Topic 3.3: Future Trends – Reflections on Readings

Our final module introduces the concept of the semantic web.  The article The Semantic Web by Berners-Lee, Hendler and Lassila illustrates the way in which the ideal Semantic Web will operate with various electronic and computerised items working in tandem to make our life easier and more streamlined.  A ringing phone, for instance, results in the volume control of the sound system and television being activated to create a quiet environment in which to take the call.  In essence the Semantic Web is a shift from a passive interface to an active tool, one that works to make our lives easier and simplified.  The Google Wave preview almost had me drooling in anticipation.  I absolutely love the interactiveness of the platform and the way it simplifies the use of many different programs/platforms by rolling them into one, I can’t wait to use Google Wave!

What Google Wave truly illustrates is the shift towards a system of universal management and interactivity.  We are becoming a more and more time poor society increasingly looking for ways to manage our affairs in the shortest possible time.  The ability of Google Wave to roll various programs into one with the capabilities of email, instant messaging, word processing, photo publishing and more is exactly what us time poor creatures seek in managing our online lives.  The interactivity of this one platform poses big questions about what the future may hold.  Exactly how interactive can our lives become?  Five years from now will my whole life be micro managed from my mobile phone? Today I already use my iphone to make voice calls, send text messages, check my email, social network, take photos, listen to music and publish information to the web.  Perhaps in time I’ll also be able to watch or record tv programs, channel surf and control the volume on my stereo all via the same simple device.  What really inspires me is the path technology may take in becoming intuitive to our personal preferences and needs.  The future, truly is, without boundaries and I am so excited to grow with this progress.

Topic 3.2: Social Me(dia) Rivers – Activities

Logging in to Twitter I took the time to have a look at the ‘Trending’ section on the right hand side instead of just glancing at the updates from my chosen leads.  What I found were users discussing what music they were listening to, some writing what people could help them with in a do me a favour topic and many wishing others a Happy Pancake Day.  These findings seem to reinforce those of the last reading in which it was inferred that Twitter was often used for more personal interactions than was once thought. Not a single title on the trending list related to a celebrity, political interests or any other mainstream social topic.  All were of a personal nature and were very friendly in tone.

The second activity involved the FriendFeed platform.  After creating a FriendFeed account and linking it to my Twitter, flickrr and delicious accounts the resulting feed was indeed a fair representation of myself and my interests.  The first page shows entries relating to scrapbooking, Web 2.0, Curtin University and Blogging.  All of these are topics that I’ve spent a lot of time researching lately or that I invest my time in outside of study and now they are all collected neatly in one spot.  I never knew FriendFeed existed before today but I love it and will definitely be using it from now on.

Topic 3.2 Social Me(dia) Rivers – Reflection on Readings

My interpretation of a Social Me(dia) River is quite a vivid image.  Each tweet from Twitter, status update on Facebook, entry in a blog and post on a forum acts as a stream always contributing towards the flow of our own personal media river just as a real stream feeds the rivers of water we pass in our daily lives.  Each of these metaphorical streams reveals tiny pieces of personal information about ourselves that others may choose to use in a myriad of ways.

The main focus of this weeks readings is the Twitter platform whose microblogs act as a constant stream of small droplets in our social media river.  Ross Mayfield‘s article Twitter Tips the Tuna discusses the incredible growth of the Twitter phenomenon commenting not only on the huge numbers of users joining the platform but the fact that those users are sending more and more messages and adapting the site to meet their personal requirements.

Tama Leaver also discusses Twitter in the article It’s a Small World After All: From Wired’s Minifesto to the Twitterati, though the focus is more on the appeal and addictiveness users experience.  Twitter is portrayed as a way to snack our way through our day consuming small amounts of information on those people and topics that interest us or impact our lives.  In this way we avoid information overload whilst still taking a personal interest when we are able to do so.  Leaver also discusses the addictiveness of ‘tweeting’ and building a ‘continuous online presence’ that most other platforms do not foster to the same extent. While many decree that Twitter is pointless and trivial to many it is exactly this triviality that they seek when following family or close friends.  It is the trivial that is so personal and so definitively them, and that, to a lot of users is precisely what they seek.

The final reading, Why We Twitter: Understanding Microblogging Usage and Communities, also has Twitter as the focal point.  This paper also focusses on the power of microblogging and it’s ability to fill a hole in terms of speed and ease of use.  Such networks were found to have a high degree of correlation and reciprocity, indicating close mutual acquaintances among users.  This appears to back up the idea of personal and trivial tweets being mainly for those close to the user.

The ‘continuous partial presence’ associated with Twitter is one that is of great use in building a picture of the person microblogging.  From Tweets it is possible to become familiar with the social habits of a user, for instance where they are when they blog might illustrate a penchant for restaurants, movies or night clubs.  Perhaps a blogger might share their dinner time or study habits, they might write about their relationship or family or they may try and share insprational quotes.  Every word written has the ability to reveal portions of the author’s personality and for that reason I believe Twitter to be a very useful tool in building personal knowledge and understanding.

Topic 3.1: Your Digital Shadow – Reflection on Readings

Not to be confused with the term Internet Footprint is this week’s topic, the Digital Shadow.  Unlike your Internet Footprint which is achieved as the result of a user’s conscious and intentional contribution of content to the Internet, your Digital Shadow is a reflection of how visible you are in the online world and can often result from the actions of other users.  Mostly, this visibility is determined by search engines.

Using various search engines to determine my digital shadow I was pleased to see that my high privacy settings have done a good job and, other than one study blog, I was largely invisible.  It’s not that I have anything to hide online as such, it’s just that I don’t particularly have anything that I feel the need to share with the world at large either.  I’m pleased that typing in my name doesn’t result in photos and writings jumping out at me… hopefully it means that nothing is jumping out at other Internet users as well.

The first featured reading by danah boyd,  Facebook’s Privacy Trainwreck : Exposure, Invasion, and Social Convergence explores the implications of Facebook’s implementation of it’s News Feed feature and the subsequent outcry about user privacy resulting in massive changes to the privacy settings of the social network.  What some see as social convergence many saw as a frightening shift in the boundaries of privacy and expression.  When every action a person makes online is visible to every single one of his/her friends, where are the boundaries and what are the possible repercussions?  These are the questions that boyd seeks answers to in her paper.  Ultimately, boyd concludes that ‘privacy is not an inalienable right – it is a privilege that must be protected socially and structurally in order to exist. The question remains as to whether or not privacy is something that society wishes to support’.  From this we can take the meaning that it is up to individuals to take charge of their own privacy and also choose carefully which platforms foster their required privacy choices.

The second reading is Daniel Solove’s The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumour, and Privacy on the Internet. This writing takes focus on how the Internet has changed the flow of information and communication in a myriad of ways and how these changes have affected society’s perception of privacy.  Solove covers in some depth the increasing prevalence of blogging, personal websites and social networking directing our thought to how we use these platforms to share information with others.  He makes a particularly valid point in commenting that ‘given the ease at which information can be recorded and spread, there will be more instances when information we want to keep on a short leash will escape from our control’.  He goes on to illustrate his point by reminding readers of such issues as emails or text messages accidentally sent to wrong recipients, blogs read by those the author hoped would never see them and images or videos, at times of a very personal nature, posted online by others out to cause hurt to those involved.  The article concludes by saying that whilst we live in a time of wondrous communication and expression, with that power comes vulnerability and vigilance is ever necessary.  The price of our using the Internet is that we be aware of the way in which we allow ourselves to be seen and the power we give others over our material.  As history has shown many times before, with great power and freedom comes great responsibility, and this is definitely that case in the online world.

Lastly, Coutu and boyd discuss the issue of Mimi, a prospective employee with a dubious online presence.  The case study discuss whether Mimi should be hired for a particular after a google search found articles relating to her and protests that she has been involved in.  Her digital shadow raises concerns that detract from the question of her ability to perform the job involved.  boyd raises good points in her contention that many young people have an online presence and that it is precisely this that illustrates Mimi’s creativity – the most valuable asset required for the position in question.  In my opinion, Mimi should absolutely get the job.

Likewise, Claire Werbeloff made quite a name for herself on Australian television and computer screens.  Honestly, I am unsure how I would respond to her as an employer.  Certainly, she has shown that she has quite an imagination and some acting skills (if only as portraying a ‘bogan’).  Perhaps if I required these skills she would fit the mould, otherwise my interpretation of her is that of a lying attention seeker – not something I would hope for in my business.

Topic 3 Introduction: Your Internet Footprint – Reflection on Readings

We begin our third module by examining aspects of our ‘Internet Footprint‘ and Internet Communication Basics.  Your Internet footprint is the accumulated result of all of your contributions to the Internet and is often related to such platforms as blogs, forum posts, website contributions, social networking profiles and email.  Web ‘netiquette‘ is also explored in some detail with sections covering email, the limitations of text, quoting, netiquette in group discussions and the presentation of ‘self’.

The first of the selected readings, Identity Management:Multiple Presentations of Self in Facebook by Joan Morris DiMicco and David Millen covers the topic of presentation of self in one of the many social networking platforms, Facebook.  The main point of the article is the, at times, difficult art of balancing one’s social and professional lives whilst using a social networking platform.  There are groups that appear to use Facebook more for the social aspects of keeping track of college and school friends, a second group that have some social aspects but are moving towards a work oriented set-up and a third that are exclusively professional with little or no personal information viewable.  The article points out the possible strengths of using a social networking platform for professional communication and, I have to admit, I really hadn’t considered using for Facebook for any purpose but a social one.  After reading this piece, I will definitely reconsider my ideas.

The second reading was Anonymity and Self-Disclosure on Weblogs by Hua Qian and and Craig Scott.  As the title tells us, the piece follows similar lines to the first article but discusses Weblogs as opposed to Facebook.  Blogs are, by nature, a social undertaking with over 70% of all blogs being essentially online diaries.  Yet for all that these details can discuss the author’s innermost thoughts, feelings and ideas, the identity of the author themselves is often quite an enigma.  Qian and Scott explore the way author anonymity relates to the amount of personal information disclosed.  What they discovered was that the more anonymous the author, the more open and honest the author would be with their writing.  Those writers that made themselves fully known to their audience were more likely to take extra care with their words.

The final reading for this week was Personal Home Pages on the Web: A Review of Research by Nicola Doring.  The site discusses the various types of personal website, analysing the inherent worth of each and the context in which many people choose to publish their individual websites.  What the research shows is that only around 10% of regular internet users have their own personal websites and most of these authors are young males who spend a great amount of time on the internet.

On a personal note I found my own Internet Footprint to be very small with an Internet search turning up only one result, a very old study blog.  I have to admit that I enjoy this anonymity with only those people that I wish to share with being able to locate me on the Internet.

Topic 2.4: Content Sharing – Activity

The activity for this week’s study was load of fun!  Using big huge labs we were to create either a motivational poster, magazine cover or movie poster with an image on flickr.  I chose to experiment with the motivational poster and being Australia Day went with a patriotic theme, the result can be seen below.

Topic 2.4: Content Sharing – Reflections on Readings

This week’s topic on Content Sharing began by introducing us to the concept of folksonomies.  Like most readers I was familiar with the concept of taxonomy as the practice and science of classification but folksonomy was a new and interesting concept.  Adam Mathes in his article Folksonomies – Cooperative Classification and Communication Through Shared Metadata explores in some depth the term ‘Folksonomy’.  Wikipedia defines Folksonomy as ‘a system of classification derived from the practice and method of collaboratively creating and managing tags to annotate and categorize content; this practice is also known as collaborative tagging, social classification, social indexing and social tagging.’  The ultimate focus of the article was to highlight the importance of day-to-day web users as the key to folksonomy rather that the heirarchical, controlled environment associated with taxonomies.

David Weinberger also writes of the importance of folksonomy in his article Folksonomy as Symbol.  Whilst he sees some negatives in relation to folksonomy, on the whole his idea of folksonomy is as a positive thing benefits from excess and ‘sticks it to the man.’

The topic also discusses some of the main Web 2.0 platforms used for content sharing, these include:

* Flickr

* delicious, and

* You Tube

The final reading from Wired illustrates the power of these content sharing platforms and the changes they bring to a whole range of internet users.  Content sharing has drastically changed the way in which media operates and has opened many new doors for those looking to find their tiny piece of fame and recognition.

Topic 2.3: Social Networking – Activity

Our simple task this week was to activate a Twitter account and start following leads of interest.  Twitter was actually easier to use than I imagined and the task was an enjoyable one.  So far I am following my favourite musician – Sarah McLachlan and one of my favourite TV shows – The Ellen Degeneres Show as well as several recipe and scrapbooking blogs.  The attached screenshot is an illustration of my small amount of Twitter time.

Topic 2.3: Social Networking – Reflections on Readings

In Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship by boyd and Ellison we are given an introduction to Social Networking Sites (SNS).  The Internet has been considered as a social tool since the first email but today there are many tools and platforms built specifically for the purpose of socialising via the Internet and World Wide Web.  Social Networking Sites are, by definition, web-based services that allow individuals to

(1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. The nature and nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to site.

These include sites such as facebook, bebo, myspace and linkedin to name just a few.  SNS are primarily a format for communication and networking.  What makes SNS unique is that they enable users not only to make contact with strangers but to make these connections visible which can result in networking contacts that otherwise may not be made.  A perfect example of this is my own use of the social networking site Facebook.  When I was pregnant with my first child I started searching for support groups for lesbian parents but was unable to find anything helpful.  I wanted to find other people in a similar situation to ask for advice or support and to form networks for our children to meet other families and children just like them.  With nowhere to turn I used Facebook to create the Rainbow Families group and over the years since have met many other lovely lesbian couples with their children, have exchanged advice with other parents and have even shared the entire fertility and childbearing process with some of our 460 members.  This is a perfect example of how social networking sites enable users to not only find old friends and keep track of current relationships but also to build new friendships with those we may never have met who share similar interests but not always mutual friends or geographic compatability.

Social Networking Sites began in ernest in 1997 with the site sixdegrees.com and has grown at a tremendous rate with millions of users worldwide now occupying various SNS.  For many Internet users Social Networking Sites have become part of our online world and a place that we visit daily for a dose of social contact.

Topic 2.2: Wikis – Activities

Activity 1 introduced us to the Wikipedia Sandbox and assorted tutorials on formatting, Wikipedia links, citing sources and talk pages.  Sandbox gave me the opportunity to get familiar with wikitext and have a play with different associated formatting tools.  It presented a great opportunity to familiarise myself with the way formatting works and broaden my knowledge.

Activity 2 asked us to actually make a change to a page on a topic we are familiar with.  In doing so, we are asked to return to the page after a week and check the response to the changes.  It should be an interesting thing to watch.