Hi All, A friend writes:
I am looking for some internet research advice and thought you might be the man. I'm working on a paper for SCS on "Ebay as Archive" and surprisingly I am finding very little intellectual work on "the world's largest marketplace." I thought that this might be the kind of topic that gets written about in web journals which I know next to nothing about. Any suggestions where I might go looking?
He's in Cinema Studies -- so critical/cultural stuff would be best, but maybe he could make use of social scientific stuff as well. Offlist replies are fine. Best, --J
Does anyone know of any work, books, articles, etc...or work in progress taking a critical cultural or similar approach to studying mobile communication issues, PDAs, Thrid Generation wireless etc? There seems to be tons of computer science types working on tech issues, and people writing on 3G policy and information society, but have can't find much else. Thanks, Jonathan
you might go to http://www.cwt.vt.edu/ to start, which would eventually get you to: http://www.comm.vt.edu/faculty/Sung/ where you will find some more info. possibly leading you to: http://www.comm.vt.edu/faculty/sung/comm5814/schedules.htm which has a fair amount of material related to your question. Jonathan Lillie wrote:
Does anyone know of any work, books, articles, etc...or work in progress taking a critical cultural or similar approach to studying mobile communication issues, PDAs, Thrid Generation wireless etc?
There seems to be tons of computer science types working on tech issues, and people writing on 3G policy and information society, but have can't find much else.
Thanks, Jonathan
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-- jeremy hunsinger http://www.cddc.vt.edu/jeremy cddc/political science http://www.cddc.vt.edu 526 major williams hall 0130 http://www.dromocracy.com virginia tech -under construction blacksburg, va 24061 540-231-7614 this email was sent from my office
Jonathan, There's a edited book just out of Cambridge University Press that looks to be a great discussion of the impact of mobile communication devices. Worth checking out-- Title: Perpetual Contact Eds. James E. Katz, Mark Aakhus Annette Jonathan Lillie wrote:
Does anyone know of any work, books, articles, etc...or work in progress taking a critical cultural or similar approach to studying mobile communication issues, PDAs, Thrid Generation wireless etc?
****************** Annette N. Markham, PhD Department of Communication University of Illinois at Chicago 1007 W. Harrison St. (m/c 132) Chicago, IL 60607-7137 Tel: 312-413-2124 amarkham@uic.edu ******************
I have a forthcoming article on mobile issues called The Phoneur: Mobile Commerce and the Digital Pedagogies of the Wireless Web. It examines some Canadian-specific issues related to W4 enticements, specifically Rogers Cable my-iD.com service (which hasn't really taken off). A truncated version (from which I quote in the longer one) appeared in Shift magazine a while ago: http://www.shift.com/mag/9.2/html/9.2autopsy.asp. I would also recommend Myerson, G. (2001). Heidegger, Habermas and the Mobile Phone. Reading, UK: Icon Books (UK}; Totem Books (US) as a nifty look at these issues, from which I also quote, but is inexplicably absent from the reference list on the online version of the article (and which I will correct forthwith). Pasted below is a bibliography from Sean Smith, who posted to another list a short while ago. I don't think it is inappropriate to paste here, but I have left his sig line in in case you want to contact him directly. best, Robert <snip> (2001). Pew Internet Teens Online Report: Rise of the Instant-Message Generation, Pew Internet & American Life Project. (2000). Mobile Phones Grabs Europes Youth, Forrester Research. Brown, B. (2001). Studying the Use of Mobile Technology. Wireless World. B. Brown, N. Green and R. Harper. London, Springer. Brown, B., Green, N. and Harper, R., (2001). Wireless World: Social and Interactional Aspects of the Mobile Age. London, United Kingdom, Springer. Christensen, P., A. James, et al. (2000). Home and Movement: Children Constructing 'Family Time'. Children's Geographies: Playing, Living, Learning. S. L. Holloway and G. Valentine, Routledge. Churchill, E. F. and N. Wakeford (2001). Framing Mobile Collaborations and Mobile Technologies. Wireless World: Social and Interactional Aspects of the Mobile Age. B. Brown, N. Green and R. Harper. London, Springer. Clark, L. S. (1998). Dating on the Net: Teens and the Rise of 'Pure' Relationships. Cybersociety 2.0: Revising Computer-Mediated Communication and Community. S. G. Jones, Sage: 135-155. Cooper, G. (2001). The Mutable Mobile: Social Theory in the Wireless World. Wireless World: Social and Interactional Aspects of the Mobile Age. B. Brown, N. Green and R. Harper. London, United Kingdom, Springer. Grant, D. and S. Kiesler (2001). Blurring the Boundaries: Cell Phones, Mobility, and the Line between Work and Personal Life. Wireless World: Social and Interactional Aspects of the Mobile Age. B. Brown, N. Green and R. Harper. London, United Kingdom, Springer. Green, N. (2001). Who's Watching Whom? Monitoring and Accountability in Mobile Relations. Wireless World: Social and Interactional Aspects of the Mobile Age. B. Brown, N. Green and R. Harper. London, United Kingdom, Springer. Green, N. (forthcoming). Outwardly Mobile: Young People and Mobile Technologies. Grinter, R. E. and M. Eldridge (2001). "y do tngrs luv 2 txt msg." European Conference on Computer-Supported Collaborative Work, Germany. Harper, D. (2001). The Mobile Interface: Old Technologies and New Arguments. Wireless World: Social and Interactional Aspects of the Mobile Age. B. Brown, N. Green and R. Harper. London, United Kingdom, Springer. Helyar, V. (2001). Usability of Portable Devices: The Case of WAP. Wireless World: Social and Interactional Aspects of the Mobile Age. B. Brown, N. Green and R. Harper. London, United Kingdom, Springer. Hutchby, I. and J. Moran-Ellis (2001). Introduction: Relating Children, Technology and Culture. Children, Technology and Culture: The Impacts of Technologies in Children's Everyday Life. I. Hutchby, Moran-Ellis, Jo. New York, Routledge. Ito, M. (2001). Mobile Phones, Japanese Youth, and the Re-Placement of Social Contact. Society for the Social Study of Science (4S), Cambridge MA. Kasesniemi, E.-L. and P. Rautiainen (2002 forthcoming). Mobile Culture of Children and Teenagers in Finland. Perpetual Contact: Mobile Communication, Private Talk, and Public Performance. J. E. Katz and M. Aakhus. Cambridge, United Kingdom, Cambridge University Press. Katz, J. E. and M. Aakhus (3/2002 forthcoming). Perpetual Contact: Mobile Communication, Private Talk, and Public Performance. Cambridge, United Kingdom, Cambridge University Press. Laurier, E. (2001). The Region as a Socio-Technical Accopmlishment of Mobile Workers. Wireless World: Social and Interactional Aspects of the Mobile Age. B. Brown, N. Green and R. Harper. London, United Kingdom, Springer. Ling, Richard - http://telenor.no/fou/prosjekter/Fremtidens_Brukere/publikasjoner.html · Ling, R. (1998). "One can talk about common manners!": The use of mobile telephones in inappropriate situations. Telektronikk. 94: 65-76. · Ling, R. (1998). "She calls, [but] it's for both of us you know": The use of traditional fixed and mobile telephony for social networking among Norwegian parents. Kjeller, Telenor Research and Development. · Ling, R. (1999). Restaurants, Mobile Phones and Bad Manners: New Technology and the Shifting of Social Boundaries. Human Factors in Telecommunications, 17th International Symposium, Copenhagen, Denmark. · Ling, R. (1999). "I am happiest by having the best": The adoption and rejection of mobile telephony". Kjeller, Telenor Research and Development. · Ling, R. (1999). "We release them little by little": maturation and gender identity as seen in the use of mobile telephony. International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS`99) Women and Technology: Historical, Societal and Professional Perspectives., Rtugers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA. · Ling, R. (2000). "'We will be reached': The use of mobile telephony among Norwegian youth." Information Technology and People 13(2): 102-120. · Ling, R. (2000). The Adoption of Mobile Telephony among Norwegian Teens, May 2000. Kjeller, Telenor Research & Development. · Ling, R. (2000). The Impact of the Mobile Telephone on Four Established Social Institutions. ISSEI2000 conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas, Bergen, Norway. · Ling, R. (forthcoming). "It is 'in.' It doesn't matter if you need it or not, just that you have it.": Fashion and the domestication of the mobile telephone among teens in Norway." · Ling, R. and P. Helmersen (2000). It must be necessary, it has to cover a need": The adoption of mobile telephony among pre-adolescents and adolescents. conference on the social consequences of mobile telephony, Oslo, Norway. · Ling, R. and B. Yttri (1999). Nobody Sits at Home and Waits for the Telephone to Ring: Micro and Hyper-Coordination Through the Use of the Mobile Phone, Telenor Research and Development. Murtagh, G. M. (2001). Seeing the "Rules": Preliminary Observations of Action, Interaction and Mobile Phone Use. Wireless World: Social and Interactional Aspects of the Mobile Age. B. Brown, N. Green and R. Harper. Longon, Springer. O'Hara, K., M. Perry, et al. (2001). Exploring the Relationship between Mobile Phone and Document Activity During Business Travel. Wireless World: Social and Interactional Aspects of the Mobile Age. B. Brown, N. Green and R. Harper. London, United Kingdom, Springer. Oksman, V. and P. Rautiainen (2001 [in press]). Extension of the Hand. Children's and Teenager's Relationship with the Mobile Phone. A Case Study of Finland. The Human Body Between Technologies, Communication and Fashion. L. e. T. H. B. B. T. Fortunati. Milano, Italy, FrancoAngeli. Oksman, V. and P. Rautiainen (2002 [in press]). Perhaps It Is a Body Part. How the Mobile Phone Became an Organic Part of the Everyday Lives of Children and Adolescents. A Case Study of Finland. Machines That Become Us. J. E. Katz. Palen, L. and M. Salzman (2001). Welcome to the Wireless World: Problems Using and Understanding Mobile Telephony. Wireless World: Social and Interactional Aspects of the Mobile Age. B. Brown, N. Green and R. Harper. London, United Kingdom, Springer. Palen, L., M. Salzman, et al. (2000). Going Wireless: Behavior and Practice of New Mobile Phone Users. ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), Philadelphia, PA, USA, ACM Press. Plant, S. (2001). On the Mobile: The Effects of Mobile Telephones on Social and Individual Life. Motorola. Rakow, L. (1993). "Remote Mothering and the Parallel Shift: Women Meet the Cellular Telephone." Critical Studies in Mass Communication 10(2): 144-157. Rautiainen, P. and E.-L. Kasesniemi (2000). Mobile Communication of Children and Teenagers Case: Finland 1997-2000. Proceedings of the Workshop on "The Social Consequences of Mobile Telephony: The Proceedings from a Seminar about Society, Mobile Telephony and Children", Oslo, Norway. Rippon, A. and A. Ward (2000). I'm On Me Mobile. London, Robson Books. Robinson, I. and A. Delahooke (2001). Fabricating Friendships: The Ordinariness of Agency in the Social Use of an Everyday Medical Technology in the School Lives of Children. Children, Technology and Culture: The Impacts of Technologies in Children's Everyday Lives. I. Hutchby and J. Moran-Ellis, Routledge. Sherry, J. and T. Salvador (2001). Running and Grimacing: The Struggle for Balance in Mobile Work. Wireless World: Social and Interactional Aspects of the Mobile Age. B. Brown, N. Green and R. Harper. London, United Kingdom, Springer. Sibley, D. (1995). Families and Domestic Routines: Constructing the Boundaires of Childhood. Mapping the Subject: Geographies of Cultural Transformation. S. Pile and N. Thrift, Routledge. Smith, Sean (2001). Connected to the Network: The Semiotics, Sociology and Political Economy of Mobile Telecommunications in Australia. Ph.D Dissertation, University of Queensland, 2001, Austrialia. Smith, Steve (2001). "You Lose Your Mobile, You Lose Everything": An Exploratory Study of Mobile Phones, Sexuality, Gender and Space. Social Research Methods. Guilford, United Kingdom, University of Surrey. Townsend, A. M. (2001). Mobile Communication in the Twenty-First Century. Wireless World: Social and Interactional Aspects of the Mobile Age. B. Brown, N. Green and R. Harper. London, United Kingdom, Springer. Weilenmann, A. and C. Larsson (2001). Local Use and Sharing of Mobile Phones. Wireless World: Social and Interactional Aspects of the Mobile Age. B. Brown, N. Green and R. Harper. London, United Kingdom, Springer. _________________________________ Sean Smith Research Fellow, Mobile Technologies, Department of Sociology, University of Surrey. ph: +44 (0)1483 686 966 m: +44 (0)7786 511 042 </snip> Jonathan Lillie wrote:
Does anyone know of any work, books, articles, etc...or work in progress taking a critical cultural or similar approach to studying mobile communication issues, PDAs, Thrid Generation wireless etc?
There seems to be tons of computer science types working on tech issues, and people writing on 3G policy and information society, but have can't find much else.
Thanks, Jonathan
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-- Robert Luke, PhD Candidate Educational Technology Coordinator University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies 158 St. George Street Toronto Ontario M5S 2V8 tel: 416.978.2417 fax: 416.978.4846 http://learn.utoronto.ca
I'm working on a paper for SCS on "Ebay as Archive" and surprisingly I am finding very little intellectual work on "the world's largest marketplace." Any suggestions where I might go looking?
I am coming to the close of a dissertation project on Internet-mediated ethos, which uses eBay as a primary artifact for analysis. Unfortunately, I have found very little previously published work on eBay itself, at least in the humanities and social sciences. Laura Gurak makes brief reference to it in __Cyberliteracy__, where she notes, among other things, the commodification of "community" on eBay. Josh Boyd presented a conference paper at the 2000 National Communication Association in Seattle on eBay as virtual orality "without an auctioneer's voice." Part of this paper is published in __American Speech__ , vol. 76:3. I did find more resources in business journals, but because they were not as useful to me I do not save a list of those sources. As I recall even the major database search engines: EBSCO, Infotrack, etc., came up with hits on eBay in business journals. Mike T. Hubler
This doesn't necessarily qualify as research, but it's an interesting story about goings-on at eBay. Sj
eBay toughens up on discussion boards By Troy Wolverton and Greg Sandoval Staff Writers, CNET News.com April 17, 2002, 5:10 PM PT
eBay is tightening up the rules for its community discussion boards, sparking complaints that the rules are choking off the free flow of information among members.
Under the new rules, eBay community members can't use the boards to warn others if they were ripped off by a buyer or a seller, they can't ask each other where to find a particular item to buy, they can't share private e-mail, and--if eBay decides to delete an offending post--the members aren't allowed to even discuss the post.
Members who violate the rules can be banned from buying and selling on the site, and if that happens the millions of other eBay members are barred from even discussing that person on the boards--or they too are at risk of being kicked out of the community.
"They're just trying to stop any criticism at all," said Joe, an eBay seller from Greenville, S.C., who asked that his last name not be used.
eBay, like other sites with discussion boards, has always had certain commonsense regulations: no pornography, hate speech or threats of violence, no using JavaScript or other coding that could interfere with the site operations, no making repetitive posts or sending abusive messages.
And eBay has the legal right to restrict discussion on its boards, since it owns and operates them. Any charges of censorship would fall on deaf ears in the courts, because the First Amendment only prohibits the government from restricting speech.
"The law has endorsed in general the idea that it's eBay's forum and they get to write the rules," said Cindy Cohn, legal director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "If people don't like what eBay's doing, they should look for other places to do business."
Question of liability And although eBay notes in its policy that all messages posted to the boards are solely the opinion and responsibility of the poster, and not eBay, there is some question of liability. Although Congress has given Web site operators some protection for being held liable for the actions of their members, a growing number of lawsuits have been filed recently against operators of discussion boards for posts by their members.
eBay's announcement about the changes didn't mention any of those issues, simply stating that the revisions were meant to "clarify expectations, to make the basic rules of conduct easier to understand, and to remove or replace obsolete language," according to the site.
eBay representatives did not return calls Wednesday seeking comment about the new rules.
eBay has long touted its community of buyers and sellers as one of its greatest assets, a common refrain among online companies that place high value on their relationships with customers. Because there is still some uncertainty for many people to give out personal information or credit card information on the Web, online sites ferociously guard their reputation, and it is generally acknowledged that reports of fraud or security problems can hurt business.
At eBay, the scores of chat, discussion and help boards have long been a place for members to have fairly freewheeling discussions on everything from how to sell a particular product to the latest political issues. Many of the boards are focused on specific categories, and others are chat rooms devoted to specific topics such as Elvis or Furbies or stamp collections, for example. And, despite one of the rules that specifically bans charitable solicitations, there is a "Giving Board" chat room that tells visitors: "Our members have big hearts. Do you know of someone in need? Post their story or their needs on our Giving Board."
In the past, eBay has taken steps to restrict interaction between members, usually to protect its financial interests or protect members from spam, or unsolicited e-mail. For example, the company set up an e-mail system that masks members' e-mail addresses and transmits messages between them through its servers. And the company has outlawed deals between members that take place outside of eBay, threatening to ban members who conduct these deals for products that had been listed on the auction site.
Minor adjustments Some of the new rule changes on the eBay boards are minor. For instance, the company has clarified a rule banning advertising on the discussion boards, extending the prohibition to cover members who try to solicit money for charity.
Likewise, eBay clarified a prohibition against posting another individual's contact information by taking out a clause saying, "without permission." Claire, an eBay representative that took part in a discussion about the changes and did not give her last name, pointed out that the rule is meant to safeguard the privacy of other people and that it is often difficult to determine whether permission has been granted for the posting of that kind of information.
But other changes stand out, such as the ban on posting e-mail or mentioning suspended members or suspicious activity.
eBay says all reports of suspicious auctions should be e-mailed to eBay directly, "to avoid accidental harm to innocent parties," according to Claire.
"Public investigations may be auction interference and if an innocent member is the subject of discussion, there may be damage that cannot be undone," Claire said in her post.
"We want to stress that the intent is not to stop members from discussing rules violations in general. Members of the eBay community should continue to actively discuss practices or trends which they feel are inappropriate to the eBay marketplace, in order to continue to help us have your input available for the formulation of policy."
But some members charge that the prohibition on mentioning specific sellers or auctions that may be fraudulent will lead to more fraud on the site.
"Who are they trying to protect? Certainly not the reputable sellers in my opinion," said Liz Chancellor, an eBay seller from Midland, Texas.
Candy Beckman has sold jewelry, crafts and other items on eBay since 1999. The Davenport, Iowa, resident often answers other members' questions on one of eBay's help chat boards.
Info a source of comfort Often, members come to the board when they think they've been ripped off. In one recent incident, a new member pointed Beckman and other members to a seller who seemed to be defrauding others. By checking out the seller and the seller's auctions, Beckman and the other members were able to confirm the suspicious activity, report it to eBay and have the seller suspended.
"It's going make it much harder to be able to do that now," Beckman said.
The company has also banned reporters and other "third parties" from posting on its message boards or e-mailing members without contacting the company's legal department first.
"This helps assure that the eBay community is made aware if they are speaking to someone who is acting in a professional capacity, rather than as a fellow member," Claire said in her post.
The changes are good, according to Robert Novak, a pet-store owner who sued a community Web site last year after being the target of negative posts on the site devoted to people whose hobby is aquatic plants and animals.
"I think that it's irresponsible for any chat room and forum to allow people to defame someone wrongfully," Novak said Wednesday. "We were the victim of repeated false and erroneous accusations and we decided we weren't going to take it anymore."
Novak's case, filed in federal court in New York against the owner and members of the Aquatic Plant Digest site, is still working its way through the courts. Although the defendants in the case have argued that they were just expressing their opinions, some have been forced to settle, citing their inability to pay for defense lawyers.
Cohn, of the EFF, said Novak's suit and eBay's actions are part of a trend by companies to muffle any criticism about them online.
"Most of the law in this area is surrounded to keep the government from trying to squelch speech, but what we're seeing are more corporations trying to squelch speech," Cohn said. "I hope that executives come to the proper conclusion, that...allowing people to speak their mind...is still the right thing to do."
She added: "Our country is founded on the idea that the remedy for speech is more speech."
Geoffrey Kleinman, founder of online community site DVDTalk.com, said he's worried that other discussion groups may follow eBay's move and dampen the exchange of opinions and ideas. Community sites and discussion-group operators, he hopes, will stand their legal ground and protect their customers' right to free speech.
"The Internet is a tool like nothing else for connecting consumers to each other," said Kleinman, whose site has about 350,000 members. "In my opinion, a customer relating a bad experience at a particular vendor is valuable information that should be protected."
participants (7)
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Annette Markham -
jeremy hunsinger -
Jonathan Lillie -
Jonathan Sterne -
Mike T. Hubler -
Robert Luke -
Steve Jones