Guest Lecture 5 - Fri Dec 2 - Therese Reuterswärd

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Guest lecturer: Therese Reuterswärd, Online Market Manager at Scandic Hotels

Title: Relationship marketing through social media

Time: Friday December 2 at 10-12

Place: Lecture hall K2

Abstract:

Therese's presentation will emphasize what the shift from broadcast media to social media actually means for businesses. She will show examples of relationship marketing in daily work and talk about the types of challenges you will face when trying to make it all come together and put it all into action.

Additionally, Therese will touch on the tools and techniques behind it all; Klout score, Facebook Edgerank, Google+ and social shopping.

Some of the challenges Therese experienced last year (at last year's lecture in the course which was givet at a time when she worked for Electrolux) are summed up here [partly in Swedish and partly in English]. Therese welcomes feedback on her presentation-in-the-making (http://prezi.com/brkhgclm4kf0/relationship-marketing-through-social-media/) and through twitter (@TrulyTherese).

[Please take a moment to think about these issues. What do you imagine or expect Therese to talk about? Can you in advance think of a question you would like to pose? / Daniel]

About Therese:

Therese graduated from KTH Media Technology in 2006. Her task at Scandic Hotels is to create strategies for generating traffic, converting it to business and at the same time maximize retention via online channels. Therese's focus is to, at every digital touchpoint, adapt timing, placement and marketing content to fit consumers' behaviors and needs. Specifically, Therese is responsible for e-commerce, web analytics, search engine marketing, PPC advertising, affiliates, digital partners, email marketing and (occasionally) social media.

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Important info about your posters

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Thanks to a student in our class who studies the print specialization, we now have a deal with a nearby printshop to print your posters. This is an option - you can do it but you of course don't have to do. KTH/this course will pay for the printing costs.

The printshop is called Vitt Grafiska. These are the steps for having them print your poster:

- Send a pdf file to klasse(at)vittgrafiska.se on Sunday. It is important that they have all the posters when they get to their jobs on Monday morning.

- IMPORTANT: write "KTH" in the subject line of your e-mail!

- You need to have at least 150 dpi resolution for it to look good when it is printed.

- You can pick up your posters at Karlavägen 104 on Tuesday morning. The printshop is 2 kilometers away from KTH, you can walk there or go there by bus/subway.

If you have any further questions, please pose them here in the form of a comment to this blog post. I will then call Klasse at Vitt grafiska later this week and post the answers here!

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Readings for lecture 6 - Journalism and sustainability

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The topic of this weeks lecture is journalism/citizen media and sustainability. I wanted to do sustainability last week, but we had some logistical problems with the equipment and time ran out. So this lecture is based on two different "packages":

Package 1 (was topic 4 last week): Perhaps most provocative of all questions; is the Internet/social media sustainable in the long run? Will we face challenges during the 21st century (climate change, energy and resource depletion issues) that will force us to radically rethink our habits and our use of technology? These short texts point out some radically different possibilities for the future of cheap electricity and for the Internet/social media.

- Bardi (2009). "The spike and the peak" (pdf file). Posted to online discussion forum "The Oil Drum" - 4 pages.

- Pargman (2010). "Ubiquitous information in a world of limitations" (available in Bilda/Documents/Papers). Presented at a 2010 workshop on "The culture of ubiquitous information". - 16 pages.

- Greer (2009). "The end of the information age" and "The economics of decline" (printer-friendly version). Published at Energy Bulletin - 3 pages each.

Comments: My text above is also the basis for a proposed master's thesis topic, "ICT use in the post-modern city". Greer's texts draws on his 2008 book "The long descent: A user's guide to the end of the industrial age". Greer makes a passing remark to the short 1909 story "The machine stops" by the author E.M. Forster (more well-know for "A room with a view" and "Howard's end"). You might consider reading a little fiction in you get tired of all the fact-filled texts above...

Package 2:

- Benkler, "The trouble with mass media" (chapter 6) - 35 pages

- Fallows, "How to save the news". The Atlantic, June 2010. - 12 pages (in the original print magazine)

- Gillmor (2006), "We are all reporters now" (BBC News) - 3 pages

- Gillmor (2006), "Introduction" from his book "We the media: Grassroots journalism by the people, for the people" - 11 pages, available in Bilda/Documents

26 + 61 = 89 pages

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Late assignments grading

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We have already said that we will grade late assignments later (after Dec 9). What there hasn't been is any explicit info about is how late you can hand in late assignments.

Since we actually haven't specified it, we will allow you to upload late assignments until Dec 9. This is waay later than we would prefer, but we will allow it since this has not been explicitly specified until now.

You very late assignments won't however get high points, because:

- You have not been able to contribute to seminars with your assignment (seminar questions, seminar attendance/activity)

- There is a decrease of relevance of your very late contribution (both for us teachers reading it and for you within the framework and schedule of the course).

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Change of date for the last lecture

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My last lecture in the course was supposed to be held on Tuesday December 6. We also have the poster presentation on Wednesday December 7 (at 10-12) and we have the last guest lecture on Friday December 9 (at 10-12).

This last lecture of mine will be divided between 1) talking about social media and games and 2) doing a course evaluation through an interactive so-called "gripe session" (I'll explain later). It however seems like a pretty bad idea to have the course evaluation before instead of after the poster presentation, so I have moved the lecture. I checked your schedule and I just talked with my seminar group A and so the new time slot for that lecture will thus be December 7 from 13-15 in lecture hall E2. In other words; the same time and the the same place but one day later. I hope that won't cause too many problems for you!

We will thus meet twice that day (poster presentation before lunch and the lecture/gripe session directly after lunch). Do note that you get a point for attending this specific lecture of mine (same as with the guest lectures, e.g. 1 point/each).

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Personal reflection about your assignments

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I have read quite a few of your assignments by now. This comment arrives so late in the course that it is of less use here, but perhaps it can be of more use later and in other contexts where you have to write texts (not the least your upcoming master's theses).

My feeling is that many, well, actually the majority of you students spend too little time thinking about what you will write and planning what you will write and that you instead just sit down and start to write something up.

It's better to spend 75% of the time planning, sketching, perhaps drawing up an outline, perhaps adding some headers and a sentence of two about what you will write about under each header - and only then spend the remaining 25% of the time producing the actual text. I get the feeling many of you spend 25% of the time, and sometimes less, thinking some about what you will write, and then too quickly sit down and try to squeeze out the required 400 - 600 - 800 - 1000 words for the assignment.

The result is that you reach the production goal (number of words), but that the text oftentimes is unfocused and difficult to follow. I often have a hard time to find a red thread or something that keeps the text together. It's rather a little about this and a little about that, a reference here, a quote there and then some opinions added. When I have finished, I'm unsure what the text actually was about, and going back to the start might not always help me to understand what The Issue you wrote about was. I instead find several smaller issues or just a string of ideas.

Beyond the concrete advice I gave above (on planning vs execution), I would suggest you pose a question somewhere in the first paragraph ("...so how does ... relate to...?", "why doesn't the music industry...?"). This will help me and you understand what the topic of your text is. You should let your eyes stray back to that question whenever you don't know what to write next in your text. It might also be a good idea to think about that question when you finish the text, perhaps add a conclusion to the question or a summary of your arguments?

I'm an experienced writer and while it's not fair to compare my texts to yours, I still encourage you to have a look at this "extended abstract" (500 words) that I submitted to a workshop only earlier this month. I can promise you that I live as I learn and did spend the vast majority of time thinking about and sketching out what I would write ("hmm, first I'll write something about ... and then..." "hmm, I need an argument that ties this and that together", "hmm, should things be said in this order or is it better to first state that..."). I only spent a little time actually writing up the final text. Do also note how much can be said in only 500 words - (the assignments for this course should be between 400 and 1000 words).

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Poster review meeting feedback

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There were a couple of interesting questions raised by specific groups that I would like to give some feedback on to all groups:

Can we change the name of our group?

- You are allowed to refine/alter/change the name of your group. You are in fact encouraged to do so if you feel that the name does not any longer reflect the work of your group.

The glossy printed poster looked great, how can our group do one?

- We will be able to print your posters. One student (studying the print specialization) has contacts and is looking in to it. Printing a poster is optional, i.e. you can but you don't have to do it. More info will follow, hopefully later this week.

- What is the status of the poster vs the paper?

Both should be able to "stand on their own legs", i.e. you should be able understand your group's core idea (basic concept) from the poster without having read the paper and vice versa.

How will the group assignment be evaluated/judged?

- Do note that criteria for evaluating the group assignment are spelled out in the document "Examination and grading" (available in Bilda).

Some students seem to be less connected to their groups (for example by not showing up at the meeting and other group members having no information about it). The KTH School of Computer Science and Communication (CSC) code of honor has a couple of things to say about group assignments and regulation 1 more specifically states:

"When working in groups each member shall contribute equally and all members shall be capable of giving account for the whole solution."

Do note that there is no final exam in the course, but that the group assignment is part of the examination (20% of the credits). We therefore want you to include a short paragraph (a few sentences at the end of your group assignment document) where you describe the division of labor in your group.

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Guest Lecture 4 - Fri Nov 25 - Henrik, Gustaf and Wu

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PLEASE NOTE! We will have three guests and three "mini-guest lectures" that are topically related to each other this coming Friday. Each mini-lecture will be 30 minutes long.

Guest lecturer: Henrik Åhman, Ph.D. student at KTH/Human Computer Interaction group.

Title: A war on totality: Social media from a postmodern perspective

Time: Friday November 25 at 10.15 - 10.45

Place: Lecture hall V3

Abstract:

Much has been said about the role of social media in contemporary society. On the one hand, it has been accused of having a negative impact on society by contributing to the creation of a superficial and consumerist image of human life. On the other hand, it has been argued that social media contributes to society by providing the ordinary citizen with effective information and communication tools, thereby countering the erosion of democratic institutions and contributing to the establishment of a new democratic paradigm.

By describing the development from modern to postmodern thinking, Henrik positions social media in relation to questions of diversity, knowledge, what it means to be human, and to the boundaries between the individual and society at large.

[Please take a moment to think about these issues. What do you imagine or expect Henrik to talk about? Can you in advance think of a question you would like to pose? / Daniel]

About Henrik:

Henrik is a Ph.D. student at the Human Computer Interaction Group at KTH. His research focuses on questions regarding ICT in relation to democracy and social sustainability. Henrik has a BA in Theology and a MSc in Library and Information Science.

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Guest lecturer: Gustaf Lundström, Master's Degree Student at the Media Management Program

Title: Social media: A shortcut to democracy?

Time: Friday November 25 at 10.50-11.20

Place: Lecture hall V3

Abstract:

Blogs and Twitter, along with other social media, have been heralded as important technologies for creating a democratic exchange of information, and the connection between social media and democracy has been widely discussed in the aftermath of the past Arab spring.

But what is the real connection between liberty and social media? Should we trust the cyber-utopians in their unyielding trust of digital technologies, or are there reasons to doubt the political benefits of social media?

[Please take a moment to think about these issues. What do you imagine or expect Gustaf to talk about? Can you in advance think of a question you would like to pose? / Daniel]

Literature:

Gustaf suggests you re-read chapter 7, "Political Freedom Part 2: Emergence of the Networked Public Sphere", primarily pages 261-272.

About Gustaf:

Gustaf is currently a master's student at the KTH Media Management Master's program and has has previously studied Media Technology for three years. He wrote his Bachelor's thesis about the use of social media in marketing during the spring.

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Guest lecturer: Wu Qi, journalist for the Southern People Weekly, China

Title: Passive Governor: Censorship in Chinese online forums

Time: Friday November 25 at 11.30-12.00

Place: Lecture hall V3 - JOINING US BY SKYPE

Abstract:

After having conducted a field study of two major Chinese online forums and 13 in-depth interviews of Chinese Internet workers/censors, Wu Qi wrote his Master's Thesis about the material and everyday practices of censoring the Internet by the people whose job it is to do it.

Wu Qi will describe how the people who actually conduct censorship and self-censorship for Chinese new media institutions perceive themselves and act accordingly on both a personal and a professional level. He will also describe the tension between regulation and self-awareness.

[Please take a moment to think about these issues. What do you imagine or expect Wu Qi to talk about? Can you in advance think of a question you would like to pose? / Daniel]

About Wu Qi:

Wu Qi is a journalist, working in Beijing for one of the leading Chinese news magazines, the Southern People Weekly. He was a visiting student at KTH in 2010 as part of an exchange program between KTH and Beijing University and he is a graduate from the School of Journalism and Communication at Beijing University.

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Seminar assignment 6 (deadline Nov 27)

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Lecture 5 (Wed Nov 23) as well as seminar assignment 5 (Mon Nov 28 and Wed Nov 30) are based on these readings.

Each assignment can be regarded as an exam question that will be graded separately. Do note that we will have no final exam or home exam in the course.

Right now, you can find the following documents in Bilda (Documents/Seminar assignments):

- The seminar 6 assignment (instructions)

- The seminar assignment template - download and use it when you write your assignment

- Three examples of good assignments written by students last year (the seminar assignment was almost identical even though the readings differed). The documents are called "Nordlund.pdf", "Ballerstedt.pdf" and "Hoglund.pdf". Read one or read all three to get inspiration and ideas of what kinds of texts are appreciated and rewarded.

Do note that instructions about how the seminar assignments will be judged/graded as well as other information about examination/grading is available in Bilda/Documents.

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Readings for lecture 5 - Critique

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As we all know, there is very little critique or thought about possible negative impacts of Internet/social media in Benkler's book, so this week's (relatively short) chapter in Benkler's book has been supplemented by various other heterogeneous texts. Lecture 5 (Nov 23) will cover, and for seminar 5 (Nov 28-30), the readings can be divided into four parts:

1) What is the impact of the Internet/social media on our relationships with other people and on our (mental) health? Is the Internet a "platform for human connections" or a "sad, lonely world" (or both)?

- Benkler, Chapter 10, "Social ties: Networking together". - 22 pages

- Turkle (2011), "Always on" (available in Bilda/Documents/Papers). Chapter 8 from "Alone Together: Why we expect more from technology and less from each other". - 20 pages

Comment: Turkle is a well-know social psychologist who has written about computer culture and its cultural effects during the last 25 years in books such as "The second self" and "Life on the screen".

2) What is the impact of Internet/social media on our social behavior? Will people become more inhibited if commercial/governmental surveillance and data mining increases? Will participation and making your voice heard (i.e. democracy) increase or decrease?

- Lundblad (2004). "Privacy in a noise society" (pdf file). Presented at a workshop on "privacy in a networked world" - 4 (dense) pages.

- Morozov (2010). "Iran: Downside to the 'Twitter revolution" (available in Bilda/Documents/Papers). Published in Dissent, Vol.56, No.4 (fall 2009), pp.9-14 - 4 pages

(- Also warmly recommended, eminently readable but optional; Gladwell, "Small change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted". The New Yorker Oct. 4. 2010)

Comment: Lundblad is now director of Public Policy at Google. The topic of his short paper above was extended and developed in Lundblad's Ph.D. thesis "Law in a noise society". Morozov is a well-known critic of hyped-up social networking tools in the context of (Arabian and other) revolutions and democracy movements, and his argument was extended in his 2011 book "The net delusion: The dark side of Internet freedom". Gladwell is a well-known journalist and author of books such as "The tipping point", "Blink" and "Outliers".

3) What is the impact of Internet/social media on our thinking? Is Google "making us stupid"? Are we more well-informed than ever, but less able to think deep, complex thoughts?

- Postman (1990)."Informing ourselves to death" (transcribed speech given at a computer conference) - 8 pages.

- Carr (2008). "Is Google making us stupid?" Atlantic monthly - 7 pages.

Comment: Postman's paper later became a chapter his book "Technopoly: The surrender of culture to technology". Carr's text later became part of his 2010 book "The Shallows: What the Internet is doing to our brains"

4) Perhaps most provocative of all questions; is the Internet/social media sustainable in the long run? Will we face challenges during the 21st century (climate change, energy and resource depletion issues) that will force us to radically rethink our habits and our use of technology? These short texts point out some radically different possibilities for the future of cheap electricity and for the Internet/social media.

- Bardi (2009). "The spike and the peak" (pdf file). Posted to online discussion forum "The Oil Drum" - 4 pages.

- Pargman (2010). "Ubiquitous information in a world of limitations" (available in Bilda/Documents/Papers). Presented at a 2010 workshop on "The culture of ubiquitous information". - 16 pages.

- Greer (2009). "The end of the information age" and "The economics of decline" (printer-friendly version). Published at Energy Bulletin - 3 pages each.

Comments: My text above is also the basis for a proposed master's thesis topic, "ICT use in the post-modern city". Greer's texts draws on his 2008 book "The long descent: A user's guide to the end of the industrial age". Greer makes a passing remark to the short 1909 story "The machine stops" by the author E.M. Forster (more well-know for "A room with a view" and "Howard's end"). You might consider reading a little fiction in you get tired of all the fact-filled texts above...

Part 1 (22 + 20) + part 2 (8 pages) + part 3 (15 pages) + part 4 (26 pages) = 90 pages.

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Date for poster presentation is Dec 7 before lunch

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So, the results of the votes are in. Even though less than 50% voted (= questionable legitimacy in a democratic society :-), the preferred date of those who did vote is:

Wednesday December 7 between 10-12 at "Torget" (house D, top floor)

You should hang up your posters one day in advance, i.e. on Tuesday December 7. I will give my last lecture in the course that day (13-15) and you should thus hang you poster before then.

I will send out invitations to colleagues (teachers and ph.d. students on the same floor) to go have a look at your posters. I might ask them to give me feedback about their favorites posters.

I met all the groups except one for a review meeting in the end of last week (Wed-Fri). I will write a separate blog post about it, but will mention just one thing here. You all saw the great-looking printed poster from last year. One student (M.H.) had some leads about where all groups (who want to) can print equally great-looking posters. It seems it might not be too expensive, and the course can then pick up the tab and pay for these costs. More info to follow.

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Guest Lecture 3 - Fri Nov 18 - Pernilla Josefsson

Guest lecturer: Pernilla Josefsson, PhD student at Media Technology, KTH
Title: E-learning
Time: Friday 18 of December at 10:00-12:00
Lecture hall: Lecture hall D2

Abstract:


About Pernilla:
Pernilla is a Ph.D. candidate at KTH Media technology. Her background is in (Media-) Informatics.

We need better links!

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When I summarized your seminar questions Sunday night, I was struck by the fact that less than half of your questions could easily be related to the specific readings for the week (about links and social networks). The other half, while still relating to social media, didn't have that much to do with what you were to read in order to write your assignment and to prepare for the seminar. Also, I have in my two seminar groups allowed student seminar questions and the whole discussions to wander pretty much all over the place.

Only after my last seminar (yesterday) did I realize this, and so me and Pernilla have conferred and would like to clarify some guidelines for the three remaining assignments and seminars:

1) Your assignment can make use of course literature in general, but you should make an effort to more specifically make use of this week's readings when you write you assignment.

Comment: Each assignment corresponds to a question on an exam. You can't write about whatever on an exam (no matter how insightful), but should stick to the question. You shouldn't write whatever on an assignment, but should make sure you utilize this week's readings and this week's topics.

2) Your seminar question should be displayed prominently on your cover page and it is strongly recommended that it relates to your assignment in some way (thereby also relating to this week's readings).

3) The seminar discussions will (through you following instructions 1 and 2 above) by default to a higher degree concern this week's readings, and me and Pernilla will also make an effort to steer the discussions in this direction. The seminars will not just be about ventilating opinions about whatever-that-is-related-to-social-media, but should also be a way to engage with, discuss, criticize and make use of the course literature.

4) It is a plus if the group assignment and your posters in some way relate to or make use of the course literature. If you get ideas from the readings that you manage to connect to and relate to your group assignment (could be in the companion document, doesn't have to be on the poster itself), that is commendable and will impress us when we judge and grade the group assignment.

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Date for group assignment/poster presentation in Dec

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We need to decide on exactly when to present the group assignment/posters. We need a two-hour session. It should be sometime during the last week of the course, i.e. week 49 (three weeks from now). We have lectures and seminars on Monday, Tuesday and Friday so Wednesday and Thursday are our best options.

I have four suggestions for possible time slots and it is up to you all to select which one(s) are most suitable for your. Go to this Doodle page and vote for your favorite time slots. You can choose several and we will choose the one that is most popular.

More specifically, I will book the open space "Torget" (house D, top floor). There are screens there where you can hang your posters and you should hang then up 24 hours before the presentation. I will invite my colleagues on the top floor to go and have a look at your posters and to listen to your presentations.

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Don't forget the podcast!

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Only 1/4 of the class have downloaded the custom-made 20 minute long podcast about social media and about this course. Even fewer have actually answered the follow-up questionnaire (with 7 questions).

The students who did the podcast have gotten in touch and asked me to remind you about:

- The podcast (can be downloaded from Bilda/Documents)

- The questionnaire (available at http://tinyurl.com/DM2578-podcast)

It would be of great help to them if you could do these two things, and, listening to the podcast is supposed to be fun and informative so this is not an arduous or difficult task!

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Seminar assignment 5 (deadline Nov 20)

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Lecture 4 (Wed Nov 16) as well as seminar assignment 5 (Mon-Tue Nov 21-22) are based on these readings.

Each assignment can be regarded as an exam question that will be graded separately. Do note that we will have no final exam or home exam in the course.

Right now, you can find the following documents in Bilda (Documents/Seminar assignments):

- The seminar 5 assignment (instructions)

- The seminar assignment template - download and use it when you write your assignment

- Three examples of good assignments written by students last year (the seminar assignment was almost identical even though the readings differed). The documents are called "Parmas.pdf", "Lundström.pdf" and "Xiong.pdf". Read one or read all three to get inspiration and ideas of what kinds of texts are appreciated and rewarded.

Do note that instructions about how the seminar assignments will be judged/graded as well as other information about examination/grading is available in Bilda/Documents.

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Readings for lecture 4 - Media convergence and participatory culture

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Lecture 4 (Nov 16) will cover, and for seminar 5 (Nov 21-22) you should read:

- Benkler, Chapter 5, "Autonomy, information and law".

- Benkler, Chapter 8, "A culture both plastic and critical".

- Jenkins, "Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars? Grassroots creativity meets the media industry", Chapter 4 of "Convergence culture". Available in Bilda/Documents/Literature.

Comment on readings:

I recommend Henry Jenkins' book "Convergence culture" (which many of the Swedish students have already read).

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Important info but only for sem. group A (and group C)

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I had a hard time believing it, but as we had to move our next seminar (it was supposed to be on Monday Nov 14 at 13-15), it seems many of the students have another class at 15-17 and thus preferred for us to meet on Monday at 17-19 instead of a more "humane" time on Tuesday!

So, I've booked seminar room D33 for Monday Nov 14 at 17-19 (it should appear in the online schedule later today).

This info is relevant to any student in my other seminar group (group C) who for one or another reason can't come to the group C seminar on Tuesday (Nov 15 at 13-15).

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Seminar assignment 4 (deadline Nov 13)

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Lecture 3 (Wed Nov 9) as well as seminar assignment 4 (Mon-Tue Nov 14-15) are based onthese readings.

Each assignment can be regarded as an exam question that will be graded separately. Do note that we will have no final exam or home exam in the course.

Right now, you can find the following documents in Bilda (Documents/Seminar assignments):

- The seminar 4 assignment (instructions)

- The seminar assignment template - download and use it when you write your assignment

- Three examples of good assignments written by students last year (the seminar assignment was almost identical even though the readings differed). The documents are called "Xiong.pdf", "Ericson.pdf" and "Plessing.pdf". Read one or read all three to get inspiration and ideas of what kinds of texts are appreciated and rewarded.

Do note that instructions about how the seminar assignments will be judged/graded as well as other information about examination/grading is available in Bilda/Documents.

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Readings for lecture 3 - Network theory

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Lecture 3 (Nov 9) will cover, and for seminar 4 (Nov 14-15) you should read:

- Benkler, Chapter 7, "Emergence of the networked public sphere" - primarily the second half of the chapter (p.241-272).

- Barabási, parts of chapters six, "The 80/20 rule" (pp.65-73) and chapter seven, "Rich get richer (pp.81-90). Available in Bilda/Documents/Literature - 17 pages

- Shirky, "Power laws, weblogs and inequality" - 7 pages

- Hall, "The ever evolving web: The power of networks" (pdf file) - 11 pages

Comment on readings:

Benkler builds on and relies quite a lot on Barabási and so I have chosen a few select pages from his excellent book "Linked: How everything is connected to everything else and what it means for business, science, and everyday life". While the book (and the examples) are a little aged, Barabási has a knack for explaining and making difficult things simple - and the underlying principles of how networks work are still the same/always true.

Shirky writes good and is entertaining (as always).

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Late and later assignments

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If you miss the seminar assignment deadline, there is a folder in Bilda called "Late assignments" where you can drop it.

If you have dropped an assignment there (for example your Pecha Kucha presentation) which has then been graded, the system does (apparently) not allow you to drop another assignment there. For this reason, there is now a new folder called "Later assignments" where you can drop things off.

Do note that you can always upload an assignment and later replace it with a new version as long as 1) the deadline has not been passed and 2) the assignment has not been graded.

For these and other reasons we will not grade "late assignments" or "later assignments" until later, when the course finishes. You can drop late assignments in any of the two folders.

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Guest Lecture 2 - Fri Nov 11 - Jorge Zapico

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Guest lecturer: Jorge Zapico, Ph.D. student at KTH Center for Sustainable Communications

Title: Sustainable Internet: Social media in a sustainable future

Time: Friday November 11 at 10-12

Place: Lecture hall D2

Abstract:

Jorge will talk about the role that the Internet and social media can play in a sustainable future:

- The negative impacts of the Internet and how they can be reduced

- The positive effects of the Internet and how they can be promoted

Several examples of how to use social media and Internet for promoting sustainability will be presented and analyzed.

[Please take a moment to think about these issues. What do you imagine or expect Jorge to talk about? Can you in advance think of a question you would like to pose? / Daniel]

About Jorge:

Jorge is a Ph.D. candidate at KTH Center for Sustainable Communications (CESC). He has a multidisciplinary background in computer science and sustainability. More information about his research interests can be found at http://jorge.zapi.co

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Poster/group assignment review meeting

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You were divided into groups two weeks ago (Wed Oct 26) and you will present the results of the group assignment four weeks from now (a poster and a short paper). We will be halfway into the course next week and that's a good time to have a (voluntary) review meeting about the group assignment.

This is your chance to present/pitch your idea and get feedback, constructive criticism and advice that might be helpful as you proceed with your poster project.

There are 10 project groups and I have blocked a number of 20-minute sessions/slots next week. You can sign up your group at the lecture tomorrow (Wed Nov 9) or at the guest lecture on Friday (before, during or after). The available time slots are:

Wed Nov 16 13.00-15.20 (7 groups) in seminar room 1635

Fri Nov 18 09.00-10.00 (3 groups) in seminar room 1635

Fri Nov 18 13.20-15.00 (5 groups) in seminar room 1635

Seminar room 1635 is in house E on the top (6th) floor.

There are 15 available slots, so if all groups want to meet me, the last group to choose a slot will still have 6 slots to choose from.

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Seminar mix-up

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There is apparently a huge mix-up in days and seminar groups this week. We have a Monday group (seminar groups A and B) and a Tuesday group (seminar groups C and D).

This week only the Monday group doesn't meet on a Monday, but rather tomorrow, on Wednesday. I don't know why that is, that's just the way the schedule looked when I got it (there is not specific intension of mine behind this "anomaly").

Unfortunately several persons who are in groups A and B showed up today, and I also believe several persons in groups C and D will show up tomorrow even though they were supposed to meet today. There's not that much to do about it but to handle the issue at this point in time.

I do however want to point out that a question (by anoyone!) on the blog yesterday would have been a good way to avoid the confusion! Also, please see this earlier blog post about the times and dates for all seminars if there still is some confusion.

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Readings (general instructions)

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I can totally understand that you would want some direction for lecture, seminars and readings in the weeks ahead. This will give you a general idea of topics as well as the appropriate chapter to read from Benkler each week. Benkler will be complemented by other texts as per my earlier instructions (before or on the same day I give my lectures (Wednesdays) at the latest).

Week 1: Introduction

Week 2: Industrial vs networked info society (seminar assignment for week 3 of the course, i.e. this week)

Benkler: Chapters 1-4 with an emphasis on chapters 2 and 3.

Week 3: Networks (seminar assignment for week 4, i.e. next week)

Benkler: Chapter 7, "Emergence of the networked public sphere" - primarily the second half of the chapter (p.241-272).

Week 4: Media convergence and community

Benkler: Chapter 5, "Autonomy, information and law" and chapter 8, "A culture both plastic and critical"

Week 5: Critique against social media

Benkler: Chapter 10, "Social ties: Networking together"

Week 6: (citizen) Journalism

Benkler: Chapter 6, "The trouble with mass media"

Week 7: (online) Games (last week of the course - no seminar assignment)

Benkler: No chapter in Benkler relates to the topic

Examination and grading

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Detailed information about examination and grading is available in Bilda (Bilda/Documents) and will be published on the course homepage on Internet soon.

Questions can be posed in the form of a comment (here) or through an e-mail to Daniel.

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Podcast with/about D. Pargman and social media

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As you heard at the end of today's guest lecture, my students in another course called "Future of media" are working on a radio theme ("The future of radio/Radio of the future"). In fact, around a dozen of you take both of these courses this term, and many others will study "DM2571 Future of Media" next autumn.

Out of this year's 11 project groups, one group is working on the theme "School radio/podcasts" and they visited us today. More specifically they work on:

"Niche podcasts for students who have started or is about to start studying a course. An entertaining and inspiring way to learn about the topic of a course though an interview with the responsible teacher and also a way to bridge the gap between students and teachers through the use of stories."

(A one-page long description of what they do is available here.)

As part of their project, they have made a podcast with me about this course (DM2578 Social Media Technologies). You should listen to it, they've specifically made if for you! It's available in Bilda (Bilda/Documents) and it is around 20 minutes long.

After you have listened to the podcast, please answer this short survey (7 questions):

http://tinyurl.com/DM2578-podcast

The companion blog - the conversation moves online

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As I mentioned during the course introduction, there is a "companion blog" called "Social Media Technologies" (you can see the link in the upper right corner of this blog). Do note that that blog is up and running and that we are building on the contributions of earlier classes who have taken this course.

You have all just received an invitation to become contributors (writers) to that blog. I sent the invitation to the KTH addresses of all students who presented themselves at seminar 2 earlier this week (do note: sometimes these invitations get stuck in spam filters if you forward your KTH mail). Not only have you received an invitation, I actually expect you to contribute (some) during the course and (as I told you during the course introduction), you will get some credit for it ("Active participation online - 5% of the examination on the course).

During today's lecture I talked about social media being an enabler, making it possible to be heard even without owning a printing press or a television channel. Your chances to make your voice heard during the seminars is OK but not great (1 teacher and 12+ students meet for 90 minutes/week). Some of you will take the opportunity, but others' voices will be heard less frequently at the seminars.

What "active participation online" means in practical terms is thus that you have to make (at least) three contributions to the online conversation on the companion blog throughout the course. This will make the companion blog a rather lively online space. What then can you contribute with, and what are the requirements?

You can typically contribute with:

- A blog post with some information or tips about social media stuff; for example events happening in Stockholm or elsewhere, newspaper/magazine/blog articles about social media, a summary of interesting companies or services (with links) etc. The blog is our collective eyes and ears keeping track of social media-related news and events during this period. The new Facebook data center in northern Sweden that was mentioned at today's lecture is an example of "breaking news" in on the social media scene.

- A blog post with a summary, analysis, critique or just thoughts that were initiated by a lecture or a guest lecture in the course.

- A blog post with a summary, analysis, critique or just thoughts that were initiated by course literature (for example Barlow's text about the independence of cyberspace or Benkler's TEDtalk)

- A comment on someone else's blog post.

We will not specify how long your contribution should be in terms of number or words etc. The important criteria is that your contribution should add value. "I agree", "me too" or "the lecture was great" does not add value. A great contribution could be a reworked (shortened, linked-up) text about the core idea in a seminar assignment of yours.

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Change of lecture halls

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As you know, we had to squeeze into a crappy seminar room for the introductory lecture. There wasn't even space for everyone to sit down.

Starting Friday this week, all lectures have been upgraded from seminar rooms with 40 seats to lecture halls with 70-120 seats (usually 70-80 seats).

We'll have more space and better facilities, but please check the upgraded schedule so that you don't head off to the wrong lecture hall in the coming weeks!

Do note that the only thing that has changed is the location of these lectures - no other changes has been made in the schedule at this point in time.

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Seminar assignment 3 (deadline Nov 7)

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Lecture 2 (Wed Nov 3) as well as seminar assignment 3 (Tue-Wed Nov 8-9) will be based on the first part of Benkler's book (chapters 1-4). This part of the book is, truth be told, rather dry and probably the heaviest (most difficult) part of the book.

Each assignment can be regarded as an exam question that will be graded separately. Do note that we will have no final exam or home exam in the course.

Right now, you can find the following documents in Bilda (Documents/Seminar assignments):

- The seminar 3 assignment (instructions)

- The seminar assignment template - download and use it when you write your assignment

- Three examples of good assignments written by students last year (the seminar assignment was almost identical). Read one or read all three to get inspiration and ideas of what kinds of texts are appreciated and rewarded.

Just as last year, seminar assignment texts will be judged/graded based on:

• Quality/uniqueness of ideas (25%)
• Are interesting insights and reflections presented?
• Does the student go beyond repeating what is written in the course literature in an attempt to apply the literature?
• Does the basic premise of the text raise the pulse of the reader?
• Quality of analysis, reflection and execution (25%)
• What is made of the idea presented (above)?
• To define, explain, exemplify and quote is fine. To also be able to analyze and reflect by (for example) identifying, categorizing, relating, differentiating, contrasting, combining, modifying and concluding is even better.
• Are ideas and insights presented in a coherent way, are the steps in the underlying reasoning process logical and clear (or is the text and the reasoning process difficult to understand, are there blanks that need to be filled)?
• (Relevant) use of course literature and other sources (25%)
• Does the text demonstrate that (as a starting point) the course literature has been read and is understood?
• Is the course literature and possibly other sources (including own/personal experiences) integrated and skillfully used in the text?
• Quality of language (25%)
• Does the text flow effortlessly?
• Is the text easy to understand and has few linguistic errors, or does it require effort to understand the language in order to get to the the underlying ideas?

A suggestion is that you download and read the instructions as soon as possible and keep them at hand when you read the literature (Benkler).

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Readings for lecture 2 - the networked information economy

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Lecture 2 (Nov 3) will cover/for seminar 3 (Nov 8-9) you should read:

- Benkler, chapters 2 & 3

- Barlow, "A declaration of the independence of cyberspace" (1996) - 2 pages

- Benkler, chapters 1 & 4 can be read more cursorily

Comment on readings:

Benkler is very positive about the potential of social media to change societies for the better. Benkler's texts will later be supplemented by other texts that take a more critical stance. Benkler's enthusiasm stands in the shadow of earlier utopian Internet thinkers though. John Perry Barlow is one of them and we read his text in order to have a baseline and an object of comparison.

General comment:

This is the heaviest week in terms of readings and Benkler is perhaps not the easiest of texts to read. A more typical reading load will in the future be to read one chapter from Benkler, supplemented by other literature and for a total of ~ 75-100 pages per week.

DO NOTE: A great way to start reading the book is to watch this TEDtalk where Benkler presents some of the basic ideas of his book in the form of an 18 minutes long talk/video. His TEDtalk profile is a good way to read something about Benkler.

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Guest Lecture 1 - Fri Nov 4 - Jonas Bosson

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Guest lecturer: Jonas Bosson, Hacker

Title: Building a social service for charities and webshops

Time: Friday November 4 at 10-12

Place: Lecture hall D3

Abstract:

I will talk about the vision and the work of connecting webshops and customers to charitable organizations so as to spread the word and to collect and give money to good causes.

My involvement with Internet and social services started when I was a student at KTH and combined my studies with IT activism and lobbying. This resulted in several ideas about how to give people and causes a voice in politics, and how to collect money and other resources for said people and causes.

With desmo.org, we are challenging several problems that associated with collecting money for charities, including:

- How to reach larger numbers of people

- How to make payments over the Internet easier

- How to make charity interesting and profitable for web shops

- How to give 100% of the donations directly to the aid-organizations and still make a profit.

[Please take a moment to think about these issues. What do you imagine or expect Jonas to talk about? Can you in advance think of a question you would like to pose? / Daniel]

About Jonas:

Jonas studied computer science at KTH and has worked with web services and information systems for the better part of 20 years. He likes open standards and large data sets.

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