a dumping ground for stuff and things. mostly titbits of social psychology, internet research, links and photos.
the name comes from a (broken) shop sign on a chaotic, disorganised palace of stuff and things in leamington spa, england, a town smack in the centre of the country where i lived for two years.
i also have a tumblog documenting the primary sources i use to research the book that's evolved from my 2010-2011 column for the observer new review, called untangling the web, and one for the serendipity engine, a personal research project.
more structured thoughts at alekskrotoski.com.
in pieces, warrior-style, on the back of a crocodile
(Source: elephantjournal.com)
Psychology, because it deals with much that is subjective and unmeasurable yet tries to be systematic and logical, occupies an uncomfortable no man’s land between art and science.
I *am* in the far north of Scotland after all…
Actual Bio Tech: Institute for Augmented Ecology. Brilliance.
via @moongolfer
Computer Science is a liberal art.
Betsy Masiello, Privacy Policy Advisor at Google and Fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center, on “to learn how the Internet works is to learn civics”.
Another juicy quote:
To appreciate the mechanisms through which information can be exchanged and manipulated is to appreciate the mechanisms through which people are able to organize and communicate.
from The Guardian
Zhu, J.J.H and He, Z. (2002). Information Accessibility, User Sophistication, and Source Credibility: The Impact of the Internet on Value Orientations in Mainland China. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Vol 7(2).
full text.
abstract:
The Internet has penetrated China at a rapid rate. However, there exist a wide range of constraining forces, such as governmental control, inadequate infrastructure, economic affordability, cultural perceptions, and language barriers. This paper tests the impact of access to the Internet and other sources of information, perceived credibility of the Internet and conventional media, and cognitive sophistication of Chinese audiences on the choice of rival value orientations such as Communism, Materialism, and Post-materialism. The data come from a survey of 2,600 adults in Beijing and Guangzhou in November-December 2000. Multinomial logistic regression analyses show that perceived credibility of the Internet, cognitive sophistication, and access to Hong Kong-based television have a significant impact on the preference for particular value orientations. Analysis of the sub-sample of Internet users further reveals the importance of participation in online chatting. The findings bear important implications for the role of the Internet in the political development of transitional societies.
I wonder how much have things changed (in China, understanding so-called “value orientations”, in impact of web content (due to increase in consumption?)) in the decade since this paper was published?
Interesting to compare in light of recent work by Bill Dutton, Soumitra Dutta and Ginette Law at the Oxford Internet Institute and INSEAD.
Also: it is compelling to essentialise “value orientations” based on cultural orientation. Prof Richard E Nisbett does so in The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently - and Why.
Software systems that have been proven to operate efficiently within one culture can fail in the context of the other, especially if they are intended to support rich social interactions….The social interactions reflect the traditional Chinese idea of guanxi, or interpersonal influence and connectedness, while at the same time incorporating the norms of a new generation of Internet users.
Yang, J., Ackerman, M. S., Adamic, L. A. (2011). Virtual gifts and guanxi: supporting social exchange in a Chinese online community. In CSCW: Proceedings of the ACM 2011 conference on computer-supported cooperative work, New York.
(pdf)
A case study of how cultural values and practices are incorporated into the functions and mechanics of technologies.
Relevant background research for last Friday’s Culture Show film about the effects of the next billion users of the web.
A quote:
…in order to successfully localize, such services need not only adequately navigate the current Chinese economic and political landscape, but also need to account for the deeply rooted Chinese culture.
Nice exploration of the meanings of guanxi (or, relationships), renqing (or, human relationships) within Chinese culture.
Also:
In inter-cultural sociology and cultural psychology, Westerners and East Asians are often categorized as belonging to two differing groups. In terms of this literature, Westerners tend to be labeled as more analytic while East Asians tend to be more holistic; and thus, Westerners are context-independent, more narrowly focused, and use formal logic, while East Asians are field dependent, broadly focused, situational, and dialectical [16] [25]. In terms of social orientation, Western cultures tend to value independence, individualism, autonomy, and selfachievement [8]; in contrast, Asian cultures emphasize interdependence, harmony, relatedness, and connection [7, 21, 23]. Cultures of independent-orientation tend to view the self as bounded and separate from others, while interdependent-orientated cultures view the self as interconnected and encompassing important social relationships [15]. Thus Asian cultures are “characterized by belonging, mandating the fulfillment of obligations and responsibilities to others” [6].
[for footnotes/references, see pdf]
Although such black-white categorisations are easy to parse, I am aware that there are more nuanced relationships and crossovers between the cultures, and conversations I’ve been having suggest that the differences are blurring.
(Source: dl.acm.org)
