Sorin Adam Matei
Analysis, research, maps, and essays from Sorin Adam Matei.
We live in a world of things. Those who make the things define the way we live our lives. Their decisions impact not only our trivial needs, such as spending a night on Facebook checking the status of our friends. Technologies that…
Those with a focus on design now have a social networking site geared to their interests. Dribbble, a site by and for designers, came out of its private beta mode this past weekend. The service allowed members (or “players” as the site…
Yesterday, a new site launched a beta version with the aim of helping users plan informal gatherings. Go Tribal allows users to sign up, identify what days they are free and what they might like to do with friends, and then create plans…
Earlier this week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Facebook announced a new version of its web site for mobile media users that will be available in coming weeks. Unlike its Internet counterparts, Facebook and Facebook Lite, the new “Facebook Zero”…
Tired of having to stay logged into Facebook to utilize the chat function with your friends list on the site? Ever forgotten the need to be logged in to the site and signed out while you were chatting with someone? Well, Facebook…
Android phone users are now offered a free downloadable application available in the Android Market. Similar to an application already available for the iPhone, this new (and official) WordPress app for Android allows users to write and edit posts for their blog. Once downloading…
LinkedIn is a Web 2.0/social networking site that many are familiar with. The site centers around finding and organizing one’s connections and getting better connected in the professional realm. The site recently announced it will be enhancing its social networking experience. It…
Cover via Amazon Are we too connected? Is social networking online changing our behavior? The the worse? USA TODAY believes so…. The changes can be vexing, but there is precedent. The arrival of new and improved media almost always foments behavioral changes.…
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Submitted by Brian Britt on December 1, 2008 to the On-line Interaction and Facilitation Seminar, Fall 2008, Purdue University, Dr. Sorin A. Matei via the I Think Blog Abstract A good online community cannot be built from a haphazardly chosen, prepackaged template,…
Submitted by Adrienne Hall on December 1, 2008 to the On-line Interaction and Facilitation Seminar, Fall 2008, Purdue University, Dr. Sorin A. Matei via the I Think Blog (http://www.matei.org/ithink) Abstract The purpose of this paper is to discuss some of the design…
Submitted by Christina Kalinowski on November 23rd, 2008 to the On-line Interaction and Facilitation Seminar, Fall 2008, Purdue University, Dr. Sorin A. Matei via the I Think Blog Designing and maintaining a functional and fruitful online community can be a difficult endeavor. …
A perfectly random rump through the meadows of hyperspace lead me from this post on In Trade about volatility as a predictor of bias to this blog full of equations, to this note and then to this Chronicle article about mobbing in…
Submitted by Christina Kalinowski on October 22nd, 2008 to the On-line Interaction and Facilitation Seminar, Fall 2008, Purdue University, Dr. Sorin A. Matei via the I Think Blog Abstract Individualism is highly valued in American culture, and its growing importance to American…
Submitted by "Adrienne Hall" on October 22, 2008 to the On-line Interaction and Facilitation Seminar, Fall 2008, Purdue University, Dr. Sorin A. Matei via the I Think Blog. Abstract This essay attempts to begin explaining how participation in online social interactions impacts…
Submitted by Brian Britt on October 22nd, 2008 to the On-line Interaction and Facilitation Seminar, Fall 2008, Purdue University, Dr. Sorin A. Matei via the I Think Blog (http://www.matei.org/ithink) Abstract The internet has grown into one of the largest media of the…
Springwise: HarperCollins hopes crowds will spot next bestseller Founded by HarperCollins, Authonomy is a new community that invites unpublished and self-published authors to post at least 10,000 words of a fiction or non-fiction manuscript for visitors to read online. Visitors can review…
We’ve known for about half a decade, if not more, that the Internet allows deep and wide collaboration. We have tried to apply this new tool to academic research, open software development, creating business alliances, reinventing retail and, why not, sharing music…
The secret sauce found in several social media platforms is exposed by what appears to be a very well informed blogger… SEOmoz | Reddit, Stumbleupon, Del.icio.us and Hacker News Algorithms Exposed!
Zembly is he masu editor of mashups… Developing Web applications to be used within social networks and numerous other cloud-based structures is becoming more and more de rigueur for the entrepreneurial set. Both on the desktop and on the go, Web users…
A $40 dollar Wii controller turned into a movement tracker that in the “wild” costs $$$$$$ shows that the building blocks of technological progress are simple functions and devices that can be combined into utilities. It also suggests that technological creativity at…
Boy, oh, boy. The aliens are coming… Alien Robot Love: Earths First Close Encounter of the Alien Kind Will Be More Toaster Than Number Six Forget little green men, Vulcans or super-sexy Number Sixs slinking about the verse in little red cocktail…
Displays on the go! Eyeing the Future at C.E.S., Part 2 – Bits – Technology – New York Times Blog what if you didn’t have to strap on a pair of geeky goggles to watch video on your iPod, cell phone or…
A retrospective view of the future
U.S. warship with a legacy
Mercury’s Blog » A long review of prediction market software It seems that each month brings one or two new entrants to the prediction market software industry. I can’t bring myself to use the term “space.” There is now a lot of…
What is Googles cloud? Its a network made of hundreds of thousands, or by some estimates 1 million, cheap servers, each not much more powerful than the PCs we have in our homes. It stores staggering amounts of data, including numerous copies…
Google is testing a new Web service intended to become a repository of knowledge from experts on various topics, one that could turn into a competitor to Wikipedia and other sites. If it attracts a following, the service could accelerate Google’s transformation…
I have been reading Jenkins‘ Convergence Culture and I ran into this jungle of Star Wars fan movies: http://www.theforce.net. Noteworthy (according to Jenkins): Evan Mather Although I’ve known of this genre for some time I never realized how many sites and amateur…
J. Markoff, of NYT, tells the story: Theodore Holm Nelson, the sociologist and philosopher who coined the term “hypertext” and who is something of an Internet Don Quixote, has had a tremendous influence on the computing world. However, until last night it…
Visible Past, the project I talked about on this blog a couple of times has caught the eye of the Chronicle of Higher Education. Here is a little videocast they released through their Wired Campus blog.
The Exponent – Purdues Student Newspaper Most people are frustrated they are not getting enough from their cell phones and they want more, according to Sorin Matei, associate professor of communications. Enter Android, an open-source operating system for mobile phones recently unveiled…
I wonder how does this theory of reflexivity apply to Internet supported meta engines of all sorts? I must state at the outset that I am in fundamental disagreement with the prevailing wisdom. The generally accepted theory is that financial markets tend…
Submitted by Colleen E. Brown on November 26 to the On-line Interaction and Facilitation Seminar, Fall 2007, Purdue University, Dr. Sorin A. Matei via the I Think Blog (http://www.matei.org/ithink) Introduction The need for group membership, social support, and information gathering are part…
6 pointers for online shoppers IMHO!
The department of communication at Purdue has launched this presentation video which highlights some of our main strengths. Speaking of which, have you heard of the latest news from the Chronicle of Higher Education? Our department has been ranked second in terms…
Submitted on November 26, 2007, to the On-line Interaction and Facilitation Seminar, Fall 2007, Purdue University, Dr. Sorin A. Matei via the I Think Blog (http://www.matei.org/ithink) Abstract: The widespread expansion of communication technology over the past century has resulted in a marked…
Submitted by Pamela Morris on November 26, 2007 to the On-line Interaction and Facilitation Seminar, Fall 2007, Purdue University, Dr. Sorin A. Matei via the I Think Blog (http://www.matei.org/ithink). “An (online) host is like a host at a party. You don’t automatically…
It’s not a joke. Video social networking got religion! GodTube.com
Papers Written by Googlers Human-Computer Interaction 21 “Express yourself” / “Stay together”: The middle-class Indian family, Jonathan Donner, Nimmi Rangaswamy, Molly Wright Steenson, Carolyn Wei, Handbook of Mobile Communication Studies, 2008 to appear. Applying a User-Centered Metric to Identify Active Blogs, Adam…
Submitted by Robert N. Yale on October 15, 2007 to the On-line Interaction and Facilitation Seminar, Fall 2007, Purdue University, Dr. Sorin A. Matei via the I Think Blog (http://www.matei.org/ithink). Abstract This essay posits that virtual communities are successful to the degree…
Submitted by Colleen E. Brown on October 15, 2006 to the On-line Interaction and Facilitation Seminar, Fall 2007, Purdue University, Dr. Sorin A. Matei via the I Think Blog (http://www.matei.org/ithink) The growth of computer mediated communication (CMC) has sparked much debate across…
Submitted by Pamela Morris on October 14, 2007 to the On-line Interaction and Facilitation Seminar, Fall 2007, Purdue University, Dr. Sorin A. Matei via the I Think Blog (http://www.matei.org/ithink). Glimpses of Community on the Web The term “community” has been appropriated to…
While Google keeps marching on, danger looms. Google closed the week at $637.39, more than 50 times its earnings, giving it a market capitalization that nearly equals the total value of the three largest traditional media companies: Time Warner, Walt Disney and…
One of the most interesting resources for virtual reality modeling and research in archeology. Specific link to archeology About Intute: Arts and Humanities What is Intute: Arts and Humanities? Artifact and Humbul, two of the hubs of the Resource Discovery Network RDN,…
In China sharing as a social statement does not really work. A strong instrumental/exchange orientation would make Homans the happiest man alive. If he was still alive… Social media’s value proposition is different for the mainland Chinese than it is for Americans…
Right, they’ll teach this old pony a new trick… BBC NEWS | Technology | Online worlds to be AI incubators Online worlds such as Second Life will soon become training grounds for artificial intelligences. Researchers at US firm Novamente have created software…
Buzztracker – World News – 2007-09-08
Art, Technology and Death: A Love Story – Newsweek Society – MSNBC.com Truly, Madly, Deeply Theresa Duncan created acclaimed videogames. Jeremy Blake was a digital-art pioneer. They were talented, successful and in love. And then they committed suicide. How the technology that…
This is companion site to Weinberger’s “Everything is Miscellanous.” I am preparing this for a future review of the book. I start with a list of links to important concepts created through Amazon.com and Alibris. When I finish this list I will…
What does CIA call Wikipedia? Intellipedia. What does CIA call MySpace? ASpace. What does CIA call delicious? We don’t know yet, but it exists. For sure. CIA has embraced social techologies in a big way, says Financial Times ”Earlier this year, the CIA…
How can we conceptualise the relationship between technological and social change at the local level? More specifically, what conceptual tools have we got at our disposal to study the emergence of new Internet-related forms of local sociality?
I am getting ready to put together the new syllabus for Online Interaction. For now, I am toying with the idea of adding one of the books in this Amazon wish list to the reading list. Any suggestions?