Online Communities Jeanie Axton

Topic 5
Online community building and social architects

Exercise 5.1
Online identities
Facebook
Twitter
delicious
Bendigo telco email
St Martins email
Gmail
CSU ebox
Online communities blog

I have a persistent identity. I am an educator. I am female [photo] My identity reflects who I am. I shouldn't reveal my address or phone number.

Exercise 5.2
Define a social architect?
"Social architecture is the conscious design of an environment that encourages certain social behaviour leading towards some goal or set of goals"

Incredibly Dull
Retrieved 26/8/09
http://incrediblydull.blogspot.com/2009/04/social-architure.html

Table above.

Shufflebrain

Amy Jo Kim is the brains behind Shufflebrain. She is a recognized expert in online social architecture. She has designed for companies like Maxis and Electronic Arts. She wrote a book "Community building on the Web".
Scott Kim worked with Amy. He is a puzzle designer and has designed for Tetris.

Whyville

Whyville was launched by Numedeon in 1999. The site is especially designed for girls in the middle years who can lose interest in maths and science. The site works directly with organizations like Nasa and includes activities such as science simulators, art and english[journalism] tasks.

Both I would say are true social architects. Whyville states that it aims to make a difference. Both are consciously designed to create environments that encourage positive social behavior that leads towards the individual sites goal.Shuffle brain has a regognized expert behind its creation and Whyville was created out of 20 years of research.

Topic 6

Designing for usability, sociability and sustainability.

Designing for usability, sociability and sustainability

6.1
Design rules and your CSU forum experience

Belonging,worth and satisfaction

I usually check the csu forum daily to check out the questions and ask questions as well as contribute.I find it a useful way of communicating. I know many students check it so its a good place to leave a queation or idea. The response time is quick. A few times I have reponded to other students asking questions about what to do. I have left notes on the forum about Wednesday POD link ups. One student posted an article on migrant students and second life. I thought that was very interesting. Another posted a lonk to a funny video about the Internet. The forum brings students together for specific purposes eg clarifying the essay task and its a great place to say how things are going and not going, what works and what doesn't. If I cant get onto the forum I do feel out of the loop.

6.2

What is it about the design of the Wiki and moodle that you liked or disliked?

I found the Moodle easy to join. I posted a request on the forum for the enrolement key and got a quick response. I spent time having a look around and then left an introductory message.

A moodle is usually set up for course instruction. I have started setting one up for a subject I teach at our school but I am going to go to some PD to get more instructions and ask questions.

A wiki has public editing Eg Wikipedia so anyone can add to it . It is a collabrative task.

The presence of likable features for usability,sociability and sustainability is very important. In a nutshell if the program is difficult to set up and then use people will drop off and then either the purpose for setting it up will be lost or community members will start up another online community that has likable features, is engaging and easy to use and most importantly to continue to use to keep the community going for the intended purposes.

6.3

Ebay

Ebay has clearly stated rules and members can communicate easily.Anyone can ask a buyer/seller a question and get an answer. Each member has a rating based on feedback. If there is a problem with a buyer or seller there is a mediation process. Ebay is easy to use. It is connected to Pay Pal which is secure with 128 bit encryption. The Ebay online community is sustained as a result of the organization behind it. Items keep selling each day [Im sure my son keeps it in business buying car parts! and sellers keep making money so they keep selling items. It generally has a good reputation because of its usability, its security features which result in a sustainable community with up to 10 million users a day.

Wiki answers

Retrieved 16/9/09

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_people_view_ebay_each_day

Facebook

I read an interesting article on facebook http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/is_facebook_worth_the_hype.php

However it was written in 2007. Only two years ago but in the world of online communities two years is a long time. In Feb of 09 Facebook surpassed 175 million users.The thing about facebook is that even people who are not real confident with the internet use it. My mother who lives in a retirement village and uses it every week. She keeps in contact with relatives around Australi and overseas. Once set up Facebook is easy to use and its features sustain it. Posts, walls and instant messaging all add to the facebook experience as well as add ons like quizzes and games . My auntie loves the scrabble game! Users gain trust in the community as they advance in their skills and confidence in using it. The media often mentions Facebook both in a negative light re bullying and in a positive light re Facebook deleting unwanted groups and showing social responsibility. Like any online community its users keep it going because simply they like using it and it works well for them.

Inside Facebook

Retrieved 16/9/09

http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/02/14/facebook-surpasses-175-million-users-continuing-to-grow-by-600k-usersday/

Topic 7

Devices for display and interaction
Exercise 7.1
A touchscreen basically has 3 components
1. A touch sensor
2 A controller
3. A software driver

Touch sensor
The sensor panel covers the viewable area of the video screen. It usually has an electric current going through it and touching the screen causes a signal or voltage change. The change determines the spot of the touch to the screen.
Controller
Is a PC card that connects between the touch sensor and the PC. It gets info from the touch sensor and translates into info the PC device can understand.
Software Driver
Makes the touchscreen and computer work together. They are mostly mouse emulation. They act like a mouse.
Device improving display and interaction
The touch screen is a human interface. A GPS uses a touchscreen. It is usually mounted on the dashboard of a car and works very well. An incar GPS works better than a phone GPS because the screen is usually bigger and letters and numbers are larger rather than the keypad of a mobile. Men especially with big hands find little mobile keypads difficult to use plus a GPS on a mobile should not by law be operated by the driver while he/she is driving. A GPS is mounted safely in the caddy and the address can be easily programmed in. Visibility from where it is positioned on the dashboard is good and instructions are backed up by voice. [which can get annoying when it tells you to turn around over and over !] The GPS can tell you where the petrol stations are, parking, resturaunts and it even has a speed alert. A child can use it[Ours do!]
Some people download a GPS program and use their laptop in a car. This has problems like getting bumped while using it and it could be a sfety issue in an accident as the laptop would be a dangerous object flying through the car. The GPS with its touchscreen is an easier device to use for the purposes of navigation rather than a mobile or laptop. It is easy to use[human interaction] and visibility is very good bothe in day and night driving.

Touchscreen.com
Retrieved 16/9/09
http://www.touchscreens.com/intro-anatomy.html

Exercise 7.2
Aged Care Informatics
Smart devices and the aged
There are new devices being invented and tested to improve the lifestyle of the aged and disabled. One interesting device takes a persons blood pressure temperature and respiration when they step on a mat into their house. The information is sent via a small device plugged in to a powerpoint in their house. It is sent to their doctor who can then work out from the information if he/she needs to make an appointment. Another interesting medical device is one that is being developed for emergency rooms in hospitals . Each person is asked to wear this device and it monitors them as they wait. The order of patients going into see the emergency docter iws worked out by how they are doing. Information on their blood pressure heart rate etc is sent continually so if a person suddenly takes a turn for the worse they can be attended to quickly.
Another interesting device is one that recors how many steps a person takes so carers are aware of how active the person is when they are not there.
There is a Smart wave microwave that can kkeep track of salt content in food. A visit to the Gator Tech smart home set up in America to test and showcase these devices was fascinating with all its Smart technologies.
http://www.icta.ufl.edu/gatortech/index2.html
They have even thought of a device that on a wardrobe taht looks at the projected weather forcast and suggests clothes to put on.
Research is showing that for these devices to work it needs to be bought into a home plugged in and then it automatically provides ots service and finds a path to the outside worls. It needs to work on its own and not rely on the aged or disabled person to monitor and program it.

Smart Home
Retrieved 16/9/09
http://www.icta.ufl.edu/gt.htm

The Medical News
Retrieved 16/9/09
http://www.news-medical.net/news/2007/07/19/27801.aspx

Topic 8
Applications, tools and services
Exercise 8.1
Down the drive I head out with two dogs wanting to run faster then I can walk. If I had a skateboard they could tow me! Jazz[Cocker Spaniel] is breathing hard trying to go faster while Zepp[Jack Russell]bites on her collar. What are the neighbours thinking about the carry on going on outside their houses? Down the road a block of land left abandoned for years has been flattened and prepared ready to build on. Where will the young boys build their bike jumps now? Another dog behind a fence barks at us and Zepp who thinks he is king of the jungle around here barks back. Jazz is breathing heavily now. We walk down a hill and across a paddock the grass has grown long again. There is no water in the run of lake and the ducks are nowhere to be seen. The car park at TAFE is nearly empty school holidays and a skeleton staff. Up another slow hill past a little cottage with bits and pieces decoratively added to its front fence. A copper pot sparkles in the sun. The owners live in a shed out the back. One day they will build. Waiting to see what TAFE will do in the future . Around the corner and into our court. Up the driveway. Water for the dogs and a big glass for me.

Exercise 8.2
Question 1
There is so much out there on the web. Where do I start? What is best for my purposes?

There are so many different applications out there and I feel like I don’t get enough time in each. One site often leads to upteen others. Guess its a matter of finding what is relevant and suitable to what I teach and going that way.

Question 2
Would I use a social networking site with staff/students at school? What are the benefits? Drawbacks?

How do I talk the principal into getting a social networking site up and running for staff PD. ? How do I get some staff [who don’t check their email] to use it? How do I get a social networking site going for students? How is it controlled/ What are the rules? Maybe I start with one class and let staff and parents know what I am doing. Start small and go from there.

Question 3
How do I get my head around all the terminologies/acronyms in this course.
Get myself a dictionary!

Exercise8.3

1. http://www.foaf-project.org/community

The Semantic web is the new Rock n Roll.

"Get your Data out"

Connect Control Share remix

Notes on the Semantic Web

What Is The Semantic Web?
The Semantic Web is a mesh of information linked up in such a way as to be easily process able by machines, on a global scale. You can think of it as being an efficient way of representing data on the World Wide Web, or as a globally linked database.
The Semantic Web was thought up by Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the WWW, URIs, HTTP, and HTML

The Semantic Web an introduction

Retrieved 23/9/09
http://infomesh.net/2001/swintro/

Semantic web users cases and case studies

Retrieved 23/9/09
http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/sweo/public/UseCases/ClevelandClinic/

2. I think it can be a good thing for data to move between applications. If information is shared between these it saves on writing in all the details over and over. However there could be issues with security. Who gets the data? Will they use it for the purpose it was intended? More questions than answers really!

3. Foaf makes it easier to share information between platforms. Like the four key words in the song Connect Control Share and Remix.

The FOAF tag has access to the following advantages of the Semantic web

The key Semantic Web advantages are:
· Use of familiar, local terminology
· Support for unanticipated modeling extensions
· High degree of automation
· High-fidelity integration and mapping with external systems and terminologies
· Support for accurate answering of expressive queries

Exercise 8.4

a] RSS What is it?
RSS
RSS (most commonly translated as "Really Simple Syndication" but sometimes "Rich Site Summary") is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.[2] An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed",[3] or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an "RSS reader", "feed reader", or "aggregator", which can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based

RSS
Retrieved 23/9/09

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS

Web syndication, where web feeds make a portion of a web site available to other sites or individual subscribers

Syndication
Retrieved 23/9/09
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syndication

What is Swarm?
The Basics:
Swarm shows you what websites people are visiting, right now.

Swarm is a graphical map of hundreds of websites, all connecting to each other. It updates itself every second with where people are going and coming from. As sites become more popular, they move towards the center of the swarm.

Website traffic is symbolized with thin lines. Each time you see a line appear, it means someone has moved from one site to the other. You can gauge how many people are swarming around based on the number of lines.

Why use this?
Swarm is a useful tool for browsing the web, not searching it. You need to come here with an open mind and you may find some really cool stuff.
Community:
In addition to a forum, Swarm allows you to chat about any link you see. When you see a little chat icon flash, it means people are actively chatting about that link. You don't have to wait for the icon to appear, you can begin talking about any link you find (and hopefully someone will join in!)

What is Swarm A new way to browse the web
Retrieved 23/9/09
http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/852BB952-618D-46B6-9F70-1C120C6B39BC/
Stack
Stacking up on popular stories

b]
Delicious is a social bookmarking site and users can share save bookmarks and access them from anywhere on the web. Users can also share bookmarks. The advantages are that listed bookmarks can be shared among users. Eg Teachers teaching Australian studies could link up with each other and share lists of resources from the web . This benefits both teaching for teachers and learning for students.
A tag in delicious is a word or words that describe the resource [URL address].
I found this interesting article which expalins the tag difference.
Del.icio.us has taken tagging one step further by letting its users add a Description to a tag. The original intent is to let users define the nonsense, slang, or web centric (think MySpace and txt lingo) terms they use for tagging.
I’d like to also think that such tag descriptions bring a new level to external metadata, further defining the site which is tagged and its core relevancy to keyterms and other web tags earned and acquired
Loren Baker
Editor

delicious adds tags description
Retrieved 23/9/09
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/delicious-adds-tag-descriptions/4522/

I know of a school in which teachers send their web links to the librarian who adds them to delicious for all staff to use. I have started my collection on delicious and like the fact I can access it from anywhere.

c] It says on the site What you need when you need it. Its like a good variety store eg Big W. It contains many different web applications and links to information. It should make surfing the web easier. However will it be taken over by advertising?

d] Elgg social engine
Elgg: a powerful social engine.

Elgg empowers individuals, groups and institutions to create their own fully-featured social environment.
It is open source and developers eg a company with a good IT support could have control over it.
Support is offered for those companies with less support. I think it would be worthwhile having this on the web sever in the workplace.

Topic 9
Business,government and research rerceptions

Exercise 9.1

Linkedin.com

Social networking being classified as a business model? Making contact with others. Join groups, find experts ideas, opportunities and forums.

Advantages

Forum in which to connect to others professionally,groups,find ideas and look for opportunities
Can create a group within your company
Application checks outlook for contacts

"A business model is a framework for creating economic, social and or other forms of of value"

Business model

Retrieved 30/9/09

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/business-model

Against

Social networking is only one aspect of the business model
Doing anything in Web 2.0 requires social contact
Social networking is part of a business model
Employers could have concerns with emplyees wasting time on the social aspect of social networking and not staying on task
However it could be argued that a business is only as strong as its relationships and social networking in a business encourages strengthening of those relationships ties which in turn benefits the company.

Exercise 9.2

Research and Evaluation in Government 2.0

Notes:

IT is transforming the way governments do business around the world. One of the aims is to make government transparent and accountable. Australia needs to be "up with it."The government 2.0 taskforce is holding public seminars around the counrty. It is looking at how the government can use web 2.0 to better engage with the public and open up the process of government.

Will the government follow through on Web 2.0 recommendations? What are the questions that need to be asked?

Head of task force Nicholas Gruin

We know what we have to do. Reverse it so government information is accessible and available. Currently it is not.

There is a need to:

Educate government and the public service about the cultural changes needed
For a higher level of collaboration
"codes of conduct" in blogging

The agenda of web 2.0 is ongoing and has a large cultural agenda.

He spoke about the 1% rule. 1% of people create online content 10% engage in some form of online interaction and 89% like to watch.

Ross Dawn an online expert says there is growing interest in participating online.

Dr Kulls comments:

Borak Obama took social networking to a new level in his election campaign. Two Thirds of internet users believe they are gaining power through the web and the ability to influence others.

Central question id "If you build will they come?"

Proff Graeme Turner [Queeensland]

He thinks the Web 2.o and democracy push is a bit unrealistic. He says " Who is on the net? Who can speak? Who can listen?" He says its American centered and ignores the rest of the world with some countries not even having access to a phone let alone the internet. He says it has narrow demographics "young white males in America" He says Broadcast television is on decline in the USA and cable is in. Timeshift is in which is choosing programs and watching when it suits.

1.a] The use of Wiki drafts
I think wiki drafts would help with one of the aims of governemnt 2.0 which is to open up the process of governement. As most of Australi has internet access this is an avenue in which people could give their opinions. It would however need some initial educating for the public EG simple TV adds and educating our students in schools.
b] Twitter could bring more transparency to the Australian government by tracking ministers of parliament. It could be used as a channel for breaking news, announcements and discussions on political, social and environmental issues.
2 I see myself as a supporter of the government 2.0 initiative. " If you build wil they come" The whole iniative raises more questions than answers but it is a good start. We need to see follow through and education of web 2.0 in bite sized chunks.We need to see students at school [from Junior Primary years] skillled in the use of web 2.0 and a major education program in web 2.0 in government departments especially the public service. The way we have done things will change so the education will need to begin there.The government need to invest in that education for the government 2.0 iniative to work. Seeing Mr Rudd use twitter on the news is not enough!

Topic 1o Complexity and social networks
Exercise 10.1 Social networks case study

10.1,2 and 3.

1. Petarob
2. Ash Johnston
3. Jessica Delahunty
4. Thomas Banks
5. Jeanie Axton

4 follows 1
3 follows 1
2 follows 1
3 follows 5
2 follows 5
1 follows 2
3 follows 2
4 follows 2
1 follows 4
3 follows 4

10.4
The same people are following others and only one person had their photo as a follower in each blog they followed. Either those who do follow have done so for the purposes of this subject in one sitting or they check theirs and others blogs regularly as part of their online experience.

10.5

1. I dont think we would find the same patterns as it depends on the context and purpose of the blog. It may be a blog set up for a specific purpose and time and it may have a lot of interest to start with and attract many followers. Each group of people may interact differently depending on what they are doing.
2. Complex systems notes . Introduction to complex systems Jennifer Hallinan

Complex systems science seek to explain why some properties just seem to self organize without any seeming coordination
Complex systems are the rule not the exception
They arise from interactions between agents social units individuals and groups.
There are ties between socail units individual to individual and individual to groups
Settings are geographical and sociocultural
Interactions happen on many different levels
A social network is multilayered and relational

Hallinan,J 2005 Introduction to complex systems, http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/ comp4001/> ,accessed 28/10/09

Online Communities Jeanie Axton

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Assignment 1

Monday, August 31, 2009

OLR exercises 5 - 10

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Practice Exam

Scrapbook

Commentary

Evaluation Report

POD work

Twitter Updates

Twitter Updates

Followers

Blog Archive

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