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  • Craig Diotte commented on a bookmark Definition Discussions Elsewhere / Social Software Alliance January 17, 2016 - 1:45pm
    I don't feel so bad for not initially having a "definition" for social software.  Looking at the 34 definitions, and the various readings it seems like a moving target.  I guess in some ways it's good to not be held back by a...
  • Jon Dron commented on a bookmark Definition Discussions Elsewhere / Social Software Alliance January 17, 2016 - 12:51pm
    Sadly (and rightly) archive.org respects robots.txt so is of no help here, but it is indeed a wonderful resource most of the time!
  • Kevin Smith commented on a bookmark Definition Discussions Elsewhere / Social Software Alliance January 17, 2016 - 12:49pm
    Thanks! Even though it turns out not to be there, I had forgotten to check archive.org - always a good place to look for older content.
  • Jon Dron commented on a bookmark Definition Discussions Elsewhere / Social Software Alliance January 17, 2016 - 10:49am
    Darn - it looks like it has disappeared for good, not even available via archive.org. I hate it when that happens. That is, of course, a useful thing to reflect upon! In all our digital dealings there is at once the threat or promise of archival...
  • Kevin Smith commented on a bookmark Definition Discussions Elsewhere / Social Software Alliance January 16, 2016 - 9:39pm
    Seems like this site now requires a login/password combination that is customer-based? I was looking around but can't seem to find the referenced content.
  • Yes - there's no doubt that they do their job ruthlessly well! But, just because the world needs money does not make money an end (or a justification) in itself. We have laws to prevent its precedence over ethics, albeit unevenly spread, not to...
  • Personal reflection: I used hi5 long ago to keep in touch with friends from back home. I moved to Canada after high school and had to find a better way to keep in touch with my friends who were moving out all over the world. Social sites comes in...
  • I find it amusing how much people get upset when their information is leaked after they made it readily available. Not all information requested has to be provided and the ones you do provide you can by coy about them. I am not saying this to...
  • Excellent points! Sometimes, having an avenue closed by legislation can spark inventiveness and lead to new opportunities. In some ways I am quite glad that (for instance) we are excluded from hosting with Google, Microsoft or Amazon, because it...
  • So, this topic mirrors a conversation I was part of earlier this week at work. I’m part of our department’s Strategy and Compliance function - My focus is the ‘strategy’ component, and I have direct colleagues who work with...
  • Another fine Pew report on US attitudes to privacy etc. Everyone wants more, no one trusts that they are getting it. The US is a country that is singularly lacking in effective privacy legislation which is odd, given how much privacy appears to be...
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    • Derek Risling May 24, 2015 - 11:39am
      So, this topic mirrors a conversation I was part of earlier this week at work. I’m part of our department’s Strategy and Compliance function - My focus is the ‘strategy’ component, and I have direct colleagues who work with ‘compliance’ including risk management. We often find ourselves at odds, when I’d like to push the boundaries a bit, and they are (rightly) more comfortable with known tools and approaches.
       
      My assertion was that our discussions around privacy and information security these days, is that they have become a little shallow. Rather than explore issues of privacy concerns, assess value and risk associated with our data, etc., our group tends to “play the data security card” as a means to shut down discussions around innovation. The argument being: having corporate data outside of our own directly control is risky - especially where the US Patriot Act is in effect. I’m sympathetic to the viewpoint - and I absolutely agree that there is risk present. However, recently this has transitioned from ‘valid concern, which should be critically assessed’ to:
       
       The children
       
      What I find missing from the equation is the potential value which may (or may not) offset the risk. The spectre of potential privacy risk completely overrides any discussion of potential value to be had. Since not all data has equal value, and not all risk is equally great, this is a discussion which must be continually had. Further, it’s a discussion that must continue every time new information becomes available. I’m not advocating blindly sharing data (corporate or personal), but I do suggest that risks must be weighed against the value to be derived from use of a service. This is a complex issue - one for which the true ramifications likely won’t be known for years to come - and for which no reductionist, single argument can fully encompass.
       
      privacy
    • Jon Dron May 24, 2015 - 12:35pm

      Excellent points!

      Sometimes, having an avenue closed by legislation can spark inventiveness and lead to new opportunities. In some ways I am quite glad that (for instance) we are excluded from hosting with Google, Microsoft or Amazon, because it opens up a bit of the field for companies within national borders, which is good for diversity and so for innovation.

      It can be a bit odd though. For instance, I administer a site in Australia that is made for schoolkids (yes, we do need to think of them!) which has to be hosted there thanks to Oz privacy laws, but, of course, the packets passing back and forth across the Pacific as I administer the site are likely going via the US and winding up here on my machine in Canada. I am, naturally, using an encrypted connection for this but it does seem a bit strange that (say) I could not simply encrypt the data on the disk itself and host it in the US.

    • Kamar Wilks May 25, 2015 - 2:25pm

      I find it amusing how much people get upset when their information is leaked after they made it readily available. Not all information requested has to be provided and the ones you do provide you can by coy about them. I am not saying this to condone the illegal phishing of data nor the US blatant disregard to need of asking before collecting.

      My humble opinion is that fear has been constantly used as the driving force behind the need for law agencies to collect data. “If you don’t have anything to hide then you shouldn’t mind”, I am not sure why someone would say something like this knowing that one of the most treasured thing to someone is his/her privacy.

      The fact of the matter is if you want to live in this century and use all the little gadgets and “stay on the grid” then there has to be some compromise. Be mindful of where you enter your data, Research on new technologies and see if you want to be a part of it. 

  • Yes, that monopolization is the worry! The problem is that Facebook's members are not its clients, but its shareholders, and it is ruthless and highly effective in exploiting its deep and powerful knowledge of what drives social networking. Very...
  • I know it sounds mind boggling that in this day age we have people who actually think when they log onto Facebook they are not using the internet. Facebook has become a way of life and for most not having an active account would instantly...
  • An interesting bit of news to start the new session of our social computing course (COMP650) rolling: Facebook is now allowing a few more sites to be available from its internet.org initiative. I find there to be so many things that are wrong with...
    Comments
    • Jon Dron May 11, 2015 - 12:24pm

      Yes, that monopolization is the worry! The problem is that Facebook's members are not its clients, but its shareholders, and it is ruthless and highly effective in exploiting its deep and powerful knowledge of what drives social networking. Very clever, but very harmful. I am deeply saddened by the way that, as a result of its market share and almost single-handedly, Facebook has squashed open standards (e.g. OpenSocial, OpenID, even RSS). It's not just a result of its own aggressive use of proprietary and closed alternatives, but the fact that, as a result, it has forced other sites of its nature to become equally closed in order to compete: it has become the acceptable norm to lock people in. 

    • Minhaz Topaz July 28, 2015 - 3:09pm

      Personal reflection: I used hi5 long ago to keep in touch with friends from back home. I moved to Canada after high school and had to find a better way to keep in touch with my friends who were moving out all over the world. Social sites comes in very handy for that. Hi5 was a great way to stay in touch as it mainly worked as a method of communication across the world just like yahoo and msn messengers. 

      social apps have evolved greatly since then. Facebook is a great combination of content and communication and everything in between. While looking thru the wiki posts you shared I found Andrew Odlyzko's 'Content is not king' to be very interesting. I would argue this is a personal view but I know people who solely uses facebook for communication. Others are more in it for the content both from known and unknown sources. 

      About the article about how people think facebook is internet is also very true. Just like some people uses computers now a days just for youtube and facebook, nothing else seems to exist in their online world other than funny videos and friend's posts. Telecom companies were also using this to give people access to certain social apps on their smartphone and not all of internet and claiming that as a feature and charging people. I am sure some some people still think when they click on the internet explorer icon on their desktop that it the internet. Watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f99PcP0aFNE

      Remember the time Skype came up with a phone which was a revolution. Though it didn't sell well but it was a great idea as lot of people were buying into the idea of skype. Just like that facebook has also taken over onternet. We have seen the facebook phone whose main purpose was to keep you online in facebook 24/7. if you go to http://failblog.cheezburger.com/failbook you will find a lot of people asking questions, googling things, reading news, believing fake news and sharing user generated content that are absurd. 

      Facebook has done a great job changing the world into this. There data business is the biggest in the world but even the people that knows this can not stop using facebook. No other company has such grasp on userbase that other social apps are incapable of reaching that. The world runs on money and ethics has to room in it. Facebook and any other large internet companies are no different. 

    • Jon Dron July 28, 2015 - 4:33pm

      Yes - there's no doubt that they do their job ruthlessly well! But, just because the world needs money does not make money an end (or a justification) in itself. We have laws to prevent its precedence over ethics, albeit unevenly spread, not to mention other powerful drivers like social capital and altruism.

      Facebook is a bit different, I think. Though plenty of other companies have found ways to lock people in with foundational technologies (e.g. Microsoft, Apple, IBM) and some have found ways to offer services that can't be beat and that dominate through little more than having desirable products that smaller companies cannot match (e.g. Google, Amazon, Netflix), all of those could relatively easily be replaced with a competitor's products. One might have invested a lot in content, infrastructure, etc so it would not be easy, but it could be done. That's one of the great things about the Internet as a substrate. Facebook was the first to truly get how to create lock-in with social networks on an open Internet, doing what Bell only managed in a bygone era by controlling the wires. On the surface it looks like it has a lot of direct competitors - and there are indeed niches to be carved - but they have no more chance of competing than other US phone companies at the start of the 20th Century could compete with Bell, without government intervention. We don't have the legal checks and balances to figure out how to control such things yet, but it would be interesting to think about what they might look like!

  • James Ronholm bookmarked Eduvation.ca September 13, 2013 - 8:00am
    An advertising blurb that led me to the site: Curl up with some “bright ideas” this weekend: We’re pleased to announce the launch of a brand new resource for Canadian higher education: the Eduvation IdeaBank. Browse 50 of my...
  • authors: danah boyd, Eszter Hargittai, Jason Schultz, and John Palfrey. A scholarly article examining the fact that not only do children join Facebook despite its age restriction of 13 but that they are aware of it and actively participate in the...
  • James Ronholm commented on a bookmark The Lessons of Lucasfilm's Habitat July 23, 2013 - 10:29pm
    "A multi-user environment is central to the idea of cyberspace." "The implementation platform is relatively unimportant." "It was clear that we were not in control." "is an Avatar an extension of a human being" "You can't trust anyone."  
  • Jon Dron bookmarked The Lessons of Lucasfilm's Habitat July 23, 2013 - 10:47am
    A fascinating paper from 1990 describing the game 'Habitat', a pre-Internet progenitor of the MMORPG genre. I particularly like how the authors distinguish between the infrastructure level and the experiential level of the game and the emphasis on...
    Comments
    • James Ronholm July 23, 2013 - 10:29pm

      "A multi-user environment is central to the idea of cyberspace."

      "The implementation platform is relatively unimportant."

      "It was clear that we were not in control."

      "is an Avatar an extension of a human being"

      "You can't trust anyone."

       

  • Sasa Danilovic commented on a bookmark Introduction to Recommender Systems | Coursera July 12, 2013 - 4:41pm
    Registered! Thank you! Sasa  
  • From the announcement sent to me via the recsys mailing list, this may be of interest to some: "An Introduction to Recommender Systemstaught this fall by Joe Konstan and Michael Ekstrandon Coursera (https://www.coursera.org/course/recsys)We're...
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