A Web 2.0 outgrowth of our study of group dynamics on the Internet
i’m reading through the online phd i’d earlier recommended in here, and i was drawn to check up on some of its references – mainly because they cited URLS i could easily jump to. one of the referenced sites looks like a promising resource for general figures on internet use and attitudes in the USA – as well as a whole lot of other guff on topics i am not drawn to.
anyway, see the links page to pew-mediated studies on web 2.0 for example.
Title: The Discourse of Blogs and Wikis
Series Title: Continuum Discourse Series
Publication Year: 2009
Publisher: Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd
http://www.continuumbooks.com
Book URL: http://www.continuumbooks.com/books/detail.aspx?BookId=132398&SearchType=Basic
Editor: Greg Myers
Hardback: ISBN: 9781847064134 Pages: 192 Price: U.S. $ 150.00
Hardback: ISBN: 9781847064134 Pages: 192 Price: U.K. £ 75.00
Paperback: ISBN: 9781847064141 Pages: 192 Price: U.K. £ 24.99
Paperback: ISBN: 9781847064141 Pages: 192 Price: U.S. $ 44.99
Abstract:
Blogs and Wikis have not been with us for long, but have made a huge impact
on society. Wikipedia is the best known exemplar of the wiki, a
collaborative site that leads to a single text claimed by no-one; blogs, or
web-logs, have exploded into the mainstream through novelisations, film
adaptations and have gathered huge followings. Blogs and wikis also serve
to provide a coherent basis for a discourse analysis of specific web
language.
What makes these forms distinctive as genres, and what ramifications does
the technology have on the language? Myers looks at how blogs and wikis:
*allow for easier than ever publication
*can claim to challenge institutional hierarchies
*provide alternate perspectives on events
*exemplify globalization
*challenge demarcations between the personal and the public
*construct new communities and more
Drawing on a wide range of popular blogs and wikis, the book works
alongside an author blog – http://thelanguageofblogs.typepad.com/ – that
contains regularly updated links, references and a glossary. An essential
textbook for upper level undergraduates on linguistics and language studies
courses, it elucidates, informs and offers insights into a major new type
of discourse. This coursebook includes a companion website for student and
lecturer use.
it’s the blog on “the language of blogs” which appears to be a very good resource, with a lot of links to recent work on blog research, other blogs related to online research, and posts of relevance to our own interest. i think i might need to comment on some of those posts….
Cooper, S. D. 2006: Watching the watchdog: Bloggers as the fifth estate. Spokane: Marquette Books.
Levinson, P. 2009: New new media. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
O’Neil, M. 2009: Cyberchiefs: Autonomy and authority in online tribes. London & New York: Pluto Press.
Rettburg, J. W. 2008: Blogging. Cambridge & Malden: Polity Press.
I’ve recently read these four books dealing with different aspects of the web 2.0 world, the common thread through all of them being that they each either touch on or concentrate on the place of blogging in the current netspace. It’s difficult to compare them in terms of content and reliability, because they each have something to offer in terms of content, however my own point of view and personal areas of interest render at least two of them worthy of steering the gentle reader well clear of.
It is these two which I will deal with first.
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after all this time, i’ve just signed up to flickr. so far i am having a lot of fun. hmmm. it is simple and easy to use, and has a lot of features i want to use for organising photos.
this shot was taken as we were speeding back to catch the ferry to return to the mainland on our last day on kangaroo island. i had to hop out of the car and quickly take the shot, so i used the IXUS. it performs OK in most circumstances i think.
it’s one of my favourite shots – mainly because the composition works, and the grass looks good. also, i did not notice those two stones when i took the shot originally, but now i think they make the picture.
i used picasa to gather a few related shots into an ‘album’, and exported the album contents to the desktop so i could easily upload them. the export facility, by default, makes the images smaller, so a lot of the information is lost, but i’ll try out a non-reduced image shortly just to see whether any difference in quality is noticeable.
posted recently on the CITASA list, what looks to be a work of interest to some of us. i’ve added the link to the downloadable file below – haven’t read it myself yet, but if the abstract is anything to go by….
“As if nobody’s reading’?: the imagined audience and socio-technical biases in personal blogging practice in the UK”
David Brake. (2009) PhD thesis, London School of Economics.
Abstract
This thesis examines the understandings and meanings of personal blogging from the perspective of blog authors. The theoretical framework draws on a symbolic interactionist perspective, focusing on how meaning is constructed through blogging practices, supplemented by theories of mediation and critical technology studies. The principal evidence in this study is derived from an analysis of in-depth interviews with bloggers selected to maximise their diversity based on the results of an initial survey. This is supplemented by an analysis of personal blogging’s technical contexts [what i've been wont to call 'affordances' -el] and of various societal influences that appear to influence blogging practices. Bloggers were found to have limited interest in gathering information about their readers, appearing to rely instead on an assumption that readers are sympathetic. Although personal blogging practices have been framed as being a form of radically free expression, they were also shown to be subject to potential biases including social norms [that's us! - el] and the technical characteristics of blogging services ['affordances' again]. Blogs provide a persistent record of a blogger’s practice, but the bloggers in this study did not generally read their archives or expect others to do so, nor did they retrospectively edit their archives to maintain a consistent self-presentation. The empirical results provide a basis for developing a theoretical perspective to account for blogging practices. This emphasises firstly that a blogger’s construction of the meaning of their practice can be based as much on an imagined and desired social context as it is on an informed and reflexive understanding of the communicative situation [sounds as if he has been reading us all this time?]. Secondly, blogging practices include a variety of envisaged audience relationships, and some blogging practices appear to be primarily self-directed with potential audiences playing a marginal role [and, i feel we may be framed here again]. Blogging’s technical characteristics and the social norms surrounding blogging practices appear to enable and reinforce this unanticipated lack of engagement with audiences [indeed]. This perspective contrasts with studies of computer mediated communication that suggest bloggers would monitor their audiences and present themselves strategically to ensure interactions are successful in their terms. The study also points the way towards several avenues for further research including a more in-depth consideration of the neglected structural factors (both social and technical) which potentially influence blogging practices, and an examination of social network site use practices using a similar analytical approach
well, i’m convinced that the work will be worth reading, and very interested in what david proposes.
available with this link
discussion is invited on the blog at: http://groupblog.workasone.net/archives/00389.html
Materiality is the main factor in the difference in affordances between screen and page.
Reading online is becoming quite common and required for many research projects and in academia. Dissertations submitted for marking at many universities are done electronically and sent to markers in PDF form. Amazon has been offering books in Kindle format for some time. Yet paper-based books continue to be published and sold.
‘Materiality’ here pertains to the discrete object which is the tactile and separate artefact having printed text and diagrams on the surface of separate pages. It is distinct from the published or written or graphic work which can be saved in a file in a computer. Although laptops and computer hardware in general are artefacts and material objects that can be transported, their affordances lie in the amount or quantity of files and texts which can be stored on the one hard drive. At the time of writing these are still somewhat heavy and unwieldy so that they are difficult to read in bed or put in one’s pocket for example. However, even with advances in technology that allow small lightweight personal readers such as Kindle to be manufactured and thus easily transported, there are still differences in the affordances of each modality that lend the book and paper magazine their continuing allure.
Now we have the prospect of Apple releasing their iSlate, a small transportable mobile phone enhanced reader – and one might also guess (hope) further enhanced with the capabilities that Han earlier introduced, that is to say, touch screen interfacing.
Here’s one of the latest rumour milling-abouts from Wired: [btw, sorry, but the taped interview is in french - the article tho is in english]
the boundary between inside and outside is sometimes hard to determine. where is inside the house and where outside? i say the boundary lies at the flyscreen. insects not welcome past here. but insects and arachnids and other creatures do not abide by my rules occasionally. most people merely get out the killing apparatus of one form or another, when creatures cannot undertsand or will not acknowledge boundary-setting, but one of the abiding philosophies of eldon could be summed up in the prosaic aphorism, live and let live.
this rule is not adhered to in several specific instances. in the case of biting or sucking creatures on my person, or one potentially biting/sucking creature anywhere near me or my animal charges. i refer to mosquitos in my immediate hearing, ants biting my person, leeches anywhere on my person or any animal charge, and fleas in our immediate habitat. you will note the absence of spiders, snakes, and flies. actually i will swat a fly in the house if it keeps drawing attention to itself. a bee can sting me if i am careless enough to catch it on my arm or hand – but generally they do not bother me, even if i am cutting stalks in their vicinity.
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