Transcript Computer-Mediated Communication

Computer-Mediated
Communication
The Nature of Community
Coye Cheshire
//
April 9, 2016
Project Wiki & Discussion Forum
 Keep those projects coming! Many of you
already posted to wiki, so take a look even
if you have not posted an idea.
 Forums: We are looking for your
experiences with online communities –
good experiences, bad, or just relating an
example. Helpful if you can post a few
thoughts before class on Thursday.
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Today
Community, Boundaries and Symbols
More on defining your “problem” for the
CMC final project
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“Classic” Conception of Community
(The Chicago School)
“Organic Solidarity”
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“Mechanical Solidarity”
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The ‘Myths’ of Community
Simplicity and F2F
“…the anatomy of social life at the micro-level is more
intricate, and no less revealing, than among … the macrolevel”
Egalitarianism
“…community generates multitudinous means of making
evaluative distinctions among its members, means of
differentiating among them…”
Inevitable Conformity
“suggests that the outward spread of cultural influences
from the centre will make communities … less like their
former selves…[this assumes that] people are somehow
passive in relation to culture: they receive it, transmit it, but
do not create it.”
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Community Boundaries
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ingroup
other,
outgroup
other,
outgroup
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Symbols and Community
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Symbols versus Emblems, Signs
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from 37signals.com
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Symbolic Meaning (and variation) within
Communities
“Patriotism”
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Symbolic variation within CMC
communities…
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“
Symbols are effective because they are
imprecise. … They are, therefore, ideal
media through which people can speak a
‘common’ language, behave in apparently
similar ways, participate in the ‘same’
rituals, pray to the ‘same’ gods, wear
similar clothes, and so forth, without
subordinating themselves to a tyranny of
orthodoxy. Individuality and commonality
are thus reconcilable.
”
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Community Boundaries and Symbols
“Symbols do not so much express meaning as give
us the capacity to make meaning.”
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Community Boundaries and Symbols
Public face
(symbolically simple)
Private face
(symbolically complex)
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”
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Some questions to consider (and for
you to share in forums)
Other examples of communities in CMC and the
use of symbols?
How does the community define its boundaries?
If there have been times when those boundaries
were violated, how did members respond?
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Thinking about your final project:
defining and justifying a good
problem
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What makes a good research problem?
Research Questions for Theoretical
Development or Practical Application
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is Supposed
to Work
How Research Really
Works…
Problem
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Method
Data Collection
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Support or Reject
Hypotheses
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Defining Problems for A Good
CMC Final Project
 What is an example research or
design problem?
“an interrogative sentence or statement
that asks: What relation exists between
two or more concepts?”
“an interrogative sentence or statement
that asks: What elements of a given
system affect (or might affect) the
behavior(s) of users, and in what specific
ways?”
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Characteristics of good problems
1)
Should state the concepts to be
related clearly and
unambiguously
(robertnlee.com)
2)
Should be testable (research) or
constructible (design) – even if
you don’t test it or build it!
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Specific Criteria for a Problem
 What are we going to learn as
the result of the proposed
project that we do not know
now?
 Why is it worth knowing?
 How will we know that the
conclusions are valid? How do
we know if a solution is viable?
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A few examples we have already mentioned:
 Design, prototype or build a novel CMC system
 Experiment using a CMC system
 Analyze or visualize interaction in a CMC system
Importantly, everyone should:
(1) build on a strong theoretical foundation
(2) use this foundation to justify the solution
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