During the 1420s-1800s, Globalization 1.0 was about global integration through how much muscle, how much horsepower, how much wind power and steam power. Trade for livestock, silk and spices between the Old World and the have knitted the world together. Countries have begun looking outside of their borders to conquer other land and resources. At that time, the world had shrunk from a size L to M.
Era Two
By end of 1800s-2000, Globalization 2.0 had emerged with global integration in multinational companies, joint-stock companies, and the boom of Industrial Revolution. This extensively expanded the necessity for many communication demand and inventions, such as, the wired telephone, telegraph, railroad, ENIAC/the PC computer, television, radio and fiber-optic cable. Human lifestyles have transitioned to better productivity and efficiency at work and at home. (See also February 14, 1996 at University of Pennsylvania, (former) Vice President Al Gore had presented his speech regarding the technology challenges, revolution of the ENIAC, and social significance of distributed intelligence in the U.S). The world had ultimately shrunk from size M to S.
Era Three
Today, Globalization 3.0. is the time we live now. Individuals are able to interact instantaneously and compete globally. With media convergence and the world-wide-web, the capacity for human communication and seek for information have increase easy-access and speed that ever before. Thus, Friedman believes this era is becoming a flat-world platform. The world is shrinking from a size S to XS. (See also Pew Internet & American Life Project (2006)- The Future of Internet II).
Globalization with Social Metadata and Networks
As Friedman believes the economy has "leveled the playing field" or "horizontalization" on a worldwide scale between countries and organizations of once disparate capabilities. A blogger comments on this aspect.
Public Goods
Based on Kollock's article (1998), public goods have two characteristics: 1) indivisible (amount & value of content available to others; consistent replication), and 2) non-excludable (difficult to exlude others from benefiting to the good/information). For example, viewing the sunset is non-excludable, and cannot charge others to pay fee for laying on the beach for free. On the same token, "good citizens" who provide information or valuable money-making tips online (via blogs, webpages, feedback forum, or Q&A forum) are giving free service to more than just one user, but hundreds of users! Dissemination of information just quickly penentrate from user to user online. There are so many social factors to discuss regarding public goods and conformity in the cyberspace. I think reputation, reprococity, and motivation are key factors to emphasize what makes public goods successful, but sometimes possibly go sour. Let's take reputation as an example...
Having an explicit reputation system in the online community can be positive to users in transactions and social network exchanges. In Reputation Systems (2000), examples of different sites (e.g. ebay.com, bizrate.com, expertcentral.com, iexchange.com) have fostered successful forums and track record of social interactions amongst users over time. Why is reputation important in the online space? An intriguing aspect that Robert Axelrod describes reputation as the "shadow of the future," meaning that users consider the history of interactions by others have affect/constrain behavior in the present state. This implicate how much users develop trusts and positive social networking interaction makes reputation system successful. So, what will make it go sour then? I think the "game-theory" analysis suits this conflict the best, which examine limitations to users creating multiple pseudonyms in online transactions, and maximinzing credibility in "once-in-a-lifetime pseudonyms." A blogger discusses his contraversial view to this social aspect.
One of the ways to know what is happening in mass media or social networking is to look at blogs! Within the couple of years, blogging is another alternative to authoring own ideas and knowledge to others absolutely FREE. Bloggers take advantage to publish information/ contents (pictures, biographies, childhood stories, relationship gossips, etc.) and may claim as original creators (with easy-access to other's posts by copy & paste) -- is raising issues of ethics, copyrights, and privacy. As M. Cedergren states (2003), problems of blogging are apparent in "illegal exchange of media material" as a significant "trend that has a negative impact on the media industry" (p.1). The more people share information to others via blogging, the more social conflicts and differences arise.
Blog as Money-Making Media?
Although I see blogs becoming a money-making media in the future, it is fairly a community-based forum to create and share knowledge at this point. For example, look at Kaboodle.com, StyleHive.com, and Modoshi.com generating rich content and information by bloggers to rate and recommend products and services, that lead to penetration in the sales for certain industries. The printing industry is definitely in threat as the public read and write blogs (for free) much greater than in books, newspapers, or magazines. Clay mentions (2002) that blogs diminish the intrinsic value of traditional publishing, due to blog platforms having "unlimited reproduction and distribution of written words, for a low and fixed cost. No barriers to entry, no economies of scale, and no limits on supply" (p. 2). Eventually, the media industry may need more Blogging Consultants than Book Publishers. Perhaps, this is interesting to speculate in the next coming two years.
Blogs as Real News or Gossips?
Blogs are news of people's personal lives and manipulation of real news broadcast in other media (TV, newspapers, academic journals, etc.). Thus, I think blogs are more gossips than real news, since most of the information are opinions and not facts! At Blog.Topix.net, bloggers express opinions in numerous topics-- percentage break-down (November 6, 2005) of posts on health to entertainment to religion to life to much more. Blog is literally a more interactive, public diary (in many social aspects as "be-logs," meaning "log your being"). Based on Why We Blog article (2004), blogs tend to have a broadcast nature that is less intrusive and networking in very asynchronous communication form. The creator/ blogger able disseminate ideas through writing in a transparent virtual environment that appeals a desirable space to develop fame and reputation. Viewers who read the content learn about the creator and able to comment or express opinions at anytime and anywhere.
Blogger as Journalist or Something Else?
As a result, are blogger considered as journalists or authors then? That is a question many people ask today. I think bloggers are recreational journalists, who do not take content delivery to receivers (audiences) as serious and highly responsible as professional journalists working full-time-- crossing their fingers not to be sued or fired by their bosses!
Lesson 101: How to connect with someone- strong ties or weak ties?
Lesson 101 is pretty straight-forward. The nature of staying connected with someone is based on trust and positive interaction (cooperation) online and offline. An idea streamed into my mind when Author J. Preece extensively discussed about social interactions in large groups, communities, and networks online! In fact, the idea triggered the question: should users need more knowledge and practice on how to make connections and relationship development with others online more carefully than offline?
Strong Ties vs. Weak Ties
An extensive commitment and high level of trust must be prevalent in order to have level of strong ties. Preece mentions that strong ties "share many resources and depend on one another... ones who we pour out our hearts in times of distress and from who we expect to receive or give support" (Preece, 174). On the other hand, weak ties are lesser time-consuming to develop and maintain in general than strong ties. With so many fakesters concealing real identities and personas, I can see this more apparent and frequently practiced online today. Preece argues that weak ties amongst users are emotionally less dependent on one another, and can allocate several relationship developments amongst meeting new people without extensive social commitment online. To learn more online lessons in social practices, this may seem like a children's game but I see it as a way to better understand and enhance positive experience in relationship building (parallel to experiences in reality- which people constantly seek, from Dr. Phil's book, to Oprah's TV shows, to astrology readings, to self-improvement manuals). I think learning online wellness is as pertinent as offline wellness on a daily basis. By differentiating stronger or weaker ties with others, it just makes the online communities' environment manageable...with smarter relationships rather than reckless relationships. Thus, my perception of Lesson 101 is perhaps interpreting this aspect.
Privacy vs. Transparency: How much is enough to protect own safety online?
Social networks engage millions of users to possibly replace the face-to-face presence and communication to others (friends, families, boyfriend/ girlfriend, etc.) in the Internet space. Vizster is a prime example of an empowerment in online social network environment. I think social networks and technological innovations (IM, live chat, etc.) have overpowered traditional social interactions in reality. Based on Pew Internet & American Life Project, an astonishing figure of social trend of online users are young teens ages of 12-17 (55%) dominating the social networks' traffic. This implicates that life cycle of social networks is very enduring, however, high risk of identity theft and safety issues online due to greater frequent exposure in teen users' access during longer period of time than average adult users who begin ages 15-20.
I start to question whether or not users, particularly at very young ages, are knowledgeable or Internet-savvy enough to protect own safety online with tremendous consideration of privacy vs. absolute transparency in personal identities? For instance, a 12 year old girl may be chatting online with her "so-called friend" or "fakester" regarding argument with her parents for doing substance-abuse, and somehow everyone else in the girl's circle of friends know about it the next few days and spread the word or "leaked" what is considered private to become total transparent. The social trust and safety factors are diminished in this case. The idea of not able controlling users' behavior and habits to spread gossip (instead of their own) to others is very relavent to think twice before exposing online.
Deception in Usenet Environment
Although Usenet is known to foster information exchange in various topics and allow motivated users to participate in newsgroup discussions, Author Donath's strong point of view regarding high level of identity deception and misinformation apparent online to the "information-seeking reader" by writers (online senders) are undoubtedly common. In Usenet environment, readers are usually not clear what the writers' motivations are in particular, political beliefs, professional affiliations, and personal relationships which can absolutely influence how to interpreting information. Usenet is an available social hub (almost like "virtual Chinese Teahouse" for people to meet) for many individuals with great opinions, judgments, and background, but not necessarily great with facts and academic knowledge. This means what readers' see newsgroups one after another without real information values, but encouraging personal beliefs, sense of social identity and community (trying to gain reputation, common ground, self-worth, etc.) online that may not be as satisfying in reality. Since readers cannot see who the writers are, many of them have the tendency to bluff and self-proclaim themselves as "experts." Unfortunately, I think the word "expert" is absolutely misused in the Usenet space. Goffman states that many individuals spend tremendous "time and effort managing and refining the impressions we want to make... an information game- a potentially infinite cycle of concealment, discovery, false revelation, and rediscovery," (Wallace, 29).
Sending Signals: Assessment & Conventional
With the cyberspace accessible to millions of users, managing online identity can undergo a very social scientific process, in regards to how online message signals work in given environments/ spaces with users' behavior, and the functionality in the model of "Handicap Principle." In Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community, Donath discuss two aspects as part of the Handicap Principle (page 4): a) assessment signal, and b) conventional signal. By using these signals hand-in-hand, I think many identity issues and interpretations of online social networking become more efficient and manageable.
Language Cues and Culture
Online users' interactions with each another are most often based on language cues according to their own positions in the social network. One sender may have many identities by using different language cues to portray various personas online than in reality (offline). This is like a social outlet for a sender to "play dress-up" or "mask" personalities and lives that can never happen in reality. In The Psychology of the Internet, Author Wallace reveals that "linguistic softeners" increasingly prevalent online as a way to communicate less abrupt and dogmatic. In fact, the solutions to improve the "chilly Internet" (task-oriented approach with lack of warmth and socioemotional expressions online) are very personalized and almost like more human-oriented "feeling approach," such as the creation of emoticons to reveal users' expressions in the online culture.
Social Matching Systems: Driving Forces
Besides handling gender ("MORFing") and age issues, the key factors that drive social matching systems to network individuals together both physical and online spaces involve much more. In Social Matching: A Framework and Research Agenda, I agree with Authors Terveen and McDonald regarding the issues involved with social science background in users (relationships between individuals- social settings and social structure). For instance, the driving force of "familiarity" involves the more exposure people have to each other, the more influences in interpersonal attraction. Individuals who are physically proximate within an area are likely to frequently meet and interact (see the video on left). Along with having familiarity, social settings establish a great driving force to effecting people's social behavior, and set the "feeling" for interactions with others as well.
PIM Tool in E-Mail
In E-mail as Habitat, Authors Ducheneaut & Bellotti mentions that e-mail is "the killer application of the Internet." E-mail needs greater improvements and management to its user interface, in order to integrate efficiency in organizing tasks and sharing/exchanging documents or ideas. I believe the PIM (personal information management) tool is necessary to be enforced as the great solution to many e-mail issues, such as file-sharing, spam, filtering, and fraud prevalent today. As an end-user, I want to find the best method of communication technologies and applications to make my organizational activities in e-mail conveniently accessible and manageable. By far, I see Apple Company's MAC OS X Tiger application as one of the PIM tool available to increasing the user interface experience today.
Social Networking Issues: Self-Disclosure, Online Personas, and Gender
As the Internet social networking becomes increasingly accessible, user communication and relationship development can be both very different from online versus real-life, in terms of self-disclosure, personas, and gender. Unfortunately, these issues are so common with users (in order to protect safety, personal privacy and online social networking) that ethics and real identities are put away. In Computer-Mediated Communication, Author Walther portrays that users accentuate certain personas and conceal others. Without users disclosing the truth, nobody knows who one another are interacting with women/men, married/single, very old/very young, and attractive/unattractive. The fact that revealing identities are optional in social networking and behavior online many times has adverse communication effects. Author J. Preece reveals that users tend to use self-disclosure reciprocity when information is exchanged between each other. However, online social interaction between users is never 100% accurate and true. The thrill and socially to be liked between users often send cues and messages that are "virtually" acceptable, but not real. So, users may be interacting online with others who may never associate in reality!
Social Networking with Wireless Phones, E-mails, and Blogs Wireless phones, e-mails, and blogs have been the three most predominant forms of social networking I see year after year. During natural disasters and mobile circumstances, such as Thailand's tsunami, Iraq War, and New York's 911, these forms become vital to end-users' way of asynchronous or synchronous communications. Based on Madden (2003), "more people use e-mail than any other activity online... use increases with communication to key family and friends and enhances their connection with them." E-mail and blogs can even make the "average-joes" or common end-users famous by easily joining
With charateristics of being an extrovert myself, I agree with Wallace (2001) that e-mails and blogs are great asynchronous communication tools to relay ongoing ideas and discussions to friends, family, and business affiliates anytime and anywhere. In essence, I believe my personality and life stage, mentioned by Farnham et al., is more likely to be using combination of wireless phone and e-mail to engage (relationship) building and networking in order to enhance the goal of face-to-face interaction in business and social settings.
Video-Mail as Feasible Online Activity
Although big corporate giants like Google.com, MSN.com, and Yahoo! have standarized the features of e-mail to end-users, I think the need for progressive improvements and management is still crucial, particularly with problems of filteration, spam, (e-mail) fraud, and boring text-based marketing e-mails. What if end-users have another feature that allow instant click or access to managing, organizing and delivering video-mails within business and social environments in the form of progressive asynchronous communication? Based on Erickson and Kellogg (2000), I believe video-mail can be a great solution to "knowledge management to knowledge communities" with options of hassle-free, non-text-based data viewing by convergence of video, text messeging, live chat, and e-mail all-in-one form of communication system. By far, Apple Company has already launched MAC OS X Tiger application to enhance e-mail users' experience to conveniently utilize tools to replicate content and ideas to mass audiences (families, friends, boyfriend/girlfriend, business affiliates, etc.). In my term project, I will be focusing on video-mail and system management to dissiminate information and ideas relevant today.
While my parents live in Portland, Oregon, I often visit them on the weekends. I rarely have the chance to check my e-mail when travelling. As a result, I purchased an add-on internet service via my new Blackberry cell phone couple of months ago. I would instantaneously receive e-mail messages from my accounts at anytime and anywhere. Depending on the urgency of the message, I have the flexibility to communicate with the sender by accessing services, such as e-mail, text message (SMS), AIM, or direct call, from one single device. My use of these services increased after experiencing tremendous convenience and time-savings when I am on-the-go. I would best explain my social behavior on the basis of the user-gratification theory. In a way, I customized the way of using the internet and communicating online according to my travel lifestyle I have on the weekends.
During last Wednesday afternoon, I was about to leave Portland when my sister called from Seattle regarding the snow storm. Knowing my parents without access to weather news channels from their TV (only have international channels), I directly depended on my Blackberry's internet access to check the latest weather conditions and next-day forecast. In addition, I re-routed the roads where I could safely drive back home (Seattle) by using various websites online. The only drawback of using the Blackberry was trying to get accustom to the small screen for links and news information. Being in a remote location with limited informational resource available, I undoubtedly became a frequent mobile wireless technology user in the past three days than on a regular daily basis.
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Recent Comments
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shellyhivemind said:
[this is good]interesting to think what kids have to learn that about handling their identity that we never did as adults. read more
on Social Networks -
shellyhivemind said:
how do you think some of this thnking applies to latest technologies, e.g. blogs? are they "cold"? read more
on Identity and Online Matchmaking -
shellyhivemind said:
[this is good]despite the fact that email has been around along time, there's still alot of room for innovation in this space read more
on Communication Technologies -
I think past technologies (e.g. blogs, e-mails, IM, live chatrooms) are "cold," but not the latest ones. Thus, I see... read more
on Identity and Online Matchmaking