Sharing our Case Studies.

Case Study

 

Things we want to know:

Why this subject? / So What?

Background

-       Do

-       Description

Role of audience

Nature of “participation”

Impact of user ß à phenomenon

Convergence of Facebook

Given participation is becoming smaller and smaller pockets.

 Urban Dictionary

The fact that there are 200 new words a day what does it mean about our language.

Temporal existence in those words/phrases

Micro-celebrity – tied to culture of self branding.  A lot of these words or phrases that are produced for branding. 

Shaadi.com

More of a south asian match maker

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Costs for user

How does site make $$

User’s beliefs with law vs traditional laws – should laws reflect the people or the traditions

Barriers/ hierarchies

 

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Culture Jamming techniques being used by mainstream

What about mediated participation

Bizarre impetus of ownership  à how do you say who owns what in social media?

Owners try to blend in.

Restriction comes with ownership. 

Anonymity can work for benefit and be progressive ie protests

Transformation of communication à participation does not always have to be a good thing.

Ie Those who are moderately ignorant can be more ignorant quickly

Perhaps participation can be the downfall as well.  

Gift Economy

Giving Status by giving.

Do you do it because you get status??

Communal.

Collective behaviour as opposed to the individual

Whole the collective supports the whole.

The Gift Economy:

Off Wikipedia:

Reciprocal Altruism – oxymoronic

Don’t really work well together.  Counter intuitive.

Altruism does explain some parts, you are always giving.  But if you don’t get back it’s not an economy.

Almost like Karma, what you do will come back to you.

Have to deal with you give to people because it’s the right thing to do.

What do you get out of it.  Get thanks?

Reciprocity.  Expectation of gratitude?

Scale of return.

Some people will give the whole and some just a small part.  It’s not equal.  

Another aspect:

Creative Commons

Can put conditions on the work.  Then it’s not truly altruistic.

Is competition a natural force?

It’s instilled, that might not matter if it’s natural or not.

But for everything that you find is free, you will have to find someone that has paid in labour or in some kind of capital.  In doing so, the have put themselves a debt to provide for others.

For the most part, most don’t know who/ if they have benefited others.

Some people with the 1000’s of posts on discussion boards have a particular reason for doing so.

Perhaps for the sheer fact to amuse – if not monetize the content.

Do you have to do anything for their motivation to continue?

What about the illusion that you get something

The altruistic reason is the fictional audience.

It’s fictional and who we think we write for.

Gift economy as a potentially transformational moment.

What are some motivational factors:

• - filling a void
• - amuse etc

People mostly give for the cause to be better or because it makes them feel better.  How do you move from intrinsic motivation to external.

Purpose of most social movements – change.

At the end of the day you hope that the change occurs.

If you are actually good at what you do, you put yourself out of business, then you don’t need to do it anymore.

There are few social movements that legitimately put themselves out.

There has to be a deficiency as a motivational factor.

You’re always doing for others, because for some reason can’t do for themselves.

Obligation or deficiency.

If we are working for optimization, it is very hard because of the multitude of views.

Assumptions that within capitalist system we are actually looking to maximize.  

What ever you looking to do you’re looking to maximize, more edu, most stuff etc.

If the gift economy is based on collaboration, then not competitive.

Even open source is regulated:

• - built on computers
• - subject to language
• - cultural norms
• - bodies of knowledge

As much as there is the potential and dispensing of it, almost neuter it for other capacities.  Is it detrimental to the cause?

Do you have a right to dictate what a person can do with a gift?

Why should you be able to do that?

Gift Economy is giving conditionally.

Issues of how you determine conditions.

Just give and eventually something to come back.

No negotiation of a fair exchange.

Presumption that it’s a valueless enterprise.

About the amount of labour.

Can expect that my giving will eventually get others to do same

All engaged in economy in some way.

Transformative tool for our system of exchange.

“Doesn’t guarantee and optimize a sustainable life.”

Unless it’s the Holland pick up a bicycle if you need.

Private property predicates all our laws and how we know things.

What is yours and what is shared.

Constriction of transfer ability of things. (value)

So then find a way.

Society of rugged individualism

Why will some not take something for free.

Participation requires some sharing.  System of exchange, power, social levels of exchange.

How do we encourage people to continue, how do we widen to from limited view.

After the break think about:

• - giving and getting back
• - what did you learn about doing what you’ve been doing.
• - Sharing so colleagues can let you know

(And a great suggestion from Rob)

Homework:

Share /Present your case study

More on Waste - Hey! It's Wang Chung!

Examples of waste on the internet:

 

Cornify.com – seems like a waste of time.  Maybe not wasteful if you change it to notes.  It’s fairly sophisticated technology. 

 

Time is not only a commodity.  It’s cause we think of it as in volume.  Two ways to think of: commodity or experience.  It’s the underlying connecting feature is experience.

 

Is local emails a waste?

No: sharing without interruption. 

Yes: might be more efficient to talk.

 

There are complications to the technology.  When we assume that the technology can do everything, we don’t think about perhaps think about what’s the best technology.

 

Is there a benefit to “wasting” time.

 

What kind of waste can we think of?

Time

Energy – Physical (biometric, cognitive etc), electrical

Resource – material, Financial

Potential - opportunity

 

What’s more wasteful, using something fully for a short period of time or using something rarely over a long period of time?

-       is it more physical waste or more waste of resource

 

To a certain extent there are trade off’s are good for the power of tech.

 

Shifting focus and change of technique. 

 

Waste is relative / is universal?

When holding on to legacy things (ie qwerty keyboard) does it serve a purpose?  With the legacy issues can we let go and change?

 

We collectively made the decisions to keep things the same way.  Ie keyboard.

 

Efficiency at the design level are built in way before we decide to use it.  We dumb your body to use it.  Someone along the way someone made a decision that impacts our participation.  We just think of what we do as what we do without thinking back.

 

Some types of waste are universal.  Some waste just can’t be used.

 

Ie Gillet business model.  à printers and ink.

We perpetuate the model when we engage.  Levels of comfort.

 

You can teach yourself to do but might not enjoy. 

When we felt compelled to do something we might not actually have done something.  Ie product red.  But we feel comfortable when we have an object that says we did do something.

 

If we feel fulfilled by a passive action we won’t take on an active one.

 

Petition don’t do anything.  Passive action placate ourselves, do they equal participation. 

 

There is this idea what when we ‘engage’ in the passive activities, they might lessen the impact of the active.  There is a social badge of honour.

 

Often the structure and institutional aspects of organizing turn people off the whole active idea.  It’s not what they expected and move on.

 

In the end, it doesn’t matter whether or not it had anything to do with you or not.  So long as you believe you did something, you might continue with the active participation. 

 

How waste translates to the gift economy.  Various manifestations like creative commons, open source à economy of excess.

 

Exchange without having a direct and tangible return.  So that because you have shared things, when you need things it’ll be there.  à the spirit of sharing.

 

How do people maximum that potential to make something to do something etc.

 

Participation not just in interaction with others but also with getting further than what you could on your own.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First class back after the strike

When looking portfolio, isn’t description of what you did.  It’s not the artist accompliament. 

 

Engate in autoethnography.  Graded on what you learned. 

What sorts of things you consider for participation in modern tech.

Through the force of being forced to make things in groups.

Can work with anybody.  Not just in the class.  Can talk about that process. 

 

You write your blog to this phatom reader who is yourself. 

 

Downfall: Nothing I love to read myself.

Have own inhibitions.

Can talk about what gets in the way?  What enables?  What contributes to my engagement to the media.  Can be many different things, technically, academic etc.

 

Can be:

Why did I use a public blogger?

Why did I choose this subject?

 

Nature of knowledge acquistion.  How does it fit in the model of education?  If it’s your model for journals and books, what difference is there?  How do you categorise?

 

Portfolio:

Beginning: Overarching thing about what you learned about the course.

Can be organised however you want.

Each section must be 1 page.

Last year some 10-15 pages.  Some went to 60 pages.  Describe what you did is not enough.  What you learned is the most important.  About the broader phenomena.

Each portfolio is individual regardless if you do everything in a group.

 

Participation is more than showing up.  It’s how you:

-       learned on your own

-       take things and help others

 

 

Can do all of the projects in one weekend.  Just explain why you did / didn’t do all of the projects and what you learned.  How did you reflect on your engagement of the excerise in the notion of participatory communication.

 

Facebook Group.

Did you check the credentials for the leader of a Facebook group? 

So some guy starts a group.  Then everyone says, “I should have start a group”

 

Participation on another level

-       being active

-       just being a member

 

We go to the places that are more like us than anywhere else.

 

We can go anywhere in the world, but we don’t.  The chances are that despite the fact that we may engage with blogs from all over the world, the chances are you aren’t getting outside views.  You’ll probably doing what you’re doing.  You really aren’t sharing with anything new.

 

Expand your networks.

-       talk to different people

-       join different groups

-       do different things

-       parties / friends

 

Research is that most people don’t make it past the 1^st page in Google, even less go past 2^nd page.

 

Unless you go to a party that’s good, it’s usually your same circle.  You tend to meet people through a connection.  We follow our blind paths.  The more we think we are expanding our network, we are only expanding through number but not perspective.

 

Those networks are a replication of another connection you’ve already have.  But are all actually quite similar.

 

The ultimate in social media is to become a ‘source.’  When people come to you for information. 

 

Harder to see what the social efficacy versus the political… some social may translate political.

 

Difference between social participation about a political vs social participation around political (organizing to do something vs organizing while doing something)

 

We lost a lot of cognitive energy.  But when we aren’t purposely doing anything it’s called waste.  But some say that is when we get the most done because we can recuperate or come up with new things.

 

It may not be a waste if you still learn from it.  You may not need to take away something tangible. 

 

What is the broader outcome of participation if nothing tangible comes from it?

 

What are the outputs?  What do we get from our participation?

Micro-celebrity à most famous person in a room of 100 of people they’ll never know

 

We are willing to suspend in our belief in waste so we can keep up in our lives.

 

 

 

 

YorkU on Strike? Here's something uh, different.

A few weeks back, a friend and I were in a bit of a spot. We were talking about the future of the world and other larger than life matters. Of course, I'm just lying because that never happened. However, we did manage to create a cheap and dirty spoof on the Christmas song, The 12 Days of Christmas. I thought it would be fitting to share that song here. Especially since this was supposed to be a class blog.

Of course the Strike has hit Day 14, but that's beside the point. We made this before the strike and now it's complete. It probably would have been up on the 12th day if we finished it, but we got stuck. So I sent it around and had another friend help out with one of the verses.

This is a complete change from the 'class lecture notes' that I have been posting. But I realised that meh! Who cares! How about something different?

So here it is, and remember, this is one big joke. Not the strike, the song spoof. I'm still quite undecided about the whole strike situation as I can't seem to get enough information about it.


The 12 Days of Striking

On the first day of striking,
YorkU forced on me
a raise in tuition fees

On the second day of Striking,
YorkU forced on me,
Two student loans,
And a raise in tuition fees.

On the third day of Striking,
YorkU forced on me,
Three side jobs,
Two student loans,
And a raise in tuition fees.

On the fourth day of Striking,
YorkU forced on me,
Four extra courses,
Three side jobs,
Two student loans,
And a raise in tuition fees.

On the fifth day of Striking,
YorkU forced on me,
FIVE WASTED YEARS
Four extra courses,
Three side jobs,
Two student loans,
And a raise in tuition fees.

On the sixth day of Striking,
YorkU forced on me,
Six fees a-paying
FIVE WASTED YEARS
Four extra courses,
Three side jobs,
Two student loans,
And a raise in tuition fees.

On the seventh day of Striking,
YorkU forced on me,
Seven hit and running's
Six fees a-paying
FIVE WASTED YEARS
Four extra courses,
Three side jobs,
Two student loans,
And a raise in tuition fees.

On the eighth day of Striking,
YorkU forced on me,
Eight grades a-failing
Seven hit and running's
Six fees a-paying
FIVE WASTED YEARS
Four extra courses,
Three side jobs,
Two student loans,
And a raise in tuition fees.

On the ninth day of Striking,
YorkU forced on me,
Nine jobs a-leaving
Eight grades a-failing
Seven hit and running's
Six fees a-paying
FIVE WASTED YEARS
Four extra courses,
Three side jobs,
Two student loans,
And a raise in tuition fees.

On the tenth day of Striking,
YorkU forced on me,
Ten cars a-beeping
Nine jobs a-leaving
Eight grades a-failing
Seven hit and running's
Six fees a-paying
FIVE WASTED YEARS
Four extra courses,
Three side jobs,
Two student loans,
And a raise in tuition fees.

On the eleventh day of Striking,
YorkU forced on me,
Eleven strikers striking
Ten cars a-beeping
Nine jobs a-leaving
Eight grades a-failing
Seven hit and running's
Six fees a-paying
FIVE WASTED YEARS
Four extra courses,
Three side jobs,
Two student loans,
And a raise in tuition fees.

On the twelfth day of Striking,
YorkU forced on me,
Twelve buses bussing
Eleven strikers striking
Ten cars a-beeping
Nine jobs a-leaving
Eight grades a-failing
Seven hit and running's
Six fees a-paying
FIVE WASTED YEARS
Four extra courses,
Three side jobs,
Two student loans,
And a raise in tuition fees.

What are we doing now??

¬¬speculative industry
what about the people that buy domains to sell
when you buy you don’t get anything but a name
we think most of it’s free but it’s not. The internet is free, so people have found opportunity to make money

Wiki – online collaborative environment
Problems if anyone can make changes
Can have some good collaboration
Seed ideas – people to come to your idea. It can go into any direction

If you trying to transfer ideas from one model to the next, it might not work. Participation is always limited by something else. Are we just participating with like minded people?

Radical Nounism
One word description.
Noun to describe something we have seen grown in. Emphasis on noun-laden rhetoric. Syntax is garbled and speaks in terms of nouns. Talking in negative / positive doesn’t work. Any reference, it’s a form a name-calling. Way used in negotiations and identity. Come to understand why we focus on things when there are so few. Difficult to draw the line between radical and non-radical. It’s hypocritical to do so. Started approx 10 years ago and drawn when of formula for always being right.

Case study
Specific
Description
Defines case/ membership
Provides context, historical
Provides theoretical context to understand
And provides outlet.

www.cbc.ca/thepoint
Radical nounism, part 2
Alternative from of a case study


Strike
For more info:
YorkU website search contract negotiation CUPE

Flash Mob time!

Notion of Viral Media

Flow and relationship in production.
Which one is more important, if you are participating, producer or redistributors more important.

Power and responsibility, increasing spread of trivialization of info.

• What is the impact of us gate keeping
• How do you find what you shared
• What bout stuff you don’t want
• Think about how stuff that you delete, what sort of power is that?
• Who are gate keepers
o Whole range, from advertiser to readers to shareholders, to owners, producers, editors etc
• By pressing del, you are occupying many of those roles. You are doing what traditionally place of authority. If in another context, making important decision.
• The connection between yourself and the others who also got that message.
o Have you claimed your Nigerian lottery?? Etc
o Still have power to get rid of or forward
o Have power to send both fluff and real stuff
• When you do send, you recognize whom you can send to. Filtering
• How does information spread?
• The more power if distribute, the more the effigy of the message has
• You are participating your endorsement via sending
• Because so many more things to spread, we all need to spread
• Not much different from niche channels
• You are engaged as a distributor through viral spreading

- why would you hide distribution list
o responsibility to protect privacy
- Do you care about who saw the thing? Or do you just want to see it?
- To present yourself in certain manner, by what you send
- Some use that distribution to be middle man

- What makes it powerful is that people send it
- you give it cultural currency
- production doesn’t presuppose the distribution
- is it the content itself or the distribution that makes it popular
- Do you have reciprocal responsibilities
- Snowballs participation, forced collaboration
- Creative Commons; distribution caveats
- Rules to distribution and re-distribution
- Built around sending links and not giving material
- To where the video is hosted and everything encompassing it
- New form of participatory distribution
- Pre-existing?
- Structure engineered to encouraged to share, open as possible
- If equal, the more we click the link the higher up in search

Why not burn those videos to disk?
- everyone we want to share it with, has access
- thus distribution list is limited to those with access
- certain transience to YouTube
- transience part is distribution
- things that don’t last very long

YouTube Justice
- you can film something
- it can be really important only if someone picks it up

Citizen Journalism
- if you have something that can be visualized, and you can provide cheap/free content then we want it

Camcorder Revolution
- transformed event
- turned into inflammatory, not just video tapped but distributed
- distribution created the spectacle
- political economy surrounds distribution networks

To a certain extent we produce fictional audience when we make our distribution list

When you produce for someone else, your produce within a template. We don’t make our own stuff that often. We’re plug-in to templates. Creating audience within a set of tools. When you make for yourself, you’re limited to your own tools.

When you’re distributor, your limited to your constrained environment.

Indy Media
- gaps in mainstream
- but usually to only like minded people
- rare that those in the network distribute to anyone outside of it
- it’s because if you are talking to someone who already believes, you may be fueling their passion
- if you want to change the world, but if no one looks than that participation is lost.

Spreading the word isn’t always the best idea
- copycats

Often it’s the fact that everyone talks about it makes it important. The substance doesn’t matter or who’s talking about it.
What does it mean to be successful
- how do you know whether or not it is good
- how do you mean success
- not just as authorship but about distribution


Why is there a sense of hurt if something is rejected that you share
- personal
- question yourself
- offensive, you take time to do something
- not that you were wrong, you assume they were wrong - judgment
- more about you and not them
- Well that just blew in my face, next time I won’t send. You self edit.
- Every now and then, you email and say don’t send

- You are a producer in a regular channel but not necessarily in content
- Notion of participatory, if we are doing multiple things. Production, distribution, redistribution.
- When you get to the same point again and again, you’ve reached saturation.
- If you start to recognize the people in your distribution – 6 degrees
- Doesn’t’ have linear beginning and end

Next Class:
We’re going to make something. Think about authorship and distribution.