Social Interactive Capabilities By Kevin Pamenter 40990237

This reflective article will be aimed at critiquing the web tools known as “Facebook”, “Last fm” and “Flickr” for the purpose of coming to an evaluated conclusion on how effective they are for what they have been designed. I will be drawing upon user experience to bring forth arguments that elucidate how and where they are most effective in particular areas and also how they may be ineffective for particular means of use.

As previously stated “Facebook”, “Last fm” and “Flickr” will be used as primary references in which the experience will be drawn from. Other web tools may be referred to for comparison or contrast purposes throughout the article to help provide a notable difference between their effective or ineffectiveness.

The primary experience being drawn upon for this article will be social interactive capabilities; by the way users can interact with one another through the use of programs and added applications to enhance their meaningful experience.

A question that can be asked is “What makes Facebook an effective form of communication?” This can be narrowed down to a few factors such as ease of use, positive enforcements and how entertaining it can be. Through experience, Facebook can be relatively easy to use once the initial navigation mindset is understood. With its repetitive style of navigation, once the user has learnt the basic skills of it they will be able to effectively move through the application without hassle. Also by having links accompanied by small icons for representation the user can learn much faster visually and can learn to associate icons with actions that will be performed once clicked on.

One of facebooks positive enforcements is its ability to search through your contact lists and find friends that already have an account with them so it makes getting in contact with friends that much easier. Another positive enforcement is the ability to post pictures and comments on other friend’s walls, helping people to stay in communication no matter where you are in the world.

Entertainment can be a large factor in what makes a web application an effective form of communication. Someone that is communicating with one another and is enjoying themselves while doing this makes them far more likely to want to return and use it again. Facebook has added entertainment to this by creating programs such as “food fight”, “poker”, “super walls” and many more. These applications can be added to the users main page and can interact through it with anyone else that has the program also. These applications provide a means of entertainment to keep the user interested and enjoying themselves while encouraging communication among friends.

Another Question that can be asked is “what makes “Last FM” an effective of social computing?” Last FM is an online based web application that records the users play list and then displays it on their paging ranging from most popular to least popular. What makes Last FM so popular is that it has added applications that allow the user to compare their tastes and styles with others friends, letting them see how they match up against one another. This provides a positive social interaction for the user and encourages them to play more songs to see what other matches they come up with.

Another capability on Last FM is that you can play samples of music your friends have so as to get an idea of what the song sounds like. This style of social computing forms a connections amongst their peers as they can establish who has similar tastes so that they may look through their records again for more songs and therefore encouraging them to use Last Fm again.

The only problems found in Last Fm is that it seemed to be inefficient at recording every artist played through the media player limiting its effectiveness slightly, as users then would not see the full list of tracks played by other users. This could possibly lead to incorrect match ups between the user’s tastes and would not give them the full experience of the web tool.

“Flickr” is an online web tool that allows the users to post their photos for others to view. It allows for the user to post comments and receive comments on their photos, therefore encouraging a good social communication amongst people. With so many other ways to post photos to the internet these days one can ask the question “What makes Flickr competitive against the rest?”

Apart from other web tools Flickr is dedicated to the sole purpose of providing pictures from user to user, when other applications have pictures in only as part of the package. By having pictures as the sole focus of the application, Flickr can attract particular groups of people such as photographers and graphic designers who just wish to receive feedback on their works from their peers with biographies or journals not needed.

The concept of Flickr works extremely well, as it goes for the simplistic approach and has effectively done this setting it apart from the rest. Unfortunately its navigation does not match the users mental mode and can lead to problems causing negative experiences such as the user not being able to work out how to add friends to their contact list.

Overall I personally found Facebook to be a rather enjoyable application to use, although I did continually struggle with navigation issues. Being able to pick and choose which applications the user adds to their profile made it more enjoyable as they were able to personalize them. Personalization is what played a key factor in the users enjoyment to make the application effective as the user felt they owned a private area to themselves and were able to show others what they take pleasure in.

Last FM is also enjoyable to use and can make socializing with music all that more exciting apart from its few down sides, It would appear to be an effective web tool by its use of making interactivity an enjoyable experience. Flickr appeared to have a specific social computing interactivity in mind when it was made and for this reason has made itself into an effective piece of software for everyone to use, This is what makes it so competitive.

All of these programs have provided effective social interactivity for their specific field. They all encourage their users to create social networks and interact with other users, therefore demonstrating a good understanding of their social capabilities.

Assignment 1 - Luke Gittins 41001215

Social and mobile web applications are growing more and more in popularity and worldwide use. Their common services range from sharing; photos, comments, bookmarks and schedules online to recommending music and networking with friends and acquaintances. With the obvious popularity of the applications taking off, this unexperienced social and mobile applications user decided to jump on the bandwagon and find out why these tools are so successful. The following is an insight to the use of social and mobile computing from a common user and describes what applications are being commonly used, their effectiveness and what positive and negative experiences they produce.

Seven web based, social and mobile services were tested and analysed for this study, being: Delicious - a social bookmarking tool,
Flickr – a photo-sharing tool,
Last.FM – a music community website,
Twitter – a social networking tool,
Google Calendar – a schedule and calendar-sharing tool,
Blogger – a blogging application and
Facebook – a social networking tool.
They were all extensively employed in day-to-day use as a way of networking with fellow Uni peers in their own individual ways.

During my whole experience with learning and interacting with multiple social and mobile applications, I found the most useful and effective tool, by far to be Blogger. The reason behind this is simple, as it was only because of the context and environment it was used in that made it useful for myself, and this point remains valid for all seven tools and any other social and mobile application. It can only be as useful and successful as the context and environment they are in. For example if there is a reason for someone to share their favourite URLs with an individual or a group of individuals, then del.icio.us is perfect, but take that purpose away and the product is someone like myself who, might venture over some interesting websites but is really using it for no reason, hence its not useful nor is it a successful tool. Unlike this, is blogger, which has been very useful during the early stages of this course, creating a social area, where everyone that’s apart of the course can discuss and debate topics relating to course issues and matters.

As previously discussed, personal use of any of these seven tools can only be successful and time worthy if there’s a specific goal or achievement these tools can help provide but without this I see the application to be useless, such as one of the tool tested, in Twitter. This social and mobile application I found to be very unhelpful and unnecessary for my personal use. With this in mind, I am in no way suggesting it can’t be useful for others. If I need to communicate with someone by a short message I can simply send a message to his or her phone, without the need of going through the Internet. Twitter also caused problems such as, constant unimportant updates at odd times and a connection too close to people that weren’t really wanted. I found this application very hard to use without sharing information that I thought was personal and not of interested to others. This brings me to my next point about the use of Google Calendar. Once again I feel this application is unnecessary for someone in my position. It is clear to see the tool could come in handy for certain situations such as, group projects – to determine deadlines for milestones that can be added in by each member of the group etc but in my case, my schedule and my deadlines are for myself only and don’t need to be shared amongst the public or other groups. Therefore making it unhelpful and unnecessary for my use.
Flickr is an interesting application and was useful for finding particular images and photos all ready out there on the web and would also find itself handy for those wanting a free personal place on the web to display work they’d created such as photography or graphic art. I personally found the application unhelpful as any specific photos or images taken on a holiday or at a party that you wanted to share with friends or family can be just as easily done using the application Facebook. With this in mind Facebook is not limited to this function but is also an effective way of communicating with friends and family, meeting new people and sharing information with others in many forms. I found this tool especially good for meeting new people, getting back in touch with friends I had lost time for and even communicating with people I knew that lived both locally and in areas far away.
The last applications tested, which I also found very useful was Last.FM. This tool was successful in providing me with music I had not already heard that was specifically related to my interests in music. Having such a large interest in music particular genre of music (in my case being quite rare) my initial thoughts were that this application would not be useful to me as it would not be able to find music that I liked. Yet after just seconds of use I was listening to some great songs that were my taste.

Overall I would say that the revolutionary, somewhat knew era in social and mobile computing applications is a big success if you personally can find the right tool for your specific interests, lifestyles, goals and environment. Not every application is going to be useful for your needs. With this in mind, the growth of this ever popular method of interaction and communication is so great that if there’s not something out there useful for you today, it won’t be long until there is.

Assignment 1 - Grant Van Zutphen (40962588)

The following article is a reflection on my experiences using the following social and mobile computing applications:

• Del.icio.us.
• Flickr
• Last.FM
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Google Calender
• Blogger

It will discuss which tools worked well and which were problematic, which tools produced the most positive outcomes, which tools increased my sense of connection with my peers, and which tools were most useful / applicable to my interests and lifestyle.

The focus of this article is purely on my own experiences with the above-mentioned applications from an end-user perspective. It will address the functional aspects of how each tool encourages/facilitates various kinds of social interaction, and to what extent these tools succeed or fail in their intended purposes.

Del.icio.us is a somewhat misleading name for this website. One might expect to find a collection of mouthwatering dessert recipes, but instead it is a site devoted entirely to social book-marking. Basically it allows people to tag specific websites with freely chosen keywords, and stores this data (along with the URL) in the del.icio.us database. The database keeps track of how many people have tagged the same websites, and orders them according to popularity. Users can then visit del.icio.us, enter one or more keywords relating to their area of interest, and it will produce a list of websites associated with these tags ordering them from the most popular to the least.

Del.icio.us acts similarly to a search engine, however the advantage is that the search results are determined by the opinions and ratings of a vast social network of public users and fellow peers. Typically, search engines will list search results either alphabetically, chronologically or according to the business or enterprise willing to pay the highest price for a prominent listing. Del.icio.us on the other hand uses a different hierarchy, assuring that only the most popular and user-friendly peer-assessed sites are displayed. Additionally, del.icio.us will only list a site if it has been tagged by at least one user. This filters out many websites that are poorly designed or have little relevancy to your search enquiry. In a sense, del.icio.us is more concerned with quality than quantity.

From my experience with del.icio.us, this tool worked effectively and produced positive outcomes. It was simple to use, free of charge and only required a user account to tag websites, not to search for them. As such I could be confident that the search results were tagged according to their merits based on user assessment, and that each of the links would yield relevant results according to my enquiry. The social networking aspect of del.icio.us is the key to its success, assuring users that each website listed is ranked by likeminded peers interested only in usability, functionality and the quality of content. In this sense it does facilitate a social interaction broadly speaking, however the interaction is indirect; implicit only in the use of the website.

Flickr is an online photo sharing application. Users can upload their own personal photos or download images uploaded by others. Like del.icio.us, Flickr also uses metadata. Users can add descriptive keywords or ‘tags’ to their own photographs (and others in some cases) based on image topics such as place, genre or category. This allows others to locate certain images based on keyword searches, and is an extremely effective method of organising and locating images with very specific types of content.

Because the majority of uploaded images are personal photographs, there is an extremely wide variety of subject matter. This makes Flickr a rich repository of digital media, and the use of metadata helps to overcome the issue of sorting through it. Users can use the tool anonymously to search for and download images, although to upload or tag them they need to own a yahoo account in order to log in. The user can download the image at a number of resolution sizes, which benefits both those with low bandwidth who only wish to view the image on-screen, as well as those who whish to acquire larger images for print.

One downside of Flickr is that users can only search via tags. Other websites offer categorical searches covering many themes/subjects and subcategories within them. The advantage of such a system is that users can search with far less constraints, browsing general areas of interest such as architecture or sport without having to type in specifics such as building names or particular sporting activities. Also, many of the images are not of a professional standard which hinders their use and applications to some extent.

From a social perspective Flickr is extremely innovative. Images can be flagged as either public or private allowing the uploader to determine who can view the image. In this way photographs can be shared with family, friends and/or the general public. Flickr members can also comment on one-another’s photographs individually, which is a far more personal, direct level of interaction. And on a larger scale the site facilitates interaction between people with common interests, evident by the content of their photographs.

Last.fm is an online music community consisting of 15 million people worldwide. The application constructs a detailed profile of each user’s musical taste by monitoring what they listen to both via the streaming radio stations on the website itself as well as on their own personal computer or iPod. This information is then transferred to the Last.fm database and compiled into a personal web page.

Last.fm is a social music discovery website. Users can view each others’ personal pages to see what kind of music they prefer, as well as communicate via comments and instant messaging. Additionally, the application supports user-ended tagging meaning that individuals can tag songs and artists with freely chosen keywords. This gives users a certain level of control over how musicians are linked or associated with one another, and provides a broader consensus by which to classify artists into genres, styles, and so on.

Personally, the most impressive feature of the application is its ability to analyse and recommend music based on an individuals taste. With so many new musicians emerging constantly, the site does well to remain so up-to-date. The tool works quite well in suggesting artists in similar genres, however two artists in the same genre can differ substantially (stylistically, instrumentally, vocally, etc) and are not necessarily ‘like’ each other. In this sense some suggestions can be a little off the mark. In saying that, the list of ‘similar artists’ is displayed in descending order with the most similar artists at the top and the least at the bottom. This is a good indication of which bands listed will be most alike, as rated by other members of the community.

Facebook is fairly new on the scene, and is possibly one of the best website examples of social networking available today. When a new user creates an account he/she must enter a valid email address as a username. Every contact in the address book of that email address receives notification that this person is now a member of facebook. For a web application this feature is quite advanced, and assures a diverse and widespread network construction.

Facebook combines many tools into one useful application. Its users can send private messages to each other much like email. They can post brief public notes onto friends ‘walls’ similar to message boards. They can upload photographs, post free classifieds, send digital ‘gifts’, inform friends of their ‘status’ or current whereabouts and actions, and they can ‘poke’ a friend which acts like a digital nudge to get their attention. It has many uses and many applications, but all are aimed at social interaction and networking.

A user can only view someone’s profile if the profile owner has added them as a friend. In this sense users can use some discrepancy as to who they would like to interact with. Facebook is very open in the sense that someone on the same network can closely monitor the interactions of other users. If two people become friends or if one tags another’s photograph a record of the interaction is placed on their profile for all to see. This feature further emphasises the social aspect of the tool, notifying users of the events taking place within their network.

Facebook is an effective networking tool for several reasons. Firstly it allows people to visualise who they are talking to via profile photographs. Cognitively these images facilitate facial recognition which helps to trigger or enhance associations between names and faces. This can be helpful when trying to remember the name of an old classmate or ex-colleague. Secondly, the ‘walls’ allow users to leave brief notes for friends which promotes two-way communication. Unlike email, users don’t feel obliged to write longwinded messages and are therefore more likely to comment more frequently. And thirdly, users can often relocate friends with whom they may have lost touch with via the friends lists of existing facebook members. In this type of scenario existing friendships can lead to the re-establishment of previous friendships.

The many facets of this application provide the means for people to communicate effectively and form diverse peer networks.

Google Calendar is an online application that allows you as the user to “Organize your schedule and share events with friends”. While this sounds great in theory, it has its inherent flaws.

Firstly, in order to add events to the calendar the user must have internet access. If an event were to arise at short notice (as they often do in life) the user is hardly going to search immediately for an internet access point to update their schedule. Secondly, it requires that others have internet access in order to view your schedule. Thirdly, even if they do make the effort they cannot be sure that the schedule is up to date. For the sake of ease, friends and family are far more likely to call and speak with someone directly to confirm plans rather than rely on the accuracy of information on a website. And lastly, users can only view another persons schedule if they manually add them and receive permission to do so.

Google Calendar may however be advantageous in collaborative scenarios where groups of people working in different locations need to coordinate tasks and be aware of each others schedules. In this case the calendar may be effective, but for the general public it seems more of an inconvenience than an aid.

Twitter can be described as an online micro-blogging service where users can post updates on their current status and notify friends and family either via the website, SMS, instant messaging or email.

This tool may be useful for people with extremely busy schedules, however it presupposes that others are constantly interested in your every move which I feel is a little presumptuous. Generally if people are interested in your whereabouts or happenings they will ask. The major problem with the application is that it requires access to the website in order to make an update.

Twitter is an interesting concept but not particularly innovative. If I need to get in touch with someone I could call them, and if they don’t answer I can safely assume they’re busy. Maybe if the mobile phone was not invented then this application might be useful.

Blogger is an online web-log publishing service. Users create a profile and can upload text and images to a personal web-space. This tool is useful for describing and recording personal experiences and events which means it is an ideal application for raising questions, stating opinions and sharing knowledge with others who share common interests.

Blogger opens the lines of communication by allowing people to locate blogs of interest and post comments in response, thus opening a two-way discussion. In fact, anyone with a user account can comment on any blog which often leads to widespread discussions among many people revolving around a singular topic. In this sense Blogger does succeed in connecting networks of people, if only based on a very specific area of focus.

Personally I am not compelled to use Blogger. Like Google Calendar, I feel it is more useful in a group/collaborative setting when discussion and feedback relating to a particular topic is desired. But depending on personality types, some may find it an expressive outlet – a place to share thoughts publicly and practically anonymously.

Considering all the various aspects of each of the tools aforementioned, I feel Facebook is the best example of a web-based application providing positive outcomes in terms of social networking. It is a central hub of activity and communication with millions of users worldwide. The photographs accompanying usernames helps to indicate identity which in turn strengthens the sense of social connection between peers. It is truly a network in that users can contact not only their friends, but the friends of friends and their friends and so on, effectively transcending the many degrees of separation normally applicable in everyday life. Users can share as much or as little as they wish, and have contact with whom they wish as often or as infrequently as they wish. Facebook facilitates a rich level of social exchange, and this is evident by its number of users.

Reflection on social and mobile/40987385

Name: Pierre Medeiros

Number: 40987385

Reflection on social and mobile

computing tools

One important aspect for a system supporting human to human interactions is that of awareness. Awareness deals with a systems ability to let the user know who else is around, what is happening and who is communicating with whom. This idea also touches on peripheral awareness, which is concerned with the monitoring of signals at the edge of the users awareness. This reflective essay will look at the applications required for COMP3505 participation and evaluate the extent to which they support the users’ awareness.

Out of the COMP3505 applications required for participation, this essay will be focused on the use of the delicious site. The main questions that will be asked about this site are, do its features support good user awareness? And in what ways does it fail at supporting user awareness?

Delicious has many features that help with user awareness, the first and foremost being it’s layout. The home screen has a hot list, which is a long list of sites with accompanying user names. This list can give a user a better idea of what is popular on the delicious website, as well as what the other users are talking about. Also, with the posters username visible it makes it easier for like minded users to become aware of one another and consequently make contact.

Another useful tool to help with awareness is the networking feature. This feature allows the user to place other users on a list, where they then can receive notification when the user subscribes to any new sites. The networking tool ensures that users will be able to be made aware of what their contacts are looking up.

The delicious site allows users to take RSS feeds from them so that they can be notified about changes without needing to go to the site to check. The helps raise the efficiency of the users’ awareness and means they are only getting the information they are interested in.

Supporting the main tools is a collection of less obvious, peripherally based shows of information. When a user makes a new post there is a small tag showing how many people that tag was saved by and how long ago. In a similar fashion there are population tags for the number of people that have subscriptions to any given site.

Even with these tools in mind, the delicious site still has some drawbacks as to it’s’ ability to enhance the users awareness. The main problem is there is no real way for the user to know who is interacting with who and what they’re interactions are about in real time. This kind of information is rather abstract and deals mainly with the general numbers of people and their usernames. Not having features that support a faster paced system of user awareness, is a drawback as it makes the rate of the users’ awareness slow.

In conclusion delicious has many features that help enhance and support the users’ awareness via obvious or peripheral means. The only downside for delicious is the slow rate at which the user is made aware of things. What this means is that delicious is not a viable site for a fast paced level of information exchange. Overall, delicious fulfils its role as a web sharing site and has many features that help enhance the users awareness.

Communication Via Social Tools

By Dean Dredge

s4099445

Introduction:

For this reflective essay seven key social and mobile computing tools will be evaluated and compared based upon there ability to allow members to communicate with each other and the tools in which are used to do so. Each application allows a certain level of communication to occur, between members, ranging from having the ability to post comment and send messages, to allowing the user to poke another to begin a conversation or draw the other member’s attention to them. This essay will compare the seven programs on the basis of which provide greatest levels of communication between users and how simple are these tools to operate.

Background:

This report will focus upon seven tools that consider social and mobile computing. The seven programs are Flickr, Facebook, Blogger, Google Calendar, Last Fm, Delicious and Twitter. Flickr is a system that allows the user to upload and display pictures, with other members being able to view and comment about these photos. With Flickr allowing members to comment about each others photos, conversation can arise paving way for detailed discussions between members. Facebook is a program that is heavily conversation based with the user being able to add friends and contact them via messages or by poking them. Blogger allows users to add and display a variety of content in the form of posts. Other members can then visit other individual’s blog sites and view the data while also being able to add comments.

Google mail provides users with a number of tools and one of those is Google Calendar. Google Calendar allows the user to be informed of important dates and to keep track of their timetable. It provides users with limited conversational means but can keep contact via Google mail in the form of emails. Last Fm is a music media website that provides a means for music download and discussions with fellow members in the manner of forums. Members can also communicate using shout boxes and comments. Delicious is a site that allows members to add their favourite websites and communicate on a limited yet detailed basis. Twitter is a social tool that allows users to post text based messages via such means as SMS, email and instant messaging.

Focus:

The particular aspect that will be focused upon for this reflective essay of social and mobile computing tools is conversation and the manner in which members can communicate with each other. Each tool has its own specific way for members to communicate to each other, whether it is in the form of a comment, message or poke. Conversation is an essential aspect for all tools to ensure they are viable as social and mobile computing tools. Social tools all have a variety of means that allows users to converse with each other. My major experiences with these tools have been in the manner of dialogue and the tools that are provided by the system to ensure that this is possible. A lot of major social tools have difficultly in providing a method for members to communicate with each other that is easy to operate and understand. There are many major underlining design challengers that face developers of social tools, including the ability to provide tools that users can easily operate in order to converse.

Reflection:

The best example of a social tool that has provided a detailed communication base is Facebook. Facebook provides member with the ability to add other members as friends, paving way for more in-depth communication in the manner of messages and pokes. Members can also join forums that allow people to meet others outside their friend base or meet friends of friends. Flickr is also a tool that provides a social aspect with members being able to upload and display photos and then having other members comment on these pics. Members can also email each other using Flickr. Blogger is solely communication base with members posting detailed data for all of the public to see. The public can then add comments about the data posted creating a forum. Twitter is a tool that allows for social interactions, on a limited basis. Users can communicate to each other but can only do so using brief instant messages such as hi, how are you going. This prevents detailed discussions from occurring between members. Last Fm is a vast social tool that provides users with a number of different ways to communicate with friends and other members. This includes having the ability to send messages and add comments. You can also add friends to your contact list and join groups or create your own. Last Fm is the most social tool of the seven after Face book, which provides greater interaction especially when it allows users to meet friends of friends therefore expanding their contact list. Google Calendar and delicious do not possess the ability or tools to allow their members to communicate, therefore rendering them as impractical tools for communication.

Conclusion:

These seven social tools provide people with another means of communication but in a manner that is fun, exciting and rewarding. It provides an opportunity to meet new people in a setting and atmosphere that have a community feeling. Social tools provide a wide range of interaction possibilities ranging from blogs to forums and instant messaging. All of these tools ensure that a user has access to a wide range of communicative tools that enhance conversation through a variety of different methods. Facebook, Twitter and Last Fm are the leading web based programs that offer the user with a wide variety of different communication means in an ambience that is entertaining.

References:

(2007) “World Changing Social Tools.” Retrieved 15/8/2007, From http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/002523.html

(2007). "Face book Statistics." Retrieved 15/8/2007, from http://static.ak.facebook.com/press/facebook_statistics.pdf?12:51442.

(2007) “Blogger”. Retrieved 15/8/2007, From https://www.blogger.com/start

(2007) “Flickr”. Retrieved 15/8/2007, From http://www.flickr.com/

(2007) “Del.icio.us”. Retrieved 15/8/2007, From http://del.icio.us/

(2007) “Google”. Retrieved 15/8/2007, From http://www.google.com.au/

(2007) “Last Fm”. Retrieved 15/8/2007, From http://www.last.fm/

(2007) “Twitter”. Retrieved 15/8/2007, From http://twitter.com/

Facebook: Connecting Peers

Natalie Ulmer -40553315

Facebook is fast becoming a popular form of networking. It’s slogan of “Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you,” is true. Through the use of Facebook I have increased my connections with my peers. This can mainly be attributed to Facebook’s original aim of helping new university students to meet. This article will reflect upon the background of Facebook, the ways in which it creates peripheral awareness, focusing on news feeds, status and poke. It will also examine the problems of Facebook, and discuss the applications that have been created to maximize the Facebook experience.

Facebook was originally created in 2004 for Harvard students (Facebook 2007). However within a year it had quickly spread to include other universities such as Stanford, Columbia and Yale (Facebook 2007). Mark Zuckerberg’s, Facebook’s creator, initial aim was to help students create new friendships within the university that they students were to attend. In the three years since Facebook’s inception, it has expanded to the extent that it now has over 31 million active users (Facebook, 2007). This population growth can be contributed to the design, which focuses on the peripheral awareness.

The design of Facebook has been based on the multiple single-user. Where the users believes that they are the only person using the site. However several features have been created to allow for peripheral awareness, of other users. These applications include mini stories, poke, news feed, status, notification and the e-mail system etc.

Many of the features of Facebook are based on staying easily connected with friends. Through the asynchronous e-mail system (Figure 1), friends, can easily stay in touch. However this e-mail system is more like an Instant Message system, due to the style of language that Facebook’s e-mail system provides. This program cannot be used in the same way that most e-mails are usually used. For instance you cannot include the e-mail sent to you and therefore cannot reply in amongst the sentences of the e-mail received.

However the e-mail aspect was one of the features that I have enjoyed most. Due to the instant message style I have been able to talk to friends on any computer, as I do not need to install any programs. Hence it is an easy, cheap way for me to communicate with friends, as well as keeping a record of the conversation.

Figure 1: e-mail conversation


To create peripheral awareness amongst the users, Facebook has a twitter style status update. This status update allows the user to type in what they are doing or thinking, as well as showing this recent updates amongst friends. Through the use of a simple click and type, the status is effortless for both the user to use and their friends to view. These updates are also displayed in the mini feed/news feed (Figure 2) amongst other updates that are displayed.

Figure 2: Example of Newsfeed


The mini feed is another way of keeping a watchful eye on what your friends are up to. Through the news feed or mini feed, which can be found on both the profile page and the home page, you are able to see what your friends have been doing. Be it updated their profile, or sent a friend a present, added a new application or have had a new friend joined Facebook. This application allows the user’s social network to expand, as well as exploring self interests and their friend’s interests, through Facebook. One of the more interesting examples of the news feed is the use of applications. Through the news feed you can see a friend’s new application and then grab a copy for yourself.

Poke is a core aspect of Facebook. Through this simple device you are able to ‘poke’ (Figure 3) a friend. This is displayed to the friends next time they log into Facebook. This helps keeps communication opens and tells the friends that they were online and thinking about them.

Figure 3: Poke Notification

Although Facebook is a good tool for interactions amongst friends, it does have some problems. The largest problem is privacy. Although the user has access to what they display on their profile and how visible it is, most users are not aware that people outside their friendship groups can see their profiles and details(Gross and Acquisti 2006). Another major problem for me personally, is that Facebook has now become a very good form of procrastination.

However one of Facebook’s greatest assets is how easy it is to join. When joining Facebook, you use an existing e-mail account and the friends on that account, who are already members, are automatically added. Another positive feature of Facebook is the birthday reminder. This aspect can replace e-mail reminders, such as Bebo. The reason that this form of reminder is better then other applications available, is that Facebook’s birthday reminder remains constant for a week prior to the birthday, on both the profile and home page. This reminder stays in the background and acts a reminder, for the upcoming birthday.

Through the use of Facebook and its applications to create peripheral awareness, I have been able to increase my connection with my peers. This awareness was accumulated through the status, birthday reminders, gifts and questions. The profile page also allowed me to understand my friends better through the applications such as my Questions, cities I’ve visited, TV Quotes, games, iLike etc. I have been able to see a different perspective into my friend’s lives. Even from the little things such as new photos to where they wish to travel to.

The final feature that appeals to me was the photo albums, although similar to Flickr and Photobucket, the photos in Facebook allow you to tag (figure 4) or your friends to tag the people in the photos. It also allows me to view my friend’s albums (figure 5) and through the news feed see when a new album/photo has been put up.

Figure 4: Tagging a Friend in Facebook

Figure 5: Friend's Albums

When comparing Facebook’s Flickr application (Figure 6), Facebook’s album and Flickr (Figure 7) I discovered that each application had its own advantages. In Flickr you can use the tags to quickly view other images with the same tags. However this is not as easily established in Facebook’s version of Flickr. In this version the images appear and there is a link to the actual Flickr page. However it also uploads new images to the news feed which allows the user’s friends to see the new images with ease. The setup is again different when viewing Facebook’s own version. This version of photo sharing is aimed more at the social network and therefore uses the tag system as away of identifying friends in images.

Figure 6: Facebook's Flickr

Figure 7: Flickr

In conclusion, Facebook is a tool that allows us to communicate in cyberspace with our offline friends. Through Facebook’s understanding of peripheral awareness, in applications such as My Questions, top Rated, Status, it has allowed its users to gain more insight into their friend’s lives. Facebook has allowed me to create closer bonds with my peers and gain more knowledge about their worlds.




Bibliography

(2007). "Face book Statistics." Retrieved 12/8/2007, from http://static.ak.facebook.com/press/facebook_statistics.pdf?12:51442.

(2007). "Facebook Timeline." Retrieved 12/8/2007, from http://static.ak.facebook.com/press/facebook_timeline.pdf?12:44617.

Acquisti, A. a. G., Ralph (2006). "Imagined Communities: Awareness, Information Sharing, and Privacy on the Facebook."

Barry Wellman, J. S., Dimitrina Dimitrova, Laura Garton, Milena Gulia, and Caroline Haythornthwaite (1996). "COMPUTER NETWORKS AS SOCIAL NETWORKS: Collaborative Work, Telework, and Virtual Community." Annual Review of Sociology 22: 213-238.

Lampe, C., N. Ellison, et al. (2006 ). A face(book) in the crowd: social Searching vs. social browsing Proceedings of the 2006 20th anniversary conference on Computer supported cooperative work Banff, Alberta, Canada ACM Press

N.B. Ellison, C. S. C. L. (2007). "The benefits of Facebook "friends:" Social capital and college students' use of online social network sites. ." Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 12(4).

REFLECTION ON SOCIAL AND MOBILE COMPUTING TOOLS

Petra Thomas: 40777465

This article discusses the phenomena of online social spaces; the growth of online social networks focusing on possible contributing factors that lead to the success or failure of those spaces. Since sociologists began studying the Internet, HCI (Human Computer Interaction [2]), ID (Interaction Design [3]) and CSCW (Computer Supported Coordinated Work [4]), their focus was on how people used the Web, and changes to social structures [1] rather than the technology itself. Using several different forms of CSCW, such as Facebook, Delicious, Flickr, Blogger, Twitter, Google Calendar and Last FM, I will identify how successfully these technologies promote socially interactive cooperative spaces, and a reflection of my own personal experience.

CSCW examines how everyday interaction between people takes place, in both social and the work environments, and looks at how this can be integrated into an online space. By studying different methods of communication such as, face to face (same place at the same time), synchronous distributed interaction (different places at the same time, perhaps a phone conversation), asynchronous interaction (same place at different times, a noticeboard would be an example), and asynchronous distributed interaction (different places at different times) the complexity of how to successfully structure an online communication or collaborative technology becomes more apparent.

“Casual interaction is made possible by interpersonal awareness, the understanding of who is around, what they are doing, and whether or not they are available for conversation and collaboration [6]” is discussed in Patterns of Contact and Communication in Scientific Research Collaboration, while analysing face to face social interactions within the workplace. Face to face communication affords visual clues and unwritten interaction rules often dependant on cultural upbringing, as to how the interaction or communication is conducted or structured depending on a given situation, taking into account to whom we are speaking and in what context. A phone conversation often affords tonal qualities or audio cues to ascertain how the person on the other end is receiving the conversation. Asynchronous interaction does not provide these mechanisms of informal cues that allow people to perceive breakdowns or misinterpretations that can be dealt with immediately.

Facebook attempts to provide an online communication, or collaborative space for our group of Queenslanders, providing different forms of interaction to encourage communication with others in an informal playful environment. I have been bitten by Vampires, poked by people, asked questions and an assortment of other interactions, would not fit a normal pattern of behaviour in a face-to-face working environment. However Facebook provides a feeling of belonging within a group, and by excluding social norms of face-to-face interaction, overcomes barriers that other technologies have not achieved (for me). “The challenge is how people can balance the awareness information they want others to have of their work with their own privacy needs [5]” is another issue that for me was difficult to overcome. However, users are able to decide how much information they are prepared to share.

Facebook by far was my favourite cooperative space for interaction, as it provided me a playful environment, a fun environment, and a feeling of acceptance. I was aware of others participation and could see what “my friends” were doing and what their extended friends were doing. I was able to have non-intrusive conversations successfully in an asynchronous distributed environment, coordinating my time schedule to enjoy this space. The use of email to alert me of updates made this space almost a synchronous distributed interaction at times. This technology is successfully overcoming the barriers of non-verbal communication online. The clever integration of commonplace forms of communication, or game playing in a physical world has been taken and modified to suit the web environment.

Flickr provides a form of conversation in an asynchronous distributed interaction by allowing comments to be made on the posted photos. You are aware of people using the technology, and could easily be used for collaboration for projects where sharing of images is needed. This technology can be expanded to printing out of photos or making them into books to share using other technologies such as Blurb. There is a feeling of being welcomed into the larger community by use of the ‘Explore’ navigation, and being able to access other peoples photos via categories or location searches. Commenting allows for interaction between people. Flickr also successfully contributes an online community for people to enjoy.

Delicious, for social book marking allows me to see related articles. This has proved to be a very useful tool for gathering information of a specific category and would be particularly beneficial in a collaborative project. A research project for “Improving Web Page Revisitation: Analysis, Design and Evaluation” [7] looks at how to improve finding a previously visited page, the one that you found a month or so ago and you don’t remember what it was called or what section you found it in. By using a social book-marking tool such as Delicious then it would be easily found, by both you and your colleagues and associated articles could also be categorised, and/or accessed. While using Delicious you are aware of others using this tool, it is a more subliminal feeling of belonging to a larger group, and coordination would be by means of creating a group and the use of dating submissions and tagging specific words. Delicious, while the feeling of community is less apparent than Facebook, it still successfully implements a useful tool for on online collaborative community.

The Last FM is another technology that is allows for collaboration by entering information, and creating an awareness of others also sharing the experience. By creating group collaboration, and inviting friends to share your choice in music, and you theirs, a form of asynchronous distributed interaction provides a platform for sharing musical interests. There are enough interesting features on this technology to generate return visits and be an effective tool for creating friends with shared interests in music. Last FM really didn’t inspire my interest and I did not feel involved in this community, however that could be more my own use of music for a personal time out, rather than an online caring and sharing environment.

Google Calendar, on its own is a calendar, used in conjunction with other technologies this could be useful in collaborative work for accessing not only your own schedules but also those with whom you’re working. Importing friends Calendars give access to their timetables, so that finding a time that would suit everyone could be beneficial. My own preference would be to use another technology to set up meetings etc, as what I have planned may not have made the online calendar. A more direct and synchronous form of communication for setting up meeting would be my preference, as communication could possibly break down with regards to changes made not being accessed. Awareness, people having access to my timetable and organising my own time, and my own preconceived ideas of someone else’s availability could create problems. I would use the online calendar as a backup only, unless some stringent guidelines were implemented within the collaborative group.

Twitter, the one technology that I had issues with. Do I want people to have updates on my status? Do I want to bore them with updates of what I am doing? This potentially could be an expensive exercise using mobile phone technologies, and annoying to say the least. If I were going to send information in this format, it would be via a SMS or an Email, without introducing another technology. Twitter for me was the least inspirational, although the widget that could be installed unobtrusively onto the desktop, to just see what others are doing may have uses for people.

Blogger, one of my favourite tools for collaborative work so far. Blogger was used for group blogging, coordinating, and asynchronous conversations. Blogger worked very effectively for two Studios that I worked in, Temple Experience and Lazy Panorama Table. The groups for these projects both saw a value in using the Group Blog to document what research they found useful, what they were doing and what they had achieved. The asynchronous distributed interaction afforded collaboration on the projects without the disruption of phone calls or even MSN, although both of these were also used. Group meetings using msn were also helpful. Limitations on the normal rules of face to face conversation being over-ruled on this technology, created different directions in the conversation and it was not as effective as a post to Blogger where each persons input could be fully stated and justified. Blogger posts could be read without interruption and follow up research or a more complete understanding by reading group findings that were different to your own, before commenting or deciding, giving time to speculate on the potential outcomes. The tools that were particularly useful, were the ability to upload photos, give as much textual information as needed, add comments, multiple logins and the choice of privacy settings. Administration rights were also an option that could be used in a variety of ways, depending on the use of that particular blog. This form of communication in a collaborative setting was unobtrusive to individual timetables and work schedules and can be successfully implemented for CSCW. The social aspect of Blogger allows for personal blogging that can be made private or public, and there are many useful and interesting blogs that are made public. Being able to comment makes you aware that people are viewing and reading your blog, as I found in Project 1, when I failed to include all people involved in creating Touch-Sensitive Apparel, and one of the designers left a comment to correct me. I was grateful for her comments and could rectify my mistake and was quiet surprised that by the fact that the internet is such a small place.
By being able to leave my own comment and apology in answer to Cati, made me aware of how personal a blog can be, and aware of being in a larger community which is unsighted but most definitely there.

In conclusion, Blogger for a work environment is most successful, Facebook succeeds on a social level, promoting a community awareness, Flickr adds a dimension of sharing images with friends and gives an insight to peoples lives, while Delicious provides a community of like minded links to material. All of these were successful in their own rights providing people the opportunity to decide how involved individually they would be, and how much private information they would invest into the community. All provided awareness, a successful form communication and collaboration on an Asynchronous Distributed Interaction technology.

“Casual interaction is made possible by interpersonal awareness, the understanding of who is around, what they are doing, and whether or not they are available for conversation and collaboration [6]”. Although this statement was directed at face to face communication and collaboration, being aware of social rules and behaviours (example: if someone appears to be busy come back later if possible), in a working environment, some of the discussed technologies have cleverly integrated casual interactions into online social networks. Using the technologies you are aware of others are using that site and casually dropping in from time to time, you can collaborate with others, coordination is not a necessary integral part of the experience, and you are able to communicate in many different ways with people within that social group.




Bibliography

1. Cockburn, A., Greenberg, S., Jones, S., McKenzie, B., & Moyle, M. (n.d.). Improving Webpage Revisitation: Analysis, Design and Evaluation. IT & Society , pp. Volume 1, Issue 3, Winter 2003, PP 159-183.

2. Danino, N. (2001, November 14). Human-Computer Interaction and Your Site. Retrieved August 18, 2007, from Sitepoint: http://www.sitepoint.com/article/computer-interaction-site

3. Preece J., S. H. (2007). Interaction Design, beyond human-computer interaction . Retrieved August 18, 2007, from Interaction Design: http://www.id-book.com/




4. Brimck T. (1998). Groupware Introduction. Retrieved August 18, 2007, from Usability First: http://www.usabilityfirst.com/groupware/intro.txl

5. Tee, K., Greenberg, S., & Gutwin, C. (2006). Providing Artificial Awareness to a Distributed Group through Screen Sharing. Proceeding of the ACM CSCW'06. ACM Press.

6. Kraut, R., Egidio, C., & Galegher, J. (1990). Intellectual Teamwork: Social & Technological Foundations of Cooperative Work. In Patterns of Contact and Communications in Scientific Research Collaboration (pp. 149-181). LEA Press


7. Cockburn A., G. S. (2003). ITandSociety.org. Retrieved 08 16, 2007, from Volume1, Issue 3, Winter: www.ITandSociety.org

Skeletons in the Closet (Steven McSwan, 40549813)

The internet is a social mecca with millions of people of varying backgrounds exposing to the world their emotions, thoughts, interests and experiences. Unfortunately few realise the seriousness of the dangers in exposing so much information on the internet.

This article will explore the privacy issues concerning the exposing of personal information through the use of social tools such as Blogger [9], Flickr [10] and Del.icio.us [11]. More specifically it will discuss the issues of information availability, retention and intersection.

These issues can potentially expose private and/or damaging information of anyone who uses one or more social tools.

As a private person I like to keep my activities, thoughts and opinions to myself. With undertaking “Social and Mobile Computing”, a subject based on social interaction, it was necessary for me to divert from this norm and “expose” myself to the world. It is this experience of “exposing” myself and the risks associated with it that will be the focus of this article.

Privacy has always been a concern however with the inception of the internet and social tools new issues have emerged. As a result a number of academic articles have emerged that explore what the potential risks are and how we can combat them. A number of these articles will be used to support my arguments over the next few paragraphs and they are described below.

Lenhart [1] and Nardi [2] discuss privacy from the perspective of the social tool’s users’ and how they themselves manage it. They explain why they use the tools and the amount of information they typically release.

Conto [3] in his article goes on to explain how using one of the most popular search engines, Google [14], this information is readily available and presents an inherent danger to their publishers’ privacy.

Finally Frankowski [4] and Ahern [5] in their articles explore how these collected segments of information no matter how mundane can reveal the publishers’ complete profile and how this can be combated.

Figure 1. Google's initial screen.

Google:
Google is the world’s most popular and powerful search engine with approximately 380 million visitors a month [4]. Google is the tool as explained in Conti’s [4] article that has the power to store and expose potentially damaging personal information through data intersection, as explained by Frankowsk in his article [4].

Figure 2. Blogger's initial screen.

Blogger:
Blogger is a blogging tool that, as explained in Nardi’s [2], article people can use to expose their daily activities, whereabouts, opinions, thoughts and emotions.

Figure 3. A user's gallery on Flickr.

Flickr:
Flickr is a photo sharing tool that enables users to post photos that as explained in Ahern’s article [5] can expose their relationships, frequented locations, behaviour patterns and the objects they own.

Figure 4. My Del.icio.us website showing all my links.

Del.icio.us:
Del.icio.us is a tool that users may use to share their frequented sites. This in turn exposes their current interests, projects and browsing patterns.

At first glance it seems the social tools are quite different. For example Blogger involves the sharing of thoughts, Flickr the sharing of photos, and Del.icio.us the sharing of bookmarks. However upon closer examination it can be found that they all achieve very similar goals. They as discussed by Ahern [5], Nardi [2] and Lenhart [1] provide people with the ability to share personal information whether they concern their thoughts, emotions, interests or activities in which their involved.

This sharing particularly with blogs fulfils social needs as described in Abraham Maslow’s theory of human motivation [6]. He states that we all have a desire/need for reputation, prestige, recognition, attention, importance and appreciation. Having accomplished these we fulfil our esteem and belonginess needs which allow us to move onto fulfilling our other needs as outlined on Maslow’s triangle [6].

Figure 5. Maslow's Triangle showing all the needs we as humans strive to meet.

These desires/needs would have normally been fulfilled in real-life using the prestige of our jobs, the money we earn and our lifestyles. However with the introduction of the internet new methods have emerged. We are now able to fulfil these needs by exposing ourselves to a far wider audience where we have a far greater chance of advancing our social status.

We may fulfil our social needs by exposing ourselves online. Unfortunately this comes at a serious price as the information we disclose can be collected and read by anyone including advertising agencies, potential employers, government agencies, criminal organisations and even potential partners.

Tabularised in the figure below is information that would normally be provided through normal usage of Blogger, Flickr and Deli.icio.us. This provides a clear picture of exactly how much information undesirable parties can gain access to.

Figure 6. Information that could potentially be exposed.

Lenhart [1] and Nardi [2] in their research have found that the majority of users are unconcerned if outsiders know about their interests, social network or what they own. Their main concern was that of others feelings and exposing their full name or home address.

This is sound if it’s in the context of the real-world where the information you put forth is only received by a few individuals and will usually be forgotten. The internet however unlike the real-world has a few key attributes that could make the most mundane information damaging. These attributes are data availability, retention and intersection.

Data Availability
Websites such as Blogger, Flickr and Del.icio.us have a lot of visitors and are often bookmarked due to their nature as a social tool. Because of this the information people provide on such sites are much more readily available than if it was on their own individually hosted website [7]. Search engines such as Google are highly likely to have these sites in the top search results given the right search terms.

Figure 7. The search result returned when searching for my name, Steven McSwan.

One such example is with my own name Steven McSwan. If you were to search for my name in Google you will see the best match is my “One Million Masterpiece” site. This is a site that is regularly visited and due to its nature would have been visited many times. I’ve created many of my own websites over time and would have certainly mentioned my full name however these are nowhere to be found.

Data Retention
Conti discusses in his article the fact high capacity storage devices now cost so little companies can store information about its customers indefinitely [3]. This coupled with the might that is Google is one of the biggest dangers facing users of the internet. Google has the capacity to store and cache most of the internet’s websites [3]. This means the information we post even if deleted will still be available well into the future.

An example of this is with a forum post of mine where I asked for the address of the LEGO [12] website, in which someone kindly replied www.lego.com to my embarrassment. That was eleven years ago and I recently came across it again. The company no longer exists, nor does the website, yet my post could still be found because it existed on Google cache.

This is a harmless example but in the context of social tools it is dangerous. We release a lot of information that we may potentially regret releasing later on. Nardi [2] in her article lists a specific example where a Blogger regrets posting his emotion fuelled opinion of a fellow classmate. He later deletes this post however with Google’s cache that classmate would still have access to it.

Data Intersection
You have more than likely with your inappropriate internet postings maintained your anonymity by not releasing any personal details such as your name, location, sex, birth date, etc. Surely with doing this you should be alright? Unfortunately not, this is where data intersection comes into play. Data intersection as Frankowski [4] describes is where two or more sparse relation spaces (ie. information from your blog, bookmarks and from your anonymous offensive postings) overlap.

Figure 8. A diagram showing the different data segments intersecting.

For example let’s say you have the following sets of information:

Blogger: You have made your first name and country available. You have posted articles stating how much you like reading Harry Potter [13] books.

Del.icio.us: You have links to Harry Potter fan sites and articles about snails.

Anonymous Posting: You have a fake name, location, sex and birth date for a forum about satanic rituals. In some of your posts you talk about your love of Harry Potter and rare snails (which happen to only be found at your location).

People are able to identify your anonymous postings as they can link your love of Harry Potter books, snails and their location. Realistically it would take many more links to personally identify you in this situation as there are many, many Harry Potter fans however given the amount of information users expose the potential links are plentiful.

Given the popularity and usefulness of social tools it cannot be expected that you or others will simply stop using them altogether. Measures should however be taken to lessen the potential damage your exposure can cause now or in the future.

Data Availability
You should be aware of the popularity of any website you publish information to. The more popular it is the more careful you should be about the information you post as it will likely be the first thing people see when they search for anything related to you.

An effective technique I use is to simply assume that anything I post will be read by my family, friends and potential employers. Hence why in all my accounts for Flickr, Blogger, Del.icio.us and so forth you will not find anything offensive or revealing.

Data Retention
You should be aware before posting any information to any website that it may be available for anyone to read even if it is later deleted or has been inactive for quite a number of years. If you are unfortunate and accidently release or publish something that Google has cached there are some steps you can take to rectify the situation.

You need to first of all edit (not delete) the item and change it so that there are no search terms that will relate it to the original version. After several weeks or months Google will refresh its cache so that now there shouldn’t be any offending items in the original or cached version. I used this technique to remove the cache of the post I mentioned earlier where I asked what the website address of the LEGO website was.

Data Intersection
It is unlikely you will be able to combat this issue however a few basic steps will make it more difficult for undesirables to identify you. Frankowski [4] identified those steps as follows:

1. Never publish personally identifying information such as your real name, country of origin, birthday, email address, your school, friends, etc. This will decrease drastically the ability to narrow dataset intersection results to you personally.
   


2. Mention a multitude of popular items in your articles. This will make it a lot more difficult to obtain enough links between datasets to identify you.
   

In today’s busy world it can often be difficult to fulfil our desire/need for reputation, prestige, recognition, attention, importance and appreciation. With the introduction of the internet and social tools such as Blogger, Flickr and Del.icio.us we now have new easier methods to fulfil these needs however like all good things this doesn’t come risk free. Search engines like Google though useful make any information we share readily available to the undesirables of the world. Worse still the disjointed bits of information we release can together expose details of our lives we would much rather keep private.

Do not release any personal information and most certainly don’t publish information you would rather remain private. Failing this the skeletons in your closet will surely be revealed.

[1]. Lenhart, A., & Madden, M. (2007). Teens, Privacy & Online Social Networks: How teens manage their online identities and personal information in the age of MySpace.. PEW Internet & American Life Project.

[2]. Nardi, B. A., Schiano, D. J., & Gumbrecht, M. (2004). Blogging as Social Activity, or, Would You Let 900 Million People Read Your Diary?. CSCW 2004.

[3]. Conti, Gregory (2006).Googling Considered Harmful. New Security Paradigms Workshop 2006.

[4]. Frankowski, D., Cosley, D., Sen, S., Terveen, L., & Riedl, J. (2006). You Are What You Say: Privacy Risks of Public Mentions. SIGIR 2006.

[5]. Ahern, S., Eckles, D., Good, N., King, S., Naaman, M., & Nair, R. (2007). Over Exposed? Privacy Patterns and Considerations in Online and Mobile Photo Sharing. CHI 2007.

[6]. (2007, June 27). Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Retrieved August 10, 2007, from Business Balls Web site: http://www.businessballs.com/maslow.htm

[7]. Wolfram, E. Score Higher in Google Search Engine. Retrieved August 10, 2007, from Wolfram Web site: http://wolfram.org/writing/howto/3.html

[8]. Walters, G. J. (2001).Privacy and Security: An Ethical Analysis. Human Rights in an Information Age: A Philosophical Analysis.

[9]. Blogger. Retrieved August 10, 2007, Web site: https://www.blogger.com/start

[10]. Flickr. Retrieved August 10, 2007, Web site: http://www.flickr.com/

[11]. Del.icio.us. Retrieved August 10, 2007, Web site: http://del.icio.us/

[12]. LEGO. Retrieved August 10, 2007, Web site: http://www.lego.com/en-US/default.aspx

[13]. Harry Potter. Retrieved August 10, 2007, Web site: http://www.jkrowling.com/

[13]. Google. Retrieved August 10, 2007, Web site: http://www.google.com.au/

There! I did it and I was first...what-chu think?

I'm not sure if this is too informal but I am under the impression that we still get another week to change it...
see how it goes...

Social translucence - Damian Carroll - 41032899

Social translucence is a term that refers to collaborative computer network systems. In particular, their ability to “support coherent interactions” that facilitate progress toward a common goal. [1] Collaborative computer system designs that have attained a high level of social translucence make it easier for users to have “coherent discussions… to engage in peer pressure; to create.”[1] Achieving social translucence depends on a couple of key elements; that users are aware of others and that they are accountable for what they do. In this article I will be discussing the concept of social translucence in reference to a number of online collaborative systems. These systems include, Delicious, Flickr, Twitter, Last.fm, Facebook, Google Calendar and Blogger.

Delicious is an online system that allows users to archive, categorize and share online recourses. The benefits to using delicious are endless in the way that in university and research in general, valid recourses are everything. The key to getting the most from Delicious is bookmarking as much as you can; the more you have, the more resourceful Delicious becomes. As for being aware of others, it’s quite easy to see that others use the service but little evidence to tell you when they’re online. Being accountable for what you do on Delicious is something that relevent as it is primarily a service that allows people to share recourses.

Flickr is an online image sharing system in which users can post images, comment on others, add contacts and form groups. The service is predominantly used to share photos but others use it as a type of online portfolio. When posting on Flickr and my groups and commenting on works, I found dialogue soon followed. Even though Flickr doesn’t let you know when other people are online, you’re aware of the online presence of those who post frequently. As for being held accountable for what you do post on Flickr, everything is by default copywritten with all rights reserved. In the past I’ve found Flickr to be quite useful when collaborating on offline projects and it can be used as an online ideas log or journal.

Twitter, is for “staying in touch and keeping up with friends no matter where you are or what you’re doing.” [2] The Twitter service also has mobile options that allow users to talk to their twitter friends and contacts. The Twitter system is designed as a purely social system with very little use for any major discussion. You can see what people are up to by the amount of times they choose to tell Twitter what they’re doing. As for accountability, as stated, Twitter is basically a socially based system with very little need to see who is responsible for entries. Even though this is the case, users can create a profile with a portrait that allows others who is accountable for posting entries.

Last.fm “is a website and internet radio station designed to introduce people to new music.” It allows you to create play lists and explore over 10,000 songs. Additionally, with the use of a plug-in it will track what music you play on your personal computer and generate statistics as to who listens to the same music and how often. You are aware of who is online as it shows you who is listening to what in real time. Accountability as with some of the other purely social online services is not so much an issue.

Facebook is essentially an online contact book; the key lies in its popularity and abundance of users. Those who are new to the system can search the archive of existing users with ease and quickly find existing acquaintances or new friends. As far as being aware of others that use the system, Facebook gives the option to view those of your contacts that are online. Accountability isn’t really an issue for Facebook as it is predominantly a social service for keeping in contact with people.

Google Calendar allows you to see your “friends' and family's schedules right next to your own; quickly add events mentioned in Gmail conversations”[4] Additionally to this Google Calendar allows users to decide which details are kept private and those which they choose to share or make public. Google Calendar also has mobile options which notify you when a calendar entry has expired. Google Calendar, in conjunction with Google chat and Gmail can be an advantageous service for online or offline group projects. Users are aware of others but once again, this hinges on adding contacts and working up your profile and calendar.
Blogger as the name suggests is on an online blog service that allows users free web space to post entries and photos. Blogs have been helpful no end for working in groups and doing online and offline. Blogger doesn’t allow you to see other users but if you have a group blog it is easy to tell who has the strongest online presence. Blogger also has the advantage of having email and rss feeds, this can enhance the collaborative process as it’s easier to participate. Additionally, as to ownership of ideas and accountability, each entry that is made is date and time stamped to ensure this.

In conclusion, I believe no individual online service is sufficient to achieve general social translucence. Services that allow more awareness are lacking in accountability; those with emphasis on accountability lack awareness of others. However, by using these online systems together, a sense of translucence is readily achieved.

References
[1] Supporting community and building social capital: Social translucence: designing social infrastructures that make collective activity visible. Thomas Erickson, Christine Halverson, Wendy A. Kellogg, Mark Laff, Tracee Wolf.
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=505270&coll=Portal&dl=GUIDE&CFID=31887424&CFTOKEN=83293781
[2] Twitter: Frequently Asked questions : http://twitter.com/faq
[3] Wikipedia :en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last.FM

[4] Welcome to Google Calendar: Organize your schedule and share events with friends. https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=cl&passive=true&nui=1&continue=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fcalendar%2Frender&followup=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fcalendar%2Frender

Word count and referencing style

Hi I was just wondering if there were any constraints on the word count and well as if there was a specific referencing style that we needed to use for our reflection.

Thanks.

Just to confirm...

Are we meant to post our article directly onto this page? Cos mine isn't small.

Report help.. =/

Still confused about the report -

It says we have to reflect on our experience with using social and mobile computing applications.. How many applications are we meant to be discussing? All 7 of them?

And as someone else posted earlier, I'm also confused about what focuses are acceptable.. Awareness etc.

Reflective Report Question

I'm a little confused about the reflective report we're writing.

It's mainly about the "focus" section listed. It says we're meant to clearly identify and describe the particular aspect of our experience. Would it be fair to say that the questions stated earlier on the sheet are examples of "focus" topics ? ie, would the focus be things to talk about reflectively.

Just confused, because then, in the Reflection section it says "Based in the focus you choose for the article, you should identify one or two questions to deal with". Does this mean that "Focus" would be something like "awareness" ? And how the various social networks / tools assist in peer awareness ?

Clarification would be great! Thanks
- Anthony

Aggregated Feed

Hi All,

Aggregated feed should be up this weekend (I am posting to test to see if it is adding new stuff into it).

Sorry about the spam.

One important thing that I should mention that I have only began to find, is that the RSS feeds for sites such as blogger, flickr and twitter aren't updated when posts are added, I assume they are generated by cron jobs (ie: at specific times).   This is important to remember if you are trying to do fast update type stuff via RSS on these sites.

cheers

Hi all,

This is in response to the idea of managing multiple identities that Stephen spoke about this morning. Unlike his example of Sxipper, a Firefox Add-on which keeps track of passwords to multiple sites locally, MyOpenID allows for users to sign-on to multiple websites in one go, and is browser and platform-independent.

Essentially, an OpenID-enabled site is one that doesn't necessarily have a sign-on system, no Username/password fields to identify oneself to the system, just a domain such as 'user.myopenid.com'. You login to MyOpenID once and Presto! you're logged into all websites affiliated to it, and there are over a thousand sites out there that include ma.gnolia, stikis and Imageshack .


To learn more about Open-ID:
http://openid.net/wiki/index.php/Introduction
http://janrain.com/openid
http://screencastsonline.com/sco/Shows/files/SCO0107-openid.html

Flickr Group

Hi'all

I've created a group on Flickr for the course - http://www.flickr.com/groups/comp3505/ - its open to join. I went through and added everyone as a contact individually with the hope of inviting you all to the group but it doesn't work that way :( To have photos available on the the group - you can do either a batch organise to do more than one photo or just click the send to group icon (under the photo title in the large view).

Be good to be able to see all peeps in one place.
L

RSS aggregated feed

EDIT: THIS IS BROKEN, A WORKING ONE WILL BE UP IN A DAY OR 2

This is the link to the aggregated RSS feed for those who are interested :)

http://www.google.com/reader/atom/user/13532789026376417902/state/com.google/reading-list

All your social sites show up here as you add information.

Posting for assignment 1 can start today

For those of you who want to, you can start publishing your assignment 1 reflections from this afternoon. With the deadline a week away, the opportunity is there for you to publish a draft and get some comments before the cut-off. You all get a chance to comment and gain participation marks as well.

Please make sure you publish your article as a separate post (not as a comment), and tag it with the assignment1 label (check the bottom of the posting window for where to do this).

--Stephen.

Google Mashup Editor

For anyone interested in checking out Googles latest offering, Google Mashup Editor, you can have a look at the Overview or read through the Getting Started Guide. At the moment GME is invite only but you can submit your email to be in on the next round of invites.

From the overview:

"Google Mashup Editor is an AJAX development framework and a set of tools that enable developers to quickly and easily create simple web applications and mashups with Google services like Google Maps and Google Base. Google Mashup Editor is a great tool for grabbing information from feeds and letting users see and manipulate it."

Once you get in its pretty easy to get going with building applications. They give you a heap of samples to set you on your way and there is a heap of documentation (tag reference, etc).

Sitepoint reviews Facebook

Sitepoint has an interesting article on Facebook if your interested in developing in it. The artical is written by David Mytton and called "Developing with the Facebook Platform and PHP". The link is

http://www.sitepoint.com

cheers
Petra

Steam Community

I know there are a few gamers in our course - so I thought I'd post a link to the latest gaming-based "social network" around.
I'm sure most of you, if not all have heard of "Steam". Basically steam is a "content delivery system", or at least it was originally. What this means is that you download "steam", and then through steam you download your games, and then play them. This eliminates the need for a publisher ( as no boxes need to be manufactured ), and also increases the security and anti-piracy elements of the software as it is trickier to pirate a steam game ( though not impossible ).

Valve ( Creator of Half-Life/Steam ) Announced today the release of the "Steam Community". Which is basically a community for steam. They've improved the friends system, and now support groups, group chat, voice chat, profile systems, statistics ( ie, amount of time spent in a particular game, a list of aliases ). It's currently in beta, but for those who have steam get it!

Install instructions are quite simple, load up steam, go to your settings page, and down the bottom there's a "Beta Participation" section, just select the beta there.

I live at http://steamcommunity.com/id/tomgupper

Just thought you'd all like to know.

RSS problems

for some reason i cant get the rss happening onmy browsers, could anyone shed some light?

cheers

Reflective writing assignment

Hi again,

The assignment sheet for the reflective article to be posted here is printed and with the tutors. It's also available as a pdf. If you have any questions about it, please post as comments here.

--Stephen.

For today's tutorial (week 2)

Hi all. To help you with the discussion in today's tutorial, what I'd like you to do is to get into a group of 4 or 5 and discuss how the concepts from today's lecture (conversation, coordination, awareness) could be applied to the social tools you have been using so far?

Choose one from your group to be the scribe, and agree on a few examples in response to the above question.

Then please will the scribe add a comment in response to this post which outlines your discussion/examples.

Thanks,

Stephen.

Fidg't Visualiser

I don't know how many of you here know what Fidg't is, so here's a quick introduction. Basically it's a common centre for all of your social networks ( or at least, the ones they currently support ). They use "meta contacts" to group a single person together into a single account. I think currently it only supports : AIM, MSN, flickr, Last.fm, and yahoo. Also, if you have one of the "supported phones", you can "browse through your network, chat with friends in a media-rich context, or easily post pictures to flickr in one integrated, dynamic, and next-generation mobile user interface." Amazing.

However, what *I* find interesting, is the visualiser ( http://fidgt.com/visualize ). I find it interesting primarily because it was coded in processing ( and I loooove processing ), but it's a very interesting example of a social network visualisation.
There's actually quite a few of these around on the internet. Digg have got "Digg labs" which have a series of visualisations which depict the user interaction with the stories currently being shown on the digg front page ( coded in Flash I think ).
And some more interesting Processing based visualisations : Universe, Mutualism, and We Feel Fine.

I love seeing information displayed in different fashions ( Like the pie sharts I saw this morning on digg, being displayed as arrays of coloured pixels instead of slices of a circle ). It can sometimes help simplify a drastically complicated scenario or collection of people/places/things/sheep. I just thought I'd share some of these with the rest of the class. They're quite interesting, take your time and enjoy them!

share bookmark on del.icio.us

I've import my bookmark/favorties on del.icio.us but when I checked on "your favorites", there is the quote "not share" after my links. How can I share my favorites there?

Etiquette and Faux Pas

Being completely new to all this, cept blogger. Any tips from people about etiquette on f8 and the other programs?

In respect to the course I'm sure Stephen will be dealing with the privacy issue, but the extension of this is the etiquette. If any one was an interesting story about what they consider socail faux pas on the web please tell...