Daniel Pargman's Ph.D. thesis: "Code begets community: On social and technical aspect". Recommended by Dave Randall.
"This thesis looks at a Swedish-speaking adventure mud - SvenskMud - a text-based "virtual world". I have taken a broad view and describe how this mud functions, with a special focus on "the work to make it work". More specificly I describe the activities in and around the mud from three different perspectives:
- Where muds came from, how they work and how this particular mud works.
- The mud as a computer program and an ongoing systems development project.
- Management of the mud as a task or a hobby for the mud administrators (called "magicians" in the mud)."
Provides an excellent model of how you can go about studying a virtual, online community
Friday, March 11, 2005
Friday, March 04, 2005
Trust and Community on the Internet
the journal Analyse & Kritik has published a special issue on
"Trust and Community on the Internet".
The issue contains 16 articles within the following categories:
Concepts and Background
The Internet as an Environment for Trust
Reputation and Online Auctions
Groups and Networks
Law and the Internet
You can find detailed information at
http://www.analyse-und-kritik.net/english/current_issue.htm.
These articles are a selection of papers that were presented at the
international conference "Trust and Community on the Internet" that
was held at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Bielefed,
Germany in Summer 2003. You can find the complete list of all
conference presentations at
http://www.uni-duesseldorf.de/~matzat/conference.htm.
"Trust and Community on the Internet".
The issue contains 16 articles within the following categories:
Concepts and Background
The Internet as an Environment for Trust
Reputation and Online Auctions
Groups and Networks
Law and the Internet
You can find detailed information at
http://www.analyse-und-kritik.net/english/current_issue.htm.
These articles are a selection of papers that were presented at the
international conference "Trust and Community on the Internet" that
was held at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Bielefed,
Germany in Summer 2003. You can find the complete list of all
conference presentations at
http://www.uni-duesseldorf.de/~matzat/conference.htm.
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
Circling the wagons: the net politics of exclusion
Before you finish off your community group assignment, worth having a look at an article written by Will Davies, "Circling the wagons: the net politics of exclusion" in the Register, Nov 8th 2004:
"I think we have a difficulty in viewing the net sociologically and critically partly because it is a global system with very remote governance structures. Rather than see it as a constructed social system, driven by politics, it is far easier to see it as an entirely neutral and indeed natural social space, within which new political units can be created....
The real politics of the net does not consist in creating new communities, with new forms of governance, moderation and values. It consists in mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion, that tend to follow pre-existing sociological and economic divisions....
There’s an analogy often made between the American settlers and internet dwellers, and it’s a good one (things like ‘the cyber-frontier’). Like the American settlers, internet dwellers create a myth that there was no politics before they arrived. In order to establish entirely new and egalitarian communities, American settlers had to ignore the fact that the land was already occupied. To the same end, Internet settlers choose to ignore the historical and sociological facts of how the Internet is run, who can't get on to it and why, and the mechanisms used online to divide people.The risk is that the politics of the net follows America towards gated communities, each having only an inward-looking, group-based notion of politics, and ceases to question the macro institutions and systems around them."
"I think we have a difficulty in viewing the net sociologically and critically partly because it is a global system with very remote governance structures. Rather than see it as a constructed social system, driven by politics, it is far easier to see it as an entirely neutral and indeed natural social space, within which new political units can be created....
The real politics of the net does not consist in creating new communities, with new forms of governance, moderation and values. It consists in mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion, that tend to follow pre-existing sociological and economic divisions....
There’s an analogy often made between the American settlers and internet dwellers, and it’s a good one (things like ‘the cyber-frontier’). Like the American settlers, internet dwellers create a myth that there was no politics before they arrived. In order to establish entirely new and egalitarian communities, American settlers had to ignore the fact that the land was already occupied. To the same end, Internet settlers choose to ignore the historical and sociological facts of how the Internet is run, who can't get on to it and why, and the mechanisms used online to divide people.The risk is that the politics of the net follows America towards gated communities, each having only an inward-looking, group-based notion of politics, and ceases to question the macro institutions and systems around them."
Monday, December 13, 2004
Blogs and the US Presidential election
One view of the US presidential election was that "One blogger is worth ten votes - a voter with a weblog is ten times more powerful than a voter without a weblog, because there's more voting than just going in and flipping a lever." Dave Winer, Harvard University
However, it turns out that higher voter participation in the election was inversely related to the degree of Internet usage, or as the Register puts it, "How organized religion, not net religion, won it for Bush":
"Technophobes and luddites won the election for George W Bush in 2004, not technology-toting bloggers, by turning out the vote. The giant, self-congratulatory humpfest that is the blogger nation really didn't do much at all for the Democrats, despite Joe Trippi telling anyone who'll listen that the internet transformed politics. For voter turn-out was markedly higher in the states with the lowest broadband penetration.
Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut, New York and California have the highest broadband penetration and all went to Kerry. Meanwhile, Mississippi, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and New Mexico have the lowest penetration and all went to Bush. But the rise in votes was proportionately higher in states where the internet doesn't reach so many people."
However, it turns out that higher voter participation in the election was inversely related to the degree of Internet usage, or as the Register puts it, "How organized religion, not net religion, won it for Bush":
"Technophobes and luddites won the election for George W Bush in 2004, not technology-toting bloggers, by turning out the vote. The giant, self-congratulatory humpfest that is the blogger nation really didn't do much at all for the Democrats, despite Joe Trippi telling anyone who'll listen that the internet transformed politics. For voter turn-out was markedly higher in the states with the lowest broadband penetration.
Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut, New York and California have the highest broadband penetration and all went to Kerry. Meanwhile, Mississippi, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and New Mexico have the lowest penetration and all went to Bush. But the rise in votes was proportionately higher in states where the internet doesn't reach so many people."
Monday, December 06, 2004
phishing attacks soar
See BBC News "Cyber criminals step up the pace " 6/12/04
"So-called phishing attacks that try to trick people into handing over confidential details have boomed in 2004, say security experts. The number of phishing e-mail messages stopped by security firm MessageLabs has risen more than tenfold in less than 12 months. In 2004 it detected more than 18 million phishing e-mail messages.
Other statistics show that in 2004 73% of all e-mail was spam and one in 16 messages were infected with a virus."
"So-called phishing attacks that try to trick people into handing over confidential details have boomed in 2004, say security experts. The number of phishing e-mail messages stopped by security firm MessageLabs has risen more than tenfold in less than 12 months. In 2004 it detected more than 18 million phishing e-mail messages.
Other statistics show that in 2004 73% of all e-mail was spam and one in 16 messages were infected with a virus."
Microsoft get into Blogging
From BBC news, technology section:
"Software giant Microsoft is taking the plunge into the world of blogging. It is launching a test service to allow people to publish blogs, or online journals, called MSN Spaces"
It actually looks quite good, so worth considering if you are thinking of ever starting up a blog. Click here to access MSN Spaces
"Software giant Microsoft is taking the plunge into the world of blogging. It is launching a test service to allow people to publish blogs, or online journals, called MSN Spaces"
It actually looks quite good, so worth considering if you are thinking of ever starting up a blog. Click here to access MSN Spaces
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
Why 2004 was the year of the blog
From BBC News , 1st Dec 2004:
"The term "blog" has been chosen as the top word of 2004 by a US dictionary publisher.
Merriam-Webster said "blog" headed the list of most looked-up terms on its site during the last twelve months. During 2004 blogs, or web logs, have become hugely popular and some have started to influence mainstream media. Other words on the Merriam-Webster list were associated with major news events such as the US presidential election or natural disasters that hit the US. "
..and to think at the beginning of this course almost none of you had ever heard of a blog!
"The term "blog" has been chosen as the top word of 2004 by a US dictionary publisher.
Merriam-Webster said "blog" headed the list of most looked-up terms on its site during the last twelve months. During 2004 blogs, or web logs, have become hugely popular and some have started to influence mainstream media. Other words on the Merriam-Webster list were associated with major news events such as the US presidential election or natural disasters that hit the US. "
..and to think at the beginning of this course almost none of you had ever heard of a blog!
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