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the choice of social network is a social network phenomenon?
by William Bain 21 Jun '07

21 Jun '07

Barry Wellman wrote: "It is path dependency. If most of your friends are on FB or MS, then you will choose that one. I haven't seen hard data on socioeconomic differences, and I'd be reluctant to generalize that FB is mid-class and MS working-class." I would be interested in knowing whether anything *has* been published with that type of hard data and how you'd anallyse the paths. I assume vissually (charts? tables?). Maybe this has been talked about before, but fwiw on a learning basis. In a field arguably outside the scope of my usual one. Especially: would anyone know of something publiehshed online? Best regards, Will William Bain PhD Student Comparative Literature Department of Spanish Philology Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona --------------------------------- Be a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship answers from someone who knows. Yahoo! Answers - Check it out.

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Who am I? - Social Networks - Not Networking - Networking
by John Veitch 20 Jun '07

20 Jun '07

I'm indebted to Danah Boyd for so clearly explaining how different social segments find it important to join certain online groups. Also for the insight that while we might call these groups "social networks", when young people join these groups they are not "networking" in the sense most of us would understand. So this form of joining behaviour is like wearing a colours, or a badge, or branded jeans, or the right brand of sport shoe, or being part of the "right" cell phone network. My self image tells me which choice is appropriate for me. It's a from of personal branding, not really linking or friending or connecting in the way someone like me (I'm 65) might imagine. The article in US Airways Magazine, "Welcome to the Social (Network)", by Daniel Tynan goes on to explain that because of web 2.0 influences many sites on the Internet allow people to offer site content, and to "brand" that content with their proper names or their chosen Internet names. Once again this is not networking, but it is using the power of many to create a resource for other "people like me", since if you are not "like me" you would never find your way to this "space". Search engines will pick up your name or your brand in most of the places where you are active. By using these sites we leave traceable tracks of ourselves. Most of the young people using MySpace or Facebook or Bebo are not thinking about "building a personal brand" but that is the task they have begun. Besides it's an important task, one that we all need to learn. A MySpace page you've put effort and time into is certainly one way to begin. David Teten and Scott Allen in their book "The Virtual Handshake; Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online" devote a chapter to "Building Your Virtual Presence" (CH5). Lauren M Squires, inspired this letter today by suggesting that we are all in real life social networks so that Daniel Tynan's comment: "If you don't belong to some kind of (online) social network, you soon may not belong anywhere." was too strong. ("... This usage got my goat, for whatever reason" LS) While I agree that the words Daniel Tynan chose are immoderate, the sentiment he is expressing is in the right direction. The value of the Internet for each of us evolves out of the social contacts that we build online. "All learning is social." ... "We learn best from people like ourselves." ... "Children learn more quickly and easily if the teacher is a person who shares the same culture as the child." I'm sure you know many similar quotes. While it's true that in the real world most of us can find the contacts we need, the Internet make is possible to build social contacts across geographic and political and religious boundaries. The great promise of the Internet is better understanding and more informed decision making and greater innovation because we live in the "information age". You get a clue from the term "information age" that "information" is a resource or a tool that you can "get" by paying a price of some kind. That price might be $1.20 for a newspaper, or $150.00 for a technical report, or it may be the time cost of being a member of air-l listserv. However very often the key to my access to the information I need is to be a MEMBER of LinkedIn, or Ryze, or Viadeo, or Xing or TEN. In my activity as a member I slowly identify certain people who are "like me" and when I see their names attached to comments, I would otherwise ignore, instead I pay special attention. When you are "known" to more people, your messages posted to lists like this or to web sites will be read by more people. That so many people on this list are familiar with MySpace and Facebook but not Bebo (The current hit in NZ schools I understand) tells us something about who's here. The original social network that became very popular was Ryze. That network looks fairly old hat now, but it still has some very active discussion networks in English, and it's growth rate remains steady. I strongly recommend to you all the value of LinkedIn. It's not obvious what to do there, because there are no discussion boards, but it's a great way to display your personal work record and history in a form less formal than a CV. And the Answers section of LinkedIn is a valuable resource. Depending on where you live and your interests joining one or two other online social networks is likely to be useful. Since many of you are university focused Academici might appeal to you. Academici was built on the same base as OpenBC and run out of Germany. It functions in 16 different languages. There was some problem with continuing to use the OpenBC software platform and Academici had to shift their entire membership to a new system. It's been messy and it took almost a year. A lot of goodwill has been lost. But the initiative is still valuable. Your support would be appreciated. Drop me a private note and I'll send you an invitation. Here's the site: http://www.academici.net/ John -- "John Stephen Veitch" http://www.ate.co.nz/ http;//www.ate.co.nz/networking/ By all means Google me.

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Doctoral Research - Project or Document Management Software
by Samita Nandy 20 Jun '07

20 Jun '07

I am a Ph.D. student and currently arranging research material for my thesis proposal and dissertation. In my research, I am coming across a vast number of online sites and offline material. Usually, I save them as documents and organize them as files and folders in my study area or computer. However, I was wondering if there is any academic software that could manage, categorize, and coordinate research, conferences, publications, calender, appointments, etc in a strategic manner. I know there are applications like Microsoft Outlook that can organize mail and calenders for communication and planning and EndNote and many web-based software are there for organizing bibliographies, library lists, and publishing but I was wondering if there is a comprehensive academic software for research project management? I am sure this would be very helpful for all graduate students and academic researchers and any suggestion would be very helpful! Thanks! Samita -- Samita Nandy Media and Information, Curtin University of Technology Communication and Culture, University of Toronto E-Mail: samitanandy(a)gmail.com Phone: 1-905-896-7834 Fax: 1-905-268-9996

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blogs & state politics research
by Emily Metzgar 20 Jun '07

20 Jun '07

Dear Colleagues, I'm a doctoral student in media and public affairs at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and my research focuses on the impact of weblogs on state politics around the country. This is a quick reminder of my request for your help in compiling data for my research. A quick profile of my research is available here: http://governing.typepad.com/13thfloor/2007/04/queen_of_the_st.html I have prepared an online survey for both bloggers and blog readers to complete. The survey is available online through June 30 at the following link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=mb2MRtsLhdFv5NW9LLmdiA%3d%3d I would be grateful if you could take the time to complete this survey and to circulate it among your colleagues. If you like, I'd be happy to keep you informed of my findings as my research progresses. Many thanks for considering this request. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments about this -- like any good doctoral student I'm always happy to discuss my research! Best regards, Emily Metzgar Doctoral student Manship School of Mass Communication Louisiana State University emetzg1(a)lsu.edu 318.572.0531 -- phone 866.319.8460 -- fax

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the choice of social network is a social network phenomenon?
by Barry Wellman 20 Jun '07

20 Jun '07

It is path dependency. If most of your friends are on FB or MS, then you will choose that one. I haven't seen hard data on socioeconomic differences, and I'd be reluctant to generalize that FB is mid-class and MS working-class. You're seeing local clustering, which may not be consistent across localities or interest groups. Often, it is based on just a local seed (one of the pitfalls of statistical cluster analysis, btw). WHy, for ex, is FB hotter in Canada than the US? I doubt that it originally had much to do with a nicer interface. Two notes on terminology: 1. Consistent with Lauren Squires, I'm running a small conference Nov 1-2 with the title "Social Network/ing". It's mostly academic, with some industry attendance, and mostly local, but with visiting speakers: Keith Hampton, Caroline Haythornthwaite, Nan Lin and Fernanda Viegas. (and Jon Kleinberg on Oct 30 as a stand-alone). Attendance is free, but we don't do anything for you: find your own room and restaurant. (But do let me know if you're coming). 2. As for terms, altho I like danah's "friendstering", I have been using "linked" for many years -- well before the LinkedIn folks started, and I still think it best represents the FB/MS phenomenon. But Naomi Baron might know more about this. 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 -- updating songs, movies and history: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php Elvis wouldn't be singing Return to Sender now _____________________________________________________________________

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Re: [Air-l] A verb for using social networking sites
by Tom Shelley 20 Jun '07

20 Jun '07

Might I add the variant 'friendsing' to the list of social network verbs. Someone thanked me for 'Friendsing them up'. -- Tom Shelley Project Red Stripe Tel : + 44 (0) 782 441 5491 team blog : www.projectredstripe.com/blog personal blog : www.fedoralreserve.wordpress.com

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Re: [Air-l] social network migration
by David Brake 20 Jun '07

20 Jun '07

On 19 Jun 2007, at 23:08, Martin wrote: > When I did research for my MSc dissertation the young people that I > interviewed were all on www.bebo.com (Ages from 11 to 15). This was > two > years ago, the older of the group have migrated to myspace, but > this also > drags the younger members along with them. In my sample of (ten) MySpace users I interviewed quite a few of them used to be Bebo users (both Martin and I are in the UK where Bebo is more popular for younger kids than it might be in the US for example). My interviewees said if I remember that they moved because of the more customisable profile features of MySpace and because there were more bands on MySpace but I imagine the perception that Bebo is for younger kids may have something to do with it too. I personally suspect that much of MySpace's current userbase is likely to abandon it in favour of Facebook (or blogs or nothing) as they age and it will be dependent on attracting a continual stream of new high schoolers. While thinking about SNSes I wonder how long it will take for senior academics to take to SNSes and which one they will pick - Facebook is an obvious possibility but I suspect the difficulty of having to project one image for one's students and another for fellow academics will be too hard to overcome. LinkedIn seems too corporate-focused to me. Has anyone seen any signs of academic-focused social networking sites that might take off? --- David Brake, Doctoral Student in Media and Communications, London School of Economics & Political Science <http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/media@lse/study/ mPhilPhDMediaAndCommunications.htm> Also see http://davidbrake.org/ (home page), http://blog.org/ (personal weblog) and http://get.to/lseblog (academic groupblog) Author of Dealing With E-Mail - <http://davidbrake.org/ dealingwithemail/> callto://DavidBrake (Skype.com's Instant Messenger and net phone) Please access the attached hyperlink for an important electronic communications disclaimer: http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/secretariat/legal/disclaimer.htm

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Pl change my email id on list
by forward mail 19 Jun '07

19 Jun '07

Dear Sir., I wish to change my email id to receive the list present email forwardcomplete(a)gmail.com new one to change stocknetinfo(a)gmail.com Kindly confirm or guide further in this respect. Kind Rgds S.Narain

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Re: [Air-l] A verb for using social networking sites
by Kris Markman 19 Jun '07

19 Jun '07

>From: danah boyd <aoir.z3z(a)danah.org> ><snip> >Also, regarding the comments on Facebook vs. MySpace, i'm trying to >write up an essay about my data on this. The short answer is that >it's classed at the high school level in the US. Working class kids, >subcultural kids, queer kids, kids of color, etc. are using MySpace. >College-bound kids, "good" kids, wealthy kids, sporty kids, etc. are >all using Facebook. This has changed in the last year. It plays out >some in college. If you go to a Latino-dominated community college, >you're far more likely to see MySpace be the force. But if you're >teaching a a 4-year institution, MySpace is barely visible except in >the artist, queer, and subcultural communities. More on this on my >blog shortly. > In my (admittedly very anecdotal) experience, class plays a HUGE role in determining the use of Facebook vs. MySpace among college students. For the last year I have been teaching at a) a nationally-ranked, expensive, private university and b) a 4th-tier, regional state college. Both are 4-year institutions, and the student body of both schools is predominately white (if anything the private university is slightly more diverse). But the two schools are worlds away in terms of class. My state college students are by-and-large working class kids, most of whom work full-time and still live at home, while the private university students come from families who can afford the ~$40K/year tuition and room costs. MySpace is extremely popular with my state college students. In our various class discussions they reveal that some of them also have Facebook profiles, but they don't really use it very much; all of their friends and their activities are centered on MySpace. The private university students are exactly opposite-they use Facebook almost exclusively and in some instances have expressed a fairly condescending attitude towards MySpace. I would be interested to know if others have had similar experiences with class and the choice of social networking site. Speaking of the term "social networking," I agree with the various comments suggesting that we won't really see one specific verb emerge to describe the activity, and that generally networking is not what goes on in these spaces. In my summer class last week, we were discussing technologies for supporting groups and teams, and the social networking sites came up. One student basically summed up the attitude of the class with a statement to the effect of "Facebook is really just a good way to keep tabs on people that you don't really want to have to interact with on a daily basis." Kind of the opposite of networking, no? Anyway, those are just my random observations, nothing generalizable, but possible food for thought. -Kris M. -- ********** ********** Kris M. Markman, Ph.D. Email: krism(a)alumni.utexas.net http://webhost.bridgew.edu/kmarkman/index.html ********** **********

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IE Conference Deadline Extended
by Esther Milne 19 Jun '07

19 Jun '07

EXTENDED DEADLINE: CFP THE FOURTH AUSTRALASIAN CONFERENCE ON INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT, 2007 3-5 December, 2007 Storey Hall, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia http://www.ie.rmit.edu.au An in-cooperation conference with the Association for Computer Machinery (ACM). SUBMISSION DATES: ****** Extended Submission Deadline ******* Full Papers (max 8 pages): 23 July 2007 Short papers (max 3 pages): 23 July 2007 Full and short papers will be refereed by an international program committee for publication in the conference proceedings. All accepted papers will be archived in the ACM Digital Library. INTRODUCTION The Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment is a cross-disciplinary conference that brings together researchers from artificial intelligence, cognitive science, media studies, drama, HCI, psychology, interactive media, cultural studies, graphics, audio, as well as researchers from other disciplines working on new game specific technologies or providing critical analysis of games and interactive environments. In an epoch marked by convergence, cross-platform media and the rise of social software/ networks, how are the digital industries - most especially gaming - being transformed? What types of new genres and modes of interactivity are evolving? And how are these social technologies informed by cultural context? The 2007 Interactive Entertainment conference considers the difference between convergence as rhetoric and practice, imaginary and reality. The conference will accept innovative submission types that present new scientific ideas, improvements to existing techniques or provide new ways of examining, designing and using computer games. All full paper and short paper submissions will be peer-reviewed by an international program committee. Authors of selected IE2007 papers will be invited to revise and expand their submission for submission to a special issue of the Journal of Game development. These expanded versions would be subject to the journal's existing review process. TOPICS OF INTEREST The papers and presentations should include original and unpublished contributions. Suggested research topics include but are not limited to: * Artificial Intelligence * Augmented, Virtual and Mixed Reality * Art, Design and New Media * Convergence and cross-platform media * E-learning and the roles of games in pedagogy * Technology, co-presence and place * Pervasive (location aware) mobile technologies * Policy and legislative responses to mobile and locative media * Cultural and Media Studies on Computer Games * Education, Training, and Edutainment Technologies * Graphics/Animation Techniques * Interactive Digital Storytelling * Mobile Media * The rise of social software and networking (technical and social) * Sound and Music FURTHER INFORMATION: Please see the conference web site: http://www.ie.rmit.edu.au Inquiries should be forwarded to: ie2007(a)ieconference.org Dr Esther Milne Lecturer in Media and Communications Faculty of Life and Social Sciences Swinburne University of Technology John Street, Hawthorn VIC 3122 AUSTRALIA +613 92148195 www.fibreculture.org www.realtimearts.net/ www.ie.rmit.edu.au/ ******************** Swinburne University of Technology CRICOS Provider Code: 00111D NOTICE This e-mail and any attachments are confidential and intended only for the use of the addressee. They may contain information that is privileged or protected by copyright. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution, printing, copying or use is strictly prohibited. The University does not warrant that this e-mail and any attachments are secure and there is also a risk that it may be corrupted in transmission. It is your responsibility to check any attachments for viruses or defects before opening them. If you have received this transmission in error, please contact us on +61 3 9214 8000 and delete it immediately from your system. We do not accept liability in connection with computer virus, data corruption, delay, interruption, unauthorised access or unauthorised amendment. Please consider the environment before printing this email.

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