Sorin Adam Matei
Analysis, research, maps, and essays from Sorin Adam Matei.
This is a tutorial on a set of core concepts related to Internet communication for the courses I teach at Purdue University. In a previous post about the basic architecture of the Internet, I discussed the Internet’s intrinsic decentralization and its layered…
A wonderful list of Twitter Sentiment Analysis Tools collated by Twittersentiment.appspot.com… Twitter Analysis Tools look at the meaning of the tweets and divides them into negative and positive communication items. Since the original list missed some sites, feel free to add yours…
A list of principles for designing on-line communities created by Dr. Sorin A. Matei and his students registered in various versions of the Online Interaction Graduate Seminar at Purdue University Online / virtual community design principles Design guidelines are not guarantees. Many are necessary for…
Ali Wylam, one of the students enrolled in my Com 435 class (Emerging Communication Technologies) found that teen sensation Justin Bieber has a gigantic stature in cyberspace. He is right up there with the big corporations. He garnered over 30 million monthly…
Image via Wikipedia Gene Weingarten wrote a tongue in cheek article for WP about Facebook’s uselessness and the way in which it can become a gigantic time suck, especially for those of us that have other, better things to do. He used…
Image via CrunchBase Sept 23, 4 PM, EST: Facebook appears to be down. I have tried to access it several times in the last hour and it is beyond reach. The current message is that not even the DNS request can be…
Academic researchers have deployed in the last decade several innovative approaches to studying social networking and via graph and complexity analysis. Here is a sampler of most intriguing papers: 1. Critical mass and willingness to pay for social networks 2.NodeXL: Network Overview,…
A very interesting paper on calculating critical mass and predicting explosion of interaction on social media sites. Image via Wikipedia Disagreement surrounds a formal definition of ‘critical mass’ and of the economic willingness to pay for membership in a social network. Our…
This piece, which is available online, has become an instant classic… Billions of people participate in online social activities. Most users participate as readers of discussion boards, searchers of blog posts, or viewers of photos. A fraction of users become contributors of…
Image via Wikipedia An interesting thought about applying Goffman to online phenomena. A student of mine, Christina Kalinowski, wrote an excellent master thesis on the same topic. Will follow up with more soon. Let me start by shining a light on an…
Despite the fact that diverse and equal participation of members is considered to be the essence of true online communities, no compelling index has been proposed to measure the degree of diversity in terms of contributions of content to online social environments.…
Ten leading platforms for creating online communities | Enterprise Web 2.0 | ZDNet.com That most of us are not fluent community facilitators is something that will almost certainly be addressed as a vital new workplace ability and one that we will have…
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 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…
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…
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…
Front Porches and Public Spaces: Planned Communities Online Susan Huelsing Sarapin Comm. 632: Online Interaction Professor: Dr. Sorin Matei November 19, 2006 Introduction Where else today but in the cost-effective frontier of cyberspace can the average person construct a community?1 With widespread…
Much of the reading for Preece this week involved evaluating communities. Surveys are a fine example of a means of evaluating. Digital questionnaires are becoming more frequent within online communities partly because of the ease associated with their completion and return. Digital…
The readings for this week mentioned the use of IP addresses as a usual component of online communities for such things as being a means to spot or discourage grifters (and to help with moderation. A trail is left by someone when…
Wegner’s Communities of Practice concept is rooted in seven design principles. All good online communities, which are variants of communities of practice, should keep them in mind: 1. Design for evolution Design elements should be catalysts for a community’s natural evolution. As…
The readings for this week are concerned with online community membership. Some focuses are why people join communities and how can contribution levels increase. I came across a 1993 blog passage from the Blog of Collective Intellegence that focuses on an interesting…
By Susan Huelsing Sarapin Submitted on October 22, 2006 to the On-Line Interaction and Facilitation Seminar, Fall 2006, Purdue University Dr. Sorin A. Matei via the I Think Blog (http://www.matei.org/ithink) Introduction Today, people all over the world are connected, or “tethered†(Turkle,…
One of the questions associated with the assigned readings was in reference to Weinberger and similarities associated with Rheingold or Seabrook. In the chapter entitled Togetherness by Weinberger differences are stated between the real world and web groups. I see thinking along…
I ran across this quote the other day by Alan Bennett. I’m not sure who he is, but I believe he is a writer and humorist. He said, “We started trying to set up a small anarchist community, but the people wouldn’t…