Webocracy

I was sent a link to an interview with Andrew Keen and Chris Anderson in October, 2006 concerning “Debate 2.0- Weighing the merits of the new Webocracy ”. It is an article that I think all will enjoy reading after finishing the books by Keen and Shirky. There are several questions that are asked that I was thinking I would like to ask Keen while I was reading his book and you get the benefit of seeing his answers. For those that may not wish to read the lengthy article, I copied and pasted some excerpts that I found interesting:

Question: When I say Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, what do you two think?

Part of Chris Anderson’s response: The old model of encyclopedia was the be-all and end-all of information. The new model of encyclopedia is a starting point for investigation.

Must it be approached with caution and a certain amount of skepticism? Absolutely. Is any single entry guaranteed to be right? No. Collectively, it's the best single place to start an investigation or a search for knowledge. I think it's the best in the world.

Andrew Keen’s response: I wouldn't call it an encyclopedia. I think it's a dictionary. I think it's a hyper-democratic dictionary. My biggest concern is not so much mistakes, as Chris was saying, but its size. It's a very bloated, disorganized thing. It seems to me that many of the entries have no real ability to distinguish things which are important from things that aren't.

Question: Is there too much noise in the world? Andrew, in a way, you are saying, "I want a handful of people who know what they are talking about to tell me what's going on in the world." Chris is saying, "I'm willing to filter a million voices myself and I'll find out what's important that way." Is that what we're talking about here?

Anderson: Fantastic. When you say I can filter a million voices myself, I am filtering a million voices, but not doing it myself. What I have is layers of filters. There are people out there who have more time than me, have more expertise than me or just find things that I haven't found. I have maybe 200 voices out there that I listen to, but collectively I'm filtering a million voices through all those layers. As a result, I get a richer, higher-quality diet of information better suited to me to pull from a wider pool and wider variety of sources. It's not that much trouble. It's much easier than it's ever been before.

Keen: Again, the thing that concerns me is we seem to be going on this very, very long, complicated journey to get back to where we started. Let me ask you this question: What do you know now that you wouldn't be able to know 15 or 20 years ago?

Anderson: I'm a little confused by the question.

Keen: These layers you are talking about -- give me a concrete example of what you can know through them that traditional mainstream media doesn't enable you to know, which you think is valuable.

Anderson: The Microsoft example I gave was one. The traditional media was not going to give me that level of resolution about my very narrow interest. Traditional media was not going to get scaled down to that level of interest because it's too small to be a commercial proposition. But, that's my interest. I have some very broad interests and I have some very narrow interests.

Anderson’s Microsoft Example that he is referring to:

Question: Another core tenet of Web 2.0 has been "citizen journalism." Can the mainstream media be replaced, or supported, by citizen reporters gathering and disseminating information for free?

Anderson: I'm not sure I know what the word journalism means anymore. Let me give you an example.

My interaction with Microsoft has changed in recent years. I used to read the speeches and see the press releases from Bill (Gates) and Steve (Ballmer) and absorb the top-down messaging from the company. Now, as a consumer, I'm more likely to read the individual blogs of the engineers involved with various products I'm interested in.

I use Windows media center, and there is no level of detail about that product that I'm not interested in. I have a fantastic amount of interest in that, but virtually no interest in some of Microsoft's other products.

Those people, in sort of describing the product development, are doing what used to be the domain of the trade press. Clearly, they are not journalists. They're talking about themselves. In many ways, they are providing an information function that journalism used to do on its own.

Source:

SF Gate, hone of the San Francison Chronicle

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/15/BUG4KLP3CL1.DTL

Participating in this interview were Deputy Business Editor Alan T. Saracevic, staff writers Dan Fost, Ellen Lee, Verne Kopytoff and Benny Evangelista, and editorial assistant Steve Corder.

This article appeared on page D - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Students Today

"Today's child is bewildered when he enters the 19th century environment that still characterizes the educational establishment where information is scarce, but ordered and structured by fragmented, classified patterns, subjects, and schedules.” - Marshall McLuhan 1967



The inventor of the system deserves to be ranked among the best contributors to learning and science, if not the greatest benefactors of mankind.” - Josiah F. Bumstead 1841 ...on the benefits of the chalkboard

Shirky versus Keen

It doesn't take long for one to see the dichotomy between these two. Like most topics one can see the extremes on both sides of the issue. I generally like to look at the extremes on any topic and then seek to find balance somewhere in the middle. That is not to say "straight" down the middle, maybe that is not even possible, but rather average out somewhere in the middle. Therefore, when looking at the views of Shirky and Keen, there are areas where I lean one way and areas where I lean the other. However, I lean more towards Shirky as a proponent of using the technologies that Shirky seems to be for and Keen is adamantly against.

I will not spent time rehashing Shirky's views as we all just read his book and have blogged and discussed it. However, it is clear that Shirky covers the positive aspect of evolving technologies and the exciting new ways that they are being used in society. Shirky even seems to make a concerted effort to dispel the concerns about gatekeepers of information and the possible extinction of traditional sources for information. He feels that society will police the information and maybe it will result in more gatekeepers that will ensure even more that the correct information can be obtained.

Conversely, Keen sounds the alarms...The Internet is EVIL! Run for your lives! The monkeys are taking over! No more experts and cultural gatekeepers! Keen says, "the mainstream media is being replaced by a personalized one...rather than seeking the news we BECOME the news, information, and culture." (p. 7). So he seems to think that the gatekeepers are being overtaken and the gate is wide open for people to share and broadcast themselves and their views. Now the monkeys are "authoring the future" (p. 9). and are making it up with no policing, guidance, or wisdom. No professional editors providing evaluation of material and content, just "amateurs gone wild" or in some cases elaborate conspiracies by special interest groups creating their own view of the truth. So that "one person's truth becomes as a "true" as anyone else's." (p. 17). Will today's "Y" generation be able to discern what is good and reliable information? I can understand some of his points and for example agree that some of YouTube is worthless. However, as with anything else, are we going to only focus on potential negatives and do away with something that can also be used for good? An all or nothing approach? People have car wrecks and get killed, therefore cars are evil...therefore, do not get into a car! To me his overall logic is quite flawed, even though he makes some good points and certainly establishes some things to consider.

Well, I decided that I would beat Lila to posting a video from YouTube about Keen. It is an hour long and apparently from a book tour in 2007 for his book (the cult of the amateur) that we are reading. Interestingly, it is presented by "Authors @ Google"...maybe they didn't read the parts where he was bashing Google. I also wanted to post it because he seems to really hate YouTube and I find it interesting that he is now there! so Google presents him, he is on YouTube, and I have blogged about him...I feel like a monkey...okay maybe not!

Social Presence and Online Learning

Having earned two degrees via an online distance learning program and spending the last two plus years in graduate study concerning instructional technology, I am somewhat of a proponent for web-based or computer-based learning. Recently I have become quite intrigued with the social presence that is involved in online learning and the communities that develop. I am working an a research project concerning this in my IT577 class and so far the literature that I am finding on this subject is fascinating.

Thursday night in this class (IT695) we discussed the social communities that develop in online situations. We also discussed online learning versus face-to-face education and some of the concerns with online educations. However, we did not specifically discuss the effects of having a social presence that fosters community and relationship building in online education. The current literature seems to indicate that a higher level of social presence leads to more a more satisfying online learning experience by removing feelings of isolation.

Has anyone had experience with this as a student or instructor? Or have you looked at any research on this topic?

Also, check out this neat study concerning Text Messaging to Improve Social Presence in Online Learning. I had never heard of or thought of this approach in online learning, however text messaging was used in a new effective way in the past U.S. Presidential election so maybe it is a new medium to try. People of all ages text these days, but anyone with teenagers or are around college age students know that their fingers are constantly keying on a cell phone. Therefore, this may become the most effective method of communication. Maybe soon we will have cell phone-based distance education that involves podcasting for lectures and text messaging for discussions. So that with Internet accessibility (thus able to view web-based materials and email) on the cell phone the entire course can be delivered and completed via cell phone. Hmmmmm....just a thought...wait, here is a 2004 study concerning distance learning with cell phones and news in 2008 about Community-College System Offers Distance Education by Cellphone.

Any thoughts?

Go to my blog on Social Presence in Online Learning

Cyberbullying

What is cyberbullying? Are you one? What is the law?

Check this out!

Metcalfe's Law

Shirky, pages 26-31: After looking at Figure 2-1 and reading about the complexity of groups and organizing go to this link (interesting):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalfe%27s_law

Hey, we also look at Wikipedia in Chapter 5 and this is on Wikipedia.

Journalist and Photographer

"If anyone can be a publisher, then anyone can be a journalist." (Shirky, p.71). Well, it does indeed seem to be so, huh? Within a matter of minutes, I am typing these thoughts, proofreading, spellchecking, and then uploading to the web for instant global circulation. Well, only the people in this course will probably read this in reality. However, it is no doubt a fact that the content is available global for anyone who would care to read it. I can't imagine much interest, but you never know and it IS possible! While some professional journalists are bloggers, one does not have to be a professional journalists to blog, thus publish, thus a "journalist"!? Well, something like that...

Okay, speaking of "professional," I found it extremely interesting that in the "United States, the IRS defines a professional photographer as someone who makes more than $5k a year selling his or her photos." (Shirky, p.75). Well, my brother-in-law just sold photos of himself and a deer he recently killed to a magazine for $500...so he is in on his way!

Considering photographs, the text mentions Flickr and the platform it provides. I have always found it to be quite awesome the number of photos one can find in a subject of choice on sites like Flickr. Depending on how the images are tagged, one can search a number of topics and find not only numerous images, but often of good quality. A friend recently sent me some photos of bicycles in the snow and ice. This stimulated a sudden interest for me to see more photos like this. I spent a few minutes and found more photos that anyone could imagine. I also looked tonight for the topic of inauguration photos...as you can imagine there were many! Not surprising for such a popular event, however, there were so many different perspectives. Not so long ago one would have relied on photographers staged in various locations and then selling to magazines and papers (and in recent history, websites). Now we have millions of amateurs and available photos as soon as a computer and Internet connection allow for an upload.

Change (term of the year?)

Change, the one word use most frequently during the past election year. People cried out for "something different" to break with the status quo. There are numerous ways that you can define this "change" that was implied. Some would argue if this is a good idea or not. Is it change for the better? Change for the sake of change? Or as the implication was intended, change for the better or to depart from ways that were not working.

Having established the idea of change, one thought of political change that was only discussed in the techie circles and maybe a few news stories was the new change in campaigning methods. We discussed in this class briefly, but the connection that was made to young voters (the digital natives and even some digital immigrants) by text messaging and connecting to the Facebook and MySpace demographics was beyond what most could have anticipated. Sure the idea was to get votes, but who would have guessed how powerful this effort would be?

Maybe Shirky could have? Shirky mentions that "Group action gives human society its particular character, and anything that changes they way groups get things done will affect society as a whole. This change will not be limited to any particular set of institutions or functions. For any given organization, the important questions are 'When will the change happen?' and 'What will change?' The only two answers that we can rule out are never, and nothing." (p. 23).

I just hope that I can replace the "change" I have with paper bills! :-)

Informal Organization

It is quite fascinating to me how that we are now to the point where there are so many options for "voices" to be heard. Once upon a time people joined clubs and organization with other people who shared the same interest or views. Depending on the interest and the location one lived in it was possibly difficult to find others to unite with. Now we are in a time where one can go online and within a short period of time find a myriad of options (social networks, message boards, wikis, and blogs) where they can actively participate in the sharing of information.

The cellphone story also demonstrates another aspect where groups can organize rapidly to unite for a cause. This cause may be to fight crime, raise political or social awareness, or generate support for any cause. Shirky points out that "When we change the way we communicate, we change society. The tools that society uses to create and maintain itself are as central to human life as a hive is to bee life." (p. 17). A situation like this ten years ago would have resulted in a few lost and found phone calls and maybe an add in the classifieds of a paper. Most likely, even with the photos that were obtained, the result would have never ended as this story did.

Journaling the old fashioned way

I had planned to blog more frequently, but have been journaling the "old fashioned way" with a pencil and paper. Sometimes it is easier for me to keep a pad and pencil handy and jot down thoughts and page numbers. One, I am able to keep reading while recording my thoughts. Two, if I get on my laptop, even if I use a word processor on my hard drive, it is still tempting to check emails or other online activities. If I fall into the "online trap" then I will look up an hour or so later and think "where did the time go?" and then I am off the thought of the book or readings and have to get back into that mindset.

Therefore, I have a plethora of notes from Here Comes Everybody and will soon be posting on different topics from the text. I have found it to be a quite interesting read that definitely stimulated many thoughts and reflections...more to come soon...stay tuned!

Week One Readings

Well, I am tempted to summarize the readings from this week, but I am not going to. The discussion tonight in class was quite interesting and I think we covered "The Cultural Logic of Media Convergence" by Jenkins well.

We briefly started on Leander's article, but I thought that this quote was interesting “How the features of the technology interact with the human needs, expectations, beliefs, prior practice and alternative tools far outweighs the properties of the technology itself” (Bruce & Rubin, 1993, p.215). Then Leander comments that "The reasons why technologies do not work according to the ideals of developers, or do work in radically unanticipated ways, often has little to do with the tools themselves and much more to do with the relations of technologies to what we might consider the surround (Leander, p. 35). Therefore, it would appear that it is not so much the tool that is used as much as it is the human involvement. So depending on the users and their background, the technologies may produce positive or negative experiences based on social connections.

I also found the "As We May Think" artical quite interesting. Lila gave a link to the Memex, which was cool, but I also thought that the Voder, from the 1939 World's Fair was interesting too...also go to the link about "Elektro, the most famous robot of the 1930's" (watch video):

Setting up My Blog

Okay, this is the first post for this new blog. I am still sorting through the readings for this week, but I am excited about the content of this class. I have now received both textbooks and surprisingly both were hardbacks in new condition (only $9 each including shipping). Okay, that's all today, but looking forward to working with this class.