COMM202/Discussion

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Contents

Jan 21

  • Attendance
  • Going over syllabus
  • Hacker ethic

Jan 28

Opening:

  • Attendance
  • Get to know you activity: something interesting about your autobiographical essay

On grades:

  • Essays be returned in Wednesday lecture 2/9
  • Starting to put feedback on responses into blackboard

Freewrite

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdkmQUjY6Mw
  • There is an uprising in Egypt as we speak. Information infrastructures have been very unreliable: cellphones + broadband going down. Is cyberspace independent of the "nation state"?

Driving topics + questions

What are the two competing metaphors of 1990s internet:

  • Information superhighway (Gore, Obama)
  • Frontier (Barlow)

How do these two metaphors fit into an imagined America?

What are the borders of the internet?

  • Are the borders visible?

What do we mean by "utopian" v. "dystopian" views of technological change?

  • How is Negroponte "utopian"?

What is participatory culture?

  • What do we mean by the "democratization of media tools"?

Fandom, fan cultures emerging around media artifacts, e.g. Star Trek

  • Can you think of others? What features do they share?
  • What are some of the conflicts of fan cultures: e.g. Trekker/ Trekkie
  • What is the problem with "remix" as novelty of digital culture?

What does it mean to say that YouTube is a "hybrid media space"?

  • What are the advantages of this over a more focused zone like mtv.com or ted?

Is everyone on YouTube? Who isn't there?

What does the internet add that wasn't there before?

Feb 4

Talking about using theory

  • Writing and tone
  • Goals of the course

Sample exam questions

Freewrite

  • Scenario
    • "Brown", 1:05
    • "Dragon", 3:20
  • Das Racist
    • "Who's that? Brown"
  • Nicki Minaj
    • "Roman's Revenge"

We often talk about piracy as borrowing something from outside. Is it different when the copying and borrowing happens from within like the cases above? How do fans and artists know what is OK and what is not?

  • Making new args
  • Paying tribute
  • Making money makes it more complicated
  • Blatant, giving credit
  • Inspiration
  • Intended audience
  • credit
  • new purpose "legally speaking", "product"
  • how much time has elapsed between the uses
    • "join or die",
  • purpose
  • how it's used
  • transform it beyond familiarity
  • multiple layers
  • blatant


Piracy

  • How do we define piracy?
    • Unauthorized copying, use, re-use
  • How does piracy contrast with plagiarism, citation?
  • Why would a record label post its music to pirate bay?

"Social norms"

  • How are these different from laws?
  • Enforcement
  • How do social norms interact with new technologies?
    • e.g. social norm of sharing music expressed through new p2p filesharing technologies (napster), or online hosting websites (yousendit, youtubes)

Fair use

  • Defining fair use
  • What are some clear examples of fair use?
  • What are some murky examples?

Culture is always made in response to existing circumstances

  • "Responding", "reflecting", what are some other terms?

Examples from the SF history from Monday

  • Speculative fiction, imagining the future

Utopian visions of perfection: harmony, cleanliness, order

  • 1939 World's Fair
  • What were these images referring to?
  • Fascism? Domination?

Dystopian cyberpunk visions

  • Disorder, chaos
  • Subcultures, intimacy with tech
  • Gutter tech
  • To what were these writers referring to?

Did these students watch Star Trek? New movie?

  • How did Trek invite new fans into the conversation?
  • "Trekkies" v. "Trekkers" -- how does that relate to the piracy norms in the hip-hop example?

How rigid are the insides and outsides?

  • When and how do norms, terms, artifacts, move from in to out?
    • Technobabble?
    • Hip-hop?

And how do they interrelate?

  • Video games in the Das Racist vid
  • Video editing in the Tribe vid

Feb 11

Disclaimer re: grades


Freewriting (2 m)

  • Think of any of the figures we've discussed in class so far
  • Who would you like to see on Colbert?
  • Describe the interview strategy of Colbert

Stds said:

  • Barlow, Jenkins, Gurnsbach

Walk through the example exam questions together

Count to 5 (starting at 0), break into groups of 4

  • Introductions
  • Names

Keywords

  • put these on the board (5 min)
  • frictions
  • family life (enhanced, threatened, traditional)
  • rituals, practices
  • new
  • domestication

Break, intro the idea of claims

  • Your point, your claim? (5 min)

Theory, readings (5 + 5min)

  • domestication (Baym)
  • phonograph (Gitelman)

Examples (5 + 5min)


Reflection:

  • Stds sharings strategies for reading pdfs
  • Some stds going off topic to talk about other things (2nd section only)

Feb 14

  • Did Jenkins new organization of the lecture help?

Feb 25

Slipping time on RRs

  • Reminder: due 8pm

Freewrite

  • Share Hellzapoppin tribute: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZsjDZlQKIM
  • Think of the various media we have discussed in class so far. Is dance a medium? If so, how would you explain it to a skeptic? If not, how is it different?

Sam Carroll

  • Transgression, subversion, co-option
  • Thinking about YouTube as a platform for dance
  • Review Francesca's discussion of teaching/learning dance:
    • Difficult written notation
    • Face-to-face interpersonal relationships
    • Film
    • Music video
    • Home video
    • YouTube

Examining Beyonce - Single Ladies

Shane Mercado - Single Man dances Single Ladies

Justin Timberlake - Single Ladies parody (SNL)

Single Ladies (BIG GIRLS REMIX)

Gwen Verdon Fosse - Mexican Breakfast (SAD! Can't find one with the original soundtrack -- but this one has Single Ladies on it...)

Fosse - Walk it out (Fan remix with music by DJ Unk)


Fischer takeaways

  • Changes enabled by transition to digital music
    • Brainstorm positives, negatives
  • Recall 1st lecture about the meaning of "digital"
  • In economic exchange, what is the difference between a product and a service?
  • How do these changes affect music and participatory culture?
  • What is the economic arrangement Fischer proposed?
    • Sarah says she doesn't buy it, people will revolt
    • Richie says he wants a subscription system
    • Brett is appalled by low percentage that artists receive
    • Lexi refers to current dance crazes
    • Matt Kecki says the tax would be hard to explain
    • Lauren pays for music she "respects"

March 6 (covering for Francesca)

Introduce myself

  • Couple notes about my background
  • Pass out attendance

Free writing (2min)

  • Any one reading / idea / example that has jumped out in the course so far (positively or negatively)?

Meet the students (go around the circle)

Revisit the Single Ladies example (using links from above)

Nodding toward Produsage, Crowdsourcing

Mar 11

Note-taking strategies (first 5 min)

Free writing

  • Describe OkCupid trends
  • Think about something surprising, provocative, poignant you see in these blog posts
  • Would it have been possible to gather this data without the dating site?
  • Would these people have responded the same to survey questions if they thought it was a research project?
  • Is this deceptive?

What is "data"?

  • Wide open definition
  • When does information become data?
  • Data : research
  • Data online
  • "Traces"
  • Ethnography

What is "analysis"?

  • Making meaning out of data
  • Relationships
  • Network analysis
    • Social network analysis
  • Social networks != Social networking site
  • "Social graph"

"Two-sided platform" in economics

  • And social graph
  • And user community
  • And web 2.0

Terminology:

  • Web 2.0
  • Folksonomy
    • delicious
  • The long tail
  • Labor
  • Crowd-sourcing
    • wikipedia
  • Precarious work
  • Self-branding

Mar 24

Housekeeping

  • Old RRs, need to email me!
  • Rewrites

From rrs

No more "amazing! what will happen next!"

Can users really find "whatever they want, whenever they want"?

if you use a quote -- how does it relate to the rest of your comment?

Free write

Knowing what we know about hip-hop and the mixtape, what questions does this leave for you?

How did they get caught? Were they not underground? How much did they make? What's the sentencing for that kind of crime? Were they going to follow up on customers? Why did they need a SWAT team? Couldn't you arrest anyone illegally downloading music? How many did they actually sell?

Why did they have to take their cars and computers? Why advertise on the web? The problem wasn't music but money Why mention the guns and drugs? Why include? What kinds of CDs were they? Mixes they made or literal rips? Content? Pirating music? Selling it? Why SWAT team? How did they make the CDs? Selling them? What is the DJs take on ownership, copyright?


Exam: Monday the 9th, 2pm

Crowdsourcing

Lots of people had things to say about it:

  • Matt + Matt: Return to the gamification + crowdsourcing concepts
  • Maddy: "I think that amateur artists are being exploited by major cable stations like VH1 which are clearly profiting off free content!"

Spreadability

WHY people choose to spread something

  • Gift economy
  • Characteristics of spreadable media

Generativity

Is generativity limitless? Consider Victor's RR:

"Once the Internet is domesticated to a degree where it is tightly controlled by governments and corporate interests (a dystopian vision that seems in-line with Zittrain's article) I believe that innovation will transcend to another channel, rather than diminish within the Internet. Progress in networked computers has always been driven by dedicated pioneers, and this will continue to happen in the sense that those innovators will produce a new and improved network of interconnected computers in order to provide an open alternative to what our traditional Internet will have become. Driven by talented and engaged individuals, this new Internet will soon provide more attractive possibilities than the then stagnant and outdated Internet and attract a growing audience from the general public. --> The process starts over." -- Victor

Apr 1

Steve Man, "Shooting back".

Freewrite: Put yourself in the shoes of the people being interviewed by Mann. How would you react? How would you feel? How would you answer his questions? What would you say when he takes out his handheld camera?

Merely asking about the cams is suspect

  • It's out of ordinary


Talking about surveillance cameras that you can see

  • Ostentatious
  • Fake?
  • Signage

Who owns the cameras?

  • Who is allowed to shoot video or take pictures?
  • Have you ever got into trouble for taking pictures in a semi-public place? Airport? Store?

Then talking about surveillance cameras (spy cams) that you can't see

  • Connecting to Rutgers example

Trade off security, freedom


Stephan P Kudyba, "What is Data Mining?"


Apr 8 Wikipedia

Freewrite

  • What is the strangest thing you've ever seen on Wikipedia?

The strangest thing I've ever seen on a Wikipedia article was an article about Russian humor that tried to explain jokes that did not at all seem funny to me


Goals for today

  • Find a Wikipedia article suitable for this project
  • Learn how to compare old versions of an article
  • Learn how to read the Talk page
  • Learn how to use Categories and Projects
  • Look at WP visualizations

Assignment overview (:05)

Due on April 20

TODO

  • Identify a Wikipedia entry that has undergone substantial revision.
  • Review the process by which the entry was written and the debates which have surrounded its revision.
  • Write a five-page essay discussing what you learn about the process by which Wikipedia entries are produced and vetted.
  • How does the discussion and debate around the entry draw on the core principles of the Wikipedia community?  

You will be evaluated based on

  • the amount of research performed,
  • the quality of the analysis you offer,
  • how you build off concepts from the readings and the lectures to help frame your analysis (including, ideally, direct references to specific readings),
  • and on how well you understanding the nature of the new communications environment.

Wikipedia's 5 Pillars (:05)

Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia.

  • Notability
  • No original research
  • Inclusionist / deletionist philosophical stances

Wikipedia has a neutral point of view.

  • NPOV

Wikipedia is free content that anyone can edit and distribute.

  • Respect copyright

Wikipedians should interact in a respectful and civil manner.

  • Community

Wikipedia does not have firm rules.

  • "Be bold"

Read more:

HOWTO section (:15)

Technical specificity

  • Wiki is a kind of software
  • MediaWiki is a particular wiki software
  • Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that runs on the MediaWiki platform
  • The MediaWiki foundation is a non-profit org that supports a variety of projects including both MediaWiki and Wikipedia

Review MediaWiki features

  • Edit / View Source
  • History
  • Compare selected revisions
  • Discussion
  • Categories
  • Projects
  • Watchlist

Sample pages useful for demonstration

Brainstorm sample project ideas (:10)

  • An article that represents an on-going polarized debate that doesn't seem to be leading toward resolution
  • An article that is nominated for deletion
    • Look for Articles for Deletion category ("AfD")
  • An article that has a dense Talk page with lots of discussion
  • An article that has been significantly revised primarily by a small number of people
  • An article about something an event currently unfolding (e.g. Syria)

What else?

OPTIONAL/EXTRA/FUTURE?: Four efforts to visualize WP

Break group into 4 sets and give them a link:

Each group should read the site, look at the visualizations, and prepare a short report back for the rest of the class

  • What does this visualization represent?
  • What actions are included? Which are not?
  • What can researchers like ourselves learn from this project?

Apr 13

Reflections on papers

General

  • "site", "cite"
  • "search engine" (Google) + "enyclopedia"
  • "viral", "spreadable", "stickiness"

Goals

  • Online actions; offline consequences
  • Digital natives

Freewrite

Serenity Now raiding an in-game funeral

When do online actions have offline consequences?

  • Rachel talking about SNS being ABOUT connecting, not all sites are like this
  • Ting-Ting saying that one of the attractions to online spaces is that you can get away from offline

Race, class, online spaces

Contextualize the boyd piece

  • Quote from my student: "Facebook is for white people, MySpace is for everyone else"

Race, "ghetto", language, aesthetics

  • FB designers believed they were creating a "neutral" space -- but is anything neutral?
  • Birds of a feather, statistics, origin - are these independent of racism?
  • "Systemic" racism
  • Remember the idealistic views of the early cyberspace frontierspeople: "post-race", etc.

1pm

  • Ronniss - are taste/aesthetics distinct from race?
  • Lord - MySpace is less "classy", more "childlike"; you wouldn't show it to a potential employer
  • Karl - importing problematic "binaries" to online spaces
  • Dawson - FB + MySpace involve your offline identity but MUDs/games are more explicit fantasy
  • Byrnes - hybrid spaces (Twitter, increasingly FB)
  • Bina - people transition from MySpace to FB for many instrumental reasons.
  • Marten - early versions of sites set in motion later skewed populations
  • Ang - viruses were ANNOYING; "MySpace pic"
  • Katrina, Kecki - Privacy, piracy - do businesses have the same or similar privacy to individuals?
  • Rachel - Role of owners of social networks

2pm

  • Berkeley - man/woman? danah = female. lowercase/upper?
  • Ting-Ting - attraction to online spaces as alternate realities; not trying to recreate offline experiences
  • Fiona - pressures to move to FB, parents might observe MySpace interactions
  • Lucy - have racial codes changed regarding FB/MySpace since 2006?
  • Rebeca - MySpace more narrowly appealing to "scenesters", subcultures with music-based affiliation; "graduation from HS/graduation from MySpace"
  • Joanne - sites like Club Penguin may be highly structured, but they still involve meeting strangers (perhaps more so than FB?)
  • Sydney - are online spaces within the same legal/moral rules as offline? rape in cyberspace was almost 15 years ago -but the question remains
  • Victor - Baulerain misunderstands what people DO on sns
  • Jennifer - different self-presentation in different sites (Tumblr v Facebook v 4chan)
  • Cyrus - code switching becomes tangible as friends migrate to different sites
  • Cindy - suggests Baulerain is missing out on the positive skills (NMLs?) that accompany online activities
  • Berkeley - moves among MySpace and Facebook make certain distinctions/divisions more "visible"

More themes from BB (if there's time)

1pm

Sites are used for different purposes

  • Maddie - using similar sites for diff purposes (fb v tumblr)
  • Josh - taking responsibility is part of participatory culture
  • Rachel - spoilers differ according to genre, medium; strategic TV viewing

Meta

  • Sun Young - comparing Wikipedia/encyclopedia debate to electronic/print books debate
  • Manago - control, power
  • Richie - on administrators, bureaucracy, locking articles
  • Waitt - are the new schools missing out on fundamentals?
  • Kecki - "branded" degree, what does a degree mean?
  • Incerpi - rarely looking at physical books
  • Herrick - boredom is a threat
  • See - what counts as "reading"? only books? magazines? online?
  • Chan - is it easier to organize large groups of people online?
  • Manago - connecting across readings (Carr to reading)

2pm

  • Ting Ting - censorship?
  • Cyrus - teachers would be more willing to accept wikipedia if the mechanical/bot role were more widely known
  • Jenn Lapp on potential abuses of WP, using it to "create knowledge"

Apr 22

  • Revisions of YT due on Apr 27
  • Getting comments back on WP paper by mail only (SASE required)

Break into groups (count off by 6) and workshop exam questions

Apr 27

Freewrite

On copyright

  • "All rights reserved"
  • "Permission"

On fair use

  • "Exception"
  • Four factors:
    • the purpose and character of your use
    • the nature of the copyrighted work
    • the amount and substantiality of the portion taken, and
    • the effect of the use upon the potential market.

On "copyleft" licenses:

  • Why does it depend on copyright?

On Creative Commons:

  • BY
  • NC
  • ND
  • SA

Last thoughts?

Evaluations

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