Enter World: exploring mediated cultures

Friday, July 10, 2009

A back-and-forth legal case surrounding social networking access between Power.com and Faebook covered in Mashable (Power.com Sues Facebook: Data Ownership War Breaks Out) introduced me to Power.com as a new option for accessing social networks.

It’s curious that the Power.com logo still has a Facebook petal (or fan blade?) even though it is notably missing from the login options.

Could be a sign that they are hopeful to regain access, useful to their case, or just an oversight.

All that aside, it seems like Power.com is yet another improvement in applications to network the networks. From one page you can read messages, updates, profiles, and look at albums plus access all of your contacts from across social networks.

They’ve also added chat and a radio. I’m a huge fan of online radio. When I’m working is about the only time I sit and listen for an extended time and being exposed to Pandora‘s selection has introduced me to some great musicians over the years. I also love being able to listen to KXLL in Juneau for all their great shows. It’s an alluring concept to integrate an international radio show with a social network hub. It could lead to longer time spent logged into the network hub on top of providing background music while catching up on social news.

The main limitation I see in Power.com right now is the concentration on specific big name sites. You can only integrate Twitter, LinkedIn, Orkut, MySpace, Hi5, Flogão and VoteMe. Of these options I have two accounts and regularly use one, so there isn’t much incentive to consolidate at this point. While it’s understandable that integrating each network requires coding (that can apparently cause lawsuits), my ideal social aggregator would function more like NetNewsWire does for information feeds.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

I’m a huge fan of CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) and have rallied a group in Braddock to join the Dillner Family Farms two years in a row. That same ethic of grassroots support is popping up in the information field with a prime example being Firedoglake’s call to fund investigative blogger Marcy Wheeler.

The phenomenal initial success collecting individual donations, with a goal of reaching $150,000 to fund three full time positions, is being spread through Tweets. The amount raised went up over $200 in the few minutes since I started writing this post.

Last year I wrote about Spot.us starting a community funded reporting site that is now active. The difference between a site devoted to funding journalism and an online news site asking for funding for an existing investigative reporter is that the people donating to Spot.us will be motivated by funding reporting and may want to spread around the funds they can donate, while the Firedoglake readers are already familiar with the reporter and have been benefiting from free reporting up to this call for help.

Compare over $19,000 in one day of donations at Firedoglake to most articles having a few hundred raised on Spot.us. There is also a huge difference in the amount being asked for—on Spot.us the total needed seems to range from a couple hundred to a couple thousand and is not meant to support three full-time positions. The goals are different, the environments are different—but the reader support is a binding thread and something that holds promise for the future of media.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

I’ve briefly touched on how cell phones can be used by news services to reach communities that don’t have access to computers and the Internet, but lately I’m becoming more and more convinced that we are migrating away from computers in general. And I haven’t even played with an iPhone yet—actually, I would suggest that the iPhone is in an entirely different category because of its computer-style interface and connection to the Internet. What I’ve been looking into is text message access.

Social Networks

Online social networks are offering ways to connect with contacts outside of their websites. Google’s Gmail and Yahoo! Messenger both have features allowing chat messages to be sent to cell phones. There are also a number of free Facebook applications allowing users within Facebook to send messages out to cell phones. There is also an application aptly named Chat To Text that offers a paid service connecting a range of social networks with cell phone text messaging.

The technology isn’t new, there have been free web services sending text messages to cell phones for years. What is different is the ability to connect a larger group that may not have otherwise shared personal contact information such as a phone number, allowing social networking connections to move beyond the computer.

Information Access

Another area that is expanding through text messaging is access to information. Google is a prime example here. By sending a text to 466453 (Google) you can ask for information found in their features including directions, definitions, and even conversions offered in the calculator. I’ve been taken to the wrong location by my GPS (I just love when it tells me to turn into someone’s driveway as if it’s a street) and turned to text message directions to get back on the road, headed in the right direction.

Photo Sharing

Along with text messaging and calling, cell phones have all sorts of bells and whistles. Photos are one, with many phones now able to take decent digital photos. Unfortunately some phones don’t offer easy access to the stored files. Services like Pikchur.com come in here, offering a personalized email address to send photos to through MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) as opposed to SMS (Short Message Service). Not only does this enable moving the photos off of the phone, but these sites also form networks of people sharing content and provide the option to simultaneously post to multiple networks.

Overall, we’re moving away from the need for a computer and Internet access to connect to networks that were originally formed online. Other countries may be far ahead of the States in cell phone features, but we’re getting there.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

I’ve been fascinated with Twitter because of the user control it offers, but the amount of micro blog entries can be overwhelming. There is so much potential ... but how to weed through all of the information?

Today I discovered Breaking Tweets. I like the format: an introduction at the top of the pieces summarizing the topic followed by a list of related tweets. The tweets link to the posters’ twitter pages, allowing you to follow up in more detail, but also provide an easy to follow overview of personal perspectives.

It won’t replace TweetDeck‘s ability to follow specific topics of interest nor will it replace local news tweets ... but it does provide a new angle to international news that you might not otherwise stumble across in Twitter. 

Saturday, March 07, 2009

Whose fault is it that the economy is in despair?

According to Recession Psychology 101* in today’s Dallas News, psychology blames the media: bad news = feeling bad = spending less.

The media defends itself ("Thing is, Friday’s job report number really was awful. We’re not trying to ruin your weekend") and blames the Internet ("It’s the Internet – not necessarily journalists – that’s allowed bad economic news to ricochet around the world faster than ever before, Steele said.")

This seems pretty standard to me. Back in December the Pew Research Center released the Psychology Of Bad Times survey report suggesting just this psychological cycle of worry leading to cutbacks leading to further economic troubles. The effects tradition in the social sciences has concentrated on what media does to people, and new media is afraid of old media. Nothing new here.

The article concludes with a psychologist who suggests turning off the evening news so we don’t need to worry about what doesn’t affect our daily lives. But in this cycle of economic woes (I’m going with the flow here) won’t that lead advertisers to stop buying spots on the evening news to cut costs because no one is watching any more, thus leading to less funding for news shows and causing the collapse of news media?

As oddly amusing as all of this circling is, we can’t blame (only) the media for the culture of fear we all participate in and create. Our society looks at faults and problems. The media looks at faults and problems. It goes far deeper than than the media, but then how could things change if something that was “really awful” was not the most important fact to tell the world?

*The headline has been edited to: Barrage of bad news can get in your head, affect judgment

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Due to some inaccurate information being published on Wikipedia, over the next week editors have been charged with finding a way to balance the open-access immediacy of user-generated content and accuracy. Yesterday’s BBC article about Wikipedia’s potential change says founder Jimmy Wales is pushing to have all content reviewed by an editor before it is posted. Other articles are suggesting only registered users’ content will post immediately and unregistered user posts will need to be reviewed. Either way, it is an interesting turn. This brings Wikipedia one step closer to the system Britannica designed while still allowing users to generate the actual article.

Another way to share information is Google’s knol, now in beta. In this knowledge scenario authors have their names out there associated with the work but with more of an srticle-style knowledge-share rather than an encyclopedic entry. Like wikipedia, you can access revisions (history) to see changes—but being from Google, you also have statistics in the sidebar of every article including author information, article activity, user ratings of the content, similar articles or sites, licensing information, and links to other articles by the author.

In knol the author sets the level of editing allowed by other logged-in Google users—from open editing where anyone can participate in the changes, moderated collaboration for suggestions to be sent to the author for approval, or closed collaboration which only allows co-authors to make changes. This feature alone makes knol a more friendly place for a variety of users. Whereas wikipedia’s default is open editing to all and Britannica’s default is closed until approved—authors from both camps can publish their work in knol, and even authors who want nothing to do with participatory editing can offer up their knowledge to the public.

Interested in sharing something you know? Knol is hosting a knol for Dummies contest through March accepting “how to” articles.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Britannica is allowing users to edit and post entries to its online encyclopedia to combat wikipedia, but with a twist of the old-school integrated: user content must be reviewed by Britannica before it will be placed beside entries and posts can only be submitted by approved authors who register their real names and addresses.

Wikipedia is a controversial concept with complaints ranging from false information to cultural decline. But despite the criticism it is still in the top 10 sites used globally.

Perhaps it is also controversy that fuels the site—not controversy over whether the information is accurate or if anonymous authors are credible, but the inclusion of controversial information. James Loewen‘s book Lies My Teacher Told Me points to the whitewashing of (high-school) history as one of the key ingredients to making it boring. Pretending that everything was one-sided and heroes were only ever perfect ignores the drama of life. One of the brilliant sides to wikipedia is the ability to allow different cultures, viewpoints, and opinions to be expressed in the writing of history. As Danah Boyd mentioned in her speech at the 2008 Handheld Learning conference, teachers could choose to use wikipedia as a learning tool by accessing the history of entries and teaching students to evaluate the credibility of authors.

Britannica’s emulation of the wikipedia format is a big step, even with the restrictions. In fact, the restrictions directly address the major complaints heard about the wikipedia format, and by creating an alternative that emphasizes the expert while allowing for restricted user interaction Britannica may be bringing the idea of interactive technology to a new set of users.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Typically I see advertising as an invasion. It might be that the volume goes up, the aesthetics are not pleasing to me, and often the messages themselves flop in their attempts to be rad.

In one of the archived presentations by Dana Boyd that I watched, she said the MySpace users she interacts with had a completely different reaction to advertising: It was a sign of stability. They were more confident that sponsored sites/tools/tech would stick around while the free and ad-free offerings were somewhat shunned for fear that they would disappear.

JPG Magazine all but disappeared. It has a bit of a torrid past, drama among the owners and a flood of user loss in response. But overall the concept of an online community contributing and rough editing the content of a print publication is a great one. Which is why, despite the drama and changes already past, I was happy to hear the magazine would be bought out instead of folding. The active community was credited with saving the magazine due to all of the hype generated after the closure was announced.

And today when I went to the site and saw an ad about how to lose 2 pounds of your stomach fat ... that first twinge of disgust reminded me of the potential for stability ... 

I can fly through keyboard hot keys by rote ... until I opt to change software or update the programs I work with daily. Today I decided to switch to Firefox from Camino because of Zotero, a citation/resource/note managing application that looks astounding. If it lives up to half of what it appears to be I am going to be so happy I won’t mind reprogramming the hot keys in my brain. So far the biggest difference between Camino and Firefox is that home is no longer apple+H but instead option+home—but the home key on my laptop is fn+left arrow ... so a simple two-key stroke has turned into a two-handed, extended fingers project.

Friday, January 09, 2009

The psychological sense of community: Prospects for a community psychology by Seymour B. Sarason

In Sarason’s overview he mentions that having close friends scattered throughout the country or world can make one feel even more acutely that a (local) sense of community is lacking. Written in 1974—before access to email, blogs, photo and video sharing, etc—I have to think that the disconnect today would be different.

Most of my friends and family are scattered throughout the world. I take this as a great opportunity to travel and visit, while keeping in touch through media between visits. We have kept in touch with email, phone calls, text messages, digital photos, blogs, mailed and posted movies, art, online web chats with audio and video … My family and friends being thousands of miles away didn’t make me feel a lack of community in the area I lived. If anything, they became a part of where I lived through our mediated connections, and I was equally aware of what was going on in their physical communities. Yet we also had private and public communities where we could interact that were not limited to the places we lived. If the connections to remote communities replaced interactions in the local community, I suppose that could be a cause for feeling that the local community was lacking. However, in many ways distributed communities can incite local involvement.

Overall Sarason’s insight into the field of community psychology was engaging, informative, and thought provoking. Especially hard-hitting for me was the conviction he expressed about community psychology needing to draw upon other fields, especially other social sciences, to gain an accurate understanding of community. This is something I believe to be equally important for media psychology. To understand what community (or media) is and how it changes, we need to understand what Sarason called background factors. Innovation will only come from a multifaceted understanding of the topics.

I’d like to read this book again, but my stack of other books I need to read just keeps growing ... so I’ll keep it on my used book watch list to add to my library for later.