Dawson's World

Netlogo

2004-12-06T01:01:00.000-07:00

I thought I’d try using Flickr to upload my photos. Boy was that fast and easy. However, I didn’t want to take the time to figure out how to get both photos in the same blog entry, so please look at the next two entries.

At first, the whole concept of recreating something that happens in nature within three minutes on the computer blew my mind. How cool is that – to replicate ants foraging for food and inadvertently leading others to substance by leaving a chemical as it moves. Wow! I was particularly interested in adjusting the population size and evaporation rate. My hypothesis was that a larger colony of ants with a slower rate of chemical evaporation would be more efficient than a smaller colony with a quicker rate of evaporation. Doesn’t sound like rocket science, does it? However, an interesting thing happened. When the rate of evaporation was set at a very low level, the ants were not able to achieve optimal efficiency because they were following a chemical to a food source that was no longer there. Ah ha! A Sherlock Holmes moment.

It was interesting to simulate birds flocking as well. The most interesting setup was with a small population (34) and great vision (6.5 patches) and a good opportunity to turn (7.75 degrees). I was amazed at how quickly the birds began flocking!

Birds -- Netlogo

2004-12-06T00:00:00.000-07:00

Birds
Originally uploaded by NeonDeonne.

Ants -- Netlogo

2004-12-05T23:56:00.000-07:00

Ants
Originally uploaded by NeonDeonne.

More Gaming

2004-11-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

I definitely saw elements from the assigned readings appear in Lineage. It was amazing to see, as Kim points out, “the towns, forests, and dungeons…are more than just intricately rendered; details are meaningful.” For instance, there is Adena found on the ground. After picking up the Adena, your amount increases by the amount picked up. You can hear the wild boars grunts as they are attacking you. The spider hisses. Kim also states, “With practice, players become progressively more powerful and skillful – and it’s reflected in their outfits.” As I become more experienced with Lineage, I acquired more Adena and was able to purchase better armor.

I also found that it is better to barter than trade with Fraoun as pointed out in Dibbell’s article. Dibbell also raised the idea of rare and semi-rare pieces and I found myself nervous that perhaps I picked one up and didn’t realize the value of it. At one point I had joined forces with another fighter, Gadfly, who showed me the secret passageway to Hidden Valley. I made sure I had as many Healing Potions as possible and prepared to go into battle. Unfortunately, I died (no big surprise there) and left behind a Spell Book. Amazingly enough, I found Gadfly again, about 10 minutes later, and he offered to return my Spell Book to me that I had apparently “dropped” when I died. How nice! I let him keep it figuring it was more beneficial to him than my short two-week stint in Lineage.

I appreciated the article by Kurt Squire and Sasha Barab and found some great points to begin considering about ways gaming can improve learning. Squire and Barab look at Civilization III in an urban school for underserved students. Unfortunately, one of the big problems lies within their methodology section as the students refused to take a pre-test “making pre and post-test comparisons impossible.” Students began working with their own civilizations and then the teacher and researchers would facilitate conversations (based on historical events) as to the state of their civilization. The learning outcomes were quite different for the students and included the following:

Playing out historical hypothesis
Exploring geography (investigating the map, locating resources, identifying elements for successful civilizations)
Nurturing the civilization
Developing social relationships, i.e., playing with friends

This brings up an interesting point. If the teacher and/or researchers had not been there to facilitate application and integration of the students knowledge, would the resulting state be “pooled ignorance”? I think the game did a great job of activating students’ interest. However, the later stages of Merrill’s five components of effective instruction only took place with intervention by the teacher and researchers.

Lineage

2004-11-20T09:58:00.000-07:00

Character: Alosh
Race: Lawful alignment - no blood pledge
Class: Knight
Weapons: Leather jacket, shield, dagger (others available to exchange)
Appearance: Female, dark hear, yellow and white attire
Favorite creature: HUGE spider
Die frequently? Yes
Most embarassing death: Death by spider.

Synthesis II

2004-11-13T15:02:00.000-07:00

How does cooperation, incentives, reputations, trust, identity and accountability relate? Is it different in an online versus offline environment? Judith Donath, in Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community brings up some interesting points. In a physical environment, it is easy to base your initial opinion on someone’s appearance, mannerism, language, etc. All the physical cues contribute to your initial impression of the individual, and these assumptions are based on previous experiences with other people. In an online environment, one could say that many of these physical cues are missing, but are they?

Donath goes on to say that, “Identity cues are sparse” in the virtual world, but not non-existent. People become attuned to the nuances of email addresses and signature styles.” These brought to mind prior research I have done regarding gender differences in an online environment. Susan Herring has contributed significantly to this area of research. Some of her findings include the following:

Online interaction is an extension of the real world conversations where men dominate.
Men introduce more new topics and tend to ignore topics introduced by women.
Men perceive women as talking more than men when women talk only 30% of the time.
Males are typically adversarial, containing “put-downs, strong often contentious assertions, lengthy and/or frequent postings, self-promotion and sarcasm.
Male communication often has an underlying purposing of establishing status, power, or domination.
Females are typically supportive aned attenuable.
Regarding flaming, Herring states, “the simple fact of the matter is that it is virtually only men who flame.”
Females tend to place a great deal of emphasis on cooperation rather than competition and often use cooperation as a learning tool.
Males tend to learn in a separate, autonomous manner.
Males are direct and to the point.

So why have I spent such a great deal of time pointing out gender differences? A couple of reasons. These online behaviors may provide clues as to who you are talking to in the various online communication arenas. For instance, when I reflect back to my experience with USENET, I’m pretty sure I was interacting with other males. There wasn’t any hedging or a sense of cooperation. The interaction was direct and to the point. Understanding that “Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus” just helps put things into perspective a little bit. Gender is certainly a big part of one’s identity and often in an online environment there is a concern that people are not presenting their true identity. I had an interesting conversation with a co-worker about a month back who pretends to be a black kid from the hood at times and other times an aging housewife (and he is neither of these!) It is interesting to me that a single person can create multiple electronic identities and maintain all of them. Reminds me a bit of offline schizophrenia.

IRCs

2004-11-05T10:20:00.000-07:00

I connect to a couple of different networks using Ircle 3.1 and hung out in quite a few channels (#music-videos, #chicago, #hardrock.ro, #funchat, #mp3jukebox, #Harley-Davidson, and #TheRing). At first I was a little frustrated because I didn’t feel I was getting quick enough responses from people. I’m not sure if it was the time of day or the channels I was surfing. However, I was able to get responses this morning. My first "real" conversation made me a bit nervous, see transcript below:

*** Topic for #hardrock.ro: (BU) www.hardrock.ro
*** Topic for #hardrock.ro set by menes on Friday, November 5, 2004 5:00:58 AM
#hardrock.ro: PrimeTime @BU @hacktech @Fakedz @WoWz @PiKy @IonutS @Pavich @micro200 @`002 @micro14 @`008 @`003 @`001 @fnal @`0007 @C_O_S @Frana @AnDy @burana @TheIO @Remake @axl_io @axlio @breakthru @C-R-I-S-T-l @C-R-l-S-T-I @HocusPocus @menes @C-R-I-S-T-I
*** End of /NAMES list.
*** Channel Mode is +tnl 34
*** Channel created at Friday, November 5, 2004 4:56:50 AM
PrimeTime: hey - whats happening
BU: ?
PrimeTime: just wondered what's going on this morning in your world
BU: bored
BU: where are u from?
PrimeTime: Utah
PrimeTime: How 'bout you?
BU: romania
BU: :)
PrimeTime: Wow! That's pretty cool
BU: what sistem u have in comp?
BU: sunos?
BU: :)
PrimeTime: How's the weather there today?
BU: nice
PrimeTime: We're looking to get some snow soon - I don't know that I'm quite ready for that
BU: .dns 129.41.34.230
HocusPocus: Unable to resolve 129.41.34.230 .
BU: hehe i crack not so long ago one ip like yours
BU: but he had sistem sunos
BU: :)

So yikes! I quickly signed off. Not exactly sure what this guy was trying to do, but I didn’t want my system hacked. Then I spent some time in #chicago (I’m heading there on business next week) and thought I’d try to get some leads on places to eat and sights to see. Someone in this channel addressed me by screen name and sent me a url with restaurant information.
HUSH: here you go primetime
HUSH: http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/
PrimeTime: hey, thanks Hush!

What are the differences between people's interactactions in IRC verses LambdaMOO? I found some people to be helpful and friendly in both environments. I appreciated the use of nonverbal communication in LambdaMOO (people would smile, nod, wink, wave) and this allowed people to interact without the formality of talking with one another. This gives people the option of acknowledging their presence without putting themselves on the spot. In LambdaMOO, I never felt that my sense of security was being compromised (which is a little bit interesting because I remember hearing about a rape in cyberspace during Wiley’s 7150 class last fall – so obviously people experience this environment differently). So is one environment trustworthier than another or does it just depend upon the user and the other people one encounters? Similar to an offline environment, you can meet great people in a variety of settings. You can also meet snakes in life. You just have to be careful about who you talk to and where you are going.

As Reid points out in her article, people may use their true identity or create / adopt a new one. I definitely felt that BU was not being truthful during my IRC hacker conversation. I just didn’t have that immediate feeling of trust. However, when talking to Hush about Chicago, I felt a feeling of cooperation and trustworthiness. This question of portraying your authentic self or impersonating someone else is a very interesting question. Sounds like a great segue for next week…..

MUDs and MOOs

2004-11-01T08:41:00.000-07:00

First let me start off by letting you know I’ll try to keep this a little shorter than last week’s posting. Sometimes my fingers just get to typing and my brain goes on dump mode. I’ll try to keep it under wraps this week.

It was interesting to spend some time looking at Zork and LamdaMOO. I greatly appreciated the Zork handout; it saved me a lot of time, but more importantly, laid the groundwork that gave me confidence to explore on my own. I took the advice and began mapping my movements and locations which helped me figure out the general idea and layout of the game.

Looking at social interaction in a MOO environment verses others environments that we have studied to date, I observed some big differences. The MOO environment has an extra layer of realism to it that the others environments don’t. Part of this can be explained by the ability to create and interact with artifacts and part can be explained by sensing the presence of others. Being able to manipulate objects and see the consequences from those manipulations adds a completely new dimension to the online experience. How do new users (such as myself) know what to manipulate or how to manipulate the various objects? Doing some research beforehand prepares one to enter LamdaMOO, but certainly questions arise as one is in the environment. I found the other participants to be quite helpful and supportive. As Bruckman states, “MUDs place special emphasis on collaboration, encouraging construction within a social setting.” I certainly found this to be the case. The different level of cooperation between the online environments is huge! If I were to graph my experiences with cooperation in the different environments, it would look something like this….

<-U-------------------------------------------B------F-M-------->

where U is USENET, B is blogs, F is fan fiction, and M is MUDs/MOOs.

Sensing the presence of others also added a great dimension to this experience. Knowing that there was somebody else, right next to me in the same room, was very comforting. If I had a question, I knew all I needed to do was ask. Hopefully I would encounter someone with the same playing style and speech modality as mine. Bartle classified players into four different groups: Achievers, Explorers, Socialisers, and Killers. I am definitely in the Socialiser group. Examples of the four groups and their speech modalities were presented in Bartle’s article. For example:

Achievers say things like: “I’m busy.” Or “Sure I’ll help you, what do I get?”
Explorers say things like: “Hmmm….” “I haven’t tried that one, what’s it do?”
Socialisers say things like: “Hi!” “What happened? I missed it, I was talking.”
Killers say things like: “Coward!” “Die! Die! Die!”

Bartle also discussed the important of keeping the four groups in balance and provides suggestions and strategies to maintain equilibrium.

Reputations in Online and Offline Environments

2004-10-24T21:06:00.000-06:00

Let’s consider reputations for a moment, in both online and offline environments, and ponder the following:

Are good reputations necessary? Rewarded?
How are reputations established?
How does reciprocity fit into the cycle?
What are the benefits of having a good reputation?
Are people honest when talking about others?
Should censorship be allowed?

It’s probably pretty safe to say that no one wants a bad reputation, whether online or offline. In general, I think people want to be trusted, to have a solid reputation, to encourage cooperation and experience synergy. While reading the articles this week, I thought about my own online experiences with reputation, specifically on eBay (didn’t you love Resnick’s definition of eBay, a “vast electronic garage sale”?), and my offline experiences, specifically when selecting professors.

How are online reputations established? On eBay, both buyers and sellers are given the opportunity to rate their experience as positive, negative, or neutral, and then that reputation follows that person as long as they keep the same pseudonym. Assuming that past behavior is the best indication of future behavior, both parties can benefit or suffer negative consequences depending upon their reputation. Newcomers are typically distrusted until they “prove” themselves.

How are offline reputations determined? You can look up a professors’ scores from evaluations (for instance, USU’s stats are located here). However, often students learn about others’ experiences with professors by word of mouth. Students tend to talk to one another about who is lenient, who is fun, who is knowledgeable, etc. This is similar to an online environment, we learn from others’ experiences. But how do we get people to supply this feedback so people can utilize others’ experiences?

Eliciting Feedback

Eliciting feedback is a tricky business – whether online or offline. Why do eBay buyers take the extra time to offer their feedback? To offer gratitude or revenge? Are only the extreme experiences shared? In both online and offline environments, people have the opportunity to share their experiences. After completing a transaction, both buyers and sellers have the option of leaving information about their counterpart. I’m pretty sure that with my first eBay purchase I didn’t leave any feedback. I just didn’t realize what the whole thing was all about. However, as I’ve become more experienced as a consumer, I realize the value of leaving information about sellers in particular and appreciate the positive feedback I’ve experienced as a buyer.

Why do students fill out class evaluation forms? Do they fill them out? My brother is currently working on his MBA from the University of Utah. To facilitate student evaluations, they have put a rather clever system into practice. Students fill out their evaluations online, outside of class time, and then they can access their grades earlier than possible if they don’t complete course evaluations. This is a great example of reciprocity.

Benefits

“Conceptually, we should expect reputations to affect not just rates of cooperation, but also the price of goods in these markets. If these reputation systems do in fact provide useful information and in an incentive to behave in a trustworthy manner, buyers should be willing to pay more for a good it if comes from a highly rated seller, at least when the transaction involves significant risk” (Kollock, 1999, p. 14). Earlier this year I was interested in purchasing a set of Living Scriptures DVDs. At the time I was ready to start actively pursuing this purchase, there were two sets with very similar descriptions. However, the reputations of the sellers were very different. I chose to bid on the set from seller with a substantially more solid reputation and probably paid a bit more for that added assurance that the transaction would go well, backing up Resnick’s claim that “with clear reputation markers, low quality sellers receive lower prices, leaving a healthier market with a variety of prices and service qualities” (p 3).

Honesty

Honesty can be challenging in both environments. Students may be upset with the professor throughout the course and the evaluation may be a way to “get even.” Similar things can happen in an online environment – friends can rate one another high to inflate their reputations. Sometimes negative feedback can be inappropriately used as a leveraging tool.

Censorship

In setting up a formal environment for leaving feedback, it is important to consider censorship. What type of censorship should be available in online and offline environments? As I looked at the various scores for professors at USU, particularly those in the IT department, I felt the scores were only a small piece of the puzzle. I would like to see comments written about professors, but this option is currently not available. And would this even be fair? To both former students and the professors? And what about the manpower to facilitate such a change? Of course, if we adopted the U of U’s method and conducted these online, the manpower to put the comments up wouldn’t be an issue. However, would I be more intimidated to post comments because the world could see or would I be more motivated because someone besides the professor (who we only hope read the suggestion section) might actually benefit from our experiences?

And who gets to post comments? Kollock brings up that fact that at eBay, only those that have completed a transaction are allowed to post. What if as a potential consumer, you notice something that isn’t quite right? There is no way to leave feedback under these circumstances. In a course evaluation, only students that have completed the course get to leave feedback. So what about those students that dropped? I’m not recommending a change, just an interesting observation.

When looking at the relationships between cooperation, incentives, reputations, and trust in both online and offline environments, it is important to look at feedback, how it will be elicited, the benefits of doing so, the poster's level of honesty and to determine whether or not to allow censorship.

Fan Fiction

2004-10-18T01:22:00.000-06:00

I found quite a few stories I enjoyed from various authors writing fan fiction for the television show, Judging Amy. Three are listed below:

And here is a link to a short piece I wrote in the same area.

My story

It was very interesting to spend some time looking over fanfiction.com, especially in conjunction with Rebecca Black’s article. The authors’ profiles I reviewed did not provide any links to their personal homepages or websites as compared to the participants Black analyzed within the Cardcaptor.com community. I observed other interesting occurrences while browsing within this community. For instance, there is lingo specific to this community. Authors use the term BRAMY to indicate they are fans of Bruce and Amy, two of the more defined characters on Judging Amy. Also, there is a lot of interaction between the core community authors.

Black also reported in her article that there is a strong emphasis on peer review, constructive criticism, and collaboration. People within this community help one another with their writing, offer constructive criticism, and provide a great opportunity to gain valuable insights from others familiar with this specific genre. Of the three authors I reviewed, two were high school age and the other did not disclose that information. It is interesting to see the diversity of all the authors that contribute to Judging Amy fanfiction -- and to see what information they provide about themselves. One of my favorite quotes from a users' profile, "Bios are irrelevant." Regardless of what personal information users provide in their profiles, this is a great opportunity to find other authors with similar interests and get their unbiased opinions.

Black also reports that flaming is discouraged. As I posted comments to fanfiction.com, the disclaimer stated, “It is extremely helpful to use this opportunity to comment on an aspect of the story that can be improved. A well rounded critique is often the most rewarding tool for the writer.” This statement really sets the tone of responses expected within this community. As I was sharing my thoughts with other authors, I wanted to provide encouragement as well as offer suggestions for improvement.

Why is fan fiction so popular? I think one of the main reasons fan fiction is so popular is because authors don’t have to create or develop characters – that is already done. I also think authors like to share their work in an area that is supportive; I had a completely different experience here than I did with USENET. Authors enjoy sharing their work with those that have similar interests and can quickly and easily provide accurate feedback. It was apparent as I was reading these pieces that the authors knew the characters well. In most of the pieces, I could hear Tyne Daly’s inflection in my head as I read her dialog as Maxine.

How can these factors be harnessed to improve formal instructional uses of technology? I couldn’t help but think about my own mother as a retired Junior High School English teacher. She would certainly be excited about the students being excited about writing. It wouldn’t matter to her how this excitement came about, she would just be happy they were writing. I think it would be easy to see what kids were posting and what feedback they were receiving. If it is adequate, then why not use this forum to encourage kids to write?

Edublogging

2004-10-10T20:56:00.000-06:00

I looked at the following five blogs this week:

Probably the most exciting topic that I stumbled across was posted by both Brian and D’Arcy. Brian initially shared a version of Flickr’s usage of tags (see my entry for October 1, 2004) and I quickly saw a way to incorporate a similar method for working with metadata within digital libraries. The possibilities are endless. I also enjoyed reading personal information on the above blogs – it gives the posters a sense of identity. (Interesting side note – my mother was visiting last week and ABSOLUTELY did not want a picture of her or her grandchildren, my boys, on the Internet.) It is interesting to see how different generations embrace or fight technology.

Educational use of technology is definitely interesting and plausible. A few of the blogs I read this week shared great ideas and suggested ways that blog in particular could be used in the classroom. Anne has a GREAT list as does Stephen Downes. Incorporating technology in the classroom affords students one more option to learn how things work. Particularly in the area of science, students can do so much more if they have technology in the classroom. For instance, remember the good old frog dissection days? The lab coats and smell of formaldehyde? I still think this is an experience everyone should have, but what about virtually dissecting the frog first? If the budget doesn’t allow 250 students to each personally dissect their own frog, isn’t this virtual dissection better than nothing? There has been a tremendous effort to create digital learning objects and to catalog them in digital libraries. I strongly believe these enhance students’ educational experiences.

Logged hours: 5 hours

Spiderman, spiderman, doing the things... only a spider can!

2004-10-05T21:48:00.000-06:00

Spiderman, spiderman, doing the things... only a spider can!
Originally uploaded by NeonDeonne.

Just testing to see how easily flickr can post a photo to a blog. :)

Blogging: Part the First :)

2004-10-01T10:37:00.000-06:00

Reflections on Blog Culture:
It was quite interesting to select and follow various blogs this week. I did a little searching for blogs with similar interests / backgrounds to my own, blogs posted by people I know personally, and blogs I remember from past explorations. I specifically remembered reading a blog, Culture Cat, about a year ago: The writer is a fellow PhD student with interests in blogging and enjoys Diana Krall’s music. Seems like a stellar individual, right? So, I spent time delving into her blog. I also spent some time looking at Trey Martindale’s blog as well as Brian Lamb’s blog (both guys presented at the IT Institute). I found a couple of random blogs by just poking around… College Student and Marine’s Wife.

I enjoyed the posting by Megnut and her descriptions of blogs, that blogs range from being a “personal diary, concerned with boyfriend problems” to the more traditional “weblogs-are-links-plus-commentary” definition. The blogs I followed were at both extremes and in the middle. College Student rambled about her crushes on her TA and scholastic challenges, i.e., "Calculus is going to kill me.” At the other extreme, Brian Lamb links to a lot of outside resources and shares scholastic implications.

Social Interactions:
It was interesting to follow the social interactions that occur and analyze the differences based on blogging environments. For instance, LiveJournal provides a seamless option to add friends and join / form communities with similar interests. By looking at a user’s profile in the LiveJournal's blogland, you can quickly see that Marine’s Wife has 22 interests groups, 11 friends, and belongs to 3 communities. By clicking on any of these links, you can find others who share interests with Marine's Wife, details about her friends, and see conversations within her communities of practice.

Social interactions also happen in blogs outside of LiveJournal. Brian Lamb has done a great job including links to other blogs and often this is reciprocated. If I had ten hours to spare, I’d probably spend it looking around Brian’s blog – WOW! He has amazing and timely postings. For instance, Following the Man of the Crowd begins tomorrow in downtown Manhattan. For detailed information, you’ll have to follow this link. It sounds like such a, to borrow Brian’s term, “groovy” experiment. Also on Brian’s blog, I saw great way to visualize metadata in flickr. The bigger the link, the more popular the tag.

And here is a ingenious use of flickr tags. Click through the image to see potential implications. :)

Organization:
I really enjoyed Culture Cat and her blog. The inclusion of categories made it easy to find similar entries within her blog. For instance, if I enjoyed her political commentary, I simply click on Politics, and I find every entry she has coded with this tag. Brian’s blog also included categories which is a common practice of advanced bloggers.

Another interesting thing about advanced bloggers is their ability to incorporate three dimensional effects to their entries. For example, in one of Culture Cat’s entries, she shares details about a "Prom" party she attended last Saturday. So, she uploads a picture of her in the dress from 1994 and another picture of her in the same dress last week. Culture Cat also uploaded a picture of note her friend left her ... . This was a great way to bring a artistic flaire to her blog.

In conclusion, I think novice bloggers may use blogs as an online journal and perhaps begin to establish social connections with other bloggers. Advanced bloggers establish categories or their postings, provide links to other urls, upload pictures, and establish communities of practice with bloggers with similar interests.

Logged hours: 6 hours total, 1 hour each day for 6 days this week (Sun-Fri) reading blogs.

Threaded Discussion: A Mini-Analysis

2004-09-24T15:24:00.000-06:00

I found a very interesting thread on the Verizon cell phone Google Group (alt.cellular.verizon). It is amazing how much time people dedicate to this environment. The thread I look at analyzing was originally posted by “Hunter” and he shares his experience about calling in to check on his usage minutes when he finds out that Verizon is tracking more minutes than he knows he has used. He gave more details about where he was living, calling from, and typical monthly cell phone usage. Five days after his original posting, there had been 56 responses to him (or to others within this thread), some on target, some a bit more tangential. Some people (either Verizon employees or other people with strong ties to Verizon) shared information about Verizon implementing a new billing system while others shared plausible explanations such as time delays in updating your minutes due to roaming or inadvertent cell phone usage and ways to eliminate this possibility (i.e., use a flip phone so you don’t accidentally dial someone).

So now for the million dollar question, “Why do people volunteer their time to help other people out?” I found Eric Raymond’s, The Cathedral and the Bazaar, enlightening, specifically his terminology of egoboo (egoboosting, or the enhancement of one’s reputation among other fans) as a drive behind participants’ volunteer activity. This phenomenon seemed to be a possibility for postings from some of the people participating on the alt.cellular.verizon board. Having posted on this board myself, it was interesting to see some of the same people posting in throughout the various threads I read. It was also interesting to see the participants banter back and forth, almost as if they were in a debate session or involved in a family feud. It is apparent from the communication that these folks know and recognize one another’s screen names. I also think some of these participants genuinely enjoy conflict and contention. They like to spark arguments and put others on the defense. Some of the users enjoy sharing their expertise and inside information, perhaps again an example of egoboo. There is definitely a social element to these boards. Of course there are those that post on occasion, but it quickly became apparent that there are a few people who spend a considerable amount of time in this Google Group.

I was also interested in Kollock and Smith’s concluding remarks about shortcomings of newgroups. “Many newsgroups remain relatively uncooperative places, filled with noise and argument.” I definitely found this to be the case on alt.cellular.verizon. Sometimes the participants were helpful, cordial, and appeared to be working towards a common goal of finding solutions. Other times (more often than not), the participants were spending time flaming one another, calling each other names, and pointing out other’s errors and shortcomings.

All in all, this was a very interesting opportunity to see how people interact in these online environments, to conduct some discourse analysis, and to hypothesize what motivates the people to participate in these types of discussions.

Logged hours: 6 hours searching archives for a discussion thread in which a question is asked and a significant amount of time is spent by one or more people trying to answer it.

Online Discussions Boards: Are They for Me?

2004-09-20T08:17:00.000-06:00

Well, I can see how people can get lost in space – at least in the Internet. This assignment was challenging for me because, although I have used Google Groups as a research/problem solving tool, I have never actively participated in an online discussion board. At first I was overwhelmed with the massiveness of the groups, but as I began searching and sifting, I began to see the organization and navigation within Google Groups. I really struggled to find an active group that was of interest to me. I searched for my favorite TV show (I only have one obscure one I enjoy), parenting, single-parenting, dissertation, kids, Macs, videoconferencing between Macs and PCs, music, education, Microsoft suite, and well, the list goes on and on. The idea of archiving is amazing and I was impressed by the searching capabilities.

I spent some time searching in Google Groups for help regarding two specific issues: 1) videoconferencing with a Mac and a PC and 2) trying to get help with a Verizon cell phone issue. I found discussion boards were helpful outside of Google Groups as well.

Videoconferencing with a Mac and PC:
comp.sys.mac.comm
At an Instructional Architect meeting last week, we were able to include a team member from Hawaii, Bart Palmer, in an iChat conversation. I was so impressed with the ease of set up and clarity of the picture, that I thought I should try something similar at home. That way I could talk to Ben in Texas, my parents in Cedar and the boys could talk to their dad in Spokane. Unfortunately, all three are PC users, so it wouldn’t be quite as slick as a straight Mac solution. (Once you go Mac, you can’t go back.) There are some pretty easy set-ups, the best one being Mac-Mac, then Mac-PC via AOL (this requires Windows XP). Ben bought a Logitech webcam last night so I researched their Discussion Forum and tried to set it up w/Mac-PA via AOL, but no luck because he doesn't have XP. So, we both downloaded Yahoo Messenger and it "works" (I guess). I can see him, but the clarity was horrible compared to the iChat conference call last week. I guess we'll see if I can convert others to Mac. :)

Verizon:
alt.cellular.verizon
So, not to share too much information, but I was completely perturbed when I opened my cell phone bill and realized there was another billing error. I still wasn’t receiving credit for my in-network calls. I called Verizon's customer service last month and they told me they had billing errors and would credit my account the appropriate amount. This month however, I had no such luck. So, with the outrageously expensive phone bill in hand, I set out to learn from other’s experiences and see what could be done. I found a helpful board with a posting from a Verizon employee at ripoffreport.com. She stated, " At the end of every year we get a huge bonus if we save money...." Who knew?

Then I thought I’d post my own experience at the alt.cellular.verizon board. Wow! I was in for a rude awakening to the world of online discussions! If I expected sympathy or help, that was not on the menu. The first comment in response to my dilemma was from Edward, “Read and understand the terms of your plan. That way, you won't make any more stupid mistakes...and most importantly, stop whining. You screwed up-- so take some responsibility for your error and pay them what you owe them.” Ouch! Other harsh comments included, “Agreed, from a grad student no less. I can only assume a lack of attention to detail” and “What the hell is a grad student (or any college student) doing with a cellphone. You should be using the money spent on the cell phone for school costs, instead of running up debt for student loans. That will haunt you for the rest of your life.”

I can finally laugh about these comments. Fellow posters don’t know the whole scenario and perhaps feel better about themselves by trying to make others feel inferior, stupid, uninformed, etc. Unfortunately, when I first read these postings, I was seriously offended! I thought maybe I’m not cut out for this online interactions. Then, as more people began posting, and a tirade ensued about students loans -- they must’ve taken a page out of Wiley’s course on tirades ;) -- I began to see the situation in a different light. My overall impression is that people are a lot nicer, polite, and cordial in face-to-face situations. Perhaps my experience would’ve been different had I participated in a different content area (such as heart transplant survivors or single-parenting boards).

Follow up to the cell phone situation:
I was practically moved to tears when Julie, a CSR from Verizon, was able to rectify the billing situation. There had been, in fact, misinformation on Verizon’s part. She credited my account the appropriate amount and was so NICE! I guess Verizon isn’t so bad after all.

Logged hours: 7 hours searching archives and 4 hours participating in discussions and looking around.

Dawson’s Personal History

2004-09-10T09:07:00.000-06:00

As part of the 7150 class, we’ve been asked to describe our personal
history of use of the Internet and social software. I look forward to reading other postings and see if others have had similar experiences.

I was first exposed to the Internet in the summer of 1997. It’s a little funny for me because it reminds me of “Where were you when you first learned about 9/11?” I remember so clearly sitting in a computer lab on the second floor of Interface Computer School in Spokane, WA. I was an instructor there, mainly teaching the Microsoft Office Suite (thus my nickname as the Microsoft Queen). Michael Norton, a fellow instructor, spent about 45 minutes sharing the concept of email and the Internet with the entire faculty. I remember thinking, “Wow! This is so fun! This is so cool! When did this come about?” Well, although I never thought I was an early adopter, I was stunned to realize Ray Tomlinson of BBN invented an email program in 1971 to send messages across a distributed network (Hobbes' Internet Timeline). Regardless of when it was invented, I became hooked in 1997 and was one of the innovators, or at least early adopters, at Interface Computer School to really fully grasp the concept and began emailing often. As an instructor, it was imperative that I stay on top of the latest trends and share these results with my students. We discussed netiquette, flaming, the importanance of subject lines, etc. I would say most of my learning regarding email came from personal usage and reading.

Instant Messaging was introduced to me as a Ph.D. student. I had heard about it, seen others using it, but my personal usage started while employed by David Wiley beginning March, 2003. Again, I was amazed to see that chatting capabilities were invented in 1973 by Doug Brown (Many-to-Many Space). Initially I was hesitant. I was worried about wasting time chatting with friends and coworkers about “fun” stuff and not utilizing my time as efficiently as possible. I also thought – Wiley is down the hall. Why should I IM him instead of poking my head in his office? I quickly learned how convenient, fun, and efficient Instant Messaging can be. I also learned how fun it was to make other people LOL, especially when they are in the same room. One of my favorite memories from my work with Wiley last summer is making Sandie cry because she is laughing so hard and Mark just shaking his head. All of my learning regarding IM has come from personal usage and seeing how others interact. Wiley has been a leader for me in this area as he was one of my first co-IMers. Emoticons are one of my favorite features – and I practice often with friends.

Because I have had great team members throughout my Ph.D. program, I have been exposed to wikis (thanks Brent) and have had the opportunity to use wikis for group projects in class as well as in a work setting (thanks Northface University and Instructional Architect).

My blog usage first started in the fall of 2003 in another 7150 class with Wiley. Although my blog didn’t not stand the test of time, I am interested to analyze the lifespan of this blog. Again, I thought I was pretty on the ball with starting a blog, then I realized weblogs began in 1997 (Many-to-Many Space).

Developing my Internet skills has come from a variety of sources. 1) As an instructor teaching computer applications, I was surrounded by other instructors utilizing the Internet and we would share resources and techniques. I also spent time reading and finding good textbooks for my students (remember, this was back in the 90s). Now I have found friends and fellow researchers/students to be invaluable resources, sharing their knowledge and approaches. Sometimes trial and error can be frustrating because I feel such a lack of time, yet if I spent the time, then sometimes the rewards can pay off. The gamble is one that is challenging for me to tackle – do I spend three hours hoping to find a more efficient method? Or do I use the tried and true method?

The Internet has become an important “need” in my life. Professionally. I can’t imagine conducting research without it. I can’t imagine communicating with team members and project leaders without it. Email, Instant Messaging, and listservs are ingrained in the way I communicate with my colleagues. Additionally, I utilize the Internet to conduct research and add to my writings. Personally. It is interesting to analyze friendships and relationships from a technical perspective. I find that I have maintained more friendships and relationships if they participate in technical ways of communicating. It is safe to say that a day doesn’t go by without a personalized email from friends or family, especially with Ben in Texas. I recently coordinated a family reunion with over 65 people in attendance. It was so frustrating to try and coordinate and communicate with those that didn’t email! I also love using online resources to find tidbits for my 6-year old son, Alex. He loves to catch bugs and we often research these bugs, their diet and habitat. Google images have been a great resource for finding pictures of comets, satellites, and all kinds of bugs and animals. Indeed, the Internet has become a need in my life, both professionally and personally.

Hello World!

2004-09-01T20:59:00.000-06:00

Hello World!