Edit page… Wikicommunication

“As human beings it is in our nature to communicate. We live and thrive in cooperative groups. Social interaction helps us form relationships and coalitions, evaluate status, discourage free-riders, and enforce local norms.” These concepts that Judith Donath brought to our attention in her article Sociable Media are lost in Wikinomics, at least as far as I can see. I do not doubt that peer-to-peer organization can be very effective however; I still believe that there needs to be an emphasis on open lines of communication between contributors. This was best exemplified in our assignment this past week.

Maybe our little experiment with Wikinomics wasn’t completed the exact way Wikinomics would have intended it to be but I felt that there needed to be more communication between contributors. I question whether or not I completed the assignment the correct way. I entered information how I thought it would be most useful and I probably did it wrong but it was kind of embarrassing to see my contribution push aside and deleted. The more I think about it I realize that maybe editing my contribution helped facilitate the groups’ final product but for me it made me feel useless and dumb. I think my major problem with the peer-to-peer organization in this instance is that there was no communication between us, I wasn’t told where I was wrong and I did not learn from the situation because of that.

In the examples given in the article, Wikinomics looked very promising and effective for the companies using this method. Wikinomics may be great in certain circumstances however; my participation with this type of informal organization whether it is during the assignment in class or receiving bad information from Wikipedia has left me unimpressed.

Communication is an important aspect of human nature. A lack of communication can lead to anxiety, uncertainty and apprehensiveness as discussed earlier. Judith Donath states, “Sociable media are media that enhance communications and the formation of social ties among people. The goal is to understand and improve the social aspects of mediated communication.” With this in mind, I was trying to think of ways in which Wikinomics and Sociable media relate to each other.

There is a great deal of information that you need to understand and process before you can communicate effectively through mediated communications, especially computer mediated communications. I feel that this challenge is present in our society today and we continue to strive toward being able to effectively communicate through computer-mediated communication. As technologies continue to advance they are being designed for sociability, which will help increase societies understanding of the subtleties in computer mediated communication as well as make it more familiar and comfortable for all users.

So how do these two relate, Wikinomics and Sociability Media? I think that the only way for Wikinomics to become an integral part of our society is if we add this element of communication to it and open up the lines for discussion so that we may feed on human need to communicate. This may be changing the idea of Wikinomics all together but I feel people in our society like feedback and discussion. If we could somehow combine the two if would be more effective in certain circumstances.

The Master of Mashups

According to Wikipedia, “a mashup is a web application that combines data from more than one source into an integrated experience.” I started to think about all of the different mashups that I have come across of the web. Unfortunately for me, many of my other classmates already beat me to most of them. Then I realized that one of my favorite artists/anthropologists could be the Master of Mashups. Jonathan Harris’ work includes information from across the web, from blogs to news headlines to interactive comments and pictures, which he then incorporates into his well-designed interactive sites. Below are the sites to a few of his projects I would highly recommend you check him out. Also there is a link to his website with an in depth look at and explanation of all his projects. You won’t be disappointed!! Jonathan Harris’ Main Page

PROJECTS

Universe
We Feel Fine
Lovelines

Phylotaxis
10×10

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Convergence is something that happens everyday in our society whether we fully recognize the changes or not. While I reading the article Worship at the Altar of Convergence by H. Jenkins I couldn’t help but to think about when I first heard about the Helio. My friend who I consider a “myspace addict” had to have one. The Helio I believe, came to be because of a need to have better hand held internet service device that would provide people with instant access anywhere and anytime, more specifically with social networking sites such as Myspace and other networking applications. It rivaled the sidekick but with less emphasis on the telephone and more interest in being able to snap and picture or movie and post it on your blog or Myspace page. I didn’t understand why she would need this device (I wont call it a phone). She wanted it to help her “stay connected.” By that she meant she wanted to see what was going on Myspace.

Technology continues to make large advancements in our culture and I am beginning to see the cultural shift to using portable hand held devices as means to communicate. As I continued to read his article I began to think about how our culture may adapt to these new devices and other electronics that we use everyday. For example, Jenkins briefly touches on the subject of advertising and television; I realized that the advertising agencies are going to have to come up with new ways to advertise products as our society continues to change.

With the advancement of the DVR and television shows being released on DVD, the average American never has to watch a commercial. In fact I know many people including myself that will DVR the show and then watch it later to eliminate watching the commercials. This could be a potentially huge problem for many companies, the television commercial was a staple in advertising so now what will they turn to in order to replace the commercial?

I think many companies are starting to realize and focus on this problem; a specific product or products are now sponsoring many new shows. That product usually ends up in the show at least once or twice a week. A good example of this would be Heroes on NBC is a show that is sponsored by Nissan Versa and in the show one of the main characters rents this car and often makes reference to it through out the entire season. But is product placement going to increase anymore that? Will that alone make up for the lost commercial time? Where else can you reach people if there is a shift toward using devises such and DVRs? My guess would be back to those networking sites. Yeah, I am talking about the sites that make people go and by a three hundred dollar device so that they can feel “connected”. These sites have so much influence over people and it is the perfect place to find a great target audience and give them a Long Tail of recommendations like stated in last weeks readings. The only problem would be how? I think that this will be the next shift in our society. The convergence of new media and advertising, learning how to get your viewer to see, understand and retain your message in less then 10-15 seconds.

ugh, another password to remember

In class when we were given the assignment to sign up for an aggregator I thought to myself, “Great another username and password I have to remember.” I had no idea that these aggregators existed and I really did not think it would be something that I would care about, since I rarely find myself reading blogs. However, when I signed up for Bloglines and started adding my RSS feeds I began thinking, “Wow, I could get used to using this.” I am huge fan of bookmarks for web pages  and this helped to bookmark all my favorite websites. I love how it allows me to open up  and use those bookmarks on any computer, not just my personal computer.

 My favorite feature would be the number next to the site that allows you to see how many new things have been updated. As I started to add RSS feeds I realized I could add not only the websites that I enjoy going to every day but I also added the sites that I think are very cool but usually do not think about everyday and miss out on. The organization of this site and it’s ability to categorize sites in different folders is another great attribute and I think this will help me to enhance my web experience even more.

Currently I have a folder for Pop Culture, News, Design, Food, Sports and of course School. Since setting up my aggregator I have used it almost everyday on three different machines. I have added 7 RSS feeds by just surfing the web,  finding sites that  interest me  and using the shortcut in my web browser navigation bar  to add it to Bloglines.

Today’s Recommendations For You…

As a human race we often do not recognize the changes or movements that are occurring in our society in the present time. This was best described in J. Beniger’s article Control Revolution, where he discussed how people are usually not in tune with many subtle changes that occur in the populace and often times do not openly accept those larger changes that take place.

With this in mind I started reading Barry Wellman’s article Community: From Neighborhood to Network. In this article he introduced the term “computer-mediated communication (CMC)” and discussed the move from a community that is based on location to a community that is based on the networking of people and their specialized ideas and interests. He addressed the “computerization of community” and the differences between face-to-face relationships and online relationships. I have spent a lot of time thinking about these two different types of relationships; in fact my entire senior year thesis project was about online relationships their different aspects (but that’s for another entry). After reading these articles and looking at our society as a whole I started to think: am I just another person who is not recognizing the changes in society? Am I not accepting the movement that is taking place today? Wellman states in his article,

Are online relationships as good as face-to-face relationships where people can see, hear, and touch someone? Probably not, but the question may have a utopian assumption that if people were not online they would be engaged in stimulating community activities.

As I stated in class on Thursday, I believe online relationships aren’t as complete or fulfilling as those that take place face-to-face, and we are loosing these face-to-face interactions that are important for our human growth. I gave the example of the deli clerk and someone responded, “Well I don’t really care to talk with the deli clerk,” I agreed with the sentiment of this comment, and I began questioning why I felt so strongly about the need for face-to-face relationships and why I was so quick to turn my back on online relationships.

This brought me to the conclusion that I am guilty of ignoring the changes that are occurring in our society; I have strict thoughts about relationships and how they should be conducted, and I have been stubborn to change my thoughts and ways. However, what I have learned through these articles and our discussions is that these changes in technology and its use are imperative for our human development. We must accept the changes in our society-no matter how uncomfortable-to learn from them, so we may grow as individuals and as a society.

Don’t get me wrong, I am still wary of online relationships. I think it is important for us to have face-to-face interactions, but I believe that the Internet has enabled me to easily maintain relationships that would have been much harder to maintain if that technology was not available. I question however, whether those relationships that are maintained casually over the Internet are what I would consider deep, meaningful relationships that I should be valued. As Wellman states, CMC helps to fill up my time and forces me to experience different things.

This brings me to my final thought. The Long Tail (or as I would like to call it, a marketer’s dream tool) is my favorite part of the Internet, I get caught up in this tail almost every time I surf the web. Sometimes I end up spending 50 dollars more then I had intended on or I discover a really great band that I probably would have never checked out. I agree with Chris Anderson and his discussion of the term “The Long Tail”. I think this is an extremely powerful and tremendously effective marketing tool. The “tail” serves almost as a friend who is recommending something to you that they think you will like. For the most part it’s very accurate because it has all the information of what you have bought and what your likes may be. From there it finds relayed products recommends them to you. I have always been a person who has responded to recommendations from friends on what to read, listen to, or watch, and this allows me to see the recommendations, check them out,a and expand my horizons any time of day.

“You can’t tell where you are going, unless you know where you have been.” ~unknown

As I was reading the articles for class I could not help but to think about the time period in which these articles were written and how these articles may be useful for contemporary learning. Bush, Licklidder, and Engelbart’s foresight was very accurate however there are still some parts of their predictions and hopes that have yet to be met. From reading their articles we can begin to break down where the journey for new technology had begun, where it has gone astray, and how we can begin to foresee our future.
While I was reading I was trying to put myself in the audience of these articles. I do not know much about the 50’s and 60’s, however I am given a great sense of what it was like by connecting to the pop culture of those decades. One of my favorite cartoons of all time was one that originated in 1962. The Jetson’s was a cartoon that mirrored what Bush, Licklidder, and Engelbart were stating in their articles but in a more viewer friendly format. In Licklidder’s article he discusses the “mechanically extended man” and “artificial intelligence” which can best portrayed on The Jetson’s as Rosie the robot maid and furthermore in George’s work place where he uses one button to control the computer and talks to its interactive screen. Though we all do not have these robots in our own home, cooking cleaning and washing dishes, we do have devices that come close to controlling many part of our homes at the click of a button (of course at a high price). The Jetson’s were a family from the 21st century, and watching it still does kind of excite me for what the future may bring, but that excitement it also strikes a little bit of fear of the unknown.
This same fear is also illustrated in the 1957 classic Desk Set. Desk Set with Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy is a great display of the fear and anxiety that this new technology brought to people in the work place. This movie also helps to show what the computers of the 1960’s were like; large, room sized units that were temperamental and often incoherent machines trying to replace the human. During that time not many people knew much about computers and many people had concerns about what these machines would do to their everyday lives. This movie was very important because it was used to help introduce computer into society and served as propaganda or a social awareness campaign.
Now understanding the excitement and anxiety that these three authors introduced to the world back then it interesting to see far their predictions have come. Like many others in class have stated, a multiple of ideas have come to be and our used in our everyday lives; but I would like to focus on where things went astray and what that means for our future. I do not think anyone back in the 1960’s could have predicted the importance of the Internet and the roll it plays in our everyday lives. Bush, Licklidder, and Engelbart discussed this technology as a source to help us retrieve and digest information to increase our intellect. In Bush’s article As We May Think he states,

“Professionally our methods of transmitting and reviewing the results of research are generations old and by now are totally inadequate for their purpose. If the aggregate time spent in writing scholarly works and in reading then could be evaluated, the ratio between these amounts of time might well be startling”.

This concern is still rings true today. Even though the Internet has allowed people to access information more easily, it also creates an overload of information, information which most of the time is not based on research or fact but rather people’s opinions. The other main difference that I see in what was predicted and what is occurring is the use of the computer. Bush, Licklidder, and Engelbart never mentioned the computer being used as a main communication tool between people. Never did they mention this machine taking the place of human interactions. However in this day in age the computer plays a large role in our everyday interactions with others. It’s acceptable to converse over the Internet using an instant messaging system (IMS), or to send a virtual greeting card, write email, and have a discussion via Blogs and Message boards rather then in person. Though these things have many benefits they do have their setbacks as well (but that’s for another blog entry).

Where do we go from here? Which leads me to my entry title, “you can’t tell where you are going, unless you know where you have been.” We know from these author’s where we came from, the school of thought that brought about massive changes in the computer technology industry. We know the calculated chances they made in order to predict the future of technology and from this we gain the knowledge and the confidence to dream of what is to come in our future. It is up to us to envision our own version of The Jetson’s.

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So about me… my name is Meaghan and I am currently attending Quinnipiac University and taking classes part time in the Interactive Communications Graduate program. I work nights at ESPN as an electronic graphics controller (I put scoreboards and topics bars on television). I cannot determine right now if this is what I would like to be doing in ten years but I have only been working there for three months and I am happy to have a job at a great company.

I am originally from NY but I have lived the past four years in Indiana while attending school for my undergraduate’s degree. I am not usually shy but there are some instances where I am, this would include writing in a blog so chances are most of my participation will be in the classroom. I am not too fond of blogging, I am new at it and I feel a little bit uncomfortable.

I look forward to taking the class and I am excited to be back at school. Thanks for checking in, if you like to know anything else about me feel free to ask. Have a great day!