Netiquette: Blog comments

Coming from a family oft referred to by others as the Flanders, blog comments were fraught with peril for me.  If posting them myself, I used to feel responsible for posting only positive, affirming words that couldn’t possibly be seen as negative – to ensure the blogger’s feelings would not be hurt, their self-esteem remain [...]

I just posted this comment on a colleague’s site: “The London Public Library has done a great job with their site – it’s current and definitely teen-focussed in look and content focus. I have to say, though, I’m still unsettled by what I see as an adult incursion into private teen space. Remember [...]

MySpace, MyDeathSpace

Web 2.0 technologies enable more people to have access to creating their own online content. This results not only in blogs, wikis, websites, and social networking sites, but creative spin-offs, too. A mixture of tongue-in-cheek parodies and smart marketing exist, like the following: SecondLife is parodied by Geta(First)Life.  Bloggers with a dark [...]

“Kill the elderly”: a Facebook group I’ll avoid

Some investigating around Facebook by Dave has turned up some very ageist attitudes amongst those who use the social networking environment. Check out the conversation here on Freydblog.
It’s awful to read but hurts me more than it shocks; teens, struggling with understanding and establishing their own identity, are prone to putting down others: [...]

Digi-learning: maximizing the benefits of social economies

The value of collaborative development is widely acknowledged (see proprietary software development release dates versus those of open source programs – guess which advances more rapidly). How can these proven techniques be leveraged to advance education?  Recent studies by IBM (reign in your scepticism, please) show : “hours spent playing online can hone [...]

Response to Stephen Abram on Social Networking sites and Libraries

Demi-god of internet information management Stephen Abram’s latest monthly e-letter questions what makes social networking sites  site “sticky”, encouraging return visits, and why prods us to wonder why users “willingly create and share…without financial and assessment award”.  Danah Boyd’s presentation to the AAAS covered these questions: youths engage in these social networking sites for interaction [...]

Text-chat vs Voice in MMOGs: questioning identity

I’ve been riffing a bit about virtual presence lately; the identity construction it represents. I’ve recently created a Facebook account, re-engaged with my old Tribe account, and am mustering up the courage to join an online gaming environment. On top of that is the omnipresent responsibility to keep feeding this blog and [...]

Completely Biased SN Recognition Awards 2007

MISU [Most Interesting Sign-up]:  Second Life.  Becoming a resident entails selecting a last name from a provided list.  How about that:  Vonnegut’s Dr. Wilbur Daffodil-11 Swain was on to something.

IFF  [Instant Friend Factor]:  Facebook.  Invitations from fun folk I actually know were waiting for me when I signed up.  MySpace takes a second for creator [...]

Social Networking: CBC report on the new Internet phenom

A quote from early CBC coverage on the Internet likened its rapid growth to that of an embryonic brain. It’s a fascinating report that touches upon many big issues of social networking: behaviour of the anonymous; the ameliorating effect of group environments on anonymous behaviour; posting of “sensitive” information [...]