Digital Ethnography @ KSU - Recently Updated Pages

Research Schedule 2010

mwesch — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:20:39 CST

Why there is no syllabus and a note about points ...
Our goal in this course is to work together to complete the best research project possible. Therefore, given the dynamic nature of ethnographic research, there is no fixed schedule. Even the points below are not fixed. We can redistribute point values at any time. We are simply using points to motivate us all to stay on track and work as well together as we can. Ultimately, our success will not be measured in A's and B's but the quality of our work and its impact on the world.

"S" = Due by Sunday at Midnight
"W" = Due by Wednesday at Midnight
"M" = Due by Monday at Midnight

Spring 2010 Project Title: Global Digital Footprints of the (not so) Mundane
Before the first day of class: Watch An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube (again if you have already seen it)
ASAP: Complete IRB Training Modules (if you have not done so in past 3 years)

January 14th - Flash Mob in the Union
Collaboration Strategies / Technicalities
Read this Good Summary of Core Issues in the Study of Digital Humanity:
http://www.collectivate.net/journalisms/2009/12/18/post-mortem-conference-mashup-the-internet-as-playground-and.html

S: Set up blog and accounts on Wetpaint and Diigo. Send Wesch the link for your blog's RSS feed. (25)

January 19th - Video Storytelling Bootcamp - Basic Technicalities

W: Digital Footprints of the (not so) Mundane First Videos (30 seconds) in KSOL dropbox (25)

January 21st - Video Storytelling Bootcamp - Connecting, Interviewing, and Gathering Rich Material

S: Interview your K-State Proud partner. Report on your interview on listserv (25)

January 26th - Video Storytelling Bootcamp - Creating Rich Stories

W: First Draft of K-State Proud Video in KSOL dropbox (25)

January 28th - Video Storytelling Bootcamp - Advanced Editing

S: Second draft of K-State Proud Video in KSOL dropbox (25)

February 2nd - Watch Proud Videos

W: Final draft of K-State Proud Video in KSOL dropbox (25)

February 4th - What Makes a Good Video Story? (Drafting Assessment Guidelines)

S: Publish Proud Videos (if applicable) +
5 unique annotated citations on the Anthropology of New Media posted to web. (25)

February 9th - Sharing the Digital Footprints of the Mundane (not so mundane findings) (+ Digital Fieldnote Techniques)
Read all 75 summaries posted by your colleagues before class

W: Write a short project proposal on your blog (25)

February 11th - Discuss our Topics / Literature Search Techniques / Brief History of Digital Ethnography
Read 2 of the following:
Silver, David. (n.d.) “Introducing Cyberculture”. Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies.
Post-Human Anthropology by Neil Whitehead (pdf to be e-mailed via listserv)
Virtual Ethnography by Christine Hine
Chapter Ten of the Wealth of Networks by Yochai Benkler (PDF version)

S: List *all* of the literature you can find related to your project. You should be able to post at least 25 books or journal articles. (25)

February 16th - Media Ecology & Symbolic Interactionism / Literature Review Strategies
Lum's Overview of Media Ecology
Media and Behavior (Chapter 2 of No Sense of Place) by Joshua Meyrowitz

February 18th & 23rd: No Class.

W 24th: Complete your literature review by summarizing the broad themes and arguments,
and indicating a clear direction for your research. (25)

February 25th - Digital Field Methods & Ethics Discussion

S: Blog post with detail on your proposed field methods and how you will add to the current literature (25)

March 2nd - Research Week with Open Discussion

March 4th - Research Week with Open Discussion-

S: Blog a Brief Research Update and Summary of what you will present this week in class (25)

March 9th - Mid-Semester Presentations (5 minutes with 5 minute discussion) (50)

March 11th - Mid-Semester Presentations Part Two (50)

Friday: Post full text / video / images of your presentation on your blog. (25)

SPRING BREAK

March 23rd - Open Discussion

March 25th - Open Discussion

S: 1500 word research project paper due March 29th by midnight (posted to your blog): (100 points)

We'll make the Video Production Schedule later. You will have 3 drafts due before the final draft. Each draft must be posted to your blog along with a reflection on research progress and how well your draft illustrates your main ideas.

March 30th - Plan remaining schedule

April 1st - Open Discussion

S: First Draft of Script Due (25)

April 6th - Final Outline of Argument Due

April 8th - Discuss Script-Writing

S: 2nd Draft of Script Due (25)

April 13th - Discuss Scripts & Video Techniques

April 15th - Discuss Scripts & Video Techniques (Wesch in Denver)

S: First Draft Due (50)

April 20th - Watch samples from first drafts

April 22nd - Discuss Drafts

S: Second Draft Due (50)

April 27th - Discuss Drafts

April 29th - Discuss Drafts

S: Third Draft Due (50)

May 4th - Discuss Drafts

May 5th - Final Projects Due (100) at midnight

Second Annual Diggie Awards at Wesch's House - Thursday May 6th 5:30-8:30 pm

In addition to the grades above:
In-class Participation: 100 points
Online Participation (includes link-sharing, commenting on blogs, building wiki, etc.): 100 points

Collaboration Strategies

mwesch — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:39:13 CST

a list of the tools we will use and what we will use them for ...
This Wiki: Brainstorming connections between our different projects.
Zoho Creator: For database building (as needed)
Diigo: Sharing Links and Notes. Join our group. Share all relevant links to the group.
Blog: Sharing research thoughts and preliminary results.
YouTube: For posting and sharing our videos as we create them. Tag with "ksudigg10"
Netvibes Portal: Aggregating all of the above in one page.
Evernote: Private Notes (to be shared with Professor Wesch at end of semester)

a list of the tools we will use and what we will use them for ...

This Wiki: Brainstorming connections between our different projects.

Zoho Creator: For database building (as needed)

Diigo: Sharing Links and Notes. Join our group. Share all relevant links to the group.

Blog: Sharing research thoughts and preliminary results.

YouTube: For posting and sharing our videos as we create them. Tag with "ksudigg10"

Netvibes Portal: Aggregating all of the above in one page.

Evernote: Private Notes (to be shared with Professor Wesch at end of semester)

Tutorials

mwesch — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:00:50 CST

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

Guiding Insights

mwesch — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:00:24 CST

a work in progress ...

Theoretical Propositions of Media Ecology (from Lum 2006: 32-33)

1. "communication media are not neutral, transparent, or value-free conduits for carrying data or information ... media's intrinsic physical structure and symbolic form plays a defining role in shaping what and how information is to be encoded and transmitted and therefore how it is to be decoded."

2. all media are "biased" From Nystrom we know the following biases:

intellectual and emotional biases based on symoblic forms
spatial, temporal, and sensory biases based on physical structure
political biases based on accessibility of symbolic forms
social biases based on different types of social situations created by physical form
metaphysical biases due to the way they organize time and space
content biases based on symbolic and physical forms
all of this adds up to different epistemological biases

3. These biases can "facilitate various psychic or perceptual, social, economic, political, and cultural consequences."

Media are environments.
We do not stand outside of our media and simply "use them." We are engaged in media environments.

Multi-media environments cannot be understood by "adding up" the effects of each medium by itself.
As Lum notes, "we cannot conceptualize the Internet as one part writing, one part (still and moving) image, one part sound, one part computer, one part telephone, and so on; instead, it is a unique symbolic environment whose complex new languages, as Carpenter(1960) would have suggested, has yet to be deciphered" (2006:31).

Many studies of media ecology look for effects on individuals. There are many problems with this:

overlooks social and cultural contexts
falsely imagines cognition to be purely individual and material, not social and intersubjective
focus on psychological overlooks economic, political, and ideological factors

Social and cultural environments can be understood as media as well.
social settings are "complex, multimedia symbolic environments" each with "a unique set of vocabulary and rules that define what its inhabitants do and how they interact with everything else outside of the confines of this environment" (Lum 2006:31). Goffman is important here.

vs. Technological Determinism: Ong's Relationalist Perspective
must pay attention to the ways communications technologies are interrelated with (but do not determine) economic, social, political and intellectual structures and practices (Ong 1988:701). Understanding these interrelationships requires a nuanced understanding of cultural dynamics, communication, and mediation. Cultures cannot be taken as simple and monolithic structures but as complex, dynamic, and heterogeneous systems of practice, negotiated and continuously re-invented by humans with their own (culturally informed) agendas and biases (see Bourdieu 1977; Fischer 2007). The same can also be said for technology. Technologies simply do not exist apart from the techniques employed in their use (Strate 2006). Technologies should not be understood as simple physical objects, but as dynamic heterogeneous systems of practice involved in cycles of continuous re-invention.

"The Medium is the Message"

"The Medium is the Massage"

Goffman add defnitions of framing, fronting, facework, staging, etc. ...

Multiple Identities

Fieldnotes

mwesch — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:00:08 CST

IRB Statement:

I am part of a team of researchers doing an ethnography of YouTube culture for a class at Kansas State University taught by Dr. Michael Wesch (mwesch). We are creating a video documentary of YouTube that will be posted to YouTube at the conclusion of our research. We will also be writing papers and giving conference presentations on this research. To see our work in progress, visit our blog at http://mediatedcultures.net/ksudigg. If you have any questions or concerns you may contact Dr. Michael Wesch at mike.wesch@gmail.com or Dr. Rick Scheidt, Chair, Committee on Research Involving Human Subjects, 203 Fairchild Hall, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, (785) 532-3224.

Resource Notes

mwesch — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:59:51 CST

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

Discussion Notes

mwesch — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:59:20 CST

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

Spring 2008 Project Sandbox

mwesch — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:58:59 CST

Current research plan

Create a list of theoretical propositions / insights to work from and guide us.

After this, the project divides into two parts: (Target Dates in Red)

"The Bias of YouTube"	YouTube in the Mediascape
1. Build comprehensive list of YouTube communication structures. March 4th	1. Build a comprehensive list of media interacting with YouTube. March 6th
2. Build a comprehensive list of how YouTube is used. March 11th 2a. Simplify list into prominent categories. March 11th in class 2b. Datamine to build statistics on proportional use. March 13th	2. Try to build static 2D visualizations of this mediascape. March 11th
3. With a focus on most prominent categories, do participant observation to examine how communication structures of YouTube (the medium) may influence the content. (Note that this also depends on what we learn in the Mediascape project - as many will be using YouTube as a simple host to launch videos in other locations online) Spring Break - March 15-24	3. Assign further research into each interacting media community as needed (e.g. brief study of Digg community, etc.) Spring Break March 15-24
4. Build a comprehensive list of notable features of YouTube interactions & (if possible) cultural values and ideals of YouTube participants. March 25th SHIFT IN PROJECT: Each student will now do individual 5 minute videos. We will then build a collaborative video from these pieces.	Final Step: Build a video script that can represent "YouTube in the Mediascape" in a compelling way that brings "Aha" moments to those who watch it. First Draft March 27th
5. Analyze the list of "notable features" in relation to the communication structures to explore how the medium influences these values and ideals. (In class March 25th)
Final Step: Build a video script/storyboard that can represent "The Bias of YouTube" (First Draft April 1st)

Ultimate Goal: To promote a form of media literacy that goes beyond a critical understanding of media content, and brings a critical (and creative) understanding of the biases, possibilities, challenges, and constraints of the media themselves.

Various Priorities (possibly competing)

to create a compelling and insightful vision of the mediascape.
to focus on *people* not just technology
to illustrate the biases of different media
to demonstrate how our lives are pervasively digital
to gain research skills that will transfer to other projects / careers

Hooks (compelling visual ideas)

metaphors & the rear-view mirror - a history of the digital through the metaphors used to create & understand it
Where the Hell is Matt ... dancing through the mediascape
YouTube communication structures visualized in real life (the big stuffed mouse-pointer, etc.)
Create various google map mashups showing just how much data is being produced - to show how pervasively digital our lives are.

Insights we might want to express:

anonymity can produce a feeling of profound transcendent connection (not just the "hater" phenomenon)
new social media require ways for people to manage their identities in old and new ways (framing, fronting, etc. -Goffman style analysis)
Media as it is (re)shaping the way that we organize, distibute, sort, and create information and knowledge.

In class (Feb 21 '08), we thought the following 5 parts might be the baseline for our project:

History (Metaphors and the Rear-View Mirror)
Digitization of our Lives
Theory (Merging Media Ecology & Anthropology)
Case Study: YouTube (specifically the communication structures)
YouTube in the Mediascape

Questions / Reservations about these 5 parts:
* may be too focused on the final outcome than on the research itself
* may not be possible - too much
* How do we bring #2 together with the rest. Is it too broad / or irrelevant to #4 & #5?

Anonymity Project

mwesch — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:58:43 CST

research schedule pieces sandbox

Final Videos

scross — Sun, 10 May 2009 23:31:56 CDT

Recipe for the Self by Kelly Marshall

Research Schedule

KatieHines — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:43:05 CDT

Why there is no syllabus and a note about points ... Our goal in this course is to work together to complete the best research project possible. Therefore, given the dynamic nature of ethnographic research, there is no fixed schedule. Even the points below are not fixed. We can redistribute point values at any time. We are simply using points to motivate us all to stay on track and work as well together as we can. Ultimately, our success will not be measured in A's and B's but the quality of our work and its impact on the world.

"S" = Due by Sunday at Midnight
"W" = Due by Wednesday at Midnight
"M" = Due by Monday at Midnight

Before the first day of class: Watch An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube (again if you have already seen it)
ASAP: Complete the IRB Training (25 points)

January 15th - Introducing the Anonymity Project and Collaboration Strategies / Technicalities

S: Set up blog and accounts on Wetpaint and Diigo. Send Wesch the link for your blog's RSS feed. (25)

January 20th - Wesch in Orlando - Discuss Project Ideas / Share links, stories, and videos
Everybody Read: The Trolls Among Us (New York Times)

W: First draft of "Project Trailers" posted to YouTube (tagged with "ksudigg09") and your Blog (25)

January 22nd - We will watch a selection of trailers in class.

S: 5 unique annotated citations on anonymity posted to Zoho. (25)
Read all 75 summaries posted by your colleagues before class

January 27th - Discuss readings and brainstorm project

W: 250 word Project Description posted to blog (25)

January 29th - Discussion about making our projects work together + advanced editing techniques

S: Second draft of Project Trailers posted to YouTube and your Blog (25)

February 3rd - Watch selection of Project Trailers

W: Post Final Draft of Project Trailers to YouTube and your Blog along with final 250 word project description. (25)

February 5th - Co-Create Final Project Trailer in class.

M: Reading Reflections Blog Post (25)

February 10th - Brief History of Digital Ethnography
Virtual Ethnography by Christine Hine
Chapter Ten of the Wealth of Networks by Yochai Benkler (PDF version)

W: Reading Reflections Blog Post (25)

February 12th - Brief History of Digital Ethnography Continued
Silver, David. (n.d.) “Introducing Cyberculture”. Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies.
Post-Human Anthropology by Neil Whitehead (pdf to be e-mailed via listserv)

M: Reading Reflections Blog Post (25)

February 17th - Media Ecology
Lum's Overview of Media Ecology
Clive Thompson on Ambient Intimacy

W: Reading Reflections Blog Post (25)

February 19th - Symbolic Interactionism
Media and Behavior (Chapter 2 of No Sense of Place) by Joshua Meyrowitz
YouTube and You by Michael Wesch (draft)

M: Find and read 3 (hopefully contrasting) articles or two (hopefully contrasting) books relating to your project, using Evernote to take notes.
Summarize and reflect on the readings in a Blog Post, linking to the articles/book(s) you read, and building toward a full literature review. (25)

February 24th - Re-Connecting Our Projects
Discuss Evernote Techniques

W: Complete your literature review by summarizing the broad themes and arguments,
and indicating a clear direction for your research. (25)

February 26th - Digital Field Methods & Ethics Discussion

S: Blog post with detail on proposed field methods (25)

March 3rd - Open Discussion

March 5th - Open Discussion

S: Blog a Brief Research Update and Summary of what you will present this week in class (25)

March 10th - Mid-Semester Presentations (5 minutes with 5 minute discussion) (50)

March 12th - Mid-Semester Presentations Part Two (50)

Friday: Post full text / video / images of your presentation on your blog. (25)

SPRING BREAK

March 24th - Open Discussion / Present at Sapiens Symposium?

March 26th - Open Discussion

S: 1500 word research project paper due March 29th by midnight (posted to your blog): (100 points)

We'll make the Video Production Schedule later. You will have 3 drafts due before the final draft. Each draft must be posted to your blog along with a reflection on research progress and how well your draft illustrates your main ideas.

March 31st - Plan remaining schedule

April 2nd - Revise Group Paragraph/Abstract on Google Docs - Sync Projects - Discuss Interview Material

S: 3ish paragraphs contributing to group paper

April 7th - Final Outline of Argument Due

April 9th - Discuss Script-Writing

S: Script Due

April 14th - Discuss Scripts & Video Techniques

April 16th - Discuss Scripts & Video Techniques (Wesch in Denver)

S: First Draft Due (50)

April 21st - Watch samples from first drafts

April 23rd - Discussion with the New Media Consortium (podcast to scholars worldwide)

S: Second Draft Due (50)

April 28th - Discuss Drafts

April 30th - Discuss Drafts

S: Third Draft Due (50)

May 5th - Discuss Drafts

May 6th - Final Projects Due (100) at midnight

Watch Potluck and First Annual Diggie Awards at Wesch's House - Thursday May 7th

In addition to the grades above:
In-class Participation: 100 points
Online Participation (includes link-sharing, commenting on blogs, building wiki, etc.): 100 points

NMC Discussion

mwesch — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 09:18:42 CDT

To see & hear the full discussion, click here.

April 23rd 2009

How our class works:

First off, we organize it as a research group, not a class.
So, instead of a syllabus we have a research schedule.
The research schedule is editable at any time by anybody involved in the project.

All edits are (almost) instantly reported at our Netvibes research hub via RSS.

The hub also includes a Yahoo Pipe combining the feeds from each of the 15 students' blogs.
There is a second Yahoo Pipe that combines all the comment feeds from those blogs as well.

To the right, we have a feed from our Diigo group, which we use to share links and notes on the web.

The course is entirely purpose-driven, so it does not have much of the traditional structure typically provided by a syllabus, but it is (loosely) structured.

The basic format is this:

First 3 weeks: exploration stage
Second 3 weeks: guided introduction to the field
Next 4 weeks: self-guided research
Due at 11th week: Research paper (followed by collaboration exercises)
Final (16th week): Share with world (video, website, etc.)

Students keep a blog throughout, and do most of their "assignments" as blog posts.

The exploration stage begins with the "94 Articles" activity, allowing us to cover a good chunk of the literature in our research area.
During the exploration stage, students are also making video "trailers" which are ultimately all put together into one single "course trailer"

Anonymity Project - Core Logical Argument

yardiegirl — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:32:43 CDT

1.000 We know ourselves through our relations with others.
1.010 Our relations with others are mediated by media.
1.100 Anything that mediates relations may be considered media (writing, printing, radio, TV, as well as cars, planes, roads, and factories)
1.110 Media are not neutral conduits of information. They are biased.
1.120 Media have intellectual and emotional biases based on symoblic forms
1.121 spatial, temporal, and sensory biases based on physical structure
1.122 political biases based on accessibility of symbolic forms
1.123 social biases based on different types of social situations created by physical form
1.124 metaphysical biases due to the way they organize time and space
1.125 content biases based on symbolic and physical forms
1.130 which together add up to different epistemological biases
1.131 and different ways of relating to one another.
1.200 Since we know each other through our relations (1.0), new media create new ways of knowing ourselves.

1.800 All of this is not to say that other cultural factors are not important (Nazi vs. FDR radio)

1.900 Technology is the objectification of innovative thinking.
1.901 Technologies are not always things – new forms of organization, religion, politics, etc. These “mediate” relations too, and therefor may be studied as media.
1.910 As objects they are used in ways that extend beyond the innovators intentions.
1.920 As social objects used in social ways among many people their uses and effects extend beyond any single individual's intentions.
1.999 Understanding their biases, as well as the who, what, when, why, how and context of how they are used, may allow us to see the otherwise hidden effects and understand how cultures change.

2.000 Writing creates the possibility for separating the communicator from the communicated. Note: also interesting implications for the writer's experience of self, writing for an invisible unknown audience (the first “context collapse”)
2.100 This creates the possibility for anonymous communication.
2.1## explore the possibilities (good and bad) of anonymous communication.
2.200 As printed objects became commodities, modern ideas and ideals of “authorship” emerged.
2.210 Literacy heightens individualism by
2.220 encouraging solitary thought and reflection through private reading
2.230 spreading the analytical “categorical” thought of writing (vs. the relational thought of F2F conversation) - The notion of the “individual” is an emphasis on the category over the relations.
2.300 Other forces of modernity (3.1+) create an increasing sense of anonymity.
2.400 Many authors confront this anonymity by seeking fame and recognition.
2.500 A conflict between authorship and anonymity as an “aesthetic ideal” emerges.

3.000 Media not only allow us to express ourselves anonymously, but also to experience ourselves as anonymous in relation to others.
3.100 Several conditions of modernity contribute to this “cultural motif” of anonymity.
3.110 The technologized and bureacratized mode of production created a bifurcated experience of the self
3.111 We experience ourselves as unique individuals and anonymous functionaries.
3.112 We struggle to find meaning and significance in our anonymous roles.
3.113 We apply the methods, techniques, and metaphors of the technologized mode of production to “construct” our identities, technologizing the self.
3.120 New modes of transportation (faster boats, trains, and eventually cars) allow us to live further and further apart, and further away from our kin networks.
3.122 Suburbs and eventually exurbs.
3.123 We frequently move to follow opportunity, limiting any sense of rootedness.
3.124 We live our lives and experience ourselves as increasingly independent.
3.125 We cherish our independence and individualism while craving community and connection.
3.130 Electronic media (radio, TV, and telephone) allow us to connect from our increasingly isolated homes.
3.131 Radio and TV become the primary media through which the conversation of our culture takes place.
3.132 In the US, a few major networks come to dominate the conversation: the MSM (Main-Stream Media)

CHORUS: New media create new ways of knowing ourselves.

4.000 The MSM operates on money.
4.100 Money is provided by selling commercial time.
4.200 TV=$ (Time * Viewers = Money)
4.300 To make more time for commercials, time between two commercials is short.
4.310 To maintain viewer attention, content is concise.
4.320 This concision makes if very difficult to present new ideas (which take time to defend).
4.400 To appeal to as many viewers as possible, MSM:
4.410 presents content that appeals to large numbers of people
4.420 while not offending anybody.
4.500 The high costs of production ensure that there are few producers.
4.600 that require many consumers to maintain their profit margin.
4.700 This assures MSM is the primary conversation of our culture.
4.710 It is a one-way conversation.
4.720 To have a voice (to be recognized, to be significant), one must be on TV.

5.000 We construct our identities through our relations to others
5.010 in specific contexts 5.020 using a vast array of symbols
5.02# (list of symbols: language, clothing, stance, style, etc.)
5.100 Urbanization, globalization, and mass media bring us in touch with an increasing number of others,
5.110 multiple new and foreign contexts,
5.120 and an even vaster array of symbols for which the meanings are not fully agreed upon.
5.200 We are blessed and cursed with a bounty of choices.
5.210 Due to the plethora of choices, we often feel uncertain about the choices we make.
5.220 To mitigate the uncertainty, we remain open to changing our mind,
5.300 and our identities.
5.310 We experience ourselves as unfinished.

6.000 Many of the symbols we use to express ourselves are commodities.
6.100 Feeling unfinished and ever-changing, we are endlessly consuming commodities to express ourselves.
6.200 The meaning, identity, and significance of commodities are fleeting, constructed with the planned obsolescence that will ensure our future consumption.
6.210 When people “find themselves” it usually marks their transition to a new set of identity items to be consumed. 6.300 Authentic creations are quickly exploited by advertisers, made “cool” and then fake and then dead.
6.300 We become accustomed to fads, and race to stay on the “authentic” front edge.
6.400 Identity becomes attitude - a slightly disconnected posture toward the world that is not totally sold on any single identity, yet can work across multiple contexts without violating our sense of consistent selfhood.
6.500 This is another manifestation of the divided bifurcated self – leading to inauthentic connections with each other and with ourselves.

7.000 The constantly changing self allows for a meta-perspective on the self, which is not just individual, but meta-individual – not just disconnected from others but also disconnected from one's self – the fragmented self.

8.000 In a world of ubiquitous information, products, and symbols ... whatever
8.100 Everything is amazing and nobody is happy.

8.500 Attention becomes scarce.
8.510 The most creative and well-paid people in the world compete for our attention.
8.520 We are bombarded with messages engineered just for us. 8.600 It is flattering.

9.000 MSM is the primary conversation of our culture.
9.100 It is a one-way conversation. 9.200 To have a voice (to be recognized, to be significant), one must be on TV. (denied => more "whatever" attitude)
9.300 In a world of attention scarcity, we crave attention too.
9.310 Flattered as the center of our own mediated world, we think we deserve it.
9.900 As reality TV and the internet create platforms for our participation, we come rushing on stage.

We worship & follow celebrities because: We admire their situation. We want to feel connected but not constrained. (voyeuristic para-experience of relationship)

We want to be celebrities because: We want attention. We feel ready (flattered) We feel disempowered and want power. We want to be authentic creators, not copiers. We want to feel connected and significant. We don't want to be constrained. (parasocial relations can do this).

10.000 The web is not just for celebrity, but for all kinds of connections (including augmenting f2f relations)

11.000 SMS + status updates + ubiquitous mobile networks allow us to be connected at all times.
11.100 This connection is through messages under 140 characters
11.200 Connecting with f2f relations in this way creates ambient intimacy
11.300 Being followed but not following back is akin to fame / celebrity = micro-celebrity.
11.400 Like celebrities, we become micro-managers of our image and reputation.
11.410 We constantly create and recreate our identities against the context of how others already perceive us.
11.420 As we contribute more and more archived and searchable information about ourselves online, the negotiability and flexibility of our identities can become constrained.
11.500 This archived and searchable information also provides a mirror for the self.
11.600 The statements making up this archive are meant for others.
11.610 The process of writing them can “drag you out of your own head” (Laura Fitton via C. Thompson)
11.700 The process of viewing them reflects yourself back to you as you present yourself to others (like the difference between looking at yourself recorded in public vs. looking in a mirror)

CHORUS: New media create new ways of knowing ourselves.

12.000 On the internet, nobody knows you are a dog. (Your physical appearance and personal history are not automatically known)
12.100 The name you use may be your own, a pseudonym, or even no name at all.
We can talk more deeply about identity by not talking about it. (looking at anonymity)

13.000 4chan allows for the possibility of an anonymous community
13.100 This challenges traditional understandings of how people construct identity in relation to others – as others are unknown
13.200 Anonymous challenges traditional notions of “group” and “community”
13.300 It is not made up of individual identities/reputations/etc.
13.400 It is not a fixed set of individuals
13.500 People are a part of it only when they are actively involved

14.000 4chan is the primordial ooze from which many internet phenomena are born. (Caturdays, Chocolate Rain, RickRoll, goatse)
14.100 The conditions for this include:
14.110 anonymity allows contributors to push beyond social norms and the status quo
14.120 anonymity encourages people to stand out and impact others with shocking material
14.130 the people involved are many, very active on the internet, and highly networked across multiple sites
14.140 there is an underlying culture or ethos of playfulness
14.200 In sum: Anonymity + ephemeral dialogue + physical distance = freedom of expression => more creativity

15.000 These memes become core to the shared values, ethos, and language of the culture.
15.100 Referring to these memes and using leetspeak provide ways for people to determine who is “in” and who is “out”
15.200 N3w £4n9µ493$ 3m3r93 70 Ð373rm1n3 1n-9r0µp 4nÐ 0µ7-9r0µp.

16.000 Anonymous values anonymity and rages against the cult of identity / celebrity.
“As the Internet has grown in popularity, a disturbing phenomenon has occurred: Everyone thinks they they are SPECIAL. We have news for you ... You aren't special. You aren't unique. You are a mindless horde of filth, traversing the universe on a small ball of dirt. A speck upon a speck in the vastness of existence. We are here to remind you of this. We cannot be stopped. We have no leader. We have no true names. We are Anonymous, and our numbers are vast. We are everywhere, and we never forgive.

17.000 To disrupt this cult of identity, (and of course, for the LULZ), they troll. "Wherever someone takes themselves too seriously, we will be there. Wherever someone has an inflated ego, we will be there. We will do it through madness. And we will remove you from the high place you have built yourself.”

17.100 Anonymity + ephemeral dialogue + physical distance => freedom to hate / hatred as a public performance
17.200 Or more profoundly: They pose an identity to the other but do not experience that identity themselves (play)

18.000 Anonymity + ephemeral dialogue + physical distance => freedom to express self authentically
18.100 Anonymity + ephemeral dialogue + physical distance => freedom to love authentically
18.200 This Connection without constraint => Deeper Experience of Connection
18.210 Though the connection may not come with many responsibilities (deep but loose)

19.000 Anonymous hacks and reveal to us our inauthentic identities, connections, and the cult of celebrity
19.100 by trolling and chreating chaos for the e-famous and sometimes the IRL famous
19.200 by creating the e-famous out of the absurd (Boxee and Tay Zonday)
19.300 They can do all this in a very sophisticated ways due to their understanding of the mediascape.
Leveraging Digg, Firefox hacks, basic hacking techniques, DDOS, IRC, forums, etc.

20.000 They hack the web – and society, and in doing so, become a mirror for our culture, reflecting it back to us.

CHORUS: New media create new ways of knowing ourselves.

21.000 Sometimes they become vigilantes
21.100 e.g. vs. Scientology
21.150 Split in the community over the disconnect with “for the LULZ” vs. this very serious endeavor 21.160 (example of this IRL from Steve)
21.200 also vs. Kenny Glenn (reminiscent of other e-vigilante episodes)

22.000Leads to questions about the good and the bad of anonymity online Good: protect freedom, privacy, etc. Bad: no accountability

23.000 Behind the scenes, there is a code war between those who want to ensure some traceability vs. those who want complete anonymity – the crypto-anarchists

24.000 As the web becomes more pervasive in physical environments (through a ubiquitous mobile web that can bring unlimited information produced by anybody anywhere about everything & everybody to anybody anywhere), these questions about digital anonymity become more important.
24.100 Futurists all agree that we are trending toward: Ubiquitous networks Ubiquitous computing Ubiquitous information At unlimited speed About everything Everywhere From anywhere On all kinds of devices
24.200 Exponential rates of internet growth, processor speed, and device size suggest that this may come very soon.
24.300 The augmented intelligence that results from this will challenge our notions of selfhood as the machine extensions of ourselves become increasingly a part of us (both literally and figuratively)
24.400 Non-human agents will increasingly mediate our social lives. 24.410 Such agents are already at work in the web (spiders, filters, content monitors, transcribers, viruses, etc.) 24.420 Artificial intelligence may advance to the point that humans frequently interact with non-humans as social beings. Machines may also come to experience their “selves”

25.000 These developments will challenge several traditional dichotomies currently used to understand ourselves: nature / culture
real / virtual
human / machine
even self / other (which will do away with identity / anonymity)

27.000 We can maintain an authentic purpose-driven life through creation. Transform from consumers to creators => even the items we "consume" become elements of our own purposeful creations. The self itself becomes a creative act. De-mediating without denying media and its effects. Use media so it doesn't use you.

March 5, 2009

teosholo — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 00:13:53 CDT

Notes from March 5th. Feel free to add anything I missed!

Here are the individual projects/ideas we discussed today, with workable Big Idea sentence(s) in bold:

Kelly: The state of being anonymous gave rise to the noun “anonymity” because a cultural shift called for its existence...what was this shift, how do we identify it, who is aware of it and how does it define the resulting anonymity?

Caleb: Why do we trust the nameless in their world of anarchy? Cryptoanarchists, hackers, (and social engineering?) used in the manipulation of people in order to create anarchy. The Internet as a tool for creating anarchy and mistrust.

Brin: Vast arrays of everchaning and developing ideas resulting in an exponential amount of potential beings leaves the self eroded and exhausted and less able to construct an identity

Shane: Why in anonymous public opinion forums do we give more respect and are less cruel to those with a high post count or a high comment count? Is it nature’s way/our way of respecting our elders in cyberspace?

Jessica R.: Anonymous: how to distinguish between the playful and the venomous.

Scott: How the media through the whole introduction of the Internet has failed to understand the deep roots of the Internet … they skim over things and make assumptions. Anonymous accentuates this. Media lumps anonymity and hackers into one bad thing.

Jessica I.: As AI technology develops exponentially, the lines between human and machine identity are blurred. What aspects are truly human online? Chatterbox algorithm. Eventually we will be able to reach artifical intelligence because of the exponential advancement of technology. A brain can be said to be something that responds to stimuli in a predictable way. AI will simulate this.… Human identity is only a result of self-awareness and human evolution… Technology will revolutionize that… Non-human persons will interact online. What is “human identity” going to become?” (Who are we?) Given the revolution of technology in which non-human persons interact online, what is going to become of “human identity,” which is only a result of self awareness and human evolution?

"We're actually talking more deeply about identity by not talking about it." -Wesch

The big story...
The state of being anonymous gave rise to the noun “anonymity” because a cultural shift called for its existence...what was this shift, how do we identify it, who is aware of it and how does it define the resulting anonymity? (Kelly) This move to anonymity has led to a crisis of significance where the individual is left normless and nameless – a crisis of anomie. (Kevin) The manifestation of this emotional self and the transition to the postmodern saturated self have left humans consuming happiness as opposed to pursuing it. (Brin) In fact, this materialism may lead us to wonder if we are branding ourselves in a consumer-based society, rather than consuming to relate – are we losing the ability to connect deeply? (Emily) This ambient intimacy has driven us to find new ways of feeling at home, and seeking connection in the uncanny. (Megan) This “home,” as constructed by us and others in cyberspace has led to the rise of virtual communities where we construct our identities and interact with others. (Trapper) As this type of interaction becomes more commonplace, we begin to become aware of our actions, and the actions of others through social networks - as we become microcelebrities, we become more careful about the information we share with others, acting essentially as our own press agents. (Megan) The mainstream media, on the other hand, has its own perceptions of online behavior, and groups who have manipulated it for their own use through anonymity. (Scott) In some ways groups like Anonymous are misunderstood; yet there are cues that can distinguish them as venomous, or playful. (Jessica R.) In a medium where facelessness frees one to break cultural taboos, hese cues can come in the forms of netspeak, memes, and even the context of sites like 4chan itself that allow us to peer into the nature of Anonymous through language. (Greta) The manipulation of this context in order to emphasize Anonymous’s drive to contradict mainstream culture and to provoke real-life reactions from those who read their posts is evident through trolling. (Leschia) For example, is the respect we give to those with higher ratings and post counts on forums nature’s digital way of showing respect for our elders – or does it emphasize a system based on celebrity rather than merit? (Shane) Why should we trust anyone at all in a context where no one has a face? (Caleb) The core of this context is dictated by code, which shapes the structure within which we can interact. The process of code will mold the frame in the future of cyberspace interactions. It has and will begin to overwrite the old code of our humanity. (Steve) Most people on the internet are not writing the actual code of programs or hacking, but rather are exploiting biases and loopholes that already exist in the digital code to rewrite this social code. Then the question becomes what evolutions in communication media will the code-writers and the computer code itself permit or create? (Kate) Given the revolution of technology in which non-human persons interact online, what is going to become of “human identity,” that which is only a result of self awareness and human evolution? (Jessica I.) Despite this trend toward the usurping of humanity by technology, there is a very tangible, human side to the way we interact with complete strangers, which has surfaced in this context as well. With sites like PostSecret, it has become clear that in the midst of an increasingly ambiently intimate society, there is still an aspect of human empathy that allows us to reach out and touch the lives of others. (Katie)

tiny notes to reduce our paragraph:

As new forms of media evolve new forms of anonymity (the crisis of significance in here somewhere, anonymity in a different sense)

part 1: building up self of past transitioning into new media
part 2: looking at online communities with focus on anonymous as a case study
part 3: looking at frameworks all around that

we talk more deeply about identity by not talking about it
even though feeling isolated and lonely we are still able to connect
people embracing media faster and faster each day
"empty feeling of having 3000 twitter followers and not knowing any of them"
mobility needs to play in somewhere around brin or emily

need a transition between sense of disconnection to then connecting to trapper...

individual project descriptions

scross — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:19:38 CDT

**these are listed in tentative order as of our project right now (mid-February)

Kelly:
Some authors recognize the aesthetic ideal to being anonymous…
Where do people feel a sense of anonymity?
Why have people sought out/rejected anonymity throughout history?
The connection according to Ferry as we feel increasingly anon we want to emphasize our personality
My part should give our project grounding so please leave any suggestions here:

Kevin:
Crisis of meaningless, significance, anomie... feeling homeless. Exploring the shift of modernity and its ramifications for the individual. Projecting the shift of postmodernity and its changing ramifications for the individual.

Emily:
Flattered self
Portrayal of the self
Exploitation of flattery
Consequences of the redefinition of the "self"

Brin:
The saturated self
Overchoice

Trapper:
Creation of virtual communities
Needs literature

Scott:
Examining the media perceptions of Anonymous

the difference between modern-day protesters or online criminals

Jessica:
Immersion into anonymous: /b/ 4chan etc.
Derive ethnography of what these cultures are like, how they change over time
Baltimore sun article is good one
New York times piece also

Megan:
What if anon is a woman??
What does it take to get someone to be anonymous?--
Ambient intimacy: Dorm room wall…bathroom walls, series of books of graffiti, forum in collegiate, juicy campus - how people are connecting despite culture of anomie

Greta:
Language as a window into culture…how you build your identity and shape your experience
Moral fags
Focus on data to build theoretical model
Secondary orality?
Language identity among anonymous

Leschia:
Change the context you change the behavior
Trolling is a response to the new context
Response to the collapse of context
Trolls pushing the social norms
Goffman to the psychology of it
Myerwitz is good too

Katie:
Intimacy amongst strangers
Case studies: PostSecret, Found Magazine, Project Mortified
art and creativity
Link from context collapse

Kate:
Collective identity versus individual identity
Social disconnect of all the identity types
*Kate’s project context person now…how anon manipulates twitter and the like by figuring out codes

Shane:
Documenting where anonymous communities public discussion have led to actual published repots by journalists
Comments under a story will lead to another story
How comments affect the medium

*Elizabeth Cochran (Nellie Bly) diagnosed as criminally insane in order to go to Roosevelt island, published anonymous reports of the terrible treatment of patients

Steve:
Code is becoming the toll or extension of the person
Depending on who is writing the code and how much they have control over it
Chinese social networking/search engine versus US’
Code gonna use people or we use it to blossom into aawsumness

Caleb:
Crypto-anarchy
Police state that could possibly emerge on the internet
What is happening because of this?
What are the implications?
No say what so ever or extreme battle of crypto-anarchist

Jessica Ice:
Web bots…niche?
Transhumanism focus: descriptive
Pertinent technologies: code is entering our everyday lives in non-technological things…addition of hyperlinks in our real world (arc ID and two dimensional barcodes)
Linking every day objects to our virtual world
Basic cyborg transformation of human
George the chatter bot (AI discussion)
Mirror trapper (tracing the use of anonymity)
*Think about implications of anonymity and identity

KYHOI

zzzmegzzzz — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 19:55:31 CST

K: Where are you anonymous and don't recognize it?
Kev: How do we feel homeless now?
Brin: Desire for authenticity / individuality "be yourself" + Uber-commercialization + ready-made identitie$ = saturated
Emily: Are we losing the capacity to connect deeply? ("brand community")
Trapper: new home for the virtual (which we have always had) ... (community)
Megan: These new virtual communities became a reflection of a celebrity obsessed culture...the lonely self dresses herself up in their image to try and reach outside her isolation..we see the micro-celebrity's obsession with the mirror has the side effect of an uncanny connection, ambient intimacy, where profound yet loose networks are emerging - self-obsession turns to self-awareness and opens the doors to possibilities of new collective notions of identity-
Scott: Media perceptions of anonymous
Jessica R: Anonymous vs. Celebrity / Identity / etc.
Leschia: Types of trolling, motivations for it, and how it marks norms.
Greta: Memes mark in-group / out-group.
Does anonymity mask our ability to express our individuality or free us?
Kate: Media dictate/shape the message. How anonymous becomes the primordial ooze ...
Shane: Why in anonymous public opinion forums do we give more respect and are less cruel to those with a high post count or a high comment count? Is it nature’s way/our way of respecting our elders in cyberspace?
Caleb: Silly N00B, hacks are for cons. Why do we trust the nameless in their world of anarchy?
Steven: The process of code will mold the frame in the future of cyberspace interactions. It has and will begin to overwrite the old code of our humanity.
Jessica:

Katie: The human side of the story ... the post-secret effect, etc.

February 24, 2009

yardiegirl — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 20:16:59 CST

In regard to lit reviews:

When trying to read mass amounts of information in a short period of time:

Be okay with not getting it all

Keep main idea in mind while reading through the article…what have I already read? what’s the point of what I’m doing?

Keep the basic questions of what you want to find out in mind (what does the reading have to do with what you're doing)

Learn to recognize author’s names and what they represent

Follow citations and get really good material of what the author is saying about material you're reading

If you have one article or one "something" that really exemplifies what you’re doing search that (such as an intro from collection of essays)

Evernote:

Sets up a database of whatever you want

Tag each whatever you create

Keeping track of what you’ve read so far then later you can search it

Remember a certain phrase from a doc and you don’t remember where it is...you can search it super easy

Staying up with your final video:

Time line of ideas you want to represent and how much time you need for each

How to visually represent these ideas

"To do list":

Add a blurb to the “blog description” so we know what your project is about

Get on the wikipage and double check info and add a link to your blog

quote of the day: "Questions, concerns, comments…feedback in general" :)

Random notes:

Alex burns has literature on vlogging

The information ecology of social media and online communities: article on kate’s blog under the most recent post as of 23.02

class notes`

yardiegirl — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 20:15:33 CST

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

Pieces Sandbox

zzzmegzzzz — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 23:47:37 CST

Use this page to brainstorm all the pieces of the research we might need for our study of anonymity.

History of anonymity (ancients, as well as anonymity in US history)
1930 "The Cult of Anonymity" Article in the Nation:"It gives an account of a contemporary group of unidentified writers in Paris who were withhold ing their names from their published productions in an effort "to curb the exploitation of personalities, and to establish 'the art as an ideal, not the ego.'"11 While the noun here is attached to writings actually printed without name, its looser meaning almost as an antonym for personality smoothed the way for its use elsewhere for written pieces in fact signed by the author but exhibiting the impersonality associated with anonymity by removing the poet, so to speak, from the poem" - from Anne Ferry

Lowenfels and Fraenkel believed that men who understood the disintegration of the modern world to be a stubborn fact should be anonymous as writers, undifferentiated from an audience whose death they shared. The days of personal authorship were over. The best the writer could hope for was creative suicide: anonymity. They had collaborated on a 29 page pamphlet arguing the point, titled Anonymous: The need for anonymity (1930): "The Anonymous struggle to project the completed novel, or poem, becomes the struggle for a world ideal, creation; not the advancement of any one poet's standing, or recongnition'...If he is an artist, that is enough."

Jay martin
Always Merry And Bright (Biography of Henry Miller)

The Ultimate Paradox: anonymity as an aesthetic ideal and as a cultural condition.

Anonymity as Aesthetic Ideal (and perhaps moral ideal as well)
1925: E. M. Forster puts his name on the title page under the calculatedly impersonal title Anonymity: An Enquiry, which makes the essay sound like a disinterested investigation of a public issue. It is not that, but an urgently felt argument for a return to the literary past when "writers and readers . . . did not make a cult of expression as we do to day. (also see TS Eliot)

Anonymity as Anomie - The Crisis of Significance
"In an article by the literary journalist Henry Seidel Canby in 1926 titled "Anon is Dead," both anonymous and anonymity are key words in the explanation he proposed for the phenomenon discussed earlier: that in the twentieth century works of literature rarely appear in print unsigned, while before 1850 there were as many important books of all sorts first printed anonymously as with the writer's name attached. The blame for this historical change is not to be laid to the "vanity" of authors, but to the longing for "escape from the deadly anonymity of modern life," which generates the "passion for nonanonymity" in the "general man who feels his personality sinking lower and lower into the whirl of indistinguishable atoms to be lost in a mass civilization." As a consequence, this "general man" longs for "vicarious experience" to be found in the intimate writings of "rich, glaring personalities" whose well publicized names become legendary.14 In the language of the article, anonymity has become, in effect, a new word with a new frame of reference. It is associated with "City living" which is "essentially impersonal," but also with "standardized" feelings, with "science" and its "laws that. . . ignore individuality completely, with all that to the writer constituted "mass civilization."" - Quoted from Anne Ferry
"A brief catalogue of examples of very different writings confirms Raymond Williams's observation that "a common structure of feeling was being formed," which in the twentieth century came to be gathered in the noun anonymity." (Anne Ferry)

"In the new cities . . . the old warm attachments, born of ancient, local contiguity and personal intercourse, vanished in the fierce contest for wealth among thousands who had never seen each other's faces before." _ Arnold Toynbee 1881

Include History of "Whatever" and "Meh"

Brief History of CMC (Computer-Mediated Communication) in relation to Anonymity
See Rheingold 1993 Virtual Communities, Turkle 1995, etc.
(in part it can be seen as a response to crisis of significance and overall feeling of disconnection. In another way, it can be seen to extend the problem)

The Age of Microcelebrity (Read de Zengotita's Mediated)
"Fans, in their anonymity, got more and more restless. Celebrities held a monopoly on the most precious scarce resource in an increasingly mediated society. Attention. They were gorging on it. For spectators, the most basic of specifically human needs - the need for acknowledgment, for significance - was left unsatisfied. ... They are already performing their lives ... Now they want to be recognized ... All that was lacking was the means. Until recently. Now the representational spaces have been technologically magnified ... That's the condition that allows the virtual revolution to take place. But spectators were primed for it, motivated to undertake what the technology only made possible."

"Robert Murphy, who introduced me to anthropology at Columbia lo these many years ago, used to sum up the difference between modern societies and the small-scale hunter-gatherer communities in which human nature took shape in this way: "everyone is famous in a tribe." He meant us to understand that, for human beings, the need to be recognized is almost as basic as food. The force behind the virtual revolution is primordial." - de Zengotita 116-117

text from an anonymous website posted after an anonymous / Patriotic Nigras attack on Second Life:

"As the internet has grown in popularity, a disturbing phenomenon has occurred: Everyone thinks they they are SPECIAL. We have news for you... You aren't special. You are a mindless horde of filth, traversing the universe on a small ball of dirt. A speck upon a speck in the vastness of existance. We are here to remind you of this. We will take all of the filth in the world; images you never want to see, stories you never want to hear, memories you never want to see again, we will bring it all into the light of day and laugh at it as you run screaming, We cannot be stopped. We have no leader. We have no true names. We are Anonymous, and our numbers are vast. We are everywhere, and we never forgive. Wherever someone takes themselves too seriously, we will be there. Wherever someone has an inflated ego, we will be there. We will do it through madness. And we will remove you from the high place you have built yourself." See also YouTube Watchdog

History of Anonymous (4chan, /b/, etc.)

Digital Ethnography @ KSU - Recently Updated Pages

Research Schedule 2010

Collaboration Strategies

Tutorials

Guiding Insights

Fieldnotes

Resource Notes

Discussion Notes

Spring 2008 Project Sandbox

Anonymity Project

Archive

Final Videos

Research Schedule

NMC Discussion

Anonymity Project - Core Logical Argument

March 5, 2009

individual project descriptions

KYHOI

February 24, 2009

class notes`

Pieces Sandbox