Reflection on reflections

Hi all,

After reading a heap of these reflective essays tonight (just before the comments are due...) I realise most people have mostly positive things to say about all the sites. This lead me to wonder: Will anyone continue using these sites?

Personally, I use Facebook every day, and will continue to. I also scrobble all my songs to Last.fm, and have for years now. I may peer in on Twitter once in a while, but other than that I will be dropping the rest of them.

What does everyone else think? Anyone fallen in love with these sites?

BECOMING A TWITTER-LEBRITY: THE LEGACY OF SOCIAL COMPUTING.

INTRODUCTION

Social computing practices offer pertinent insights into social and technological interactions, in addition to the behaviors of users interrelated within these forums. They allude to a sense of connectivity on a global scale, with the promise of omnipresent users no longer divided by cultural boundaries. Users engaging with social software are in many instances, able to sustain relationships with others in diverse geographical and social contexts. Of genuine interest is how and why these connections are established, in addition to understanding the motives in maintaining these interactions. Also of precedence are the popularity of particular users and the rationale behind their social stardom. In a cultural environment heavily influenced by fame and the notion of celebrity, how much does the realm of social computing reflect this, and who are the online stars?

BACKGROUND

Within the current spectrum of social computing are a multitude of microblogging systems allowing users to broadcast short instant messages or micromedia articles featuring image and audio clips. While other social networking tools including Facebook and Bebo have now also incorporated status update services, Twitter is perhaps the most notable of these systems.

Since its inception in 2006, Twitter has reached great heights and become one of the most widely used social networking devices attracting over six million users to date[1]. “In its short history, Twitter has become an important marketing tool for celebrities, politicians and businesses, promising a level of intimacy never before approached online, as well as giving the public the ability to speak directly to people and institutions once comfortably on a pedestal[2].”

Free and readily accessible via the website or with mobile technology, Twitter invites users to “Tweet” by responding to the question “What are you doing?” and in doing so launches them into the “Twitter-sphere” where the replies of others are constantly streamed.

FOCUS

This investigation examines prominent users of social computing networks through a personal reflection of Twitter’s users and its content. Of consideration are the motives of both followers and the followed, with themes of voyeurism and connectivity of key importance. Posed are questions regarding the attraction to prolific posters, known in this instance as Twitter-lebrities, and how these users obtained such status.

REFLECTION

Prior to joining Twitter and becoming a Tweeter, if albeit a rather lax one, I had been mildly aware of the social scene created by its supporters. I knew of others who used it religiously and were dazzled by the results, but believing it required constant updates and, having owned a Facebook account for sometime without ever refreshing my status, I felt that Twitter was perhaps not for me. And then I stepped into the Twitter-sphere…

Strangely enough, my interest in Twitter did not lie with Tweeting. Perhaps it was my somewhat reserved nature, but the idea of publishing intimate details of my life filled me with a sense of dread. I feared that my accounts aided no real social contributions, and that the question of what I was doing was bound to be met with mediocre and staged responses. Broadcasting the contents of my breakfast or rehashing whimsical quips would never be within my grasp. Instead, occasional mundane anecdotes would be the sum total of my contributions to the world of Twitter. To date I have made just eighteen of these.

My Twitter experience began quite humbly by testing the premise of my updates. It was not until I became ill that I truly began to explore the scope that Twitter had to offer. Housebound for the week, I began to seek out familiar faces, and when confronted with a lack of these, I sought more popular figures. I soon discovered the likes of Stephen Fry, David Bowie, Martha Stewart and Russell Brand among others. Most enticing about this exercise was the ability to follow others and gain insight into lives far more interesting than my own.

Within a short space of time I learned that Martha (we were on a first name basis by this stage), was preparing lamb and artichokes for her Easter menu, and that Stephen’s extensive trek around the continents had left him suffering from a rather bad case of jet lag. Perhaps luckily for Stephen, David, Martha, Russell and the others, friendship and followers never have to be reciprocated on Twitter. Unlike Facebook, I can search and follow anyone with a public profile without seeking permission. In this sense, Twitter accommodates for a type of one-way social interaction, meaning that all of these folk remained blissfully unaware of my failed attempts to keep the globe informed of my whereabouts.

If it were anywhere other than within a digital realm, this behavior might seem a little stalker-like, and a restraining order would probably ensue. Given the context of these interactions however, this conduct is perhaps better described as virtual voyeurism, offering a chance to peek into the workings of the minds, or mindlessness in some cases, of those being followed. And whilst voyeurism implies that the viewer is gaining access without knowledge or consent, Twitter legitimizes this desire to pry into the lives of others with its’ public forum. From this perspective, I found that Twitter acted as my own personal news feed - one that is not shaped by tragedy and destruction, but by human transponders. And for me, this is at least part of the universal fascination with Twitter, and gave clue to the totality and rise of the Twitter-lebrity.

New found Twitter fame for those now referred to as Twitter-lebrities, seems to be largely based on large volumes of postings and large numbers of followers. The rationale it would seem is one of quantity not quality. Britney Spears is perhaps the best example of this. Constantly appearing in Twitter’s most followed list[3], her updates are always featured in the third person and detail what can only be described as trivial information about her current tour locations and links to the sales department of her website. The attraction to Britney’s lackluster postings is questionable, as too is the ever-growing popularity of so many others prone to proclaiming such trivialities. Within the Twitter-sphere it would seem, there are no limits on frivolity. Perhaps we find comfort the consistent constant droll of information, or maybe it is the chance at some kind of connectivity with those so distant from us that provides the true attraction to the Twitter-lebrity and the legacy they leave behind.

CONCLUSION

As we locate ourselves along the linear narrative of history, Twitter draws our attentions to the present, with an almost obsessive microscopic accuracy. Streams of information enter our consciousness on an incessant basis, and regardless of the apparent myopic and somewhat vapid nature of these postings, we are drawn to this engagement.

The Twitter-lebrity offers many a chance to forge relationships and partake in conversations that are altogether different to those maintained outside the Twitter-sphere[6]. It is a chance to connect with anyone, anywhere in the world regardless of social status or cultural taboo. And it is this desire for connectivity that has made the concept of the Twitter-lebrity so appealing[4]. Requiring little more than a high frequency of updates, Twitter stardom can be achieved by all and any. It is challenged only in the notion that Twitter-lebrities are required to maintain an existence that can sustain the attention of others, and find the time to Tweet about it. As surmised by Abraham in his writings on becoming an overnight Twitter success: “Growing a social media profile is like growing a coral reef: after seeding the reef, there are so many things that need to happen before a reef blooms. There are many things that can aid the reef: safety, cleanliness, warmth, nutrients, oxygenation, however, the most important things are time and commitment[5].”

Finding said time and commitment is perhaps where the greatest challenge prevails. Maintaining such a profile is indeed a permanent occupation, as witnessed by the awakening of positions for Twitter Ghosts. Described by Cohen[7] and Frommer[8] as recession proof roles, this new means of employment promises that true Twitter-lebrities no longer have to find the time to write about their own fantastical lives, but can pay someone else to do it. And therein lies one of the shortcuts in reaching Twitter stardom: Outsourcing – be it for talent, time or the desire to have someone else constantly Tweeting about you.

REFERENCES

[1] S. J. Stevens. (2008). Twitter Explained. [Online]. Available: http://tweeternet.com/.

[2] The New York Times. (2009). Twitter. [Online]. Available: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/twitter/index.html?8qa&scp=1-spot&sq=&st=nyt.

[3] Twitterholic. (2009). Top 100 Twitterholics Based on Followers. [Online]. Available: http://twitterholic.com/.

[4] R. W. Lucky, "To Twitter Or Not To Twitter? - [reflections]," Spectrum, IEEE, vol. 46, pp. 22-22, 2009.

[5] C. Abraham. (2008). How To Become An Overnight Twitter Celebrity. [Online]. Available: http://chrisabraham.com/2008/12/07/how-to-become-am-overnight-twitter-celebrity/#more-5322.

[6] B. Solis. (2009). The Ties That Bind Us: Visualizing Relationships on Twitter and Social Networks. PR 2.0: The Future of Media and Communication Starts Here [Online]. Available: http://www.briansolis.com/

 

[7] N. Cohen. (2009). When Stars Twitter, A Ghost May Be Lurking. The New York Times [Online]. Available: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/technology/internet/27twitter.html?_r=2.

[8] D. Frommer. (2009). Celebrity Twitter Ghost Writer: Hot Job For The Recession. [Online]. Available: http://www.businessinsider.com/celebrity-twitter-ghost-writer-hot-job-for-the-recession-2009-3.

Reflection on Social tools and how they let me convey my prefrences.

Student ID : S4131322

Reflection on Social and Mobile computing tools.

Introduction

The following is a reflection on how the various social tools available would satisfy my needs . It explores what works and what does not work for me as an individual.

Background

The idea of this report is to evaluate the social tools available and see how they fit my lifestyle as well as evaluate the usability and function of such tools.

Focus

The focus on this article is about will be on preferences. How my choice of music ,food and lifestyle is being communicated to others and the other way around . This article will also examine the extent of how such tools help me

Reflection

The key for this reflection is ‘like’ . Do you know what I like?, Do I like what my friends like ?. How do these tools use my preferences in ways that I want it to.

I would like to be able to have all my preferences in one location that is easily accessible and allows me to integrate it with other tools that I use as well as discover new music or websites that my friends like.

Last.FM

I got hooked onto this tool really easily. It starts by letting you enter your favourite artist and then recommends other artist based on your preferences. Isn’t this what ‘Genius’ in ITunes does already?. Well Last.FM is similar but it lets you explore its vast list of music which you can sample. It would be good to have a more social element to this tool. Perhaps to see what my friends like or disliked. Maybe If I knew who else liked The Presets we could all buy the tickets to go and see them in June (as it says in the Events list on Last.FM).

I feel that this tool has real potential, as people would inadvertently start to like it because of the great music you can find on it. Just like the way people who love their iPod. They love it because of the music they put on it.

Does it meet my needs ? : Yes, this tool is excellent. I will start to use it more and explore my taste in music as well as experiment with other genres of music.

Delicio.us

Delicio.us is a social bookmarking tool. It lets you add links to websites and share them amongst your friends. This is a great way for me to share links of websites that I like with my friends, if only they were on delicio.us too. The fact most people are not using it is a strong enough reason for me not to use it. After all tools like Facebook already have similar functions.

Does it meet my needs ? : No, Im not to sure if I want an application specifically for social bookmarking to express my likes and dislikes for websites.

Twitter

I knew that Twitter was big in the US but had no idea what was so great about it. I created an account and went twittering away. I felt that the application was great for communicating bits of information. It just adds another dimension to traditional sms systems where you can broadcast a message to a group of people.

I liked how you could connect your mobile phone and other applications to twitter, it would be a cool too to use if all my friends had it. Again universality ( how many people are using it) seems to be the factor that prevents me from using it further. I am already using Facebook and so are all my friends.

Twitter lets you communicate everything, it does not however focus on your profile or your preferences and your likes and dislikes.

Does it meet my needs ? : No, This is a great idea but im not sure if I want a dedicated tool.

Facebook

When people stop asking you ‘Do you use Facebook?’ and instead ask ‘ What’s your Facebook?’ you know that Facebook is used by almost everyone. This makes it a powerful platform for implementing new social tools. The initial concept of Facebook was to model our social interactions and relationships that we have in the real world to something that is based online and not create something superficial.

I am able to ‘shout’ (Broadcast) what I am doing to everyone around me as well as comment on what others are doing, this functionality overrides some of what twitter offers.

By joining groups and completing my profile, I can communicate what my tastes are as well as meet likeminded people. It does not however give me the ability to explore similar music like

Does it meet my needs? : Yes, its universal and I am able to express my tastes and preferences in a convenient way.

MySpace

My Space had the lead at one time but it isn’t any more. I feel that it took personalisation to a whole new level,a level which made it quite annoying at some point. I liked how you could add what music you liked onto your profile and let others sample it but giving users full control of their pages isn’t a good idea.

Does it meet my needs? : No, too much flexibility isn’t a good thing.

Conclusion

I realised that most of my choices were based on two main themes, Universality and Function.

Even though applications like Twitter were useful, I didn’t want something that only provided a small subset of functions when I had something else that provided a broader range of tools and functions.

I was also not prepared to become a user of a particular tool for the reason that most of my friends are not using it. I am not a fan of the ‘herd mentality’ but I’m not going to start a revolution either.

I would also love to see Facebook and Last.fm integrated together in some way as they would both complement each other.

Us-Tunes: How CSCW Brings Musicians Together.

By Marek Skalczynski

So you just bought yourself a shiny new guitar. You spend a few months learning to play a few songs and suddenly you decide that you have the talent to jam with the greats. The inner rock god screams a killer vocal line, if only you had a band. You must create this song, but how? Do not fear. The field of Computer Supported Cooperative Work has grown to such tremendous proportions that it can support the weight of your brilliant ideas. The internet today, is alive, with tools that will guide you on your journey; you need only look. Soon you will be the envy of your neighbours.

One of my prime passions is music. The internet has allowed me to network and share with other artists both real-time and asynchronously. Wether trading ideas, asking assistance, or collaborating on a project with multiple people, there are ways to work socially with music. I will be detailing my experiences with a variety of social applications which I have used to communicate and collaborate with other musicians; both locally and around the world. I will talk about these softwares from both a design and technology perspective showing where they succeed and where they fail. I will also cement some thoughts for what I see in the near future, as well as avenues I would like to see developers explore.

There are certainly many software solutions out there. To start off let’s examine the CSCW groupware matrix and see how different music creating/sharing software systems fit in. One of the greatest thrills of being an aspiring musician is the ability to play at the same time with other people who share a passion for creating music. Guitar Hero: World Tour, an interactive and physically involved game for the PlayStation console, allows you to do just that. The software gives the user the option to create their own songs, record their own vocals and upload them for others to download and play. This is a true example of CSCW as cooperative play as well as being a prime example of a same time/same place application. When offline, players of the game are present in the same room and play in cooperative environment to achieve the goal of a perfect performance. The physical feel of the instruments make the user genuinely invest their emotions and contribute to the micro-community of four. However, even with the ability to create custom songs, this is not a serious music creation tool.

We can move away from the physical aspect of same time/same place and consider that a place may be a virtual. Given this, there are a few applications that spring to mind. Particularly, any application that allows the (near)-real-time transmission of sound across the internet. The most famous of these is Skype. Many a time I have used Skype to jam (play or practice together) with friends across the globe in a shared audio space. However the problem with any real-time transmission of audio over even short distances is the latency of the sound. It may be manageable in other real-time internet application domains, such as gaming, but in music it is a kill-switch. One of the fundamentals of music is timing; when two layers of a song (e.g. two instruments) are desynchronised even by a fraction of a second, the resulting combination sounds terrible. This is an example of technology not supporting the activity and instead defining the constraints on the activities that can be performed. The underlying technology is intrinsically linked to the social interactions it can support. This is a serious coordination problem for any real-time music collaboration tool to solve.

However, there is an application called Fruity Loops Collab that gives some hope. It is an extension to a music creation package that allows the user to create everything from drums to vocals and generate an MP3. The Collab extension allows the user to collaborate on a file real-time with others from different places. The key difference between this application and Skype is that Fruity Loops uses loops not streaming audio. The end result is that users modify a looping track which may contain hundreds of layers that always stay synchronised . The sound is generated by the client computer, not transmitted across the network. Only the actions on the sounds and the loops (either a sound file or a format a synthesizer can recreate) themselves are transmitted. The actions in the software are still affected by latency, but the end sound is not. Since the software has been specifically designed for music, the developers have thought about latency and engineered around it. Comparatively, Skype was intended as an internet telephone application and the designers never considered the implications of users trying their software in the music domain.

The Fruity Loops Collab add-on is a good step in the right direction to supporting the need for real-time music collaboration. However I’m finding that people are not using this tool. I know from my personal experience that music creation on the computer is a very time consuming and repetitive activity, unlike live music, where preparation is made beforehand (practicing). Since it is difficult to have long collaborations of many hours, Collab is used more as just a curiosity or a toy to play with, not as a serious tool like the designers intended. Another limitation of Collab is that it will only work for music created digitally or pre-recorded instruments. If bands wish to play live with instruments over a network, then there is no tool to support this kind of collaboration due to the latency issue.

Returning to the Groupware Matrix, let’s examine some Web 2.0 software that allows musicians to communicate at different times in the same (virtual) place. There are many sites out there that support this. These are music sharing sites specifically geared around collaboration and education, with a strong focus on social translucence. My favourite ones are CTG Music, Trax In Space and Sound-Click. They all essentially do the same thing but slight design differences shape the communities in different ways. CTG Music has a strong emphasis on reviewing songs. Users must review 3 other user’s song for every additional song uploaded on the same day. This has created a community focused around a Tic-for-Tack (“you review mine, I’ll review yours”) review system and a strong emphasis on quality. TIS (Trax In Space) has a up-front quick commenting and rating system, making it easy to just post a quick thought on a track. TIS users are more inclined to give feedback on songs compared to CTG users, who prefer to write lengthy reviews less often. Sound-Click, the third site I mentioned, has a very robust ranking system that updates daily based on plays and downloads. This has created a community obsessed with getting high on the charts and staying there. It is interesting to see how the communities are different, not because of the people, but the design choices the developers made years ago.

These sites all have a few things in common that really drive the communities to critical mass, and why they are so successful. Each user has an individual page, like MySpace or FaceBook. Users upload or link songs on this page and are then included on a micro-blog system on the main page. Whenever they update with a new song, they are added to the top of this list. Everyone can have awareness of what their friends are doing using this microblog and the inbuilt friend list feature. This allows every user to at least get some exposure, something that doesn’t happen on MySpace Music; where once an artist profile is created, it is lost to the vacuous search space, never to be seen again. The communities created on music sites are centred on sharing content and collaboration. Close friends can easily be made since they mimic the design of social networking sites. In comparison, social network sites (such as MySpace and FaceBook) have different social etiquette and this can block some interactions due to the way the system is designed. On music sites, each user is contributing their tracks to a community music library, there are more avenues for making friends as the community has a shared presence.

There is one final category in the groupware matrix. This is user interaction at different times in different places. Although it is difficult to differentiate what is the same place and what is a different place when thinking of virtual spaces, I think that Last.fm can fall into this category since most interaction happens asynchronously and in no specific location. In addition to the listening features of the site, a musician can upload their music to the Last.fm servers and have it broadcast across the internet. I’ve found this is a good way to get exposure, but the community does seem isolated among artists. This is a good application for sharing music tastes with friend’s (something that aspiring musicians do a lot), but so far I haven’t found that it that great a tool for sharing your creations. Although there is a feedback interface implemented, the system is centred on music sharing and doesn’t provide much support for musicians to collaborate outside of feedback and messaging. Rather it is more suitable for musicians to sell their albums or promote themselves.

I have examined a few applications that are out there for budding musicians to get their hands dirty. A lot of these applications have focused on a few key concepts and the communities have sprung up around those features. It is obvious that the technology involved also limits the interactions, such as Guitar Hero limiting the user to how they can contribute (due to peripherals), or Skype limiting the user to what cooperative activity they can perform. I expect that in the future there will be more interfacing between instruments and computers, and the lines will blur between digital and physical, allowing more opportunities for interactions between musicians. I think Guitar Hero is an early example of this. I also believe that near-real-time audio applications can work in the music domain if incoming streaming audio is synchronised to a tempo. I also would like to see more mash-ups to reduce the walled-garden effect. This is already happening in social networking sites, but music networking sites are definitely behind in this area – communities are happy in their isolation.

Finally, I would like to see developers taking a more active interest in how people are using their application and allow the users to effect its evolution (For example, Twitter). This is difficult given the limitations of certain technologies, but technology is always changing and many novel solutions await us.

References

Turner, B. & Turner, P., & Turner S. (2005) Designing Interactive Systems, Harlow, Essex: Pearson Education Limited.

Computer Supported Cooperative Work. Retrieved April 3, 2009, from the Wikipedia web site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_supported_cooperative_work#Different_time.2Fdifferent_place

CTG Music. Retrieved April 3, 2009, from the CTG Music web site http://www.ctgmusic.com

Sound Click. Retrieved April 3, 2009, from the Sound Click web site http://www.soundclick.com

Trax in Space. Retrieved April 3, 2009, from the Trax in Space web site http://www.traxinspace.com

Reflection by Sam Handyside 40277518

My reflection is concerned with the motivation behind joining and utilising social networking sites (SNS), as well as the risks and benefits of doing so. From my experience, I was reluctant to join sites such as MySpace or Facebook, believing that too much personal information would be revealed. I was less apprehensive about sites like Last.fm or Flickr as they require more specific information but, generally speaking, it is less sensitive and I can choose which content I supply. Not having had any experience with Twitter, I was not sure what to make of it at first. Based on personal experience and research into the area, I was able to better understand the attraction of SNS and the needs they fulfill. However, I was alarmed at a number of privacy and copyright issues involved, and these confirmed some of the dangers I suspected these sites harboured.

Background
The Web 2.0 revolution put the users at the forefront; sites were created around the idea of user-created content where people are encouraged to share their ideas and opinions, and their needs are what drive SNS's. The main sites I'll be referring to are Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm.

Facebook
I imagine the majority of people reading this blog know about Facebook. It is intended to facilitate socialisation and sharing of information, as well as providing third-party applications. These applications extend the functionality of Facebook, enabling people with similar interests to form groups or participate in various activities. Facebook was not required as part of Social & Mobile Computing this semester, but I already had an account and have had the most hands-on experience with this site. Having said that, I am not a heavy user of Facebook. I check two or three times a week, most weeks, but have been known to go over a month without checking it.

Twitter
Twitter I had only learned about at the start of this course, but in the intervening weeks it seems to have grown more and more ubiquitous. Being a microblogging service, with a limit of 140 characters per message, it requires very little time and effort to use, so the barrier to entry is remarkably low. It is further lowered by the openness of communication it offers; there are no set topics that must be addressed, and no strict norms nor procedures that must be followed (Bouman et al., 2008). My personal experience with Twitter is minimal but it has been a major focus of many studies, with some very interesting insights into the social nature of people and will be used to demonstrate an example of some of the dangers to privacy that online sharing can introduce. Ironically, the ease at which information can be gathered from Twitter means there is a wealth of real-world statistics to analyse.

Last.fm
Last.fm primarily allows users to upload their music playlists and then offer suggestions of other bands and songs they may enjoy. I personally liked this idea as I have started to grow tired of my own collection and wanted to explore other musical alternatives. While anonymity and confidentiality can not be assured by the site (http://www.last.fm/legal/terms), I felt safer using this site as I only needed to supply the kind of music I listen to, and it also led me to further research into the benefits of social networking.

“Who gives a tweet?”
The purpose of this reflection is to elaborate the attraction to SNS's and the implications they have on personal privacy. When I think of sites like MySpace and Facebook offering me a chance to share my life with the world, I would always ask myself “Why would anyone care?” Being rather reclusive in nature, I don't enjoy sharing many details about my life to someone unless I know them fairly well. How many of you know where I went to school, what my hobbies are, or when my birthday is? However, after some convincing, all this information is now on Facebook and can be looked at by anyone rather than being known only to those closest to me. Facebook, like Twitter, offers an opportunity to learn more about a person, albeit in an impersonal way. There is now less reliance on direct communication to find out what kind of music someone likes, or what someone did over the weekend. Through SNS's, I find that I know more about the activities of my friends (my actual friends, not the miscellany that occupies my 'friends list') without needing to engage them directly. I therefore appreciate the usefulness that these sites offer, but I personally feel that the benefit is limited to my circle of friends, and have little desire to see or be seen by people I don't know.

Who can see my information?
However, it concerns me that by offering personal information so freely it gives someone an opportunity to view this information and use it to cause me inconvenience or perhaps harm. You would think that that would mean I would thoroughly read the Terms of Use to know who had access to my personal information before agreeing to them. I, like many others, simply did not bother (Krishnamurthy & Wills, 2008). I instead naively trusted that Facebook would not allow my information to be viewed by anyone outside of my friends list: those I explicitly gave permission to. I also recently learned that all the content that I post is copyrighted by Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/terms.php), technically giving them the right to treat that content as theirs. This means they are essentially free to sell any information I give them, should they decide to do so, however that act would undermine the premise of Facebook, and I consider it unlikely given the response to the proposed change to their terms of service (http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article5757485.ece). I remain particularly wary of third-party applications that, while seemingly harmless, require access to your full profile despite only needing a portion of the information (Krishnamurthy & Wills, 2008). As such, I tend to avoid much of the extra functionality that Facebook provides through fear of misuse of personal information.

What can they do with my information?
Another cause for concern is that it is possible to infer the identities and glean more information about users by cross-referencing various SNS's (Motahari et al., 2007, Narayanan & Shmatikov, 2009). To take our esteemed lecturer as an example, I used information from LinkedIn, Twitter, the UQ website and a few others to research his life. I was able to deduce the names of his brother, son and daughter, where she attends school and what grade she is in, where and which night his son has soccer training, his home phone number, his home address, as well as his educational and vocational experiences all in the space of a little under an hour. All this information is found in the public arena and I broke no laws, but I honestly felt as though I was intruding on his life and did not want to venture any further. I can only imagine what someone could find out if they had no such qualms, and what they then may do with that information.

Benefits of sharing
To be fair, there are benefits to sharing information online. By sharing when and where I went to school I was able to catch up with people I had not seen in years. This, for me, was the most useful aspect of Facebook. It was easy to add a few friends, and then see more friends that they had added to quickly find all the people you like. It also helps with organising social events and keeping in contact with friends who live interstate. It was not surprising to me to find that most social networking relationships are based on pre-existing relationships (Java et al., 2007). These are not always 'friendships' in the traditional sense; many followers in Twitter are fans of blogs, celebrities, as well as following online radio stations and news outlets (Krishnamurthy et al. 2008). This aspect of Twitter I find unappealing. Apart from the very few entertainers who I can respect, there are no celebrities whose thoughts I would ever want to hear. Interestingly, Twitter has expanded from its original design to incorporate more features as driven by its users (Java et al., 2007). Apart from the typical updates of what people are doing, it is also used to share links and spread news (Java et al., 2007). The response times for breaking news stories can be well ahead of the recognised news media (http://blogs.reuters.com/mediafile/2008/05/06/breaking-news-twitter-style/). In this way, I believe it is possible to think of the posts as a current, constantly adapting Zeitgeist; at any given moment it is a snapshot of what people are doing and thinking across the globe, or at least North America (Krishnamurthy et al. 2008).

Honest representation
Up until this point I have been treating the idea of users' information as accurate and honest. Yet the relative obscurity offered online means you can present yourself as you want to be seen (Bouman et al., 2008). I know I chose to omit some of the more controversial musical selections from my Last.fm profile. My general username, too, was chosen not only because no-one else would think of it, but it also represents an aspect of my character I am willing to share. SNS's allows people to reveal only certain features about themselves and may fulfill some need to appear a certain way to others (Bouman et al., 2008). I understand why people do this, but I can't help but think it is counterproductive to the openness of the social networking ethos. However, in the real world people also present a certain social identity, and online networking is just an extension of that (Bouman et al., 2008).

So why do people use SNS's?
While I can't say for sure why other people use SNS's, from personal experience I use them as a way to augment my, admittedly limited, social life. Despite the risks, it is convenient to have a reminder that there is party coming up, who is going to be there and all of the necessary party details. It helps that a few of my closer friends and family members use Facebook, or I doubt I would ever use it, as researchers confirm (Java et al., 2007).

Conclusions
Despite my initial apprehension about using online social networking sites, I can see why they are popular and will continue to use them in the future. I still have concerns about what information I reveal and who may have access to it, but I think the risks, though quite real, are unlikely to affect me. As with all technology, it is the people that use that define its place in the world. SNS's are there to augment, not replace or diminish, one's current social life. After all, socialising can not be done with technology alone.

Bibliography
Bouman, W, Hoogenboom, T, Jansen, R, Schoondorp, M, de Bruin, B & Huizing, A 2008, 'The Realm of Sociality: Notes on the Design of Social Software', Sprouts: Working Papers on Information Systems, vol. 8, no. 1, pp.3-25.

Java, A, Song, X, Finin, T & Tseng, B 2007, 'Why We Twitter: Understanding Microblogging Usage and Communities', Joint 9th WEBKDD and 1st SNA-KDD Workshop '07, August 12, San Jose, California, USA.

Krishnamurthy, B, Gill, P & Arlitt, M 2008, 'A Few Chirps About Twitter', WOSN'08, August 18, Seattle, Washington, USA.

Krishnamurthy, B & Wills, CE 2008, 'Characterising Privacy in Online Social Networks', WOSN'08, August 18, Seattle, Washington, USA.

Motahari, S, Manikopoulos, C, Hiltz, R & Jones, Q 2007, 'Seven Privacy Worries in Ubiquitous Social Computing', Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security, July 18-20, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

Narayanan, A & Shmatikov, V 2009, 'De-anonymizing Social Networks', http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0903/0903.3276v1.pdf, last viewed 3/04/2009.

Online Identity and Cross-Sex Relations

...in 70 140 character chunks.

This article outlines key features of online identity and details a personal experience creating an online identity of a different gender.

Considering the subject of this course, I'll experiment being cohesive & expressive within the 140 character constraints of a Tweet or SMS.

Account and password combinations are the cornerstone of identity in the read/write internet.

It's not long after starting to use the internet you will encounter a website requiring you to register an account with an email account.

Many websites lock down access to features which allow you to add/edit content without creating an account with them.

An email account is your online id card/passport. It provides a central identification point from which you can create other identities.

An email account is usually the only sure means a website can communicate with you external to their own communication systems, if any.

This is safe under the assumption: only you and people you authorise, have the account + password combination to access your emails.

Why do sites want users identity before you can participate?

● Statistics Gathering
Knowing more about their users allows websites to provide better service or to send them (un)solicited information.

● Prevent Internal Identity Fraud
One account per pseudonym & per email address. This only negates fraud within the system though.

● Accountability
Positive activities are encouraged if reputation or other rewards can be gained, as is explained here: [1]

A practical example is Q/A website http://stackoverflow.com which makes use of quantitative 'rep' to grant additional features to users.

Malicious activities may be deterred (not prevented) if users' actions are directly linked to a user's email accounts. [2]

There have been cases where this has been used to reprimand users: http://tinurl.com/2btnu See the entry below 'no more tears'. Warning NSFW.

● Barrier of Entry
User investment deters thoughtless participation. The negative effect is restricting use by some legitimate human users. [3]

Registration processes should prevent access by simple spambots. Adding additional measures such as captcha can thwart most spambots.

You DO create unique passwords for every site, right?

As users increasingly utilise more online accounts, either recall of usernames and passwords becomes an issue, or security becomes an issue.

Tools are becoming available to reduce barrier of entry and memory load issues by unifying online identity. Many sites, one login.

EG Blogger allows login with a Google account, flickr with your YahooID. Up-and-coming OpenID is similar, but not tied to a specific vendor.

Unified online identity is interesting: until now, a user's activities and identity couldn't be tracked reliably across websites.

Whether this ability will have an overall positive or negative effect for users will be seen when these services gain higher adoption rates.

On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

This Peter Steiner cartoon was published in The New Yorker, June 5 1993: http://is.gd/qkqD
The inherent anonymity in technology-assisted communication allows us to invent identities to present to our peers, across many communities.

Unlike real life, online registration usually requires very little, if any, background or fact checking, unless of course, money is involved.

The internet gives every user absolute freedom to create identities that conflict with our 'in real life' (IRL) identity.

This could be likened to the manner in which comedian Barry Humphries plays the contrasting personae of 'Dame Edna' and 'Sir Les Patterson'.

The relative anonymity and ease of creation/destruction of online identities is one of the major draw cards of online communication. [1]

By creating a number of corresponding online accounts and media, I created a convincing alternative online identity for myself.

“You play video games, you make dance music and you're hot?”
“I also drink beer”
“Omg I love you”
(Paraphrased from a real online chat)

In the summer-break of 2004, I saw little of my flatmates or my friends, so I longed for social interaction and some competitive violence.

Enter Soldier of Fortune and Counter-Strike. These games provided much of the competitive violence, but too little social interaction.

I was quite talkative within games, trying to make conversation with my fellow male gamers but none were particularly receptive.

To encourage interaction I simply changed my name within the game to that of my current girlfriend Amanda, the beginning of my new identity.

I was simply me, but people perceived me as a girl. “Amanda” was a friendly, easygoing musician who drank beer and played video games.

This persona came quite naturally: aside for a few alterations to make me believable, I didn't pretend to change my gender, just my sex. [4]

Initially there was some doubt about my sex, but I negotiated to have real Amanda speak on my behalf on Ventrillo, a VOIP system for gamers.

Upon hearing that “Amanda” had a female voice, even the most sceptical were convinced. I wasn't the first player to make such false claims.

The effort I went to being convincing was extensive. I evolved the identity for over a year, actively using email & social network accounts.

This 'female gamer' identity opened many gaming doors for me. For the first time ever I was invited to join clans, play in tournaments, etc.

Relationship of False Pretense

Through “Amanda” I developed close friendships with many gamers. We exchanged original music, chatted and battled. Though it was not normal.

I just thought of them as friends, but the regular suggestive, rude comments about removing my garments and taking photos was disconcerting.

The rude comments got me pondering, how do women tolerate this onslaught of pickup lines and whether any self-respecting woman is convinced.

“Amanda” also made close female friends too. Chatting with them over MSN, I noticed: girls do not speak to girls the way they speak to guys.

This might be obvious to some, but it was real eye-opener, experiencing this from a female perspective. No judgement or defensive reactions.

If the conversation's premise is “trialling you as a potential partner”, conversation can be less like communication and more like a battle.

This experience is a good example of the uneasiness that uncertainty & sexual tension creates in many cross-gender relationships. [5]

Meeting new people occurs regularly online, so this tension is more prevalent, as there's the constant looming thought: “Is he/she the one?”

Assimilating “Amanda”

Eventually, playing as “Amanda” became a natural thing to do. I would forget I was not different, just a guy playing a game with other guys.

When another girl logged in, I would be relieved: “Great, another girl playing online.” only to realise “Hang on, what am I thinking?”

It became too strange one day when I unthinkingly gave my number to a guy so we could get beer someday. “Hang on, what if he calls?” He did.

Only after a confusing conversation to an unknown caller, I realised what happened. I was busted and “Amanda” disappeared completely.

Reflecting on the experience, the draw-card was having a reputation. Taking on a female identity instantly made me stand out from the crowd.

I stopped playing those games, it just wasn't the same experience starting anew under a fresh nickname, with no reputation.

Conclusion

This article demonstrates how simple it is to create and live a fairly complex social life, through a completely fabricated online identity.

It was an interesting social experiment, raising some questions which could be researched further:

How much do we take for granted that the people we meet online and in real life, really are who they say they are?

How much evidence do people need to provide before we believe, especially when we have no reason to doubt their claims.

In real life people can detect cues, like timbre of voice, to tell if you're lying, while creating a lie online is relatively unproblematic.

Immersing myself in an alternative identity allowed me to socialise from perspectives I would not normally be capable of experiencing.

I wonder if in the future, unifying services like OpenID will become more policed, forcing one to one relationships between user and person.

On communicating within the 140 character maximum: I feel I've been effective. It forced me to be concise with my ideas and avoid rambling.

It allows only for a regular sentence followed by a short sentence, or for one long sentence. Extraneous details had to be left out.

Working within these constraints has been a good exercise and I feel like my writing has improved because of it.

Tim Oxley 2009


[1] Grohol, J., “Anonymity and Online Community: Identity Matters”, A List Apart Apr. 4 2006
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/identitymatters/ (2 Apr. 2009)

[2] “Reputation Parent”- Yahoo! Design Pattern Library http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/parent.php?pattern=reputation (2 Apr. 2009)
[3] Lessig, Lawrence “Code: Version 2.0” Basic Books, 35-36
[4] “What is the difference between sex and gender?” Monash University 11 Sept. 2006 http://www.med.monash.edu.au/gendermed/sexandgender.html (2 Apr. 2009)
[5] “On being 'Just Friends': The frequency and impact of sexual activity in cross-sex friendships” (2000) 226-227

Reflection on Social network

Van Hong Quan 4187853

Introduction

The rapid development of information and internet has lead human to a new era of social communication. Human are trying to find vary of method to communicate with other more efficiency. From physically communication, people gradually switch to digital interaction and together with internet, it expend in a dizzy speed. Internet relay chat( IRC), instant message, and now social network, human has entered, joint and now spread themselves into the world of internet. It plays an important role of bringing people closer.

As human lifestyle is becoming faster and faster, we find harder to physical communicate and exchange information between each other, therefore social network is created as a part of the information link between people. With the assistance of social network, information is updated faster and more efficiency.

Studying CSCW and experienced in some of social network provides me some idea about how these community impacts human’s life, how these tools are able to support our connection and affect to the world


Background

Twitter
Twitter (2) is a micro-blogging which was built to answers a very simple question: ”What are you doing?” (2)Twitter is a famous service that people choose to use as a method to communicate with their social online. By using twitter users are able to notice their friends what they are doing via SMS. Twitter message is based on text message which allow user to send only short message in 140 character, therefore it often be describes as the “SMS of Internet.”


Delicious
A very powerful online bookmark tool which allows users to tag and save their favorite sites online. Delicious (4) represents your taste of World Wide Web. Through Delicious users are not only able to add and manage bookmarks but also able to view and compare with others. The website that you save is subscribe to several tag therefore Delicious can provides you other website related to the tag or other user who had tag the same website as you. From there users are able to build their network includes friends and other users who has some common tastes.

Flickr
Flickr(3) is an online gallery that allow user to upload, display, and share photos with others. Flickr is a greatly social community to “Share your photos, Watch the world”. It provides user a lot of functionality such as upload image, create Flickr stream to display on web-blog. Moreover, Flickr is not only and online store but also a tool for user to edit their images online. Recently, this famous sharing site has launched new features which enable its user to upload their short video clips.

Last.Fm
“Based on what you listen to. Last.fm recommends you new music.”(4)
Last.Fm(4) implemented a “scrobbler” to keep track of what are you listening on your player to understand your listening music and compare with other to provide you some recommendation. Last.Fm built database of its user’s favorite songs, arties genre. Based on that database, Last.Fm is able to compare the taste of listening to the music of different user and then recommended them other user’s that has some common tatse.

Blogger
Blogger is a personal webpage service which provides users a place to build profile, upload and share article or writing about themselves. Blogger is known as an online diary which users can write and post a blog about their daily activities or feeling. Blogger also provides a lot of tools and effect so that user can modify to decorate their page. Blogger is also known as a site which compatible with other social network community. Users are able to install a Last.Fm player so that their friends can listen to their favorite songs. A Flickr photos stream which update the latest photo that user want to share is also able to display on Blogger. Delicious account is also be able to subscribe as a RSS to post on blog so that whenever your friends go to blog would know what you have just bookmarked.

Focus

People attempts to use anytime by any means to communicate and share information with each others. These 5 sites above is not everything belong to social communication network but they are some of the most impressive sites that contribute a bigger part of the market. In this article based on my experience in these tools, i will focus on how they impact human life and how people use these tools to join themselves into the World Wide Web.


Reflection


Twitter
By using twitter users are able to notice their friends what they are doing at anytime and anywhere. Twitter is a silly idea if you actually consider it as a machine that has only one mission is to ask answer “what are you doing?” However, the idea just not only this, it is the way people get close to each other. Try to see thought then you will understand the role of Twitter. When you are intend to do something important and need encourage from your friend. We might not know how many people are actually reading your message, and how many people are really interested in it, but human always think the good side therefore the more people are following them on Twitter, the more people know what they are doing which also encourage them so much.

People are using Twitter for many purpose but most of them are fore individuals. I have had a very little experience in using Twitter therefore I’m using Twitter as a RSS where I can update the latest information of very few of my friends and some people that I concern. After a few weeks interact with Twitter I realize that it is not only a tool for people to upload information but also an efficient method to search information and update information. The information I searched on Twitter is not highly accurate but some how it is the latest news.

However, Twitter is being abused. Users are using Twitter to send ridiculous or spam information. Twitter player are spending a lot of time to reply their friends in order to get connect with their follower while their families are getting tired of being witnessed their relative addicted to message and neglect the work.

Flickr
In the era of digital, taking a thousand of photos is not a problem. With a digital camera, it cost you nothing you to take as many picture as you want. However, the problem is how do people are able to share their photo with friends and family. It is inconvenience to send the image through email or portable hard drive and Flickr is the solution. Flickr users are able to upload their images and share with other friends from everywhere. Flickr provides a lot of feature to support user upload and display their images online.

Flickr has changed human lifestyle in many ways. Before, pictured was taken by manual camera and people had has to print in order to view them. And even with a digital camera, we still had to print out to send or share with friends in other places. Internet helps us to send photos through email but it still not enough for sharing. Since Flickr was developed, people are able to share a huge amount or maybe unlimited of picture. Flickr has provided their users emotion to get more and more creative in taking pictures. Photograph on Flickr not only has spiritual value but also actual value. “Mr. Klein said that Getty charges on average between $500 and $600 for “rights managed” images”(1)

Last.Fm
If blog is your feeling then last.fm is your listening. Last.fm represents what you are listening to and what is your music taste. Last.fm builds profiles based on user’s habit. Therefore the first time after installed Last.fm into my computer, I tried to listen to the music on Last.fm but all I got was some random song that I never heard they did not related to my favorites at all. Last.fm disappointed me at first so I stop to listen to it and switch to listen to the music on my own library. However, after a few weeks when I bored to listen to my outdated library, I tried Last.fm to find something new for me and I was really amazing about it, the music now are much better, there is some songs that I had loved but I not even on my computer. Since then I realized that Last.fm profile is not what music you storing but what song you listening. The more you listen to the music, the more accuracy your recommend.

Last.fm was first build for user to share music, there for without social communication, it is nothing. What made the website popular is the way it provides you music. Last.fm analyzes your habit of listening to the music, compare with other users then recommend you to listen to other user playlists. It plays an important role in broadcasting your hearing. By using install “audioscobbler” in your computer, you are agreed to upload your information of hearing, your friends and other users are able to view your profile to see how your music taste.

Delicious
Delicious helps you to express your taste of internet. “Surf net” is now becoming a part of our life. Word wide web is another world for me. Everyday I have to search a lot of information of internet but it is hard to remember and keep track of all website that I’m interested in. Hence, what I did before is that I added to favorite or bookmark of the web browser for later usage. As the time gone by, my favorite collection became more and more messy and it was difficult for me to remember and search the link that I need. It’s even worse when i used other computer or after I restored my hard-drive; everything gone. Life is much better for me I found Delicious is very helpful for me to manage my bookmark. The problem has been solved in a simple way.

Delicious also support user in sharing and searching for information. I have never thought that I would be able to share all my favorite sites to my friends as well as view theirs such easy as it is now. My friends do not even have to ask me whether i have any website that might interest them. All they need is to explorer my collection on their network. Explorer my bookmark collection my give them some idea of what I am concerning and my habit of surfing net.

Using Delicious search sometimes may result much faster and easier than Google. I am able to either search by tag or explorer my network to the results which is more specific to my concern than Google.

Blogger
Blogger is your home on the internet world. It is where you express yourself, your characteristic and feeling. A blog is where people know as your profile. It contains information about you, It is considered as a daily which might be private or public to share with your friends. At first I felt shy to post blog to expose myself on the internet, but then I realized that every time I post a blog about my feeling, I get feedback from my friends, which means much for me. It show me that my friends are always beside and aware on me. Since then i started to writes blog about myself but in a humorous way so that my friends will get more emotion on reading my blog-posts and it give me not only memory but lot of laugh when I read them.

Using Blogger I am also able to expose my characteristic. I lot of feature that help me to connect my blog with other social network such as Last.Fm. I normally, add a Last.Fm player on my blogspot to share my favorite music with my friends. Flickr also provide a Flickr stream which a can share some of my picture to my friends and it is automatically updated every time I add new picture on my Flickr account. Blogger is the most efficiency tools for me to express myself onto the world of web 2.0.

Conclusion

People are becoming increasingly dependent on internet social network. A research based on 1,000 Internet users, said that most of these people can not live without internet more than 5 days. The electronic equipment for information exchange occupies an important position in human life; it dominates almost our daily activities. Rely too much on the internet makes people become passive; they spend hours using the Internet to update information about themselves but get rid of other usual relationship. Concentrate virtual life lead human to the negative sides of social communication network. The more time people consume on internet Consume a lot of time on the internet the further they get to the real world. The purpose social network is no longer connecting people but carrying them further to the physical interaction.


Reference

1. Miguel Helft – last modified 2008 – Available on
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/08/great-photo-on-flickr-getty-images-might-pay-you-for-it/

2. Twitter – Available on
http://twitter.com/

3. Flickr – Available on
http://www.flickr.com/

4. Delicious – Available on
http://delicious.com/

5. Last.Fm – Available on
http://www.last.fm/

6. kochm - last modified 07-Jun-2004 – Available on
http://telekooperation.informatik.tu-muenchen.de/cscw/

7. Mr.Tweet- “What is your use for Twitter?” – last modified 23-March-2009 - Available on
http://blog.mrtweet.net/what-is-your-use-for-twitter

8. Anonymous - last modified 3 April 2009 – Available on
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter

9. . Anonymous - last modified 3 April 2009 – Available on
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last.fm
10. Bogdan Popa - People Can't Live Without Internet - last modified 6th of December 2007
http://news.softpedia.com/news/People-Can-039-t-Live-Without-Internet-73037.shtml

Managing Social Clutter

Adrian Cahill- 41223370

Introduction and Focus

I am normally a quite private person but manage to keep a basic Facebook profile to communicate with friends and family; which is not an unusual situation (see fig 1). In terms of this reflection it is important to keep this in mind when considering my perspective on features and experiences as they would undoubtedly be different from those of a person that has more experience with (and inclination to use) such programs and sites.

Fig 1- Mean responses to how likely respondents were to do the following. Higher scores equal more likely. [1]

The purpose of social software (from the perspective of the example sites listed below) can be thought of as primarily to achieve a certain communication goal; such as shouting your immediate thoughts or posting pictures from a recent holiday. From the viewpoint of a user of these types of social networks, the cost of the time and effort entered into the system versus the benefits of increased social connectivity and the achievement of certain communication goals must be weighed.

Given this, the main article intends to inspect the profit gained by social networking sites, measured by increased social connectivity and happiness, whilst considering the time and energy requirements required to maintain them. I intend to show how for a basic user such as myself, there is a disparity of work and benefit when maintaining a large number of separate, specialised social network profiles on different sites and that given this background; it is a superior practice to maintain a smaller number of sites with a greater number of more simplified applications. This is justified with an example showing that with the increase in the number of applications used; a user is restricted to communicating in less detail or less frequently then would be desirable. A contrasting example is also shown where I have been required to communicate in more detail which is used to explain that the simplest solution is not necessarily the best, and that a balance is needed for optimal use of social software to occur.

The following sites are used as examples of social software that achieve particular communication goals:

Flickr- http://www.flickr.com

Flickr is a photo and video sharing website, but does include some social aspects such as adding friends and organising groups to form networks. Adding photos and videos is an easy task in this program though I found little reason to do so other than to distribute large numbers of photos to family and friends simultaneously. Regardless it requires very little maintenance

One important difference with using Flickr over grouped social sites such as Facebook is that you can view uploaded images/video without having an account with the site, which is important if you wish to reach an audience outside of people you personally know (or otherwise have social connections to).

Blogger- http://www.blogger.com

Blogger performs a function which is really quite self-explanatory; it allows you to blog. In a social context, people can read, comment, co-author and manage blogs but it is a simple concept for a simple application. However I can see no real reason for maintaining a blog on this site for social reasons, other sites with blogging capabilities (such as Facebook) have vastly greater social capabilities.

Twitter- http://twitter.com

Twitter provides an outlet for your simplest, instinctively posted thoughts and has grown a reputation as being an ungodly waste of time and energy, attracting people to “randomly brag about their unexceptional lives” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN2HAroA12w). While this is the sort of communication I use social networking sites for most, having a profile that only does this seems unnecessarily inefficient.

Yahoo pipes- http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/

This site can be used to fiddle with feeds from other sites. It can be considered a way to organise data rather than having a social aspect. It is mentioned because when combined with the previous example sites it provides very similar functionality to Facebook (described below), however it is not examined in any great detail.

Facebook- http://www.facebook.com
Facebook is the social networking site I am most familiar with, and is used throughout this reflection as an example of a site that performs a (very) large number of generic functions to its users. The sites main purpose is to form social networks alone, and this is represented well by the features it uses to link people together such as a tool that displays your friends-friends in a very 6 degrees-esque fashion. All tools easy to use (around 85% stating ease-of-use to be easy or very easy [2]) and readily approachable; asserting the success of the site.

I use this site to stay in contact with friends and family. I can choose to do this by making short comments on my mood (like twitter), blog posts (like blogger), uploading photos or videos (like flicker) as well as many other things that are the sole focus of other sites. In addition to this, applications can be installed to extend the functionality even further. It takes very little of my time to keep this site up to date and that is quite important in the context of this article.

It should be noted that when I discuss Facebook throughout this reflection, I refer to sites with grouped social software as a whole, not just this site alone. There are many other sites that are based on a similar premise such as Myspace or Bebo that can be used almost interchangeably, just as there are alternatives to the other examples. I refer to Facebook specifically as it is the program to which I am, as stated earlier, most familiar.

Reflection

“Products should include both the functional pragmatic aspects as well as the positive ‘emotional’ and ‘hedonic’ user experiences to be successful”[2]. This is the balance that is the main focus of this article. While maintaining websites for social reasons, a person should both be able to achieve communication goals and enjoy the experience at the ratio they choose. For me, that involved simplifying the ways in which I communicate through these sites, discussed below.

The first, most obvious comment to deal with is that maintaining a simpler portfolio of social profiles is that it is easier and more time efficient then maintaining multiple profiles across multiple websites. Also, assuming that each site has separate passwords for security, the added headache of remembering login details (including changing passwords on a regular basis) can get out of hand if you want to achieve anything more than the most simplistic of goals with basic security; however many are known to forgo security in the sake of ease of use. However, a perspective often overlooked is the sheer quantity of data that would need to be processed from multiple sources which I have experienced at my expense.

Over the internet in the past, email had been widely used as the primary source of communication. With the advent of social software however this has changed dramatically in recent years (see fig 2) and I have personally experienced a large increase in the amount of information I have to process on a regular basis. At one point I was maintaining simultaneous profiles on MSN (Hotmail, messenger, games), Gmail (email, groups and other posting sites), Yahoo (games and as a junk mail box, UQ (email, Sinet and all the other lovely applications), Facebook, Photobucket (similar to Flickr), several MMORPG accounts, Twitter, a blog and with the digitisation of many company’s help desks, various bank, insurance and with other mundane businesses. I am not a social person and have known people that maintain many more.

Fig 2- 2007-2008 Internet population ratings (Nielsen Online’s ‘Member Community’ category includes both social networking and blogging websites)

It eventually got to the point where I simply did not have the time to check all accounts and update all my details. I lost contact with relatives and old school friends, some accounts even became inactive and a major reason for this is that I was simply unable to maintain them effectively. The only answer I could find was to simplify; restricting myself to single accounts that provide multiple features. For instance Facebook can cover social networking, blogging, twittering and picture and video uploads, while a MSN email account can cover personal email, a login for Google Groups and reluctantly a junk mail inbox. Of course comes at a cost of lessened functionality, and restricts the amount of people that can view your information, but I did not need the features I lost which is the idea behind this article.

The end result is that that I now am in regular contact with friends and family, and I am not stressed by the amount of work I have to do to keep my social networking applications up to date.

Facebook, as described above, provides all of the basic functionality of the example applications, so the question is why would people use these alternatives at all?

Take another personal experience as an example, my needs of social software are usually small, yet recently I needed to distribute a sizeable (over 500 Mb) amount of photos and videos to a group of friends and family. Now it should be obvious enough by now that I favour Facebook, but most of the people in this group did not have an account, which would mean that they would have to sign up, and add me as a friend; which I doubted many would bother to actually do for such little perceived benefit. The functionality I needed, however, could be filled by Flickr, which allows direct linking to the stream of photos without logging in. This way both people using and not using Facebook could view these, which is an example of when user needs are exceeded, needs which can be filled by other, more detailed programs and which is the exact opposite of simplifying.

Conclusion

It can be seen that specialised use cases can arise when the simplified needs of a basic user are exceeded and additional functionality is required to perform a more specific goal. However this need is in conflict with the initial need for greater simplicity in the methods of communication within social networks. While these two examples contrast the need for simplicity, with the need for functionality, they also show that there is no clean, absolute solution to this problem. As the needs of a user change, so does the amount of effort they are willing and able to provide to this form of communication. Providing a solution to these competing problems is far beyond the scope of this reflection, it is merely meant as a discussion of the problems operating in this environment presents. It is left as an exercise to the reader to find a happy medium for themselves.

Bibliography

[1] Lampe, C., Ellison, N., Steinfield, C. (2006) A face(book) in the crowd: social Searching vs. social browsing, Proceedings of the 2006 20th anniversary conference on Computer supported cooperative work, Table 2, p3

[2] Hart, J., Ridley, C., Taher, F., Sas, C., Dix, A. (2008) Exploring the facebook experience: a new approach to usability, Proceedings of the 5th Nordic conference on Human-computer interaction: building bridges, section 3.3 p2, "Pleasure" p3

[3] Nielson Company (2009), Global Faces and Networked Places. Figure 1, p3