Sorin Adam Matei
Analysis, research, maps, and essays from Sorin Adam Matei.
A mixed bag of news, posts, ideas, comments
New media and emerging technologies continue to change not only our communication (Gunn, 2006; Jones, 2006), but also our relationships, our work, and our communities (Contractor, 2006; Walther, 2006). At the same time, our societies and organizations – i.e. the bodies within…
Larry Sanger’s talk at Purdue about the Future of Information is available. His talk summarizes his work in the area of mediated/stewarded collaboration.
Nosh Contractor gave an interview to PRI’s To the Point on the virtues (and fallings) of online communication. The interview starts 24 min 30 sec into the show. Details about the topic.
SPCM 529, NC, “Communication Networks” Professor Noshir Contractor University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign & Professor Peter Monge Annenberg School of Communication, University of Southern California Available via Access Grid and Polycom Videoconference 3 – 6 pm Tuesday, Central (4 – 7 pm…
The metaphor of organization-as-networks directs attention to the dynamic nature of the process of organization as an emergent, evolving, and dynamic. At a global level, theorists have engaged with different forms of interdependencies, whether social, political or economic, as exemplified by Castells’…
After interacting with Noshir Contractor this week and going through the readings on communication networks and new forms of organizing, if you’re interested in more on this subject, you might want to look at the (interdisciplinary) workshop he is presenting in Bloomington…
Aligning with this week’s discussion of the credibility of information on wikipedia and other online sources, I ran across this project, funded by the MacArthur Foundation, on credibility and trust in Internet settings, called the “Credibility Commons“. Interestingly enough, this research project…
If you’re interested, Steve Jones just announced a conference being held at University of Illinois-Chicago May 15-17 on open content (“Openness: Code, Science and Content”) sponsored by the First Monday group. Information at: http://numenor.lib.uic.edu/fmconference/.
The social shaping of knowledge through collaborative authoring tools I grew up in a household with a set of encyclopedias prominently displayed in the family room and frequently used as a resource– for our education, to consult during family discussions about issues,…
For many, the democratic and liberatory promise of the internet lies in the potential to allow collaboration, interaction, and exchange of information, ideas, and resources at a scale not otherwise possible (or at least, not highly probable) in a simple offline world.…
In regard to our recent Wikipedia conversations, wanted to share an interesting post on a listserv referencing Nature’s latest response to the Wikipedia v. Brittanica debate. To Britannica’s repartee there was an answer from Nature it
In the context of Larry Sanger’s meetings and talks at PURDUE this Newsweek issue points to the onging “we” revolution on the web. How did we get from the “Daily Me” to the “US” services such as delicious, flickr, etc.? This is…
An interesting and predictible spin on the location aware concept… Museums Begin Offering Cell Phone Tours – Yahoo! News Museums Begin Offering Cell Phone Tours By DAN GOODIN, Associated Press Writer Fri Mar 17, 2:56 PM ET SAN FRANCISCO – Art lovers,…
The US vs. Google lawsuit is looming. At first sight the issue at stake is the US government’s right to demand US media companies to provide data about the aggregated habits of US consumers. In the background, the issue seems to be…
Drawing on the earlier notion of electronic propinquity as postulated by Korzenny (1978), the role of several factors like communication skills, bandwidth, information complexity, mutual directionality, to name a few, all play a part in determining the amount of propinquity achieved in…
I tried for a couple of weeks Yahoo’s new email interface. It promised to do a lot of things simple web interfaces could not. Dragging and dropping files and messages, complete listing of messages, faster searches, etc. Most of the functionalities resembled…
McCain takes a stance in USA TODAY on the Google-China story: We believe that American companies must develop and agree to abide by a code of conduct governing their interactions with repressive regimes, and we applaud the suggestion by some companies that…
Dr. Moira Gunn’s interview with Dr. Clifford Nass of Stanford University discusses a decade of research Nass has done on the role of the voice in human-computer relationships. In addition to work that recognizes the differential response our brain exhibits to sounds…
Nass (in conversation with Gunn, 2006) commented that the first sound a human being recognizes is the mother’s voice when it is in the womb. Other studies have revealed tentative findings of early literacy emerging in children whose parents read to them…
Most of us commonly discuss the emergence of mainframe computers in the 60’s. It’s hard to believe that it was actually 60 years ago (Feb 1946) that the ENIAC computer was introduced, and that its development was tied to military needs of…
… as loud by any other spelling… SAN FRANCISCO (Business 2.0) – Google (Research) is getting lambasted online for its new policy of accommodating China’s Internet-censorship rules. But with its new Chinese search engine, Google.cn, Google isn’t living up to its reputation…
Here is more information on just what Google is filtering in China, by way of CNET news.com, confirming the point that political and cultural ‘streams’ are under tight control in China. See this link for a table demonstrating what is and is…
The Economist thinks that there is a silver lining in the Google-China story… The fact that Google will indeed use disclaimers and will not unroll services that will make it vulnerable to collaboration with the secret police is something that deserves attention.…
Pew’s Internet and American Life Project released a new report today, “The Strength of Internet Ties,” confirming previous research that suggests that Internet use “supplements, rather than replaces, the communication people have with others in their network.” Their release states: The Pew…
Steve’s Powerpoint presentation can now be found on the web.
I posted the talk on the web. For optimal viewing first download the file (preferrably through a campus computer). The file is very large (110MB), so be patient. Also, the quality of the slides is not very good. I asked Steve to…
The collection of readings regarding communication and new media provides looks forward (Carey, 1998; Neas, 2005; Fox, Anderson, & Rainie, 2005) as well as backwards (Cato, 1982; Marvin, 1998) in our adoption of new technologies and their effect on our lives. From…
Many themes resonate and intersect from the readings and in our discussion this week- and several find echo in the words of my son, who, eternally fascinated by the fact that it takes me a year to find my question and then…
In Steve Jones‘ presentation today on “New New Media”, he discussed emerging trends in Internet usage of students and faculty on University campuses, as well as some of the newest new media trends — including gaming, virtual reality, and immersive virtual environments…
A warm “Welcome!” to Steve Jones, who gave us a wonderful intro the the big Whys? related to Communication Technology. I am looking forward to his talk tomorrow, on the impact of New New Communication technologies. As you start posting your stuff…
Howard’s input on the Kurzweil singularity issue See below…. Sorin… we might consider adding this link about Singularity to our class; H
The potential ground-breaking lawsuit France vs. Yahoo! will soldier on in the American justice system for an undetermined period of time. After the French courts imposed a 15 million dollar fine on Yahoo! for not taking down Nazi paraphernalia from a US-based…