Enter World: exploring mediated cultures

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Social goes for broke

Online social networking, social marketing, and social media optimization have been targets of organizations and businesses trying to harness the power of the web. And now we can add social pressure.

I grew up hearing that peer pressure was a bad thing, but it looks like the city of Pittsburgh is trying to turn this often lamented form of social influence on attitudes, behaviors, and values around to its positive side.

To bring some money into the city, they have decided to collect on old tickets. And what better way to do that than to shame those who have not paid publicly? check the online database to see if you (or someone you know) has been charged with a summary offense

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In other social networking news, a global survey showed Facebook as the most mentioned company. Can we finally say goodbye to MySpace? Here’s hoping ... 

Friday, September 21, 2007

Beyond Applications

Moving virtual worlds out of proprietary applications has the potential to open online community interaction beyond anything we have seen thus far.

Metaplace is aiming for just that.

“We have a vision: to let you build anything, and play everything, from anywhere.”

I signed up for Alpha testing this morning.

Saturday, June 02, 2007

More corporate changes

MySpace is deleting sex offender accounts too, 7000 so far, but even when MySpace makes an error it isn’t admitting it. Interestingly, there does not seem to be a backlash. One of the banned users is actually so desperate to have a MySpace account that he’s tried lying about who he is to create a new one and settled on borrowing his girlfriend’s account to access the site.

There are so many other options out there. My first assumption is that his dependency on the service must be due to lack of exploration/understanding of the web. Sure MySpace is a place to find music, people, etc but you can find MySpace pages through search engines in the same way you could find a Virb.com page (which not only also has music, videos, photos, and blogs but also LOOKS NICE and FUNCTIONS), facebook (which I hear looks nicer than MySpace and functions better), or even a personal web site that is not dependent upon conglomerate media dictating whether you are allowed access.

My MySpace response [update: account closed]—which includes the quote below:

In 1976, Pastor Martin Niemöller wrote:

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

Friday, June 01, 2007

First Friday

Enough SL First Friday art walk and online research. I’m off to explore Juneau’s RL First Friday.

brief list of current corporate screw ups re online communities

It seems online communities bought out by companies are messing up severely these days. I would chalk it up to the companies operating them not really understanding the existing community and having different sensibilities. That doesn’t mean they can’t learn, on the contrary they seem willing to learn albeit only after mistakes.

• LiveJournal deletes accounts in an attempt to rid the site of child pornography but goes way overboard and lands in the news.
• The flickr debacle where the person who had photographs stolen for commercial use and was posting about it had the post deleted by Flickr, which later apologized.
• And, though there is no sign of learning here, the JPG Mag take over that led to a member response of account deletions. This is truly a shame, because the approach to publishing is brilliant.

Corporate screw ups are probably to be expected, though still disheartening. Community action against it is not only a positive side, but perhaps needed to iron out the way corporations interact with the communities that grew up around social networking tools before the tools were purchased.

Avatar Evolution

Actually, my avatar started as a default and slowly worked its way up to customized hair and clothing. These are the latest three outfits in use. Don’t seem to have broken that gender barrier yet, or the species barrier either. I briefly tried on a white wolf avatar, but just didn’t quite get the hang of it. No doubt, this will continue to morph.

Spring Dragon

Griefing in SL

A few participants in Fielding’s Second Life course have mentioned being “attacked” in SL. I know of griefing in PvP MMOs as a way of messing up a mission or asserting tribe dominance ... but I was wondering what the end result was for griefing in Second Life.

SL avatars don’t die (unless you go to a specific place where you expect to use weapons and participate in battles), I don’t think you can be “robbed” of your $L or inventory, and I haven’t heard of any viruses or other destructive methods of crashing SL or someone’s computer through SL. So I decided to look into it ...

The top Google result was a discussion from 2004 on why griefers grief, and the answers were broad. I also found a commentary on the link between those PvP MMOs where griefing is part of the action and how it is carried over into places like SL where it is not acceptable. So far things look like attacks on newbies for fun.

But then I came across a post about a calculated attack on Anshe Chung, SL real estate tycoon. I find it intriguing that this political/social dissent (reminiscent of the Boston Tea Party 3 years ago, but aimed at an individual rather than the system) is described with the same word as attacks on newbies that are done “just because.”

Since most griefing is aimed at newbies who don’t know how to respond, here are some useful tips from SL on defending your avatar:

Sit Down (you can’t be pushed)
Mute the other avatar
File that abuse report

Monday, May 14, 2007

Thoughts on Everything Bad is Good for You

Everything Bad is Good for You, by Steven Johnson

Overall the concept is a breath of fresh air, someone finally looked at media impact from a new angle.

As one example, he discusses TV shows with complex narratives and social webs that encourage audience interaction with the stories. Johnson points to cognitive challenges in modern dramas, and states that the good ones don’t “talk down” to audiences (referring both to the removal of blatant hints and the inclusion of technical jargon). However, he also refers to some of this language as above the audience when he discusses the “willingness to immerse the audience in information that most viewers won’t understand” (p.80). It is precisely this information that interests me. While Johnson covers social and technical skills honed by complex media environments, he overlooks the potential for learning specific information. That was an intentional separation for the purpose of this book, but something I’d like to see explored further in relation to the concepts Johnson presents.

These same shows that subject the audience to new information could be aiding the audience in understanding professional and academic fields as well as in developing their cognitive skills. All of the major networks seem to have more shows with problem solving by professionals or academics than sitcoms. Forensics, forensic anthropology, psychology, medicine, mathematics ... these are all fields that have played the background role of nerd or geek in past shows and are now the key roles. (Excepting computer science, which seems to still be represented by an off-beat character kept within the confines of the office to solve those truly complex technical issues.) By following these characters as they solve complex puzzles, the audience is introduced to the scientific process as well as specific terminology.

I read a wire story a while back that said Americans are more science literate now than ever before. It accredited improved understanding to the requirement of basic science classes in universities. But I would argue that the interest in science, and the willingness to read science news, also lies in the popularization of these fields through characters in television shows and the transformation of research from rigorous academic reading into hip, colorful, and fun formats such as Wired, Seed, and boingboing. Science information has become more accessible to the public through these popular media formats. And while hearing fictional doctors spout out medical terminology on TV is no substitute for studying anatomy or pharmacology, it does open interest in the field and make more people comfortable with the jargon.

Maybe Johnson’s assumption that it’s all in the way we think still holds true: it’s not so much which words the audience remembers or that they will be able to mimic the actions presented, but that they can wrap their minds around it and find it interesting. Just don’t throw out the message completely.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

SL notes

It’s been a while since I’ve been back to my second life. I’m not really attached to it, but maybe that will come when I find a groove. In the meantime, here are some photos from SL reflecting my learning thus far. Although I haven’t built anything yet, I am definitely improving my ability to view things—from my avatar to change what she’s wearing to taking photos she’s not in. In addition, I think I finally get the inventory and how to wear/take off non-clothing items. I bought a Nikon ... but it’s so bulky and awkward, it does not flow with the avatar at all. So much for that.