|
« May 2004 | Main | July 2004 » June 30, 2004blogging is trapped in a metaphorI've been trying to sit with some of my frustrations about sociable technologies lately. I've been trying to work through them in order to understand why Liz's frustration with blogging research resonates and why i start twitching every time people put together panels that pit blogs against "big" journalism. I wanted to let go of my boiling anger over the fact that YASNS do not look like "real" social networks. I realized that all of these concerns come from a common root. Sociable technologies are all built on metaphors. They are often an attempt to model a set of practices already known in everyday life. Yet, as models, the technologies are not the same as the metaphors on which they are based. The result is an entirely new form that encourages entirely new practices. Metaphors are not new in the technological world. Email's metaphor was built into its naming. Yet, today, when we talk about email, we can draw on the metaphor of mail, but we all know that email is something entirely different. It is a fundamentally new communication system, not simply an electronic form of its predecessor. My frustration with academics, press and conference organizers exists because the primary way to handle these new technologies is to address them in metaphoric terms. This perspective comes from a distanced vantage point. What is special (and magnificently more frustrating) about blogs is that they stem from many metaphors, including newspapers/magazines, journals/diaries, and log notebooks. No wonder people are up in arms screaming that it's not like a newspaper, it's like a diary! or vice versa. They're both right and wrong. If you're stuck in a metaphoric understanding of blogging, the conflicting metaphors are problematic and discount your approach to the system. Now that most people are on email, it is rare to have to explain that form. But when people were starting up, it was confusing. My grandparents thought that i couldn't write because my emails were strewn with spelling errors, lacked capitalization and were often fragments. Nowadays, they get it because they get that email is different than letters. With blogging and YASNS, people haven't "gotten it" yet. Even many of the people creating these technologies still think that they're building out the metaphors. Of course, if they stay trapped in the metaphor, they're doomed to failure. It is crucial to understand that YASNS and blogs are different than their metaphoric precursors. This is precisely why it's bloody hard to study/discuss these technologies without being a practitioner. Distance is valuable as a researcher, but it's also limiting. You need to engage with the culture at a deep level in order to study it. Because digital technology cultures are so peculiar, you need to be involved at an intimate level. Being a lurker is just not the same. It is the practice of engaging with these technologies that makes you able to move beyond the metaphor. Category: blogging
Posted by zephoria at 2:11 PM | Comments (12) | TrackBack (16) June 28, 2004mutants and superboysMy oldest public entry on this blog is simply called mutant. Since last fall, almost 300 comments have been posted to that thread by people who want to share their mutant powers and find common friends. Their comments make me smile. Today, i read an article about a mutant DNA gene that makes a 5-year old baby exceptionally strong. It made me think of the mutants who visit here regularly so i thought i'd share it with them. To the mutants! Category:
Posted by zephoria at 12:00 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0) June 27, 2004the technological (white) lieI firmly believe that people do not actually want to have technological precision; they want their technology to be able to permit a certain level of deception. Perhaps you've been known to say "My spam filter must've eaten it" or "I'm going under a bridge so i might lose you" even though you know that these are (white) lies. In For Liars and Loafers, Cellphones Offer an Alibi, a few mobile phone users have taken this to a new level. They've developed a network of people who aid each other in developing and maintaining deception via mobiles. (tx Kevin) Category:
Posted by zephoria at 11:22 PM | TrackBack (2) on studying blogsLiz's entry on blog research is spot-on, critiquing the current academic approach to studying blogs and offering some suggestions for how the medium should be researched. Category:
Posted by zephoria at 2:01 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0) June 25, 2004spirtual perspective on community"A community can represent many things and be directed toward a definite goal, but community itself is the focus of a spiritual science that inspires universality. Day-to-day living in a community fosters a very practical concept of existence. Community life represents the frontier between the macro and micro in terms of human organization, making it possible to experience all levels of human existence. The community is, therefore, a vast landscape for a material realization whenever each person enters into contract with the gifts, virtues, and shortcomings of its members. It is also the immense spiritual and psychic laboratory that enables our spirits to develop." -Alex Polari de Alverga Category:
Posted by zephoria at 5:48 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (1) Friendster is desperate; viral marketing failedFriendster realizes that it has lost the attention of its earliest adopters. This morning, Friendster sent a message to a select number of people that they labeled as "SuperFriends." It's a usability survey where they are asking for users' advice on an email campaign. There are four different potential emails that they sent out as screen shots. Here's a sample one: Subject: Friendster Now The tone of these messages is desperate, begging for attention of the original early adopters - the ones that Abrams told me were ruining his system. One focuses on Burning Man types; one mocks the old Power Point COO; one charges non-users with harming children; one is a desperate love poem. They're hyper American-centric, SF-centric, white collar, wannabee hipster, intentionally attempting sarcasm (and clarifying that below) and complete with 80s references. I guess Friendster isn't happy with the majority of its users being young and from Asia. Does this mean that Friendster has its tail between its legs about its early egotistical behavior? Apparently, viral marketing isn't working well enough anymore. Anyhow, you *have* to read the full message that these SuperFriends got (included in the full message). It has had me ROFL for hours. Below is the message that Friendster SuperFriend's received. The text was followed by four email screen shots; i have transcribed those for ease of access. Hi, As a SuperFriend, we would appreciate your feedback on a new email Please refer to the two versions for each group and reply to this email - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
*Which of the two versions do you prefer? (version 1 or 2) _____ *Is the email appropriate to send to active Friendster members? (yes/no) *Would you be likely to click the link and go to Friendster if you *After receiving this email, would you assume the Friendster website had *Would you be open to receiving similar emails from Friendster in the *Any additional comments?
*Which of the two versions do you prefer? (version 3 or 4) _____ *Is the email appropriate to send to inactive Friendster members? *Would you be likely to click the link and go to Friendster if you *After receiving this email, would you assume the Friendster website had *Would you be open to receiving similar emails from Friendster in the *Any additional comments?
Subject: Friendster Now So you're working. Who cares? You have a lifetime to work. What you'll really regret coughing and wheezing on your deathbed is not looking up all the old high-school friends, college buddies, summer camp alums, Burning Man acquaintances and ex'es who are just hoping you reach out and find them. And discovering new hiking partners, book groups and jam band fans. And setting up that person you really would date yourself if you were single. There's oh so much to do. Seriously, you should go to Burning Man. It's pretty cool. The jam band stuff we understand if you're not into. We just needed an example there. Thanks. www.friendster.com Oh, to make sure you keep getting these emails, please add Friendster to your email address book now. If for no other reason than it will look cool to have Friendster in your address book. Subject: Don't Tell Anyone You're our favorite subscriber. Seriously. I know we here at Friendster shouldn't play favorites, and our chief operating officer (he's the old guy in the office) told us not to do this, but seriously, you just totally rock. The way you reconnect with old friends. The way you've figured out just how small and interconnected the world really is. The way you discovered people with the same interests as you. We suspect you've even gotten a date out of Friendster, or that if you didn't, you could have if you needed to. Easy. With one of those three suspiciously hot people who keep popping up right above your friends list. For other people, we just use those pictures as cruel, aspirational temptation. But for you, they're totally getable. Hey, don't tell anyone we told you all of this. That old guy in the office will just start lecturing us again and pulling out charts and graphs and PowerPoint displays. He's such a loser. Thanks. www.friendster.com Oh, to make sure you keep getting these vaguely sarcastic emails, please add Friendster to your email address book now. If for no other reason than it will look cool to have Friendster in your address book. Subject: The Suffering You've Caused We totally miss you. By "we" we don't so much mean we here at Friendster. No, we like you and all, but really, to be honest, we're not all that close. No the "we" here are your real friends, the one you reconnected with through Friendster but have been ignoring as of late. They're the ones who are suffering. They're the ones who are crying late at night, screaming your name as they wait for you to contact them. Not to mention all the old high-school friends, college buddies and ex-es who are just hoping you reach out and find them. And the hiking partners, book groups and Wilco-heads who need you to discover them. It's them, the children, who are suffering. That's right, the children. So come on back. We've made it easier for you, getting much faster and easier to navigate as we've grown. We won't judge. We're just here to help you. Help you help the children. Thanks. www.friendster.com Oh, to make sure you keep getting these vaguely sarcastic emails, please add Friendster to your email address book now. If for no other reason than it will look cool to have Friendster in your address book. Subject: We Still Care We miss you. There, we said it. It feels better. So we're going to do everything we can to bring you back to Friendster, all the way up to that John Cusack boom box Say Anything bit. So before it all comes to that, just come back to Friendster. We've already made it easier for you, getting much faster and clearer as we've grown. Now, in just minutes you can find people you've been wondering about: friends from summer camp, college roommates, high school buddies, cousins, people you used to date, people you wanted to date, these people you know, and don't know, are connected to each other and what a beautifully small world it really is. Or date, or help a friend find a date. We don't care. We just want you back in our lives. And we can tell you that you want the same thing. We can see it... in your eyes. The light, the heat. Your eyes, we feel complete. See, we told you. Thanks. www.friendster.com Oh, to make sure you keep getting these vaguely sarcastic emails, please add Friendster to your email address book now. If for no other reason than it will look cool to have Friendster in your address book. Category: friendster
Posted by zephoria at 4:16 PM | Comments (16) | TrackBack (17) Autistic Social SoftwareAt Supernova, i gave a talk entitled "Autistic Social Software." For those who couldn't attend, i uploaded a crib of my talk. The premise of this talk emerged from my post from MPD to Asperger's. I reflected on the connection between sociable media, science fiction's human psychology and the mainstream media discussion around mental illness. I also discuss why it is essential for developers to understand what their (potential) users do. Finally, i channel Douglas Adams' How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Internet. It's an imperfect talk, but i'd love feedback. Category: social software
Posted by zephoria at 12:06 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack (4) June 23, 2004Ani DiFranco: Official Bootleg Series
This week, Ani announced that she will be putting out an official bootleg series for folks like me who have always appreciated the raw energy of concerts. Every six weeks or so, she will release a new raw concert boot. This is absolutely fantastic! For the readers here who are not familiar with Ani, you should read her lyrics. She has been one of my biggest inspirations, always reminding me that there is value in fighting the system. Her work is very political and she is one of the strongest independent artists out there, refusing to sell out to the music industry in any form. (All of you EFF-loving readers, you'd love Ani's political efforts against the music industry. For example, Million You Never Made is an ode to that system.) Category:
Posted by zephoria at 4:20 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (1) "You can beat me, you can abuse me, but don't touch my hair or I'll kill you."You can beat me, you can abuse me, but don't touch my hair or I'll kill you. Designer Joyce Leslie had the nerve to put this on their t-shirts. Understandably, V-Day was outraged and spoke up, calling on the store to recall these stores. According to Newsday, they did precisely that. Category:
Posted by zephoria at 3:53 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0) Asimov, reductionist approach to human interaction and YASNSYet Asimov's reductionist approach to human interaction may be his most lasting influence. His thinking is alive and well and likely filling your inbox at this moment with come-ons asking you to identify your friends and rate their "sexiness" on a scale of one to three. Today's social networking services like Friendster and Orkut collapse the subtle continuum of friendship and trust into a blunt equation that says, "So-and-so is indeed my friend," and "I trust so-and-so to see all my other 'friends.'" These systems demand that users configure their relationships in a way that's easily modeled in software. It reflects a mechanistic view of human interaction: "If Ann likes Bob and Bob hates Cindy, then Ann hates Cindy." The idea that we can take our social interactions and code them with an Asimovian algorithm ("allow no harm, obey all orders, protect yourself") is at odds with the messy, unpredictable world. The Internet succeeds because it is nondeterministic and unpredictable: The Net's underlying TCP/IP protocol makes no quality of service guarantees and promises nothing about the route a message will take or whether it will arrive. [From Cory Doctorow's Rise of the Machines in the current Wired magazine.] With iRobot about to hit the theatres, Cory's article addresses how Asimov "turned androids into pop culture icons - and invented the science of robotics in the process." His account is pretty critical and insightful, reminding me that the science fiction literature that i love should not be considered a complete prescriptive tool because the stories written often fail to address the complexities that exist in everyday life. Category:
Posted by zephoria at 2:19 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0) June 22, 2004eve ensler's the good body
Whether undergoing Botox or living under burkhas, women of all cultures and backgrounds feel compelled to change the way they look in order to fit in with their particular culture, in order to be accepted, in order to be good. In The Good Body, Ensler explores their experiences with monologues representing women from Bombay to Beverly Hills. Delivering narratives collected in locker rooms, cell blocks, boardrooms, and bedrooms, Ensler frames their stories with her own personal journey from a self-loathing teenager to a (sometimes) self-accepting adult. Interspersed throughout are riotous excerpts from Ensler's lifelong dialogue with her belly—a sassy and conniving antagonist in its own right. Category:
Posted by zephoria at 6:23 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0) from withinThey sentenced me to twenty years of boredom for trying to change the system from within. - Leonard Cohen (for a friend) Category:
Posted by zephoria at 1:05 AM | TrackBack (0) June 21, 2004introducing baby kittyMarble, my cat, has been quite lonely lately. Thus, we got a brilliant idea to bring a sister into her world. Of course, she hasn't yet accepted this baby kitten, but we're still hopeful. They say it should take 2 weeks. Marble has stopped hiding, but still won't get very close. And while i was sleeping last night, Marble came in to sleep with me and found baby kitty and a little hissing fight broke out on my tummy. Introducing baby kitty....
While she looks like super kitty here, i should note that she's a little bigger than my hand and curls up between my neck and shoulder. She's super small. I should note that baby kitty has no formal name yet. I'm inclined to call her Theo; my roommates are fighting for atrocious and disturbing names. She's just too precious for that. Still not sure... Oh, and out of complete cuteness, baby kitty woke me at 7AM by licking my eyelids. If it weren't 7AM, this would've been very very very cute. Baby kitty though is a complete joy. She's happy, relaxed and still spazzy enough to play at times. Now, i just need to convince Marble that this is her friend. Category:
Posted by zephoria at 9:40 PM | Comments (13) | TrackBack (0) June 19, 2004BlogOn: The Business of Social Media
Furthermore, they have discounts for bloggers and i'm very psyched to announce that they have scholarships for students and economically-disadvantaged bloggers. I wish more organized events recognized the importance of getting bright minds involved who don't have the economic freedom to usually participate in these conversations. Category: blogging
Posted by zephoria at 12:07 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0) Supernova?This week is Supernova, my first non-academic tech event in a while. I realized that i have no idea who will be attending. I could be patient and wait, but i'm kinda curious. Who that reads this can i expect to see there? Category:
Posted by zephoria at 11:43 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0) June 17, 2004Fahrenheit 9/11Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 is to appear in theaters next Friday. Say what you want about Moore (i certainly have issues with his work), but get out there and support the film. His battle to get it to theaters has been rife with censorship and unnecessary drama due to the radical anti-Bush content contained in the film. Supporting a film on opening weekend is a political statement; it says to distributers and the public that this movie matters so much that we are willing to put our dollars where our mouths are. For that reason, i believe that everyone should get out there next weekend, see it and make up their own minds. Do not let censorship reign. Category:
Posted by zephoria at 6:41 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0) June 16, 2004anyone here from Singapore?I'm utterly fascinated with the CaPiTaLiZaTiOn that i see coming out of teen Friendster profiles and blogs in Singapore. But i so desperately want to know more. Does anyone know? 1) How does this work? Do people use the shift key to get that or is it somehow built in? Category:
Posted by zephoria at 3:28 PM | Comments (15) | TrackBack (2) June 15, 2004Stanley Milgram's biography
Category:
Posted by zephoria at 10:01 AM | Comments (11) | TrackBack (1) the state of social softwareYou are who you know is a great article on the current state of social software, framed by Marc Canter's collecting of friends. Of course, apparently, i'm a ubiquitous pundit. Not sure how i feel about that. Category: social software
Posted by zephoria at 8:59 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (1) June 14, 2004iPod fixed: why physicality mattersIn the last episode, our heroine tried every idea presented by her kind audience, trying desperately to unlock her beloved iPod. To no avail. The telephone people said it would be $70 to answer a question. Our heroine was left in despair (well, not really, since a kind one from Apple volunteered to take a look at it if i could get to Cupertino). On a lurch, our heroine wandered into the Apple Store, lured by the promise of an Airport Express (which won't be in stores until July... foiled). She mozied up to the Genius Bar, drawn in by the big screens with interesting facts. After waiting as a poor man never managed to get his guitar to talk to his GarageBand on his particular machine, our heroine told the genius of her woes. He asked if she'd done this; she said yes and noted that she had done that and that and that. He was startled. He attached the iPod to his machine. No avail. It was closing time. He handed her a refurbished one and told her to be good to it. She was ecstatic. To be noted: our heroine was also smiling because she overheard the best nugget ever from a random Apple employee: ... I had a different device from ... oh, wait... err, i can't mention them here. ::giggle:: I guess you can't talk about competitors as an employee at the Apple Store. Category: techno doom
Posted by zephoria at 7:11 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0) library software and bibliographic toolsIn the post-finals reconstruction of my life, i acquired a new bookshelf and reorganized all of my books into genre-specific clusters that make sense to me. I updated my excel spreadsheet of all books (and where they were lent). I mentioned this to a friend who suggested that i check out Library and now i'm frustrated. There are so many things that i want a library tool to do for me, but keeping tabs on the purchase price and condition aren't amongst them. In fact, these categories make me twitch. I'm a hoarder and my conditions are very personal and sentimental ("strawberry stains from best friend's trip to France" are amongst them). There's something psychologically tormenting about knowing that a tool could be made to suit my needs, but that it's not worth the effort of converting from Excel because the actual tool for my purported use provides no advantages (and simultaneously reminds me that i don't collect games or care about design-driven normative values about books like worth... although i did declare all of my rare books for my renter's insurance). The secondary frustration is knowing that i could build such a tool for myself, but am too lazy and justify it by telling myself that it's not a good use of my time or hands. So, instead i'll whimper and note my top two feature desires in case i get around to it later or in case anyone else is planning on building such a tool or in case i'm just clueless and don't know of something else out there. - Auto-fill from author name and/or title, not ISBN. How many people search Amazon based on ISBN? If i had that information, i would already have done the Amazon search. Make a good guess. And make multiple suggestions. And if you're wrong, i'm probably just learning about a book that i needed to know about anyhow. - Let me construct a bibliographic reference from it. The amount of time i spend manually creating bibliographies is horrid. And i never get them right anyhow. Category: academia
Posted by zephoria at 12:32 AM | Comments (12) | TrackBack (0) June 12, 2004falling out of love with RSSI had an love affair with RSS. When we found each other, it was as if we were meant to be together forever. Our passion was strong and intense. But as our relationship settled, new truths emerged. Our critical tendencies got the best of both of us and we found the faults in each other and pushed them until they hurt. We found each other wrapped in a difficult, abusively addictive relationship. At the peak of our insanity, we were spending 6 hours a day together. It was not healthy and thus we decided to part ways. In the separation, much was lost in the process of regaining self-control and stability. We had many friends in common; they are much harder to reach now. Just as in any breakup, there is a sense of losing one's mind. I've lost touch with certain information flows, certain cultures. But i feel so much relief in finding that i am a person, to let down my addiction and to work on being whole again. When we were together, i didn't realize how one-sided my perspective on people was. Together, we only saw a limited segment of the world. After our separation, i have been able to return to my roots, to step back and find grounding. I am certain that i will always long for the beauty of our relationship, but i will never miss the feelings of guilt for not engaging, the feelings of intensity overload the cruel pain of being a true information junkie. [Note: just saw Doc's post that RSS is opt-in authenticated email. I wonder if my RSS burnout has anything to do with my email burnout?] Category: blogging
Posted by zephoria at 4:11 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (4) June 11, 2004The privilege to not fight[I posted this entry on Misbehaving and i would love to have folks comment over there.] Pete, the author of the blog entry that i previously critiqued apologized in the thread. I was going to address him in that thread, but i decided that it belonged as a general discussion for all readers here. In a sexist society, men and women do not have equal voices. Men acquires a level of auto-privilege; they don't have to fight to be heard. Women, on the other hand, are often fighting to be heard or must play into the cultural norms dictated by men in order to have a voice. Pete argued that he was just trying to express his exasperation. I believe that exasperation must be deconstructed. What does it mean for a privileged individual to express exasperation over issues of marginalization? I mean, we've all thought "wouldn't it be great if inequality just went away?" Goddess knows i've felt more than enough exasperation in my lifetime, including the exasperation over constantly fighting to have a voice and still not being heard or being misunderstood as my voice is translated by normative culture into something unrecognizable. With privilege comes responsibility. It is my belief that a feminist man has a responsibility to refrain from expressing exasperation over this topic because that expression is a dismissal, that expression is an execution of privilege with continues the power differential. I believe that a feminist man has a responsibility to be hyper-conscious about how he throws his voice around, knowing that his voice has undue power. In other words, i think that a feminist man needs to also take on the burden of fighting that women have inherently. Disagree. Discuss. I want to hear what people think. Category: reflections & rants
Posted by zephoria at 12:04 PM | TrackBack (0) June 9, 2004email bankruptcyOh, do i understand Lessig's circumstance. I made a decision that having a life is more important to me than getting to all of my email and blogs. It's summer. I want to go outside. I want to have interesting conversations. I can't do my work without having a life and i can't have a life if i'm only working. I must strike a balance. I always think it's a bit odd when people purport to be social scientists who never leave their office or cultural theorists who never watch mainstream media. Category:
Posted by zephoria at 5:25 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0) Benefits this Week
Also on Friday, my friend Ben Chun will be spinning at to help support TrueDemocracy.US and JustVote.org And on next Tuesday, there will be a benefit for Kerry at Sno-Drift (1830 3rd Street). It's time to get political. Category:
Posted by zephoria at 1:16 AM | TrackBack (0) summer conferences/talksI will (most likely) be speaking at four different events this summer, some of which may be relevant to folks: Supernova - June 24-25, Santa Clara (CA, USA) CMU Alumni Panel: "The New Phenomenon of Social Networks: Social, Commercial, and Political/Civic Implications" - July 22, Mountain View (CA, USA) BlogOn: The Business of Social Media - July 23, Berkeley (CA, USA) American Sociological Association - August 14-17, San Francisco (CA, USA) [Note that staying in California thing!] If you do the business thang and want to hear me discuss what's relevant, Supernova is probably best. If you want to hear the academic side, ASA. If you want to hear me discuss with other thinkers, BlogOn. If you want to hear me discuss with business folks, CMU Alumni Event. If i drive you nuts, why are you still reading? Category:
Posted by zephoria at 12:49 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0) The Corporation - a must-see
The opening segment of the movie explains how a corporation is treated as a person in legal statute. Yet, by applying the DSM-IV to the corporate individual, a clear diagnosis emerges: psychopath. Consider these symptoms of a psychopath: Category: fun links
Posted by zephoria at 12:35 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack (1) June 8, 2004friends with benefitsDamn, the NYTimes has been really compelling lately. And their apology about their coverage of the Iraq war makes me think i should re-acquire my subscription (i cancelled it because i was peeved with their coverage after 9/11). Anyhow, over the weekend, the NYTimes ran an article on friends with benefits. It's a fascinating article about teenage relationships and i really want to know how common the described practices are. I mean, if girls are really calling the shots about sex, what are the long-term implications? Damn that's rad. If girls are calling the shots, will it help combat HIV? (Historically, male pressure to not use condoms has put women at great risk in hetero relationships.) And if a matter-of-fact attitude about sex is emerging, can we begin to be more serious about realizing that marriage is just a contract, not some hormone-driven fantasy about love? If this is actually true, what all falls out? And is FaceTheJury facing the jury because of aiding and ebedding teens under the guise of an 18+ site? Category: youth culture
Posted by zephoria at 12:16 AM | Comments (19) | TrackBack (1) I will speak until the death of gender inequalityMy hair curled over a blog entry entitled Again with the "women and blogging" meme (in response to two entries). The tone is insulting, arguing that the topic of women and blogging has been done to death. It is precisely this kind of post that reminds me of how the blogosphere solidifies misogyny and prejudice rather than acknowledging that people are trying to process. Dismissing discussions about gender inequality permits the marginalized subjects to be dismissed. There is no doubt that blogs can be clustered by gender, class, race and age simply by clustering based on subject or style. Guess what? Most knitting blogs are written by women and women make up the majority of personal blogs are written by women. Recognizing that style and topics are dividing factors, i'd still argue that the difference has more to do with audience relationships. How are people constructing expression for their audience? How are they seeking to attract/manage an audience? Move away from the blogosphere. How many women do you know that seek to be heard concerning their political opinion ever anyhow? Proportionally fewer. Why? That's a damn fine question. Men do not dominate the political arena; they dominate a certain aspect of the political sphere, and that's often the most vocal. Go to Capitol Hill and you will see many fine women engaging in change. I remember asking my mother why she didn't run for office; she told me that she wouldn't want to put us through the ringer, having our past dredged up. Marginalized populations have different issues at risk when they voice their opinion. And damn do you have to be strong when you have an audience who feels the need to berate you just because. That's hard for anyone, but imagine how it feels when you look around and feel like you're one of few, when you feel marginalized from the get-go. Are women more protective of their stories than men? More protective of their voice? Do they have good reason to be? Cause damn it feels shitty to be told that your concerns are written to death. [Also on Misbehaving] Category:
Posted by zephoria at 12:03 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (1) June 7, 2004voice recording device?Does anyone have an MP3 voice recording device that they like? I was hoping to record into an iPod, but aside from my current pissyness with the iPod, i don't think it can record using a standard microphone (which is essential for good quality interviews). My needs are simple: Anyone have something that they love and want to recommend? Category:
Posted by zephoria at 10:20 PM | Comments (14) | TrackBack (0) June 6, 2004"what did danah boyd contribute to sociology?"A friend of mine wrote me, bemused that upon looking at her logs, someone had found her page with the following Google search: "what did danah boyd contribute to sociology?" I'm not quite sure how to take this. And i'm curious who is at fault for folks thinking that i'm a sociologist. (Barry - can i blame you?) As for being at a point in my career where i'm contributing to any intellectual community in a meaningful way, please be patient. I'm trying. But for goddess' sake, i'm a bloody PhD student who once again jumped fields; i'm still trying to fill in the holes in my knowledge! Category:
Posted by zephoria at 6:37 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0) Word WarsLast week, i went to see Word Wars - a documentary on Scrabble competitions. A friend of mine helped make this fabulous movie and it is well worth seeing, whether because you love Scrabble, you appreciate documentaries, or you identify with anyone who has a compulsion towards the thing that they love. Also, if you saw Spellbound, you'll especially appreciate Word Wars because it's like what happens when obsessive kids grow up. San Franciscans: it's playing through this week at the Roxie. Category:
Posted by zephoria at 6:16 PM | TrackBack (0) my iPod won't unlock - help?::grumble:: Mac won't help me restart my iPod without paying them $60 so i'm hoping someone here might be able to help. My iPod's software thinks that it is on hold (even though the slider at the top says otherwise). It fell under this magical state in the first week of April. I web-searched and someone on the web said to let the battery die to nothingness. I did this. To no avail. Whenever i plug it back in to power, it's still on hold. There's no way to do the restart via the three buttons because it's on hold. Isn't there a manual restart somehow? Like one where i can erase the whole disk and get it to restart? I have to admit that i'm *really* cranky with Mac about this one. You'd think that a noticeable defect in the software (documented by others on the web) would mean that they'd support you in fixing it. I'm a bit resentful by being demanded to pay $60 to fix it when i was thinking of upgrading at the end of the summer. Now i'm just questioning whether or not it's worth upgrading because my iPod has been broken for half the time that i've had it. Category: techno doom
Posted by zephoria at 6:11 PM | Comments (426) | TrackBack (0) Vegas...Oh, Vegas. I went to Vegas with a bunch of girlfriends to celebrate one's birthday. It was a complete trip. I left LA on Friday with a plane full of wannabe-celebrities including far too many models. The guy behind me in the Southwest line was rattling on and on on his phone about getting limos for this and tickets for that and making himself sound really self-important for one of the models in hearing range. She realized this and was rolling her eyes at this guy the whole time. Finally, she started talking to a perfectly normal looking guy, much to his shock. It's Southwest. What multi-millionnaire flies Southwest to look important? Anyhow... Got on the plane. The guy next to me shared his goal: to get as inebriated as possible without getting incarcerated. Of course, he didn't use 5 syllable words. I was amused. I practice yoga breathing to remember that i was going to Vegas for my friends, not because i liked Vegas. Of course, framing it as an anthropological exercise *really* helped. So, i spent a lot of time people watching and talking to folks. I watched a woman try to pick up 4 different johns of exactly the same time. One gave her a room key. I was impressed. He was nervous. I watched a pimp-daddy wedding party and a lot of midwesterners on their big vacation. The best were the kids - they were sooo in awe of the dazzle of Vegas - big eyes, lots of pointing. I was staying in the Luxor and the deck outside of my room looked down on the whole scene. Great for people watching. Another one of our party was in the same zone, finding out about teen curfews and culture growing up here. Perfect, considering the recent NYTimes article on American Dreamers: the Lure of Las Vegas. It really is a good people-watching town. And it really is where regular America comes together in weird ways. Although i was not on a specific voting mission, i had quite a few political conversations by engaging people about the Patriot Act and the various anecdotes i heard about all Vegas visitors from the holidays being considered terrorist suspects. I used that to launch into discussions about where the country is going, what it means to have freedom. This was particularly easy given that in the land of sin, people are all about maximizing their freedoms and even the local papers/news covering Reagan's death were talking about how much more conservative the Republican party is now. I love getting reactions equivalent to: "Huh. I hadn't thought of it that way before..." Oh so much fun. Changing political views one person at a time. Category:
Posted by zephoria at 4:30 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0) June 4, 2004kids, oppression and social tinkeringOne more on Kellogg... two framings, in particular, really made me think: Mimi Ito (whose work anyone in socialtech should follow) is an anthropologist and comes at digital kids with that perspective. Using an anthro framework, the key is to think about kids in their terms, not trying to project or assert an adult framework on kids. In other words, the goal is not to save kids, but to respect them on their terms. She points out that age is one of the most oppressive forces in society, even more naturalized than gender. Because kids grow into adults and we were all once kids, people tend to treat kids as young adults. The goal is to get them to adulthood, not to be valued on kid level. We also talked about technological tinkering and how many kids learn to explore technology that way. Liz Keith pointed out that a lot of digital participation by kids is social tinkering. I think that point is really key because we tend not to value the social tinkering or give kids the framework to value that, even though it's such a key feature of their lives. [And there are nice parallels to my Etcon rant about social hacking vs. technological hacking.] Category: youth culture
Posted by zephoria at 3:59 PM | TrackBack (0) vulnerable youthI'm at a meeting with the Kellogg Foundation talking about vulnerable youth. They are interested in how technology can help at-risk kids take an alternate path. A few things keep coming up for me. Situated learning. Folks have passions and if you can situate the learning they are doing in the scope of those passions, would learning be more effective? Fan fiction communities seem to be learning how to write and edit. What about teaching physics on the field to football students? What can be done with consumer media? What are the different ways to engage with passions? Follow the drugs. Crystal meth use goes up amongst youth between 125% and 200% every youth. Educators and governments keep talking about the addictions and are screaming for it to stop, but they aren't looking into why people are using it in HS. They think it's only about peer pressure. When i was talking to kids doing meth, i kept hearing about how it gave them motivation, a relief to boredom, the feeling that they were doing something in this world (even if it was only scrubbing a tile floor with a toothbrush). Boredom is literally killing the youth. What's the point? Many kids i knew growing up had no motivation to live; where the hell were we going? Health, the future... these are all products of an optimistic life view. When you're working a job till midnight, dealing with parents who are abusive, dealing with gang culture, what the hell does school have to offer that's at all helpful? M |
