Social Informatics

Has anyone read this? I think I will have to get this book. His lecture in the early weeks stuck with me and I keep poking around on his "kk.org" site.

No I havent read it but am thinking of dowloading it if it is available.

I am really skeptical of Kevin Kelly even since we viewed that TED lecture, but I have been going to his blog weekly anyway. He had a post earlier this week about the price of e-books - he thinks they will inevitably fall to $0.99 per book and nick carr responded and tore apart his logic.

Provides online tools and recommendations for protecting oneself in an online community.

This refers to how less restrained people feel on the internet v. real life. This might seem more related to internet identity, but it can have huge effects on civil community on the internet too. I thought of this when I read "One important social rule was built into the software that the WELL lives inside: Nobody is anonymous. Everybody is required to attach their real userid to their postings" (Rheingold, Chapter 1).

An interesting article on how Google's search results can be manipulated from the Feb 13, 2011 NY Times Business section. Is our search engine research being manipulated in other ways as well?

Kayla Webley of Time (2011 Feb 18) wrote on the effect of a teacher's angry blog about students. While she tried to hide her full name and not directly identify with the school district, someone made the connection with her picture. Currently the teacher is suspended, but is pursuing a legal resolution.

Cory Doctorow reviews _The Information_, which traces its history from the early lexicographers to Wikipedia.

Great article on some digital humanities projects and how they relate to undergraduate teaching. Many of the projects involve digital archives, libraries or databases. I think this is the kind of work future academic libraries can help facilitate

Not sure why it isn't registering that I viewed this... Fascinating article- wish I could share via FB since only classmates see this and I think my teacher friends would find this interesting as well. Just another way diigo limits its usefulness. Great find though!

Should internet addiction be in the DSM?

Interesting! I am convinced that any compulsive behavior might fit the DSM- not sure if they even need to claidfy the outlet (internet, food, gambling, etc).

Sherry Turkle's "alone together" is called a "self-help book" - i thought that was funny. I guess it's hard to say if internet addiction is the primary problem or if its compulsive behavior or depression. Not sure.

My sister in law works for Blue Cross in NC and sent me this to invite me to join. I did not join, but I'm completely fasicnated to see how this type of social networking grouped around medicine and health will work out. Yes, WebMD and other SN's related to health exist, but this one is directly sponsored and supported by a health care company.

I wonder how much of this is about collecting information about attitudes and values (notice it starts with a potentially inflammatory question). Why would this group be better than any other forum out there? What is the real motivation, I wonder.

There's so many examples of info on the internet being considered as "evidence." This was struck me as really surprising. There was another piece about insurance companies doing similar tactics in the LA Times this week: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-facebook-evidence-20110125,0,4304729.story

From the article: "Still, books are one of the last ad-free zones, and by showing ads on an e-reader, Amazon risks alienating some users, he said. " Libraries too are one of the last ad-free zones.

They may try to release a tablet. "An Amazon tablet could tie together the seemingly disparate parts of the company's business, Mr. McQuivey said, including e-commerce, e-books, video and audio."

Clay Shirky and how the Internet allows people to vote for logos, etc.

Should all of the information on us be made available to us?

Did anyone else notice this link from the previous week? Left wing gad about Douglas Rushkoff starts to question the unintended consequences for the user of social media. Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, etc. may have created exciting new ways for us to interact "virtually", but we pay for it, even when it's free.

I really like that he advocates that students (& all people) learn to program. People resisted learning to type too! And while it is harder, no harder than learning to read or write.

This (long) report discusses the use of ICTs in the medical field, primarily IN the human body

I'm not sure if I would characterize this topic as being part of social informatics. Cochlear implants, insulin pumps, and spinal chord devices, just to name a few of the devises, do have interactive measures with the human body. However, social informatics is the study of how ICTs affect people's relationships and aspects of their social contexts. Although these devises influence the lives of their users, this article mainly discusses the ethical implications of using these technologies and the regulations that need to be developed to standardize use.

Well, interestingly enough, some of my undergrads over the years have been fascinated by RFID implants and the ethical implications of those actions. It is possible that a simple little think like an insulin pump, or any kind of pump would have an impact on one's actions and lifestyle. See this amazing talk by Charity Tillman-Dick: http://www.ted.com/talks/charity_tilleman_dick_singing_after_a_double_lung_transplant.html

Scary state of affairs when our content can be usurped without any possible recourse......

Linden Lab was founded in 1999 by Philip Rosedale to create a revolutionary new form of shared experience, where individuals jointly inhabit a 3D landscape and build the world around them. Today this experience, known as the Second Life® world, has a rapidly growing population of Residents from around the globe, who are creating and inhabiting a virtual world of their own design.

Google says that phones need to know your location to provide services.

University of Oxford Social Informatics Researcher