Com 154

Imagining Communities

"In most fields [online interactive communities] will consist of geographically separated members, sometimes grouped in small clusters and sometimes working individually. They will be communities not of common location, but of common interest. . . ." Licklider and Taylor, 1968 Advance Research Projects Agency (ARPA)

A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace by John Perry Barlow

Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather

Gattiker on Social Capital

Social capital is - the 'goodwill' in a community available for common purposes - in a firm, a productive resource that helps the creation of value - a set of social resources included in human interactions, norms, and values - formed by social structure (roles), trust in relations, and an understanding of common goals

Robert Fano, 1972

- "On the Social Role of Computer Communication" -Celebrates the marriage of computers and communication -Social developments create a vast demand for computer services -Society would grind to a halt without automated computing

The Eighties

-1980 -- Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, conceives of the World Wide Web, a global hypertext system -1983-90 - TCP/IP links a spreading network of networks, forming the Internet

Blanchard & Horan (2000)

-Apply the theory of social capital to online communities -Start by documenting a decline in citizen participation in real-world communities -Note that this development impedes the ability of communities to function -Putnam's theory of social capital provides a theoretical framework -Several scholars have documented the rise of online communities

False dichotomies

-Are online communities determined by their participants or by the technology of the Internet? -If you're a parent and you want a child to go to bed, you could ask, Do you want to brush your teeth first or put on your jammies? -This choice distracts the child from the fact that she doesn't want to go to bed at all

Cascading Possibility Spaces

-At any given moment, your current skills and resources define a horizon of possible actions -Once you make a choice, new possibilities open up - while the old close behind you

Greenberger (1964): The Promise of Computing

-Computing is a general service, like electricity -Its potential uses are revealed gradually, through people's inventiveness -Electricity is now used in novel ways • producing sound and light • controlling and running machines • transmitting information (radio, telephone) -Symbolic computation can similarly be harnessed for a wide variety of tasks -imaging we are going to turn computing into a service Barring unforeseen obstacles, an on-line interactive computer service, provided commercially by an information utility, may be as commonplace by 2000 AD as telephone service is today. -- Martin Greenberger, 1964

Amichai-Hamburger et al. (2002)

-Do people view their online identity as more real than their real-life identity? -This study found that more introverted personality types are more likely to locate their real selves online -The authors argue that the Internet provides real benefits for people who are introverted and have difficulties creating local social networks

Internet Services ("Protocols")

-FTP - File Transfer Protocol - is used to move files between computers -TELNET and SSH - Secure Shell Protocol - are used to log into a remote computer -HTTP - Hypertext Transfer Protocol - is used to request web pages from a server

Is the mind a set of hyperlinks?

-How do actual human minds perceive, organize, store, and recall information? -The mind handles information in ways that are far more complex than what can be mimicked by the World Wide Web

The evolution of hypertext

-Hypertext was designed to be the record of an individual mind organizing scientific information -The original conception of an associative information network does not match its actual implementation in the WWW -An individual user can still create his or her own virtual memex on the web -"at present, most hypermedia systems support linkages indicating only that one unit of information is somehow related to another unit of information, without specifying the nature of this relationship and a rationale for its existence..." - "In contrast, human memory supports a much stronger linking mechanism that both establishes a relationship and conveys information about the associational nature of the link" Nelson & Palumbo (1992)

Dibbell, A Rape in Cyberspace

-In LambaMOO, a respected character called Mr. Bungle "entered sadistic fantasies into the 'voodoo doll,' a subprogram that served the not-exactly kosher purpose of attributing actions to other characters that their users did not actually write -He enacted a series of perverse and violent actions on the bodies of the participants

Avoiding a totalitarian society (cont/ of fano)

-In order to maintain a democratic society, the general population must be educated in computers -We must ensure that a small elite does not gain too much power -Computers augment human intelligence; the goal must be to lift all of society -Without an awareness of individual dignity, a computerized society can become a nightmare

Identity and Accountability

-In the real world, we regulate people's behavior by holding them accountable for what they do -We link their actions at some point in time and place to consequences at some other time and place -We track their social and physical identities: a single identity is critical for holding people accountable -In the real world, physical reality - the "laws" of physics - act as a consistent set of constraints -Social laws are added on top of physical law to constrain people's behavior -Neither of these laws are necessarily in effect in cyberspace -You can imagine physical laws to be different -You can avoid social laws by adopting an online identity that is not linked to your real-world identity

The Electronic Lover

-Lindsy van Gelder's "Strange Case of the Electronic Lover" from 1991 tells the story of a New York psychiatrist pretending to be a woman on CompuServe, one of the first commercial networks available to subscribers

On the shoulders of giants

-Newton said, "I stand on the shoulders of giants" -- meaning that the work of earlier scientists had made his own discoveries possible -We all stand on the millions of shoulders of those who came before us - everyone who took care of us, taught us language and skills, built the houses and the roads, started institutions

Complementary perspectives

-Online communities are the result of people's desires, intentions, and actions (the cultural constructivist view) -At the same time, what you desire, intend, and do depends on your background and your circumstances -Your history and circumstances depend on the actions of others - including their technological innovations

Structural Secrecy

-Similarly, the TCP/IP protocol does not require you to declare the nature of the content you are transmitting -In fact it does not allow you to declare what type of information you're transmitting -There is no "customs officer" function within the protocol -There is not even a "table of contents" function -This creates a basic structural secrecy on the Internet

Is the Internet inherently free?

-Some Internet commentators have suggested the Internet is inherently impossible for a government to control -John Perry Barlow: "Information wants to be free" -"Censorship is a network error - we route around it" -Others argue that the freedom of the Internet is a historical contingency - a result of design choices -It could have been otherwise - and it can be changed in the future

Suler (2004)

-Suler argues that anonymity of the Internet facilitates "online disinhibition" "Benign disinhibition" "Toxic disinhibition"

Cultural constructivism

-Surratt argues instead for a cultural constructivism perspective -Online communities are the result of people's desires, intentions, and actions -Technology is not an autonomous force that creates effect on its own -The Internet in itself does not change society

The Architecture of the Internet

-The Internet was designed as a distributed control system that would survive a nuclear attack (WW2) -Information transmitted on the Internet is transmitted in a digital format -Packet switching is used to make sure that the information reaches its destination

Structural Anonymity

-The Internet, in its basic design, does not identify its users -Machine nodes are identified through numbers, such as 128.97.184.145 -These numbers can be fixed or assigned dynamically -At most, they identify the port that a particular computer is connected to -They do not identify the user of the machine

The Internet and Hypertext

-The World Wide Web is only a part of the Internet -It is the part that is linked through hypertext -The Web is a massive hypermedia system -Hypertext is distinguished from other media, such as television and radio, by a high degree of user control -The user has some level of control over the pace of information flow, the order of its appearance, and the content itself. -The user decides when he wants a certain type of information and how much of it he wants Theorists argue that "the structure of hypermedia and the process of its use mimics the associative structure of human memory and the function of human information processing." Eveland & Dunwoody (2000)

What is social capital?

-The intangible value created through informal social contacts -The key elements are networks, norms, and trust -First developed by sociologist Pierre Bourdieu in the 70s and 80s -Achieved public awareness through Robert Putnam's 2000 book Bowling Alone

Native Information Processing

-The mind has evolved and learned a set of fundamental strategies for managing information -These typically operate without explicit and conscious information management decisions -They are not necessarily cognitively penetrable

The Psychology of the Internet

-The technical challenges of constructing the internet were initially focused on making everything work -As soon as the Internet was operational, it became a communicational medium -This medium brought out - and continues to bring out - new and surprising dimensions of human psychology -One aspect of this was planned: the Internet as an extension of human memory

Networks, Norms, and Trust

-Trust eases cooperation -Putnam argues social trust arises from two sources: - Norms of reciprocity - Networks of civic engagement -Information about a person's trustworthiness travels through his or her social network of relationships -Dense social networks increase the potential cost of defection, fostering collaboration

The Computers of 1964

-Twenty thousand computers in the US -A similar number in the rest of the world -Owned by government institutions, universities, and large businesses -Computers have been growing steadily faster and more capable -Many think the power and spread of computers has peaked -Will the spread of computers plateau?

Internet Freedom Freedom on the Internet is the result of two related technological features:

-Virtualization removes the constraints of physical appearance, proximity, personal identity, and time -Anonymity removes the constraints of norms and laws -What are the consequences of the psychology of the individual and group behavior of these freedoms?

Defining possibilities

-What we can do in our lives is a function of what everyone else has done before us - and what other people are doing now -We define each others' possibility spaces, and our possibility spaces are defined by history -This doesn't mean we're determined by history - these spaces are huge -Innovation around the Internet takes place in a series of stages, each building on the previous, but in ways that were unanticipated at the time

Nine questions for virtual communities (Wellman & Gulia)

1) Acceptance and support 2) New relationships 3) Reciprocity and community 4) Intimacy 5) Competitive investment 6) Diversity and integration 7) Technological determinism 8) Nuclei or spiderwebs 9) Autonomous or grounded

Two Threats to Freedom

1. Government control and surveillance 2. Corporate agendas and information gathering -Governments and corporations often have shared or overlapping goals -Their intentions and desires will spur the development of specific technological implementations on the Internet

The First Computers

1932: Polish Army breaks early version of German Enigma code ciphering machine 1939: Blechley Park, Great Britain established as center for code breaking activities 1939: Hitler Invades Poland 1940: Alan Turing develops Bombe, highspeed electro-mechanical calculator 1941: United States enter World War II 1942: John Mauchly proposes development of completely electronic "computer" 1944 -- First computer operational at Bletchley Park, Britain's code-breaking headquarters 1945 -- Vannevar Bush publishes his conception of the Memex 1946: Mauchly and Eckert release the first electronic digital computer in the US (the ENIAC)

The Sixties

1964 -- Paul Baran publishes his paper on packet switching, later implemented in the Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) 1969 -- ARPANET is initiated, linking UCLA and Stanford, based on the work of Glen Kleinrock This included the development of the first protocol for transferring files, the File Transfer Protocol (ftp)

The Early Seventies

1972 -- The first e-mail is sent -While packet switching was initially designed for launching Minuteman missiles, ARPANet rapidly became used for communication between people

The Late Seventies

1977 -- The first personal computers 1978 -- TCP/IP is completed (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) 1979 -- Usenet is initiated

The First Web Sites

1990 -- ARPANET is decommissioned. The World Wide Web is initiated at CERN in Switzerland 1991 -- SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator) becomes the first US web site Gopher developed at U Minnesota

What year was the first web site established?

1991, SLAC becomes the first US web site

The First Web Browsers

1992 -- Lynx, a text-based web browser, is developed 1993 -- Mosaic, the first graphic user interface web browser, developed by NCSA 1994 -- Netscape, the first commercial web browser, is released

The Information Superhighway

1994 -- Vice President Al Gore's speech in UCLA's Royce Hall on the Information Superhighway 1995 -- The World Wide Web is opened for commercial uses 1999 -- Number of web servers approaches ten million

Give an argument for implementing such a change in code

A change to make everything not anonymous would mean that people would have to actually be accountable for what they say on the internet, which could lead to less cyber bullying, and other harmful hate speech

Give an example of a change in the underlying code of the internet that would make it less free

A code that would make it less free would be to take away the anonymous. We are free because we are not constrained to our self-identities.

What is the Internet as a revolutionary technology approach?

An aspect of technological determinism of which communications are autonomous, cause social change, constitute the mass media, result in mass society. If you have a certain technology it is going to cause social change. One a technology is invented; society is going to be driven in that direction. "The medium is the message."

How do the visions of freedom on the Internet of John Perry Barlow, and Lawrence Lessig contrast?

Barlow argues that there is no legal code, we can do whatever we want. Lessig says there is a computer code that becomes the new law. Thinks the internet needs to be protected because it enables the kind of creativity that should be known as the greatest goods of society.He sees it in legal terms, what happens in the past 20-30 years, there is a push by people who want to control information, limiting access of information, and he thinks we should fight against it. We should maintain a society that values freedom and we need to be active and not taken for granted. The threats to freedom comes from The threats to freedom comes from 1. The wealthy institutions, the technocratic elite 2. Governments ?? John Perry Barlow's vision—cyber space has no government, that the global social space is naturally independent of the tyrannies you seek to impose on us. There is no moral right to rule the cyber space, nor is there any method of enforcement. Cyberspace does not lie within boarders. Forms their own social contract. A free world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or place of birth.

What is the memex?

Bush imagined a microfilm mounted on a large disk and accessible through multiple viewers The purpose of the memex was to make large amounts of information readily. The principle of organization was associative. In this way, a network would be created that Bush felt would mirror the way the human brain organizes information.

Give an argument against implementing such a change in code

By taking away the anonymous aspect to the internet, we would be much more reserved in sharing our thoughts, opinions, and I would argue we would be suppressing our curiosity and honest questions if everything we search, say, or engage in can be tied back to your own identity.

"Code is Law"

Cyberspace is regulated and constrained by the programming. The computer code that makes the virtual world of the Internet possible is in effect a kind of law. Lessig says there is a computer code that becomes the new law. Thinks the internet needs to be protected because it enables the kind of creativity that should be known as the greatest goods of society.He sees it in legal terms, what happens in the past 20-30 years, there is a push by people who want to control information, limiting access of information, and he thinks we should fight against it. We should maintain a society that values freedom and we need to be active and not taken for granted. The threats to freedom comes from

What in your view was the most dramatic development in computing technology by 2000 that Greenberger did not foresee?

I don't think in 1964, Greenberger could have anticipated the physical size of the computing technology, nor the vast amount of users what was around 400 million in 2000.

Surratt's critique of the "media effects" framework

It claims that communication technologies - Are autonomous - Cause social change - Constitute the "mass media" - Result in "mass society" "The medium is the message" (McLuhan)

Vannevar Bush's Memex

MICROFILM MOUNTED ON A LARGE DISK ACCESSIBLE THROUGH MULTIPLE VIEWERS -Bush imagined a microfilm mounted on a large disk and accessible through multiple viewers -The invention - never implemented - uses miniaturized analog technology -Bush did not foresee the digital revolution - Idea to be used to link information for people like scientist- to create a cognitive network of associations. Considered a pre-WWW

Dynamics of society and technology

New technologies change what is possible Tech effects Social values and strategic decisions inform the development of technologycultural construction

What was it about packet switching that required a new and different network?

Packet switching requires memory, and Analog Networks don't retain a memory when information travels through them. If broken, there is no memory of the signal and you cannot reach that node through another route.

Packet Switching

Packet switching requires memory, and Analog Networks don't retain a memory when information travels through them. If broken, there is no memory of the signal and you cannot reach that node through another route. Packets of information are transmitted along the network, and by using the hold & forward logic (wait until you get a confirmation & if you don't, you try again). Every message that travels through is broken down and a copy is kept, so that the network has memory. Packet switching is used to make sure that the information reaches its destination by building memory into the network and making rerouting possible.

How does packet switching work?

Packets of information are transmitted along the network, and by using the hold & forward logic (wait until you get a confirmation & if you don't, you try again). Every message that travels through is broken down and a copy is kept, so that the network has memory. Packet switching is used to make sure that the information reaches its destination by building memory into the network and making rerouting possible.

"Toxic disinhibition" Suler

People are rude, angry, hateful -may create communities of people who are racist/prejudice

"Benign disinhibition" Suler

People contribute a lot, are very generous with their contributions

What is Martin Greenberger's vision in 1964 of the future of computers? What did Martin Greenberger imagine the "Computers of Tomorrow" might be able to do?

Predicted that if general political and economic conditions allow, 1. computing service will reach homes, offices, classrooms, laboratories, factories, etc. Computing power for everyone! 2. Computers would be able to assess insurance risk, 3. computerized market exchange, 4. simulation studies would flourish.

Major Dimensions of Native Information Management Systems (NIMS)

Quality - Can I trust that it's accurate? Relevance - How does it matter to me? Domain - Where does it apply?

How is hypertext similar & different to the methods the human mind uses to create associative links?

Similar in the sense that we organize by associations, and link pieces of information between other pieces of information. By linking parts of documents to each other, an information network would be created that bush felt reproduced the way information was linked in the mind. However, dissimilar in the sense that human memory links are richer. They support a much stronger linking mechanism that both establishes a relationship and conveys information about the associational nature of the link's. Native information Processing is typically operated without explicit and conscious information management decisions. The mind tracks history, the type of information, the source of information, relevance, and where it applies (quality, relevance, domain)

Putnam's definitions of Social Capital

Social capital is the "features of social organization such as networks, norms, and social trust that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit" (Putnam 1995) -It is a measure of civic engagement, "people's connections with the life of their community"(Putnam 1995)

What is the social constructivist approach?

Tech in its self doesn't have the power to cause social change. Thus the internet can't cause social change because it isn't human. Online communities are the result of peoples desires, intentions, and actions. Technology is not an autonomous force that creates effect on its own.

Describe the development of computers from the 1930s to the 1960s?

The development of from the 30s to the 60s was very slow moving with little groundbreaking developments. By the 60's there were only about 20 thousand computers, and those were limited to the elite, universities, and to large institutions.

Explain how the network topology used by packet switching differed from the existing telephone network design?

The network typology of packet switching was a robust distributed network, while network design of a telephone network is decentralizing or centralized network, by which if one node is broken, the message will not be able to transfer. The decentralized network is robust, redundant, and cheap to make.

How are these two perspectives related to each other?

They are two aspects of the unfolding and enfolding of possibility spaces.

Who was responsible for implementing this vision in the hypertext protocol of the WWW?

Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland in 1980 conceives of the WWW a global hypertext system.

The WELL

WELL: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Links -One of the first electronic networks open to the general public -Founded in 1985 in San Francisco -Howard Rheingold documented his experience on this virtual community in The Virtual Community: Homesteading at the Electronic Frontier(1993)

Psychology and Structure is Linked

• Such abuses of the communicative medium of the Internet are specifically enabled by the technological choices made by engineers and programmers • The Internet was and is deliberately designed to be a space of free and open communication