January 2007 - Air-L - lists.aoir.org

answers re size of data set
by Barry Wellman 25 Jan '07

25 Jan '07

Sociology departments spend at least one semester course teaching resarch design, including size -- and quality, apporpriateness -- of data set. Wisconsin has a first rate soc dept. Anything less is as if I walked into an English dept and asked how to do lit crit in 30 minutes For other matters of appropraite size, consult your spam filter;-) Barry Wellman _____________________________________________________________________ Barry Wellman S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology NetLab Director Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman for fun: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _____________________________________________________________________

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Information about online suicide pacts
by Christopher Helland 25 Jan '07

25 Jan '07

I'm wondering if anyone knows of any studies or ongoing research concerning online suicide pacts in Japan. The suicide rate in Japan is almost 20 times higher than their murder rate (one of the highest in the world)--and there appears to be "a frightening increase in the number of group suicides arranged over the Internet through chat rooms dedicated to discussing suicide." Any help researching this topic would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance, Chris Helland Christopher Helland, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Sociology of Religion Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology Dalhousie University 6135 University Avenue, Rm. 1128 Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada B3H 4P9 Tel: (902) 494-6757 Fax:(902) 494-2897 http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~chelland/index.html ____________________________________________________________________________________ Want to start your own business? Learn how on Yahoo! Small Business. http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/r-index

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Re: [Air-l] internet community breakups
by Marcus Foth 25 Jan '07

25 Jan '07

Hi Ellie in addition to what colleagues have posted already, I suggest the following articles: Andrews, D. C., Preece, J., & Turoff, M. (2001, Jan 3-6). A Conceptual Framework for Demographic Groups Resistant to Online Community Interaction. Paper presented at the 34th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Island of Maui, Hawaii. Butler, B. S. (2001). Membership Size, Communication Activity, and Sustainability. Information System Research, 12(4), 346-362. Maloney-Krichmar, D., Abras, C., & Preece, J. (2002, Jun 6-8). Revitalizing an Online Community. Paper presented at the International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS) – Social Implications of Information and Communication Technology, Raleigh, NC. Caleb has an interesting article on his website which talks about the purposeful breakup of an online community in order to re-establish it: Clark, C. J. (1999, Jan 12). Hot Tubbing an Online Community. Retrieved Jan 25, 2007, from http://www.plocktau.com/writing/hottub.html And chapter 11 in Derek's book is entitled "Killing Your Community": Powazek, D. M. (2002). Design for Community: The Art of Connecting Real People in Virtual Places. Indianapolis, IN: New Riders. This article may be of interest from a more general perspective: Selwyn, N. (2003). Apart from technology: understanding people’s non- use of information and communication technologies in everyday life. Technology in Society, 25(1), 99-116. In regards to your query about "definition and types of internet communities", Robert has written a section about "Taxonomy models for online communities" in: Plant, R. (2004). Online Communities. Technology in Society, 26(1), 51-65. hope this is useful, cheers, marcus -- Dr Marcus Foth Australian Postdoctoral Fellow Institute for Creative Industries and Innovation Queensland University of Technology (CRICOS No. 00213J) Creative Industries Precinct, Brisbane QLD 4059, Australia Phone +61 7 313 x88772 - Fax x88195 - Room Z6-511 m.foth(a)qut.edu.au - http://www.vrolik.de/ http://eprints.qut.edu.au/view/person/Foth,_Marcus.html

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Re: [Air-l] where did you go, out; what did you do, nothing (fwd)
by Barry Wellman 24 Jan '07

24 Jan '07

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2007 16:59:52 -0500 From: Barry Wellman <wellman(a)chass.utoronto.ca> To: danah boyd <aoir.z3z(a)danah.org> Cc: Paul DiPerna <pdiperna(a)blauexchange.org>, air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-l] where did you go, out; what did you do, nothing 1. I still maintain the cup half-full and half-empty position as a working hypothesis. While not being a quant chauvanist, I would like to know the %age of American teens and of their parent/s who are seriously stressed -- more than the typical teen stress of the past. 2. If this %age is large or small, danah's point makes sense: the Internet creates a visible venue for teens to exhibit such stress and find others to engage in dysfuncitonal activity. My generation just joined gangs: see The Wanderers (or read the book). 3. There are some stats that back danah's position that there structural conditions for teen dysfunctionality are greater than before. Rutgers sociologist was on CBC this AM maintaining that single parenting is up in a generation from 17% to 35% (it was pre-coffee: all summaries a bit vague). And certainly dual jobs are up compared to the 20th century, but not compared to the 3rd world or the agrarian 19th century. Everything old is new again! Barry Wellman _____________________________________________________________________ Barry Wellman S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology NetLab Director Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman for fun: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _____________________________________________________________________

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Re: [Air-l] where did you go, out; what did you do, nothing
by Paul DiPerna 24 Jan '07

24 Jan '07

Today I found these links/sources (below), and maybe they will be informative. Teen wellness is an important topic, one that I do not know much about, so I thought I'd look for survey data. At first scan, I think these teen surveys address some of the things mentioned in this thread. However I haven't had the chance to read through carefully. All but one of the surveys report national samples. On teen ICT use and cyber-bullying (2006): http://attorneygeneral.utah.gov/PrRel/CyberBullies/Fight%20Crime%20Invest%2… "High Schoolers View the Future" (2005): http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/artsandliving/HighSchoolNational.pdf "National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse IX: Teen Dating Practices and Sexual Activity" (August 2004): http://www.casacolumbia.org/pdshopprov/files/august_2004_casa_teen_survey.p… Teen attitudes and perceptions in the Kansas City metro area (2004): http://www.pfc.org/PFC_KTS.pdf - Paul -------------- Paul DiPerna Blau Exchange http://www.blauexchange.org email: pdiperna(a)blauexchange.org Online ID: http://claimid.com/pdiperna -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: [Air-l] where did you go, out; what did you do, nothing From: danah boyd <aoir.z3z(a)danah.org> Date: Tue, January 23, 2007 4:02 pm To: Barry Wellman <wellman(a)chass.utoronto.ca> Cc: Paul DiPerna <pdiperna(a)blauexchange.org>, air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org Barry - I wish that i was talking about the exceptions but i've definitely seen problematic behavior across a variety of teens, far beyond the atypical. When i talk about self-destruction, i'm not talking about suicide. Amongst working class youth (primarily inner city and rural), it often comes out in the form of meth or alcohol abuse, sex for status or to get back at people, and in the some urban cases, gang communities providing the kinds of social stability that isn't present at home. In the wealthier communities, alcohol still persists (but meth dies off). Stress jumps through the roof (i've seen more kids with ulcers than i thought was possible). This is where you start getting eating disorders and cutting as mechanisms to gain control over one's life. I don't see that much potential suicide honestly. Amongst middle/upper class white kids who identify with emo culture, they talk about suicide, but no more than the goths did... they don't actually do it, just like with goths. I'm not doing quantitative work so i can't give you numbers but well over half of my subjects tell me something that just depresses me along these lines. The extreme behaviors are indeed extreme, but the spectrum is shifted too far into unhappy and dysfunctional land for me to be enjoying all of the time that i spend with teens. And i don't recruit for dysfunctional. Honestly, the atypical case in the hundreds of kids that i've talked to in the last four months across the US is a functional sane communicative relationship between parent and teen. That doesn't mean all kids are acting out of control. Some are terrified of their parents, some are terrified of not getting into college, some are quite religious (although a lot more attend church than are religious in the sense that they are not misbehaving because of it). But honestly, the lack of presence of parents across SES is just outright depressing. Single parents and dual-working parents are the primary issue. The wealthier fathers are just as absent as the working class shift work fathers (often because they work past 7PM in their white collar jobs and don't make it home to dinner). Parents are stressed and it shows through in the teens i talk with. (I should note that i'm not just seeing this amongst teens - i want to strangle half my colleagues in the tech industry who have young children, work on weekends, and don't go home until 8/9PM on weeknights and then wonder why their kids are acting strange and come to me for advice.) At a core, Barry and i do agree - most American teens do anything to avoid scrutiny but that doesn't mean that their choices don't terrify their parents. And it's this being terrified that results in lockdown that results in alienation and rebellion and cycle cycle cycle. .... As for studies... there are a bunch of us working on a large scale MacArthur Foundation Digital Youth Initiative. This will be qualitative studies of teens from tons of different angles. Personally, i will be formally interviewing over 200 teens from at least 6 different areas in the country (and i have informally talked to hundreds more from other regions). There are over 20 of us on one branch of that study and there are a number of other connected studies, including some quantitative work. I'm explicitly looking at technology use but i try to ground it by understanding what teens are doing more broadly. I would love to hear of other projects taking place. Obviously, there's PEW. And Larry Rosen has been surveying parent/teen relationships around tech and trust. danah On Jan 21, 2007, at 9:35 AM, Barry Wellman wrote: > My sense is that I was hypothesizing about the broad middle while > danah is > talking atypical cases. So both of us are right. Suicidal (or > attempted > suicidal) teens were big in my generation too. Hmn, should Romeo and > Juliet have gone to couples therapy? > > Barry Wellman > _____________________________________________________________________ > > Barry Wellman S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology NetLab Director > Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto > 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 > wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman > for fun: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php > _____________________________________________________________________ >

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Re: [Air-l] internet community breakups
by andrea baker 24 Jan '07

24 Jan '07

Ellie, (and anyone else with an interest): On a typology of online communities: Aside from the excellent article post by Ron Rice by Katz et al., I'd like to recommend a simple, short piece from me and a co-author, from the point of view of hosting and participating in various online communities: "Twelve Variables for Understanding Online Communities" http://www.mindjack.com/feature/12ocvar.html cheers, andee

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Re: [Air-l] internet community breakups
by Janne Bromseth 23 Jan '07

23 Jan '07

..oh I forgot - of course, Beth Kolko and Elizabeth Reid (1998) has an excellent article discussion ethical sides of responsibility and the material vs virtual body - and escaping responsibility by creating just a new character when social relations get problematic, and its effects on the possibility of creating lasting online communities (approximately..!): Kolko, B. and Reid, E. 1998. 'Dissolution and Fragmentation. Problems in Online-Communities.' In S. Jones, ed, Cybersociety 2.0, Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Janne At 23:13 22.01.2007 -0600, you wrote: >I'm doing an independent study this semester on the breakup of Internet >communities, which I've called (for the project) Internet community >dissolution. I've been able to find plenty of articles on Internet >communities and relationships, etc, but I haven't seen any on this topic. > >How is this topic generally phrased in the lit? I came up with absolutely >no results when I tried searching for it in various forms in my library's >(pathetic) database. Can anyone point me in the direction of where to look >or specific articles on this? > >Also, while I'm here, are there any articles out there that address the >definition and types of internet communities? I could list them all out >from my personal experiences, but I'd like to have something published to >back up what I say. > >Thanks! >Ellie >_______________________________________________ >The air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org mailing list >is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org >Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: >http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org > >Join the Association of Internet Researchers: >http://www.aoir.org/

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Re: [Air-l] internet community breakups
by Janne Bromseth 23 Jan '07

23 Jan '07

Hi Ellie - Interesting study! I was kind of forced to address the issue in my dissertation, 'Genre trouble and the body that mattered', as 'my' mailing list community died in the course of my ethnography, causing many reflections on mailing lists as a social realistic genre, and the elements required to keep them going (I'll be glad to send you the Pdf if you're interested). In my study the issue of trust and deception is central, and highly related to what and who list members imagine the other to be. In my group, that was a women-only list for lesbian and bisexual women, four of the female participants appeared to be written by one male, and this information was perceived as very disturbing by many participants (as they had taken for granted that the social rule for a self is 1 body - 1 online textual self, that in addition had the 'wrong' body signs regarding gender). In the end the list died, mostly because of the feelings of distrust that grew as a result of the 'revelation' - but also as the list owners did not take social responsibility for keeping a dialogue with the list about the issues of re-organizing the list (to a non-anonymous or closed list, stricter routines for signing up etc. Not that it would have prevented the same to happen again necessarily, but maybe more to make participants feel that their feelings of being emotionally affected was taken seriously). There are of course many different reasons for break-ups of online community, depending on community purpose and subject, participants' relations to each other, organisation form, leadership etc. In addtion to the local specific context, I found it valuable to look at these issues in relation to specific interaction genres on one hand and the particular challenges of the online textual context on the other. When to comes to mailing lists and the issues of trust within contexts that do not have a fictional purpose I found an article of Judith Donath very useful, in Communities in cyberspace (Kollock and Smith 1999), 'Identity and deception in the virtual community'. Of course there are also much to learn from studies that address 'elements of success', that preceeds all cases of break-ups, to look at the social frames of what created the success at one point that gradually changed (I had much use of Nancy Bayms book naturally, of the successful fandom group she studied. In fact my group was also very successful when I started my study, and is written as a 'from life to death story', trying to identity what characterized the different periods and what it was that caused the changes). If you're interested in methodological issues of studying groups in conflict and challenges for the researcher subject, I have also have an article about this in Health research in Cyberspace (NOVA Publ 2006, de Pranee Liamputtong). Good luck! All the best Janne Bromseth At 23:13 22.01.2007 -0600, you wrote: >I'm doing an independent study this semester on the breakup of Internet >communities, which I've called (for the project) Internet community >dissolution. I've been able to find plenty of articles on Internet >communities and relationships, etc, but I haven't seen any on this topic. > >How is this topic generally phrased in the lit? I came up with absolutely >no results when I tried searching for it in various forms in my library's >(pathetic) database. Can anyone point me in the direction of where to look >or specific articles on this? > >Also, while I'm here, are there any articles out there that address the >definition and types of internet communities? I could list them all out >from my personal experiences, but I'd like to have something published to >back up what I say. > >Thanks! >Ellie >_______________________________________________ >The air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org mailing list >is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org >Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: >http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org > >Join the Association of Internet Researchers: >http://www.aoir.org/

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Call for reviewers for aoir 8.0
by Mia Consalvo 23 Jan '07

23 Jan '07

Hi all, As you know, the deadline for the Call for Papers for AoIR 8.0 in Vancouver is rapidly approaching (February 1). This email is to ask for two things: 1) Please submit your proposal soon, and avoid the last minute rush. ;) 2) Please email me OFF LIST if you would be willing to serve as a reviewer of abstracts. If you reviewed abstracts last year, you are already in our database, but if you did not, we would welcome your help. Please send me your name, email address, and three or four areas of reviewing expertise. My email address is consalvo @ ohio.edu Thanks for your help! I'm looking forward to an excellent conference already. Best, Mia -- Mia Consalvo, Associate Professor Director of Graduate Studies 213 RTV Building School of Telecommunications 9 South College Street Ohio University Athens, OH 45701 740.597.1521

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Quantitative Data about the Internet
by Marc H. 23 Jan '07

23 Jan '07

Were do researchers find downloadable, raw data dealing with Internet and cell phone use, availability, prices and market penetration for North America and Latin America? Data dealing with digital divide issues would be particularly useful. I am searching for a data set that can be placed in SPSS for multivariate regression analysis in order to improve my understanding of this particular statistical software. Since I have not yet completed my fieldwork and have no data of my own, it would be great to crunch numbers about something that is interesting. If someone on this listserv has an SPSS data set lying around, similar to what I described above, then feel free to contact me off the listserv. Thank you for your help. Kind regards, Marc K. Hebert e-mail: mkh(a)mail.usf.edu -- PhD Student, Applied Anthropology University of South Florida 4202 East Fowler Avenue, SOC 107 Tampa, Florida 33620-7200 U.S.A. e-mail: mkh(a)mail.usf.edu website: anthropology.wetpaint.com

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