danah boyd, a distinguished author on studies of the Internet, whom we first studied in her writing  “White Flight in Networked Publics?” and “Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites” also writes about Facebook’s Privacy Trainwreck after it’s 2006 introduction of the newsfeed. I decided to study this article because many users don’t remember Facebook’s technology pre-news-feed. What’s interesting about Facebook’s introduction of new features & re-designs is that it’s almost always contested by most users before it is desired and loved. Those of us who have used Facebook for a long time have seen many statuses after the release of each feature denouncing it.

danah boyd, in her article brings up many key points about the news feed we now have very few complaints about, especially relating to privacy. danah points out that prior to the news feed, all the information displayed on the newsfeed still existed, but was just not aggregated.  danah points out a very interesting note: that the newsfeed by aggregating social activities creates a culture that makes people feel left out for not having been in a social activity. Marshall McLuhan, talked about the notion of a global village, and stated that even as we become closer, sometimes we become farther. While Facebook news feed is now much more personalized and algorithmically calculates relevant posts based on social relationships and how close you are with a certain person, the initial news feed simply listed posts backwards on time of all friends. Facebook has handled privacy in an amazing manner since the publication of this article: by allowing post visibility, limited visibility, and by socially aggregating relevant content.

User: ‘Who do I talk to the most?’
Cobot: ‘Peter.’
User: ‘Who does Peter talk to the most?’
Cobot: ‘Dan.’
User (to self): WHAT!?!? Why does Peter talk to Dan more than me? *$%& him, I’m not
talking to Peter anymore . .

The above post is an example of how Facebook is used to creative negative self-confidence for individuals. Another popular phenomenon is FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) created by social networks when individuals see events on social networks.  Facebook has done a great job of fixing many of the privacy issues (social convergence, weighting friends) that danah claims as social issues.

Facebook Newsfeed Settings: Now

Previously, we looked at the role of social media and in specific Twitter on the Arab Spring. Many publications now state that Twitter & Blackberry were pivotal in the recent London Riots. Mark Schone, of ABCNews writes in his article  London Riots: Blame Twitter — or BlackBerry Messenger? that the British Police have threatened to arrest anyone who encourages riots on Twitter.

However, the article proceeds to talk about how it is not Twitter nor Facebook; BBM (Black Berry Messager) was actually crucial in both London and the Arab Spring in gathering members. BBM makes it easy to re-send messages and is commonly used among teenagers.

Just before Duggan died Thursday, he sent a final message to his girlfriend via BlackBerry Messenger, “The Feds are following me.”

 

So, while Twitter has been in the eyes of the public as the organizational platform of ‘revolutionary acts’, BBM has been the private messaging system and communication platform at the P2P level.

London Twitter Riots: A Crazy Example. Source: Twitter

Blackberries, unlike other cellphones are virtually invisible to the police because of their unique BBM network.  In fact, according to the article, Blackberry has been specifically trying to market their product to teenagers using top hip-hop artists as their sponsors.

“Sending out BBM broadcasts about linking ukp at 4 pm to cause more havoc,” writes one tweeter. Another says, “:o jd sports Tottenham hale just got robbed go on bbm to see da pics!” Another writes, “People had in their bbm status ‘Going Tottenham riot, who’s on it” like it was a casual street party. A fourth said, “According to my bbm, now something’s starting in wood green.”

BBM has been instrumental in information spread about all events about the riot among youth. In fact, Twitter and Facebook served to work with BBM by spreading the pins of individuals who had the information. The nice thing about BBM is unlike Facebook or Twitter, it is virtually impossible to trace the source (or the terrible thing about it).

RIM, Blackberry’s manufacturer, refused to comment to ABC News. This article contains a prevailing theme of technology’s role in our society. BBM, an ICT, which we haven’t took into much study because of it’s lack of relevance in the USA, actually contains a large market share outside of the States.

Homeland Cover by Cory Doctrow

I’ll talk about Doctrow’s  “Little Brother”, a fiction book about Marcus who plays a cyber-game through a terrorist Attack in America. In chapters 10-20 of Doctrow’s “Little Brother”, Marcus and Jolu attempt to rebel against the DHS, a corrupt organization. Marcus, through his pseudo avatar on XNET (M1k3y) and his new-found love Ange plot to take over DHS and take down the corrupt organization. Xnet, is run by Xbox, and is a great way for anonymous communication for teenagers.  Marcus is able to trick the DHS by creating fake terrorist results; he is regarded therefore as both a terrorist and an hero. After learning of Darryl still being alive, Marcus decides to come clean to his parents who take it surprisingly well and even support him in his endeavors. Marcus also comes clean to an reporter and is quickly captured after the release of his identity. While captured and tortured, CHP officers find Marcus and him, his girlfriend, and Darryl are released and return to a normal life.

Cory Doctrow’s sequel Homeland holds a similar premise of Marcus fighting corruption. This time, Marcus receives an USB drive filled with information about government corruption. This time, Marcus is a little older, and holds a job as a webmaster for a politician, so he faces more challenges in releasing tips.

Both these stories: Little Brother and Homeland highlight issues of anonymity and public information. They are centered around the ‘hacking culture’ that encompasses much of the silicon valley. Although fiction, their premise seems very real in our time and society more so than other fictional reads. Another issue of modern concern we’re studying ethically is the use of both torture in preventing terrorism and finding information as well as wiretapping and privacy issues concerning the post-9-11 debacle. Cory Doctrow is great at highlighting prevalent issues in our society in an exciting manner.

Social Media Roll in Arab Spring. Source: OpenIdeo

Gilad Lotan, Erhardt Graeff, Mike Ananny, Devin Gaffney, Ian Pearce, danah boyd explain the roles of various user-types (i.e. media, bloggers, activists), and how they came together and their relationships through the ICT: Twitter to amplify Arab Spring in their article The Revolutions Were Tweeted: Information Flows During the 2011 Tunisian and Egyptian Revolutions published in the International Journal of Communication 2011: Volume 5.

This article introduces the notion of narrow-cast media as opposed to traditional broadcast media and analyzes two different data sets from both the Tunisian Demonstration and the Egyptian Demonstration. The article served to state the importance of information flow through Twitter for both citizen and professional journalism so much so that the Egyptian government denied citizens access to it from January 26th – February 2nd (Egypt’s Revolution).

The article, after analyzing quantitatively the flow of tweets and re-tweets that journalists and activists serve as primary information sources whereas bloggers and users are information routers. What this suggests is that while Twitter users may be adding their own political commentary and more quickly transferring information from user to user, the primary source of information parallels real-life in the sense that journalists and activists are still the primary source of information.

Also, unlike activists and bloggers, journalists primarily re-tweet journalists: this makes sense since journalists have higher standards as to their sources of information offline.  However, like tends to like for other user-types as well (i.e. journalists tend to re-tweet other journalists and bloggers other bloggers).

After analyzing the contents of the post qualitatively, the article concludes that the content itself is co-constructed and that the revolution was indeed tweeted: in other words, content has become more of a discussion and dynamic than offline. I imagine this as similar to playing a game of telephone at a dinner table. What we can take from this article is that Twitter serves as a great medium to aide discussion and allow users whether they are journalists, bloggers, activists, users to easily flow and share information. Also, since users are likely to share those like them (with some obvious breaks in the flow), simply because of the nature of the ICT, even if parallel to real life, information reach is much quicker.

Jakob Nielsen. Source: UseIt

Accoring to Jakob Neilsen (PHD), who has been dubbed “the king of usability” and is a User Advocate and principal of the Nielsen Norman Group‘s article How Users Read on the Web:

The format of a webpage will make or break the readers attention. For example, having long paragraphs with no pictures all in one font will definitely have the reader click the back button on the browser. It is important to have an appealing layout to ensure the reader stays on the webpage. Some things to include would be highlighting the important words and points. This will help the reader realize if the webpage is right for their purpose. Also, it is important to have clear sub-headings, one main point per paragraph, and clear and concise writing. This way the reader is able to navigate through the page easily.

More specifically, the article titled, “Blah-blah text”, describes how to capture the readers attention in the introduction. The magic formula that people use to write books, essays, and papers is not the same for a website. In fact it is the exact opposite. On any good website, the first glimpse of what you see will not be a long paragraph where you must search for the main points, but will be short and simple. It will be one to two sentences at the most and will sometimes even just be a list of bullet points.

It is important to make sure that your website answers two questions: What and Why. If the introductory few images or words is able to capture these questions, the reader is more likely to stay on the website a little bit longer than if the reader had to scroll through the entire page to figure out what it was about. A good example of this is on the website: Visit California. On the first page they have pictures and text in bullet form describing a few vacation points about California. This will help a person interested in learning more about California see what kinds of places the state has to offer. On the other hand a bad example of this would be: Oregon  State – Vitamin B12. This particular website is describing the vitamin b12 but looking at the way the site is formatted it is hard to tell what exactly they are trying to say. The website opens up with a large paragraph which would confuse and deter the reader from the site.

It is not always the content and the way that it is presented that is the issue but it also can be the complexity of the matter being discussed. For example it may be harder to introduce a vacation than a scientific process. Regardless of what is being shown, if the first few glimpses of the website are able to tell and show the reader what they will be learning about the reader will be more likely to stay on the webpage longer.

Both of the articles that I read related on how the layout should be presented to ensure that the readers attention is caught. The purpose is to ensure the reader stays on the web page as long as possible. To do so, the webpage must have clear and concise writing, an appealing layout, one point per paragraph, and an introduction that will tell the reader what they should be expecting from the website. If there is one thing that is important it is to have a concise website that focuses on one topic and then dividing up into different web pages for more details, but having everything on one page will just confuse the reader.

Henry Jenkins. Source: HenryJenkins.org

Henry Jenkins is a professor of communications at the University of Southern California and a renown author of books on popular culture and media (HenryJenkins.org). He is also a blogger, and in his article – nine propositions toward a cultural theory of Youtube – he adapts a speech he gave about the significance of social networking: web 2.0 and it’s potential – back in 2007. It is interesting to note the nine propositions he gave on the value of Youtube back in 2007, less than a year after the site’s launch.  I will quickly outline the 9 propositions:

1. Youtube provides a mix of both amateur and professional content allowing anyone to be seen disrupting the traditionally professional nature of media.
2. Youtube provides a collaboration ground for grassroots organizations being able to organize content and meanings that would otherwise be hard due to distance.
3. Youtube can be a more powerful channel of growth than traditional broadcast channels.
4. Youtube is very spreadable (can be shared easily).
5. Youtube aids citizen journalism.
6. Youtube can be used as a force for change, propoganda, transformation, and instigating change (this reminds me of Arab Flight)
7. Youtube helps us notice what is culturally popular as well as creates a more dynamic culture.
8. Youtube reinforces the importance of social knowledge (social networking/web 2.0) and the digital divide.
9. Youtube reinforces that participatory culture is not diverse culture: Youtube is represented by a minority.

What’s interesting about this article is that Youtube is still not a diverse culture, even though it is currently ranked the number 3 most visited website in the world. I believe this is because number 8 and number 9 are closely related. So, I began to try and understand why Youtube is not as popular among minority cultures or as participated by minority cultures: one of the reasons I see is the country rank of Youtube in various countries: the digital divide.The divide between the access of countries is one main cause of it.

Youtube Country Breakdown. Source: Alexa.

However, Youtube content is represented fairly equally within the various sub-cultures found in America. What this means is that Youtube is fairly equally participatory in terms of user numbers with access, but this is focused mainly on sub-cultures found in America.

Youtube Demographics. Source: Alexa

A few years ago, I was able to recognize that HDR photos were often prettier than reality.  When reading Daryl Pranada’s brief on Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How we can Change the World, I was able to recognize that he found the reality that gaming provided was a very important space for many individuals. While he recognized that these individuals that gamed had a life outside of the virtual reality, he stated that

 But as they devote more and more of their free time to game worlds, the real world increasingly feels like it’s missing something.

This began to make me realize that he was claiming that to some individuals, virtual reality was better than reality. He claims that in virtual reality, one is often alive and adventureous in every moment – something rarely found in reality.

With companies such as Zynga, OmgPop, Playdom with 100M-1B dollar evaluations, it is clear that gaming is a very strong industry. Daryl estimates this to be a 68Billion dollar industry by 2012, a figure that is fairly accurate.

I don’t see any problem in gamers finding a place of solace through virtual reality: personally, my solace comes from music and good television. There are other means to solace and other escapes from reality, but I do believe video games are a great one.

One statistic that got to me was his number on how many hours a week we spent gaming:

Collectively, the planet is now spending more than 3 billion hours a week gaming. We are starving, and our games are feeding us.

As technology grows, we find games representing a stronger sense of connection to reality: i.e. Kinect and Move are making users represent themselves through hand motion in an alternate reality setting.

He concludes by saying that he wants to provide gamers with a better reality, rather than a better virtual reality. I don’t know if I agree that gamers are a 100% with virtual reality because they find faults with reality: however, I do believe he is correct in the notion as to how far virtual reality has gone. He also claims that the knowledge gamers have gained can help augment reality, and reduce real issues like poverty in the world. I don’t believe gaming can find solutions to reality yet: simply because they do not represent the realities of this world and also because of the very specific settings & natures of video games: it would be difficult to find a setting which mirrored most large-scale video games and use the understanding and learnings of that to enhance reality.

Danah Boyd is an american social media researcher who is considered one of the most influential woman in technology. She is well known for her studies of youth, and her article  Why The youth (heart) social media »

According to Danah Boyd’s article, the way teenagers and adults use social networking sites are different: although her use of MySpace primarily as an example is antiquated, she brings up the notion that the youth tend to use Social Media sites to keep in touch with their closest friends, where as adults are more prone to connect with strangers.

However, according to recent statistics on Facebook Usage, teenagers tend to connect with much more members than adults. In fact, current high school and college students have the most amount of connections on the largest social networks. However, this may be due to other factors.

So, what drives this? Let’s first understand the difference between privacy options when this article was published and now. When MySpace was the dominant social network, privacy settings were very limited, and it was fairly easy for people to visit the page of an individual from 1948. It’s interesting to note the amount of privacy issues that have changed since then: Current social networking sites are primarily used as photo-sharing applications. Current social networking sites also have very segregated privacy options.

What’s the teenage interest? Boyd claims that the main reason teenagers love social media is a power struggle between parents and child. On social networking sites, teenagers are given a “private space” which they are not otherwise given. This provides a strong explanation as to teenager fascination with social networking. The notion of teenagers having more connections however can probably be accounted to two factors then: more teenagers are on social networking sites and teenagers are probably more extroverted.

Edit: Facebook’s value on Photo Sharing

Before I write this blog post on Lessig’s Remix»,

I would like to share a disclaimer: Back in 2007, I designed a video aggregate and have dealt with issues of copyright being involved in fairly large lawsuit. My perspective on copyright infringement is therefore a little skewed; however, I will attempt to be as central as possible.

I believe that piracy and copyright are relevant issues in society, but also industry opportunities. What do I mean? Sites like Hulu.com and Spotify have been spawned out of piracy in an attempt to eradicate it and the damages it causes (mainly, financially to content creators). Many websites have reduced online piracy and torrenting, and we can clearly see through statistics that piracy, especially after MegaUpload’s lawsuit have gone down drastically.

However, remixing is a different issue all together. For example, Lessig talks about the obliviousness of one mother who got fined $150,000 when she unknowingly used a clip of a song in a viral video. I agree this is a little ridiculous. In fact, I can’t imagine anyone who would support this: however, it is well known that each right of copyright infringement is a very costly fine.

Because remixing is an act of creativity, it is a very complicated issue in terms of creative development. I will explain why: While piracy can be argued as a promotional tool, and can be monetized through advertisement based engines such as Spotify, 8Tracks, and Netflix; it is difficult to recognize artists for re-mixes. Although, many artists themselves have sampled beats from the past, it would be interesting therefore to somehow reward original content creators when their content is remixed. This will ultimately solve the piracy issue: most other forms of piracy have been drastically reduced (from the 2000’s).

Lessig explains how important easy access is and that people will not wait to access content: therefore, I believe publishers should attempt to publish in mediums and methods that are beneficial to artists, producers, writers, designers. I agree with his theology that “even the good will become pirates in a world where the rules seem absurd”. However, I do hear Kim Dotcom (MegaUpload Founder) is working on a product that will reward artists, and content producers, and attempt to help with remixing. I can’t wait =]

This blog post is a follow up of Nayar’s article »

I’ve been a long time member of Reddit, 4Chan, Imgur, and what I’ve come to learn is that communities which offer technology, but not imply focus form many different cyber cultures. For example, Reddit and 4Chan both embody various cyber cultures: from simple humor to interesting fetishes. Whatever one’s interest, Reddit fosters relevancy and user interaction through avatars and PM’s.  Nayar states that culture and technology are linked (5). Without ICT’s, it is quiet clear that much globalization would not occur. In fact, I’ve seen through out the years, the interaction of many cyber cultures increase through decreases in barriers: i.e. new messaging and chatting features that automatically live translate from one language to another. A great example is Phillip Rosedale’s Second Life which platforms a virtual world with avatars that imitates real-life encounters in an rendered simulation. While Nayar’s article is a little antiquated in stating that Amazon.com is perhaps the most successful web company today, Nayar does make a point of what companies tend to survive global bubbles: those that fit the mold of being able to identify with long-term globalization of capitalist orders and global trade. Nayar also brings up the barrier of technology itself however which as we learned in Comm-12 at Santa Clara is a prevalent issue of economic scale. While, the resources to interact with one another are becoming more easily accessible, the apparatuses to do so still remain with the haves, rather than the have nots. While the haves, have more access, the have nots remain further behind in terms of economic growth and opportunities as well as social opportunities. Nayar’s article continues to talk about disconnect of identity: however, I believe that this is also antiquated to three-to-four years ago. Nayar, of course, takes the standpoint that there isn’t a disconnect; however, the latest technologies try to use real identities as promotion for machine learning algorithms to provide recommendations, advertising, commerce, and communication. Overall, Nayar is succinct in stating that ICT’s and the disparity between the haves and have nots  is an important one to understand: however, I believe, that this is not a channel of disparity but rather an amplification of resources for both. I believe in the long run, that technologies such as AirTime, Spotify and Facebook, and Anybot are providing tools to interact in a virtual setting that best tries to replicate real-world interactions.