Sorin Adam Matei
Analysis, research, maps, and essays from Sorin Adam Matei.
At their most sinister networks are seen as fishnets, entangaling, suffocating and all seeing. A network that watches you actively is usually called something else. The Matrix. Feature – Working the Camera Feature – Working the Camera: Real-Time Grid-Powered Surveillance The inside…
Citizendium, and a subsidiary initiative which I cooked for it, Eduzendium, got Wired’s eye. The article gives Citizendium a mixed review, thumbs up, thumbs down, but overall positive… On a funny note, the article was produced by Assignment Zero, an initiative I…
Confirming the suspicion of those who, like myself, believe that social behaviors are similarly codified across social universes, a Stanford study found that online nonverbal communication patterns closely reflect offline communication strategies. Study: Virtual men are standoffish too – Yahoo! News NEW…
A very good reference work on the social aspects of Information Technology. The Oxford Handbook of Information and Communication Technologies Danny Quah, Roger Silverstone, Robin Mansell and Chrisanthi Avgerou ISBN13: 9780199266234 ISBN10: 0199266239 Hardback, 752 pages Apr 2007, Not Yet Published due…
Is the World of Warcraft becoming staid? Chris Dalen at Slate thinks that the repetitive nature of the game eventually leads the game to lose its initial novelty. He notes: The real point of Warcraft is to interact with the other players—to…
Saturday, November 18, 2006 I’m going to say something controversial. I know, I know. The internet is for free speech. It is the last remnant of the American sixties counterculture. It’s about self-expression and information sharing. So why do I think it’s…
Usability is often evaluated in terms of ease of use – an important area of study highlighted by people like Krug (2006) and Jakob Nielson; however Preece (2000) provides a solid argument for the need to evaluate websites systematically from three vantage…
Last spring I posted about Mydeathspace.com, a web site that tracks the profiles of deceased myspace users. I thought it was interesting that social networking profiles were being adapted to online memorials giving friends and family a place to come online and…
Suppose you are in search for ideas for starting an online group. Here are the steps a typical design process should go through: Community Design Process (This is a wiki page. It can even be edited if you know what you are…
Content is king! You have to provide them with content that they want in order to get people to come to your site. However, you should be particularly careful in how you integrate it with the community features of your site. Content…
Ms. Dewey’s Dr. Jekyll is a pop music artist and a regular on the L show. Janina Gavankar
Very, very interesting posting about the Wikipedian power processes… [WikiEN-l] Quitting Wikipedia and wanted you to know why.
Blogs are about having a voice – whether it be a political or civic voice (Wolf, 2004; Korblum, 2003) or a personal voice. We want to be heard in the political arena, in the news arena, and in the personal area. Why…
Is the Internet, as we’ve seen it described in our readings, and perhaps also as we’ve experienced it, a liminal state itself? Namely is the Internet a component or vehicle by which the process of liminality is being accomplished. As Turner (1995)…
A thought on our discourse on television. Many people felt that TV was not an interactive medium – rather it was a passive medium that broadcasts messages. It made me think about the history of education. Traditionally, modern education has been broadcast…
If I understood Gabe correctly, he disagreed with the idea that community necessarily had to involve some level of compulsion or force that the group has over the individual; however, perhaps that is part of the cost of being in a community.…
In his postlogue/added chapter to his book, Rheingold asks whether the use of the “phrase virtual community is a perversion of the notion of community?” (2001, p.325). He then goes on to talk about Clifford Stoll as an example of someone who…
Perhaps it is my return to a small town format – or perhaps my background in non-profits and volunteers – or a history of having suffered or thrived (sometimes both) at the hands of various communities, or simply wanting to be a…