Week 6: Blogs and Saskia Sassen.

When I first started watching the video Networks Power and Democracy and realized it was a social science perspective of the Internet, I was gearing up for snooze mode. I am a technology junkie. I was one of those kids who would not go to sleep in the late 80s early 90s until I figured out this new program I was writing in <insert non-specific programming language here>. If the video had nothing to do about technology, I was destined for boredom. Then somehow, I was transfixed on Saskia Sassen. Something about her voice, her clarity! That’s what it was! It was the clarity of her message. Granted I did not understand it all. I also began to see shiny objects amidst my thoughts and, so, as I often do, I chased after them - occasionally returning to the meat of the video.

Sassen spoke of technically given openness and technically given choice does not produce equal distribution, the social logic of users, <chases shiny object again>. She continued on finance is not being about the technology, but finance needs the technology and has flourished as a result of the technology - thriving on decentralized access, interconnectivity and simultaneity.

Yet, we are not seeing equal distribution especially when seen from the blog perspective. Ok, stop for a minute. Too many shiny objects in my purview. I began to think about the content I provide my students on my Wordpress site - which is a blog tool. But I am not using it like a blog. It is a static space within which I post relevant content distilled from the materials and topics we need to cover over a 15-week period tempered with discussion, examples and assessments to determine if learning is indeed happening. Sometimes I look at my site and imagine it is a tray of sterilized instruments waiting for a needy patient.

But this content is one way and static. Sure I collect projects and personal journals in Blackboard, but there is not open discussion on the BLOG. I am not posting new and relevant content that is interesting, gripping, compelling - pick an adjective. And why not you ask? I have no idea! It just happened that way. So as I am in this shiny moment, I came back to the video.

She continues with why do the top blogs get so much traffic? It has nothing to do with the engineering or the technology. It has everything to do with the social logic. Going to sites that friends recommend. Using google searches that show the top results and people select those that further boost the likelihood of their presence (read relevance) in future searches. Wait, did I just say that? How could my logic be contrary to a seasoned social scientist? It’s not and never mind because that’s not the point after all. Google is Google and its relevance scores will be driven by its own heuristic model. Anyway...

Interestingly, Sassen discusses how when a blog gets too big it begins to look more like conventional mainstream media - a la “Letters to the Editor”. But at the other extreme, it would almost be like a conversation, texting with a friend, almost an intimate conversational encounter. Then there is the middle zone which is more like a truly social interactive environment and perhaps the best form of participatory culture. I have given no specific thought to this blog space previously and it was eye opening.

In other words, if I had a popular blog, how popular would I want to be to still be providing a good service to my readership? I would not want to be so big - having lackeys answering for me - nor would I want to devote, necessarily, so much effort on such a small readership domain. But wait, the classroom is exactly that - a small readership domain. This domain can be positively influenced by social logic which sadly I had engineered out of the equation.

As a result of all of this, I am making some tweaks to my site mid-semester. I will begin to post links to a variety of related materials in the field of computing, programming, virtualization, networking and security. In addition, I will write some opinion pieces a-al Scott Adams.

http://blog.dilbert.com/post/109389515411/your-phone-interface-is-a-legacy-train-wreck

Maybe it was fear of the unknown that caused me to subconsciously squash this method of interaction beyond the traditional classroom. Who knows and I’m teetering on who cares. It’s time to make some changes, but I am not ready for the full force of replies to posts just yet. Still need to work out some of the finer details there.

What are you’re thoughts on this? And, thank you, Saskia! I, too, will attempt to thrive on decentralized access, interconnectivity and simultaneity.



Sassen, S. (2012) Saskia Sassen: Networks, Power, and Democracy [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hpw1GpHzAbc&feature=youtu.be

Week 3: Literacies, discourses & Jenkins, oh my!

The Jenkins video helped to solidify some of the reading for me. Participatory culture. Participatory media & technology. New digital literacies. Civic engagement. All of these are, in my opinion, centered around the idea of discourses as discussed in Lankshear and Knobel and how they directly tie into today's growing need to teach and understand digital literacy specifically, “literacies as socially created constitutive elements of larger human practices - discourses - that [we] construct around [our many] purposes and values.” [Lank shear & Knobel, p76]

This, I think, transcends the idea we have today regarding the concepts of digital immigrant and digital natives. The Internet provides a venue for young and old to meet and share common interests and to be active or passive in the idea of participatory culture but nonetheless require the need for new literacies.

At first I wasn’t seeing the relationship of Peter to Peter Parker - Spiderman - when Jenkins first began. Peter is involved in identity planning, a part of his community, uses Flickr, gets the attention of the local newspaper and begins to submit photos for them. And finally, just before he tells us who he is really describing, I got it and I began to finally understand some this reading that has been somewhat confusing for me up to now. Not that I am good to go, heavens no, but things are more focused.

Jenkins goes on to talk about zines in the 1800’s and then amateur radio and so on. It was fascinating to find out that the language they used was simple - similar to the form of text-speak net lingo acronyms we use today - especially since they had to hand set the type. They understood that a particular level of literacy was necessary. Specifically that they needed to be able to speak to their peers interested in the material or movement, but that they were living in a virtual world - although we certainly may not have used that term in that time period.

The requirement to understand radio frequencies and how transmission and reception worked was an interesting time, because not only did teens have to learn the language that amateur radio users already had in place, they needed to immerse themselves in the world and yet another virtual space was created.

The most amazing part is the need for teens to feel a part of the presumed adult culture when using the technology and they eagerly became part of the culture. The Internet is practically ubiquitous with being alive and breathing unless you were born in a location that simply has no technology. When compared to the printing press and the amateur radio, it is easy to see how a technology can permeate and become an embedded part and necessity in participatory culture.

Moreover, whatever technology is feeding their desire to participate, it fits in perfectly with Green’s model of Operational, Cultural and Critical. It is through their participatory culture that they are using the language, receiving and transmitting meaning, and asking the difficult questions necessary to participate in this world.

I have had to use many pictures with relational conceptual representation to explain a deeper understanding. However, these are mainly in the programming language area, so forgive me if these are not the best examples. Below are two picture. The first is related to the concept of copying content between two objects with the references pointing to each object.

Then to show the deeper relationship that since names (but not numbers) are also objects the true picture is revealed.

Jenkins, Henry. "TEDxNYED - Henry Jenkins - 03/06/10." Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFCLKa0XRlw. January 29th, 2015.

Lankshear & Knobel, (2011). Literacies: Social, Cultural and Historical Perspectives.

Week 2: Semiotics and participants - I think I'm getting it now.

Let me start by saying I have art knowledge rivaled only by my ability to perform an at home appendectomy (the latter likely being more successful). But I think I am getting it now. I am the interactive participant since I am viewing the images (signs) but so is the creator of the image containing the represented participant - people, places, things and abstracts . [Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006:p47] The semiotics are the signs given the signifier (form) and signified (realized meaning). [Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006:p7]

I have to admit that this was painful at first. So many terms thrown at once, it was overwhelming. So, I did what any student would do. I called my children to the room and we watched The Avengers for the umpteenth time. An there is was.

Suddenly there was so much that made sense, only I had never thought of it in this way before. The writers, director, costume designers, the actors, my children - all of these interactive participants. The represented participants were innumerable but included: deception, good, evil, heroes, villains, gods, war, unity, trust, teamwork, aliens, Manhattan.

Given the nature of society today and the scope of the Marvel universe, I would be hard pressed to find a person that would not know at least a few of these symbols:

No?

Maybe this one is easier:

Kress, van Leewen. (2006). Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design.
[Images from the Internet and used here simply for demonstration.]