Week by week course schedule:
Workshop:
Watch:
Al Gore on Charlie Rose
the show with zefrank
DUE:
Register an account at http://sodacity.net/user.
Write a 1-page brainstorm for your blog project. It should include:
Readings:
We Media. Chapter 1: Introduction to participatory journalism by Shayne Bowman and Chris Willis
A Definition of Sociable Media by Judith Donath [pdf]
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Judith-Donath_Sociable-Media.pdf | 112.32 KB |
| Willis-and-Bowman_We-Media-Ch1.pdf | 572.63 KB |
Workshop:
Extending your blog skills: commenting, link equity, search engine optimization (SEO)
Share:
DUE:
Readings:
Introduction, The Assault on Reason by Al Gore [handout]
Besieged Lebanese turn to Internet by Zeina Karam
In the Midst of War, Bloggers Are Talking by Sarah Ellison
Additional resource:
Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents (read online) or download: PDF version
Notes:
Your Privately Public Self
Workshop:
Extending your digital self:
DUE:
Now that you've planted your blog, grow it:
Links:
http://technorati.com
http://www.gabcast.com
http://bloglines.com
How to Blog Safely (About Work or Anything Else)
http://www.google.com/search?q=blogger+themes
http://www.blogger-templates.blogspot.com
http://blogger-themes.blogspot.com
http://blogfresh.blogspot.com/2005/08/blogger-hacks-series.html
Readings:
"Blogging Outloud: Shifts in Public Voice" by danah boyd
"Steal this bookmark!" by Katharine Mieszkowski
Thomas Vander Wal's definition of folksonomy.
Clay Shirky discusses folksonomy
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Katharine-Mieszkowski_Steal-this-bookmark.pdf | 377.85 KB |
| danah-boyd_Blogging-Outloud-Shifts-in-Public-Voice.pdf | 129.94 KB |
Workshop:
DUE:
Your private public self - part one:
Register at http://secondlife.com.
Choose a name.
Get Dressed (create your avatar).
Learn how to fly.
Register at http://del.icio.us
Choose a name.
Start bookmarking socially.
Readings:
Natalie Jeremijenko, "If Things Can Talk, What Do They Say? If We Can Talk to Things, What Do We Say?"
Pekka Himanen, “The Academy and the Monastery” [PDF]
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Pekka-Himanen_The-Hacker-Ethic-Ch4.pdf | 1.57 MB |
Discussion:
Social networks have been the focus of much recent research and entrepreneurship. This discourse views social relationships as nodes and links (or ties). Nodes are individual entities (often people) and the links are the relationships between them (parent-child, student-teacher, friend-friend). The people you know are your social network. Social relationships can be characterized on a spectrum from shallow to deep. Some theorists claim that social networks with many weak ties are more valuable than ones with fewer and deeper ties. The premise is that the more connections you have, the more likely that new ideas and opportunities will be introduced to you. This seems to be the guiding principle of many of these new social networking websites. Deeper connections have greater costs in terms of time commitments, etc and tend to have redundant ties. Of particular value in these systems are nodes (people, entities) that can bridge two networks thereby brokering relationships between networks that otherwise are not directly linked.
In 1967, Stanley Milgram made the famous "small world experiment" which claimed to prove that people in the world are separated by at most 6 links. While the experiment is considered to have many flaws, the notion of six degrees of separation has persisted in popular culture.
some links:
Mark Lombardi
http://oracleofbacon.org/index.html
http://www.albany.edu/museum/wwwmuseum/work/lombardi/
http://www.theyrule.net/
http://smg.media.mit.edu/projects/SocialNetworkFragments/implementation/layout/6-2.mov
http://www.buddygraph.com
http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue7_4/krebs/
Weak ties and Mark Granovetter
DUE: 4-5 page essay
This essay should grow out of your experiences in Second Life and the social bookmarking website del.icio.us.
Readings:
Friends, Friendsters, and MySpace Top 8: Writing Community Into Being on Social Network Sites. by danah boyd
The Rhythms of Salience: A Conversation Map by Judith Donath
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Judith-Donath_Conversation-Map.pdf | 64.5 KB |
| danah-boyd_Friends_Friendster_Top8.pdf | 2.8 MB |
Workshop:
Introducing the wiki.
Wiki 101
MediaWiki Handbook
MMC Wiki Practice Area
DUE: write and draw
1. How do people display social networks in everyday life (that is, not online)? Give 2 concrete, specific examples. Why do they do this? What are the costs of making this display? The benefits? Does honesty play in?
2. Explore two different social networking sites [LinkedIn, Orkut, Friendster, Tribe, Ryze, Facebook, MySpace and others...]. One should be LinkedIn and the other is up to you. What different aspects of your personality/identity can be expressed in these sites? How does the design of these sites facilitate networking? How does this sort of display compare to traditional means of displaying social connectedness. What are the advantages and disadvantages? Are signals of friendship here reliable? Why or why not?
3. Draw a diagram of your social network (family, friends, acquaintances) using nodes and links. Aim to have between 30 and 60 people in your network - the more complete the better. Show connections among those people whom you know know each other. As you draw the diagram, think about where you are placing people - how have you grouped them, what meaning, if any, are you giving to adjacency or top/bottom? Try to identify brokers in your social network.
+ Think about how you can draw connecting lines: they can be thicker, thinner, longer, shorted. They can be solid or dashed, dark or light, wavy, curved, straight or angular. Consider the challenge of showing people who are physically distant but personally close.
+ Think about the groups/relationships in which people participate in your network. They might range from tight knit groups like families, to loosely focused groups like a college dorm. How can you use color, shape, size to represent these different types of groupings?
+ The final result can be turned in as a digital file (photoshop, illustrator, flash) or on a physical sheet of paper. You might consider including a legend or codex for your diagram.
4. (Optional) Take part in the Small World's Research Project http://smallworld.columbia.edu and discuss your results.
Readings:
"The Wealth of Networks: Chapter 3. Peer Production and Sharing" by Yochai Benkler
"Silence is a Commons" by Ivan Illich
Optional:
"The Tragedy of the Commons" by Garrett Hardin
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Ivan-Illich_Silence-is-a-Commons.pdf | 62.23 KB |
| Yochai-Benkler_Wealth-of-Networks-Ch03.pdf | 766.16 KB |
Lecture on crowd sourcing.
Links:
Science
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu
http://clickworkers.arc.nasa.gov/top
http://centennialchallenges.nasa.gov/
http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/overview.asp
http://www.news.com/DARPA-sees-inspiration-as-trophy-of-robot-race/2008-1014_3-6214091.html
http://stardustathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/
Distributed Labor
http://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome
http://www.innocentive.com/
http://threadless.com/
Steve Fossett
http://s3.amazonaws.com/fossett/thanks.html
http://www.stevefossett.com/
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/15-08/ff_jimgray?currentPage=5
Art Related
http://www.learningtoloveyoumore.com
http://www.tenement.org/folksongs/
http://www.ikatun.com/institute/infinitelysmallthings/corporatecommands/
http://www.geuzen.org/cgi-bin/shmoogle/shmoogle_form.cgi
http://www.chrisbarr.net/projects/thursday/
http://www.ted.com/index.php/speakers/view/id/86
Kevin Killian
http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/killian/
http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A30TK6U7DNS82R
http://www.thefanzine.com/sections.php?s=features&id=149&a=articles
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6805063692754011230
The future of R&D
APIs
Google
http://code.google.com/more/#label=ProductsAll&product=gdata
Flickr
http://flickr.com/help/website/#181
http://flickr.com/tools/
TOS - Terms of Service
Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/terms.php
By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing. You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire.
MySpace
http://www.myspace.com/Modules/Common/Pages/TermsConditions.aspx
MySpace.com does not claim any ownership rights in the text, files, images, photos, video, sounds, musical works, works of authorship, or any other materials (collectively, "Content") that you post to the MySpace Services. After posting your Content to the MySpace Services, you continue to retain all ownership rights in such Content, and you continue to have the right to use your Content in any way you choose. By displaying or publishing ("posting") any Content on or through the MySpace Services, you hereby grant to MySpace.com a limited license to use, modify, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce, and distribute such Content solely on and through the MySpace Services.
Links:
the Evolution of Cooperation
The Prisoner's Dilemma
DUE: Wiki updates
minimum:
2 substantive original entries [150-200 words each]
3 substantive edits of existing entries
Email me the 5 links to your entries by Monday night.
Readings:
The Wealth of Networks: Chapter 7. Political Freedom Part 2: Emergence of the Networked Public Sphere by Yochai Benkler
DUE: Wiki updates
http://media.mmm.edu/mmcwiki/Main_Page
minimum:
2 substantive original entries [150-200 words each]
3 substantive edits of existing entries
Email me the 5 links to your entries by Monday night.
Readings:
A Manifesto for Networked Objects (Why Things Matter) by Julian Bleeker
Technologies of Cooperation by Howard Rheingold
A video, podcast and other materials from a lecture Howard Rheingold gave about this topic can be found here
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Julian-Bleecker_Why-Things-Matter.pdf | 943.23 KB |
| Howard-Rheingold_Technologies-of-Cooperation.pdf | 1.15 MB |
Commercial ReMix
Original Apple Commerical Introducing the Macintosh computer in 1984
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYecfV3ubP8
"Anti-Hillary" commercial produced by the Obama campaign
Published March 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h3G-lMZxjo
Video by Astrubal critiquing the 20 year rule of Tunisian president Ben Ali
Published February 29th 2004.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsF8qQmLYo0
Links for final project inspiration:
http://geekcorps.org/
http://globalvoicesonline.org/
Dropping Knowledge
http://www.youtube.com/republicandebate
http://www.dodgeball.com/
http://twitter.com/
http://www.appliedautonomy.com/isee.html
http://www.urban-atmospheres.net/projects.htm
http://www.techkwondo.com/projects/
DUE: 4-5 page comparative essay
Compare and contrast your experience of writing an individual blog to that of co-authoring a wiki. Your essay should draw from class readings. Try to look critically at the output of both endeavors.
Some similarities and differences you might consider:
Readings:
We Media. Chapter 4: The rules of participation by Dan Gillmor
DUE: Final Take-Home Endeavor
You must work in groups of 2 or 3.
This endeavor is meant to be an integrative exercise, covering as much of the course work as possible, and also one in which you begin to come to terms with the points of view of the readings, class discussions, small group discussions, shares, websites, projects, the course as a whole, and your own reactions to them. I ask that you show your struggle to make sense of the course work and how you relate to it personally as well as intellectually. There are no right answers, and any judgments, reservations, criticisms, rejections, acceptances, celebrations, provocative questions, hesitations, insights, etc. are acceptable as long as they are backed up by careful references to sources (readings, websites, etc) and/or thoughtful reasoning.
The Networked Public Sphere is being designed as we speak. How this occurs will govern what you can do, what you can see, what you look like and who can gain access to what. It is our responsibility to participate in envisioning this future.
Imagine: you have been provided with 10 gazillion dollars of venture capital and a crack team of engineers and computer programmers who can make anything you design.
The Challenge: design either a new web service or personal display (handheld or wearable device) that augments/enhances social interactivity.
Questions:
+ What are you making, what does it do?
+ Who are you making it for - who is your audience?
+ What kind of identity information is emitted?
+ Is the display/service public, private, both?
+ How does it interact with other users - proximity, affinities?
+ What problem does it set out to address?
+ What are some related products/services - how does yours differ?
Format:
A 10-15 minute presentation in the form of Power Point or a webpage/blog. Please turn in either a copy burned to CD or a URL.
The presentation should incorporate the following:
!!! your device/service does not have to work - but you need to explain how it would work.
Respond to the following 2 questions - stating opinions is not enough, cite relevant authors in your discussion. I highly recommend that you write cooperatively with your classmates (as opposed to divvying up the questions and writing individually). Your answers will be stronger if you generate answers through discussing the various themes and issues raised by the course material.
Groups should write 3 pages per question.