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.
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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....
This question must be addressed before this blog can discuss the issues mentioned in the first article. Cyberstudies are more than the casual observation of the Internet and other similar modes of telecommunication. It must be conducted with the passion of academic interest, the zeal of discovering connections and applied...
