Sunday, June 28, 2026 Strategy, technology, media, and social systems

I Think

Sorin Adam Matei

Analysis, research, maps, and essays from Sorin Adam Matei.

Tag: social

Social cognitive theory, social learning, self-efficacy and social media

Albert Bandura, right Image by psicologiautal via Flickr This is a learning module for the class Contemporary Social / Mass Media Theory taught at Purdue University by Sorin Adam Matei Social cognitive theory main tenets Albert Bandura’s (b. 1925) career spans more than 6 decades,…

Buckingham 2.0

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Cloud computing coming to a workstation near you

Wouldn’t it be great to be able to login to any computer and be able to access all your music, pictures, documents, and passwords to all your social networking services?  Well, soon (hopefully) you’ll be able to.  This is the whole idea…

Read only the Google News you want to read

Just when you thought you that Google was everywhere, it shows up again someplace unexpected…or is it?  Now you can get your “content specific” news from Google on your personal website.  This is great for those who run news-based sites.  It’s also…

IThink 01/27/2009

eCommerce Automation Software, Stores, Shopping Cart, and Order Management Solutions by Vendio tags: ebay Digital Web Magazine – Web 2.0 for Designers tags: web2.0, webdesign, design, web, xml, webdev, social Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

IThink 01/24/2009

2009 Horizon Report » Technologies to Watch In the first adoption horizon we find mobiles and cloud computing, both of which are already well established on many campuses — and still more organizations have plans in place to make use of these…

IThink 01/17/2009

Teaching and Learning with Technology Conference 2009 tags: no_tag Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century According to a recent study from the Pew Internet & American Life project (Lenhardt & Madden, 2005), more than one-half of…

Educating with new media

Interesting take on Social Media in Education.. From Knowledgable to Knowledge-able: Learning in New Media Environments | Academic Commons My own experiments in this regard led to the creation the World Simulation, now the centerpiece of my Introduction to Cultural Anthropology course…

A social entropy vision of wiki collaboration

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.…

The building of community and self-expression in online groups

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…

Laser Monks, Real Savings. Real Monks. Supporting Real People.

The Stewart for Temporal Affairs at a Trappist Monastery in Massachusetts has found another way for salvation through hard work. Selling remanufactured toners: All I wanted was a little bit of black dust for one of our monastery printers. In my search…

ITHINK 09/27/2008

LibriVox » Links tags: no_tag Blog before you Think!: TiddlyWiki Mania tags: tiddlywiki, wiki, productivity, gtd, javascript, software, work List of TiddlyWiki adaptations – post by stumax Howard Rheingold’ Social Media Class This quarter Howard Rheingold teaches the Social Media class at…

Algorithms Exposed!

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!

Apple – QuickTime – WWDC 2008 Keynote

The Apple Iphone Jobs Video. Highlights: Microsoft Exchange and VPN support EBAY interface Loopt support – Location Aware Social Networks: We make serendipity happen Native TypePad support (blogging) Apple – QuickTime – WWDC 2008 Keynote   And a list of things Apple…

MyTrybe

Now any site can offer custom recommendations to everyone… Pluggable social networking… MyTrybe

OpenSocial – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A set of API standards straddling the world of social networks… OpenSocial – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mashups everywhere

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…

Sorin Matei’s Startups

Following a story on the Chronicle of Higher Education Wired Campus Blog I’ve run into YouNoodle.com a social networking site for entrepreneurs and educators. Lots of mashups and some interesting applications. The site still needs some improvement and the communication tools improved,…

Ma.tt » Favorite Posting Bookmarklet

Technorati Tags: wordpress,web,organization,information,bookmark,social media A little introspective review of the best ways to post stuff to your WordPress Blogs. Ma.tt » Favorite Posting Bookmarklet

Creating Online Community: Critical Issues and Practical Guidelines

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…

Online Community Development: Principles, Practices, and Issues

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…

Growing online communities

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…

GodTube.com

It’s not a joke. Video social networking got religion! GodTube.com

Welcome to I-berspace: Media Gratifications in Successful Virtual Communities

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…

Don’t Contradict Yourself: Community and its Paradoxes in Cyberspace

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…

Glimpses of Community on the Web

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…

Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites

PC MAG list of the new and/or undiscovered Web sites that have grabbed their attention this year. You’ll see a large collection of Web applications and tech sites, excellent blogs, offbeat social networks, and, as always, a handful of addictive Flash games…

CommunityWiki: WikiAffordances

This site, a little bit too baroque and eclectic to figure out at first sight, is trying to deal with the touchy issue of the social affordances of wiki sites. The issues are important, the answers pending. CommunityWiki: WikiAffordances

Why is the personal computer “personal”

Because the hippies invented it as a means of “doing their own thing” MIT OpenCourseWare | Anthropology | 21A.350J The Anthropology of Computing, Fall 2004 | Readings Pfaffenberger, Bryan. “The Social Meaning of the Personal Computer: or, Why the Personal Computer Revolution…

Handbook

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…

Front Porches and Public Spaces: Planned Communities Online

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…

A Simple Helpful Site…

Powazek (2002) stated three key issues in his book Design for Community that should be initially considered when building a community; audience, content, and community. Likewise, Wenger, McDermott, and Snyder (2002) in their book entitled Cultivating Communities of Practice spoke of a…

I Link, Therefore, I Am: Connection and Identity in Computer-Mediated Communication

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,…

Deep, Deeper, and Deepest

Lately, most of what I’ve read here has to do with the depth, or lack thereof, of relationships formed online. Notice I don’t call them friendships. They seem to be undermined (intentionally?) by the actors. I had a profile on JDate.com for…

A “Learning Landscape” with Tagging

What is Elgg? (It’s being used at MIT.) Described by its founders as a ‘learning landscape’, Elgg provides each user with their own weblog, file repository (with podcasting capabilities), an online profile and an RSS reader. Additionally, all of a user’s content…

Big, Fat Idea #1

Please bear with me as I try to communicate my thoughts. I’m quite ill today, so what I write might be slightly difficult to understand. I’ve been groping for a big, fat concept for our site, and maybe somebody can find some…

The Changing Nature of Expertise & Authority – Is it Anarchy?

Authority and expertise has changed. Weinberger’s chapter on “The Hyperlinked Organization” in The Cluetrain Manifesto (2004) and his chapter on “Knowledge” in Small Pieces Loosely Connected (2002) both talk about how authority no longer means what it used to mean. There are…

Social Shaping of Technology

Here is an Amazon.com list for those interested in social shaping of technology!

Dale Carnegie, Consumers, and Communitas

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)…

Calhoun

This is the article about the interaction between online and offline worlds that was mentioned in my paper. Calhoun, C. (1986). Computer technology, large-scale social integration, and the local community. Urban Affairs Quarterly, 22(2), 329-349.

Kraut’s at it again

Robert Kraut and colleagues of “Internet loneliness” fame have been hacking at a research agenda focusing on stable and self-maintaining communities for some time. I ran into them looking for literature on how knowing more about your electronic environments can help you…

Silicon Valley Sleuth: Gates inducted into the Stalinist hall of fame

The man really is on the list… But so is Michael Gorbatchev, Henrik Ibsen, Albert Einstein or Michael Jordan… Silicon Valley Sleuth: Gates inducted into the Stalinist hall of fame Gates inducted into the Stalinist hall of fame Microsoft chairman Bill Gates…

Spaceaware: The Visible Past Version

Spaceaware is a research project I started a couple of years ago, which looks at how people make sense of information delivery experiences similar to the “hailing billboard” scene in Minority Report. (Remember the scene in which Tom Cruise is greeted by…

Digital Maoism

A surprising wake up call coming from the digerati camp. The “emergentist” party, which claimed that the best the net has to offer will come out of undirected, “random” interactions of the many (see wikipedia…) has gone too far. Now, according to…

Differences in online relating

[posted by Lorraine] Joe Walther’s visit to Purdue University introduced us to a wide variety of theoretical approaches to relationships in online environments. The focus of his lectures was how people relate in online environments, or “how does communication behavior affect how…

Emerging technologies, spatial behavior and community belonging

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…

SIDE Theory, Small World Networks, and Smart Mob Formation: A Beginners Guide

Submitted by: Scott Sanders to the Online Interaction Seminar, COM 632Y, Spring 2006, Dr. Sorin A. Matei, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 47907. Summary: Social categorization, which is at the heart of SIDE theory, may often prove to be an incredibly powerful…

Nosh on Social Networking

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.

Networks Class AT UIUC

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…

Network forms of organizing: A MTML perspective

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’…

Layered, Emergent and Adaptive Communication Network Systems

Lorraine Kisselburgh This week, Noshir Contractor introduces a rich array of information in discussing communication networks, new grid infrastructures, and social networking tools that can be leveraged to strengthen our communities – whether social, work, virtual, or even “exotic”. What follows are…

Communication Networks

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…

The social shaping of knowledge

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,…