My experience with computers began in 1985 as I learned the beauty of Logo on a Packard Bell computer at the vocation school and the ability of a turtle to move through an electronic field by giving the turtle directions. I’ve enjoyed writing programs for computers in BASIC, simple JAVA and ActionScript for years. The connection to the world of cyberstudies came from my first experience on a bulletin board system (BBS) during my middle school years. I got to see virtual interactions on a textual level. Little did I know that I would be studying those interactions for my doctorate later in life.
The strength of Facebook really comes from the applications present on Facebook. Applications represent a level of customization that the user can present on their Facebook profile and really represents the only real changes that a user can make on their Facebook page. Facebook maintains the same color scheme (white background with blue as a mode …
Facebook is an online social network created in 2004 as a method of connecting Harvard students to each other. A social networking website is defined for the purpose of this research as an online service that allows users to profile for themselves, has a method of organizing individual users into groups allow the users within …
I decided to look beyond the fanastic events that can cause users of Facebook to create at deeper level of connection. After finishing my simple analysis of the Virginia Tech shooting, I decided to look at another event that would cause a great deal of stress to students, their first year at college I decided …
The theory was enhanced through the work of Robin Dunbar with the Dunbar number, which defines the “cognitive limit to the number of individuals with whom any one person can maintain stable relationships.” The number in humans is estimated to be around 150 (Dunbar, 1993). Dunbar’s research also deals with the significance of the size …
Social relations have often been developed in this model as a version of a mathematical theory that focuses on “a set of localically interconnected tautologies” with no real application towards “the theory of social relations” (Barnes, 1972, 5). This had led to a matrix-focused approach to the study of a given network, with an almost binary …
Barnes expands on what he refers to as an “orienting statement” to explore social network beyond the metaphor established by sociologists and anthropologists. He chooses to adapt Bott’s view of social network as a means of understanding “how the internal functioning of a group is affected not only by its relationship with the people and …
One of my colleagues recently held a panel at the 2006 Broadcast Education Association conference. “The ‘Citizen Journalist’: The Challenges They Pose to Broadcast Educators” focused on the impact of “citizen journalism” on the mainstream media. This panel began a discussion led to ethics of citizen journalism and what influence the ethics code of journalists would have …
Online bulletin boards systems have been around since the era of BBS, MUDs, the WELL project, and the USEnet system. Members within the bulletin board group construct their virtual space to fit the needs of the group. Symbols are used and maintained by the group. Communal social experiences are replayed through this symbols and are …
For a paper I’m working on for a conference, I will be discussing for the next several weeks, the case of U.S. v Elcomsoft and how it relates to “modern” cyberculture. U.S. v Elcomsoft is significant for five reasons. The first being that it was the first direct challenge to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act …
One of the significant works in cyberstudies is Donna Haraway’s “A Cyborg Manifesto.” She argues that she would rather be a cyborg as it is a “social reality… our most important political construction, a world-changing fiction.” This centerpiece of organic substance and mechanical precision forms the basis of Haraway’s religion. The boundary breakdowns listed by …