Computer-Mediated
Communication
Introductions, terminology, & taxonomy
Coye Cheshire & Andrew Fiore
//
17 January 2012
Your instructors…
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Theoretical perspectives
Psychology
Sociology
Communication
HCI
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Social cognition, interpersonal
perception, attraction
Group dynamics, social structure,
community, reputation, trust
Mediation, signaling, media
richness
Interfaces for social interaction
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The basic stuff: readings, website, etc…
Office hours:
305A South Hall
Wednesday 1:30 to 2:30 pm
Course reader — for what’s not online
At Copy Central (2560 Bancroft at Telegraph)
Class mailing list (directions on course
homepage)
i216@ischool.berkeley.edu
Web site — syllabus and readings (password)
http://courses.ischool.berkeley.edu/i216/s12/
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Your class…
 Who are you?
 Your Interest in ComputerMediated Communication?
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<cloudkid> what a…
<elvis> hi there
<madhatter> elvis…
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Computer-mediated
Virtual
communication? community?
Information and
Social
software? Communications
Technology?
TechnologyMediated Social
Participation?
Online interaction?
CMC…DC…SS…ICT…DITMSSC !
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AIR-L mailing list debate
about “CMC”
Read Online:
http://courses.ischool.berkeley.edu/i216/s12/
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Computer-mediated
communication
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As you can see…even the title of
this course is up for debate.
(but now that we are in complete agreement/disagreement…
back to course logistics!)
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More logistics: Course format
 Lecture + open discussion
 With your class participation and
weekly reading task
 Several in-class activities: rapidprototyping design projects, inclass experiments…even
competitive tournaments!
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Weekly Reading Task: Reviews!
The goal: to highlight specific issues,
themes, contributions, and/or problems
from the readings.
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Weekly reviews
 Two short reviews required per week.
 “Short but informative.” Think of a good online review
(Yelp, Amazon.com, etc.). A few paragraphs is sufficient.
Be honest but be specific.
 Critique, explore, examine — no need to summarize.
 Due by 5pm every Tuesday. No Exceptions!
 Reviews are an important part of discussion. We will wrap
them into our lectures and slides.
 30% of your grade — can’t pass the class without them.
 Course password: ************
 This week: one review, due by Friday at 5 pm
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Weekly reading task examples
from the days of yore
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Assignments and final projects
 Problem and
justification statement
 Interim report
 Final project report
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Project ideas
 Your ideas will be
posted to a wiki
(more info coming)
 We will use these to
help you organize into
groups.
If you have a project idea already, keep
thinking about it and try to write up a few
sentences about your interests.
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Final projects from the
land before time…
long long ago…
 Two Examples
 Squash&Vine
 user assessment, site prototype
 Mediated Memory
 Theory and hypotheses, experimental design
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Final presentations and posters
Final presentations:
Wed, May 2nd!
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A brief overview of
course topics in no
particular order…
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Overview
Social Presentation
and Perception
Online Communities
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Overview (continued)
Visual interfaces,
information visualizations
and Media “Richness”
Collective Action,
Information “Pools” and
Collaborative Editing
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Overview (continued)
Reputation
Trust and Trustworthiness
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Overview (continued)
Privacy
Intimate Relationships
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Overview (continued)
Deception: Lies
and the lying
liars who lie!
CMC and Games
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Questions?
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The Early Beginnings of Computer-Mediated
Communication: The Virtual Community
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Web 2.0, circa 1985?
vs.
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Rheingold’s study:
An early online community
(Whole Earth ’Lectronic Link)
 At this time, geography still played an
important role because of BBSes (local
telephone access)
 Less use of pseudonyms (identity persistence)
 Less initial distrust
 Socioeconomic skew?
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What is an online/virtual community?
Social Spaces
Role-playing
Professional Groups
Work-related discussion groups
Medical and Illness support groups
Geographically related groups
Tech/Software Support
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Virtual communities are social
aggregations that emerge from the
Net when enough people carry on
those public discussions long
enough, with sufficient human
feeling, to form webs of personal
relationships in cyberspace.
Howard Rheingold, The Virtual Community
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Social networks
 NOT the same as “social networking”
sites!
 Accumulate capital (Smith) …
 Social network capital
 Knowledge capital
 Communion
 … through ties within
the network.
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Potential “to change our lives”
Rheingold (1995)
Political change
(aggregate social level)
Macro
Person-to-person interaction
(interpersonal interaction level)
Perception, thoughts, personalities
(individual level)
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Micro
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Critiquing how CMC
changes our lives
 That is, does CMC technology
change people? Change
society?
 Can we separate online
communication technologies
from those who create and
use them?
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Image Credit:
http://kristiriley.com/wpcontent/uploads/2010/02/12basics.L.jpg
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Activity-centered design: An ecological approach to
designing smart tools (Gay and Hembrooke 2004)
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Activity-centered design: An ecological approach to
designing smart tools (Gay and Hembrooke 2004)
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The Internet as “agora”?
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The Internet as Panopticon?
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Group activity: CMC technologies
 With your group, make a list of the CMC
technologies you use, have used, or know about.
 Consider the characteristics of each technology.
What differentiates them? How are they similar?
 Group the technologies in a way that makes
sense based on their qualities.
 Do they form coherent clusters?
 Can you identify consistent dimensions on which you
can arrange the technologies?
 What are the properties of the ones you enjoy the
most? Find the most useful?
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Mailing List:
i216@ischool.berkeley.edu
https://calmail.berkeley.edu/manage/list
/listinfo/i216@ischool.berkeley.edu
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For next Wednesday…
Social presentation, interpersonal perception, and deception
 Goffman, E. (1956) Chapter 1 from The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New
York: Doubleday. (In reader.)
 Donath, J. (1998) Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community. In Smith, M.,
and P. Kollock (Eds.)Communities in Cyberspace. London: Routledge.
 Donath, J. (2011) Signals, cues, and meaning (draft chapter). In Signals, Truth and
Design. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press (forthcoming).
 Hancock, J.T. (2007) Chapter 19: Digital deception: Why, when and how people lie
online. In Joinson, A., McKenna, K., Postmes, T., and U-D. Reips (Eds.) The
Oxford Handbook of Internet Psychology. Oxford, England: Oxford University
Press. (In reader.)
Write one review for this week
and the normal two for next week.
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