Photobombing: Mobility, Humour and Culture

The photobomb, in name and practice, is a phenomenon of Web2.0 – in the sense of being a participatory and read/write Web. This paper contributes to the academic discourse concerning the anthropology of the Internet. Photobombing exploits the ready availability of channels for individual expression created with writability, the importance of user-generated humour for the Web and theubiquity of digital photography devices. The issues of the visual and of humour\ud are both problematic territory for academic research and, despite their significance\ud within the context of digital culture, have received little focused attention in this\ud context (Gillispie, 2003). By drawing upon an observational methodology we\ud construct a typology of photobombs drawn from a variety of sources to understand\ud the simplicity and subtlety of humour being employed as well as the way in which\ud the photobomb – as a discrete artefact - is embedded and interlinked with other\ud (digital) cultural practices. The approach employed here for photobombs offers insight into the potential for the wider application of typological methods in the search and retrieval of (digital) visual object

Flexibility and Gender in the eSociety: Marxist Theory Applied to At Home Telework

Our understanding of the e-society should incorporate the case of at-home teleworking because of its implications for the use of ubiquitous ICTs in the home environment, work relations and gender issues. Rhetoric surrounding the benefits of telework impinge on promises of increased freedom, reduced burden, and ‘flexibility’ from an employees perspective. In order to establish the validity of such claims it is important to examine how at-home telework entails a reconfiguration of the home-work boundary. The substantial impacts on women’s role in the family such a renegotiation produces has implications for gender issues if we identify the oppression of women as located in the function they perform within the privatized family unit. By presenting a Marxist-inspired analysis of the family, explaining what constitutes women’s oppression, how this relates to work outside the home, and what a vision of emancipation entails, we develop a critique of proposed advantages for women home workers. Not only do we question tele-working’s ability to deliver on the promises made on its behalf; we show how this sociotechnical innovation may in fact represent a regressive step. In conclusion, we underline the contribution of this paper to research on the societal concerns as an intersection of the working sphere and family life that are brought together by ICTs

Myth-making as social exchange: Organizing a web-based community

In this paper we make a contribution to the theoretical and empirical discourses regarding Web-based communities and online social interaction. The significance of myth-making within a web-based community is the primary consideration for this paper. This phenomenon provides the critical framework for deconstructing and understanding the interaction and identification of participants within Web-based communities. In order to do this we have utilized empirical evidence drawn from the complete archive of a well-established Web community that has been in operation since 1997. The paper draws upon an interdisciplinary analysis incorporating information systems research, anthropological, sociological and management studies to argue that myth-making is integral to the organizational practices of web-based communities. This work contributes to knowledge regarding the organization of web-based communities by recognizing the significance of activities that maintain long-term social solidarity. Examination of longitudinal data from the online community also reveals the dominance of a small number of participants who construct a negotiated but dominant identity for the group. Myth-making is consequently shown to be an activity that assists in the creation of a participatory community that maintains a social hierarchy and ensures order through tacit forms of governance

Gender and Teleworking Identities: Reconstructing the Research Agenda

This paper seeks to examine from an employee perspective, the promises made on behalf of telework as a new work practice. We are especially concerned with the relationship between gender and telework in relation to home work boundaries, since gender roles in society are largely shaped by home and family. Drawing on management and organisation studies, in the first half of the paper we develop a critique of proposed advantages for women home workers by deconstructing the set of benefits which are said to be delivered by this new socio-technological ensemble. Having once outlined the problems to which teleworking is posed as the solution, an alternative set of issues are generated by recourse to existing literature on women and information technology. In the second part of the paper, we then move to construct an alternative research agenda which is focused to provide a more thorough-going review of concerns faced by employee’s working at home, using information and communication technologies, and at a distance from the host organization. The re-orientation on employee-centred priorities is enhanced by engaging with current writings on the changing nature of work identities in the risk society. In conclusion, we underline the contribution of this paper and the research agenda for IS research and for those agencies engaged in ameliorating employees rights at work

Tribalism, Conflict and Shape-Shifting Identities in an Online Community

In this paper we progress a model that describes and explicates the systematic techniques of hostility and aggression that take the form of contemporary tribalism in technology- enabled communities. We argue that these practices are not mere artefacts of dysfunctional communication, but embody important rituals essential for maintaining and defining the boundaries between the contradictory social roles that are frequently found in online communities. Conflict therefore provides an alternative set of unifying principles and rationales for understanding social interaction within technologically enabled communities. We illustrate the importance of conflict through the analysis of dialogue from an Australian- based stock market forum concerning identity shape-shifting