Monday, March 26, 2007
Now that I've read how they work....
I am still in awe of how quickly these social network sites have grown-- how someone simply had an idea and the whole thing took off! I would still like to "lurk" a bit first, especially now that I know nice people (like John B.) do that! I am really curious to check out the sites, but somehow I'm too shy, or nervous, to do so--the way I used to be too shy to talk to people in person! I don't understand why this is, but I am really nervous about weird people doing weird stuff with my name and/or photo, etc., if I were to put these in the wrong place on the web. When I googled my own name, however, the only two accurate matches to myself that came up were my NIU teaching intern information, and a link to an honor I received from NIU's Communication dept. (under my full name), and I guess I'd like to keep it that way. I like Cornell's guidelines for their students, especially their basic conclusion to follow a " 'Golden Rule.' Don't say anything about someone else that you would not want said about yourself." Another interesting notion, that danah boyd pointed out in his/her comparison of MySpace and Friendster, was how MySpace adapted to its users: "Basically, MySpace evolved with its users, building a trusting relationship, figuring out how to meet their needs and cultural desires, providing them with features and really trying to give them what they were looking for. Friendster did not - it fought its users hand and foot, telling them how to behave." Since I've never been on either site, the information d.b. provided throughout his/her? essay/blog has made me feel more comfortable about going to MySpace. I'm more likely to experiment with using these sites now. I guess it's just that being scared of that which you don't understand phenomenon. If only I had the time...
Get out of my blog, Mom!
Consider the following excerpt from danah boyd's manifesto:
A huge part of the success of MySpace is an age and culture thing. Part of being an American teen is figuring out who you are, how you fit into society and culture, how social relations work, etc. Part of this process involves sharing cultural objects, hanging out and trying out different self-performances to find the one that feels "right" (think Goffman "faces"). There are plenty of adults who are doing this as well, but it is central to youth culture. Youth will always do this, using whatever medium is available to them.
I find the above passage to be particularly striking. The positioning of MySpace and other social networking sites within youth culture isn't surprising, but this is absolutely terrifying. Well, at least that was the knee-jerk reaction. I say this not because I believe the 30+ crowd shouldn't be on these sites, but because I almost never see them there. Am I just oblivious? Are thirtysomethings (and beyond) actually using these things?
We talked about this a lot during our blogging week, but the prospect of potential employers, teachers/professors, parents, etc. finding embarassing information about us on the Internet is scary. And while reports of this information being held against people increase, we've seen MySpace and Facebook respond by allowing users to adjust their own privacy settings. So this sort of armchair detective work is becoming harder to do. So will the people of elder generations have to friend me first? Or can they rely on the six degrees of separation and use my oblivious cousin to make an end-run around my privacy settings?
I have a different take, because I tend to be a lurker. I think most of the non-participants are without malevolent intentions (yes, they might be older than you) who like to see the ways in which others deal with the Internet and themselves. It's much easier to watch others jump in first, after all . . .
But perhaps my Mom did see my MySpace profile before I deleted it. And maybe she wanted one of her own, but this social networking thing might have screamed "kids only" to her. Could that help explain why 40% of MySpace visitors are 35-54, but are largely unnoticed by people my age?
A huge part of the success of MySpace is an age and culture thing. Part of being an American teen is figuring out who you are, how you fit into society and culture, how social relations work, etc. Part of this process involves sharing cultural objects, hanging out and trying out different self-performances to find the one that feels "right" (think Goffman "faces"). There are plenty of adults who are doing this as well, but it is central to youth culture. Youth will always do this, using whatever medium is available to them.
I find the above passage to be particularly striking. The positioning of MySpace and other social networking sites within youth culture isn't surprising, but this is absolutely terrifying. Well, at least that was the knee-jerk reaction. I say this not because I believe the 30+ crowd shouldn't be on these sites, but because I almost never see them there. Am I just oblivious? Are thirtysomethings (and beyond) actually using these things?
We talked about this a lot during our blogging week, but the prospect of potential employers, teachers/professors, parents, etc. finding embarassing information about us on the Internet is scary. And while reports of this information being held against people increase, we've seen MySpace and Facebook respond by allowing users to adjust their own privacy settings. So this sort of armchair detective work is becoming harder to do. So will the people of elder generations have to friend me first? Or can they rely on the six degrees of separation and use my oblivious cousin to make an end-run around my privacy settings?
I have a different take, because I tend to be a lurker. I think most of the non-participants are without malevolent intentions (yes, they might be older than you) who like to see the ways in which others deal with the Internet and themselves. It's much easier to watch others jump in first, after all . . .
But perhaps my Mom did see my MySpace profile before I deleted it. And maybe she wanted one of her own, but this social networking thing might have screamed "kids only" to her. Could that help explain why 40% of MySpace visitors are 35-54, but are largely unnoticed by people my age?
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." – Wendell Phillips, (1811-1884)
So far, you can tell your personal story on MySpace, Facebook, and other social networking sites. The only controls are those of the marketplace. There’s talk of protecting people from predators and terrorists, but, for now, it’s the Wild West.
But, “copyrighted” content is another matter. Several companies have set up software to screen movies, tv shows, etc. from MySpace and other social networking sites. http://www.dailyherald.com/business/story.asp?id=294752. But, at least The Wall Street Journal’s Walter Mossberg http://www.dailyherald.com/business/story.asp?id=294757 is doing his journalistic best to tell the story and advocate steps to take to achieve a workable solution.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Outsmarted by Google
Oh, no! It rendered my code! Well, if you really want to look at it, email me and I'll send it to you.
edawson@niu.edu
edawson@niu.edu
Google search boxes and other bits
This is going to be long and disorganized—I apologize in advance. Only read on if you were interested in the Google search box for your website.
Go to http://www.google.com/coop/cse/ to sign up for a customized search box. It is going to ask for your domain name—put in what you have so far (e.g., students.niu.edu/~z12345/engl) because you can always change it later. You’ll be able to go in and choose how you want it to look and get the code for that particular look. Don’t be intimidated! It’s not that bad!
For example, this is the source code for the Google search box at www.english.org:
If you have any questions about how to make this work for you, I will do my best to help. The Google page should be pretty helpful, too, if you look around on it.
Here is a page that has some interesting & useful tips on this subject: http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_can_i_add_a_google_search_box_to_my_web_site.html. I don’t recommend just copying their code and using it, because you’ll be missing out on bunches of perks, but I agree with them that their code is very clean and neat. You can always modify yours with this in mind.
Below the Google search box at www.english.org, you’ll notice the Adobe download information. If you will be using any .pdf files, it is a good idea to go to http://www.adobe.com/svg/license.html and apply for a license to use the Adobe logo so that your users can download the latest version of Acrobat and so that you can get little .pdf graphics to mark which links will open as .pdf files instead of other web pages. It is rather inconsiderate to create a link that opens to a file like this without somehow indicating it to the user—they don’t like those types of surprises.
Good luck and have fun! And please let me know if I've glossed over something so it doesn't make sense. It's already been a very long weekend for me!
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
The IA Job Title
I had to read this article for another class (I love cross-course learning!), and I thought it was relative to the conversations we had in class right before Spring Break about the job title "Information Architect." The article is "What do We Manage? A Survey of the Management Portfolios of Large Technical Communication Groups." (Technical Communication, Vol. 51, No. 1, February 2004)
The authors report that 27% of the organizations in their survey use IA or information designer as a job title, but it is important to note that the survey included only tech comm groups with 20 or more staff. New research may show different results!
The authors report that 27% of the organizations in their survey use IA or information designer as a job title, but it is important to note that the survey included only tech comm groups with 20 or more staff. New research may show different results!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)