A small rant, considering the way Internet conversations might be an antidote for the communicative irrationality of politics-media complex, and constitute the foundations for a polity based in local arguments about norms. Click to read more
Disclaimer: liveblogging Nicholas Proferes, “Oh, the Ethics You’ll Know” Analysis of research ethics from the Air-list – using nvivo. Ethics is a strong component of the air-list discussion. When is something public? Private? Both? Are author intentions important? What about context in which originally published? Note the link between ethical debates and new platforms/ technologies. Importance of graduate students in stimulating debate. Problem of using analog analogies: nuance of digital realm lost? There is a challenge to make space for new approaches to ethics. Outstanding – Dr Seuss is honorary member of AoIR from now on Alex Leavitt, “How I Saved An Internet” Looking at Encyclopaedia Dramatica – archive of digital subculture. Assumption of net researchers is that the space / place we visit online sort of ‘stays there’. But it is not that way. Leavitt found that ED was completely deleted one day. And Oh Internet was created in its place. (but along the way, all the wiki edits which Leavitt was studying were lost). Nice contrast of ephemera vs visibility. Leavitt restored the wiki from oblivion (not always without complaint). Importance of researchers’ relationship to the objects they study. Clever, researchers serve and protect the Internet Janet Salmons, … Click to read more
Speaking in a couple of weeks at the Internet Research 12.0 conference ‘Performance and Participation’ My paper, Web 2.0 from the ground up: defining the participatory web in its own terms, is based on an analysis using Leximancer of 750,000+ words used to describe 12,000+ Web 2.0 applications. Some of the fun I am having includes generating dubious yet intriguing infographics…. However, I am still struggling to find the right way to explain how I get from this to what I seek to conclude, concerning the way the discourse of Web 2.0, very much a language of computing, is now reshaping our sense of self.
‘The Googlization of Everything and the Human Knowledge Project’ Keynote presentation by Siva Vaidhyanathan Blogging, Tweeting and backchanneling… hm… Books about the Internet are a challenge because of the time from completion to publication and the speed of change in things Internet. How long can you go without using Google? – Some google product will influence most of your online activities. Despite the short time of the company’s existence it has a profound impact on our lives. Focus of concern is from the commencement of the Google scanning of millions of library books; worrying for Siva and, moreover, positive reaction from commentators (Kelly, Lessig) also worrying. Is this transformational? Why is it claimed to be? Does it realise librarians’ dreams for perfect digital information sharing? And yet it seems Google is positively viewed – partly because they give so much, and no money changes hands. We are not Google’s customers, however, we are their product. Google learns from us. Googlization – “processed, rendered and represented by Google” – knowledge, communication and us can be Googlized. [Link to the notion of content-generated user I am developing]. Note the massive array of applications and services within Google. Brin says : perfect search … Click to read more
