34,407 research outputs found
Networked Individualism of Urban Residents: Discovering the Communicative Ecology in Inner-City Apartment Buildings
Certain patterns of interaction between people point to networks as an adequate conceptual model to characterise some aspects of social relationships mediated or facilitated by information and communication technology. Wellman proposes a shift from groups to networks and describes the ambivalent nature inherent in an ego-centric yet still well-connected portfolio of sociability with the term ânetworked individualismâ. In this paper we use qualitative data from an action research study of social networks of residents in three inner-city apartment buildings in Australia to provide empirical grounding for the theoretical concept of networked individualism. However, this model focuses on network interaction rather than collective interaction. We propose âcommunicative ecologyâ as a concept which integrates the three dimensions of "online and offline", "global and local" as well as "collective and networked". We present our research on three layers of interpretation (technical, social and discursive) to deliver a rich description of the communicative ecology we found, that is, the way residents negotiate membership, trust, privacy, reciprocity, permeability and social roles in person-to-person mediated and direct relationships. We find that residents seamlessly traverse between online and offline communication; local communication and interaction maintains a more prominent position than global or geographically dispersed communication; and residents follow a dual approach which allows them to switch between collective and networked interaction depending on purpose and context
Governing by internet architecture
In the past thirty years, the exponential rise in the number of Internet users around the word and the intensive use of the digital networks have brought to light crucial political issues. Internet is now the object of regulations. Namely, it is a policy domain. Yet, its own architecture represents a new regulative structure, one deeply affecting politics and everyday life. This article considers some of the main transformations of the Internet induced by privatization and militarization processes, as well as their consequences on societies and human beings.En los Ășltimos treinta años ha crecido de manera exponencial el nĂșmero de usuarios de Internet alrededor del mundo y el uso intensivo de conexiones digitales ha traĂdo a la luz cuestiones polĂticas cruciales. Internet es ahora objeto de regulaciones. Es decir, es un ĂĄmbito de la polĂtica. AĂșn su propia arquitectura representa una nueva estructura reguladora, que afecta profundamente la polĂtica y la vida cotidiana. Este artĂculo considera algunas de las principales transformaciones de Internet inducida por procesos de privatizaciĂłn y militarizaciĂłn, como tambiĂ©n sus consecuencias en las sociedades y en los seres humanos
Understanding Communication Patterns in MOOCs: Combining Data Mining and qualitative methods
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) offer unprecedented opportunities to
learn at scale. Within a few years, the phenomenon of crowd-based learning has
gained enormous popularity with millions of learners across the globe
participating in courses ranging from Popular Music to Astrophysics. They have
captured the imaginations of many, attracting significant media attention -
with The New York Times naming 2012 "The Year of the MOOC." For those engaged
in learning analytics and educational data mining, MOOCs have provided an
exciting opportunity to develop innovative methodologies that harness big data
in education.Comment: Preprint of a chapter to appear in "Data Mining and Learning
Analytics: Applications in Educational Research
Archaeological practices, knowledge work and digitalisation
Defining what constitute archaeological practices is a prerequisite for understanding where and how archaeological and archaeologically relevant information and knowledge are made, what counts as archaeological information, and where the limits are situated. The aim of this position paper, developed as a part of the COST action Archaeological practices and knowledge work in the digital environment (www.arkwork.eu), is to highlight the need for at least a relative consensus on the extents of archaeological practices in order to be able to understand and develop archaeological practices and knowledge work in the contemporary digital context. The text discusses approaches to study archaeological practices and knowledge work including Nicoliniâs notions of zooming in and zooming out, and proposes that a distinction between archaeological and archaeology-related practices could provide a way to negotiate the âarchaeologicalityâ of diverse practices
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