BlogTalkNotesPanel2

1. PANEL 2, Monday 5.7.4
1. Mobloggin Jokkmokk
1. Therese Oernberg
2. Stephanie Hendrick
2. 'Live'-writing: weblogs and the coverage of reality
1. Lisbeth Klastrup (klastrup@itu.dk)
3. Elmine Wijnia
4. DISCUSSION
5. Links to write-ups for this panel

PANEL 2, Monday 5.7.4

Mobloggin Jokkmokk

Therese Oernberg

The blog as an immersive space: Moblogging Jokkmokk 2004 http://www.sumofmyparts.com/jokkmokktalk/siframes.html

Based on review of literature on presence and experiences from moblogging project in Jokkmokk,Lapland,Sweden.

Presence:

• being there

• "The perceptual illusion of non-mediation" (Lombard and Ditton 1997)

• Presence is important in any type of communicative environment. The more presence the blog allows for, the more lively and involved interaction could be expected.

Co-presence:

• being there together (Schroeder 2002)

Blog Presence:

• Presence + co-presence in blogs

• Blog Presence is the sense that readers and contributors of blogs experience,when accessing information and interacting with others in blogs, that causes them to feel as if they were actuallz moved into the shared space that the blog represents.

• Most easily achieved in mobile, live event blogs, where interaction is close to immediate and people can relate to the physical place in which the event takes place.

causes of presence in blogs:

(references to the relevant literature available in the slides: http://www.sumofmyparts.com/jokkmokktalk/siframes.html)

• interaction with the medium

• immediacy

• direct reporting

• sensory input (multimedia)

• immersion through text

• intimacy

• involvement

• individual user preferences

causes of co-presence in blogs:

(references to the relevant literature available in the slides: http://www.sumofmyparts.com/jokkmokktalk/siframes.html)

• interaction with other users

• immediacy

• synchronous communication

• non-mediation in communication (audio is better than text)

• immersion

• intimacy

• involvement

• individual user preferences

locals most interested

>> paradox: internet/web removes spatial boundaries, but otoh people remain interested in projects which touch their geographical location

In order to experience Blog Presence, both interaction with media and interaction with other users must be optimized. Especially important for event blogs, since it will allow for lively interaction between readers and contributors, between readers and other readers and between readers and media content.

Stephanie Hendrick

co-presence needs synchronous communication

blogging discourse - using mechanisms like trackback, etc

<< SnipSnap, Vanilla, ... have a list of logged in users which creates a sense of presence >>

dispersive presence

maintained through sensors, text,

Blending and space - building blocks of dispersive presence

cognitive blending - the way people make meaning

ref? http://www.log24.com/log04/0305.htm fef: fauconiere http://cogsci.ucsd.edu/~faucon/ms.html (Mental Spaces) Fauconnier, G. 1985. Mental Spaces. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Third space

using not only the text, but also the context

Conversation Space

HUMlab, Umea http://blog.humlab.umu.se/therese http://www.sumofmyparts.com

'Live'-writing: weblogs and the coverage of reality

Lisbeth Klastrup (klastrup@itu.dk)

IT-University of Copenhagen

[Blogtalk Referenz]

Live Writing - > How Weblogs ameliorate the coverage of live..? "weblogs and the coverage of reality"

immediacy (vs. presence in the last talk)

24 hours of danish diary style weblogs (with translation).

<demo> a series of short messages (from SMS?) on a blog that lay out a normal day

(wake up , babysitter, [tantelila.dk])

many in danish media compare blogs to reality tv. (the author likes reality TV!) blogs are boring, compared to reality-tv the interesting in blogs is the immediacy

can we see the blog as THE live media form?

liveness = immediacy medium shall disappear, leaving the impression of presence (participation?)

web media better than previous media ? -> better than print and Tv b/c news is available immediately 24 hours/ day. Liveness is achieved through publishing very close to the happening, pointing to it with timestamps.

Bolter & Grusin: flexibility and liveness ref?:http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/~ipederse/BolterGrusin.htm

Quality of web-Liveness better, because more views

>>> live and publish, live is publish, performative dimension?

big brother (http://www.bigbrother.no/2002/frameset.html) // the real house (an experiment in living in a totally webcammed house -- http://therealhouse.com/, not sure if it's still ongoing, this was quite a few years ago -- Halcyon was at the origin of the experiment, if I remember well)

some real house links:

http://www.teacosy.net/ubb/Forum17/HTML/000036.html history: http://web.archive.org/*/http://therealhouse.com/ http://therealhouse.com

liveness = a visual strategy promises

the uncertainty aspect of liveness is part of the charm - the threat of possible disaster (uncontrollable - e.g. in this case having sex in front of the camera)

Liveness: intimicay, authenticity , unedited of the here and now (it needs to appear immediate, if not actually immediate)

Deixis: defn: http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsDeixis.htm

• Forms of Deixis

• person

• temporal

• spatial

• social

• discourse

• Codes in blogosphere

time and space of deixis Deixis blog codes: here and now, backstage self, unmediated behaviour, rushedness, contintuey of text, live tag

e.g. time stamped post of someone who peed their pants. or another blogging while drinking. posts with spelling mistakes.

combine media and language studies to get some good tools to analyse what is happening in blogs

liveness present in most blogs

Elmine Wijnia

(http://elmine.wijnia.com)

(blog at http://elmine.wijnia.com/weblog)

Master Thesis

Understanding blogs related to personal control and interaction

Look at blogs as a form of communication studies

start with the negative

- just websites - one-sided and egocentric - a hype

<< Leo: actually its about understanding how communities work. Why can't a hobbyist explain whats so great about building miniature things >>

Habermas & Van Dijk (to follow?)

Habermas - is a guiding philosopher (ref: http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/bassr/gaynor/idealsp.htm, http://www.engl.niu.edu/wac/hbrms.html)

what are qualities of good communication?
symmetry -> need ideal speach situation
- equal access to and participation in communication - no power differences - truthfulness

Information flow pattern types: - Allocution -> Traditional TV - Consultation -> Traditional websites - Registration - > questionaires, online banking - Conversation -> Internetforums

<< Leo: the conversational part has a problem there as long as anonymous commenting is available. There is no "real" conversation possible if I don't know who I am talking to. This also relates to what Mark Bernstein said this morning about the potential for flame wars. Social interaction requires to take on responsiblity. >> (nice comment)

Blogs integrate the last three information flow pattern types (Consultation, Registration, Conversation)

Communication through blogs

Aspects: Multisided Asynchronous

Capacities Selectivity: low Interactivity: low - medium <- see comment above Stimulus richness: high Information complexity: high

Blogs and Ideal Speech Situation?

1) Equal access (should be)
asynch - > time & space independant
2) no power differences

The blogger has all the power => potential problem. Often not excercised, but can be. <-- For example, there was a problem when Dave Winer changed his posts substiantially afterwards and comments suddenly looked very stupid

<< Leo: Wiki systems you get another situation. if you have a good community it works like an ant hill. Attacks are thrown back by many users of the community like the soldiers protecting the ant hill. It is important to keep and care for the community which i sometimes find difficult in a blogging context. >>

3) Acting truthfully
need context

conclusions:

1) blogs have potential for ideal speech
with conditions:
need to have interaction through comments and trackback context on the page e.g who am I (I wrote somehting on that if I can dig it out, will add link -- server down, can't check now but I think it is http://climbtothestars.org/writing/blogospheriques/ [fr]) caveat: power differences in organisational blogging1
2) speed up interactivity -> blogs serves as communication hub
improves judgement truthfulness dialog leads to networks
3) Potential for 3 formal world perspectives:
Objectivity - sharing knowledge e.g universities Intersubjectivity - normative settings, e.g. politics <- Thinks as most important [FYI Canadian primeminister had a blog for a while http://canadaonline.about.com/b/a/004680.htm] Subjectivity: self-expression e.g journals
4) Weblogs are a new medium
Communication und networks The potential has not yet been understood

<< Leo: About potential: it needs more communication between different scientific areas. There are solutions available sometimes you don't know of.>>

DISCUSSION

Lilia: what is impt for people describing the rich practices of those publishing to the web? (did I get this?) (no idea -- anybody?) Not me

Steph: multiple channels (or media). LK: is interested in moblogs and thier impact on style of blogging.. possibly generate new needs EW: dialog (on a blog) needs the appropriate tools.

this unevenness in features contrbutes to the diversity of blogs (and authors intentions)

<<<<<< But what are the methods these tools need to support?

MB: standard features of blogs? standard ways of displaying these features. e.g an about me.

EW: a lot of bloggers try to blog anonymous "feeling safe", but it is important to get to know the blogger -> about-page << Leo: in the days of google you are no longer really safe no, I wrote something about that too somewhere >>

Therese: the posts should also tell you about the author Steph: truth comes through in the posts (and their consistancy)

Phil: what advice on tools would you give (e.g to Ben and Mena) to improve sense of immediacy?

Therese: audio tools, tools for synchronous communication

LK: oligo
Steph: audblogs -> audioblogs (US service - would be nice to have a Euro version)

some "rendez-vous" for websites -- allow you to get in touch immediately with people who are also browsing the site. I am a big fan of Rendezvous. I'm discovering it and I'm already a fan.

EW: "I am using movable type, because my boyfriend is a geek" <<<<< Exactly my point, thats what my diploma-thesis will be about

<< Leo: some systems have something like this: Logged in Users: (4) leo der Dennis ryan Googlebot … and 93 Guests

Now add a "chat" button and you get more connectivity >>

>> Problem with that is you need to "log in" (Users at snipsnap.org are automatically logged in after they have "once" registered.) -> typekey-like thing?

Links to write-ups for this panel

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