Topic of Discussion
Lisbeth Klastrup is discussing Blogs and Blog Genres in her
class today. Lisbeth's class will be talking about my blog (among others) as an Academic/Research networks blog. I am hoping that it was a good discussion. Thanks for talking about it. I think that this is what many bloggers hope for - that people will read the blog and discuss the material and the presentation itself (or of self).
Other genres for discussion are Personal "diary" blogs, "Professional" blogs (people blogging about their trade/as part of their work, Journalists' blogs, Blogging for money, Blogs on the move, The people blogs (behind the scenes), "Mock-blogs", Blogs and "liveness": moblogs, Fiction blogs and The Future of Blogs?
Oh Canada! Sharing my Music, eh?
"God keep our land, glorious and free" - free music downloading that is. Yes,
it's true.
"Sharing copyrighted works on peer-to-peer networks is legal in Canada, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday, handing the record industry a sharp setback in its international fight against file swappers."
"I think it is a big victory for technology and the Internet and all the people who use technology and the Internet in Canada," said Howard Knopf, an attorney who works with the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic at the University of Ottawa. "The court accepted that copyright legislation has to be read as it is, not as CRIA would like it to be."
Reaching the other 90%
"Everyone has this illusion that Web logs have taken the world by storm," Mr. Denton said, "but Web logs have probably only reached 10 percent of the Internet population. Our goal is to reach the remainder."
Blog-Bleary? Try (What Else?) a Blog By DAVID F. GALLAGHER Published: April 1, 2004
New York
Times.
"The latest such site, Kinja, is scheduled to open to the public today at www.kinja.com. The site automatically compiles digests of blogs covering subject areas like politics and baseball. Short excerpts from the blogs are included, with links to the complete entries on the individual blog sites. After signing up for a free account with Kinja, users can enter the addresses of their favorite blogs and generate a digest - a customized blog of blogs. "
Home of the future - but who's future?
"Microsoft's Concept Home Too Much of a Wired Thing"
Washington Post, By Rob Pegoraro - Sunday, March 28, 2004; Page
F07
"The basic idea behind the Microsoft Home is personalizing a dwelling so it responds to its occupants and their tastes -- "making things mine," said John O'Rourke, senior director of Microsoft's consumer strategy division.
So when the house learns that it's you at the door and not the FedEx guy, it knows to welcome you by opening the blinds, turning on the lights and playing the music of your choice. "
"The family room's plasma TV -- like other sets in the house -- is a monitor that allows access to all the entertainment and information on the home network, including movies, music, photos and everybody's schedules, collected from such different sources as the computer servers at the parents' workplaces and a kid's Hotmail calendar. "
They claim it will be affordable, but I highly doubt it. We will see yet another class disparity.
The Simputer for poor
From
Promethus 6, an article on a cheap
computer.
"It was developed by scientists and engineers at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore who were looking for a way of taking the internet revolution to India's rural masses.
Only nine in every 1,000 Indians own a computer, mainly because the machines are simply too expensive. The Simputer was designed to provide cheap and accessible computing on the go."
Gaining access to the internet, and essentially the world, is important - both in India and North America. But many have argued that there should be a focus on making sure people have jobs and enough food on the table - that this is more important than a computer and internet access.
Kids and the Internet - Issues of Trust and Censorship
Liz over at
mamamusings is having some internal dialogue with herself regarding her son's internet use.
Liz talks about the usual parental concerns - giving out home phone numbers and addresses (which she deleted), accessing adult sites, and IMing with strangers. Kids are getting better and better at covering their tracks by erasing history, and IMing with many windows that they can hide.
"So I'm caught. On the one hand, I want to encourage his exploration and use of online media and interaction. On the other, he's right - I don't trust him not to make potentially dangerous mistakes. It's not that I don't think he's smart, or savvy, or listening to my warnings. What he doesn't understand - what he can't understand - is how easy it is to be fooled, to be taken in, to be taken advantage of. Especially when you're honest to a fault, as he is - because it's that much harder to really understand just how dangerous and dishonest so many people "out there" can be."
While parents want to desperately trust their kids (me being one of them), it is hard to fight the parental radar that kicks in when your kids are online. Being a parent, I have the same concerns, but I refuse to install any software that supervises or censors use. Why? Because I think that communication between us is important. I constantly reiterate that there are people out there who want to hurt children, and he is careful about giving out information. In some sites, you need to give out postal codes (zip codes) to register. This tells people exactly where we are. We have a system where he puts in my university postal code, or the shopping centre's postal code.
Liz is concerned with what is "out there". Granted, there is considerable media-hype (lots of new commercials on this) about strangers luring children and teens into danger. Yes, the "out there" is dangerous, but so is the "right here", the wackos living down the street, the strangers in the park, in the school yard and at the grocery store. How do we mediate this "out there" and "right here" fear?
Miriam
Jones says this in the comments:
"We can't prevent them from gaining access if that's what they want. What we can do, if we're not careful, is put barriers in place so that they are uncomfortable coming to us. I think what you are doing is exactly right: lots of honest discussion, a prudent amount of parental supervision, and the establishment of good communication so that you and he can deal together with anything that arises."
Good point. Communication is important.
Here is an interesting comment from
Fivecats:
"There's an impression, I think, that the boys will be searching out inappropriate viewing materials while the girls are at greater risk for inappropriate conversations and/or being preyed upon by unscrupulous adults."
Do parents have different concerns for their sons then their daughters? why?
In my own
research, I look at the Internet in the home, and one of the things that I am asking my respondents is who is responsible for their children's internet use, and what are the parent's main concerns? Leave me a comment if you have thoughts...
Cars for and by Women
Over at Misbehaving,
Gina points to the "First car designed by women", and article found
here.
"Volvo Car's decision 14 months ago to allow hundreds of female employees to create a vehicle that suits their needs has given birth to a roomy, 215-horsepower coupe that's easy to park, maintain and keep clean. "
It is great to see that women are being involved in the creation of technology - being innovators vs users, (though all in the name of consumerism rather than empowerment: "The idea of catering more to women's needs makes perfect business sense") but there are some issues I have with this article.
1. It's easy to park with sensors - what does that mean? Women can't park cars?
2. It's designed to be nearly maintenance free - Apparently women don't take care of their cars, and this car will even send you reminders to change the oil since women can't seem to remember to do this.
3. It has no hood, only a large front end primarily suited for opening by a mechanic - So, if I wanted to change the oil or add oil, add Windshield washer fluid or whatever, I need to go to the (likely MALE) mechanic who will charge me big bucks to open my hood!
4. It also features a race-car-like fueling system with a roller-ball valve opening for the nozzle but no gas cap. - Not sure what the point of this is - though maybe I will break a nail with a regular gas cap?
5. The engine is a low-emission, gas-electric hybrid. - Ok, so this is good - but did it take female engineers to figure out that we should be environmental conscious? Doesn't everyone want this?
6. The car also has dirt-repellant paint and glass - because women don't wash their cars?
7. It has exchangeable seat covers with matching carpet - Do I need to make sure my outfit, shoes and purse match the car now as well?
While the intent of the car was not to be "gendered" - "this was not going to be a pink, cute-looking car but rather a very smart-looking vehicle" , there are still some gendered assumptions going on here. Granted, these are ideas from women, but they rub me the wrong way.
Here is what I think should be added to the 'women's car':
-Automatic steering control to easily apply lipstick and mascara while driving
-Tires that automatically inflat themselves so I don't have to put air in them
-Interior self cleaning capabilities (like the oven)
-Built in radar detector (illegal in Canada) so that I can speed from school to piano lessons to soccer to dinnner to hockey to.....
-Or, a speed cloaking device so that I can make it on time to all of the above
-On board computer that allows women to order groceries online and start the oven at home for the pot roast dinner
-Or, a microwave so that I can start dinner in the car and it is ready for my husband and kids when I get home
-Wireless tech communication so that your husband can tell you that he won't be home to eat the pot roast because he has a late meeting
-Computerized voice that will remind you that it is time to pick up your kids, the dry cleaning and that soccer practice is at 7pm.
-Ample storage for diapers and wet naps, a change of clothes for baby barf
-A driver's seat that has an inflatable pillow so that I can nap in between soccer, baseball and hockey
-Ample storage for hockey, hockey, soccer, and baseball gear
EEK! Do I sound bitter? - perhaps. Frustrated? - definitely.
In the 1950's Dodge launched La Femme, a rose-colored vehicle that was discontinued after a couple of years. "One of the car's features, according to Chrysler literature: a compartment on back of one of the seats that held a "stunning shoulder bag in soft rose leather ... fitted with compact, lighter, lipstick and cigarette case."
How far have we come?
Blog Survey
Lisbeth
blogs about MIT Blog survey Findings over
here.
Looks interesting - until this caught my eye:
1. female: 36%
2. male: 63%
3. undisclosed: 1%
Hmmmm......
Also, most of the respondents are white - and they attribute this to the survey being available only in English - what so non-whites don't speak English? What is that about?
Here is what they say about their "limitations":
"Respondents to this survey were not selected on a random basis. Announcements for the online survey were posted to mailing lists within MIT as well as on a few high-traffic blogs published by people known to the author of this survey. The viral nature of blogs meant that the links to the survey page quickly spread to many other blogs. Nevertheless, this does not qualify as a random sample of the blogger population and, as such, the results from this survey cannot be generalized to the entire blogging community; instead, these results are representative of the state of affairs in certain portions of the blogging world."
Yes - certain portions of the Blogging world for SURE! Men's blogosphere?
How about a survey that really looks at
who is blogging and what they are doing?
The social/emotional support of technology
Danah
asks "what kinds of social/emotional support does technology provide you? How? Is this about supporting everyday interactions or providing access to a whole new world of support?"
Good question. While I was thinking about my answer, I read one of Halley's
posts about her problems as an avon lady. Halley says this about her boss (who sent an unreadable email with an address that looks like spam):
"She actually likes to leave phone messages. I don't do phone messages. I do email. I do email that is intelligible and readable. I hate people who do phone. I don't do phone for precise information, or for anything that includes real data like numbers, prices, colors of nail polish. I need email. I like a written record. "
I was thinking about the telephone the other day. My friend J is a telephone diva. She uses it all the time and calls everyone, but she also uses email - though not to the same extent. I told her that I never use the phone anymore. I had the same conversation with my ex - who is still a good friend. I said to him (on the phone) - "don't be a stranger", and he said - "but you never call". This is true. I told him that I don't call anyone, I email. He thought this was quite funny.
I used to spend hours and hours on the telephone in the pre-internet days. People rarely call me now - other then telemarketers (and I hang up very quickly) - oh, and my mother calls me. When someone does call me - like my friend J - I put on my headset and sometimes multi-task while I am on the internet. But I am still listening - really.
I use the internet to keep in contact with my close friends, somewhat close friends, colleagues, strangers and so forth. Using the internet allows me to multi-task, and get many things at one time. It is also cheaper then calling long distance, which most of my friends are.
I use IM and email daily. Perhaps in some ways they have replaced face-to-face social interactions, but in other ways have provided new support for me - especially since I don't live near most of my friends and people in my research group. I can email people that I don't really know - other bloggers, people who research in my area and so forth - and create new systems of social support. You can't really do that with the telephone - nor can you show up on the door step of these folks.
So, internet communication may have replaced some of my F2F networks, but has created and enhanced others. How about you?
Joi
Ito blogs about the Full-Time Intimate Community " and how people use SMS to keep in contact, talking about context vs content. SMS doesn't work for me because I am charged for text messages on my cell phone.
Whose Voices Get Heard? Gender Politics in the Blogosphere
Culture Cat
posts here paper that she gave at a conference. It looks really interesting.
Here is the research question:
What do women bloggers experience in the blogging community as they define it, and how well are they represented in the most widely-read and linked-to weblogs?
One observation that Clancy made is that women have a "tendency to think that they do not have the writing talent to be a widely-read blogger".
She also has a useful
chart that shows the linking practices of A-list bloggers - broken down by gender.
"As the results show, not one of the top ten most important weblogs is maintained by a woman. Women are represented in only two community weblogs, which are maintained by a community of men and one woman. In all cases, men greatly outnumber women on blogrolls. When understood in the context of blogging practices, these findings have negative implications for women who want recognition on a large scale. If the top weblogs are mostly men, and the weblogs they link to are also maintained by mostly men, it becomes difficult for women to enter the conversation. It should be noted, also, that the majority of women linked to by these bloggers are politically conservative, so the findings are even more disappointing for feminists and other left-leaning voices."
Thanks Clancy for posting this.
More on (Flaming) Comments
I talked about bloggers deleting comments on their posts the other day, and the issue of censorship, gender and the value of one's voice in the Blogosphere. Now I am thinking of something else.
I have a few blogs that I visit regularly, some with overt 'feminist' content. I enjoy these blogs and the critical reflections on the world. While I might not always agree with the content, I still like the opportunity to think about the issues at hand.
What I don't like to read much anymore are the negative comments. Now, I don't mean comments that intelligently reflect on the material, or engage in the conversation in an analytical way. No. I mean the negative, personal, anti-feminist, anti-women, anti-everything comments. I have decided that on certain blogs - I just can't read the comments anymore. It is painful, frustrating and draining. It is really too bad.
Comments that are often posted at
Misbehaving or
Feministe are often compelling and interesting - but more often then not, (Misbehaving in particular), they are disturbing, upsetting and frustrating. I am censoring or rather moderatoring what I am blog reading.
I would add these items to Glenn's
list: Personal attacks directed at the blogger. These include name calling (questioning their sexuality and accusations of man-hating). Threats of violence. Most negative comments are intended not to critically engage with the material - but rather put women in their place. It would be interesting to make some empirical comparison between the types of negative comments that male and female bloggers receive.
Here
are feministe's comments:
"A great majority of post-skimmers, the people who cruise though and see one post that for whatever reason ticks them off, have a tendency to get personal, calling me a "welfare piece of shit mom" or insist that what I really need to get off my high horse is a really good lay. No pun intended.
I'm saying that as prudently as I can, and, of course, they themselves are the person to give me that big ol' phallus that will obviously change my mind about the state of gendered relations. The death threats earlier this year by a mentally ill teenager in England didn't surprise me either, although his violence toward me was somewhat unsettling. I'm just running a website, man, not trying to emotionally or physically castrate men, contrary to popular opinion."
So, I am not surprised that some bloggers at Misbehaving decide to turn off the comment option. Who wants to be repeatedly slammed and harassed about their reflections on the world, or their own experiences. It gets tiring.
Comment Wars
Halley blogged
her "Comments on Comments", citing Glenn Fleishman's thoughts on
comments.
"This was an interesting thread because it shows the best and worst aspects of commenting. I typically see seven kinds of comments on my blogs:
1. Intelligent, germane remarks, which may be supportive or critical of what I have posted or, if a link, to the story in question.
2. Expansive remarks that provide more detail about the subject in question, often from the principals (cf. Mena, above)
3. Discussions that form in the comments section that are germane and useful to the discussion at hand (everyone in this thread)
4. Off-topic remarks or poorly written remarks that don't extend and expand on the comment.
5. Ad hominem attacks, rudeness, stupidity. (These posters always claim, when confronted, to not be exhibiting this behavior; viz., above.)
6. People who don't understand that the comments are for specific articles and post totally weird things, like requests to order books or sell stuff.
7. Comment spam."
These are interesting, but a bit generic I think. I bet Lauren
could refine this list for female bloggers.
If you go look at the comments over at Jeff Jarvis'
blog, there are also some interesting issues.
One of the issues is whether deleting comments is considered "censorship". If you have seen some of the nasty comments that some female bloggers get - feministe
has some painful ones - you may be more likely to delete them because they are so rude, personal and hateful. Why would you keep these? There are some women who keep them to show how totally ridiculous and misogynist people can be. It is a personal choice I think...
Also see on Jeff comments - Shelley's charge that his enforcement of comments are gendered. This is also interesting. I have seen in other blog comments that women's comments are often ignored, then when a man makes the same comment he is vaidated. The when women speak up - they are being whiny and bitchy. See Shelley's
reflections
on this.:
"Maybe I was rude, but hostile and nasty? Hmmm.
So my question is to you to review the comments, and let me know -- did you perceieve my response to Jarvis as hostile, rude, and nasty? If so, why? If not, why not? Glenn Fleishman seems to agree with Jarvis, but then, they also seem to know each other.
Is that also a factor in perception? How much we seem to 'know' the other person, or how much we value them?
Finally, and this is a sensitive one -- does gender influence this perception? After all, aren't girls supposed to be sugar and spice and everything nice. Is a critical comment given by a woman perceived to be more negative than the same type of comment given by a man?"
Good question.
Looking for Love in the Blogosphere?
Previously I blogged about how two blogging strangers read each other's blogs and eventually met at a conference -
Red met the Accordian
Guy - and they lived happily ever
after.
Jay McCarthy
blogs about Alexander Payne
who wants a special kind of girl. Jay agrees with Alexander's criteria.
It seems that there are many lonely workaholics that are looking for love and blogging about it. I am sure there are many others out there as well....If Red and Joey can do it, others can too. I am thinking that blogging might be a good way to get people who are looking for love to connect - forget Orkut or Friendster, forget Yahoo personals or Match.com - someone needs to start a Love blog!
Internet Genealogy
I have a new hobby - thanks to the Internet. When I am not working on my research design or grading exams (read late at night), I am fiddling with my family tree.
It is a neat little hobby - takes me away from grad school life when I need a break. But, it's a hobby that still has to do with the Internet - of course.
What I love about this stuff is the amount of information that is available online. Yes, the Internet is certainly about communication and communities - but lest we forget the vast amount of information out there...."I'm Lovin it".
My cousin in Alabama has been doing this family tree thing for years now. She visits historical sites, cemetaries, reads old records and so forth. I am a newbie - but because of my Internet skills, I found a lot of information that she did not have. My roots are in Virginia and Pennsylvania (which might explain why love these states so much) and I have managed to go as far back as the 1200s (in England) on one lineage. The time you can spend on this is endless - searching both lines of mothers, grandmothers and fathers and grandfathers. It is a web of interconnected people - much like links on homepages.
What I really enjoy is the help that people offer. Emailing people for help - people always respond to help out. They look up census records for you from the 1800s they have, and are always willing to share information. It is really great.
I also love the fact that I can read about my ancestors - the lives that my grandmothers had before me - bearing eleven children, losing young children, losing husbands in the civil war and remarrying.
The Internet allows us to retain our history and ancestoral roots. Connecting with others and having a place to keep ancestoral information is so valuable. This is something that we couldn't do before really - relying on written material that decays over time. People spend hours transcribing Bible records, wills, marriages and births and transfer the information into the world wide web, allowing people from all over the world to learn about their history. Native americans often pass their history on through oral history, while other use written texts. Both have their problems, but the Internet can help with this.
It is really something.
Here are some sites to start you out if you are interested:
Internet Genealogy Guides
here
On line genealogy information
here.
Can women be Hackers, or are they just Women?
Joan Korenman sent me a great link to a blog post today (thanks
Joan!).
The
blog is called "feminist poet crypto geek", and she has a great post on women as Hackers, and the lack of respect they receive. Raven posted some thoughts on a list serv in response to other absurd comments made. Here are some of her comments:
"I got seventeen requests for a date, two marriage proposals, three offers for various sexual acts, and a request for naked pictures of me. I also got ten real comments about the technical contents of my post. Et tu, Bugtraq? This asinine refusal to treat female geeks as geeks first is incredibly offputting. If I wanted to be objectified sexually every time I tried to interact with someone professionally, I'd be on the corner of 14th Street, not pursuing a career in network security. So let me spell this out for you in small words, so that you cretins who can't seem to grasp the concept that your behaviour is unattractive will understand.
I am a hacker. I run OpenBSD, FreeBSD, and five flavors of Linux. I have done custom kernel work on almost every box I own. I write documentation for Linux. I watch the intrusion detection systems for the Nessus servers. I am authoring a book on Snort, and I have an account on attrition.org. I speak at conferences. I do technical fact-checking for the Hacker Court people, I spoke about cryptography in Dublin at Linux World Expo, and about proactive backbone provider security in Vegas at DefCon. My team came in second in Capture the Flag. My code traces DDoS attacks across major ISP backbones worldwide. I do system testing and performance benchmarking. I have found bugs in the crypto implementations of major security vendors, and have seen them fixed because of my work. I have found zero-day vulnerabilities in major security products. I code my own exploits and I run pen-tests for fun. I am a hacker."
You must go read the full
post .
Symposium
Many CWIT-ANNOUNCE readers may wish to know that on November 12-14, 2004, the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation will hold its third biennial international symposium, "International Perspectives: Women Leading Change in Public Health and Technology." The symposium will explore new definitions of technology and its relationship to public health.
The Symposium organizers have issued a Call for Proposals, which is available
here.
They are especially interested in "proposals that describe best practices elaborating how women are creating positive change with regard to implementing the use of technology and addressing the challenges that the use of technology presents to rural women." The proposal submission deadline is May 3, 2004.
For more information about the International Symposium, see the symposium's information page
here.
Spam
I can attest to how annoying spam is. I have tried Spam filters, and yes - they filter out unwanted emails - BUT - they also filter out some of my list servs (like Women's Studies lists and AoIR, plus personal emails from people with their own domain names). There is something wrong with the Spam filters the way they are are now.
The Pew Internet & American Life Project has recently released two new Data
Memos:
"The CAN-SPAM Act Has Not Helped Most Email Users So Far: Disillusionment is growing as 29% of email users say they are using email less because of spam"
and
"Use of the Internet in places other than home or work: A PIP Data Memo"
The CAN-SPAM Act has not helped most email users so far: WASHINGTON -- The distress of Internet users at spam has increased in recent months and growing numbers of Internet users are becoming disillusioned with email, despite the first national anti-spam legislation which went into effect on January 1.
A new survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project between February 3 and March 1, 2004 shows the following: 29% of email users say they have reduced their overall use of email because of spam. That figure is an increase from last June, when we found that 25% of emailers were reporting a reduction in their email use. 63% of email users said that the influx of spam made them less trusting of email in general. That figure is higher than the 52% of email users who reported declining trust in email in June. 77% of emailers said the flood of spam made the act of being online unpleasant and annoying. That is an increase from the 70% of those who said in June that spam was making online experiences unpleasant and annoying. 42% of email users said they were aware that Congress and the Administration had approved anti-spam legislation and that it had gone into effect at the beginning of the year.
In all, 86% of email users reported some level of distress with spam.
"The vast majority of email users are not getting much help yet from the nation's first major anti-spam legislation," said Lee Rainie, Director of the Pew Internet Project. "The law was designed to create some rules-of-the road that would make clear what was legal and what was illegal in bulk email campaigns. In the weeks since the CAN-SPAM Act went into effect on January 1, email users said they are seeing no relief and, in some cases, things are getting worse."
Among other things, the survey found that 71% of those with email accounts report that they have received pornographic spam. Still, the one area where the CAN-SPAM Act seemed to be having a somewhat clearer effect involved porn. Of those who had gotten pornography in the past, 25% say they are getting less porn spam now. That compares to 16% who say they are getting more and 56% who say they notice no change. The CAN-SPAM Act explicitly states that pornographic spam must be identified by the subject line as containing adult content in the message.
The full Spam memo is available
here.
Nearly a quarter of online Americans use the Internet at places besides home or work
As use of the Internet becomes more appealing and more essential to Americans, a growing number are using multiple locations to go online. And significant numbers are moving beyond the tradition places of access - home and work. The Pew Internet & American Life Project has found that 23% of adult U.S. Internet users have gone online from a place other than home or work. That is close to 30 million people.
In that group of online Americans, 27% have used the Internet at school, 26% have used it at friends' or neighbors' homes, and 26% have used it at libraries.
On any given day more than 4 million Americans are accessing the Internet from some place other than home or work.
Those who use the Internet in some place other than home or work fall into two main camps. The first camp consists of the online Americans who seem to go online wherever they are. These users often have access at home and at work and they are anxious to have access from other places as well. Many of them are young - under the age of 30 - and avid Internet users. On a typical day, more than half the people accessing the Internet from a "third place" are between ages 18-24. Nearly half of students (48%) have accessed the Internet from a "third place." They are the anywhere, anytime users of the Internet.
In the second camp are Internet users who are relatively poor and do not have high levels of education. Many have access at work, some have access at home, and a portion of them depend on a place other than home or work for their Internet access. Those who depend on "third places" make up only 3% of the entire U.S. Internet population, but they are disproportionately likely to live in households earning less than $30,000, to live in rural areas, and to be newcomers to the online world. They are fairly infrequent users of the Internet who often use libraries and friends' homes as their access points.
Some 54% of Internet users say they go online from more than one place.
These findings suggest that use of the Internet has spread well beyond home and work. The importance of the Internet in the lives of professionals who travel often, students, young adults, and people with a lot of online experience has grown to the point that for many it is a technology that moves with them wherever they go and which they access whenever they feel the need. On any given day, 27% of those who use the Internet go online in at least two places.
At the same time, a portion of Internet users depend completely on these other places because these locales are the exclusive providers of their online connection. They are not avid users of the Net, but they have entered the online world at the level that is available to them.
The full "Other Places" memo is available
here.
The Weblog as Digital Pub
Calgal has (another) excellent
post today. She conceptualizes blogs as pubs. You must go read it.
Here is a snip:
"Like pubs, weblogs can become a huge part of the everyday life of both individuals and a community. Unlike the bricks, mortar, and beer on tap pubs, you get to the digital variety by simply turning on your computer and "walking" into the URL. Time and space become of secondary importance, though we often find that we want to hang out there when something big is happening in the world around us.
As readers, many of us spend a fair amount of time finding the weblogs that are a good fit for us. If we want something other than straight information or passive amusement, we want to spend out time visiting and commenting on weblogs where our ideas are welcomed and we are treated well. We want to become regulars. With a nod to Cheers, we want everyone to know our name. "
I agree with one of the comments made on her blog...I think I am somewhere in between - "happy to see the regulars visit, glad to meet new people, and always looking for people I connect with." Though when in need of comfort and familiarity, I visit the blogs that 'hit home'.
Girl Gamers Grow Up
By Robyn Greenspan - February 12, 2004 - located
here.
"Moms may be vying with their kids for computer time, but not for work or home related tasks. Research from America Online (AOL) has found that females over 40 years old spend the most time per week playing online games at 9.1 hours, which accounts for 41 percent of their connection time. Comparatively, teens spend 7.4 hours per week playing games, while females under 40 log 6.2 hours. "
Graduate WebShop:
The Impact of the Internet on Society June 6 11, 2004
University of Maryland College Park
Application deadline for best consideration: April 5, 2004
The Department of Sociology at the University of Maryland is hosting the 4th annual graduate student workshop or WebShop. Supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation, up to 50 graduate students and 20 leading scholars and experts who study the behavioral aspects of information technology will discuss current issues and research. Dr. Ben Shneiderman of the University of Maryland's Computer Science Department is on board to help the WebShop by building bridges to the human computer interaction community.
Student participants will receive up to $350 as a travel support grant as well as room and board. Students will develop original research projects as the basis for their thesis, dissertation, or other publication.
Topics include, but are not limited to: Social Networks, Computer Graphics and Navigational Skills, Inequality/Digital Divide, Public Access and Usage, and Social Capital Implications. Please access the WebShop web page for the latest information about the WebShop and the invited participants.
Please find application information
here.
I attended this last year and it is quite good.
Talibanism in Technology
Seven reasons why women in technology remain invisible...
by Deepa Kandaswamy
on the Web site of Data Quest India
February 26, 2003
"A lot has been written about the Taliban's treatment of Afghan women, which resulted in the worldwide outcry against women wearing full-length burkhas, which rendered them invisible and the denial of their fundamental rights. However, there's not even a whimper about the systematic Talibanism of women in technology, which has made them invisible throughout the ages. Despite a large number of talented and successful women in the field, why is it that society tends to associate only men with technology? This appears to be a global phenomenon, cutting across class, race, and the development of countries.
After elaborate research and having interviewed several women and men in the fields of education, business and technology, I found there are seven primary reasons why women in technology continue to remain invisible - social myths, conditioning, media, networking, deterrence, balance and marketing."
For the whole article go
here.
Hearing different (Blog) voices
Interesting piece
over at Alas, a Blog.
"When most people read they hear the written words spoken in their minds. A disembodied vocal of authors, narrators, and characters fills their minds' ear acting out plays and essays, novels and poems. Blogs are composed with words and so are no exception to the rule, so chances are that you're hearing a voice right now."
"Usually, though, the voices people hear are new, unique, and private. Each reader hears his or her own version of a character's voice that is created from the reader's perception of the character's gender, age, race, ethnicity, personality, history, and personal appearance and how these things interact to create a whole person. These perceptions on the part of the reader can be the difference between a sympathetic character and one the reader hopes gets side-swiped by a bus. Everyone bring prejudices to the table while reading; people will inflict their views of blacks and whites and hispanics or men and women or the rich and the poor on the characters."
Video Games and the "Family"
New York Times article - "Video Game Heroes: Just Folks" By VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN Published: March 10, 2004 - located
here .
"HOMEBODIES - In a neighborhood full of action heroes, monsters and cartoon characters inspired by video games, Raquel Smashenburn struggles to balance work and home. With her are her husband, Rip and their children, Alice and Billy.
Raquel Smashenburn resembles Susan Sarandon, with smooth locks of red hair, eye-popping curves and a sweet, estrogenic aura. The wife of Rip, a Grand Prix driver from a racing video game, and herself a government agent par excellence in another video game, Raquel is computer-generated, yes, but she's all too human: a working mother drunk on exciting work and sobered, against her will, by standard-issue family life. "
The characters of the video game are a bit troubling - the family is white, with an obviously high socio-economic status. The mother's image does not represent how women look, that is for sure. The "family" is typical hetero nuclear - complete with the dog. They state that "video game heroes lead ordinary lives" but I am wondering who's lives we are talking about - because the ordinary is often quite extraordinary, and problematic.
Blogging Spaces and Places
Kaye
blogs anywhere - sometimes in bed.
Jeff Jarvis
noticed some German and Finnish blogs talking about the places they blog.
I think this is very interesting, seeing where it all comes from. This is my space - in the basement of my house, with my groovy gurl on the wall.
I am really curious - where people do their blogging? Where is your computer or notebook? What time of day do you regularly blog? Do you blog when you are alone, or with family members around?
Here are some other blog spaces - makes me want to rearranging my office space, it's pretty blah. hmm.
Here
Here
Here - love the kids playing in the background!
Here is someone documenting blog spaces.
Here - another one with wood panelling like me :)
Here
And
Halley has nice flowers....
Here
Here
This
one is labelled!
It seems many people have Notebooks rather than computers. This is fascinating stuff.
The Blogosphere: Boys 'n' Their Toys
Calgal pointed me to this piece today by Brian Montopoli - talking about
political blogging, and the lack of women doing so.
"Women are responsible for as little as four percent of political blogs -- "sites devoted to politics, current events, foreign policy, and various ongoing wars" -- according to the National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education (NITLE). "
Women are writing more about their
personal life then men are.
Brian asks:
"But why does the blogosphere conform to such traditional social mores? This is a community that prides itself, after all, on being the closest thing the media has to a meritocracy. With no glass ceilings or institutional barriers to entry, anyone with a computer can broadcast his or her punditry to the world. Why haven't women been able to force their way into the political dialogue? "
I have to disagree, as there are numerous barriers - one of which being internet access and having a computer of course. But as I have discussed before, women's voices - especially concerning politics - is often undervalued and ignored. Are women not blogging, or are people just not listening?
Ana Marie Cox from
Wonkette argues that there would be more female political bloggers if more women were led to believe that their opinions matter. "Vestiges of hundreds of years of gender stereotypes are still with us," she says. "Women get a different message from men about how to express their opinions. Women are not as encouraged to shout out their opinion. At times they're actively discouraged." "
Calgal
notes than in the political forum that she writes in, she is basically the only woman who posts consistently. CalGal also says
this :
"My sense is that women who write about politics are less driven by the need to become widely known in the "A-list" kind of way. I am not saying that we don't get enormous satisfaction when our weblogs get more popular, because we do, but maybe we are less willing to see blogging as a competitive sport."
Amen, sista.
I am wondering though if we are seeing blogging as the only way to channel our political voices. Women are very political, and I have talked about the personal being the political in previous
posts . While women may not being blogging about political candidates as much as men, we cannot forget that blogging "personal diaries" is as much about political blogging, as is blogging about political parties. Perhaps women and men are blogging about the 'political', but just in a different ways.
Jay
Rosen seems to agree:
"cultural expectations inevitably play a role in defining who gets attention. "The definition of a 'political blog' itself is the product of a male dominated culture"
Brian agrees:
"But if the blogosphere comes freighted with the same cultural considerations and institutional biases that weigh down the rest of the world, then blogs offer us no more window into our natural inclinations than the mainstream media -- and the blogosphere's claim to be the great equalizer is nothing more than the emperor's newest clothes."
Women and Blogging at BlogerCon II
Kaye pointed me to Lisa Williams'
blog the other day, and the possibility of a session at BloggerCon on women and blogging.
I actually emailed the folks at BloggerCon last year and asked why there was not a session on Women and Blogging. I received a rather snotty reply that I should have organized one. Given that the organizers were rather busy - too busy for my email queries, but I was a bit put off to say the least - and didn't attend it - though watched it on the Internet.
I am glad that someone else is thinking about it this year, and there has been some discussion about it.
Lisa starts
here, talking about a "Chick blog session at Bloggercon" with some potential women in the session.
She
then asks:
"What do you want to talk about? Who do you want to see? Is there something unique about your blogging, why you blog, that you want to share with others? Let me know -- I'm actively seeking participants now."
So, let her know your thoughts.
Her
draft is posted with the following outline features:
"Chick Blogs! A Roundtable on Women and Blogs
This session will attempt to be the pajama-party of the blogosphere -- a lively and welcoming exchange on the best of blogs by women. Participants are encouraged to prepare to share what motivated them to start their blog, and what motivates them to keep blogging.
While this session will focus on blogs written by women, guys and their perspectives on the topic will also be enthusiastically welcomed.
* According to Perseus Research, women write more than half of existing blogs -- yet they are underrepresented in popularity rankings such as the Technorati 100. Will womens’ blogs, focused on daily life and personal issues, turn out to stand the test of time better than more topical, news-focussed blogs that may have more traffic today? Do women trade off popularity today for longevity tomorrow?
* Do womens’ personal blogs -- often dismissed as self-indulgent or “ramblings of teenage girls” represent a challenge to notions of what’s Really Important?
* What are the great undiscovered blogs written by women?
* If you’re a woman with a blog, what effect does your gender have on how & why you blog? None at all? Quite a bit?
* Do you blog anonymously? Do you take steps to conceal your gender in your online presence?
There are some
issues in her post called "Don't call us chicks, please". From Makiko Itoh who
says:
"Why are you calling it chick blogs? Personally I hate that term "chick" for grown women....Why pajama-party? Are women unable to have an intelligent discussion without invoking images of squealing little girls doing their nails and hair and talking about boys?"
I have to agree. I wasn't keen on the chick thing or PJ thing. But I still am glad that Lisa is doing this.
Hopefully this session will be a go as it is necessary for women to meet and talk about blogging and the issues surrounding it. The sessions are open to everyone of course, and it will be interesting to see what men have to say about the issues.
More comments
here.
BloggerCon II info can be found
here.
Happy International Women's Day
Today is International Women's Day.
Here is a synposis of what it is all about.
"International Women's Day (8 March) is an occasion marked by women's groups around the world. This date is also commemorated at the United Nations and is designated in many countries as a national holiday. When women on all continents, often divided by national boundaries and by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and political differences, come together to celebrate their Day, they can look back to a tradition that represents at least nine decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development.
International Women's Day is the story of ordinary women as makers of history; it is rooted in the centuries-old struggle of women to participate in society on an equal footing with men. In ancient Greece, Lysistrata initiated a sexual strike against men in order to end war; during the French Revolution, Parisian women calling for "liberty, equality, fraternity" marched on Versailles to demand women's suffrage.
The idea of an International Women's Day first arose at the turn of the century, which in the industrialized world was a period of expansion and turbulence, booming population growth and radical ideologies."
I am woman, hear me blog
Joan Korenman
sent me an email about this interesting article in the NY Daily News. "These ladies are letting loose and finding fans with their online journals" By RICK E. BRUNER found
here.
"Men ruled the blog world early on (that is, about three years ago), but women are quickly catching up, finding the ability to write uncensored thoughts to the masses more liberating than a 1970s bra-burning parade.
The Big Apple has more than its fair share of female blogging talent. "Places like New York, D.C. and Hollywood are ripe for great [blog] writing to come out of," says Steve Outing, a columnist with Editor & Publisher magazine."
Those who scout for writing talent have taken notice: New York magazine, the Economist, GQ and MTV have hired or commissioned work from three of the 10 lady bloggers featured in this article. In addition, book publishers are in talks with several of the bloggers.
There are other advantages: Almost all those women interviewed said blogging facilitates social interactions with readers and other bloggers at local gatherings of online writers."
Here are some of the bloggers who are featured:
Jen Chung
"Eurotrash"
Meg Hourihan
Blaise Kearsley (aka "Blaise K." or "Bazima")
Amy Langfield
"Maccers"
Megan McArdle (aka "Jane Galt")
Maud Newton
Lindsay Robertson
Elizabeth Spiers
What I find interesting is that women often decide to remain anonymous or only give their first names. I am wondering if this is something women do more than men?
Not a very critical piece, but a nice way to focus more on women blogging. Note that there is an emphasis on social interaction. Can we say that this is the same for men? Or are the motivations for blogging different for women and men?
Workshop on the Weblogging Ecosystem: Aggregation, Analysis and Dynamics
A Workshop of the WWW 2004 Conference
May 18th, 2004
New York, NY
Submission Deadline: March 12, 2004
Please
this for complete details.
Theme of the Workshop
Weblogging has emerged in the past few years as a new grassroots publishing medium. Like electronic mail and the web itself, weblogging has taken off and by some estimates the number of weblogs is doubling every year. Recent estimates place the number of active weblogs at about 1.4 million.
The weblogging microcosm has evolved into a distinct form, into a community of publishers. The strong sense of community amongst bloggers distinguishes weblogs from the various forms of online publications such as online journals, 'zines and newsletters that flourished in the early days of the web and from traditional media such as newspapers, magazines and television. The use of weblogs primarily for publishing, as opposed to discussion, differentiates blogs from other online community forums, such as Usenet newsgroups and message boards. Often referred to as the blogsphere, the network of bloggers is a thriving ecosystem, with its own internally driven dynamics.
The cross-linking that takes place between blogs, through blogrolls, explicit linking, trackbacks, and referrals has helped create a strong sense of community in the weblogging world. There is work underway to understand the dynamics of the weblogging network, much of which springs from bloggers themselves. The self-publishing aspect of weblogs, the time-stamped entries, the highly interlinked nature of the blogging community and the significant impact of weblog content on politics, ideas, and culture make them a fascinating subject of study.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Workshop Topics and Objectives
The "Weblogging Ecosystem" workshop will provide a forum for presentation and discussion of research into the dynamics, sociology, and mining of the blogsphere.
Topics of interest to the workshop include:
-Mapping and visualization of the blogsphere
-Weblog taxonomies: automatic and/or manual construction
-Automatic classification of weblog entries
-Weblog search engines
-Aggregate measures over the blogsphere
-Weblog mining and applications
-Dynamics of information flow across the blogsphere
-Methods for weblog census
-Weblog lifecycle
-Influence of blogsphere on the information landscape
-Alternative blog forms (radioblogs, photoblogs, etc.)
-Sociological studies of blogging
-A secondary goal of the workshop is to discuss the sharing of weblog datasets for use in research studies.
Pew On Creating Digital Content
44% of American Internet users have contributed their thoughts and digital content to the online world
WASHINGTON (Feb. 29, 2004) - More than 53 million American adults have used the Internet to publish their thoughts, respond to others, post pictures, share files and otherwise contribute to the explosion of content available online.
A new survey and report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project find that 44% of U.S. Internet users have contributed material to the online commons.
While blogs or personal online journals have captured the attention of the technology community, most of those who have made contributions have done so in less cutting-edge ways. Here are some of the things American adult Internet users have done:
* 21% of Internet users say they have posted photographs to Web sites.
* 17% have posted written material on Web sites.
* 13% maintain their own Web sites.
* 8% have contributed material to Web sites run by their businesses.
* 7% have contributed material to Web sites run by organizations to
which they belong such as church or professional groups.
* 7% have Web cams running on their computers that allow other Internet
users to see live pictures of them and their surroundings.
* 4% have contributed material to Web sites created for their families.
* 3% have contributed video files to Web sites.
The Pew Internet Project has asked in its surveys at various times during 2003 and early 2004 about blogging. Those polls of Internet users have shown that somewhere between 2% and 7% of American Internet users have created blogs and about 11% of Internet users are blog readers. These are not hugely impressive figures, but they are hardly trivial. They mean that anywhere from 3 million to nearly 9 million Americans have created these diaries.
"One of the earliest observations about the Internet turns out to be true: anyone can be a publisher on the Web," said Amanda Lenhart, Research Specialist at the Project and the lead author of the report. "The online commons is full of virtual chatter and teeming with self-made content. It ranges from the simplest vanities like pictures of 'me and my puppy' to the most profound kinds of political argument - and everything in between."
Online content creators are evenly divided between men and women. They are especially likely to be students, to have broadband connections at home, and to enjoy high levels of education and household income.
The report, entitled "Content Creation Online," argues that the most eager and productive content creators break into three distinct groups:
Power creators are the Internet users who are most enthusiastic about content-creating activities. They are young - their average age is 25 - and they are more likely than other kinds of creators do things like use instant messaging, play games, and download music. And they are the most likely group to blog.
Older creators have an average age of 58 and are experienced Internet users. They are highly educated, enjoy sharing pictures, and are the most likely of the creator groups to have built their own Web sites. They are also the most likely to have used the Internet for genealogical research.
Content omnivores are among the heaviest overall users of the Internet. Most are employed. Most log on frequently and spend considerable time online doing a variety of activities. They are likely to have broadband connections at home. The average age of this group is 40.
Though content creation is usually a small and personal act, its impact is beginning to be felt on a larger stage.
"Beyond the pure fun of creating something to share with others locally or globally, the Internet is living up to its promise to empower the individual," said Lenhart. "The world is changing in major ways when anyone with a modem can do the same thing as the most sprawling media company, the most powerful politician, or highest-paid entertainer."
For the full text of the report go
here.
