This week is all about social media - social networks and social communities. Until I read Dr. Howard's book (which is what I will focus on for this post to spare everyone my erratic thought process in jumping from book to book) I was with Buss and Strauss and their definition of online communities. I had no idea there was more to the story.
I have been playing WoW for two or three years now. Starting to play was not my idea and I was forced against my own volition to play. I thought, "Now why do I need to waste my time with some silly game!?" Once I started playing, though, I started making "friends" and I was invited to do things within the game with them. Soon people were counting on me to be in the game at a certain time and I was relying on them to be there too. We had agreed to meet and work toward a common goal. To make a long story short, after playing for just a few years, I have to admit that there is one player I communicate with outside of WoW who knows my real name and what I look like. She and I are "friends" on facebook and she and I text and call each other every once in a while when we haven't been able to catch each other on WoW.
I tell you this story because, 1) I am amazed to find out that people research this and 2) I think this is more evidence of Dr. Howard's point that the connections in online communities versus online networks is much stronger. As Dr. Howard puts it, "in communities, however, the secondary connections are far stronger. Communities aren't just a collection of individuals; instead, members have made a commitment to achieve the shared passions and goals of the group" (16). I think this can also be said of our small network of blogs here. We are not the "normal" bloggers out there writing, hoping (or sometimes not hoping, just writing for the sake of writing) someone will "follow" us because they find us interesting, funny, witty, or whatever they are looking for. Our small network of blogs is a community because we are here to 1) share ideas, 2) cooperate in the learning process and help each other grow from our readings and our [now] shared experiences, and 3) because our collective action (our syllabus) mandates that this is the appropriate outlet for such discussion.
Let me further explain; as Dr. Howard explains in his section on sharing, "it requires the least amount of organizational complexity" (17). Thus, by posting our thoughts, we are sharing with each. It is quite a simple task. It is not a far leap for me to make that claim. The second "rung" in Shirkey's proverbial ladder (I know, I said I'd focus on Dr. Howard's book for this post to save you from mental red-rover with the two readings, but at this point they are both discussing similar ideas, so it is hard no to red-rover...however, I will keep pages numbers and quotations limited to Dr. Howard's book to avoid confusion) is cooperation. Cooperation, according to Dr. Howard, is more complex and requires more effort than mere sharing (18-19). This concept essentially requires a dialogue of sorts. The dialogue for our blogs is simple. Once we've each posted our thoughts, we go around to everyone else's blog and read their thoughts and comments on them. Thus the conversation (and cooperation) continues. The third piece of this puzzle is the most complex of the three: collective action (19-20). This is the puzzle piece that goes on the very inside of the puzzle but you can't figure out where until you pull out the directions. The puzzle directions in this case refer to our class syllabus where our policies and agreements are stated. This lets us know where and when to respond to our readings (on our blogs, by Monday night).
That being said, I think I've made it clear that I see online communities as special places for collaboration. I focused on this small section of Dr. Howard's book because it was the most resonant for me; as much as I love computers and social media, I have no intention of attempting to create a social network or social community any time in the near (or far) future so, although chapter three was interesting, it was not something I could relate to on a personal note whereas I have experience with the information in chapter two (who doesn't, in this day and age?) and thus wanted to write about that. After all, this blog is about how we apply these readings to our lives (and vice versa), right?
By the way, I hope that I have not overstepped my bounds by applying the proverbial ladder analogy to our small group of blogs...
Monday, August 30, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Stories On Storytelling
I title this post "Stories On Storytelling" because I will be telling three short story snippets in response to the readings about storytelling (one story snippet per book). Somehow, this makes me feel as if this post is less A.D.D. by considering it a compilation of three short stories as opposed to a long convoluted story with three miniature, unrelated stories therein. So without further ado, three miniature, unrelated story snippets for your reading enjoyment:
A lot of the story snippets I will share with you all were brought to my mind via Made To Stick. True to its name, the things Heath & Heath discuss in this book really did stick. My first story snippet came from reading about mental simulation (Chapter 6: Stories). If anyone had told that this was an effective way to communicate before starting undergrad, I would have scoffed and told them they were full of themselves. What changed was my Italian language professor from Columbia College in 2004. My friends and I had just started our sophomore year in college and were still "bright-eyed and bushy-tailed" and generally excited about being in college. Our Italian professor that year was Professor Pauluzi (he insisted on a 20 minute lesson on the pronunciation of his name: Pow-loot-see), and he moved to America with his family as a small child, so English is his second language and he did not learn it until he got here. While helping us prepare for an oral examination in which we would have to hold a conversation with one another, he noticed some of us had problems thinking of things to say. He told us that, as a child, he would often walk to the gas station down the road to buy candy. Along the way he would hold entire conversations with himself so he would know what to say to the cashier. He did this everyday. He told us all to start doing that. Every day as we were studying we were to mentally simulate any and all possible conversations so we would not have to stammer during an exam to think of things to say. And it worked! We all aced our next exam because of this technique. This long convoluted story within a story is to show that mental simulation is a form of mental stimulation that can help you move past your stress (210-212) or even learn to converse in a new language. The possibilities are endless!
My next story came about while reading "Whyse's Story" (Chapter four) in Squirrel Inc. This story snippet is about my first job/internship at Clemson during undergrad. I worked for a lovely woman who has been in many different industries; from designing lingerie to making a Clemson brand (many of you from Clemson's past I'm sure will remember the bouncing Tiger Paw advertisements from 2004) she's been there and done that. Most of her work is about branding. When I came to work with her during the summer of 2005, she was in the process of trying to generate new ideas for the Clemson brand for the coming football season. She asked me to come up with ideas for 30 second commercials that would say all there is to know about Clemson. 30 seconds! That was it! So I set about my task. I tried to think of all that Clemson was and all that it could be in the future. I thought about what the students are looking for, what the parents are looking for, what donors are looking for, and what prospective employers want their prospective employees to get from their college experience. Its hard to combine all that you are and all that you want to be in a 30 second spot. So we made four 30 second spots. Each of the spots were tailored to a specific aspect of Clemson we wanted to highlight. With each of these 30 second spots, we were telling mini-story snippets. We were getting people interested in who we are (and by "we" I mean Clemson). Those spots were less about a "brand" and more about what Clemson is about. Branding is important and it is a part of who someone is, but that year it was more important to let people know about Clemson through four different commercials highlighting four different, yet equally important aspects of Clemson as opposed to most "branding" campaigns that focus only on the most well-known aspect of a business, school, person, etc. (which for Clemson would have been football, of course.)
My last story is of course inspired by what I read in Neuro Web Design. The Once Upon A Time Let Me Tell You A Story concept. I never realized how important this is to the human existence until we started these blogs. True, this is the first "real" blog post I've made to this blog, but so many of my friends have asked for my blog address to keep up with my story. My musings. My whatever. When we created these blogs last week, I posted to facebook that I was making a blog. So many of my "friends" "liked" that I was making a blog and many even asked me what I was writing about and if they could have the address. It amazed me how these people, some I haven't talked to in years, are now interested in what story I am telling. It amazes me how, if I were to stand on the library bridge and recite this for all to hear during class breaks, I'm sure a good percentage of the students would go out of their way to not have to cross the library bridge and hear me "prattle" on about whatever it is I'm trying to sell them. I know I've done that. When I see people handing out papers or selling things or standing on boxes talking to no one in general and trying to get their story out, I will walk a mile out of the way if I have to just to avoid the "harassment" of my personal "me" time in between classes. However, if those same people put their story up on the web so that I could access it on my own time and it was not thrown in my face unwarranted, I would probably sit down and read and see what it was about. Even if it was the same story. The fact that someone can tell a story and people around the world will listen as long as they have an internet connection baffles me. But I am pleasantly surprised as well because now we can all share stories and experiences and learn from one another the way we did as children: through storytelling. Which, of course, was the entire purpose of this week's readings...as well as making sure we are all now acutely aware of the fact that we do tell stories on a daily basis.
A lot of the story snippets I will share with you all were brought to my mind via Made To Stick. True to its name, the things Heath & Heath discuss in this book really did stick. My first story snippet came from reading about mental simulation (Chapter 6: Stories). If anyone had told that this was an effective way to communicate before starting undergrad, I would have scoffed and told them they were full of themselves. What changed was my Italian language professor from Columbia College in 2004. My friends and I had just started our sophomore year in college and were still "bright-eyed and bushy-tailed" and generally excited about being in college. Our Italian professor that year was Professor Pauluzi (he insisted on a 20 minute lesson on the pronunciation of his name: Pow-loot-see), and he moved to America with his family as a small child, so English is his second language and he did not learn it until he got here. While helping us prepare for an oral examination in which we would have to hold a conversation with one another, he noticed some of us had problems thinking of things to say. He told us that, as a child, he would often walk to the gas station down the road to buy candy. Along the way he would hold entire conversations with himself so he would know what to say to the cashier. He did this everyday. He told us all to start doing that. Every day as we were studying we were to mentally simulate any and all possible conversations so we would not have to stammer during an exam to think of things to say. And it worked! We all aced our next exam because of this technique. This long convoluted story within a story is to show that mental simulation is a form of mental stimulation that can help you move past your stress (210-212) or even learn to converse in a new language. The possibilities are endless!
My next story came about while reading "Whyse's Story" (Chapter four) in Squirrel Inc. This story snippet is about my first job/internship at Clemson during undergrad. I worked for a lovely woman who has been in many different industries; from designing lingerie to making a Clemson brand (many of you from Clemson's past I'm sure will remember the bouncing Tiger Paw advertisements from 2004) she's been there and done that. Most of her work is about branding. When I came to work with her during the summer of 2005, she was in the process of trying to generate new ideas for the Clemson brand for the coming football season. She asked me to come up with ideas for 30 second commercials that would say all there is to know about Clemson. 30 seconds! That was it! So I set about my task. I tried to think of all that Clemson was and all that it could be in the future. I thought about what the students are looking for, what the parents are looking for, what donors are looking for, and what prospective employers want their prospective employees to get from their college experience. Its hard to combine all that you are and all that you want to be in a 30 second spot. So we made four 30 second spots. Each of the spots were tailored to a specific aspect of Clemson we wanted to highlight. With each of these 30 second spots, we were telling mini-story snippets. We were getting people interested in who we are (and by "we" I mean Clemson). Those spots were less about a "brand" and more about what Clemson is about. Branding is important and it is a part of who someone is, but that year it was more important to let people know about Clemson through four different commercials highlighting four different, yet equally important aspects of Clemson as opposed to most "branding" campaigns that focus only on the most well-known aspect of a business, school, person, etc. (which for Clemson would have been football, of course.)
My last story is of course inspired by what I read in Neuro Web Design. The Once Upon A Time Let Me Tell You A Story concept. I never realized how important this is to the human existence until we started these blogs. True, this is the first "real" blog post I've made to this blog, but so many of my friends have asked for my blog address to keep up with my story. My musings. My whatever. When we created these blogs last week, I posted to facebook that I was making a blog. So many of my "friends" "liked" that I was making a blog and many even asked me what I was writing about and if they could have the address. It amazed me how these people, some I haven't talked to in years, are now interested in what story I am telling. It amazes me how, if I were to stand on the library bridge and recite this for all to hear during class breaks, I'm sure a good percentage of the students would go out of their way to not have to cross the library bridge and hear me "prattle" on about whatever it is I'm trying to sell them. I know I've done that. When I see people handing out papers or selling things or standing on boxes talking to no one in general and trying to get their story out, I will walk a mile out of the way if I have to just to avoid the "harassment" of my personal "me" time in between classes. However, if those same people put their story up on the web so that I could access it on my own time and it was not thrown in my face unwarranted, I would probably sit down and read and see what it was about. Even if it was the same story. The fact that someone can tell a story and people around the world will listen as long as they have an internet connection baffles me. But I am pleasantly surprised as well because now we can all share stories and experiences and learn from one another the way we did as children: through storytelling. Which, of course, was the entire purpose of this week's readings...as well as making sure we are all now acutely aware of the fact that we do tell stories on a daily basis.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
My First Blog Post
Since this blog has yet to become interesting or fun, feel free to take a look at one of my current favorite blogs: Cakewrecks! Maybe the next time you visit, there will actually be usable content here.
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