I recently attended the Media140 DigitalBusiness conference in Perth and liveblogged a panel discussion on Jumping on the social media bandwagon. Participants in the panel were: Louise Bourke, Venessa Paech, Kate Carruthers and Rod Farmer. Some useful information presented, with key points emerging concerning future social media innovations, importance of identity in social media use and more. Click to read more
Disclaimer: live-blogging Digital Business, Media 140 Joanne Jacobs, 1000Heads Reflects on the bad reaction she got from many businesses in the mid-2000s when attempting to promote the value of social media. What is the value proposition of social? How are stories crucial? what is happening with mobiles? Emphasises that businesses can’t manage conversations, can’t manage communities, and can’t control the message. Reflects on the gap between marketing now, and marketing as represented in programs such as Mad Men. Value proposition for social business is its use for all business activities – not just marketing, but HR, logistics and so on. For example, using twitter’s private functions to connect people and share critical information. ‘Social’ means saving money, not just bringing in more business. But it is not just technology – “we are the ones who made these technologies”. “Social media came about because trust in corporate messages had declined” – in other words, what we think of as social media is the result of many aspects of the managed, controlled marketing process which had come to dominate consumer life in the 1990s. Crucial to the power of social media is trust, and trust is formed through social interactions. Social interactions … Click to read more
Disclaimer: liveblogging (for more information about this event, see Media 140 Digital Business) The Hybrid Media Challenge: Taming the Coming Perfect Storms Gary Hayes, ABC EMphasising that the ABC is a leader in multi-patform media, but there are more challenges ahead. Ecosystem of devices that each user has, forming effectively a single ‘platform’ for which multi-platform development and distribution is essential. “Transmedia is about keeping the user engaged with the story”, across platforms. Hayes identifies “transmedia rituals” and “multiplatform cultures”. There’s not as much distinction anymore between media as content and media as interaction, ‘media’ encompasses it all. Mobile access to ABC content is growing rapidly, around 1% / month at the moment, with more and more time being spent in this form of access. [Personal media is, truly, coming away from a fixed location and into the hands of people where they are, at this moment.] Hayes argues that the business of ‘doing’ media online (not just watching, but also creating, sharing, reviewing) is taking more and more time, time that is taken from the traditional patterns of ‘media viewing’ of TV and other old media. Second screen Social TV is a key phrase helping to define the approach … 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
Disclaimer: Live blogging Growing Knowledge: what is the future of research? (details) A Times Higher Education debate hosted by the British Library, featuring Matthew Gamble, David Gauntlett, Alex Krotoski, Ben Hickey and chaired by Phil Baty. Phil Baty starts the debate: it is fundamentally about the way that IT will profoundly change the nature of research. Introduces the speakers. Hickey (A-level student) Has grown up surrounded by network technologies and assumes they will be crucial at his time at university. he ponders however whether the research collaboration between people and computers might lead more traditional people to question the validity of his work because the boundaries between him as researcher and technology are indeterminate. [Cyborg researcher?]. perhaps universities, because of their traditional outlook, may hinder learning and research. On the other hand maybe technology creates too narrow a vision and the voice of experience from earlier times can shed revealing light on a problem. Points to a problem – younger people with whom Hickey spoke are largely uninterested in universities and research, seeing it as irrelevant and distanced from the real-world problems they face. What is revealing about Hickey’s contribution is the way in which someone who have grown … Click to read more
Keynote speech by Doug Schuler at the Research For Action workshop, Making Links Conference, in which he discusses civic intelligence, giving a series of examples and summing up with key definitional points. Click to read more
A liveblog of a great talk at the OII by Steve Jones, founding President of the Association of Internet Researchers: Steve is musing on the way we think about Internet researchers, 40 years on. Click to read more
Disclaimer: Live blogging Networked learning, the Net Generation and Digital Natives Symposium Organisers: Chris Jones, The Open University, United Kingdom 7th International Networked Learning Conference 5 papers (abstracts) Diversity in interactive media use among Dutch youth A van den Beemt, S Akkerman, P. Simons Learning and Living Technologies: A Longitudinal Study … Ruslan Ramanau, Anesa Hosein, Chris Jones Learning nests and local habitations: Locations for networked learning Chris Jones and Graham Healing Digital natives: Everyday life versus academic study Linda Corrin, Sue Bennett, Lori Lockyer Supporting the “Digital Natives”: what is the role of schools? Rebecca Eynon Born into the Digital Age in the South of Africa: the reconfiguration… Laura Czerniewicz, Cheryl Brown Introduction (Jones) – key points – moral panics around young people; young people are agents of change, this is not happening ‘to’ them; there is no generational change – yes, there are changes, but not tied to a specific generation. Emphasises that all the papers to come will show there is no evidence for a ‘net generation’. Diversity in interactive media use among Dutch youth Refers to impact of Oblinger and Prensky on Dutch educational thinking, focusing on interactive multimedia; calls for research to see if there … Click to read more
Disclaimer: live blogging Exploring sociotechnical theories of learning technology 7th International Networked Learning Conference Symposium Organisers: Linda Creanor & Steve Walker Glasgow Caledonian University, The Open University, United Kingdom 4 papers (abstracts) Interpreting Complexity: a case for the sociotechnical interaction framework as an analytical lens for learning technology research Linda Creanor & Steve Walker Network theories for technology-enabled learning and social change: Connectivism and Actor Network theory Frances Bell The social construction of educational technology through the use of proprietary software Chris Bissell Social presence in online learning communities Karen Kear Initial reaction: the very existence of this symposium, and its framing, suggests that people in learning technologies research and development may not, in their community of practice, have an explicit and reflexive discourse which understands technologies in society. Interpreting Complexity Claims that technological determinism is starting to dominate discussions of education and technology, especially under the guise of Web 2.0 and evangelism for the uses of these new technologies. Intrested in the new contexts of co-created content and knowledge, but have some questions about the emerging trendy theories (such as connectivism). Asks us to “make a problem of what technology is” – outlines the standard four – ANT, SCOT, … Click to read more
Realising our broadband future Disclaimer: Liveblogging Second session of the 2009 Australian Govermment summit on broadband, http://broadbandfuture.gov.au, featuring Craig Mundie (Microsoft), Vint Cerf and David King (Google), Samantha Hannah-Rankin (Auspost), Nick Gruen (Gov 2.0). Mundie, Microsoft Broadband access is not simply about infrastructure but also inspiring social and economic innovations. Discusses the way devices are going to change and become embedded in our everyday life, through user interfaces involving gestures, facial signals and so on – “entirely new relationship between computers and people… pervasive and intuitive system that works on your behalf”. [A relatively underwhelming piece of gee-whizzery] Vint Cerf, Google and Father of Internet Investment in NBN needs to be carefully managed – not just edge connectivity, but more impact at core and the backhaul. Cerf emphasises the importance of end-to-end principle and the requirement to avoid constraints within the system once a person gets access. Cerf calls it “permissionless innovation”. Also bear in mind that we need to help people to see why they should use the new ideas which might flow, potentially, from the new infrastructure. Cerf comments on the lack of competition within the USA – Australia’s approach is “quite stunning” in separating the network from … Click to read more
