I happen to enjoy hearing about what my clients are learning online.  I sometimes come away with valuable new information, and I’m invariably amused by some of the extraordinary things they tell me- who knew that hip dysplasia is caused by global warming!  Surf to your heart’s content, but be forewarned, not all veterinarians feel as I do.  Some have a hard time not “rolling their eyes” or quickly interrupting the moment the conversation turns to Internet research.  Who can blame them- they’ve grown weary of spending valuable office visit or telephone time talking their clients out of crazy cyberspace notions and reining them in from online wild goose chases.  How unfortunate this is.  Nowadays, people rapidly and reflexively reach for their keyboards to learn more about their pet’s symptoms or disease diagnosis online.  It’s only natural (and in their pet’s best interest) that they will want to discuss what they’ve learned with their veterinarian.

Is there an effective way to communicate with your vet about your online research that is neither irritating to her nor intimidating for you?  I truly believe it is possible, but it involves some work and planning on your part!  Listed below are some secrets for success- things you can do to converse about your Internet research in a manner that is comfortable for you and your vet and, most importantly, beneficial for your pet’s health.

-I may be preaching to the choir, but I cannot overemphasize the importance of working with a vet who is happy and willing to participate in two-way, collaborative dialogue with you. Your opinions, feelings, and questions are held in high regard and enough time is allowed during the office visit to hear them. A veterinarian who practices this “relationship centered” style of communication is far more likely to want to hear about your online research than the veterinarian who practices “paternalistic care” (far more interested in telling you what to do than hearing about your thoughts, questions, or concerns).  Remember, when it comes to veterinarian/client communication styles, you have a choice. It’s up to you to make the right choice!

-Let your vet know that you appreciate her willingness and patience in helping you understand how best to utilize what you’ve learned online.

-Ask your veterinarian for her Web site recommendations- those that have already been “vetted”.  This is a collaborative approach that lets her know you intend to spend some time learning more, plus a respectful recognition of the fact that she is the one who has spent her career learning about your dog’s health issues. 

-Wait for the appropriate time during the office visit to discuss what you’ve learned on line.  Allow your veterinarian to ask questions of you and examine your precious poopsie rather than “tackling” her with questions and discussion about your Internet research questions the moment she sets foot in the exam room.

-Be brief and “to the point” with your questions.  Remember, most office visits are scheduled for 15 to 20 minutes, max. 

-Let your veterinarian know that you’ve learned how to be a discriminating surfer!  You know how to differentiate between valuable online resources and “cyber-fluff”. You ignore anecdotal vignettes and Web sites trying to sell their products in favor of credible information provided by veterinary college Web sites and forums that are hosted by well-educated moderators who provide cited research references that support their recommendations.  If you need a little refresher course on how to be a “selective surfer,” I encourage you to read Part One of this article (http://speakingforspot.com/blog/?p=654).

-When you begin conversation about your Internet research, I encourage you to choose your wording wisely.  Communicate in a respectful fashion that invites conversation as opposed to  “telling” your vet what you want to do. Most veterinarians don’t like being told what to do by their clients, and who can blame them?  After all, we expect veterinarians to provide a collaborative approach- it’s only fair that they expect the same from their clients.  Consider the following conversation starters about Internet research:

Approach one:  “I’m wondering what you think about mixing some canned pumpkin in with Sophie’s food.  I’ve been doing some Internet research about diarrhea and this suggestion seems to comes up frequently.”

Approach two:  “I’ve been doing some online research and learned about the benefits of canned pumpkin.  I want to begin mixing this in with Sophie’s food.”

Approach three:  “I’d like to give Sophie some canned pumpkin for her diarrhea.  A moderator from an online forum suggested I do this.”

Approach four:  “I’ve been following an online forum about canine diarrhea. One of the moderators suggested I consider adding canned pumpkin to Sophie’s diet.  How do you feel about this?”

Which of these approaches sound like invitations for discussion? Which are more likely to be a “turnoff” for your veterinarian? If you’ve selected approaches one and four as successful ways for broaching the topic of Internet research with your vet, well done!  Give your dog a hug and yourself a pat on the back!

In the Internet, we have an extraordinary tool at our fingertips. I encourage you to be critical when choosing which Web sites you intend to take seriously and which ones you wish to visit for a good chuckle.  Approach conversations with your vet about your Internet research thoughtfully and tactfully. These strategies are bound to create a win-win-win situation- for you, your veterinarian and your beloved best buddy! 

Wishing you and your four-legged family members abundant good health,

Dr. Nancy Kay
Specialist, American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine 

Please visit http://www.speakingforspot.com to read excerpts from Speaking for Spot. There you will also find “Advocacy Aids”- helpful health forms you can download and use for your own dog, and a collection of published articles on advocating for your pet’s health. Speaking for Spot is available at Amazon.com, local bookstores, or your favorite online book seller. 

Order  a copy of Speaking for Spot personally signed by Dr. Kay – http://www.speakingforspot.com/purchase.html

Join our email list – http://speakingforspot.com/joinemaillist.html

Look for us on Twitter – http://twitter.com/speakingforspot

Become a Fan of Speaking for Spot on Facebook

Listen to Dr. Kay’s interview – A Veterinarian Advises “How to Speak for Spot” on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross

Google Web Alert for: “4R x T”

Google Blogs Alert for: “4R x T”

Google Web Alert for: “4R x T”

Regions of Spain – Tourism Project (October 2009)
Students will create a PowerPoint Preentation promoting a region of Spain as a tourist destination. After presentations, students will vote on the most interesting tourist destination.
Web link: http://www.red2000.com/spain/region/index.html

Elliott’s Elements
Students will research a chemical element to create an element tile, which will become part of a wall-sized Periodic Table.  Students will then create a PowerPoint project and present it to the class.

Web link includes assignment, rubrics and websites:    http://www.mwcsk12.org/library/elements.html

Volcano Poster Project
Students will research volcanoes to create a poster.

Web link includes assignment:
http://www.mwcsk12.org/library/volcanoes.html

When you or a loved one develops a medical issue, chances are you’ll be inclined to do some Internet research.  While I say, “More power to you!” other medical professionals might roll their eyes at the thought of “wasting” valuable time discussing potentially “whackadoodle” notions gleaned from cyberspace. 

Part one of “Everybody’s Gone Surfin” will teach you how to find instructive, accurate, worthwhile Internet information while avoiding “online junk food.”  Part two (coming soon to your home computer) will provide tools to assist you in comfortably discussing what you’ve learned online with your veterinarian, in a way that promotes collaborative discussion. By the way, although I’m a veterinarian teaching people how to better care for their furry and feathered family members, please know that this information also applies to your own health care. 

So, let’s begin.  How can you determine whether or not a Web site is dishing out information that is worthy of your time? Here are some general guidelines: 

1. Ask your veterinarian for her Web site recommendations.  She might wish to refer you to a specific site that will supplement or reinforce the information she has provided.
2. Veterinary college Web sites invariably provide reliable information.  Search for them by entering “veterinary college” or “veterinary school” after the name of the disease or symptom you are researching.
3. Web addresses ending in “.org,” “.edu,” and “.gov,” represent nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, and governmental agencies, respectively.  They will likely be sources of objective and accurate information.
4. If your dog has a breed-specific disease, pay a visit to the site hosted by that specific breed’s national organization.
5. Avoid business-sponsored Web sites that stand to make money when you believe and act on what they profess (especially if it involves purchasing something).
6. Be ever so wary of anecdotal information.  It’s perfectly okay to indulge yourself with remarkable tales (how Max’s skin disease was miraculously cured by a single session of aromatherapy; how global warming is the cause of hip dysplasia), but view what you are reading as fiction rather than fact.  As fascinating as these National Enquirer type stories may seem, please don’t let them significantly influence the choices you make for your dog.
7. I really love disease-specific online forums.  Check out those sponsored by Yahoo (http://groups.yahoo.com).  Not only do they provide a wealth of educational information, members can be a wonderful source of emotional support- always a good thing for those of us who share our homes and hearts with an animal.  If you are considering joining an online forum, I encourage you to look for a group that focuses on a specific disease (kidney failure, diabetes, etc), has lots of members, and has been around for several years.  For example, an excellent Yahoo group K9KidneyDiet (addresses issues pertaining to dogs with kidney failure) has 3,391 members and has been up and running for eight years.  A large group such as this typically has multiple moderators who provide more than one point of view (always a good thing) and greater round-the-clock availability for advice and support.  Look for presentation of cited references (clinical research that supports what is being recommended). Such groups should have a homepage that explains the focus of the group and provides the number of members and posts per month (the more the better).  They may have public archives of previous posts that can provide a wealth of information.

 Listed below are three Web sites that discuss Addison’s disease (an illness that can affect dogs and people- John F. Kennedy was diagnosed with Addison’s disease).  Now that you are an expert on evaluating Web sites, here is a little test of your skills.  Which one of these three sites is worthy of your time and attention? Have a look and let me know what you think! 

1. http://addisonsdiseasebreakthroughs.com
2. www.addisondogs.com
3. http://www.natural-dog-health-remedies.com/addisons-disease-in-dogs.html 

Keep an eye out for Part Two of “Everybody’s Gone Surfin” in which I will give you some tools for comfortably and effectively broaching the subject of your Internet research with your veterinarian! 

Wishing you and your four-legged family members abundant good health,

Dr. Nancy Kay
Specialist, American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine 

Please visit http://www.speakingforspot.com to read excerpts from Speaking for Spot. There you will also find “Advocacy Aids”- helpful health forms you can download and use for your own dog, and a collection of published articles on advocating for your pet’s health. Speaking for Spot is available at Amazon.com, local bookstores, or your favorite online book seller. 

Order  a copy of Speaking for Spot personally signed by Dr. Kay – http://www.speakingforspot.com/purchase.html

Join our email list – http://speakingforspot.com/joinemaillist.html

Look for us on Twitter – http://twitter.com/speakingforspot

Become a Fan of Speaking for Spot on Facebook

Listen to Dr. Kay’s interview – A Veterinarian Advises “How to Speak for Spot” on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross

Maybe some of you have heard of The Web Bot Project, but for those of you who have not, it’s quite intriguing. The Web Bot Project, developed in the late 1990’s, was created to assist in making stock market predictions.

The technology uses a system of spiders to crawl the Internet and search for keywords, much like a search engine does. When a keyword is located, the bot program takes a snapshot of the text preceding and following the keyword. This snapshot of text is sent to a central location where it is then filtered to define meaning.

The project’s concept is aimed at tapping into the collective unconscious of the universe and it’s inhabitants. As well, there is an interesting time concept involved and an unusual concept of a “tipping point” regarding the past, current, and future times.

You see, this goes a bit deeper than simply viewing what those of us on the Internet are saying.

In 2001, the bot operators began to notice that stock market predictions were not the only matters being accurately predicted by the program and they began to take notice of the coincidence with occurrences and explored it further.

One of the First Accurate Predictions From the Web Bot Program Took Place in June of 2001

At that time, the program predicted that a life altering event would take place within the next 60-90 days. An occurrence of such proportion that it’s effects would be felt worldwide. The program based it’s prediction on its filtered web chatter content which, I guess you could say, ultimately represents the collective unconscious of society.

Regrettably, the program’s prediction proved accurate and the Twin Towers fell on 9/11/2001.

This is where it starts to become interesting. The bot program also predicts a worldwide calamity taking place in the year 2012. For those of you who study astrology, prophecies, and the like, you may already be familiar with this date. Read the hold article here: Web Bot Project 2012 .

Internet Research 11.0 – Sustainability, Participation, Action

The 11th Annual International and Interdisciplinary Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR)

October 21-23, 2010 University of Gothenburg/Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden

The challenge of this conference is to find multiple avenues for participation and action towards a sustainable future. In a society increasingly aware of social and ecological imbalance, many people now see information and communication technologies as key technologies for solving problems associated with an unsustainable future. However, while information technology may solve some problems, it can magnify others. As pointed out by world forums such as the United Nations and the European Commission, use of ICTs contributes to the unsustainable consumption of energy and resources. Similarly, unequal access and exploitative practices remind us that IT is not a utopian answer to complex social problems. A sustainable future is not only about greening processes and products at any cost, but also entails social responsibility, cultural protection and economic growth. Therefore the conference has a multi-dimensional focus, where the Internet is seen as a possible liberating, empowering and greening tool.

The conference will focus on how the Internet can function as a conduit for the development of greater global equality and understanding, a training ground for participation in debates and cross-cultural projects and a tool for mutual action; in short a technology of empowerment. The flip-side of the internet as a tool for empowerment is the issue of exploitation. Exploitation of resources and people is what has led to the current crisis, and issues of exploitation are highly relevant online, from abuse of the commons to censorship, fraud and loss of privacy and the protection of the rights of the individual.

Sustainability, Participation, Action invites scholars to consider issues concerning empowerment and/or exploitation in relation to the Internet. We ask scholars to specifically consider issues concerning integrity, knowledge production, and ethics in relation to the Internet and sustainable development. How do we, as Internet researchers, regard our work in relation to the unsustainable current situation and the possibilities of a sustainable future? How far can we take the Internet, and with it, people, individuals, groups and societies in order to create an arena for participation and action, all key elements in imagining a sustainable future? How can we apply previous knowledge to serve future solutions?

To this end, we call for papers, panel proposals, and presentations from any discipline, methodology, and community, and from conjunctions of multiple disciplines, methodologies and academic communities that address the conference themes, including papers that intersect and/or interconnect the following:

• Internet and an equal and balanced society
• Internet as an arena for participation
• Internet as a tool and arena for action
• Internet and an informed knowledge society
• Internet and a green society
• Internet and e‐commerce, dematerialization and transportation
• Internet and security, integrity and surveillance
• Internet and a healthy society
• Internet as an arena for cultural expressions, and source of a culture of its own.

Sessions at the conference will be established that specifically address the conference themes, and we welcome innovative, exciting, and unexpected takes on those themes. We also welcome submissions on topics that address social, cultural, political, legal, aesthetic, economic, and/or philosophical aspects of the Internet beyond the conference themes. In all cases, we welcome disciplinary and interdisciplinary submissions as well as international collaborations from both AoIR and non‐AoIR members.

SUBMISSIONS
We seek proposals for several different kinds of contributions. We welcome proposals for traditional academic conference PAPERS and we also welcome proposals for ROUNDTABLE SESSIONS that will focus on discussion and interaction among conference delegates, as well as organized PANEL PROPOSALS that present a coherent group of papers on a single theme.

DEADLINES
Call for Papers Released: 24 November 2009
Submissions Due: 21 February 2010
Notification: 21 April 2010
Full papers due: 21 August 2010

Further details on http://aoir.org/

Sustainability is becoming an ever broader notion, and rightly so, I think. In line with this week’s United Nation Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen here also the link to CNN’s debate on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/cop15 and the leaked document available on Scribd, also known as Danish Text, that caused some stir http://www.scribd.com/doc/23859562/copenhagen-danish-text. (The Adoption of the Copenhagen Agreement Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change). Related sites: Copenhagen Climate Council and the Cop15 conference site which allows you to forward your message.

Google Blogs Alert for: “4R x T”

The Doomsday Key by James Rollins « 4R x T
By Elizabeth
4RxT: Results of Google Alerts Test 11-30-09 – Google Blogs Alert for: “4R x T” The Sword of the Templars by Pa… http://ow.ly/166nrY 3 days ago; 4RxT: links for 2009-12-02 – TwHistory Here at TwHistory we feel [Twitter] can be a novel …
4R x T – http://4rxt.wordpress.com/

In a comment to a previous post of mine on the Internet and cultural diversity, Lusine has asked for some bibliographic references that may help her with an essay on this topic. I’m a bit short of time at the moment, so here’s just a preliminary – and very tentative – list of readings to get a conversation going (as always, further suggested readings most welcome):

Anderson, Chris (2006). The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More. New York: Hyperion

From the author’s blog: ”The theory of the Long Tail is that our culture and economy is increasingly shifting away from a focus on a relatively small number of “hits” (mainstream products and markets) at the head of the demand curve and toward a huge number of niches in the tail. As the costs of production and distribution fall, especially online, there is now less need to lump products and consumers into one-size-fits-all containers. In an era without the constraints of physical shelf space and other bottlenecks of distribution, narrowly-targeted goods and services can be as economically attractive as mainstream fare. One example of this is the theory’s prediction that demand for products not available in traditional bricks and mortar stores is potentially as big as for those that are. But the same is true for video not available on broadcast TV on any given day, and songs not played on radio. In other words, the potential aggregate size of the many small markets in goods that don’t individually sell well enough for traditional retail and broadcast distribution may someday rival that of the existing large market in goods that do cross that economic bar.”

Aunger R (2002) The Electric Meme: A New Theory of How We Think. New York, NY : The Free Press.

Aunger calls for a rethink of our received ideas about social transmission. Over the course of human cultural evolution, he proposes, memes evolved the capability of spreading from one brain to another by means of signals. Because signals are merely ‘air-pressure fluctuations or series of photons’ (p. 237) they cannot carry memes along with them. Instead, they are ‘rabble-rousers’ that operate on other brains not through construction but rather by instigating conversion from one state to another using local materials. This entails micro-changes at neuronal levels, e.g. by flipping a neuron from state A to state B. In a nutshell, while the idea of a car may well be a meme, the spoken word ‘car’ is a signal. With the development of modern media technologies such as books and computers, memes have found indirect yet powerful new channels of distribution. These artefacts have co-evolved with memes by providing the latter with catalytic signals that allow them to be recreated within brains that may be far removed in time and/or space. See J. Postill review here.

Boellstorff, T. (2008) Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

For the author, the 3D virtual world Second Life (SL) is not a simulation; it may approximate aspects of reality for purposes of immersion, but it does not seek to replicate the actual world. SL is not a social network comparable to Facebook or MySpace – it is a place. SL is not a posthuman world; in fact, it makes us more human. SL is not a sensational new world of virtual Californication, virtual money that can be exchanged for real money, etc; more often than not it is place where everyday banal forms of interaction take place. SL  does not herald the advent of a Virtual Age that will sweep aside the actual but an Age of Techne with continuities as well as changes with what came before. Humans have always crafted themselves through culture (homo faber). What is truly unique about SL and other virtual worlds is that they allow the emergence of homo cybers, humans who can craft and recraft new worlds of sociality in a virtual ‘third place’. In SL you can find friends and lovers, attend weddings, buy and sell property: you cannot do that inside a TV programme or a novel. This is why an ethnographic and holistic approach adopted in this study has worked so well, because virtual worlds are ‘robust locations for culture’, locations that are bounded but at the same time porous.

Bräuchler, B. (2005) Cyberidentities at War: Der Molukkenkonflikt im Internet. Bielefeld: transcript.

From an Ethnos review by J. Postill: “One central area of analysis is the question of online identity formation [...]. Bräuchler is particularly interested in processes of online identity formation and community building (Vergemeinschaftungsprozesse). She demonstrates empirically that such processes are far from homogeneous, as they will vary greatly depending on the specific Internet technologies being used (MUDs, IRCs, web forums, etc) and the socio-political context. She rightly stresses, however, a fundamental difference between individual and collective identity projects. Whilst the online identity performances celebrated by postmodern theorists in the 1990s allowed individuals much room for playful experimentation, the online collective identities sought by Moluccan activists were strongly constrained by their subordination to political and military imperatives. In wartime, playfully ambiguous identities are not in high demand.”

Chevalier, S. (1998). “From woollen carpet to grass carpet: bridging house and garden in an English suburb“. Material Cultures: Why Some Things Matter. London: University College Press.

Provides material culture evidence for the distinctiveness of  national cultures in two long-established European states: “Nature in appropriated by transformation: in France and Britain, the externalities of temporalities and mediations are different. The differences between the kitchen and the garden follows the differences between lineage and couple. Lineage is embodied in the use of land in France, by contrast to the short-term use of land by British couples. The French express couple-relations and affections through cooking, the British through gardening (as a continuation of home decoration)” (1998: 67)

Diamond, J. (1997)  Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. W.W. Norton & Company.

Jared Diamond has been under such fierce cricitism in recent years (particularly at the hands of anthropologists) that it is easy to overlook the crucial point made in this book: the urgent need for anthropologists and human scientists to attend to the geographical and environmental dimensions of cultural differentiation over long historical periods. Wrongly accused of geographical determinism, Diamond in fact argues that geography affords (it does not determine) certain cultural innovations but not others. For example, Australia afforded its early human settlers – known today as Aborigines – ample land but no domesticable plant or animal species. The first domesticated species were introduced by European settlers who in turn had acquired theirs millennia earlier from West Asian immigrants.  

Hallin, D. C. (2005) Field theory, differentiation theory, and comparative media research. In Benson and Neveu (eds) in Bourdieu and the Journalistic Field. Cambridge: Polity.  

Differentiation theory – a fundamental approach to the history of media production – has a number of limitations, esp. ‘the assumption of a universal trend toward greater differentation’. Bourdieu’s field theory is more helpful here, for it does not assume ‘whether media move over time toward differentiation or de-differentiation’ (2005: 240-241). (See tree-like model of cultural evolution in Mace et al 2005, this blog entry).

Hine, Christine (2000), Virtual Ethnography, London: Sage.

Hine suggests that in cultural terms we can understand the Internet in two different ways: (1) as culture, (2) as cultural artefact. The first approach focusses on studying the construction of bounded ‘online communities’ in their own right. This largely ethnographic endeavour was an improvement with regards to early ‘reduced social cues’ models of computer-mediated communication (CMC) studies, but it tended to overstress the separateness of online worlds from everyday offline contexts. The second approach – the Internet as a cultural artefact – treats the Internet as being thoroughly social, a product of the struggles and negotations of variously positioned social agents.

Kelty, C. (2008) Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.

Free Software (FS) is all about practices, not goals or ideologies. This book is on cultural significance of FS. By studying FS and its modulations (appropriations in other fields) we can understand better wider issues like porn, stock quotes, Wikipedia. Kelty introduces term ‘recursive public’ = specific kind of C21 public sphere or commons where geeks modify and maintain the very technological conditions (infrastructure) of their own terms of discourse and existence. FS not just about software, it is part of ongoing global reorientation of power/knowledge. Three main contributions of this book are empirical (geeks caught ‘figuring out’ things), methodological (ethnographic + archival) and theoretical (recursive public vs. Habermas, Taylor, etc.).

Mace, R., Holden C., Shennan, S. (2005) The evolution of cultural diversity: a phylogenetic approach. Walnut Creek, CA:  Left Coast Press.

Contributors use a Darwinian approach to explain the rich cultural diversity found within the human species from prehistoric times to the present. They explore the idea that cultural diversification may be tree-like, i.e. phylogenetic, e.g. material as well as non-material culture is inherited by descendants, languages are hierarchically related, etc. On the other hand, in other respects, they add, cultural evolution is not tree-like: cultural inheritance can be vertical, horizontal and oblique; there is plenty of cultural borrowing about; etc.

Miller, Daniel & Slater, Don (2000) The Internet : an ethnographic approach. Oxford: Berg.

Based on short-term fieldwork in Trinidad where Miller had previously done research. Authors argue against 1980s notion of ‘cyberspace’ as a placeless realm. Instead they locate Internet practices in their everyday contexts. They do not subscribe to the ethnographic notion of ‘appropriation’ though: Trinidadians are not merely ‘appropriating’ an alien technology – they are active co-producers of new social technologies and practices as members of our common global society (albeit non-metropolitan). The Internet is a true Trini phenomenon, as Trini as calypso and TV soaps. My response: there is no diffusion without appropriation (and vice versa).

Postill, J. (2008) Localizing the internet beyond communities and networks. New Media and Society 10 (3), 413-431,

Internet Studies has so far relied too heavily on the etwined notions of ‘community’ and ‘network’. We need to broaden our conceptual lexicon to capture some of the rich diversity of Internet-related social formations and practices that we find on the ground, not least at the level of neighbourhoods and localities.

Postill, J (in press, Jan 2010) Researching the Internet, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

A review of four recent anthropological studies of the Internet (Boellstorff 2008, Hinkelbein 2008, Kelty 2008, Roig 2008; search through this blog for details). Considered together, these studies suggest that the Internet is becoming ever more (sub)culturally diversified and that no ‘network logic’ (or totalising logic of another kind) is at work.

Postill, J. (forthcoming) Localizing the Internet. Oxford: Berghahn.

An extended version of the argument put forth in Postill (2008) that draws from anthropological fieldwork among Internet activists and other local agents in Subang Jaya, a middle-class suburb of Kuala Lumpur.

Rogers, R. (2009) The End of the Virtual: Digital Methods. Amsterdam: Vossiuspers UvA.

The Web epistemologist Richard Rogers asks how we may rethink Web user studies were we to turn to data routinely collected by software, e.g. by Google. Web has become increasingly ‘grounded’ throughout this decade, e.g. IP-to-geo technology allows France to channel content along national lines: when you type ‘google.com’ into a browser in France you are now returned to google.fr by default. Granted that we’ve moved beyond the 1980s idea of a placeless ‘cyberspace’ and towards more fruitful ethnographic methods, we now need to ‘follow the medium’ and adopt more Web-specific methods that take seriously Web objects such as tags and links. ‘Web epistemology, among other things, is the study of how these natively digital objects are handled by devices’ (2009: 29).

Shirky, C. (2008). Here comes everybody: The power of organizing without organizations. New York: Penguin Press.

From Wikipedia: ”In the book, Shirky recounts how social tools such as a blogging software like WordPress and Twitter, file sharing platforms like Flickr, and online collaboration platforms like Wikipedia support group conversation and group action in a way that previously could only be achieved through institutions. In the same way the printing press increased individual expression, and the telephone increased communications between individuals, Shirky argues that with the advent of online social tools, groups can form without the previous restrictions of time and cost. Shirky observes that every, ‘institution lives in a kind of contradiction: it exists to take advantage of group effort, but some of its resources are drained away by directing that effort. Call this the institutional dilemma–because an institution expends resources to manage resources, there is a gap between what those institutions are capable of in theory and in practice, and the larger the institution, the greater those costs.’^[3] Online social tools, Shirky argues, allows groups to form around activities ‘whose costs are higher than the potential value,’^[4] for institutions. Shirky further argues that the successful creation of a online groups relies on successful fusion of a, ‘plausible promise, an effective tool, and an acceptable bargain for the user.’^[5] However, Shirky warns that this system should not be interpreted as a recipe for the successful use of social tools as the interaction between the components is too complex.”

Sperber, Dan. 1996 Explaining culture : a naturalistic approach. Oxford: Blackwell.

Sperber outlines a new theoretical and empirical programme: the study of culture from an epidemiological perspective. Steering clear of the problematic notion of ‘memes’, he seeks to conceptualise cultural representations (anything that stands for something else: a text, a play, a picture) and what makes the evolved human mind predisposed towards acquiring and transforming certain representations and not others. As far as I know, this programme has yet to find its way into Internet Studies.

Tuzin, Donald. (2001) Social Complexity in the Making: A case study among the Arapesh of New Guinea. Routledge.

The history and evolution of Ilahita, a village in New Guinea. Riveting story of how Ilahita came to get so big, and the organisation innovations that evolved to counter schismogenic forces.

Outside research doesn’t help a juror’s cause in Maryland: in a quest for understanding, a juror consulted Wikipedia about two medical terms that may have swayed the juror’s decision to convict a homeless man of murder. Consequently, the Maryland Court of Appeals overturned the conviction and life sentence. The case, Allan Jake Clark v. State of Maryland, was reported in yesterday’s issue of the Maryland Daily Record. According to reporter Steven Lash,

the juror’s Wikipedia search denied Allan Jake Clark a fair trial because “the right to an impartial jury embraces the right to have the case decided exclusively on the evidence that is produced in open court,” the Court of Special Appeals held in an unreported opinion.

Thus, Anne Arundel Circuit Court Judge Paul F. Harris Jr was wrong not to have declared a mistrial upon discovering that juror Alfred Rudolph Schuler had looked up the terms “livor mortis” and “algor mortis” on Wikipedia, an online reference site, and printed out the pages, the appellate court stated in its 3-0 decision.

The reasoning behind the reversal is not news to attorneys: consulting any information outside that presented in the course of the trial is potentially prejudicial and grounds for mistrial. What is interesting is that jurors — and people in general — think nothing of turning to the internet for answers to any question, including the meaning of scientific and medical terms like “livor mortis” and “algor mortis.” Juror Alfred Rudolph Shuler didn’t even consider his actions to be outside research: the article refers to Shuler’s explanation of his activities – ““I did go to Wikipedia and I looked up the meaning of ‘lividity,’” Schuler told his questioners, referring to the general term for blood flow after death. “To me that wasn’t research. It was a definition.”” The trial court permitted the case to continue after discovering printed copies of the Wikipedia entry, thereby muddying the grounds for the conviction.

This wasn’t the first time this year a Maryland court considered this issue. In May, the appellate court overturned a conviction in Wardlaw v. State because a juror had looked up the term “oppositional defiant disorder.”

Researching information on the internet has become second nature to many, to the point where looking up arcane bits of specialized information on Wikipedia, Google, Bing or any other virtual resource is like checking the traffic report on the radio. We are truly in the Information Age, where everyone can become a scholar. All the more reason to apply care in choosing the resources to consult and demanding that those resources be accurate.

Google Blogs Alert for: “4R x T”

Google Web Alert for: “4R x T”

Where in the world is Phil Agre? That’s one of the questions posed by NPR in a post on the strange disappearance of the noted information studies professor and Internet researcher. Last month, the Chronicle for Higher Education reported that Agre’s sister filed a missing persons report that was dated Oct. 28th, but there has been no word on Agre’s whereabouts.

Agre founded and published the Red Rock Eaters News Service, a popular mailing list that dates back to the 1990s in which he often wrote about Internet policies. And as NPR notes, he also published a guide to how to use social networks to build relationships.

Agre’s missing person report states that he “abandoned his apartment and his job” several months ago and that he suffers from manic depression. Friends, family and colleagues of Agre are turning to the very Internet-based tools that he championed to establish his whereabouts. UCLA colleagues have put up a web page, and there is a Google Group for organizing volunteer search efforts. You can also find a Facebook page dedicated to the search effort here.

The Internet is increasingly the medium used to gather, share and spread information. For this reason the Internet is not only interesting to be researched on his own; it can be also considered as a valuable source for researching society in general. As a matter of fact the Internet shows a reflected image of the society using it.

The most used access points to the big amount of online information are search engines; at present Google is the most prominent. In general, Google’s aim is to display results that are relevant to the user[1]. For this reason Google constantly improves his algorythm and makes use of users data to improve the ranking system and customize results.

Google.com has also local domains in many countries (Google.it, Google.fr, etc.). The results of a search are in most cases different from country to country, partly because a local language is used for the search[2].

We (my colleagues and I) were interested in how different countries (consequently different societies) deal with racism. Also we aim to verify if the results that we obtain by researching racism on Google correspond with the general notions that we already have about a specific country.

Method of research

To research how different country deal with racism on Google, we decided to focus on images. Images are a very direct form of information because they require less knowledge and less concentration than written text. Furthermore, images are very often related to written content that clarifies the intentions of the publisher. In our research the written content is also taken into account to clarify the image. As a matter of fact, images contain very complex and stratified information, can refer to different facts, might stand for different opinions and can be ambiguous. This is also the reason why they can be a very rich source of information, but this is also the reason why the specific context of the image has to be analyzed together with the image to determine.

We have selected four countries. Two countries deal at present time with immigration (Italy) and vaste and very strong immigrants communities (USA), two deal with massive emigration (Mexico and China). The choice of countries that systematically deal with racism in society due to their specific situation is also aimed to make a direct comparison between the results we obtain from Google Image research and the general characteristics of that country that we perceive from the mainstream media. The selection of these countries was also constrained by our language knowledge.

All these countries have a local Google domain. Two of them (Italy and China) use a language that is somewhat exclusive (or confined to that specific country). This peculiarity might imply a narrower relation between the results on Google and that specific country (more local sources). The other two (USA and Mexico) on the other hand, use the most spoken languages in the world (English and Spanish).

To avoid Wikipedia entries, definitions of racism and documents of the sort we used the term “racist” instead of “racism”. Furthermore, using this term Google might retrieve more about what is considered racist – including real facts and concrete examples, instead of abstract definitions.

Findings

I think that the Google results show very clear tendencies and by no means clash with the reality of the countries we analyzed. On the other hand, this conclusion is based on my personal perception, or at least on my interpretation of the data, that is influenced by my cultural background and filtered by the information sources I used.

According to the results that we found on Google Images the USA seem to relate racism directly with black people (and – in smaller proportion, to Chinese and Jewish people). Nevertheless, discussions on racism are very often related to older stereotypes and – although still very present, it seems to become increasingly confused with bad jokes. Debates are very often concentrated on media products that embody this ambiguity.

Results on the Mexican Google Images show a more illustrative, detached, funny approach to the subject. Almost half of the images consist of more or less funny drawings, romantic photographs of mixed couples and symbolic images against racism. Very few illustrate actuality facts; these images often refer to racist acts against South-American emigrants living in countries where the spoken language is Spanish.

China has a 100% anti-racist face, according to Google images. The country has a strong position against racism, and strives against racism locally and in an internationalized context. When the issue is local (especially against black people) there are no actual facts represented in the images. Most images are illustrations, slogans, campaign posters. On the contrary, when the image refers to racism outside the Chinese national context, it mostly describes an actual fact, a concrete example of racism. The Google results show some images (and related articles) about racism against Chinese people who live i other countries. Not surprisingly, this is something that China has in common with Mexico.

Italian results for the term “racist” sketch a strongly xenophobic society and diffused violence against immigrants. A great portion of the images represents actual facts that are related to violence and earnest discrimination episodes against immigrants, mostly Roms and African people. Some of the images show political posters with xenophobic slogans, and are related to articles about xenophobic laws that have been introduced in different municipalities (such as the interdiction of cous cous consumption in Lucca, Italy). Four images lead to neo-fascist websites or blogposts containing xenophobe and sometimes very violent statements. This figure seems to match with the recent classification of Italy as a racist and xenophobe country by Amnesty International and the diffused concerns about the recently introduced immigration policies of the Italian government.

To conclude, I think that Google confirmed our previous knowledge of the examined countries in general, and aroused new discussion on the topic where the found images were particularly controversial. There s a clear difference in the approach to racism by countries that deal with immigrants (Italy and the USA), and countries that deal more with emigration (China and Mexico). Furthermore, the radically differences in approach of USA and Italy shown by Google Images results are undoubtedly verifiable and could be related to the different historical background of the two countries.

[2] Weltevrede, E. et al. The Nationality of Issues: Repurposing Google for Internet Research. Unpublished Paper. Digital Methods Initiative, summer school 2009

Google Blogs Alert for: “4R x T”

Google Web Alert for: “4R x T”

In this era of the world wide web, consumers have access to unlimited information at their fingertips.  Today’s buyers are web savvy, know what they want, and where to find it. If you don’t show up in their search, they won’t know that you exist!! 

So, what’s all this fuss about Online Marketing?  How can it help your business?  In today’s competitive market, an essential ingredient to a business owner’s marketing strategy is a strong web presence and online marketing.  The internet has created a paradigm shift in the marketing world. Business owners must exploit the features, capabilities and opportunities of online marketing to meet these ever-increasing customer demands.

In with the new…out with the old!!

Flyers, postcards, brochures, direct mail are fast becoming a thing of the past…Websites, emails, social media, newsletters, blogs are the new marketing buzzwords.  The new medium of choice is Online Marketing for obvious reasons:

• Online Marketing strategies are highly affordable and offer a much higher Return on Investment. 
• Online Marketing has expansive reach to customers in geographies of your choice
• Online Marketing allows you to keep up with changing demands and trends with rapid response rates
• Online Marketing allows measurement and tracking for instant feedback on marketing performance with the ability to adjust and improve
• Last but not least, Online Marketing enables customers who are looking for your kind of services to come to you!

The business world is slowly but surely moving away from traditional marketing and stepping into this era of interactive marketing – Don’t be left behind!!!

For more information about Online Marketing or Internet Research, please visit us at www.intellmarketing.com.  Intell Marketing, LLC is a full service provider of Internet Research and Online Marketing solutions including Website Design, Search Engine Optimization, Email Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Competitive Intelligence and Market Research.  Email us at info@intellmarketing.com or call us at 248-893-7693 for a Free Consultation.

Pythons - by Benjamin

In a recent Foss science unit, a third grade class was learning about the structures of life. The teacher wanted her students to be able to focus on a specific animal and learn about the following things: Physical Traits, babies, habitat, food, behaviors/interactions and anything that “wow’d” the student about their animal. What made this project different from other animal research projects is that the students could only choose their animals from a list of “animals with a bad rep.” This included animals like anacondas, sharks, cockroaches, human bot flies, killer bees, wasps, bats, and naked mole rats, just to name a few. In order to speed the project along, the teacher pre-selected a couple dozen websites which I dropped in a network folder that the students have access to.

Sharks - by Nicholas

After gathering all of the information, I had the students begin an Inspiration diagram about their animal. The diagram had three levels: The main topic (the animal); the research category (physical traits, habitats, etc.); and the information that the students found.  After all the information was entered (the rapid fire feature in Inspiration makes this step go quickly), the students were then instructed on how to arrange their diagrams to better display their findings in a hierarchal way.

Watch this video to see how rapid fire works.

Monkeys - by Ellen

The open-endedness of this project made differentiation effortless.  Some students were able to get their research organized with a few facts and display it in an organized way. There were others who listed over 30 facts on their given animal, and then went on to change the font, create new line colors, add new shapes, and insert pictures.

Here is the list of websites used in this project:
ANIMAL Websites

Google Scholar has added a free database to its site allowing one to search case law.  Be Spacific has more information.

Google Web Alert for: “4R x T”