Social Informatics

Details are emerging about the recent blackout.

I just heard an npr episode where Terry Gross interviewed twitter co-founder Biz Stone about this. Very interesting. I think I'll put it into one of our future units: http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/

Kickstarter and other sites allow people to donate money to artists, etc. It may be an example of how virtual communities function with real-world matters.

Zimmer discusses how language will become more technologically mediated.

I think this is an exciting new direction for the column!

"The Internet doesn't steal our humanity, it reflects it. The Internet doesn't get inside us, it shows what's inside us. And social media isn't cold, it's just complex and hard to define."

Corporate America uses social media for advancing its services. Now organizations need to write policies on appropriate use of it tools to protect the company and its employees.

This is a nice feature by the NY Times on what is going on in the mideast. I like how they combine a regularly updated summary written by the Times next to a live twitter feed of what is happening in each country. It's a nice combining of citizen and traditional journalism.

The first major prison riot orchestrated via contraband cell phones.

I love the note about library closings being equivalent to child abuse!

And so artificial intelligence type software is now threatening the livelihood of those in the legal profession. I have a friend who's a paralegal doing the type of work these "e-discovery" software programs can now do. I wonder if he's been aware of this kind of technology developing. I also wonder what will come next....

This Newsweek cover story from March 7 gets into how information overload is hindering our ability to make clear decisions.

While attempting to read this article, I found myself constantly distracted, not by interruptions, but by the completely goofy banner ads on the right side of the page and bottom. Maybe someone could invent and app for that? Or in the meantime I should use a piece of cardboard to cover the nonsense on the screen. A low budget app!

A fascinating look "under the hood" of the technology used to collect the massive amounts of personal data that is created via social media. After givng an overview of the companies involved and how they achieve this, the article examines some of the ethical issues involved.

How to buy status/reputation.

danah boyd is quoted (name capitalized).

Fascinating defensive of new social media in journalism and a critique of those who miss the good old days. Reminded me of the book "The Good Old Days, They Were Terrible". from the article "At an individual level, I think the "distracted Americans" scare will pass. Either people who manage to unplug, focus, and fully direct their attention will have an advantage over those constantly checking Facebook and their smart phone, in which case they'll earn more money, get into better colleges, start more successful companies, and win more Nobel Prizes. Or they won't, in which case distraction will be a trait of modern life but not necessarily a defect. At the level of national politics, America is badly distracted, but that problem long predates Facebook and requires more than a media solution. "

Not an article but an ad I saw while watching a TV episode online. It struck my interest because it's main point was that media has changed how kids do homework and spend their time but parenting hasn't changed with it. There are many articles and discussions for parents that I felt were relevant to our course.

The people that bring you Sesame Street now bring you some pretty incredible statistics on internet use by the five and under set. Doesn't Sesame Street have an on-line presence?

And here's the report itself. I look forward to reading this with a critical eye.

Changing view in anthropology attributes social cooperation/social learning and tools (first as weapons) as characteristics that set humans apart from other primates. See also http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/11/science/11kin.html

Note: this is a rumor, but it's interesting if this service will be lauched: "With Circles, I believe that Google will attempt to accomplish something critics from the blogosphere, academia, SXSW 2010 keynoter danah boyd, privacy watchdogs and others have all called on the social networking world to do: to allow our online communication to respect the same boundaries that our offline social lives do."

nothing has been announced yet. it is interesting that google is so visited and has so many users, but has yet to effectively incorporate social networking... i.e. buzz and wave had huge hyped, but it quickly burned away.

This is an interesting use of a social media tool to better connect four homeless men with the "community around them," to quote one of the people involved in this project. There are interesting comments, everything from someone calling Mr. Wiggins' followers "compassionless voyeurs," to others praising the fact that these men are given a voice that might one day help their plight. I think only good things can come from giving voice to people on the edges of the digital divide, but that's my opinion.