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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Rich pictures - project groups & themes

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There are 10 project groups. There is one Tuesday group missing below. I will update this blog post when I get information about their theme & members.

A few groups might get an extra member "forcibly" added to your group if more people turn up in the course during the next week.

Monday group (seminar groups A and B):

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Appreciation: Miyabi H, Golnaz M, Matthias G, Yuichi O, Gabriella T, Andrius J, Jonathan K - 7 persons

Crowds: Fabian W, Leonore K, Gyöngyvér B, Sophal P, Tove A - 6 persons

Alternative Art: Björn H, Attilio P, Olle W, Fernanda C, Olga D - 5 persons

Lonliness: Jens M, Toni L, Victor O, Nisa A, Natalia M - 5 persons

Joy: Edvard M, Tessa R, Ineta S, Michaela M, Sven S - 5 persons

Tuesday group (seminar groups C and D):

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Food strike: Johan L, Adam L, Filip E, Jonas J, Charles F - 5 persons

Wild-life: Nils G, Katarzyna M, Yuanhui Z, Nikolay S, Tom E - 5 persons

Active old people: Kim L, Hampus A, Jen-Po C, Daniel H, Christine K - 5 persons

Role-playing and connecting internationally: Sara L, Stefan A, Alise L, Simon E, Jens Å, Joel A - 6 persons

Extreme fashion: Isabella A, Bobby F, Simon K, Hong S, Philip A - 5 persons

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Seminar 2 instructions available in Bilda

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As I mentioned during the introductory lecture yesterday, your task for the second seminar (next week) is to prepare a 3-minute long Pecha Kucha presentation.

I have uploaded all the relevant documents into Bilda. In the "Bilda/Documents/Seminar assignments" folder, you will find:

- Instructions for seminar 2 ("111031 Seminar 2 assignment.pdf)

- My Pecha Kucha presentation ("111025 Pecha Kucha Pargman.ppt")

- The template you should download and use for your own presentation ("111031 Pecha Kucha template.ppt")

Group A and B will meet on Monday and the deadline for uploading your presentation is Sunday Oct 30 at 21.00.

Group C and D will meet on Tuesday and the deadline for uploading your presentation is Monday Oct 31 at 12.00.

This is the only time you will have different deadlines.

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