Tag Archives: social networks

Coursenotes SOCI221 – Sociology of Cyberspace, Week 5

SOCI221 –Sociology of Cyberspace

Meeting 5: October 6, 2014
From Social Dynamics to Midsemester

Social Networks

Network Graph

By Dusk Eagle CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0

Logistics

  • Contributions Self-Assessement due October 13
    • Active learning
    • Rarely modified
  • Peer-ratings
  • Midterm on October 20
    • Doing sociology with Internet
    • Talk after break

Past Week

Social Dynamics

Activity: Digital Inclusion

  • Relevant factors?
  • Experiences?
  • Diversity of perspectives?

Required Texts

  • Latour, Bruno. “Networks, Societies, Spheres: Reflections of an Actor-network Theorist.” International Journal of Communication 5 (2011): 796–810. http://lar.me/2-o
  • Kreiss, D., M. Finn, and F. Turner. “The Limits of Peer Production: Some Reminders from Max Weber for the Network Society.” New Media & Society 13, no. 2 (October 12, 2010): 243–259. doi:10.1177/1461444810370951. http://lar.me/2-p

Latour

Latour, Bruno. “Networks, Societies, Spheres: Reflections of an Actor-network Theorist.” International Journal of Communication 5 (2011): 796–810. http://lar.me/2-o

  • Network society?
  • Classical sociology?
  • Agency?

Kreiss et al.

Kreiss, D., M. Finn, and F. Turner. “The Limits of Peer Production: Some Reminders from Max Weber for the Network Society.” New Media & Society 13, no. 2 (October 12, 2010): 243–259. doi:10.1177/1461444810370951. http://lar.me/2-p

  • Bureaucracy
  • Peer production vs. prosumption
  • Dialogue

Coming Up…

Midsemester

Activity: Network Graph

  • Make a list of ten people with whom you interact on a regular basis (friends, family, coworkers…)
  • Give an initial to each of these people.
  • Separately, list or map out the relationships between these people. Who knows whom?
  • What can you say about this social graph? Is it a dense network? Are you the only person connecting this group?
  • Post a brief thought about this graph.

Contributions

  • Grade on 10 and quick explanation
  • Extra mile? Made a difference?
  • Not attendance or expected work.
  • Not really assignment.
  • May change grade if really out of whack.

Midterm

  • Short answers (a sentence or two): two points each, probably four out of six
  • Open questions (a paragraph): three points each, probably four out of six
  • Apply concepts (e.g. “prosumption” on Facebook?)
  • Show you really understand: explain to somebody else
  • Broader issues, topics, concepts on doing sociology with the Internet

After Midterm

Social Inequalities

Required Texts

Van Dijk, Jan AGM. “Inequalities in the Network Society.” In Digital Sociology: Critical Perspectives, edited by Kate Orton-Johnson and Nick Prior, 105–124. Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
Kendall, Lori. “Meaning and Identity in ‘Cyberspace’: The Performance of Gender, Class, and Race Online.” Symbolic Interaction 21, no. 2 (May 1998): 129–153. doi:10.1525/si.1998.21.2.129.

Van Dijk

Van Dijk, Jan AGM. “Inequalities in the Network Society.” In Digital Sociology: Critical Perspectives, edited by Kate Orton-Johnson and Nick Prior, 105–124. Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

  • Digital Democracy
  • Social Network Analysis

Kendall

Kendall, Lori. “Meaning and Identity in ‘Cyberspace’: The Performance of Gender, Class, and Race Online.” Symbolic Interaction 21, no. 2 (May 1998): 129–153. doi:10.1525/si.1998.21.2.129.

Infiltrating Academia with BuddyPress?

[This is truly a placeholder. I did a session at WordCamp Montréal and have been using this post to share slides and other relevant information.]

BuddyPress, the social network based on WordPress, is becoming more and more common in academic environments where it is used for organization, communication and learning. In this discussion we will go beyond the practical and into the human side of things to consider what effects social software might be having in the world of academia. Can we use our tools to get people to think differently? Does the use of open tools help bring openness to the context where they are used? Are BuddyPress and WordPress the best tools for the job? This talk will take the form of a guided discussion including the entire audience.

Audio Recording

(Apologies for the poor sound quality. It was recorded directly from the mixing board used in the PA system, but I wasn’t able to set the recording in the way I should have.)

Audio Recording from my WordCamp Session

Infiltrating Academia with BuddyPress audio

Slides

iWork.com

PDF

Links

Me, Myself, and I

Key People in the BuddyPress-Edu Sphere

From LMS to BuddyPress to ScholarPress

Scholarly Writing?

University’s Future?

Notes

Key BuddyPress Features for Education and Academia

  • Blogging
    • Low-stakes writing
    • Peer-feedback
  • Hosted Microblogging
    • P2
    • Link Sharing
    • À la StatusNet/Tumblr
    • Rich/Media-Enhanced
  • Forums
    • bbPress
    • Peer-Learning
    • Constructivist strategies
  • Groups
    • Teamwork
  • Podcasting
  • Social network
    • Latent function of formal education
    • Social networking for career and life
    • Profiles
    • Mentions
    • DMs
    • Contacts
  • Teaching tools
    • Syllabus
    • Schedule
    • Assignments
    • Bibliography
    • Anciliary material

Issues

  • Openness
  • Control
  • Walled garden
  • Ownership
  • Beyond institution
  • Lifelong Learning
  • Personal Learning Network