great point, I think now more than ever "how to write an email" seems to be an art form and one people know very little about. It seems like such a stupid and easy thing but I see more than my fair share of awful emails and lack of email etiquette. While I'm not downplaying the importance of writing a great critical paper, essay, letter, etc. I think how to write in new media would be something worth spending some time on with students.
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    @Samantha I agree with your ideas on email etiquette! I've seen many an email message blasting someone in rude and nasty ways that you would never use in person. It's too easy to reply via email or on social media sites in the heat of the moment and forget all courtesy - the online community is too removed from the personal so it doesn't feel real so there won't be real consequences for such harsh words.
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    It seems that texting allows for more shallow conversations; speaking in person or on the phone would definitely be a more meaningful conversation. I think texting has its place, but it should not be a substitute for good communication with others.
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    I think you all brought up a good point! Overall, whether we communicate via texting, email, face-to-face, snail mail (does anyone still do this? lol) etc. we need to acknowledge that each of them has its advantages and disadvantages. It's our responsibility as users on how we can utilize them ethically and not be dragged by social mishaps.
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    @RJ, I agree with what you've said. Texting has its place, and its purpose; it's really its own fascinating type of language, in a way. It's not analogous to business or conversational English (or insert your language here, as I'm sure this is done all over the world!), and shouldn't replace those modes of communicating, but it does have its proper time and place. It's up to schools to teach students how to communicate effectively in writing, according to what's required in higher education and the workplace. Language is constantly evolving, adding some elements and dropping others. Some words, phrases, and grammatical structures grow obsolete over time, and others emerge to take their place. English, in particular, is known for absorbing other languages' words with ease and adding them to the lexicon. I once read a sci fi novel set hundreds of years in the future in which the characters were purportedly speaking English, as the main character (who was from hundreds of years in the past) recognized it, but it sounded as foreign to him as Middle English would to a modern day speaker. Maybe standard English will always have its place as the preferred and proper mode of communication...or maybe we'll end up with something else entirely, as the digital era marches on!
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    @Meaghan: ooh, them's fighting words! I like to wind stauch grammerians up with the phrase, "Oh, standardised spelling is a Victorian affectation". People even changed the way they spelled their names from time to time. I love the way language evolves. Or at least I did, until young people started spoiling it all, by changing it again after my generation got it right! aa
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    @Anton: LOL! I agree. but find myself in that texting mess. I remember a few years ago, Meghan, that there was a huge backlash against ebonics. Similar to the texting situation now, but culturally different. It is amazing how language, through media, has just exploded with new concepts. When we talk about digital divide, perhaps we should talk about language. I mean, if I told my father to "google" something he'd think I was crazy. We have words now that simply mean things that certain people "get" while other don't. Not sure what that means.
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    @Anton, sometimes I want to eat my phone because of it's predictive texting feature. It'll incorrectly "predict" the word while I'm still typing, and by the time I press "enter" it's already got it lined up to be inputted instead.
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    @Jennifer - check out www.damnyouautocorrect.com
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    I think it is really interesting how we have managed to turn typos and autocorrect changes into a silly pasttime and part of our everyday vernacular. Similar to how we have now managed to turn "Google" into a verb! Sites like DamnYouAutoCorrect allow people to bond and relate over technological glitches and commiserating over embarassing text mishaps.
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    These are great points here...I sometimes think that more attention needs to be paid to email (and texting) etiquette than even in person. When you've made a verbal misstep, perhaps offended or confused someone, in person, you can see their body language and offer an immediate response to right the situation. Online communications are more of a landmine because you don't know how someone is reading and interpreting something, and you have to wait for more information to proceed (and there could be any number of unknown factors that influence the receipt of that new information...dead phone or wi-fi down, anyone?). If I had a nickel for every friend of mine who has called me to help them figure out what a text or email might mean or how (or if) they should respond to one thing or another, I'd be a rich girl. I spend so much time unpacking the drama that unfolds in an online communication, I feel as if I'm getting a professional credential. Hmm.....
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    My question for Karen is would people approach a guy to ask how to respond to a text, or is this just part of women's conversation with each other? Jane Austen style stuff. I have said to younger people how lucky they are, whe I wanted to ask a girl out on a date when I was 15, I had to ring her up, or (shudder) ask in person. Now all you have to do is text. The responses I've had have been really interesting about the etiquette of getting the girl's number, then the dialogue that goes on behind the scenes once the invitation is made (as the response does not have to be immediate). It all sounds even more traumatic. I'm also told that ringing someone with a voice call is now regarded as quite rude here, if you don't text first to ask if someone is available. aa
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    Ha, good point Angelo, I don't know if it is the same for men (though as I think of it, I have had male friends ask me the same questions, but perhaps they don't ask each other), but you're right that texting has somehow become the way to court. As you may be able to tell by my use of the word "court", I'm not really of the younger set, so it seems even crazier to me that in my world somehow this has become the norm. It always seems like an awful lot more work than just using the phone. That's amazing that placing a call would be thought of as rude now...I can't even wrap my head around it all sometimes.
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    Even more than the phone call being rude, I heard a teen telling someone about a job interview they had where they were astounded how the interviewer was asking them questions and looking them in the eye! Would she rather they texted her the questions? Maybe, but I find it hard to believe that no one else in her life looks her in the eye.
Kerianne Cassidy

Facebook Users Who Are Under Age Raise Concerns - 1 views

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    Across the nation, millions of young people are lying about their ages so they can create accounts on popular sites like Facebook and Myspace. These sites require users to be 13 or older, to avoid federal regulations that apply to sites with younger members.
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    Across the nation, millions of young people are lying about their ages so they can create accounts on popular sites like Facebook and Myspace. These sites require users to be 13 or older, to avoid federal regulations that apply to sites with younger members.
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    The pros and cons of young people using social networking sites took on a whole new meaning for me (and this is news item was about 13-17 year olds -- not younger) when I saw this article in today's NYT: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/12/after-rapes-involving-children-skout-a-flirting-app-faces-crisis/?ref=todayspaper Yikes.
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    This is all very scary, my nephew is 11, but has had a facebook account for almost 2 years. Granted he is only friends with kids in his school, and family members, but he is so computer savvy, I not sure my sister can really know who he is talking to. I don't know what kind of families his friends come from, and if he is allowing contact from "friends of friends". When Wiklund said "This is my worst fear." he is not being over-dramatic; it's appalling that people seek out ways to abuse materials to get to children. It is going to have to fall on the shoulders of parents, to really know what their children are up to at all times. This is sad because you can't just let a kid go out a ride their bike all day, all around town, like I used to, however this also means that they're spending more time indoors, and on the computer, which we know is also not safe....it seems like there is not right answer for parents.
Kerianne Cassidy

For Children, a Social Network With Training Wheels - 2 views

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    A social networking site for kids under 10 developed by a concerned parent.
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    Interesting -- I wasn't too keen on the business model, but it doesn't seem to matter because it appears the site is no longer in service. When you go to its homepage it redirects you to other "family-friendly" sites like Club Penguin and Disney social networks. So goes life on the wild, wooly web... :)
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    This is a very interesting idea.. At first I thought that maybe the idea of preselected phrases were a bit much, but then I really thought about the goal of teaching children how to be social in an accountable way. My nephew wanted a facebook page when he was 7, and was on my sisters site all the time. It's natural for children to want to be a part of what is happening socially around them, because as a species we are social; it's not practical to expect children not to partake in these activities.
Karen Carter

Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking - 3 views

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    Sorry if this has been posted already...I looked but didn't catch it if so. Described as a "Journal for understanding the social and psychological impact of today's social networking practices." More than a few interesting articles here, some with full text access.
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    I hope that we can access this journal through the RUL databases because there are number of interesting looking articles that we can't access - particularly those about regulation and others about creativity. The March issue seemed to have a number of articles about online gamers that I definitely want to read now.
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    Agreed, very interesting. Also found another journal from this publisher, Telemedicine and e-Health with some intriguing articles.
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    Kerianne, I ran a search and did find several articles from this journal in RUL. Also found a journal called Ethics and Information Technology that had some relevant articles. Carrie, your journal sounds interesting as well.
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    Yes -- good find. I did find a really good article on facebook users and political participation in the 2008 election in this journal. Good to know that RUL has it.
Jorge Arganza

Home | digitalliteracy.gov - 0 views

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    A government site that provides resources for educators who are teaching digital literacy skills.
Maranda Ward

SocInfo 2012 - 3 views

  • The 4th International Conference on Social Informatics, 5–7 December 2012
    • Maranda Ward
       
      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
       
      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.
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    Hey guys, Found this conference on Social informatics. Has some interesting topics for the conference. Maranda
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    Thanks for the link! I found an interesting potential topic for my final project: Social Gaming!
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    Thanks Maranda, found this super helpful!
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    Yes, I find it really useful to look at the past conference programs to see the hottest topics.
Jennifer Bradley

IdeaConnection: Open Innovation success story: Apps for Africa - 1 views

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    Mobile phones are becoming more and more numerous across the African continent. I found out about this competition a year or two ago, and thought it was really neat because it shows innovators designing unique apps to help solve social problems within their communities.
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    This is a really cool find...I volunteered with the Lubuto Library Project (http://www.lubuto.org) and there are some amazing things being done in and for Africa, as this article highlights. I also hadn't heard of Hilary Clinton's Civil Society 2.0 initiative...I'm interested to explore more about that to see what other sorts of work is developing.
Natalie DeAngelo

NASA - NASA Hosts Teleconference About Rover En Route To Mars Landing - 1 views

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    NASA Hosts Teleconference About Rover En Route To Mars Landing WASHINGTON -- NASA will host a media teleconference at noon EDT, June 11, to provide a status update on the Aug. 5, 2012, landing of the most advanced rover ever to be sent to Mars. Just something interesting about the far-reaching capabilities of technology and how we rely on and interact very closely with the technology we create.
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    Natalie, I really think this is interesting, and thanks for posting it in time that we can actually tune in! Ever since I took an Astronomy class as an undergrad I've loved learning as much as I can about everything cosmic.
Samantha Gilham

America at the Digital Turning Point - 6 views

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    Stumbled upon this report, published January 2012, from the USC Annenberg School of Comm. Some great statistics and information about the users and non-users of technology and the Internet.
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    What you will find is that there are many centers doing research on the impact of social/digital media, and they are very good resources for primary info
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    I should, however, note that I would like to know more about their survey and how they administered it. From a methods point of view it's always a good practice to learn more.
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    "online behavior changes relentlessly, and users and nonusers develop attitudes and actions that are constantly in flux as technology emerges, and then thrives or withers." This really reminds me of a documentary I watched on trends (mainly youth) and how things changed so often that they were unsure if the media or the children that were really setting the trends. As new trends "emerge" others "wither". Out internet behaviors seems to follow the same patterns as all our other social patterns.
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    This is a really interesting report...it left me with even more questions, though.Particularly interested in the finding that social media had limited credibility among the study participants despite increased use. I wondered what the definition of credibility was in this case...I had before not thought of FB as credible or not credible, unless this is somehow tied to privacy issues.
Pamela Hawks

Seeing Beyond The Mass "Consensual Hallucination." | Media Working Group - 1 views

  • Adam Curtis’ new documentary, All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace, gives hope that at least some of the world is waking up from the mass hallucination of disembodied information. The documentary, which is subtitled, “The Rise of the Machines,” explores how in the later part of the 20th Century, and the first decade of the 21st, much of the world became organized around the old gnostic fantasy that information or souls can be separated from the constraints of the material world, becoming free to circulate through time and space. This way of seeing the world has always unleashed powerful fantasies of power among the powerful. And it has recently led some to the ludicrous conclusion that, “information wants to be free,” or that human beings are merely meat vehicles for the transport of genetic information through time.
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    Anton... I thought of you when I saw this in the Media Working Group Blog
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    Thanks for that: Curtis really is a provoking force, his 'power of nightmares' is a tour de force. The article says its never been screened in the US, which I find astonishing. I'm about to rewatch "all surrounded..." this weekend to see what it has for my topic for this course. His criticism of the information revolution as deluding the middle class into thinking it is something that is essentially egalitarian and flattening is a good one. I think the economic downturn has done a better job of convincing us of the fact that deep inequality exists, is incresaing and is a bad thing, though. Oh, and @Pamela: I have my bronze masters sabre medal hanging in front of me: I come from a resonably notorious fencing family... you a foilist?
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    But if anyone in the US is curious, you can watch it for free here: http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/all-watched-over-by-machines-of-loving-grace/ and here in the Internet Archive: http://archive.org/details/AdamCurtis-AllWatchedOverByMachinesOfLovingGrace Sounds like a great rainy weekend activity! @Anton -- I actually fence epee -- although it's been a few years. I just like not having to worry about right of way :) My kids are both foilists though, so I have had to get up to scratch on directing a foil bout. Do you still fence??
Brian Peters

Embedding the Internet in the Lives of College Students - 0 views

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    Here is an interesting article on the impact the Internet has had on college students. The study looks specifically at what type of impact Internet use has on student social behavior.
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    Good article! What I found interesting was the correlation between user demographics being the same online as it is offline, i.e. more males checking political communication online AND offline. I think it shows the transition from offline media use, or more traditional modes to online and often an accumulation of both. A bit off topic but it makes me think about how we're becoming masters of mult-tasking, allowing us to be in tune to several different media - whether it be traditional TV, radio etc, and switching gears to reading news online, watching videos online, listening online. As I type this, I'm researching papers and watching TV and feel like I'm in tune to both. Researching how people are now becoming the ultimate multi-taskers would be interesting. However, because we are becoming such great multi-taskers, are we almost giving ourselves a sort of "ADD" in which, in the future, we'll have a hard time concentrating on ONE thing for a certain amount of time. I find it hard to concentrate often on a project or paper with multiple messages going on, emails coming in, texts, Facebook notifications, etc. and frequently break to do all things at once = a ton of white noise!
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    I think we can all relate to this wall of digital "white noise" as university students within the information management sector. It seems as though there is a fine line between multi-tasking and organized distraction. I often find myself dividing my time between school work, personal correspondence, and managing my Ebay account, but this doesn't necessarily mean I'm being more efficient. Earl Miller, a neuroscientist at MIT, has actually proven that the human brain "can't focus on more than one thing at a time" (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95256794).
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    Great article @ ABC. I was doing some research for my group project for the unit about e-books, brain, order, etc. and have become extremely interested in the impact of technology on our brain. As much as we may like to think we are great multi-taskers, it seems that our ability to toggle between multiple tasks on computers has hindered our ability to focus on long-winded tasks.
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    I found the correlation between downloading and other online activities to be pretty interesting. It make sense in a practical way, I suppose, since if you're online long enough to engage in regular message board discussions or blogging, you will likely find other activities to do at the same time such as downloading (which does not require your constant attention) or say listening to internet radio. On a kind of a related note, I once had a talk with a committee that was exploring ways to crack down on illegal downloading on campus. One of the methods they discussed using was tracking bandwith activity, and one of the concerns with this was unintentionally catching up people who were using high bandwith for legitimate activities such as streaming videos.
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    "Specifically concerning news habits, the majority of students said they preferred to consult online sources over offline sources for news and information because of the convenience." I definitely agree with this too. I always use the internet for news because I find it so much easier than watching the news on tv which is so inundated with useless information now, and often what I consider scare tactics (it always seems like that in an election year). As well as the phrase they used, "The more, the more". I find this to be true in all internet users. The more they use one system, or are active in one way, the more likely it is that they are active in another.
Amanda Jacobsen

When Businesses Use Social Media: How Much Is Too Much? - CBS News - 0 views

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    By now, most businesses know they should have a presence on Facebook or Twitter. But the more digitally-savvy businesses often ask, How many? Should you have only one Facebook page? Or multiple ones?
Karen Carter

First Monday - 6 views

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    Open access journal devoted to entire scope of matters related to the Internet. A quick look shows articles on privacy, inclusion, data collection, open source, censorship and many other topics that could be considered part of social informatics research.
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    This is a fantastic journal. I use it a LOT and so do students when they are doing research for their projects.
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    I love this journal, Karen, and have used it a lot in past research projects. Thanks for putting it back in my brain waves!
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    First Monday is such a great blog!! It has been a great asset to me in several classes in the past, I'm glad someone brought it up here!
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    It's actually not a blog -- it's an online (legit) journal. It's a place you all should really check out as you pursue your final projects.
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    I have always been ify about open access journals because sometimes they are not refereed very well... or at all. Also, many open access journals have contributors to books and articles pay a fee for having their articles hosted online--of course they have to make their money somewhere but often it is hard for scientists/professors to take that money out of their budget depending on the cost. (could also be my publishing bias). That being said, First Monday seems to have a fairly thorough peer review process according to its policies, so I will definitely check it out.
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    I'm near the end of my degree and nearly all of my profs have included readings from the First Monday site. This is definitely a source I'll be scouring for final project ideas!
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    It's one of the best journals out in the open access world. I actually don't know much about this "business model" but it would be great if more journals would use it.
Carrie Pyne

Fujitsu Skin Care App Will Monitor Your Acne (VIDEO) - 1 views

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    A mobile technology that says it tracks skin conditions.
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    While the article makes it sound like this app will be primarily used by self-conscious women, I imagine there are already quite a few cosmetic companies paying attention. Such an app would be great for tracking clinical trials.
A.B.C. Dawkins

Report: How Mobile Devices Are Changing the World's Info Ecosystem - 0 views

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    Continuing with the theme of my other bookmarks, this is a lengthy but accessible report by the US Center for International Media Assistance on how mobile devices are changing society and information seeking habits. I don't know about you, but I would have no idea where to dine out were it not for my Yelp app!
Britt Johnson

Violent Video Games: A Social Informatics Perspective - 1 views

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    A thoughtful video about how society blames violence on video games, ironically from a Rutgers student!
Britt Johnson

Kids Digital World - Exploring didactics in Social Informatics and distance learning - 1 views

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    Very interesting blog talking about how kids use ICTs to learn....
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