Group items tagged

 Rebecca Black's song Friday is popular for all the wrong reasons.  Filmed for the sole purpose of having someone see it and having her earn actual fame for her talent (a la Bieber), it was shared via social media so much for how bad it was that it blew up.  Her internet famo turned into television appearances and actual fame.  But is this an actual trend? I'm going to post another link in a second...

I actually thought this was just the next iteration of Rickrolling. I guess people actually like the song?

Interesting thing about Rebecca Black. Her Mom actually put up the money ($2,000 or so) for her to record the song and video to dissuade her daughter from seeking a career in the music industry. Funny how things work sometimes.

Really great working paper on trolling in a feminist forum -- what do communities do when outsiders attempt to derail conversation by intentionally trying to start arguements and cause rifts in the community.  A case study of two incidents within the same message board.

Oh rad! I was thinking about focusing on trolling specifically for my project. I've actually done a little research on Anonymous/4chan too if you ever want to share sources!

Started laughing when I saw that they did a study on trolling, so I had to read the article. Really interesting piece on technology and gender.

In one of the videos we watched last week, Wesch mentioned how students can look at the discussion page for any article on Wikipedia to get a sense of how information is being interactively constructed and contested. This article discusses the issue of self-governance in online communities with a focus on how Wikipedia is edited and the community politics behind it. I think this article makes a really useful contribution to a discussion about authority and knowledge production on the Internet. There is also a related article about the relationship between Wikipedia contributions and identity construction here.

I read (part of) an ethnography of Wikipedia last semester that was really interesting. http://reagle.org/joseph/2010/gfc/ Good Faith Collaboration by Joseph Reagle "Wikipedia's style of collaborative production has been lauded, lambasted, and satirized. Despite unease over its implications for the character (and quality) of knowledge, Wikipedia has brought us closer than ever to a realization of the century-old pursuit of a universal encyclopedia. Good Faith Collaboration: The Culture of Wikipedia is a rich ethnographic portrayal of Wikipedia's historical roots, collaborative culture, and much debated legacy. "

Without accusing certain authors in the field of elitism, I think that Wikipedia works as it should, by serving the needs of people in the way they want it. If someone needs to look up the habits of Pokemon or William Shatner's favorite food, who are we to question their information needs?

The article is kind of long, but it talks about some interesting issues that might arise for companies thinking about moving to cloud storage. The price is right, but the risk is high. Introduces possible solution of a hybrid cloud, where sensitive data is still stored internally.

I attended a virtual presentation a few days ago through SJSU on Cloud Computing. The speaker, who works as State Archivist for Oregon, was speaking of the cost savings for using a cloud for storage of government records. It was interesting to hear her points on the benefits she found in using the cloud...The session will be archived and posted for later view soon if anyone is interested. Her presentation will be available to the public at: http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/slis/colloquia/2011/colloquia11su.htm I liked the related article linked at the bottom of the site you posted about the Dallas-based iCloud company suing the new Apple iCloud for using their name. You would've thought Apple would've done some research there...

for anyone who doesn't know, Bitcoins are an online, completely anonymous currency that's been raising some hype lately after being 'discovered' by more mainstream users.

holy stolen Bitcoins batman! Not sure if anyone has been following this but, the attack and the subsequent crash jeopardizes the Bitcoin as virtual currency http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13857192

I've been trying to get some bitcoins for months. No dice yet.

I am a big pop music/culture nut. Always have been...probably always will be. So, when I really started thinking about social media and all its uses, I began to wonder...who out there uses social media to it's fullest potential. The answer was obvious. Lady Gaga! When I did a quick search on Lady Gaga and social media, I got a lot of hits. But I wasn't surprised. She is the master when it comes to sites like Facebook and Twitter. Yes, she is out there wearing meat dresses and making fun songs, but it's her presence on social networking sites that I feel has really catapulted her to super stardom. What do you all think?

hmm. is it gaga or her p/r team creating the image? Is her voice really hers? How do we know?

I am sure it is more her "team" then her herself. But, still...it's rather impressive.

Maybe not directly related to SI, but it is worth questioning how technology is changing the role of libraries through a different lens than is normal for SCILS. Should librarians encourage social media for children (say, under 14?)... alternatively, how is social media forcibly reshaping libraries?

I'm interested in the idea of digital privacy (or lack thereof). It seems nobody is particularly worried about their privacy online, and I'd like to learn a little more about this

Um, I can't think of a more bone-chilling phrase than "cyberwar."

Steig Larsson made hacking look pretty cool. But it's interesting to think about how much is possible in the hacking world that we tend to forget about since our everyday use of technology has been so woven into our routines. Just saw this article and I found interesting to see the many sides of hacking: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jun/06/hackers-how-and-why-they-hack I always make fun of my dad for being a computer hypochondriac -- he always thinks that someone is hacking into his computer, so he has a million anti-virus and security programs (a combination which I think is actually destroying his computer). But it is a valid concern, though I think you have to just find a balance for your privacy since in extreme cases, your privacy can be a bit restricting.

My boyfriend works for Comedy Central and he helped with rebranding. I was very interested in how they came up with a logo that looked just like the copyright logo. It wasn't a coincidence. Comedy Central held a small press conference to herald its new clean, minimal logo: a small "c" enveloped in another larger, backwards "c" with the word "central," inverted. If it looks kind of like an "@" symbol, that's on purpose, says the network, which just released new iPad apps for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and "America's most horrific web videos" series Tosh.0.

I thought about giving my cats their own FB page, but if they got more friends than me I would be very disturbed by that!

I never heard of this and had to look it up myself to believe it. It is a bit strange, but definitely entertaining.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001827272353 That's the FB page for our dog Nanook - friend him if you'd like. My younger son started the page; he's kind of protective of the house and barks a lot so I find it amusing that my kids' friends wanted to be friends with him.

Sorry if this comes up twice, I've been having internet connection issues. This is a really great article about an artist who made a pixellated version of a Miles Davis photograph for his chiptune tribute.  The photographer sued him and the artist lost.  It's just really important to ask ourselves where the line between copy and transformative work should be drawn and the artist (who wrote the article) provides several examples of items for sale that he finds to be similar to his work, yet appear unchallenged.

This is a phenomenal resource for demographic analysis of internet and social media use. Please take some time too look through it.

Actually, I was just looking at a summary of a 2009 Pew Internet study that related directly to our discussion of the Wesch videos last week. The study dealt focused on the issue of whether engaging with others over the Internet causes feelings of loneliness and isolation. (Spoiler alert: they concluded that people feel more connected, not lonelier, thanks to technology.)

Looking at the Pew Internet Topics list (http://www.pewinternet.org/Topics.aspx) was also helpful in finding some background reading for my group project and also in identifying some potential areas for my final project.

Another article found in my search for information about the "global digital divide." According to the article, last week, the United Nations released a report that "argued that disconnecting individuals from the Internet is a violation of human rights and goes against international law" and that all States should seek to ensure there is "as little restriction to online content as possible." The Atlantic points out, following Wired's Threat Level blog, that the UN report came "the same day that a monitoring firm found two-thirds of Syria's Internet access has been shut down without notice." While access isn't the only factor in the digital divide on a global or a national scale (disparities in information or new media literacy is also a huge factor, for example), I agree that the availability of unfettered access as a matter of government policy is the bare minimum.

It confuses me that it can be considered a basic human right if, for a portion of the population, it's hard to access and at times, can be unreachable. Even though I know it's more what Tom said about it being a negative right, the phrasing just doesn't sit right. Either way, this is a great thing and I'm surprised it didn;t happen sooner.

I had come across this article as well in our group project research, Maggie, and I think that the UN is taking steps to bring the conversation on the right to freedom of opinion and expression into the digital age, as Tom mentions. Article 19 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, in place since 1948, states: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." So in the context of the recent shutdown of ISPs by Syria, more generally the use of the Internet as a means of civic and political dissidence, and even the debate around net neutrality in this country, I agree with Maggie that the UN's approach seems to clarify and reiterate unfettered access to information.

another way to use social media: social networks as support groups. this article describes the author's attempts to quit smoking, and how she used twitter to hold herself accountable and receive praise from followers, which motivated her.

Part of me completely understand the solidarity and support that social media can offer- the other part of me still finds it extremely odd. I'm still trying to put my finger on what exactly makes me think that using Twitter and Facebook to update and get support is strange. Perhaps its just a persona; preference for live interactions...

I see this as a very productive use of twitter.

Why Google should be afraid of Facebook -- what I really got out of this article was that Google guesses what people like / want / need based on what they search -- Facebook knows because the user enters it, from people posting on each other's pages to what "like" buttons they click (making interests pages instead of just search terms was a huge change since now companies that own a product people like can now interact with their users on a way more personal basis.)

I'm not sure about this either, Amanda, Isn't the internet big enough for both types of companies (and many more).

The internet is big enough for all sorts of companies, but in a competition to figure out your customer base as quickly and as detailed as possible, Facebook definitely has an edge that Google is lacking right now. Well, outside of scanning your Gmail for keywords to apply to the ads they show you...haha

I always liked this article when I was linked to it some time ago. The author succinctly describes why so many people get very excited about social media but end up doing some very not smart things with that technology. This particular author is a little snarky but I think he gets to the point about how we need to present ourselves on the Internet, rather than just putting ourselves out there "as is."

I make it my personal obsession to erase as much of my online presence as possible.

@Daniel, for any reason in particular?

This site is just a little blurb itself, but it links to a number of other resources for presentations that I think may be of interest to the class, let me know what you think!

An interesting case of the big three search engines striking an agreement on structured markup data on web pages. If you really pay attention, you can watch the Internet evolve before your very eyes. (Internet Evolution sounds like a nice topic, huh?)

Here's a couple or articles/op-eds on the announcement of Schema.org. One posits it may be a movement toward monopolization of markup data by Google: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/is_schemaorg_really_a_google_land_grab.php ; the other that it's a boost for structured data: http://www.mkbergman.com/962/structured-web-gets-massive-boost/.

Thanks, Rebecca. The first document you listed made my head spin a little bit. I wasn't totally familiar with the importance of a competitor to W3C markup data (I just assumed that Google et al.'s innovation would mean progress), but the polemical suggestions of "land grabs" made me think... wow, this is something to really pay attention to. Now that I'm reading Amanda's latest posts on Google vs. Facebook in a business context, I'm wondering if the big three move to Schema.org represents something like a defensive strategy (maybe even a land grab!) against Facebook jumping into the market. Maybe social media can do a better job of searching the web for relevant documents - an operation, as I'm beginning to understand, depends so much on markup standards (it's news to me that so many different options exist). I'm not sure I really understand what's going on here... but thanks for pointing out the complexities!

For me it's helpful to understand a discipline by looking at the types of classes someone undertaking it might enroll in/teach. I found the Rob Kling Center for Social Informatics at Indiana University Bloomington in my surfing and thought it might be helpful for others as well to get a sense of what a primary course of SI study might entail. Perhaps most helpful though is that the center provides a history of the term, "social informatics" and a few foundational documents (nearly all by the center's namesake) of the discipline.

Does 1996 seem like it was a long time ago? Not sure, but I thought that getting some foundational information was very helpful!

While exploring the ACM journal today, I came across the article below that kind of relates to this thread. It talks about the growing popularity of "Informatics" (in general)as a college/university discipline, and how and why it has evolved as an off-shoot of Computer Science. http://cacm.acm.org.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/magazines/2010/2/69363-why-an-informatics-degree/fulltext

This book review seems a good companion to Justin's post below on artificial intelligence/human-computer interaction. The reviewer ties three different books together under the theme of how humanity seems to be integrating itself with its digital machines - including discussion of brain-computer interaction (whoa.) and Google's search algorithms or "contouring."

The section on the ideological dissemination of information as it relates to Google is eye-opening (and really worrisome). I think when we talk about Singularity, "fear" will continue to be at the center of our discussions. For some, the biological integration with machines is just too radical to fathom, though the daily use of the Internet is now commonplace. I think we can rightly call certain technologies "external minds" (@ Mary, above) - so it's really not so much the shifting sense of what are bodies are as it is the effect - or danger - of increasingly personalized information certain technologies host that should be cause for concern.

Later in the article she talks about the same concepts as Jesse Schell, in terms of racking up points for online activity, though she draws the conclusion that your information will be sold to advertisers. Really a fascinating article!