Social Software Affordances

Blog buzz about our SSA class

2006-01-01T13:39:00.000-05:00

As a result of posting my report on the class (which might be getting published soon in a 'real' journal, too), some people are talking about us. That's social software! I include some links below and I will try to update it as I notice new things. This is interesting to me for two reasons: First, it shows that the work started during the class continues after the semester is over. And second, it serves to promote your work, as people are being introduced to your blogs, checking out your IE projects, etc. What do you think about this? Does the 'loss' of control over who gets to see your work make you nervous, or are you comfortable with this aspect of social software? (sorry for trying to insert a learning moment after the class is over ;-) )

LINKS:

First -and only- course podcast

2005-12-20T16:42:00.000-05:00

I never got around to experimenting with podcasts during the semester, but a couple of people asked me to post the mp3 recording of the last class session we just had. So, for your listening pleasure, here it is. The one hour twenty minute recording might make for a wonderful listening experience while you travel during this winter break. Have safe and happy holidays, everyone!

SSA last session recording (right click to download mp3 file)

Final Evaluations

2005-12-20T16:39:00.000-05:00

We had our last class session today. The strike, combined with holiday travel plans, took a heavy toll on attendance. So for those of you who could not attend, I have created a wiki page in our original Seed wiki where you can anonymously post an evaluation of the class. It's not the same as submitting an official TC form, but at least it will help me improve the course for future generations. Anyone who attended class and would like to say something they did not get a chance to say during our meeting today, or forgot to write on the TC form, are welcome to leave feedback on this page as well. The page will be permanently deleted early next year.

Lastly, you are all supposed to send me an email with your self evaluation (including the grade you believe you deserve for the course).

To those who didn't hear me say it in person (or in podcast): This was a great experience for me. Thank you for your participation.

In preparation for landing...

2005-12-11T15:14:00.000-05:00

Although it might feel like your projects for this class are far from being completed, it's time to start thinking about wrapping up the course. Let's review where we stand and what you need to do in these final two weeks.

DPSC Wiki: At this point, I would suggest that you focus your collective efforts on editing and formatting the wiki so that it looks nice for when we present it to the rest of the world.

Issue Entrepreneurship project: I would assume nobody feels like they have completed their IE project, but as I've been saying all along, that is not the point. You will not be graded on whether you completed your project or not, but on the quality of your thinking regarding the application of social software to your selected cause (as demonstrated on the IE updates you have been posting on your blog). The syllabus calls for one final update and reflection, so I expect to see something that summarizes your efforts and the lessons you have learned from this specific exercise.

Additionally, it's time to start thinking about evaluating what you have learned as a result of taking this class. The syllabus calls for a post on 'final thoughts.' I think this is an excellent opportunity to go back to the questions I identified at the beginning of the course:

What is 'social' about social software?
How is the notion of community being redefined by social software?
What aspects of our humanity stand to gain or suffer as a result of our use of and reliance on social software?
How is social agency shared between humans and (computer) code in social software?
What are the social repercussions of unequal access to social software?
What are the pedagogical implications of social software for education?
Can social software be an effective tool for individual and social change?

Here's what I want you to do: Answer each question using one sentence only. Alternatively, you can write your reply in the form of a hayku (obviously in English, not Japanese, and I don't care about the exact number of syllables). The reason for this format is that I want you to spend more energy synthesizing than writing lengthy responses. Don't over-think it --go with your gut (hence the Zen suggestion of the hayku)! Post your responses by Dec. 18 on your blog, and we will discuss them during our final session. [You'll notice that I have omitted the last two questions from the original list because I think you are addressing some of those issues through the Design Patterns wiki.]

And speaking of the final session: I am assuming all of you will be attending our meeting on December 20, the last day of the class (usual time and place: 1PM-2:40PM at GDH 177). The agenda for that day is to fill out the official TC course evaluations (10-15 minutes), and then to spend the rest of the time discussing each other's final reflections. With your permission, I will be audio recording this discussion, as it will help me put together my final report about the class. As part of this conversation, we will also discuss any suggestions you might have for improving the course.

The last thing I will expect you to do, immediately after our session on December 20, is to send me an email telling me what grade you think you deserve, and briefly explaining why. I want you to do this as a form of self-evaluation. I will then reply to that email at a later point with your final grade and my own comments about your performance.

If you have questions about any of this, please let me know.

Marion: the disjointedness of online sociality

2005-11-29T07:14:00.000-05:00

Marion recently wondered about the connection between the links pointing to a community web site and the relevancy of those links to the goals of the community. She asks: "Is there really value in establishing links between sources that are inherently unrelated?"

First, I would like to propose that the mere act of linking creates relevancy. Isn't the fact that "the 20 opera singers and 50 ice-cream truck drivers" convene in the West Siders for Responsible Development blog an indication that they are more than disjointed links, but people who share a similar interest?

Second, and following on that, I would say that this is precisely one of the advantages of social software: creating connections that would be much harder to create offline. What we have to keep in mind is that to some extent the formation of these connections follows its own rules. In other words, we delegate some of the control to form those connections to the Code, the social software itself. Where alliances seem natural and we strive hard to create them, they somehow fail to materialize. On the other hand, unexpected alliances emerge out of nowhere, facilitated by the Code! Sometimes you build it and those you expected to come (the opera singers) don't come, and sometimes those you didn't expect to come (the ice-cream truck drivers) crash the party! It's all part of the process of delegating some social agency to the Code.

As facilitators of online sociality, we need to be aware of these dynamics. In any change process, there's going to be few early adopters and a slow increase of adherents until an early majority is reached, and then the rest of the adopters quickly fall into place. Part of the role of the change agent/issue entrepreneur is to plan for these stages. Of course, it's nearly impossible to go through this cycle in less than one semester, but it's something you should consider in your IE projects beyond what you accomplish this term.

Social software tools use survey

2005-11-22T14:50:00.000-05:00

Rick Reo, a grad student and a faculty support staff at George Mason University, has developed a short survey to assess the usefulness and learning potential of social software. The survey is part of his practicum project, and he is asking for our help. It only takes a couple of minutes to complete the survey, so if you would like to help Rick, here's the link.

On behalf of Rick, thanks!

The End Is Near!

2005-11-16T08:46:00.000-05:00

With a little more than a month left in the semester, I think it is time for a reality check. The structure of this course is meant to accommodate a graduate student's need for flexibility and self-directed learning. Heaven knows we all (self included) have weeks when there is hardly any time to get anything done. But I must say I have recently noticed a troubling decrease in participation in many of your cases, and obviously it is my job to give you a little nudge. So I thought I would remind everyone of your obligations, as specified in the syllabus.

By the end of the semester, those of you taking the course for 3 credits are supposed to have:

At least 4 individual analysis of readings (originally 5, but I let one pass). The format, if you remember, was to take one of the items from the ccte feed and discuss it in terms of the books you are reading. Later, we agreed that if you want to merely focus on the books, that would be fine too. I am looking for substance, not length.

At least 4 IE project updates. I am looking for updates that both inform us of your progress as well as reflect your own thinking in applying what you are learning in this course. I *don't* expect you to show that the issue you selected has been neatly resolved, as that would be unrealistic and I am hoping your issue will become a long-term project extending beyond the life of this course.

Collectively, you are supposed to complete the Design Patterns wiki. Obviously, a wiki is never 'complete,' but I would like to see something that we are proud to invite other people to see, and that they find useful.

Additionally, I expect you to continue to conduct distributed research (post items to the ccte feed) and comment on each other's blog posts (either directly on their blog or in your own blog).

I will also ask you to do a final evaluation of the course, just so you know.

The good news is that you have about 4 weeks to make sure all the work is done ;-) I think you are all doing very interesting work, so let's proceed full speed ahead for this last stretch!

Any questions, let me know.

Molly - Getting communities off the ground

2005-11-16T08:05:00.000-05:00

In her latest IE update, Molly informs us about the MySpace community she has helped to set up for her Youth Venture Media project.

A while ago, I started a TC community in Orkut. It's still around, and once in a while someone new joins. But apart from listing members, I didn't see much more utility for the community. In my opinion, it lacks 'activities,' things for members to do that would give them a reason to go back to the community (I tried to start discussion threads on course reviews, etc, but with no success). I guess I am telling you all of this because I feel that relationship management systems (like MySpace, Orkut, Friendster etc.) are not very useful unless a) you have critical mass of users, and b) there is something for members to do besides looking at each others profiles. So my question is: how should Molly address these two challenges (which apply to all of us trying to facilitate online communities)?

Feel free to comment over at Molly's blog, or in your own blog.

Where's Ulises?

2005-11-09T14:32:00.000-05:00

Hi folks,

Sorry I have been out of the picture the last few days, but I am in the middle of moving to a new place, and I don't even have internet access yet! I didn't post guidelines for the assignments this week, but I figured between your IE and Design Patterns projects, plus research -- that should keep you busy ;-)

Thank you for your patience.

Michael and object-centered sociality

2005-11-04T11:28:00.000-05:00

Michael has been thinking about the 'fractal' nature of networks.

You may want to check out this post, in which the author argues for an object-centered view of networks. In other words, an object like a URL or a photo is what brings people together. This is a characteristic of networks (as opposed to communities) that I have been recently thinking about: in networks, people can form 'impersonal' connections through objects, not through direct communication with each other (although sometimes it is possible to do both, as Michael suggests in his analysis of Flickr). My question is: Is an object-centered relationship less meaningful than an interpersonal relationship, or just valuable in different ways?

Matt and the dark side

2005-11-04T11:21:00.000-05:00

Matt writes:

I fear that social capital, like classical capital**, can lead to greater disparity between the "haves" and "have nots". The digital divide provides an easy example of how this might play out. Wealthier citizens have greater access to electronic media and the Internet. Well implemented social software affords these prosperous citizens even larger networks of trust and connections. Poorer citizens, on the other hand, miss out on these opportunities. The digital divide thereby becomes a force for greater social capital and, therefore, economic disparity. Acting in this capacity, social capital becomes an important gatekeeper to maintaining the status quo; the opposite of its touted potential as a force for greater equality.

In many ways you have called the techno-enthusiast's bluff, Matt: the benefits of technology mean little (or in fact, contribute to the divide between the have's and have-not's) if more prevalent forms of oppression (poverty, discrimination, etc.) are not addressed. Like you, I am interested in some of the same issues regarding the uneven distribution of social capital as facilitated by the new social software technologies. Currently, my thinking is that there is a way to use the same technologies that create inequalities to reduce those disparities. The solution involves not universal access to technology (which, realistically, ain't going to happen anytime soon), but the conceptualization of models of social agency and participation that extend the benefits of the new social technologies to spheres of society that do not have access to them, for the reasons you have outlined. In the end, it all boils down to the same old question: how can we use technology to build a better world? Before, the answer used to revolve around the innovativeness of technology itself. Now, it seems to revolve around the social capital that technologies like social software can facilitate. By focusing the objective of the Issue Entrepreneurship project not on the technology but on the social cause, I hope that we as a class make some progress towards figuring out how to do this.

Outcomes of Nov. 1 session

2005-11-02T11:01:00.000-05:00

I present the following as a way to summarize what we did during our class session on November 1, and for the benefit of those who could not attend.

We agreed to pursue the Design Patterns of Social Computing (DPSC) project as our final group project for this course (I'm trying to avoid the use of the label 'social software' in the title of the project so as not to tie it to a label that may become obsolete in the future. Feel free to suggest other names for it).

We believe that this project will be of benefit to us (the primary audience) as well as to the larger community of researchers interested in Social Software issues. We recognized the potential for this project to continue to grow in the future (beyond the semester, and beyond the group of people in the class), and to become part of a larger community portal of folks interested in Social Software/Web 2.0 issues.

We will be using the wiki that Jonah has made available for the DPSC project. The 'Course Wiki' (the Seedwiki we have been using as a workspace to brainstorm ideas, and where the blog directory is also located) will remain active for reference purposes, but it will probably not be used much for the remainder of the semester.

We identified a number of problems that social software is addressing, and we started to formulate one or more design patterns for each. I will summarize the problems below (in no particular order) and, where appropriate, I will list the names of the folks in the class who were assigned to begin a Design Pattern page in the wiki for that particular problem.

Ubiquitous presence / Globalization / Ability to work across space and time
Filtering of information / Archiving / Aggregation of efforts (Jonah and Nabeel)
Wisdom of crowds / Archiving (Molly and Matt)
Collaboration / Mentoring / Tutoring / Apprenticeship
Dissemination / Reaching larger audiences / Distribution / Self-publishing / Decentralization (Robert and Steve)
Opportunities for social discovery / Relationship management / Keeping in touch with existing communities
Trust building
Personalization / Customization
Democratization of production, distribution or decision making / Decentralized knowledge (Marion and Dan -- I think?)
Long tail / Lowering critical mass threshold
Anonymity / Identity / Motivation
Interest-based community building / Connectivity (Anthony and Mariana)
Catalyst for participation

This list is by no means inclusive, but it's a start.The problems listed above that do not have names assigned to them are up for grabs. They also need to be incorporated into the DPSC wiki. Please note that while the people identified above are assuming responsibility for the first draft of the Design Pattern page for a particular problem, consequent edits are the domain of the whole group. It's a collaborative project.

As far as the template for each design pattern, we agreed on the following (borrowed from DiGiano et al (2002), Collaboration Design Patterns: Conceptual Tools for Planning for The Wireless Classroom):

Name: The name and a short summary of the pattern
Problem: The problem the pattern addresses, including a discussion of its associated forces
Example: A real-world example demonstrating the existence of the problem and the need for the pattern
Context: The situations in which the pattern may apply
Solution: A resolution of the problem stated in terms that could be applied in many situations
Implementation: The fundamental solution principle underlying the pattern
Technological Assumptions: What infrastructure must be in place for the implementation to be practical
Variants: A brief description of variants or specializations of a pattern
Consequences: The benefits the pattern provides, and any potential liabilities
See Also: References to patterns that solve similar problems.

We did not discuss any particular structure for the DSPC wiki, but agreed to let the structure emerge as we work.

Per Jonah, remember that you will need to login to the DPSS Wiki in order to make any changes to it (contact him for login information if you don't remember what it is). Also, remember to create a profile page.

p.s. At the end of class I made a comment regarding the allocation of your efforts for the remainder of this course. Between your IE project and the DPSC project you will have plenty to keep you busy. However, I do want you to continue posting your Individual Assignments, even if they become shorter and more informal, as I think it is important for you to keep reading. If it makes it easier, you should focus your Individual Assignments on the class readings (the books), and not necessarily try to link them to the online articles being submitted to the ccte tag.

I'm looking forward to seeing what shape the DPSC project takes. Keep up the good work.

Assignments for Week 7

2005-10-20T13:50:00.000-04:00

I am posting this a bit early because I will be away next week, and probably not able to post and comment as much as I usually do.

Here are the guidelines for Week 7:

As always, you are supposed to continue conducting distributed research. Post an update about your IE project, as well.

Also, if you haven't stopped by the 'Brainstorming' section of our class wiki lately (or ever), please do so and contribute to the discussions on what our collective wiki project is supposed to look like. This will be particularly important because next week we will get together for a face-to-face classroom session (Tuesday November 1, GDH 177 at 1PM).

The agenda for that session is to discuss the various proposals on the table, finalize a plan of action, assign roles and responsibilities, and agree on a timeline. There seems to be support for Jonah's proposal to merge efforts with the Social Software in the Academy group (please refer to his email, which he has also copied on the course wiki), so we will talk about the best way to go about it. If there is time left, we can also talk about IE projects!

BTW, is there someone who is good at taking notes during meetings, and who would like to volunteer for that task? I will then post the notes on the Class Blog for future reference.

See you Nov. 1, if all goes well!

Issue Entrepreneurship: proposal feedback (part 3)

2005-10-20T13:45:00.000-04:00

Again, we have very interesting proposals in this batch. My comments follow:

Dan:

I think ubiquitous Wi-Fi is going to become an increasingly important issue, so I'm looking forward to seeing what you do. Providing answers to the questions you've outlined will be useful to people planning to bring Wi-Fi to their communities. But how exactly will you use social software to make a contribution to the cause? In other words, putting together a knowledgebase is more of a research project. The interesting question, from the perspective of the assignment, is how to use social software to transform that information into something people can use to promote the cause. Also, how do you intend to use social software to link local and global groups interested in this issue? I'm sure your ideas about this will evolve as you continue to research the organizations involved in this field, and get a better sense of what opportunities there are to get involved.

(FYI, there is a doctoral student in our program, Lara, who is writing her dissertation on municipal Wi-Fi. It would be great if she could share some of her research with you. Sarah might know how to get in touch with her.)

Heidi:

You've put together a very detailed proposal, combining both the what (the issue) and the how (how you are going to use social software to make a contribution to this issue). While the connections with the local are clear (all of this work is happening within communities at SHU), I think it is important to keep in mind the global dimension of your project. In other words, how will you use social software to build bridges with other groups in other institutions around the country or world that are interested in similar issues? Surely, they can benefit from your work, and you from theirs! Part of the appeal of social software is that it can put us in touch with others in the same field, so that we don't feel like we are reinventing the wheel or working in isolation. I think you can do some things to integrate the efforts of your initiative into a larger (global) Community of Practice. I look forward to hearing about your experiences.

Jonah:

Disclaimer: Jonah, who is taking this course for 1 credit, talked to me about turning our final Wiki project into his IE initiative. Thus, as you can see from his recent email, he is approaching this project as an attempt to facilitate a social software-enhanced community (consisting at this stage of us and some folks from the Annengberg workshop). That's good news for us!

Jonah, I think that as you continue to explore the best technological solutions to our community requirements, you should keep in mind the social aspects as well: We have here two groups of people who share a similar interest, but who have had no conversations about the methodology or the end goals. You should also keep in mind the requirements of the external audience that (we hope) will benefit from our efforts, and possibly contribute to them as well.

I think you should go ahead and set things up, and we will have a discussion on November 1st about the actual shape that we want this project to take.

Good luck to y'all!

Assignments for Week 6

2005-10-16T14:56:00.000-04:00

This week's guidelines: You are supposed to continue conducting distributed research (sharing bookmarks through the ccte tag). Additionally, you are supposed to post your Individual Analysis #3 (where you take an article from the ones shares and discuss it from the perspective of the books we are reading). However, I have a proposal to make: Why don't we skip this Analysis (if you have started it, you can simply save it for publication as Analysis #4), and instead concentrate your efforts this week on providing feedback to blog posts or IE proposals by your classmates. I think that will give everyone a chance to hear from their peers.

Have a good week!

Social software stuff

2005-10-14T12:53:00.000-04:00

I thought I would share with you some of the things I've written previously on social software, in case you are interested (in other words, this is shameless self promotion).

On wikis:

Social literacies: Some observations about writing and wikis: Talks about what it means for a text to be co-authored by many people.

The Unfixedness of Knowledge: Discourse, Genre, and Mode in Wikipedia: Discusses some of the textual aspects of Wikipedia, including the 'tone' that articles reflect, etc.

On social bookmarking:

A del.icio.us study: A 'mini-ethnography' of my first attempt to get people to use the ccte del.icio.us tag. Includes a nice 'literature review' on folksonomies and distributed classification.

Tag Literacy: Divided into two: the first part is a theoretical discussion of social agency in systems like del.icio.us, and the second contains some guidelines for creating useful tags.

Other stuff:

Facilitating the social annotation and commentary of web pages: Summary of some previous work I'd done on a model to facilitate online discourse, and a review of some tools that facilitate the annotation of web pages.

Telepistemology, Combat Robots, and Human Pacman: This probably doesn't have much to do with social software, but the first part is a very quick summary of some of the issues I try to address in my own work. There's some stuff at the end on smart mobs and using technology to enhance social contexts.

Issue Entrepreneurship: proposal feedback (part 2)

2005-10-13T11:06:00.000-04:00

We have a new batch of great IE proposals!

Before presenting my comments, I'd like to share something. In a recent comment to Dan, I was just pondering the need in these projects to balance the work of promoting a cause with the work of contributing to it. Although Agre's point is obviously that the two can be the same (promoting = contributing), I think it is important to sometimes differentiate between them when it comes to the application of social software. While one level of the IE projects could involve figuring out ways to use social software to 'spread the word' about a cause, a more complex level could be to figure out how social software can be used to actually DO something to contribute to the cause (whether it is you personally doing something, or figuring out how to use social software to allow others to do something). I just thought this was an important dimension to try to keep in mind, although how it relates to each different project will vary, I'm sure.

Below are my comments to the recent proposals:

Matt:

I think both of your ideas have potential. Personally, I find idea #2 closer to what I had envisioned as the goal of this project (since it involves a social cause and the use of social software to advocate for the cause). However, you should do what you feel more passionate about.

As far as idea #1, I think that a lot could be learned from similar projects in other cities. Did you ever see the Nokia ad where kids in Finland where using their phones to get information about arriving buses in a manner similar to what you describe? (in the ad, it turns out that those pesky kids were not trying to avoid standing out in the cold unnecessarily, but merely wanted to better coordinate their snow ball attacks.) The ad presented this as an actual application, and I am sure similar things have been done elsewhere. BTW, I was in DC recently, and the Metro stations there have panels that display how long before the next train arrives - it's amazing how little it would take for the MTA to address this problem. I do share your concerns about getting people to start doing this. The adoption curve might take longer than the semester!

Michael:

As an outsider to US culture in many ways, I appreciate the importance of the cause you have chosen. Because of present power structures, what the world thinks of America is definitely not as dangerous as what America thinks of the world.

Apart from the possibilities you have already suggested (which I think are good ones), you could also:

look at how current social software tools can increase cosmopolitanism or a sense of global citizenship, and try to figure out how to promote such uses of social software;
look at current initiatives to internationalize the curriculum or even popular culture, and figure out how social software could contribute to raising awareness about these initiatives;
look at how social software can be used, in activist fashion, to challenge negative stereotypes about other people in the world in the media or public sphere
join or start some sort of effort to develop new social software systems to promote cross-cultural dialogue.

The possibilities are endless! I think your next step is to do a bit of research on what is currently being done, and then find an opportunity where the application of social software can take it to the next level.

Nabeel:

The topic of mobile computing and education is a hot one, although in my opinion we haven't even begun to scratch the surface. I think your project could contribute to our better understanding of the applications of mobile computing in education and its potential, but I think you still have to do some thinking about the exact way you will go about doing this. I think in particular you need to think about how to turn your interest in mobile computing in education into an issue entrepreneurship project. In other words: what is your issue, and how do you propose to become an advocate of that issue through social software?

For example, are you approaching this from a digital divide perspective, and advocating that more schools need to be wired and more students given access to the tools? Are you looking to join a community of people interested in studying this issue, with the goal of promoting better practices in the use of mobile computing in learning? These are just suggestions. You need to come up with something that interests you. Ask yourself these questions: How can mobile computing make a difference in education? How can I help spread the word about the benefits of mobile computing in education using social software? And how can I use social software to contribute to the realization of these benefits?

On a separate note, one thing that confuses me whenever people talk about mobile computing in education is that they seem to center the discussion around the application of these technologies in the classroom. If we are to consider the true potential of mobile computing in education, I think we need to discuss its role beyond the classroom; that is, what it can do to facilitate the collaborative work of groups beyond the confines of the classroom walls.

Stephen:

I think your project has a lot of potential and promises to make an important contribution. I think you need to continue to think about how to best structure this community to guarantee its success. A lot of research has been done on what it takes for people to make an online community thrive (apparently, it's not just enough to supply the technology!), so I suggest you start by doing some research and learning from the experiences of others who have gone down a similar road before.

I like the idea of starting a blog. However, it was not clear from your proposal if you intend to start an individual or a group blog. As you probably saw from my comments to Robert, there are significant differences between the two. I think a good place to start would be to blog as an individual, and (like I suggested to Marion) link to other blogs of people with similar interest. By engaging these people in a dialogue through your blog (and comments), you will become part of a community. Later, if you find a group of people that works well together and bring complementary skills to the table, you can create a new blog and collectively write about the issue you are all interested in.

Also, how about using a wiki, not a blog, to archive resources and materials? Blogs are not really ideal to organize resources, because things are archived chronologically and not thematically. I think it would be more effective to start a wiki or use some other form of content management system to organize the resources that you and your community find.

Lastly, I think you should keep in mind that perhaps your greatest challenge will be to get people whose level of comfort with technology is already low, to adopt new technologies such as blogs, etc. It might be that blogging provides an easy entry point for this people, as it has for millions of other bloggers who are not necessarily technology experts. But even blogging can be intimidating to people who do not have access to and familiarity with these resources. That's why I suggest you start by finding other people who are already blogging about this issues. Sometimes, starting a community is merely a matter of bringing together disjoined parts.

Good luck to all of you, and I look forward to hearing about your progress!

Course Participation

2005-10-10T14:39:00.000-04:00

Based on your feedback about the course, I've put together the following FAQs addressing some of your concerns about participation.

How often should I participate in the course (read bookmarks, post to my blog, etc.)?
As Nabeel suggests, different people have different requirements and schedules. One of the benefits of online learning is that it allows each learner to set their own pace (within certain parameters, of course). If you want to check your RSS feeds daily, you can do that. If you want to do it a couple of times a week, that's fine too. There is no single model of participation. The only thing that is really disruptive to the class (and detrimental to you) is non-participation!

Should I be reading every bookmark submitted to the ccte feed?
Not only do I not read every bookmark, but sometimes I do not read the whole article before bookmarking it! The point is to make the information available and let users decide what to read and when.

This class is generating a lot of links (as it should), and reading every one one of them would consume most of your time. But what you are doing is also contributing to a database that will be available after you complete this course! Tags in del.icio.us are important because they will allow you to retrieve all this information later: Even if you are not reading every article tagged with the word 'identity' right now, you know you will be able to find those articles later by looking up that tag.

Should I think carefully before bookmarking an item?
Not really. Reviewing an item in the feed and deciding whether to ignore it or access it can literally take only seconds (specially if the summary or extended description is helpful--hint hint). Therefore, you are not wasting a lot of people's time by submitting something you are not sure any of your classmates might find useful (as long as the item has something to do with computers, communication, technology and/or education).

Should I be reading every blog post contributed by my classmates?
Yes. Blog posts are not bookmarks, and I expect you to read those carefully. We function as a research community, and your peers depend on you to evaluate their research, just as you depend on them.

Should I spend a lot of time carefully crafting my blog posts?
That's kind of tricky to answer. Some people are better writers than others. Blogging is supposed to be informal, but because we are a research community, your posts should still be well written and organized. Hence all the advice I've given you before about writing 'the perfect blog post.'

Whereas the mainstream opinion is that bloggers are self-centered, good bloggers actually write for their audience, not just for themselves. One thing is for sure: blogging will make you a better (and faster) writer.

How much feedback should I provide to blog posts?
In commenting, strive for quality, not quantity. Part of this means being selective about which posts you feel you have something meaningful to say.

Blogs are not discussion boards, where each post should generate a lengthy threaded exchange. It's OK to leave a comment after a post to provide some focused feedback. But a more appropriate strategy is to reply using your own blog! You can compose a post by 're-mixing' (to use a buzz word) what some of your classmates have said and then making your own point. Blogs are more monological than discussion boards (c.f. this), but they can still facilitate dialogue!

I posted something yesterday and no one has commented on it. Is there something wrong?
This class is comprised of multiple asynchronous conversations. Most online classes propose a topic for the week, everyone discusses that topic, and then the class moves on to the next topic. This class is different in that there are various conversations happening simultaneously. What does that do to our concept of a conversation? The asynchronous nature of online collaboration is another aspect of social software that needs to be researched...

Week 5 Assignments

2005-10-08T13:52:00.000-04:00

Here are some guidelines for what you should be doing this week.

Distributed Research
Please continue bookmarking and sharing. However, there is no Individual Analysis due this week.

SSA Wiki: Collective Synthesis of previous week's blog posts
I was perhaps too optimistic in thinking that we would be already working on this. That's OK, we can take some time to plan it right. I encourage you to visit the Brainstorming section on the class wiki and contribute some ideas about what shape and form this wiki should take. There are some interesting ideas there already. I'm hoping we can agree on one idea soon. I'm planning on using our meeting on November 1 to talk about the design, assign roles, etc.

Blog Post: Issue Entrepreneurship update
If you haven't shared your ideas and submitted a proposal, now would be a good time to do it ;-)

Additionally, I should remark that I haven't seen much activity in some of the blogs lately. You know who you are! ;-) It is my job to make you feel guilty and encourage you to keep up.

Issue Entrepreneurship: proposal feedback

2005-10-08T13:51:00.000-04:00

As promised, what follows is a review of the IE proposals submitted so far. My goal is to help you move to the next stage in conceptualizing your project by giving you some feedback, and at times challenging your assumptions. I hope this is also useful for the rest of you who have not submitted proposals yet.

Anthony: I find your issue selection, knowledge accessibility, a very pertinent one. Your proposed approach, the building of a Distributed Community Bookshelf, might be a bit more on the software development side than what I had envisioned for the assignment, but if you can pull it off, then go for it!

I agree that the strongest aspect of a DCB is not managing the allocation of resources, but the allocation of knowledge. For example, I am currently struggling with Gilles Deleuze's Difference and Repetition. What I would like a DCB to do is not just to tell me who has the booked checked out from the library, but who is a resource (i.e., has some understanding) about that book. If I could go talk to that (those) student(s) or professor(s) about the book, it would help me tremendously. Now, because I am in Ithaca and not near the TC library, if I can find some people in my area that would be even better. I thought you have been posting a couple of links to systems that already do similar things, so maybe you already have some ideas.

I have two main concerns about your project. First, will you have enough time to build such a system during the semester? And second: how do you intend to show that you have used social software to 'make a difference' at a global level? Keep working on this. I think the DCB can be a great resource.

Mariana: I think focusing on something of importance to the CU student community would be a good strategy, as long as you can find something that is also of concern to the global community at large (which shouldn't be a problem, I think). The question is: What issue, exactly? You need to choose something and then start thinking about how to use social software to promote that issue. Maybe a good place to start is to look at organizations on campus and see what internet or social software resources they are already using.

Marion: You've done a great job of selecting an issue, researching it, and identifying the potential for using social software to promote that issue locally and globally (disclaimer: Marion met with me to discuss her ideas). As far as where to start, I would suggest you already have! By blogging about the issue, you have claimed a little piece of cyberspace to promote it. Search engines will list your blog when people do searches on Extell, gentrification, etc. You could now start linking on your blog to other resources and other blogs. Soon, they will start to do the same and link to yours, specially if you continue to post research, opinion, and other valuable resources. This means that you are using social software socially (!), and becoming part of a local and global community [Note: Marion and I discussed whether she should start a new blog for this project. My own advice was to use her class blog, which will now reflect her multiple interests and give visitors a more complete picture of who she is.] As far as using other social software to help West Siders for Responsible Development or other organizations, I will let your classmates suggest some ideas. Good start!

Robert:
I think the goals of your project are very well defined, and I'm glad that Agre has been such a helpful tool in conceptualizing the rationale for your project.

I think maybe part of the reason why student participation has been low is because they do not feel connected to other people interested in the same issue. If they knew people were reading their blog, would they feel more motivated to blog? Of course, to get people to read your blog means that you have to read theirs! Students need to find blogs of people interested in similar issues, and start posting comments, linking to them, etc.

Another reason for low participation could be that your blog is 'too communal.' Although collective blogs are useful, individual blogs can be more powerful vehicles of expression. Think how different this class would be if we were all contributing to just one blog. As I told Heidi in a comment recently: "Blogs allow for a more constant formation of identity and the creation of a more personal space: their look and feel reflects the personality of the author, and all the author's content is collected in one place (as opposed to being dispersed across a discussion board), which gives a sense of ownership and responsibility." I think people can contribute to group blogs once they get a sense of what it is like to blog as an individual. And of course, sometimes it just helps to require that students contribute to their blogs, but don't tell anyone I said that. Seriously, participation needs to be integrated into the curriculum.

So while your rationale is clear, I think you still need to think about the specifics of how you are going to use social software to promote proactive citizenship though the use of visual media (which, if I understand correctly, is your issue, correct?). I can see your plans for the local level (i.e., use of the class blog), but what about the global level? I think answering that question will actually give you ideas for increasing participation. Has looking at the other projects been useful?

UPDATE: Just shared a link to Participate.net that is right up your alley!

On Comments

2005-10-08T13:50:00.000-04:00

You get what you pay for. One disadvantage of working with free blogging services like Blogger is that there is no way to subscribe to the comments (only authors can be notified by email when there is a new comment, a feature which I urge you to activate if you haven't already).

Having to check each blog to see if there have been any new comments sort of defeats the purpose of RSS aggregators, but unless I force everyone to use a service that allows people to subscribe to an RSS feed for comments (such as Anthony and Michael's blogs), we are stuck.

But there are a couple of things we CAN do. One option is to provide a link at the end of your post to a Quicktopic, a service that lets users subscribe to comment feeds. That's the way Boing Boing used to do it in the old days. Another (better) option is simply to bring back the discussion to your blog, which we are all subscribed to (that's why bloggers spend alot of time blogging about what other bloggers have said, instead of just leaving their thought in the comments section).

For example, my next post will be a review of some of your IE project proposals. Instead of leaving my comments on individual blogs, I thought that this is something all of you would benefit from seeing, so I am blogging it (you could choose to blog a collective review of various proposals, as well).

Sometimes it's appropriate to leave a comment for the author of a post, knowing that they will be notified by email. But when you want to make sure that the rest of the class reads your comment, consider 'kicking it up a notch' and posting it on your own blog!

(It's still a good idea to check the comments on people's blogs once in a while. There are some hidden gems there!)

Agre on Issue Entrepreneurship

2005-10-05T07:33:00.000-04:00

In case you haven't seen this buried in the comments, Michael found an interesting piece by Agre discussing Issue Entrepreneurship (thanks, Michael!). The whole piece, which focuses on the life and work of Czech activist Vaclav Havel, is interesting. But the following paragraph might be particularly helpful to you:

The pattern in Havel's life is what I call issue entrepreneurship: pick an issue, gather a network of people with an interest in it, and organize activities among them. In the case of the Thirty-Sixers, the issue concerned the distinctive experience of a generation and its literary expression; in the case of Charter 77 it was human rights; and in the case of the Civic Forum it was the creation of new political structures to fill the vacuum left by the collapse of communism. Successful people, in my experience, engage in a great deal of issue entrepreneurship, repeatedly evolving their issues and expanding their networks as they go along. A well-chosen issue will identify what sociologists call a structural hole: a bunch of people, preferably already well-connected in other ways, who ought to know one another but don't. By identifying such an issue, the issue entrepreneur spots an opportunity to become centrally located in newly emerging social networks -- a position that can generally be converted to some kind of advantage, even if the details of that advantage are not necessarily clear at the outset. There is nothing wrong with this. It is a powerful way of understanding the world, and I wish that everyone knew how to do it. Yet this central skill of social life is a mystery to almost everyone, with the result that society is filled with misguided theories, e.g., that power is completely seamless and static, or that success is simply a matter of hard work or else entirely arbitrary. Issue entrepreneurship is rarely taught, and until recently it has scarcely been codified. So the real puzzle is how anyone ever learns it at all.

The way I see it, this class is an attempt to 'teach' issue entrepreneurship through the use of social software. Except that, because there is no pre-defined pedagogy for doing this, we are going to try to figure it out together... Some interesting ideas are starting to emerge, and I look forward to our discussion around them.

Feedback about the course (so far)

2005-10-02T13:41:00.000-04:00

This is a quick reality check. How are you feeling about the course so far? Are you having any problems? Are there things you like or don't like about how the course is unfolding? Is the workload too heavy, too light, or just right? Do you feel you are learning something? Is there anything I could be doing to make this a better course?

Please leave your comments below (feel free to do so anonymously, if you prefer).

Week 4 Assignments

2005-10-02T13:38:00.000-04:00

It might seem like I've been asking you to do too many things during these first three weeks, but at this point we've started on all the projects you'll be working on during the semester. From this point forward, it's just a matter of managing your progress for each one. Easy! ;-)

This week, I expect you to continue doing distributed research. Hopefully, you will be posting your second Individual Analysis assignment (which will include, as we agreed, references to the readings).

I've seen some good comments on people's blogs. Let's keep that going.

Some of you have started to contribute great ideas for the Social Software wiki. I'm looking forward to seeing more of those, or at least some comments about the current ideas (I added a Comments section for each idea).

I haven't seen any posts on the Issue Entrepreneurship projects, but I am assuming you are all thinking about it! It's a difficult project to conceptualize, I know. Don't feel like you have to present a very polished proposal. Your ideas about this assignment will probably continue to evolve in the next couple of weeks.

Issue Entrepreneurship project

2005-09-29T20:12:00.000-04:00

Some of you have expressed the need for more clarity around this assignment. Marion suggested that I provide some examples, which I think is a good (although challenging) idea. You should keep in mind that the point here is not merely to duplicate the example, but to respond to it by framing the assignment in your own terms.

Let's look at Ethan Zuckerman. Granted, using Ethan as an example is perhaps setting the bar a bit too high, but I want to focus on the kind of involvement he represents, not so much the depth of the involvement.

Ethan Zuckerman has a blog, where he states that he is interested in "Africa, international development and hacking the media." As you can see, in his posts he presents research, analysis, reviews, and even a bit of his personal life.

But Ethan is much more than just a blogger. For starters, he is a research fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society (where your classmate Molly works). He also co-founded Global Voices (Steven shared a bookmark about this organization recently). Global Voices, as the name indicates, is an international community of bloggers. Ethan's profile is here.

Ethan also founded Geekcorps, an organization that "promotes economic growth in the developing world by sending highly skilled technology volunteers to teach communities how use innovative and affordable information and communication technologies to solve development problems." Now, I don't expect you to start your own NGO during the course of this seminar (unless you really want to!), but the point is that Ethan has found ways to balance his online and offline activisms. In fact, I bet he makes no distinction between the two (maybe I'll ask him)!

As an example of environments that facilitate this kind of involvement, I encourage you to look at Nabuur.com, "where committed people worldwide assist local communities in developing countries shape a brighter future." This is not simply an online discussion board where people from the First World give advice to people from the Third World. As you can see in this example, there are things that people do in their own communities (such as finding donors or preparing proposals) that have a direct impact on distant communities (for a more generic approach, you may want to check out Meetup.com as an example of social software intended to bridge the gap between online collaboration and offline action).

Now, I realize that Ethan's example revolves around a very specific set of issues (mostly revolving around development). I encourage you to get involved in something you feel passionate about, even though the issues might be completely different. In the end, I want to see evidence that you have used social software to attempt to coordinate action and form solidarities at a local and global level. This evidence should be documented in your blog, and accompanied by self-reflection (which gets at the personal level of the assignment).

If this is still too vague, it's probably because there are no precise examples I can point you to that reflect exactly what I am looking for. You are pioneers! But if you still have questions, let's meet to discuss your ideas. I have office hours Tuesdays from 1PM to 3PM, by appointment only.

On reading and writing for this course

2005-09-29T11:19:00.000-04:00

I just posted a couple of helpful how-to's to our del.icio.us feed that need a little bit of contextualizing.

This is a graduate course, and it's not the goal of the course to teach you how to read and write at a graduate level. Having said that, all of us (self included) can always use a couple of pointers.

First, I bookmarked a Guide to Reading Social Science: How to Work Through Long Reading Assignments (which I found a while ago in one of the courses offered though MIT's OpenCourseWare; if you've never heard of OCW, I suggest you check it out). This guide contains some good tips on how to approach reading assignments. I want to be very clear that I am not suggesting that you only skim through the readings for this course. Instead, I think these guidelines can help you approach ALL the readings in this course before deciding which ones you want to read more carefully.

The other resource I bookmarked is How to Write an Abstract. Some of this information might seem irrelevant, but I think it many ways writing for a blog is like writing an abstract: one needs to motivate readers and provide information that will let them decide whether the content is relevant to them or not. As someone once told me: Always assume an unmotivated learner/user/reader!

I hope both of these resources are helpful. You may also want to check out Alex Halavais' guidelines to a perfect blog entry.

Keep up the good work!

Week 3 Assignments

2005-09-26T12:38:00.000-04:00

As we begin the third week of classes, you should be quite comfortable in your role as a member of our social software research community. I see that (almost) all of you are bookmarking, blogging, and (I assume) tracking all the RSS feeds with your aggregator. I realize that one benefit of being part of this kind of community is the asynchronous nature of the collaboration. But I must urge some of you (you know who you are) to try to keep up with the assignments. Falling behind by too much can disrupt the experience for everyone.

Someone from the University of Utah recently said: “I don’t read anymore; I just talk to people who have.” Sounds a bit like what we are doing in this class, doesn't it (except that we are ALL reading, of course!)? Do you find it useful, for example, to read Mariana's analysis of the Becker paper? Did it help you decide whether you wanted to go and read the whole thing?

On the other hand, as Robert says "Increasingly I am beginning to feel as if my knowledge base is one mile wide and one inch deep." How much of a problem will this be? How can one correct for this?

Overall, I am really impressed with the quality of the individual work and confident that we are beginning to see the fruits of our collective efforts. As more people begin to blog their assignments, I expect to see a more vigorous effort to comment on each other's posts. Meaningful and thoughtful comments are crucial to maintaining a dialogue. [Unfortunately, most blogs do not have a mechanism for subscribing to the comments. Is there a Blogger plugin to do this? If anyone can find out, that would be great.]

This week, you should continue to conduct 'distributed research,' bookmarking and tagging stuff. You should have the required texts by now, and you should be reading (for your Individual Analysis assignment next week I expect to see the texts being referenced). Remember, the point is to use the books to inform your analysis or critique of the stuff you find on the Web.

There are two additional things that I want us to begin working on this week:

1) Issue Entrepreneurship Assignment: I would like people to start thinking about the social cause they would like to choose for this project. Blog your ideas and ask for feedback from the class. For more information about issue entrepreneurship, please refer to the chapter by Agre in the Community in the Digital Age book. You can find an online version of this chapter here.

2) Brainstorming about the format of the Social Software Affordances Wiki: I have added a page on the course wiki, called SSA Wiki Brainstorming, to conduct a little group activity. In the next couple of weeks, I want everyone in the class to contribute ideas or metaphors about the shape/format that our final project, the Social Software Affordances Wiki, should take. I have gone ahead and contributed the first (lame) suggestion, just to give you an idea of what I am looking for. You can contribute as many ideas as you want. We will pick one later.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

Easy way to subscribe to all course-related feeds

2005-09-22T12:34:00.000-04:00

UPDATE: Looks like everyone has a blog now! Thus, I have updated the OPML file, and replaced the old one. You can find it in the Page Files section of the Directory page, in the class wiki. I've also added a blogroll to the course blog with links to all your blogs.

* * *

Almost everybody in the class has created a blog, so I've gone ahead and created an OPML file. This file can be used to subscribe to all the RSS feeds at once, as opposed to one by one. For example, if you decide to try a different RSS Aggregator and don't want to subscribe to each feed manually, you can import this OPML file (provided your aggregator lets you import files of this format) and all the feeds contained in the file will automagically appear!

You can right-click to download the file here, or go the Directory page in our class wiki and click on Page Files, located on the left-side menu.

I will update the OPML file when Jonah and Nabeel create their blogs.

Excellent introductory resource: 7 Things You Should Know About...

2005-09-20T16:41:00.000-04:00

I posted it to the ccte feed, but I wanted to make sure you are aware of this resource. Basically, it is a very concise guide to some of the technologies we are using, including blogs, wikis, and social bookmarking (what I call distributed research). They come in the form of neat PDF files. Take a look!

Week 2 Assignments

2005-09-19T07:19:00.000-04:00

There is a classroom meeting this week ONLY for new students or for those who require some help using any of the programs. I will see you Tuesday, September 20 at 1:00PM. The room number is GDH 177.

This week, I expect you to have all your social software tools up and running (see assignments for Week 1).

You should be bookmarking things on del.icio.us and following the CCTE feed with your RSS aggregator. Pick one of the links bookmarked (doesn't have to be an item from last week--there are many previous bookmarks that you can find at http://del.icio.us/tag/ccte), and write your Individual Analysis #1 assignment, which you will post on your blog (see Length of Assignments in the Syllabus for more information). Since I expect that many of you don't have your books already, it's OK for this week not to reference the readings.

We were also supposed to start thinking about the structure for the Social Software Wiki that we will collaboratively produce as a final project. Let's wait on that. I will propose and activity next week to get us started.

Please leave a comment here if you have any questions, or feel free to email me.

Good luck!

Week 1 Assignments

2005-09-12T07:24:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the first week of class!

There is a classroom meeting this week, so I will see you Tuesday, September 13 at 1:00PM. The room number is GDH 177.

Additionally, there's a lot of setting up to do (you may want to consult the Tools section in our class wiki for suggestions on selecting the software that is right for you--and feel free to add suggestions of your own!):

First, you should start your personal blog this week (if you don't have one already, or if you prefer to keep a separate blog for this class). Design and features are completely up to you, but make sure you choose a blog that can publish an RSS feed. Please post the link to your blog and to your RSS feed in the Directory section of our class wiki.

You should also get an RSS aggregator. Consider whether you will be accessing your RSS aggregator from your personal computer most of the time (in which case you can get an aggregator that you can install on your computer), or from a lab computer (in which case you may want to choose an aggregator you can access online).

As people start posting their RSS feed links, you should start subscribing to them in your aggregator. Try subscribing to other feeds as well (for some good ones, see here and here). You will find that this is a very convenient way of getting your daily dose of news and information.

Remember also to subscribe to the del.icio.us ccte RSS feed (right-click and copy this link and enter it in your aggregator).

You should also open a del.icio.us account. Follow the instructions on the del.icio.us site and post a couple of items. If you want to share them with the rest of the class (and the world), use the ccte tag.

Lastly, there is a small assignment to post to your blog this week: your (Techno-) Biography. The purpose of this assignment is two-fold. First, it is a way to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about who you are. Second, it is a way for you to reflect on the role that computers have played in your life: When were you first introduced to computers? How would you describe your relationship to them? What have you been able to accomplish with computers that you think would have been impossible otherwise? These questions are just to get you thinking. You can write your techno-biography in any way you want.

By next week, we should all to be communicating online through the sharing of links marked with the ccte tag and through our blogs/RSS feeds. If you have any questions or problems, reply with a comment to this post, or email me.

Remember also to order your books and start browsing through them!

Course Syllabus

2005-08-26T11:09:00.000-04:00

MSTU 5510 (Topical Seminar): Social Software Affordances
CRN 33956

Tuesdays 01:00 pm-02:40 pm, Room GDH 177
(This class will only meet in the classroom three times during the semester:
9/13, 11/1 and 12/20. The rest of the time the class will happen online.)

Credits: 3
Enrollment Capacity: 8-16 students

Instructor: Ulises A. Mejias

Course Description

'Social software' has become a convenient label to group a new generation of socio-technical systems (mostly web based) that facilitate human expression, communication, and collaboration. Examples of social software include content management systems such as blogs, knowledge and collaboration management systems such as wikis, relationship management systems such as Friendster and Orkut, distributed classification systems such as del.icio.us and furl, and the use of RSS feeds to distribute information to specific audiences.

Social software represents the promise of truly networked human communities extending across the online and offline dimensions of reality. But beyond the hype, a critical approach to social software is necessary in order to explore its impact and possibilities. During this course, we will (individually and collectively) address some of the following questions:

What is 'social' about social software?

How is the notion of community being redefined by social software?

What aspects of our humanity stand to gain or suffer as a result of our use of and reliance on social software?

How is social agency shared between humans and code in social software?

What are the social repercussions of unequal access to social software?

What are the pedagogical implications of social software for education?

Can social software be an effective tool for individual and social change?

What general principles can we identify for designing social software? How would we apply those principles in the design of a particular social software application?

What general principles can we identify for evaluating social software?
How would we use those principles to measure the effectiveness of a particular social software application?

This course will allow us to approach these questions not only from a theoretical perspective, but also by gaining hands-on experience using some of the tools being discussed. I don't expect that we will be able to answer all of these questions definitively (you will be free to choose in which order and to what extent you wish to tackle the above questions, or define new ones). Therefore, I will measure our success in this course in terms of the depth (not just breadth) of our analysis and our ability to frame provocative questions to guide future research.

Audience

Everyone involved in this course is expected to form part of a dynamic research community. This course is intended for graduate students who are comfortable taking charge of their learning process and who do not require large amounts of supervision or external motivation. At the same time, this course will require a high degree of (online) collaboration and engagement with your peers, so this is not a self-study course either.

This course is appropriate for students in the CCTE masters or doctoral programs, or other students interested in new communication and information technologies and the critical study of their impact on society, as well as students who wish to become proficient in the use of some social software applications.

Course Objectives

The class will develop competency in the use of blogs, wikis, distributed classification systems, and RSS feeds.
The class will perform a state-of-the-art review of social software tools, applications, and theory, focusing on a critical assessment of the affordances of social software.
Class members will conduct an individual exercise on the potential of social software to effect change at a personal and social level.

Required Books and Materials

The literature on social software is being written as we speak. Instead of providing links to current resources, it is the goal of the course to engage learners in the research, critique and organization of these materials. The following books, however, will provide a theoretical foundation for our analysis of social software (they are thus referred to as Foundational Texts). THESE BOOKS WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE THROUGH THE TC BOOKSTORE. PLEASE BUY THEM DIRECTLY THROUGH YOUR PREFERRED [ONLINE] BOOKSTORE.

Barabâasi, A.-L. (2003). Linked: How everything is connected to everything else and what it means. Plume Publisher. NOTE: This is the paperback reissue edition. The edition I listed originally is no longer in print.

Dourish, P. (2001). Where the action is: the foundations of embodied interaction. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press

Feenberg, A. & Barney, D. (Eds.). (2004). Community in the digital age: Philosophy and practice. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Feenberg, A. (1999). Questioning technology. New York: Routledge [AVAILABLE AS AN ONLINE RESOURCE THROUGH COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY EBRARY]

Any additional reading materials will be provided digitally.

Note on reading assignments: There is no reading schedule, which means you are responsible for familiarizing yourself with the topics that each book covers, and then approaching the books in a systematic way in order to support the research that you will be doing. I expect that in each individual analysis assignment you will refer to and cite some of these readings. Failure to do so will impact your grade.

For example: Suppose that one week you are focusing on the question of how social software is redefining the concept of community (different people might be focusing on different questions, which is why there is no prescribed reading order). You would probably select some chapters from Community in the Digital Age and use them to support your analysis of the research. Next week you might be tackling a different question and use a different book, or continue with the same question and book(s). I am not looking for signs that you have read every page of every book, but rather that you are familiar with all of the books in general, and have identified the specific books or parts of a book that are relevant to your research.

Other materials required for the course: You will need a blog and an RSS Aggregator. Some free options exist, or you may decide to purchase a subscription to them instead (more information on these options during the first week of class). Access to wikis will be provided by me, and all you will need to do is register as a user (you will create an anonymous username to access the SSA Wiki, such as 'sktrdude88').

Course Environments

We will not be using ClassWeb except for administrative purposes (class roster, etc.). Most of the communication between members of the class will occur in the following online environments:

Distributed Research Database (and RSS feed): This database, maintained in del.icio.us, is where all the online research will be collected and shared. As you surf the web in search of information about Social Software, you will bookmark items using the tag ccte. Even if you decide an item is of little interest to you, you should bookmark it if you think it might be of interest to someone else in the class. The aggregated collection of items will be available to the whole class by subscribing to the RSS feed generated by del.icio.us (more on the technicalities of this later). You will select specific items from this database for your individual analysis, which you will post on your individual blogs.

Individual Blogs: All students will be required to maintain a blog. The blog will be used to post specific assignments as well as any additional content you wish to share in order to demonstrate an engagement with the issues discussed in the course. At the end of the course, your blog will be a portfolio documenting your progress and growth during the class. There will be a total of five (5) Individual Analysis assignments that you will post to your blog throughout the course. This means taking any item submitted to the Distributed Research database, and writing a 500-1000 word post about it (you must cite the Foundational Texts). Afterwards, everyone will read each other's blog and then synthesize, edit or expand certain posts to build the Social Software Affordances Wiki. Additionally, there will be an Issue Entrepreneurship assignment (described later) that will also be posted to your blog throughout the semester. And, because your blog is a reflection of your personality and creativity, you can use it to post anything else as long as the content is not offensive to other members of the class.

Social Software Affordances Wiki: The class as a whole will undertake the design and construction of a wiki where resources on social software tools, applications, and theory will be collected and reviewed. The main goal of the SSA wiki, however, will not be merely to collect links, but to provide a critical engagement with the questions outlined at the beginning of this syllabus. The wiki will synthesize the best content from the blogs, edited collectively and, in contrast to the blogs, anonymously (one of the aspects of the course is to explore issues of anonymity vs. stable identity in social software). In other words, while the individual blogs will reflect individual opinions and research, the SSA wiki will reflect the collective research and analysis of the class.

Class Blog and Class Wiki: The Class Blog (which I will manage) will be used to post weekly information about assignments as well as announcements, reminders, etc. You will subscribe to this blog (and all other individual blogs) so you will be notified when new content is posted. You will also use this blog to post questions or comments about assignments (email will only be used for private communication, as well as instructions at the beginning of the course). The Class Wiki will be used for collecting information pertinent to the operations of the course, such as blog directories, additional reading materials, etc.

Assignments
(assignments for Week 1 due before the beginning of Week 2, and so on)

Although there are specific weekly assignments (listed below), it might help to recognize that the class in general follows this iterative structure:

DISTRIBUTED RESEARCH: bookmark the results of your online research using del.icio.us
INDIVIDUAL ANALYSIS: post analysis of the research to your blog (support your analysis with the Foundational Texts)
COLLECTIVE SYNTHESIS: select the most useful content from the blogs, copy to the wiki, and collectively edit it
Start again with a different question or issue

** Each week, you will visit the Class Blog for additional information about the assignments. ** If you have questions, ask them in the Comments section for that post instead of emailing them to me. This way, others can see the questions and my replies.

Week 1: September 13

CLASSROOM MEETING

Get a blog (post your URL and RSS feed link to the Class Wiki)
Get an RSS Aggregator
Get a del.icio.us account (post your username to the Class Wiki)

Blog post: My (Techno-) Biography

Subscribe to all blogs
Subscribe to 'ccte' feed

Week 2: September 20

Distributed Research

Blog Post: Individual Analysis #1

SSA Wiki: Suggest Structure

Week 3: September 27

Distributed Research

SSA Wiki: Collective Synthesis of previous week's blog posts

Blog Post: Issue Entrepreneurship: Select a cause (see below for a description of this assignment)

Week 4: October 4

Distributed Research

Blog Post: Individual Analysis #2

Week 5: October 11

Distributed Research

SSA Wiki: Collective Synthesis of previous week's blog posts

Blog Post: Issue Entrepreneurship update

Week 6: October 18

Distributed Research

Blog Post: Individual Analysis #3

Week 7: October 25

Distributed Research

SSA Wiki: Collective Synthesis of previous week's blog posts

Blog Post: Issue Entrepreneurship update

Week 8: November 1

CLASSROOM MEETING

Distributed Research

SSA Wiki: Mid-semester assessment of SSA Wiki

Blog Post: Mid-semester assessment of Issue Entrepreneurship project

Week 9: November 8

Distributed Research

Blog Post: Individual Analysis #4

Week 10: November 15

Distributed Research

SSA Wiki: Collective Synthesis of previous week's blog posts

Blog Post: Issue Entrepreneurship update

Week 11: November 22

Distributed Research

Blog Post: Individual Analysis #5

Week 12: November 29

Distributed Research

SSA Wiki: Collective Synthesis of previous week's blog posts

Blog Post: Issue Entrepreneurship update

Week 13: December 6

SSA Wiki: Final edits to entire SSA wiki

Week 14: December 13

SSA Wiki: Final edits to entire SSA wiki

Blog Post: Final Reflection on Issue Entrepreneurship project

Blog Post: Final thoughts and evaluation of class

Week 15: December 20

CLASSROOM MEETING

Timeliness of assignments: If you fail to complete an assignment during a particular week, just make sure you complete it the following week. Given that this course consists of multiple ongoing conversations as opposed to one finite conversation followed by the next one, I am more concerned with the quality of posts than with the exact date on which they were posted. Having said that, you are still responsible for completing ALL the assignments and for doing so in a manner that promotes dialogue and feedback. In other words, you can't expect to log on once a month, complete all assignments, and disappear for another month.

Length of assignments: It has been said that writing for a blog or a wiki forces you to be succinct and to the point, and I believe it's true. There will be a lot of information being shared back and forth, so you should take care to compose your posts carefully and always keep the time constraints of your audience (the rest of the class) in mind. My own rule of thumb is to write a draft and then see if one can say the same things in half the words. An average post should be around 500-1000 words.

Issue Entrepreneurship assignment: This assignment is intended as a personal exploration of whether social software can aid in personal and social change. You will begin, in Week 3, by identifying a social cause you are interested in (e.g., any issue having to do with the rights of someone or something that need championing). The assignment then consists of using any form(s) of social software to attempt to make a meaningful (not necessarily large) contribution to the cause at three different levels: personal, local, and global. You will then use your blog (see calendar of assignments above) to post updates on your progress. It does not matter if you succeed or fail in making a meaningful contribution, as long as you document your experience and can discuss how social software contributed to your success or failure.

Grading

10% Distributed Research (links posted to del.icio.us). You are expected to post at least 50 items during the semester. Items can be online journal articles, news articles, opinion pieces, case studies, links to social software tools, reviews of such tools, etc. You don't have to read each item thoroughly. You should only read those that are relevant to your research interests, but bookmark others that might be of interest to the rest of the class.

25% Individual Analysis (assignments posted to your Individual Blog).

25% Issue Entrepreneurship updates and Final report (assignments posted to your Individual Blog). Remember, this part of the grade does not depend on whether you succeeded or failed in making a meaningful contribution to the cause, but on how well you document and reflect on your experience.

10% Comments to classmates' posts. The metric here will be quality instead of quantity or length. Your comments to someone's blog post should provoke further reflection on the part of the blogger.

30% Editing SSA Wiki. This is a collective grade; i.e., everyone in the class will get the same percentage based on the grade I give to the wiki as a whole.

Information for Students with Disabilities

The College will make reasonable accommodations for persons with documented disabilities. Students are encouraged to contact the office of Access and Services for Individuals with Disabilities for information about registration (166 Thorndike Hall). Services are available only to students who are registered and submit appropriate documentation.

Social Software Affordances

Blog buzz about our SSA class

First -and only- course podcast

Final Evaluations

In preparation for landing...

Marion: the disjointedness of online sociality

Social software tools use survey

The End Is Near!

Molly - Getting communities off the ground

Where's Ulises?

Michael and object-centered sociality

Matt and the dark side

Outcomes of Nov. 1 session

Assignments for Week 7

Issue Entrepreneurship: proposal feedback (part 3)

Assignments for Week 6

Social software stuff

Issue Entrepreneurship: proposal feedback (part 2)

Course Participation

Week 5 Assignments

Issue Entrepreneurship: proposal feedback

On Comments

Agre on Issue Entrepreneurship

Feedback about the course (so far)

Week 4 Assignments

Issue Entrepreneurship project

On reading and writing for this course

Week 3 Assignments

Easy way to subscribe to all course-related feeds

Excellent introductory resource: 7 Things You Should Know About...

Week 2 Assignments

Week 1 Assignments

Course Syllabus

Course Description

Audience

Course Objectives

Required Books and Materials

Course Environments

Assignments(assignments for Week 1 due before the beginning of Week 2, and so on)

Grading

Information for Students with Disabilities

Assignments
(assignments for Week 1 due before the beginning of Week 2, and so on)