Three kinds of social networlds:
€We live in the age of information, in which the fundamental particle is not the atom but the bit!
€ Still, techical linkage alone does not create community
€ lessons gained over the past two decades of experience in network communication highlight the importance of designing the environment
€ design involves both technical and social considerations
€ text-based messages must feel and function like a meeting, a learning circle, a cafe, a business team, a graduate seminar etc.
Design of the networlds
Purpose: Task structures
- typically structured around a goal (of doing something)
- may be loosely formulated (an ongoing conference for sharing jokes) or tightly defined (a specific task within a defined time period)
Place: Spatial Structures
- definition of topics with specific purposes and memberships creates the sense of place on the network
- group membership might be different in each space
- familiarity provided by metaphors (offices, malls, cafes), which also serve as navigational and cognitive aids, helping to organize the interactions and set participant expectations
- moreover metaphors convey what is socially appropriate, which code of behavior is expected
- very often the feeling of logging into the net (even for just a minute or two) is very similar to the feeling of peeking into the cafe or the pub, to see who's there
- 'finger' command
Population: Group Roles
- group structure involves the definition of roles and responsibilities of the members of the group
- two roles are most common: the moderator and the participant
- moderators have rights and responsibilities distinct from the other participants
Intellectual and emotional components of CMC
"in cyberspace, we chat and argue, engage in intellectual discourse, perform acts of commerce, exchange knowledge, share emotional support, make plans, brainstorm, gossip, feud, fall in love, find friends and lose them, play games and metagames, flirt, cr
eate a little high art and a lot of idle talk"
€ are relationships and commitments as we know them even possible in a place where identities are fluid? are we dealing with pseudoreality?
€ it is a fact that events in cyberspace can have concrete effects in real life and vice versa
€ Chinese students transmitted reports about Tiananmen Square, Gulf War, Sarajevo etc.
€ the death of the WELL member
€ "since I've been on ECHO, I've seen people band together to offer support for a stabbing victim and to cheer the arrival of new births. I've also heard from a companion of an echoid who had passed away and wanted to archive her beloved's collected
ECHO writings"
€ married couples divorce because of the net romances
€ etc.
€ because we cannot see one another, we are unable to form prejudices about others before we read what they have to say
€ very common communication medium along minorities
€ networlds may be very addictive, people may forget how complex and fascinating the real world is
€ relationships can be complicated in cyberspace because the very technology that draws people together also keeps them apart
The quality of the online experience should be discussed now, while the Net's infrastructure is still malleable and our own behavior remains flexible and capable of change
€ We should have a vision of where globalized networks are leading us, could be leading us and should be leading us
Guidelines of online experience
€ we need subtle guides by which we can measure the quality of the online experience:
Civility
€ the first law of effective communication, the respect we manifest for another person's words, face-to-face or on the Net
€ fortunately civility is a property of certain regions on the Net (the minority viewpoint is not only tolerated but sought out)
€ where civility is not present, conversation online degenerates into a keyboard fight
€ there are own newsgroups for those who want to be abused!!!
Conviviality
€ the marketplace of ideas
€ the joy we share at being somewhere unique, online, to meet many minds at the groaning table of shared understanding...
€ learning how wide is the spectrum of human experience
Reciprocity
€ the Golden Rule embodied in information technology
€ which you can know about me, to influence or direct me, is also allowed to me aobut you, to influence or direct you
€ a popular stand-in for reciprocity is interactivity
€ X does Y, and Y does X
Harmony
€ seems more a function of other factors, we achieve harmony through the succesful advocacy of a particular behavior
Edification
€ to find new information and wisdom together with others
€ very optimistic goal
€ frustration makes it complicated
Artfulness
€ thins done well have art about them
€ a commitment to realizing a statement or a vision and manifesting it as a compelling experience
Spirituality
€ magic of the Net?
€ spontaneity of rapid and consecutive communication via email? exchange of information?
Virtuality
€ what we perceive is all we can know
€ the virtual world is an information environment created and
sustained using fast rendering machines and distributed data models of objects and relationships
Televirtuality
€ the sharing of virtual worlds transmitted over the wire
€ virtual reality (VR) offers the possibility of building and entering a customized 3-dimensional environment in which the user is enveloped in a surrogate reality
Backlash of the Net
€ Get a life, nerd!
€ there are people suggesting that online living will dehumanize us and create a world of people who won't smell flowers, watch sunsets, or engage in face-to-face experiences
€ media producing lots of hype
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