Introduction

In China twenty years ago, it would be big news to hear of a household with a telephone. And just ten years ago, it was almost unheard of to have one of those new fashioned computing devices called a personal computer. Computers were devices normally associated with people with high qualifications working in specialized fields. Nowadays though – computers are prevalent everywhere, even in countries such as China whose average family income is many times less than developed nations. Now in the present, the Internet is becoming an all encompassing communication network that is increasingly becoming more ingrained into our work, our social lives and impacting upon our culture. It is against this background that the birth of Social Network Site, a new emerging trend has exploded over the last 5 or so years.

During the course of this essay, I will discuss the various perspectives of the Social Networking Site – their advantages and disadvantages, the influence upon our life, how it helps people to build relationships and maintain friendships, and how it affects the structure of communication and social cultural rites. SNSs’ prevalence in today’s society is an incremental evolution to the   concepts of friendship and social organization and structure.

Background information of SNSs

The first social network site, SixDegrees.com, was launched in 1997, which allowed users to construct their profiles and add friends to their contacts lists. Profiles could then be searched and was used by most major dating sites and many community sites. (Danah & Ellison, 2007). During the years following 1997, more and more popular social network sites have sprung up and have been attracting multitudes of users. Figure one (Danah & Ellison, 2007) clearly shows the development of SNSs since 1997 when the first social network site was designed.

Figure 1. Timeline of the launch dates of many major SNSs and dates when community sites re-launched with SNS features

Social network sites allow individuals to create a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, articulating some users whom they have a connection with, and searching their list of connections made by others within the system. (Danah & Ellison, 2007).  As the internet becomes more ingrained into society, it is fueling the SNS boom which is in turn driving ot

her technologies such as mobile technologies to keep up with the demand. As the scope of SNS increases, the opportunities for communications between friends is increasing, slowly transf

orming our social and cultural landscape.

Positive effect of SNSs –Building the Social Circle

When electronic communication wasn’t so prevalent in society, how did people maintain friendships? A major factor was distance. Relationships are maintained through communication. If the person in question is in close proximity, friendships were maintained by direct communication. If the friend is further away, other means such as post through letters and gifts. Common interests in hobbies or work is always a good foundation for any relationship. The biggest bottleneck for any kind of relationship is always communication. Communication must be easily and readily accessible to both parties for the chance for the relationship to be maintained.

Telecommunications infrastructure and the popularity of the Internet created a suitable platform and environment for Social Networking Sites to grow. The Internet removed many of the barriers that insulated people from each other. The Social Networking Site is almost a natural extension of what people have been doing for centuries – creating their own social circles.

An important mechanism for SNS to be successful is to provide an environment that facilitates increasing one’s social circle of friends. The tools in the QQ networking site is a prime example of successful infrastructure in China. QQ is the biggest SNSs’ software which belongs to Tencent Internet Company in China. 76.9% of China’s instant-messaging market in the third quarter is controlled by Tencent. (Lee, 2010). The numbers of Online QQ users simultaneously exceeded 100 million, and it is also the first online SNSs’ application simultaneously having exceeded 100 million users. (Fu, 2010).

On QQ friend you can not only communicate with friends, but also can play games such as Mahjong or other simple casual games. Invitations can be sent, both friends and strangers can join the games, gifts can be sent, and communications between users may take place through written chat or voice communication. In addition of this, the QQ networking site also provides plenty of beautiful musical e-cards ranging for birthdays, festivals and special ones for lovers. The QQ application provides a networking site and tools to build and maintain the friendship, and more important is that QQ users can manage their contacts with an intuitive interface.

Positive effect of SNSs: Build new Friendships

SNSs indeed provide us with a new sort of friendship concept. By participating in the popular SNSs, internet users can find new friends easily.  “Users can choose friends who have common habits and interests by reading their profiles, comments and private messaging, moreover, some users have photo or video sharing, and some built blog and instant messaging technology”.( Danah & Ellison, 2007). This changes our original inherent model of communication in the society. Through these new found sharing ways and SNSs online functions, a new of way of exchanging personal information among people and linkage of friendships has entered into the mainstream of culture.

Compared to the physical friendship, the online SNS friendship is simple and fast as if we ordering McDonalds, so it is hard to judge the quality of this type of friendship. “Friends” on SNSs are not the same as “friends” in the physical sense, and the “Friends” actually just provide an imagined audience to guide behavioral norms of users. (Danah & Heer, 2006).  The phenomenon shows that it is a big change to the conventional ways of making new friends and maintaining friendship.

Negative effect of SNSs— create fraudulent situation

When making new friends through the computer, users can choose what role and identity – an alias that suits them in SNS space of their choosing. This flexibility – this anonymity of the internet allows people to create false identities or steal identities. The online ‘space faking’ who masquerades as other people keeps growing, internet users’ concerns about the safety and security of social networking sites soared. (Nicol, 2009). Someone hacked into Fein’s Facebook profile and contacted nearly 50 of her friends. (Gormley, 2010). According to the payment association APACS, Online banking fraud rose by 44 per cent last year to £33.5 million, and  Internet shopping fraud amounted to £155 million While people’s basic details have been traceable online”.(Wallop, 2007). So, SNSs not only brings internet users with effective maintaining existing friendship and with convenient meeting new friends, but also results in unexpected negative communication and possible misappropriated personal information. The SNSs is becoming ingrain in our social lives with internet technology fueling the change.

Both Negative and positive effect of SNSs — Cultural Rites Changing

The physical greeting during a festival or special occasion, is seen as a conventional rite, and is very important part of regional culture in society. However in modern times, face to face greetings have been replaced by telephone calls and now electronic through – SNSs. A tradition of Chinese New Year is on the morning of the first day is to contact and visit everyone you know – to pass on your good wishes. But these days, it’s more convenient and time efficient to pass the good wishes by mobile message and emails in the SNSs.

Figure 2: Greeting message’s images (Kozar, n.d) shows the images of the message. The message of Chunjiehao, which means having a good spring festival, is spelled out on small lanterns. Xinchunruyi means wish you a happy new year, and the bottom reads, in the same direction: gongxifacai, “wish you prosperity”. Some of these or similar tools are be used by computer artists to design greetings which have the potential for global distribution and reproduction. “The Ten Thousand-Dimensional Web of Heaven and Net on Earth” (WWW) is quickly becoming an integral feature of many Chinese students’ intra-cultural communication, a vast rhetorical surface where one can do anything from peruse a classical novel to select a clever greeting to send to an old friend now halfway around the world”. (Kozar, n.d). There are varieties of QQ e-cards and QQ e-gifts for birthday and

different festivals can be chosen from the websites. (Whois QQ, 2010). People are increasingly choosing the SNSs tools to contact relatives and friends by sending e-card and e-gift.

Figure 2: Greeting message’s image

The SNS is not only affecting the way we greet each other, it is also affecting our traditional culture of communication. “The “e-Card”, an electronic greeting, was sent over the Internet or by mobile phone and increasingly popular with young people because it is easier, cheaper and more environmentally-friendly than traditional cards. (Harrison, 2007). Meanwhile, in society, the types of social networks effect on the way people work and the structure of their daily life with developing in different communities. (Wellman,1999). The phenomenon and impact upon culture of communication is hardly judged positive or negative to social and cultural transformation.  Significantly, it provides internet users completely convenience and high-speed transmission of contacting information.

Conclusion

SNSs are mainly organized around people in the organization of online communities. (Danah & Ellison, 2007) I believe SNSs are a natural extension of friendship in this technological age. It is not a sudden development but a natural evolution of the Internet and traditional cultures merging together. It brought us a positive new communicational way with people, and at the same time, SNSs’ prevalence produces negative and positive aspects, that will take time for us to adapt to.

It’s this modern convenience – through technology that is replacing the traditional ways. But this is a natural evolution of society; it is not something people should resent. When something new emerges there will always be those who cannot adapt, but as time passes and more people embrace it, it will become the normal and accepted in culture. This is the way things have been since the beginning of mankind.

Currently it is the Internet and SNS that is influencing our cultural traditions and social structures. In 50 years it may be something else, and in 500 years or 100years it will be something new. It’s called evolution.

This paper looks at the idea of and some instances of virtual communities and focuses on the issue of whether they help or inhibit social interactions for the majority of people who use them. I am not looking at whether internet use in general is good or bad but I am focusing on the people who use virtual communities for social interaction. Some of these communities are hobby/interest groups; support groups i.e. health issues or interactive game players. I will look at how the social interactions online affect a person’s sociability in general and what types of social interactions they have online.

IDENTITY DECEPTION IN VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES AND NETWORKS AND ITS RÉQUISITOIRES
It is indeed important to note that identity plays a fundamental role in virtual communities, in communication which is the elementary activity, knowing the identity of those with whom you communicate with is pivotal for understanding and evaluating and interaction. This paper will explore the role played by identity in virtual communities, analyse the effects of identity deception and what give rise to it. The discussion includes how the virtual communities only carry information rather than matter, virtual communities as a communication system, the anatomy of users, social network structures and why people are attracted to them and their advantages.

The addictive nature of social networking sites has facilitated the downward spiral of communication skills.

Social networks. It is amazing how quickly these websites grow and gain popularity in our society and how quickly that situation can change. Take Twitter for example. Just a few years ago, when you said the word ‘Twitter’ to your friends, they probably responded with words like ‘What is Twitter?’ but these days it’s the third most popular social network website behind MySpace and Facebook (Ebizmba, 2010). In 2005, Rupert Mourdoch’s News Corporation purchased what was then largely regarded as the world’s biggest and most popular social network site, MySpace. The site grow rapidly into the most talked about social media site. MySpace was the most popular social network site by end of 2008. Since then its popularity and traffic numbers have been rapidly declining. Facebook with its amazing speed of growth also started to have problems with user traffic numbers and Bebo also struggled to regain its popularity and make a profit after a sharp decline. Growth cannot last forever and sooner or later most sites will face decline.  If they do not quickly take appropriate measures to make changes it will be too late to recover.

Social networking communities have become more popular since the introduction of Web 2.0. A major research study on the use of digital technologies by adults from 16 industrialised nations suggests that on average they spend a third of their leisure time online, belong to two social networking sites and have regular contact with people who they have met on the Internet (Harrison & Thomas, 2009). Social networking websites can be defined as web-based services that allow individuals to construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection and view their list of connections and those made by others within the system (Harrison & Thomas, 2009). One of the most common social networking communities is Facebook. The popularity of social networking communities such as Facebook demonstrate the addictive appeal of online and virtual communities across generations and cultures, particularly their attraction to teenagers, housewives, students and a new group of recently enfranchised elderly digital immigrants (Harrison and Thomas, 2009). For my conference paper, I am going to focus on Facebook and how people behave and present themselves on social networking sites. I will talk about how a lot of people create fake accounts on these websites and the reason why they do this.

By Jeremy Neyman

Users of the internet are currently spending more than 17% of their internet time on social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. This represents a three-fold increase from August 2008 to August 2009 (Nielsen, 2009).

In Australia alone there are currently 9 million Australians communicating through social media channels. It is reported that 75% of Australians have been to Facebook with 59% of them having an account and spending over 8 hours a month on the site. This interaction is ideal for business wanting to get their brand and message in front of their target audience, more so as 86% of people look to friends, family and colleagues to help them decide on their product purchases (smartcompany, 2010).

Social Networks- Changing the way we learn?

By Sarah King

The advancement of technology in the past decade has seen changes to the way we live our lives. The internet has diminished the problem of isolation with the help of social networking. Social networking has allowed people to meet new people in other countries, companies to share ideas over vast distances and for people to gain an education.

Using social networks in schools to educate students is a highly debated topic. There are both benefits to using social networking with education but there are also some risks that need to be monitored if the network is going to be successful for all that use it.

Web 2.0, why are you so controversial? And do you have something to do with Virtual Communities?

By Joel Morange

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« Web 2.0 is a piece of jargon » said Tim Berners-Lee (2006), inventor of the World Wide Web.

Whilst some argue that Web 2.0 is just a marketing term misused by numerous companies to appear more technologically advanced, professional and efficient, others justify its existence and use to emphasize that today’s Web has a slightly different orientation and technological accessibility than early versions. The distinction between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 is vaguer than ever. For me, the notions of “1.0” and “2.0” are different, have different objectives and provide different user options.

Introduction

Web 2.0 technologies are the most utilised participatory form of mass speech yet developed on the Internet today.  This paper examines the dynamics behind this phenomenal popularity rise by specifically focussing on the individuals generating content for Web 2.0 services and breaks down the social processes at work on an individual as they relate to the Internet and Web 2.0. It shows how contemporary forms of the process of individualisation in our society cannot be understood as solitary and egoistic self isolation (Singly, 2003) and that one of the main characteristics of Web 2.0 services is that when an individual makes a personal production public, it creates a new articulation between individualism and solidarity.

But My Post Was Private!
Why We Can’t Assume Privacy on Social Network Sites

By Samantha Warren

Participation in social network sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter has dramatically increased in recent years, offering users an online environment where they can share what they are doing and express their views (Huberman, Romero & Wu, 2009; Rosenblum, 2007). This explosive growth and the amount and type of information participants reveal has lead to increased scrutiny of user’s private lives. Personally identifiable information, along with sexual, political or entertainment interests all provide a disturbingly intimate insight (Gross & Acquisti, 2005). In this paper, I will be focussing on the issue of privacy and social network sites, and how we cannot assume that what we post on a social network site is private.

Deception and Authenticity.

How false and misleading profiles are impacting online dating.
By Murray Watts

The deception and authenticity of Web2.0 users in relation to online dating is an area of increasing concern. The stream of Identity in Community and Networks provides a ground for debating this topic. Computer mediated social interaction differs in important ways from face-to-face communication and online dating is no exception. Online communities are growing rapidly, and are enabling people to connect despite the physical distances between them (Ellison, 2006).

How many “friends” do you have?

Social networking sites have become very popular in today’s world. It is enough to take a walk through offices and trains and observe what people do in these environments to understand the level of importance these sites present to people.  It is also enough to walk through parks, cities and restaurants during the late afternoon or evening to realise the absence of what once used to be a buzzing environment populated with people making or maintaining friendships. It is quite rare to see teenage kids play, run around, make friend and love relationships. These activities seem to have descended into the virtual world where these same teenagers today spend time socialising and playing games with friends online, some even finding love online. They no longer “hang out” with five friends but rather with 200 or more friends. As such, it is worth arguing that in today’s world, people have more friends but less (emotional) friendships. The paper looks at why people spend more time trying to create and maintain online friendships with no emotional connection while disregarding real friendships as well as impact “friends” (virtual contacts) have on “friendships” (emotional contacts).

Video game violence has long caused debate as to whether it fosters violent attitudes in gamers as they move in the virtual world and progress out into the ‘real’ world of interaction with others. It has been stated in research that through the General Aggression Model (GAM) violent video games can increase aggression in children, young adults, males and females and even after short exposures to violent video games aggression can increase (Swing, Anderson, 2007). This assertion is backed up by the informal accounts of players who participate in online violent video games (OVVGs) and develop tendencies toward angry behavior during gameplay. This paper will focus on the immediate effects of violent gameplay on the attitudes of the player as he/she maneuvers around the virtual space and interacts with others forming and leaving relationships.

Introduction

Social network gaming provides the opportunity to strengthen the bonds between employees a work place environment. In this paper we will examine how social network gaming enables employees to communicate and strengthen work place relations with their peers and those in supervisory positions.  We also examine how Facebook users represent themselves online and how they use their online persona to establish real life relationships in the work place.

SOCIAL MEDIA AND GLOBALISATION

By Amir Millson

Applications of the internet, distinctively the ‘World Wide Web’ over the past two decades has evolved dramatically.  The shift from Web 1.0 to the present Web 2.0, from stagnant to highly interactive web pages recognises the cogent turning point in the use of rational internet. Web 2.0 which allow individuals personal input or ‘user generated content’ to a public cyber arena allowing the ability to engage with others beyond geographic confinements. Therefore, this paper will argue that ‘social media’ allows an amplification of human potential benefiting individuals, businesses and communities and serves as a catalyst for globalisation.

This paper proposes that though Self is both persistent and variable in game space, the influence of self over character avatars is reflected by the influence of character avatars on the self. Projecting identity into a character avatar has a direct influence on the identity of the player, both within the game and in their physical world.

Drawing upon studies, experiments, and experience from academics in the fields of social sciences and game studies, it will be argued that there exists a symbiotic relationship between the personal identity of the player and the character avatar created to represent the player in game space, a relationship reinforced by social interaction and in-game achievements.

Socially isolated in an electronic cottage

Taraeta Nicholls, Student, Curtin University of Technology, GPO Box U1987, Perth WA 6845. Taraeta.Nicholls@student.curtin.edu.au

Abstract:

Computer technology has evolved to allow employees to work from different locations. This paper specifically analyses teleworkers and the social implications of working remotely. Whilst technology has developed to make teleworking a viable option for many employers, social disadvantages such as isolation still remain. By understanding how teleworking has developed the social disadvantages can be brought to the forefront and strategies to overcome this geographically and social isolation developed.

Author Keywords:

Telecommuting, Work Force, Social Isolation, Technology.

Instant messaging is not destroying the English language. It is in fact building the younger generation’s interest and ability to communicate efficiently with their peers. All should embrace social networks and instant messaging as useful tools that can be incorporated into ones daily life.

“Instant messaging language is characterized by a robust mix of features from both informal spoken registers and more formal written registers – in essence it is a hybrid language.” (Tagliamonte & Denis, 2008, p. 5)

Data collected by The Nielsen Company found that in December 2009, global consumers spent more than five and half hours on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter (Nielsen, 2010). This is an increase of 82%, from the same time in 2008 (Nielsen, 2010). With this increase of consumer use of social networking sites, business has seen this as an opportunity to use sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube for their needs. Some of these opportunities include “sales, marketing, recruitment, research, and technical support” (Wilson, 2009). This paper will look at how social networking sites are used by business.

1. Introduction
Since early 1980s, virtual communities have existed on the Internet in the form of Usenet newsgroups. These communities and the accompanying research have recorded exponential growth with the advent of the World Wide Web. Virtual communities form as a result of common interest among individuals and groups to discuss for example, a hobby, a common past experience, or enduring a disease common among the group members. Scholars generally agree on the characteristics that are associated with a virtual community (Stockdale, 2006). For example a virtual community is comprised of members who share an interest, interact repeatedly, generate shared resources, develop governance policies, demonstrate reciprocity, and share cultural norms (Preece, 2000). However, the actual definition of the term “virtual community” often differs based on which individuals join or visit a community (Lee et al, 2003, Preece, 2000). For example, the earliest virtual communities tended to focus on member’s social interests, many more recent virtual communities focus on member’s commercial interests (Kannan et al, 2000).

The world has been watching anxiously as Google withdraws from China as a result of the country’s Internet censorship laws. While it appears most net users are aware of China blocking its citizens from certain websites, but it was the Google issue that truly brought it to the forefront of the news. Of course, this isn’t only happening overseas. Right now, the Australian government is pushing for mandatory Internet filtering, a proposal that has been met with much protest from Internet users. We have a very good reason for wanting see the World Wide Web open and accessible for all. This paper will look at specific examples where the average person has utilised Social Media applications such as Twitter and blogs to bypass all gatekeepers and publish information and alternative viewpoints which would otherwise not enter the public sphere. These examples illustrate exactly why it is we need to keep the Internet uncensored.

Social network sites such as Facebook facilitate the formation of new relationships and the maintenance of existing personal relations between friends and sharing of information through shared common interests, blogging via comments, applications, photo sharing and status updates (Boyd & Ellison, 2007).

Introduction

Over the next decade and beyond, internet users will be increasingly likely to use portable devices such as mobile phones to connect to the internet. Indeed, experts contributing to the 2008 Pew/Internet report concluded that by 2020 mobile devices will be the primary way that most people connect to the internet (Anderson and Rainie, 2008).  Web-friendly smart phones and new devices such as the iPad tablet are also making it much easier to access the mobile internet. Coupled with this, mobile internet devices are increasingly becoming part of our identity – they are a tool for staying in touch with family and friends, and also a valued device for finding and sharing information, often with large networks. What then, are some of the likely social implications arising from people increasingly having a take-anywhere, always-on, internet connection?

On-line Social Network sites incorporate a multitude of mediated platforms in which individuals can communicate with other individuals and/or groups. These mediated platforms include (but are not limited to) Facebook and Twitter which have provided a new and interesting way of communication within the virtual community. While this paper will deal with social network sites and friendship generally, Facebook and Twitter will dominate the paper as the mostly referred to social networking sites. Within this conference paper I will firstly discuss how people are adjusting the way they socialize and behave when using social network sites as another form of communication with friends and acquaintances. Secondly when researching the way users behave and communicate in these sites a new term ‘Ambient Awareness’ has been created to identify the excessive on-line contact. The constant flow of information provides users with the ability to piece together information to give an insight to that user’s life which has not been available through traditional forms of communication before. Thirdly when contributing to the social networks users are influenced by user generated content by which the user can not only to read information but create the information. And in conclusion I will discuss how social networks sites are a positive way of communicating and socializing because they allow a new way that users can intertwine friendships both on-line and off-line.

AUTHOR: Sally Dunstan

ABSTRACT

This conference paper delves into the world of Fashion Blogging and seeks to understand how enthusiastic unqualified individuals now have a global fashion presence and enough influence to ensure they have seats at major Fashion shows. How has Web2.0 contributed to the rise of Fashion Bloggers?

PAPER

The spread of social networking sites has changed every person’s ways of socializing and communicating with friends and acquaintances. Since the birth of social networking sites, it has given enormous benefits to the sphere, as it allows to keep in touch with anyone and to collaboration with others even in different geographic areas. By having the full advantages of social networking sites, a big disadvantage existed for some reasons, which is cyber stalking. Cyber stalking is referred to as online harassment or electronic stalking is defined as the offensive, threatening communication through the Internet, via e-mail, chat rooms, or instant messaging or through other electronic devices (The University of Texas at Arlington, n.d.). This paper will be examined closely for further insight on how obvious is that stalking takes place in social networking sites and shows cyber stalking is socially acceptable and typical. Further, it will take a look at the several controversial issues about social networking sites makes life easier for stalkers.

Introduction

Social networking sites have acquired such a huge following in a short amount of time it is understandable that there has been both positive and negative impacts. Here I will argue that social networking sites have a negative influence on teenagers, in the workplace and society in general. This paper is a component of the Social Networking stream for the NET204 Conference as it relates primarily to social networking and the impact it has on society. It is important to gain an understanding of what social networking is and to be aware of the influence it has on society. Social networking sites allow their users to build a profile of themselves which is freely available to a select community with links to others within the community who are able to view and share information (boyd & Ellison, 2007). There are already over 400 million users accessing Facebook (Kirk, 2010), 75 million registered users on Twitter (Gaudin, 2010) and 125 million users with access to MySpace (MySpace, n.d.). In such a short period of time social networking sites have thrived in the community, impacting the lives of both adults and teenagers alike.

Identity deception on the internet has become of increasing concern in today’s society. As technology improves and evolves, the internet is said to pose a danger to those who are unfortunate or misinformed enough to fall for the many scams put in place to take advantage of the innocent and naive. It is relatively easy and affordable to create a false identity online for one’s own personal gain using false user names, websites and inside knowledge. There are groups of people who are opposed to the internet and its development for fear of its corruption and erosion of society as a whole. There are also mechanisms in place such is IP and email address verification and codes to help curb destructive usage of online identity deception.  However, perhaps not factored into the equation is that identity deception is also rampant in real life without the need for the internet as an aid. Stronger trust placed by society into traditionally operating real world companies and institutions results in the increased danger and likelihood of being deceived by those companies than it is through any virtual online operation utilising identity deception.

Who am I? It is a question that has been asked by most people during their development as an individual. We spend our formative years constructing an identity by which our peers and colleagues see us, and how we see ourselves. Why then do we feel the need to create new and diverse images of ourselves in online settings?

Introduction:

Social networking has rapidly grown to be one of the most widely used Internet social interaction and communication tools online. Although online communities and public social interactions have been around for quite some time now, the rate at which social networks have developed in the last few years is phenomenal. Today, a large number of online communities participate in some form of social networking.

Whether it is Facebook, MySpace or Twitter, social networking has proved a popular method of online interaction and communication with participation from a wide group of individuals.

Social Capital, Relationships and Culture on the Internet: Embrace the revolution

by Bryce Sheehan

Ever since the emergence of the Internet, some critics have been claiming it will be the downfall of our traditional society. That the Internet will lead to loss of privacy, impersonal communications and isolation. I will argue differently, that the changes in society are less of a degradation, but rather a revolution. Children and teenagers are growing up with the Internet being a large part of their social interaction; from Facebook, Twitter and MySpace and other social networking services (SNS) through to emerging Web 2.0 services, bringing an new connectedness and a social culture. These changes in social culture, enabled by the use of the Internet, will change traditional social standards. The traditional society as a community is being overtaken by digital communication, we need to embrace this revolution.

Nowadays Cyber space has become a crucial part in people’s daily lives wherein most of the users are escaping online from the exact reality and intentionally created another different kind of identities due to breaking away the problems which they faced in real lives. Therefore, some people might choose to escapes online into the virtual communities like online game. Online game is a part from a virtual world and built up a community online among players, inside this virtual communities, ‘players are capable to reconstructs their identities through character from the game in favour of maintain social relationship‘.

The proliferating influence of Internet within society has enabled

Web 2.0 platforms to develop in multiple guises, with innumerable applications.

Web 2.0 platforms such as Facebook which can facilitate contact and open new opportunities for communication, identity management and reciprocity within the boundaries of select networks or communities have flourished and become hugely successful communication tools which are used all over the world.

Communication through the computer, due to it’s asynchronous nature has allowed users to evaluate and fashion what they communicate, to a degree that was not possible through traditional real time conversation, whilst integrating the integral factors that make traditional communication successful.

This paper will examine whether the Internet based technologies collectively known as social networking exhibit characteristics that make them addictive. Specific examples of these technologies include well known sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare but can also be extended to include generic technologies based around material such as blogs. An important consideration to address at the outset is the negative connotation that is placed on the word “addiction”. In this case, any addiction to social networking should not immediately be equated to addiction of illicit and illegal drugs but rather to more benign items such as chocolate. In fact, there are many aspects of the modern world that could be considered “addictive” raising “some safety and social concerns” (Tilbury, 2008) but clearly concerns currently being raised in the public domain are that social networking is in fact as “addictive” as illicit substances. If the reader accepts these concerns then they are drawn to the conclusion that the end result of any social networking addiction will in fact be the same as drug addiction including problems with “health, finances and stability” (Saisan & Seagal & Cutter January 2009). Examining this issue in more detail will require further investigation and definition of exactly what addiction is and how it may be applied to social networking. Next, the key components of social networking will be examined in order to isolate any that may lead to addiction. Further analysis will then be conducted on these components to determine if there indeed is a direct link with addictive behavior. As with other types of addiction, factors such as predisposition may form an important consideration. Thus it will be established whether they do contribute in this instance. At the finale of all this analysis it will be concluded that, like other commonly accepted social practices, such as alcohol consumption, there is the potential for social networking to be addictive if individual control is not exercised. However, it is still too early to definitively prove a direct link with a specific medical disorder, and so, may instead be nothing more than normal human behavior being amplified by modern technology. Only further study will reveal a definitive answer, yet for the time being it should indeed be considered that social networking is addictive.

You Didn’t Get This From Me: Culture, Community & Cooperation on Bittorrent

Belinda Milne

In these days of accessible broadband Internet and rapid file-sharing, BitTorrent, has become the highest-profile peer-to-peer application on the Internet (Thompson. 2005). Recent figures suggest there may be more than 50 million users on BitTorrent each day (Jumpwire Media, 2010). With spread of community-based and Web 2.0 technologies anyone, from university students to bank managers, can download the latest videos, music, games and software with only a limited knowledge of the Internet.

With the introduction of the internet, virtual communities have sprung up left, right and centre utilizing a variety of technologies from Internet Relay Chat (IRC) to discussion boards to virtual worlds. These virtual communities allow people with similar interests and hobbies to connect crossing geographical boundaries, which previously restricted traditional communities. But what happens when relationships formed in these communities cross other boundaries?

-By Hardik Gondha

Take a close look at these scenarios. A teenage boy is sharing strategy secrets about football on a Facebook group. A mother is posting photos of her trip to the Himalayas on Flickr. A Father is uploading a video of his daughter’s performance in a band on You Tube. A marketing expert is sending invites on facebook and twittering about a new product he’s trying to sell.

Cut and Paste Identities:

Creating our own Realities Online

Introduction

Attempting to define ourselves online induces mild forms of identity crisis. As we present identity, mediate personal relationships and endeavor to control privacy through online mediums, we create and participate in a blending of realities. This fusion has resulted in new systems of social interaction which involve extreme changes to how we develop and present the self; to how we maintain and interact with personalized networks; and to how we connect and participate with communities. These are revolutionary methods of social interaction which benefit individuals and communities world wide, yet they impose restrictions on how we communicate and remove us from our immediate environments. As we explore and experience the realities of social interaction in the online world, we become ‘dwellers on the threshold between the real and the virtual’ (Turkle, S. 1997), obliged to develop our own systems for navigating identity and community across these mediums.

The development of World Wide Web and the transformation to web 2.0 brought a lot of changes to people’s lives. Starting from providing easy access for file sharing with static web page, animated gifs, and blinking words, now we can do and find anything in the web. Because web is all about communication, collaboration, and information sharing between people in the network. And unlike the early web, web 2.0 allows people to participate more in the web. People begin to live with the web. From sharing their thoughts through blog to the famous one, joining a social network sites (SNSs—will describe further in this paper). One of the form of SNS is microblogging, a specific website to update your status. In this paper, I will argue that microblogging is a new way of communicates and the risen popularity since it emerged because of the easy to use way, the community created by it, the first form (blog), and how microblogging is useful to every sectors of life.

Social Networks: Identity Management Tools

Death and User Generated Content:

The Internet is continually evolving with technology. These new technological changes bring about fresh uses and ideas on what the internet is and what it can be used for. To date there have been two distinctive periods of the internet, web 1.0 and web 2.0.  At the time the internet was not referred to as web 1.0, however with time and technology, patterns of use and applications formed defining the two. The defining features of web2.0 are  communication, collaboration and information sharing, enabled through faster internet connections. Web 1’s low bandwidth would not support these applications. It could not process the information fast enough, and, contributions were mainly for the tech savvy. With web 2.0 came a user friendly  interface where programming knowledge was not essential to contribute online. Sites like Youtube, Myspace and flickr emerged, re enforcing the web 2.0 philosophy of communication, collaboration and information sharing, resulting in user generated content.

Since the inception of the internet and the World Wide Web online communities have existed in many forms. Communication through these computer-mediated networks has encouraged people to connect with others in spite of the tyranny of distance. The analysis of identity and its construction plays an important role when we investigate these virtual communities. This paper will investigate the perception of identity on social networking sites, focusing on the ways in which users attempt to control the personal information that others distribute online in order to protect the integrity of their online persona.

Introduction
Online social interaction, participation and experience, is growing as more and more people across the world join the ranks of Internet users. Everyday life, the daily, mundane, commonplace experiences, objects, habits and routines, now include for a growing percentage of Western culture populations, online interaction with others in some form. (Tay, E. 2009) Whether it be checking through Facebook to keep up with what friends, relatives and other people are doing, tweeting a 140 character description of what we’re doing or participating in communities, blogs or online games. The Internet can be regarded as a social space within its own right (Slater, D. 2002), with its own structures, rituals and languages, yet these online social interactions still appear to be regarded as less important than those that occur in the physical world. This is evidenced in academic writing, media and incidental conversation with others.

Web 2.0 Platforms and Health Care: How Online Support Groups, Blogs and Social Networking Sites are Facilitating Online ‘Communities of Care’

Sheila McLean

April, 2010

Imagine this scenario:  you have recently been diagnosed with a serious medical condition.  Your doctor has outlined your treatment and prognosis, given you some leaflets and a handful of prescriptions to fill at the chemist.  Your family and friends may be supportive to begin with, but they have never been through what you are going through, so how can they understand?  You’d like to join a support group, but your work and family commitments mean you can’t get to meetings on the first Tuesday evening of each month.  So what can you do?  The answer is to use the internet – where you can find online community support and information for all sorts of conditions from “Alopecia Aerata” to “Zellweger Syndrome”.  (Better Health Channel, 2010)

Given the huge increase in popularity of Social Networking, could sites such as Facebook be making us less social?

Today’s societies consist of both localised and distributed tribes linked by numerous advanced forms of communication that transcend both real and virtual worlds.  In the last 20 years we’ve experienced a rapid evolution with many new forms of Computer-Mediated-Communication (CMC) being used for social and relational purposes (Katz, Rice, Acord, Dasgupta, & David, 2004; Kavanaugh, Reese, Reese, Carroll, & Rosson, 2005). Primarily based around the Internet, these new forms of communication include technologies such as web-pages, blogs, newsgroups, forums, bulletin boards, chat lines, Multiple User Dungeons (MUDs) and Multi-user-dungeon Object Oriented (MOOs). Much of the earliest forms of CMC socialisation were based around e-mail (Finholt & Sproull, 1990), however in the last five years its been the exponential uptake of Social Networking Services (SNS) by mainstream society, (Ofcom, 2008) that has authorities (Kirby, 2009) and academics most concerned (Heim, 1992, 2009; Rideout, Foehr, & Roberts, 2010).     

The arrival of Internet communication and its increasing popularity sees us creating new identities, a part of us that exists online via social networks and virtual communities.  We now live in an age where our innermost thoughts and feelings have all been given a voice, one that essentially can, and might, live on forever via the World Wide Web. What happens to our online selves once we cease to exist in the real world? Digital information does not disappear as easily as physical information. You cannot shred it or rub it out with an eraser. It does not have a physical element, one that you can discard or destroy.  So what should be done with our online identity once we pass away?  Should the online self be given a proper burial and if so, who has the right to decide? This paper will look at how our presence online has become a major part of our lives, how we have used the Internet to create an extension of our physical selves. It will also discuss the impact our death can have on our online presence and those we connect with. Do we put enough thought into the impressions we leave behind? Finally, it will look at our options in planning for the inevitable, writing our digital will, as well as our moral obligations and responsibilities not only to our digital selves, but those we leave behind.

by Janette Treanor, April 26 2010.

Since the early days of the internet and the world wide web, people have crowded to online communication channels, from email down the social media timeline through Usenet, IRC, Wikipedia, Friendster, My Space, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter … to the mobile communication technologies of today (idfive, 2006).  Since its beginning in 2001 multitudes of people from all over the globe have swarmed to be part of the Wikipedia phenomenon, to experience the satisfaction of participating in something for the benefit everyone and to experience the gratification of seeing their contribution published instantly online.  The popularity of Wikipedia has never been questioned.  Initially Wikipedia’s content was compared favourably by some to that of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (Giles, 2005), but murmurs currently circulating in the press and growing louder, are predicting Wikipedia, at least as it presents today, may be approaching the end of its lifecycle (Angwin & Fowler, 2009; Farrer, 2009; Frommer, 2009; Johnson, 2009; Subhasis, 2009). This paper argues that the quality of Wikipedia’s content has deteriorated over time and questions the authority, accuracy, reliability and completeness of Wikipedia content which is increasingly subjected to hoaxes, vandalism, political and corporate cleansing, self-promotion, and the abuse of power and the individual agendas of the site’s editors and administrators. The conclusions drawn counsel that Wikipedia should not be relied upon as a quality resource and warn that citing Wikipedia for serious academic scholarship is ill-advised.

‘The Internet is a phenomenon that influences, shapes and fills many spheres of our life. It can be thought as a new global trend that has steadily risen in popularity, growing from about 90,000 daily users in 1993 to more than 605 million in 2002’. (Zappala & Gray, 2006, p.179)

Introduction

Social networking sites such as Facebook allow people to keep in touch with family and friends using the Internet. They can chat, leave posts (or messages), play games and share pictures. Facebook, in particular, has grown in popularity over recent years to a point where, according to facebook.com (Facebook Press Room, 2010), over 400 million people worldwide are using it.

Facebook demographics, according to Corbett (2010), show that around 10% (or 40 million) Facebook users are teenage school children. Although there are risks for anyone using Facebook, the teenager is at the greatest risk. Teenagers are not experienced in the corrupt and dangerous world we live in, they don’t understand some of the risks involved, they don’t understand how powerful words can be and they can be easily led and succumb to peer pressure.

Social Networks: Growth, Isolation and Sucking the Time Away From Us

“As the internet has become ubiquitous, faster, and increasingly accessible to non-technical communities, social networking and collaborative services have grown rapidly, enabling people to communicate and share interests in many more ways” (boyd & Ellison, 2007). Social networking allows the use of: instant chat, uploading of photos and videos, blogging, interactive games and so on. However, all of these services consume our time, one way or another. Debate has risen that social networks are leading us to social isolation. Reports also have shown that users are spending more time online, leaving little time for other activities. This paper argues that while social networks are growing and becoming increasingly time intensive, social isolation however does not occur.

Social networking (SN) and Web 2.0 applications, commonly known as “social media”, are an inherent part of most activist campaigns today due to the fact they are, as Clay Shirky (2009) states: “global, social, ubiquitous and cheap”.  Social media platforms allow activists to not only create, but also tap into networks of people to promote an issue or cause, and are an excellent way to create action and send issues global.  The premise of this paper is that much more effective campaigns are organized now that activists and organizers are more adept at employing the characteristics inherent in these social media platforms, such as tags and their ability to spread a message virally and more importantly, send the message global.  To illustrate this, this paper will concentrate on social media platforms that have come to the fore in the last five years:  Facebook, Twitter and Weblogs (blogs) and will also outline events from inside authoritarian regimes, where these tools have been used successfully to either highlight issues or instigate real change.  The concept of ‘citizen journalist’ is discussed in depth in the paper and emphasizes the link between traditional mass media, and online social media and the changes brought about by local people being able to report on local events using social media.  As a counterpoint to the positive aspects of online activism, this paper will also highlight and respond to some of the negative perceptions.

“The knowing self is partial in all its guises, never finished, whole, simple there and original; it is always constructed and stitched together imperfectly and is therefore able to join with another, to see together without claiming to be another”

(Donna Haraway as quoted by Turkle, 1997, p. 79)

By Alison Stringer

The mobile Internet, and in particular Social Networking Sites (SNS), are set to play a major role in big business’ attempts to transform an estimated four billion people who live in poverty into consumers. These “aspirational poor”, those who earn less than $2 a day and “who make up three-fourths of the world’s population–could contribute an additional $13 trillion in annual sales to the global economy, if only companies would drill deep enough to reach them” (Prahalad in Johnson & Nhon 2005).

Libraries – Time to get onboard with social networking or find yourselves extinct!

 This paper will examine libraries and their importance in embracing the web 2.0 phenomenon of social networking.   This paper will examine the importance of using social networking sites like facebook,  twitter and youtube to enable libraries to “engage with students in the virtual environment”(Graham, Faix, & Hartman, 2009, p. 228) for the  promotion of the library, library events and services, teaching and learning and humanising the concept of the library and librarians.  This paper will also examine the importance that social networking sites have with improving professional relationships within the library profession and across the university therefore, resulting in an increase of information sharing that ensures libraries are on the forefront of changes in demands and needs of their students. If libraries fail to adopt this technology, they are in danger of finding themselves extinct. 

Business Identity In Social Networks, Is the relationship between business identity and personal identity within online social networks changing our perception of businesses themselves?

Since the Internet was first introduced forty years ago, the ways people use the Internet have changed dramatically. The concept of identity on the Internet had long been a popular topic of Internet studies.  From playing multiple users online games to updating status on Facebook, people use different concepts to manage the relationship between their online identity and offline identity. Through the development of the Internet in the last forty years, it is clear to see that there is a transition of Internet users’ attitude towards online representation. Compare to the early period of online communities, people nowadays have a more open mind of sharing their real life identity with others. This paper is going to examine this transition by defining the concepts of social identity and online identity, exploring the identity issues in the early period of the Internet and in the web 2.0 era.

Participation in forms of community Shapes The Web 2.0

The Web was a decade ago a place which was similar to television. The Possibility to participate was limited to professional web designer or other professionals of corporate organisations. The rise of Web 2.0 was characterised by the increasing numbers of sites and platforms who offer average people the possibility to participate. People are not only able to participate but also to be a part of a community. Starting with bulletin boards, platforms like blogs and later YouTube,Facebook, Wikipedia, Delicious and many more followed and gave people the chance to participate and consume what other most of the time private user produced.While the feeling of togetherness and community is important, it shapes the way we can use the Web 2.0 today. Participation in forms of community shapes the Web 2.0.

By Lee-Ann Khoh

The internet has revolutionised the way we communicate, interact and disseminate information in our modern society. Since the advent of the World Wide Web and, more recently, Web 2.0 applications such as blogs and social networking websites, more and more people are taking advantage of the internet’s many benefits to express themselves; discuss issues; find answers to their questions; share content; stay in touch with family, friends and acquaintances; and meet new people, among other things (Kim, et al., 2010, p. 226). However, the ease with which ordinary people can participate on the internet also makes it increasingly likely that it, like any other technology can and will be misused

“Health is when you are multiple but feel a unity. Health is when different aspects of self can get to know each other and reflect upon each other. Health is being one, while being many” – Bromberg (1994)

Introduction: Context, Definitions and Direction

The United Kingdom’s Advertising Standards Authority is likely to begin regulating marketing and branding efforts on social networking sites to ensure that content related to such sites does not mislead or offend, and that it abides to relevant laws related to health, alcohol, gambling, financial products and auto (Marshall, 2010).  Clearly, marketing on social networking sites is serious enough to have stimulated regulation in the United Kingdom.

Abstract

With the widespread use of Internet in everyday’s life, online social network sites (SNSs) have become significant tools in human communication and collaboration. The initial audience for these sites targeted young and middle-aged adults, but as the trend continued, more and more SNSs began to concentrate their efforts on rising teenage population (Derrick, 2008). SNSs have dramatically changed the way teenagers communicate and interact with each other. By participating in such sites, teenagers are able to express themselves by creating a unique identity and personal style to share their stories with other people in the world. While the freedom and openness of SNSs allow online identities to reflect users’ real lives, personal information can be searched and monitored. Although many of the sites promote internet safety, this paper argues that there are many potential risks and dangers of privacy exist in SNSs to target teenagers’ identities.

Social networking has many benefits but it is also prone to abuses that make it look like a curse.

Author : Ernest Hojilla

Introduction

Online social networking has over the last few years changed the way people connect and communicate. Many of the Internet users may have heard of Facebook and what it does. Well, Facebook just happens to be the most popular social networking website. But what really is social networking? In simple terms, social networking is putting individuals together into specific groups according to some common attributes like education, religion, age, and interests, among others. To complete the definition you can imagine such groups of people, for example, friends, family, students’ e.t.c sharing information and experiences online. In addition, the users are able give their comments or feedback. This is what social networking is about.

There are currently over 400 million active Facebook users and over a quarter of these are currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices (Facebook Statistics, 2010). This paper discusses how Social Networking Sites (SNS’s), like Facebook and Myspace, are changing the way the teenagers and young adults are communicating to their real world communities, drawing attention to the increasing access of SNSs on mobile internet.

Facebook is known for its “privacy trainwrecks” (boyd, 2008) and has been criticised for its handling of these issues, often retreating until its users adjust to the changes brought upon them (Grimmelmann, 2009).  However, there is more to look at when assessing privacy concerns around Facebook; to purely blame Facebook would be an exercise in technological determinism, instead there are societal and cultural values, political persuasions and economic motivations that shape the technology (Williams & Edge, 1996). As Clay Shirky has said, “[t]he human condition infects everything it touches” (1995, as cited in Grimmelmann, 2009, p. 1206).  It is the users who perpetrate the crimes of privacy on Facebook. This paper argues that users are not innocent bystanders, but rather active participants in privacy violations against one another. From the moment users begin to create their identity-image, through to when they rapidly multiply their audience by accepting acquaintances as Friends; they are setting themselves up for context collisions, which they will experience as privacy violations (Grimmelmann, 2009). “The privacy violations are bottom-up; they emerge spontaneously from the natural interactions of users with different tastes, goals, and expectations” (Grimmelmann, 2009, p. 1188).  Users and their Friends – motivated so strongly by their social tendencies – are their own greatest privacy foe.

Social Networking sites have transformed the political landscape.

Written by Tom Evans.

The emergence of social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have changed the face of politics. Politicians all over the Western world are switching on to the new technology to increase their profile and spread their message (for a fraction of the cost of a conventional political campaign); governments are using the mechanism to consult with ordinary citizens and to give them a voice in the democratic process; but perhaps the most exciting development of all is the use that activists in totalitarian regimes have made use of the new technology to promote opposition.

A Virtual Collision:  When your private and professional worlds clash

There has been much discussion on the disembodiment of identity and the associated deception it may lead to in an online “virtual world” (Donath, 1996; Slater, 2002). Whilst it cannot be disputed that disembodiment and deception in regard to identity can have negative impacts online (Future of Identity in the Information Society, 2008), studies have shown that being part of virtual communities such as early Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs) or more recent online Role-Playing Games (RPGs) can play a significant role in the embodiment and re-embodiment of identity (Nabeth, 2004; Pearce, 2009).

A Social Society: The Positive Effects of Communicating through Social Networking Sites

Ebony Wheeldon

Meet me online – It’s good for us.

Participating in the various online communities available on the Internet is good for you and your relationships. I am going to explore the relationship between identity and community and then explain why spending time online in virtual communities can be of benefit for both the individual and society by strengthening personal identity, enabling individuals to develop strong relationships, allowing the experimentation with identity that can be more challenging in real life, empowering isolated members of the ‘real world’ community, relaxing inhibitions of individuals so they can access the support they need, and by increasing the individual’s social capital.

Paula Broucek

 “Humanity is something more than species: it is a historical development; it is to be defined by the manner in which it deals with its natural, fixed characteristics, its facticité” (de Beauvoir, 1997, p. 725).

By Rosanna Marie Candler

Rising acceptance and registration of networking technologies has confounded the “nature of intimacy” (Barraket & Henry-Waring 2004) we practice in modern culture. An examination of technologically articulated communication on social networking website Facebook reveals a disappointing regression of interpersonal contact: from face-to-face to a single click of a mouse. To argue the metaphor that ‘Facebook is to socialising what masturbation is to sex’ is to acknowledge a similar outcome (both Facebook and real-life achieve social fulfilment), but criticize the online process on an interpersonal level. Network websites are popular for two key reasons; firstly offering convenience and accessibility to large groups of people, and secondly their ability to define, promote and control perception of identity. It seems Facebook has provided the opportunity to maximise quantity and dilute quality as we hurriedly reach our social ‘orgasm’ through 15 second status updates, disingenuous photo comments and the ever superfluous ‘poke’. Today with over 400 million active users (Facebook Statistics 2010), the website has a firm grip of influence on the manner in which individuals articulate and develop their personal affairs.

 
Ever since humans began to cooperate with each other around 30,000 years ago, we have carefully managed our identities to present an idealised version of ourselves: quite simply a version that we believe our peers will like. Until very recently, the only means by which to do this was face-to-face, via written correspondence or telephone. Owing to the ‘real world’ nature of these methods of communication, the groups of people we interact with are necessarily quite small, well-defined and discrete. Consequently, famous sociologists such as Michel Foucault, Anthony Giddens and Erving Goffman have favoured the idea that identity is flexible and multiple – that is, different depending on which audience we happen to be communicating with at any given time.

The argument I will present in this paper centres on the transformation of a person’s identity from the unmediated offline world to the mediated online virtuality of the internet to show how the internet influences our definition of who we are. I argue that the internet influences our definition of who we are by providing a virtual world where identity deception through self-reflexive ‘hoped-for’ identities are constructed to generate desired impressions motivated by individual payoff’s, social capital and maximal distinctiveness. I have focussed my research on social networking sites (SNSs), in particular, Facebook.

Abstract: From the advent of the internet, scholars and the wider media have been enthralled by the potential that the internet’s anonymity provides for the creation of new identities that forgo the traditional boundaries of race, gender, and religion, while others have been critical of the potential for harmful identity deception. It is my aim, however, to prove that these perceptions are flawed and that identity online is closely tied with identity offline in a way that limits the creation of entirely new online identities. This paper will draw evidence from various sources, including studies of identity online and trends in social network use, to demonstrate that aspects of one’s ‘real life’ identity are always present in one’s ‘online’ identity.

Online communities and social networks mediated by the Internet provide a novel forum for self-representation. In this forum the self is disembodied, but made known by self-statements and other textual cues. Due to the absence of physical anchoring and the ability of the user to selectively choose the information they present, the opportunity to misrepresent identity can be greater than in real life (Donath, 1999). This paper explores the extent to which people afford themselves of this opportunity for misrepresentation and whether this changes as anonymity decreases and accountability increases. More specifically, this paper posits that the decrease in anonymity in online forums does not decrease identity misrepresentation, rather it changes the nature of self representation from the exposition of the real self to a more socially-orientated possible self. 

The use of Web 2.0 technology for professional development in Australian Information Associations

Author: Natalie Lund

Introduction    

With the emergence of diverse and popular web 2.0 social networking services (SNSs) such as last.fm, LinkedIn and Facebook, the online identities of many individuals have transitioned from the hidden, private spaces of Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs) and have shifted to the public domain where personal information is openly visible and readily accessible to the greater online community (boyd, 2007, p.2).  This paper will examine identity in its multi-faceted, post-modern form and discuss the role it played within the initial, virtual communities of the World Wide Web (Turkle, 1997a, p.159).  Following on, the essay will describe the characteristics of Web 2.0 SNSs and contrast it with preceding MUDs and virtual communities.  I will examine identity and its private to public evolution and argue that although SNSs promote open, public information, due to their context and audience they construct fractured and in some instances, multiple extensions of the self.    Due to the nature of SNSs, if these facets are to be viewed solely and unparalleled they could easily be taken out of context and reflect a distorted view which does not represent a true reflection of the individual (Donath, 1999, p.29).  To contextualise, this essay will use the perspective of a potential employer or recruiter to demonstrate how easily a candidate’s digital identity within the above SNSs can be misinterpreted and what factors from each of these SNSs contributed to it.

There is no doubt that pranksters exist on the internet, and that sometimes comments within online communities are made only to cause trouble, display vulgarity and insult. However, these impersonal comments from strangers can almost be deleted as spam, irrelevant internet junk that we skip over in our email and web travels without second thought. More interesting is how hurtful comments can be when written by those considered to be our internet buddies, when they know which of our buttons to push to elicit a reaction and when it feels like the attack is personal. These are flames. The motives driving these kind of flamers are not always malicious, and it’s not just the words that are causing an emotive reaction. In this paper flaming is defined as a written comment, viewed by a persona or virtual community, that is sent or received with hostility. This paper will examine how both the flamer and the reader influence a hostile environment (Thompsen, 1993) and why flaming is not just an amusement of pranksters but a tool employed by users to assert and control their online identity. Most importantly, the paper will show that flaming and associated behaviours are not always driven by malicious intent, but inexperience, frustration, the psychological desire to experience thrill, ease tension and assert dominance (Alonzo & Aiken, 2004) as well as conflict with online community norms (Aakhus & Rumsey, 2010). Flamers can be productive internet citizens, and their opposing personas sometimes overlap.

KATHLEEN VELLA

Gender swapping online is becoming increasingly popular as people experiment with their identity in cyberspace. Gender swapping online entails a male or female in reality assuming a character or avatar online of the opposite sex. This practice allows users to explore and manipulate their identity in a virtual community, which in reality is not as easy to experiment with. In this paper I will identify the numerous benefits that gender swapping online can bring to an individual’s identity exploration and argue how these benefits allow individuals to further appreciate identity in communities and networks.   

This paper will examine how communities form in Massive Multiplayer Online Real Player Games (MMORPGs) through the formation of alliances/guilds.   An argument will be put forward that the strength of communities in MMORPGs can be measured by how well they withstand the undermining influence of spies/moles working to destroy them.  Strong and weak community ties will both be examined along with the role and importance of each type within a community.  The reasons people try and destroy these communities will be considered and the effectiveness of this undermining force on different types of communities will be discussed.  First we will start with a crucial definition of community.

Excerpt

Each of us has a unique identity and can contribute to and enrich the lives of others. In traditional public settings however, people with a physical disability are presented with challenges ranging from accessibility to being marginalized or simply excluded from socializing. Studies in happiness and well-being have shown that meaningful social exchanges empower the identity of an individual and contribute to self-acceptance. Regular social interactions also assist in the formation of positive functioning in adults. For a person who cannot leave their home without the assistance of others, being a member of an online social network or community can be a lifeline.

This paper will explore the ways in which active participation in online communities can foster an environment where a person with a disability is valued for their individual identity and intellect and not judged by their initial appearance.

Carl Sagan once said that “we are, each of us, a multitude” (Oyster and Sagan, 1980) and while he may have been referring to the biological make-up of our bodies, it is every bit as accurate an observation when applied to the way we approach social interaction. While the majority of us haven’t been diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, we are all guilty of presenting a different ’self’ around different groups of people. Our language, verbal and body, as well as what ideas we admit to having are heavily dependent on what is considered socially appropriate for the group we are around. 0It has been argued in the past that there is an ‘ideal’ self which we all long to be but are unable to achieve due to the pressure of those directly around us. What happens, then, when we are physically alone in our homes and turn on our computers to communicate online, which is considered to be different, “composed of information rather than matter” (Donath, 1999, 1) and therefore free of bodily thoughts. Are we more true to our ‘ideal’ selves or do we still fall under the sway of social pressures?

Participation has been a prominent theme in Web 2.0 (O’Reilly, 2005). It is the back and forth interaction in online communities. It is the act of contributing content and interacting with service features and other users in a community. Indeed, a majority of Web 2.0 services are participatory in nature, such as YouTube, Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, et cetera. These services thrive on content contribution and user interactions. While participation is encouraged, it is still voluntary and participation in some aspects of a service can be limited. As such, the lack of user participation could see some projects fail. This paper argues that the rise of Dr. Horrible can be attributed to the participation of its fans in their promotional efforts, and the fall of Facebook’s Beacon to the result of a lack of community participation in the decision making process. In other words, user participation can determine the success or failure of a project.

(Note: A PDF version of this paper can be downloaded from ths link) 

Abstract

The development of the internet and other electronic communications tools over the past 20 years has seen substantive facilitation of global commerce and service delivery for corporations, government agencies and individuals.  Such facilitation has allowed the conduct of commerce across multiple locations at moderate cost.

The development of the online commerce environment has allowed those engaged with identity deception to ply their trade with near anonymity and with minimal risk of capture or prosecution.  Authoritative studies by government agencies (Federal Trade Commission), private organisations (Javelin Research and Strategy) and non profit groups (Identity Theft Resource Centre) over recent years have documented the monetary and social costs associated with identity deception.

According to Jenkins, Purushotma, Weigel, Clinton, & Robison (2009, p. 6), participatory culture is, essentially, a culture where people are happy to contribute content to a community that encourages and appreciates it. Participatory culture can be seen from the way Facebook users update their profiles, upload photos, share videos and links, answer quizzes, write on walls, and respond to status updates. In relation to blogging, users participate in blog conversations by leaving comments or leaving a message in the chatbox, if there is any. In microblogging, users participate by responding to the question, ‘What’s happening’ (About Twitter, n.d.). Twitter makes participation with the application as simple as possible with fewer features in comparison to Facebook, and with icon buttons such as a star to favourite a tweet, a bin to delete a tweet, and a reply button to reply. Wikipedia is another example of participatory culture where users can contribute information, correct or edit articles. Other forms of participatory culture that are more entertaining in nature include mash-ups, remixes, and Internet memes. The consumption of social media that encourages participatory culture, however, raises privacy issues that may have implications for the offline world, especially Facebook, personal blogs, and Twitter, as these applications are more personal in nature; users tend to use these applications for personal reasons such as maintaining existing relationships or making new connections, and therefore, personally identifiable information is more likely to be found from the contents of these applications compared to a wiki or remix. This paper will argue that the privacy issues raised by the consumption of social media are such that effective education on the dangers is needed for users because education is fundamental in developing responsibility and judgment. We will first discuss Facebook, followed by personal blogs, and finally, Twitter.

Social networking sites have proven to be at the forefront of political success all over the world. They are now a fundamental communications tool in every aspect of the community, and a limitless source of information for campaign strategy. The use of social networking sites in political parties spans across increased media exposure, funding, participation and has increased mobilisation and enthusiasm in numerous recent political campaigns. Social networking sites are now proven to be unsurpassed in their effectiveness to gather and communicate a targeted political message, raising the stakes in strategy and aggressive social media participation.

Founded in February 2004, Facebook has fast become a popular and accepted means of communication with the site’s advertised over “400 million active users” (Facebook n.d). This site has changed the way that many net citizens communicate and interact. Along with these changes many questions are also now being raised about the extent to which privacy is being relinquished by users who join the site. With a reported “5 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each week” (Facebook n.d ) it is little wonder that privacy has become one of Facebook’s greatest challenges.

Peter Mullen

Now, there’s no question China has been trying to crack down on the Internet — good luck. That’s sort of like trying to nail Jello to the wall. But I would argue to you that their effort to do that just proves how real these changes are and how much they threaten the status quo.
Bill Clinton (2000)

The popular Social Networking site Facebook, according to co-creator Dustin Moskovitz, was built to “accumulate social capital” (cited in Ricadela, 2007). The idea of social capital has been around since the early part of last century (Hanifan, 1916).  In an Australian government conference on Family Strengths, Stone & Hughes (2000) defined it as “networks of social relations characterised by norms of trust and reciprocity,” and argue that it is “critical for community wellbeing.” Currently Facebook is accumulating the social capital of over 400 million users (Facebook Timeline, 2010). This accumulation of social capital is valued at $35 billion (Byers, 2010). That’s over $8 per user. Social capital has always been a valuable economic resource,  bowling alleys and cafes rely on it. However, there has been the necessity to tie in a product, be it an overpriced drink or the use of a venue. The actual conversations that built social capital remained the private domain of the participants. Facebook sells advertising to those conversations and it is estimated it will make over $1 billion this year doing so (O’Neill, 2010).  In the eighteen months to February 2010 Facebook membership quadrupled from 100 million to 400 million (Facebook Timeline, 2010).  Facebook takes our social capital, the bastion of  trust and reciprocity, and turns it into a commodity to be traded like any other, yet we continue to flock to it. Why are we allowing Facebook to own, market and commodify our social capital?

To begin with this assignment describes “The Danger of Social Networking” for the users. As we known, there are so many people in different groups, ages, and genders that use social networking sites. Social Networking is the grouping of individuals groups based on specific interest that members of the group may share or other words refers to as web-based services a list of other users with whom they share a connection (boyd & Ellison, 2007).

Written by Christopher Johnson 2009
Department of Internet Studies, Curtin University of Technology
Net Studies Conferences  2010

Abstract

“In the last few years we have seen Apple Inc^TM succeeds in their world dominance of the mp3 music industry with Apple iTunes and the iPod. Then in July 2007 came the iPhone, where not only was it an iPod but a Smartphone Along with the iPhone comes a controlled environment controlled by Apple Inc^TM that socially shapes what the user can and cannot do. Digital Management Rights (DMR), restricted applications, one phone carrier and proprietary software formats managed under patent laws makes the iPhone more an Apple appliance(artefact) than a generative artefact for future internet communications.  This paper will argue that the popular uptake of an iPhone along with other appliances is socially shaping its users and threatens the very existence of the Internet, Social Networks and Online Communities as we know it.   Although in recent times we have seen many artefacts “like Sony Playstation, Wii, Xbox, Tivo” competing to control the space. This paper will focus on the case study of the Apple iPhone.”

This paper looks at Facebook, the popular social networking site, and explores some of the negative impacts the site can have on its members.  This paper considers the perspective of individuals who use Facebook for personal reasons, with their primary motivation being to renew and maintain friendships.  The key area that will be examined is that contrary to Facebook being considered a device to socially network, it actually infuses separation and generates antisocial patterns of behaviour, which are isolating to the individual and actually detach them from society. 

The Future Net-oree: The Scouting Convergence to Online Collaborations and Networks

Written by Jocelyn Peucker, 2010

Scouting in Australia is dead. This is the feeling that some adults in Scouting have had over the past few years. However, until recently Scouting in Australia was dying, suffering an average national loss of approximately 4,000 memberships per year from 1995 to 2006. However, since 2007 there has been a significant increase of approximately 4200 memberships per year (see Figure 1). Similarly, Scouting in the Geelong Region also declined, losing 1300 members between 1995 and 2007, with only a slight increase over the past two years (see Figure 2). The causes of these losses remain either unknown or undocumented, although many Leaders have hypothesised that leadership, administration issues and technology are the key indicators. Today’s technological advances e.g. PlayStation, Mobile Phones, the Internet, and other electronic devices, are considered to be one of the most distinct causes.

The way society communicates has changed drastically due to the introduction of social networking sites like Facebook. Facebook has provided society with the infrastructure to expand people’s social circles. It does this by providing people with a place to stay in contact with every person that they have ever met. Facebook’s aggregated newsfeed has enabled members to receive a consolidated update of their social circles’ lives in just a few moments and without being in physical contact with a single person. The consolidated updates have also, in some cases, led to a behavioural pattern of possessing tendencies to self promote experiences through the newsfeed (Buffardi & Campbell, 2008). This increase of communication without any human contact has led to a number of uncomfortable etiquette issues in both the online and offline spaces. These issues include Facebook’s members addressing what is socially acceptable to know about each other when they meet in an offline space or the “real world”. This constant need for communication has led to people feeling as if they need to be able to communicate anywhere and at any anytime and this has seen the rise of the ‘smart phone’ (AIMA, 2009). As part of research for this conference paper, an online survey was distributed through social networking sites starting with my own contacts on Facebook, Twitter and email. There were one hundred and fifty three respondents with the majority of respondents located in Australia. This survey gathered information regarding how people communicate since the introduction of social networking sites. This conference paper will discuss how Facebook’s aggregated newsfeed has drastically changed the way society communicates.

Stephen Harris

Introduction

Virtual communities and networks have become a popular form of interaction for people all around the world (Ridings and Gefen, 2004). Virtual communities and networks make it possible for people to create new and multiple self identities that can be controlled and manipulated by the user (Ridings and Gefen, 2004). Turkle (1997b) refers to this as ‘multiplicity’, where users transition between different ‘self states’ (Turkle 1997b, p.79). This paper examines how the concept of multiplicity can be utilised to assist people with working through issues of personal identity (Turkle 1997b, p.79).

Many people have argued that mobile space is similar to the internet with respect to its increased use and application. In recent past, this has been validated by the meteoric increase of sites dealing with mobile social networking. We can broadly define social networking as the process of producing and sharing media information which range from simple write-ups to major and complicated video feed, allowing people to connect with friends and establish relations with new users of the network. The act of using a mobile phone to bond with virtual communities is associated with social mobile networking which has been enabled by the proliferation of wireless networks (Balas, 2008). Content distribution through messaging and media intensive information has made it famous among wireless carriers who regard it as a chance for data revenue.

ADDICTIVE WEB 2.0 FEATURES: LOSING CONTACT FROM PHYSICAL WORLD

INTRODUCTION

There are games out there that kids and adults play online that would fit right into the Communities and Web 2.0 stream; now these games can be used for entertainment type use but when kids and adults start to repetitively play these games on daily basis it starts to grow from being a fun activity to an addictive activity. Games like “Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games” (MMORPG) can take valuable time and life away from these gamers who eventually stop seeing the real side of the physical world. It’s not the actual game that becomes addictive it’s the tools that are provided within the games platform that keeps you attached but as technology is getting better people are tending to use the online tools provided rather then using their given skills in a real life environment.

The Relationship Economy

A community can be defined as a social structure that shares personal values, cultural values, business goals, attitudes, or a world view. In general, a community facilitates and supports the aspirations and the welfare of its participants. Many social networking sites offer platforms for discussion of topics that a community or network finds mutually interesting or beneficial.  In the most concise terms, an online social community is a group of individuals connected by interactions. (Strauss, 2009) These interactions include significant business and commercial transactions. The word “community” is derived from the Latin communitas (cum, “with/together” + munus, “gift”).