Computer-mediated communication (CMC) communities have been around since the beginnings of the Internet. These communities have given people a way to share common interests with each other through asynchronous and synchronous chat. There are many different options available to the user, such as IRC, MUDs, Usenet and email lists. The medium I chose to observe for five days was the asynchronous email list. An asynchronous chat means that there is a delay between the time a message is sent and received between users. The specific email list I chose to observe is the "Rumormillnews," which was located through Yahoo groups. This group was created on December 28Th, 2002 and currently has 1,296 members. An email list works by someone sending a relevant topic to the specific group email, which is then distributed to every group member's email account. It then gives you the option to reply to group members post, create your own or just observe.
A common problem found within computer-mediated communities is the act of free riding and trolling. Defined by Kollock and Smith, free riding is when a user posts an irrelevant topic to the group, leeches off group member's information without providing any of their own and "asking questions to the group without answering questions from anyone else" (pg. 116). Trolling is when a user replies to a post in a rude way to create a rise out of that member (Kollock and Smith, 1996). Another activity that is made possible and performed in CMC communities is gender masking.
In the article "Text as mask: Gender, play, and performance on the Internet," Danet mentions that text serves as a mask in CMC communities because there is no face to face contact involved. This allows users to create a general name to hide their gender and thus allow them to act as a male or female within the community (Danet, 1998). In the email list I observed "Bush Buster," "Lefty," and "Tufrmone" were a few regulars that had non-gender associated names. After reading some of their posts, I couldn't find anything in their writing that tagged them as a male or female. This proves that Danet's reference of "text as a mask" is a valid one (pg. 129). With gender shoved to the side, CMC communities allow users to communicate and debate with each other on an even playing field with all gender bias aside (Danet, 1998).
As I mentioned before, free riding and trolling are two common problems found with a CMC community. They disrupt the flow of the chat and community by causing everyone to stray off topic (Kollock and Smith, 1996). While observing the "Rumormillnews," I was quite surprised that I only came across one instance of both free riding and trolling. I believe the lack of disruption in the group was a result of the rules it had in place. The two main rules that stuck out were that messages require approval from the moderator and that no one could hide their email address. These rules gave the group a sense of control because if someone tried to post a disruptive comment it could either not be posted or the users email could be banned from the group. Another popular way for Yahoo groups to sift out the free riders and trolls is to require a membership to join a group. To obtain a membership you must give the group moderator your information and provide a short summary of why you would like to join that group.
The only instance of free riding that I came across in "Rumormillnews" was an advertisement. It was quite ironic that the advertisement was about an advertising agency. This post is a good example of free riding because it is totally irrelevant to the group's discussion and goals of providing late breaking news (Kollock and Smith, 1996). This example of free riding didn't seem to disrupt the members of the group too much, as there were no replies or complaints to the post.
The next instance of disruption was surprising because it came from the group's most common poster. This case of trolling was performed by the user John Stroebel, in the thread "McCain Has SERIOUS POW Problems." In the thread, the trolling occurred when Stroebel replied to the user "Tufrmone" and finished his reply by saying "And assholes like you spit in the memory of the men never accounted for." To me this instance of trolling happened because Stroebel was offended on a personal level in what Turfrmone wrote. The understanding is there on why this happened, but I believe it was an unnecessary response to it. Stroebel could have understood nothing was meant by it and kept it to himself, keeping the emotion out of the discussion. This post is actually the last one that I observed in the group, which generates some interest for me to see if any other member became offended by the post.
By observing "Rumormillnews" for the past five days, I have witnessed the different type of interactions that occur within CMC communities. Throughout the five days there was superb discussion and articles posted on news topics. These topics ranged anywhere from political and financial news to science related news. The idea of text removing gender bias association was also seen within this email list and proves to be bringing everyone onto a gender equal level (Danet, 1998). The advancements of the Internet and the CMC communities are proving to bring the world closer together, creating global communities. If the effort continues to filter out the problems of free riding and trolling, we may soon see a virtual world where everyone can contribute equally without receiving any gender or culturally biased opinions from others.
Bibliography
1. Danet, Brenda. (1998). Text as mask: Gender, play, and performance on the Internet. In Steven G. Jones (Ed.), Cybersociety 2.0: Revisiting computer-mediated communication and community (pp. 129-158). Thousand Oaks, NJ: Sage.
2. Kollock, Peter & Smith, Marc. (1996). Managing the virtual commons: Cooperation and conflict in computer communities. In Susan C. Herring (Ed.), Computer-mediated communication: Linguistic, social and cross-cultural perspectives (pp. 109-128). Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
3. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RUMORMILLNEWS/
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Day 5 Observations
This is my last day of observations for the Rumor mill news group. The group has a total of 1,296 members and was created on December 28, 2002. The group is under the category of conspiracy theory. After observing for the last five days, I have concluded that this group strays away from this categorization and mainly provides different angles on current events. The few rules to this group are email attachments are not acceptable, members cannot hide their email address and messages require approval from the moderator of the group. The yahoo group site has a history of messages per month since the group was created. This group seemed to be the most active in 2003, after it was first created. The Rumor Mill News contains its own web page separate from the yahoo group page. I visited this site and discovered that it is cluttered with advertisements up and down each side of the page. The site has its own reading room and other than that seems quite useless. In the past 5 days I have noticed there has been few accounts of common problems usually found in a CMC community. I have only seen one account of possible trolling and free riding. Gender masking is also a possibility in this group because I saw quite a few general names.
Day 4 Observations
best excuse for give away's I ever heard
and those neocons....always whining we CAN'T give food stamps nd medical
care and housing to the poor....
poor them this time...right?
LOL!!!
This is a response written by John Stroebel in my email list. I chose to single out this reply, to show how informal most responses are. This response shows that many people within the group must know who he is. Stroebel ended up getting five responses to this reply along with a totally irrelevant response from the user Lefty. This shows possible trolling in the group. In my next observation I intend to get even more specific on events within the group and point out possible trolls or free riders.
and those neocons....always whining we CAN'T give food stamps nd medical
care and housing to the poor....
poor them this time...right?
LOL!!!
This is a response written by John Stroebel in my email list. I chose to single out this reply, to show how informal most responses are. This response shows that many people within the group must know who he is. Stroebel ended up getting five responses to this reply along with a totally irrelevant response from the user Lefty. This shows possible trolling in the group. In my next observation I intend to get even more specific on events within the group and point out possible trolls or free riders.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Defining Web 2.0
To define Web 2.0, you must first understand the concepts that constructed Web 1.0. In the article, "What is Web 2.0," Tim O'Reilly does a superb job in doing so. He starts off the article by providing a comparison chart between the Web 1.0 and 2.0 technologies, which provides a good start into understanding their differences. O'Reilly then goes in depth, by comparing two similar technologies from both Web 1.0 and 2.0.
The first example is between the software companies of Netscape (Web 1.0) and Google (Web 2.0). In this example, O'Reilly explains how the idea behind Netscape was to act as a "platform for the Internet through a web browser" (pg. 4). Netscape also chose to license and sell their software. This was a common idea behind Web 1.0. On the other hand Google was a free service application that was available to everyone and it also contained a strong data base (pg. 4). As mentioned later in the article by O'Reilly, this type of data base is a key design pattern of Web 2.0 (pg. 22). Another example that is given by O'Reilly is the comparison of Web 1.0's Akamai to Web 2.0's BitTorrent. He mentions that "BitTorrent becomes more efficient as the amount of users on the application increase" (pg. 8). This is a unique characteristic of Web 2.0 technologies, as it allows each user to add their own bandwidth to the server. On the other hand, "Akamai would have to add more servers and not users to increase efficiency" (pg.8).
In the rest of article, O'Reilly goes into describing the key characteristics that help describe what Web 2.0 is. The long tail is another idea behind Web 2.0 that I have not mentioned. O'Reilly defines this as when a service or application "reaches out to the edges of the Internet" (pg. 22).
One principle of Web 2.0 that interests me is the idea that licenses and protection should be limited (O'Reilly, 2005). O'Reilly states that this should be done to promote improvisation in Web 2.0 technologies (pg. 22). I believe that this characteristic can help towards the advancement of the Internet, but at the same time it can also hurt the companies helping to do so. A major problem that has occurred within the Web 2.0 era is the pirating of software. As a participant in this myself, I have seen users of the Internet take key principles of Web 2.0 and use it for exploitation. Applications such as BitTorrent, have been a common ground for the sharing and a rather easy access to these pirated and hacked copies of software. These practices have left many companies out of money and should be watched, as the Internet continues to advance.
Bibliography
1. O'Reilly, Tim. (2005). What is Web 2.0: Design patterns and business models for the next generation of software. Retrieved August 21, 2008 from http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html.
The first example is between the software companies of Netscape (Web 1.0) and Google (Web 2.0). In this example, O'Reilly explains how the idea behind Netscape was to act as a "platform for the Internet through a web browser" (pg. 4). Netscape also chose to license and sell their software. This was a common idea behind Web 1.0. On the other hand Google was a free service application that was available to everyone and it also contained a strong data base (pg. 4). As mentioned later in the article by O'Reilly, this type of data base is a key design pattern of Web 2.0 (pg. 22). Another example that is given by O'Reilly is the comparison of Web 1.0's Akamai to Web 2.0's BitTorrent. He mentions that "BitTorrent becomes more efficient as the amount of users on the application increase" (pg. 8). This is a unique characteristic of Web 2.0 technologies, as it allows each user to add their own bandwidth to the server. On the other hand, "Akamai would have to add more servers and not users to increase efficiency" (pg.8).
In the rest of article, O'Reilly goes into describing the key characteristics that help describe what Web 2.0 is. The long tail is another idea behind Web 2.0 that I have not mentioned. O'Reilly defines this as when a service or application "reaches out to the edges of the Internet" (pg. 22).
One principle of Web 2.0 that interests me is the idea that licenses and protection should be limited (O'Reilly, 2005). O'Reilly states that this should be done to promote improvisation in Web 2.0 technologies (pg. 22). I believe that this characteristic can help towards the advancement of the Internet, but at the same time it can also hurt the companies helping to do so. A major problem that has occurred within the Web 2.0 era is the pirating of software. As a participant in this myself, I have seen users of the Internet take key principles of Web 2.0 and use it for exploitation. Applications such as BitTorrent, have been a common ground for the sharing and a rather easy access to these pirated and hacked copies of software. These practices have left many companies out of money and should be watched, as the Internet continues to advance.
Bibliography
1. O'Reilly, Tim. (2005). What is Web 2.0: Design patterns and business models for the next generation of software. Retrieved August 21, 2008 from http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html.
Day 3 Observations
I began to focus more on a single user with my observations. The user that I have shifted my focus onto is John Stroebel. Mr. Stroebel is by far the most active member in this email list. He tends to focus all of his posts and replys on news that deals with the countries issues and the upcoming presidential election. His views are opinionated at times, but he seems to know what he is talking about. I also noticed a few wise cracks on an article that states "McCain lacks POW." My favorite response was by the user Tufrmone, who responded with "Old Age."
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Day 2 Observations
In today's observations, I went into a little more depth with the reading. I noticed that most people in the group send a summary of the article and their thoughts along with a link to the article. This group happens to be an extremely active email list. With there being over 30 posts in the past two days. I also came across my first incident of free riding, which was a promotion for an advertisement firm. As I expected, most of the news continued to follow the political theme.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Email List Observations Day 1
After some searching, I joined a yahoo email list group called Rumormillnews. This group offers a wide range of news, 24 hours a day. Lately, I have been trying to keep up with the world, so I figured this would be a good way to help that effort. While scrolling through and reading some articles, I realized that this email list had no advertisments on it. Most of the posts were dominated by by political news and there was also a good amount of information on the recent financial crisis. Many of the posts also offered links to news videos.
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