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

on journals ...
by Barry Wellman 02 May '07

02 May '07

I am disappointed by much of what I have recently read about journal writing. I want to provide different ideas. 1. The people I hang out with, small and large, write for journals because they have something to say. Sure, they'd like jobs, tenure, etc, but that is a secondary consideration. And the raises post-tenure are small enough that major publication is a bummer on a cost-benefit basis. We write because we want to. 2. As an inter-/trans- kind of guy, I depend on journal referees to keep out the crap. Of which there is a huge amount as anyone who referees knows. My problem is finding the time to actually read what has been well refereed. The last thing I want to do is to have poor papers pour at me. 3. This, btw, is my big beef at AoIR conferences -- not enough refereeing. It's not nice to waste people's time with poorly researched and poorly written papers. 4. I am involved with Wikipedia, and it works pretty well (altho unlikely Phoebe Ayers, I observe more vandalism and 3RR cases -- see current Wikipedia Signpost for Vandalism stats -- I guard the gates of Barbara Streisand, Anna Nicole Smith and Sandra Oh daily -- as well as the articles on Social Network stuff. But this would not be a good model for refereeing. Remember, that most comments in blogs, etc are junk. Who'd want to waste their time sifting through, when there is good research to be done -- and written up. Having said this, I am off on a trip to May 10, and may not get a chance to respond. And YMMV, 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] I'm researching virality in social networks - suggested papers?
by George Floros 01 May '07

01 May '07

John Veitch said > AC Nielsen report "In most online communities, 90% of users are lurkers > who never contribute, 9% of users contribute a little, and 1% of users > account for almost all the action". John, can I bug you for a link to that report or perhaps its' presentation/summary/anything ? Best regards, George Floros MD, MSc Thessaloniki, Greece

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Re: [Air-l] Social media in rural communities
by qCentral/Mary L. Gray 01 May '07

01 May '07

Hi Steven, I'm completing a book about LGBT and queer young people's uses of new media (primarily personal websites, lists, online coming out stories) to negotiate identity and public belonging in the rural United States. There's a small piece of that coming out in the journal "American Studies" (if the review process finishes before I retire). The larger ethnographic study (19 months in rural KY and along 3 of its state borders) will be out (please!) by Fall 2008. It's tentatively titled "Out in the Country: Youth, Media, and the Queering of Identity" NYU Press. </shameless self-promotion in the guise of sharing information> ; ) Mary ________________________ Mary L. Gray, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of Communication and Culture Affiliate Faculty Gender Studies Department and American Studies Program Indiana University Mottier Hall-Ashton Center 1790 East 10th St. Bloomington, IN 47405-9700 ph. 812/855.4379 fx. 812/855.6014 email: mLg(a)indiana.edu http://www.indiana.edu/~qcentral On Apr 30, 2007, at 4:17 PM, air-l-request(a)listserv.aoir.org wrote: > Message: 10 > Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2007 10:47:21 -0500 > From: "Steven Clift" <slc(a)publicus.net> > Subject: [Air-l] Social media in rural communities > To: <air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org> > Message-ID: <08dd01c78b3e$d82539e0$6600a8c0@publicus> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > > I am looking for research/researchers exploring the use of social/ > citizen > media in rural communities/areas. > > This might include uses of interactive web 2.0 tools and the like > either > autonomously by rural folks "MySpace" or collectively around local > community > "OurSpace." > > Cheers, > Steven Clift > E-Democracy.Org > > P.S. We are working up a grant proposal to extend Issues Forums > <http://e-democracy.org/if to a few rural Minnesota communities > built from a > series of generic citizen media and online engagement outreach > presentations > across the state. > > . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . > Steven Clift - clift(a)publicus.net > > Web: http://publicus.net > Blog: http://dowire.org/notes > NGO: http://e-democracy.org > > Replies to slc@ may be missed. > . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . >

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I'm researching virality in social networks : suggested papers?
by Tom Shelley 01 May '07

01 May '07

Hi everyone, I'm looking to research virality and social architecture in social networks. If you could point me towards some papers that deal with these topics I'd be very grateful. Some of the areas that interest me are as the following : How does social design affect the spread of social networks? If there were a paper with great real world examples that would be perfect. What specific features can help hinder the spread of a social network? How different invitation models effect the spread of a social network, and the subsequent community development? aSmallWorld vs MySpace vs college-only Facebook. Can a rapid spreading site destroy the original community? How to create a truly social space as opposed to YASN? These are issues that are clearly very important and I'd love to find some great research on them. Thanks a lot , Tom

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