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Re: [Air-l] viewing American class divisions through Facebook andMySpace
by Lois Ann Scheidt 29 Jun '07

29 Jun '07

Your construct of teens as congregating with "people like us" bothers me because it seems overly broad. Based on my experience talking to teens online, they move to online venues first through word-of-mouth from f2f friends and acquaintances. Once they are online, many younger teens only converse with people they know f2f...the media has done a good job in scary parents about the "dangers" online, who then scare their kids. Older teens may expand their circles into the circles of their friends, hence the popularity of second level friending. While a few, more experimental, teens may converse with random partners...many try this once or twice but don't continue the practice. A few will continue it often for less acceptable purposes - bullying, flaming, or "hooking up." Movement between online spaces may take place because of recommendations from f2f friends, or online only friends. Some adventurous types, or most 15-year old boys, will check out new spaces based on news coverage or random searches. But like most forays into the dark side, these are usually fishing expeditions rather then gateways to extensive use of new spaces. In other words, they may check out new spaces, they may even take up a temporary residence in such spaces, but total movement of their online "home" is tied to the location - or relocation - of primary f2f friends. So at it's simplest and most basic form, when teens enter an online space initially it is for "people known to me" who of course may be "people like me" but implies a different level of specificity. I must admit that I have found Bourdieu to be only partially applicable to adolescent spaces. In applying his theories I have to use a "small world" approach first. With teens their primary concerns are with the social hierarchy of their f2f world. Unlike adults, they are not as concerned that everyone they meet - or cross paths with - recognize their social standing. They are, however, very concerned that their social standing, stands out among their peers...their classmates and friends at their high school, in their neighborhood, and in their acquaintance pools. I believe this is because many of their social worlds are still very small towns where they see the same peers at school, socially, on teams, etc. Their social circles tend to have much more overlap then do the social circles of many adults. In all my work I use adolescent development theory as my true underpinning because I have found even without consciously using it we still end up proving that it works, i.e. the average 15-year-old boy is more adventurous than and less tied to social conventions then the average 15-year-old girl. However this may change during various developmental periods with the adventurousness see-sawing between the sexes. Without an understanding of adolescent development theory, I have seen researchers attribute characteristics to online interactions that rather then being unusual or motivated by their use of online spaces are normal teen developmental stages that if we were to follow that young person 24/7 we would see enacted with their f2f friends, their teachers, and their parents. To tie adolescent development into the MySpace/Facebook discussion. I have found that at an experimental stage teens move to what is "new". So for most of my adolescent research population (10-19) Facebook was not a factor since prior to the launch of their high school section in Sept. 2005, the only college and university email address holders had access to Facebook. So from it's inception, in 2003, MySpace has allowed access to non-academic teens. That gave MySpace a critical two-year jump on Facebook with those not yet in college or university, in truth the "two-year" jump is misleading since not all U.S. institutions of higher education were allowed access to Facebook from the beginning. So is it surprising that their is an economic and ethnic divide between the sites...it shouldn't be if you have even a passing acquaintance with statistic on college/university attendance based on family of origin economic status and ethnicity. Will the divide hold true now that Facebook allows access to anyone with an email address? Give it another year of so and we shall see. Lois Ann Scheidt Doctoral Student - School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University, Bloomington IN USA Adjunct Instructor - School of Informatics, IUPUI, Indianapolis IN USA and IUPUC, Columbus IN USA Webpage: http://www.loisscheidt.com Blog: http://www.professional-lurker.com Quoting Jason Wilson <jason_a_wilson(a)yahoo.com.au>: > Hi Andy and all, > > Thanks for the question. > > First I'd reiterate what I'm trying to account for: a specific, > well-heeled, well-educated demographic is making the switch to > Facebook, while other people stay where they are, and others still > continue to join MySpace. In addition, other specific groups are > heading to other services entirely, e.g. American teens to Xanga. I > would argue that "tipping points" and "usability" arguments can't > entirely account for this, and class and the desire to congregate > with "people like us" plays a part. > > I guess that I'd defer to Bourdieu for the most basic theoretical > underpinnings of what I'm arguing here. In Distinction he remarks > that "Objectively and subjectively aesthetic stances adopted in > matters like cosmetics, clothing, or home decoration are > opportunities to experience or asset one?s position in social space, > as a rank to be upheld or a distance to be kept." One of the central > arguments in the work is that "taste" and cultural preferences > mediate class distinctions, that taste is one of the primary ways in > which class distance and membership are asserted. This informs my > belief that design, "usability" and the contexts of social networking > are never neutral, and are always inflected by issues around class > (among others). I guess that for me, the problematic assumption would > be that social networking, and the selection of an SNS, could take > place in a way that somehow evaded, or was innocent of all of this. > > Why would I think of this specifically in relation to MySpace vs. > Facebook? Well, to amplify on an earlier example, I think that the > ways in which the two services can be personalised appeal to > different taste formations. The often-"gaudy" nature of MySpace > personalisation, arising from users' ability to insert large amounts > of HTML into their profiles to create background images etc. presents > a contrast with the essentially "modular" personalisation available > with Facebook profiles, where users select from a range of options > which do not disturb the given, "clean" colour schemes and layouts of > Facebook profiles. The Facebook interface strikes me as very > "designerly" - it is reminiscent to me in its look and feel of an OSX > application, with all that connotes in terms of "funky"/creative > professions, the blurring of work and/in play, and discernment (think > of the Mac vs. PC ad campaigns). The use of whitespace, drop-down > menus and a very "Web 2.0" set of icons allow it to be > read as uncluttered, fresh and efficient. Personalisation for many > Facebook users takes place by way of deferring to the expert > knowledges of application designers. By contrast, MySpace > personalisations often seem inexpert, distracting, ungainly - in > short amateur, even where the "pimping" is outsourced. > Coincidentally, both Danah Boyd and I (me in my blog post on the > 22nd) are drawn to the metaphor of/comparison with Swedish furniture > stores and their emphasis on modularity and design in thinking about > Facebook. There are visual rhetorics in Facebook's presentation that > connote a restrained minimalism which is not avant-garde but rational > and "tasteful". This observation chimes with the excitement of those > marketing high-end consumer goods about getting access Facebook's > "elite" user base. Facebook's aesthetic of personalisation appeals to > a certain kind of networked, linked-in, design-aware, educated, > "mature" (non-emo :-) ) subject, in part because of the "distancing" > it offers from messy old MySpace, which begins, by contrast, to > resemble the chaos of a teenager's bedroom wall. In this sense, I > think we can talk about class in relation to the design interface. > > That's an example - as I said in yesterday's post, I think the modes > of networking Facebook offers as well as the narratives associated > with it's success are appealing to a certain kind of contemporary, > class-inflected sensibility. If you wanted specific examples of > MySpace profiles that bear out the contrast, I'd hesitate to give > them on a list, but could send you some off-list if you like. > > Cheers > Jason > > > > > > > > ____________________________________________________________________________________ Yahoo!7 Mail has just got even bigger and better with unlimited storage on all > webmail > accounts. > http://au.docs.yahoo.com/mail/unlimitedstorage.html > > > _______________________________________________ > 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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Fwd: Yes Men booted by Exxon; need sysadmin badly
by nativebuddha 29 Jun '07

29 Jun '07

anybody know an available sysadmin? -robert ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: The Yes Men <people(a)theyesmen.org> Date: Jun 28, 2007 8:47 PM Subject: Yes Men booted by Exxon; need sysadmin badly To: "nativebuddha-gmail.com" <nativebuddha(a)gmail.com> To edit your profile or unsubscribe from mailings, please visit http://theyesmen.org/dblist/prof.php?e=nativebuddha@gmail.com&x=368953340 June 28, 2007 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE EXXON HACKS THE YES MEN Yes Men badly need sysadmin, server co-location Contact: mailto:people@theyesmen.org One day after the Yes Men made a joke announcement that ExxonMobil plans to turn billions of climate-change victims into a brand-new fuel called Vivoleum, the Yes Men's upstream internet service provider shut down Vivoleum.com, the Yes Men's spoof website, and cut off the Yes Men's email service, in reaction to a complaint whose source they will not identify. The provider, Broadview Networks, also made the Yes Men remove all mention of Exxon from TheYesMen.org before they'd restore the Yes Men's email service. The Yes Men assume the complainant was Exxon. "Since parody is protected under US law, Exxon must think that people seeing the site will think Vivoleum's a real Exxon product, not just a parody," said Yes Man Mike Bonanno. "Exxon's policies do already contribute to 150,000 climate-change related deaths each year," added Yes Man Andy Bichlbaum. "So maybe it really is credible. What a resource!" After receiving the complaint June 15, Broadview added a "filter" that disabled the Vivoleum.com IP address (64.115.210.59), and furthermore prevented email from being sent from the Yes Men's primary IP address (64.115.210.58). Even after all Exxon logos were removed from both sites and a disclaimer was placed on Vivoleum.com on Tuesday, Broadview would still not remove the filter. (The disclaimer read: "Although Vivoleum is not a real ExxonMobil program, it might as well be.") Broadview did restore both IPs on Wednesday, after the Vivoleum.com website was completely disabled and all mention of Exxon was removed from TheYesMen.org. While this problem is temporarily resolved, the story is far from over. Meanwhile, though, two bigger problems loom, for which we're asking your help: 1. THE YES MEN'S SERVER NEEDS A NEW HOME. Broadview Networks provides internet connectivity to New York's Thing.net and the websites and servers it hosts, including the Yes Men's server. Thing.net has been a host for many years to numerous activist and artist websites and servers. At the end of July, Thing.net will terminate its contract with Broadview and move its operations to Germany, where internet expression currently benefits from a friendlier legal climate than in the US, and where baseless threats by large corporations presumably have less weight with providers. At that time, the Yes Men and two other organizations with servers "co-located" at Thing.net will need a new home for those servers. Please write to us if you can offer such help or know of someone who can. 2. THE YES MEN NEED A SYSADMIN. The Yes Men are desperately in need of a sysadmin. The position is unpaid at the moment, but it shouldn't take much time for someone who knows Debian Linux very well. It involves monitoring the server, keeping it up-to-date, making sure email is working correctly, etc. The person could also maintain the Yes Men's website (which will be updated next week), if she or he wants. Thing.net also needs a sysadmin: someone living in New York who knows Linux well. The Thing.net position involves some money and the rewards of working for an organization that has consistently and at great personal risk supported groups like the Yes Men over the years. THE YES MEN AND THING.NET THANK YOU!

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AoIR Newsletter II
by Kathleen O'Riordan 29 Jun '07

29 Jun '07

The second edition of the AoIR newsletter is now out at: <http://aoir.org/newsletter/> Many thanks to all the people on the team! All the best Kate http://www.sussex.ac.uk/mediastudies/profile30746.html

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Need 1 or 2 more 4 Grad Panel
by Ted M Coopman 28 Jun '07

28 Jun '07

All, I have three volunteers so far for this years grad panel (see details below), two in US and one in Australian program's (Mass Comm, American Studies, and Education) two heading to jobs, one is dissertating. Add myself in Communication, dissertating, and the US. Ideally, I'd like commitments from two other members whom are going to AoIR 07, especially grad students from Europe, Canada, Asia, or other regions/nations. The more diverse we can make it, the better it will serve all AoIR student members. Even if you are in the US or AUS and think you would like to to formally contribute, please let me know. This will be an open forum rather than a talking head roundtable, so everyone who comes will have a chance to chime in. Thanks, -TED Here is the call: Every AoIR conference, the Graduate Student Representative is given a panel slot to address issues or potential interest or benefit to graduate student members. This year the panel is: Survivor: Graduate School When my father in-law, who got his Ph.D. in the 1950s, hears my laments he comments on how little graduate school has changed since he went through the process. Often, the experiences and lessons learned from our own experiences as graduate students are lost to those who come after us or at least filtered through subsequent experiences as faculty. This panel is an opportunity for us to share tips and advice on surviving a process that is estimated by the Chronicle of Higher Education of having a 50% non-completion rate. So, this is an invitation for current graduate students and especially recent grads in all fields to come and share their wisdom, experiences, and tips for success. This is not intended to be a "whine and cheese" event (altho it is a part of a grad students job to complain!) but a forum for sharing our collective intelligence on time and stress management, productivity strategies, faculty interaction, funding, balancing life and school, and other challenges. Please email me off list if you are interested participating in a more formal capacity, but as always, these roundtables are open discussion forums in which all are welcome. Ted M. Coopman Department of Communication University of Washington

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Canadian Internet use 2005 from Statistics Canada
by Peter Timusk 28 Jun '07

28 Jun '07

Statistics Canada now has this survey available. Statistics Canada has a web site here www.statcan.ca Canadian Internet Use Survey 2005 The public use microdata file from the 2005 Canadian Internet Use Survey (CIUS) is now available. This file contains information collected from more than 30,000 respondents aged 18 and over residing in private households in the provinces. The public use microdata file provides information about the extent to which individual Canadians use the Internet, as well as the scope of their Internet use. The survey content includes the location of use (e.g., at home or at work), the frequency and intensity of use, the specific uses of the Internet from the home, the purchase of products and services (electronic commerce), and other issues related to Internet use (such as concerns over privacy). This content is supplemented by information on socio-economic characteristics (e.g., age, income and education) and some sub-provincial geographic detail. Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 4432. The Canadian Internet Use Survey: Public Use Microdata File, 2005, is available on CD-ROM (56M0003XCB, $2,350), along with complete documentation including a user guide and a codebook. See How to order products. Results from the 2005 CIUS were released in The Daily on August 15, 2006 and in The Daily on November 1, 2006. These releases also featured CANSIM tables and summary tables. To obtain a copy of the CD-ROM, for more information on related products and services, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Larry McKeown (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 613-951-2582; fax: 613-951-0009; larry.mckeown(a)statcan.ca) Science, Innovation and Electronic Information Division. Peter Timusk, B.Math statistics (2002), B.A. legal studies (2006) Carleton University Systems Science Graduate student, University of Ottawa (2006-2007). just trying to stay linear. Read by hundreds of lurkers every week.

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viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace
by Derek McMillan 28 Jun '07

28 Jun '07

Well the first thing I did on joining facebook was to join the "Campaign for a New Workers' Party" group! Anyone who knows anything about this campaign would hesitate to say it was a middle class grouping :) I apologise for not using my RL name on facebook btw but I am a teacher and my pupils are roughly evenly divided between facebook and myspace with a considerable overlap. Is there any difference in the age profile of facebook and myspace in the UK btw? ___________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Messenger - NEW crystal clear PC to PC calling worldwide with voicemail http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

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Re: [Air-l] viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace
by Jason Wilson 28 Jun '07

28 Jun '07

Hi Jimmy and all, Points taken Jimmy, but there is more to go with arguments about class, I think. Your point about people not necessarily wanting to flee "people they don't like" may be warranted, but that doesn't necessarily mean that people aren't fleeing *towards* where "people like us" ("linked in", tech-literate, "creative") gather. Saying that MySpace has bad customer service doesn't account for the way in which different groups appear to be gravitating towards one or another of the range of alternatives. According to comscore numbers here http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/11516.asp (admittedly these are a year old) - People 18-24 are 3 times more likely than the average Internet user to visit Facebook. - People in households with an income over US$100,000 are 30% more likely than average to visit Facebook. - The slightly above average level of visitation from people with household incomes lower than US$25,000 is explained by the preponderance of users who are at college/university, who we can safely assume will inhabit a significant proportion of $100K+ households in the future, and will get there more quickly than those without a University education. Additionally, American teens seem to be going in large numbers to Xanga, while MySpace continues to grow, attracting an older demographic (the "late adopters"?). Facebook's aesthetics embody a kind of functional minimalism that appeals to a middle class sensibility (significantly personalisation applications do not disturb the overall layout and colour scheme). Facebook's privacy and networking models mean that you are significantly less likely to have to interact with people you don't know or like already. The "tech-success" narrative, and the refusal to sell to Yahoo appeal as a kind of modern entrepreneurial fable that aspirational college-educated users are attracted to participating in. The Murdoch-owned MySpace, by contrast, might be seen as a narrative of Big & Old (& Unfashionable) media capitalising on innovation. The marketing people, at least, are excited by the potential that Facebook offers for reaching a higher-income user-base, and ads on Facebook will cost you more: loads of links to this effect here http://del.icio.us/search/?user=digital_white_flight Cheers Jason Wilson ____________________________________________________________________________________ Yahoo!7 Mail has just got even bigger and better with unlimited storage on all webmail accounts. http://au.docs.yahoo.com/mail/unlimitedstorage.html

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Poll on annoying Internet neologisms
by Dan Prives 28 Jun '07

28 Jun '07

There's this story going around about a supposed poll to determine the most annoying word produced by the Internet. I found it here (AFP -> Yahoo news): http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070621/tc_afp/britaininternetlanguage and here (Telegraph.co.uk, Sally Peck) (excerpt below, if you care about the results of this alleged poll) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/22/wiphone222.… However, there's no mention of this poll on the YouGov.com web site, nor on lulu.com nor or lulublookerprize.com. Did this poll really happen? Regards, Dan Prives Where Most Needed The Charity Industry Blog http://www.wheremostneeded.org The YouGov poll, in which 2,000 web users voted for their least favourite word spawned by the internet, celebrates the second annual Blooker Prize, which honours the year's best "blook", or book based on a blog. The 10 most irksome words spawned by the internet: 1. Folksonomy: an ad hoc online classification system 2. Blogosphere: the collective term for the online blogging community 3. Blog: an online journal or web-log 4. Netiquette: internet etiquette 5. Blook: a book based on a blog 6. Webinar: an online seminar 7. Vlog: a video blog 8. Social networking: the use of the web to form "virtual communities" 9. Cookie: a text file stored on your computer from a website you visited 10.(tie) Wiki: a collaborative website in which multiple authors add, remove and edit content Podcast: a downloadable audio file Avatar: an icon used to represent oneself online User-generated content: web content created by use

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Evaluating blog and forum marketing
by Gary Huang 28 Jun '07

28 Jun '07

Dear all, I am currently involved in a project on evaluating the performance of online marketing with forums and blogs, such as campaigns intriguing people to talk over a brand. Unfortunately, I am not aware of any standard measure on the performance of markerting with online community, especailly forums and blogs. In addition, there seems to be little literature on how to thoroughly evaluate the impacts of diaries (from Blogs) and posts (from Forums). The only widely-used method I come across so far is Jotter's bharns http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/8/16/03719/6748 . I have been a luker and seen many brilliant people on the list. So I turn to the list for help. It would be wonderful if any of you would like to share with me your experience and resources on related topics. Best, Gary

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use of second life in higher education?
by Charles Ess 28 Jun '07

28 Jun '07

A colleague is starting to examine possible uses of Second Life in higher education. A quick scan of the AoIR mail archive didn't turn up anything specific (though perhaps I missed something ...) so... references and/or other suggestions for some initial reading in this area? many thanks in advance, - charles ess Distinguished Research Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies <http://www.drury.edu/gp21> Drury University 900 N. Benton Ave. Voice: 417-873-7230 Springfield, MO 65802 USA FAX: 417-873-7435 Home page: http://www.drury.edu/ess/ess.html Information Ethics Fellow, 2006-07, Center for Information Policy Research, School of Information Studies, UW-Milwaukee <http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/SOIS/cipr/ethics.html> Co-Editor, International Journal of Internet Research Ethics http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/SOIS/cipr/ijire.html Co-chair, CATaC conferences <www.catacconference.org> Vice-President, Association of Internet Researchers <www.aoir.org> Professor II, Globalization and Applied Ethics Programmes <http://www.anvendtetikk.ntnu.no/pres/bridgingcultures.php> Exemplary persons seek harmony, not sameness. -- Analects 13.23

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