Social Informatics

Facebook's comments service was launched on March 1. It prevents anonymous comments from trolls because users are logged into facebook.

This is similar to the Natalie Munroe story

The study is very informative, it was particularly relevant for me, because the study sample comes from Mercer county.

I liked the link to the pew research statistics.

As the author says: a bit simplistic? Yes! But...

The AAP warns that teens may become depressed from facebook. Also see http://www.aap.org/advocacy/releases/socialmedia2011.htm

How technology is being incorporated into education (and its costs).

Online censorship is the norm thorough most of the Middle East and North Africa. These governments are using software developed in the US and Canada. Report from the OpenNet Initiative, part of the Berkman Center for Internet and Societ

Some statistics on the use and availability of public library computers.

Does anyone know about this institution? They do interesting work and seem to research the causes of the digital divide.

We have a number of links from the Berkman Center on the Digital Divide Diigo and found it really helpful in our research. You can join the group if you want to post there. Tim Wu, the lawyer who coined the term net neutrality, was a fellow at Berkman, as well as Eszter Hargittai, a scholar discussed in our presentation section, "users: race and income." We also discuss Lawrence Lessig's work, mostly known for creative commons, in the "net neturality" section. He was also a fellow there. They also have really great weekly talks that they post on their youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/BerkmanCenter

This section of the AARP site provides articles for seniors with information on buying tips, new tools, privacy & security, social media and other recommendations on using technology. The articles are for the novice as well as the experienced technology user. Specific to our conversation on digital divide are the articles on "Boomers Catching Up in Technology Use"

This is the direct link the National Digital Literacy Corps as proposed by the FCC in their 2010 "National Broadband Plan." If Congress decides to adopt and fund the recommendations, the corps will be modeled after Americorps. The program would target non-adopters, users who are new to ICT and the internet. "The Corps should target segments of the population that are less likely to have broadband at home, including low-income individuals, racial and ethnic minorities, senior citizens, people with disabilities, those with lower education levels, people in rural communities, those on Tribal lands and people whose primary or only language is not English." It is recommended that the corps recruit people with language skills so the classes and instruction would be provided in user's primary language.

"The Atavist has captured new ways to present long-form content for the digital age, mixing multimedia presentations and deep, engrossing articles." Article written by David Carr, although Nick Carr might like this because it understands that "The Web is good at creating short and snappy bits of information, but not so much when it comes to long-form, edited, fact-and-spell-checked work."

reminder to everyone - today the NYTimes goes behind a paywall, and you will only be able to read 20 articles a month for free. But if you click on this article through diigo, it shouldn't count against your 20. I've heard conflicting reports whether NYTimes digital will remain free for students, or if they will get discount on the $15/month rate. I can't find anything official on the web right now. Has anyone else heard anything?

I posted the brief which has links to the original Google study and Nicholas Carr's underwhelmed response because the summary is nice and easy to digest plus if you wish to delve further you can. Basically Google challenged students in a library versus those using Google to answer 'random' questions- Nicholas Carr responds- " How did the University of Michigan researchers come up with the questions that they had their subjects find answers to? They "obtained a random sample of 2515 queries from a major search engine." Ha! Maybe the question we should be asking, not of Google but of ourselves, is what types of questions the Net is encouraging us to ask. Should human thought be gauged by its output or by its quality? That question might actually propel one into the musty depths of a library, where "time saved" is not always the primary concern".

I just found this, and don't recall seeing it before. It is a peer reviewed journal aimed at MLIS students. It comes out of Buffalo. I just wanted to share, no specific article, but it looks like a good resource. Open access journal.

Thanks for sharing this Judy... I think someone once posted something about it on LISSA. I just checked the editorial team and there's two Rutgers students listed. I don't them though.

This book was mentioned in the NYT article on SXSW that I just posted. Instead of arguing whether technology makes us dumber or smarter, the author provides insight on how we can better adopt technology into our lives, which involves periods of disconnectedness.

Thanks for sharing this, this is very useful for my term project. Making tools work for us, rather than ever feeling the other way is key.

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!

NY Times article on how using a game life like virtual reality aids in the teaching of literature.

Great minds...both you and Laurie found this! Fascinating article!

SXSW-i 2011 "didn't feel blindly focused on discovering the killer app. Tech didn't feel like an end unto itself -- rather, it was about processing data with a purpose; data for a greater good." Librarians were a big part of the conversation at this year's festival

I saw this too and was really excited. I caught a story on WNYC yesterday about the importance of curating content, which I'll find and post to the group.

I think there's a special topics course on curation of information/data in the fall!

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