Research: March 2008 Archives
The company you keep
Part of my MA thesis deals with community, and how the community you associate with works to define your electronic identity. Nothing could illustrate this better than the site I just came across:
Metafilter comments vs. Youtube comments.
The page grabs random comments from both Metafilter and Youtube and displays them side by side.
A metaphor for the blogosphere
This is the introduction to my MA thesis. Since it doesn't really get into much depth about the concepts I'll be talking about in Finland, I think it's okay to post for now. I've edited it slightly for presentation on the web and taken out a section on the history of the blog. I'm interested in your thoughts.
The effect of adding a zero: the blog and identity
This study looks at the blog as a medium for exploring identity. However, rather than looking at the blogger’s identity as a writer, it will contextualize the blogger within a context where a separate, electronic identity is built for her, by her, and around her.To provide a useful perspective on the blogging process and its effect on identity, I will frame this work using Charles and Ray Eames’ 1977 film, Powers of 10. The film starts with a 1 meter square, first zooming out by multiples of 10 every 10 seconds. As the image pulls out, more is revealed, until finally we reach 100,000,000 light years and start our journey inwards to the level of the proton.
The identity of the blogger is the same; to get a full understanding of how identity works within the blog one needs to take a journey through the bloggerʹs experience in the same way as the Eamesʹ film, zooming in and out, contextualizing not only the blogger within the blogosphere, but the software within the blog as well; itʹs the effect of adding a zero, even within what seems like a simple universe.
What is compelling about Powers of 10 is how similar both ends of the spectrum are; they might very well be connected, creating a loop. At each level, a new understanding of how connected things are is reached: the protons within the molecule, the molecule within the chromosome, the tissue within the man, the man within the city, and so on. At the surface, 101, the blogger is simply writing a genre, be it a personal journal, a linkblog, or a political commentary.
We need to explore the different powers of ten; when we pull out, we see the blogger situated within layers of community: the comments on her own site, the communities she joins, and the blogosphere itself. Each of these has an influence, but it is not until one pulls back that one starts seeing them. Likewise, when we start moving inwards from the blogger, we see new levels of influence: the interface, the blog software itself, and finally the data structures imposed by the database software and physical storage. These too influence the identity of the blogger, for it is by these data structures, programming decisions, and interface designs that her journey in the blog is guided. Yet, if one does not look at each of these levels, one does not see the influence they exert. In this thesis, I look at the blog from near and far in an attempt to better understand its mechanisms and how it affects the identity of the blogger.
Continue reading A metaphor for the blogosphere.The Blog and Identity
As you may be aware, I successfully defended my MA back in January. I said at the time that I'd be putting a copy of the thesis here shortly after I'd finished working on the revisions. Well, the revisions came and went, but I obviously haven't posted the thesis here yet.
OK, but why not?
Here's why. I submitted, with K, a proposal to the 2008 Digital Humanities conference in Oulu, Finland that is in part based on one of my chapters. Since then, I've been waiting to hear whether or not the proposal was accepted or not. Now, as open as I may be towards releasing research, I recognize that others may not be quite so open (danah boyd and Harvard's efforts notwithstanding). Frankly, I didn't want to jeopardize the Digital Humanities proposal by "publishing" work ahead of the conference.
A couple of weeks ago, we heard back from the conference, and we were accepted. K and I will be heading to Finland in late June to give a paper there. I'm both excited and terrified (I am GAWDAWFUL when presenting work; I by far prefer more informal Q&A or unstructured talk) to be going to the conference. I'm really looking forward to seeing the other papers, not only in our own panel, but in the conference itself.
For those who aren't aware, Digital Humanities (DH) is the largest conference in my field; it's roughly equivalent to the MLA or the ACCUTE Congress. DH is the combined conference of SDH/SEMI, ACH, and ALLC, and it alternates between Europe and North America. Last year it was in Chicago. K will also be presenting another paper there with our friend and colleague, Dr. Stan Ruecker, on the e-book.
But back to the open publishing of the thesis. It'll come. I'll post the thesis in its entirety on this site, but likely not until July. Until then, if you're interested in reading it, please let me know and I'll be happy to email you a copy.
Why do you care?
The fact of the matter is that I haven't completely ruled out further academic work. I'm not planning on starting a PhD any time soon; but I don't want to close any doors. I'm going to work to publish within my field, even though I don't have any current plans for doctoral work, because I think I may want to revisit the idea in a few years.
One should also keep in mind that I'm currently working within an academic environment, and even though my job doesn't require publication, it's certainly something that I should explore and engage in when I can.
And frankly, I think it's the right time to be working with blogs and other social media, especially in the digital humanities field. I think that the digital - text analysis and visualization - have been too much of a focus within digital humanities, and it's time for a healthy dose of the humanities.