Virtual Communities and Social Media Syllabus

Course Description

Expectations, Assignments, and Grading

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Class Schedule:

Session One: Tuesday, September 24, 2007

Theme: When technology and community collide

Class: Discuss syllabus, understand expectations and assignments, get started with social media

Lab: Introduction to Online Media

Wiki I
Blog I

Assignments:

• Read the assigned readings for Session Two and be prepared to discuss them in class on October 8 and discuss them online until then
  
• Compose two blog posts per week for the next two weeks; posts should point to something on the Web that is worthy of this class' attention, described in the context of the readings
• Sign up on the wiki for two syllabus readings for which you will lead discussion, together with two other students, starting with Session Three, our next face to face class meeting. Each reading will be presented by a team of three students, who will communicate and coordinate among themselves and come to class prepared to present a brief summary of the reading and to lead discussion, working from questions submitted by students.
  
• Sign up for and participate in the email discussion for two weeks after the first class

Session Two: Class Meeting Online Only, Sept 25-Oct 9

NO FACE-TO-FACE CLASS MEETING ON OCTOBER 2

Theme: Imagining community and discussing it virtually

Required Readings:

• George Hillery Jr. (1955).  "Definitions of Community: Areas of Agreement." Rural Sociology 20: 111-122. [READER ONLY]
• Ronald E. Rice, James E. Katz, Sophia Acord, Kiku Dasgupta, Kalpana David,92004) "Personal Mediated Communication and the Concept of Community in Theory and Practice," in P. Kalbfleisch (ed), Communication and Community, Communication Yearbook 28, Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp 1-10 (attached)
  
• Tönnies on Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft [Community and Society: Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft by Ferdinand Tonnies, translated and edited by Charles P. Loomis, pp. 223-231. Copyright 1957, The Michigan State University Press.] [Page numbers TK]
  
• Marshall Berman, All That is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity, 1988  (New York, Penguin), pp 41-60. [READER ONLY]
  
• Ray Oldenberg, The Great Good Place , Chapters One and Two [Page numbers TK] [READER ONLY]

Recommended Readings:

• Robin Hamman, Introduction to Virtual Communities Research and Cybersociology Magazine Issue Two, available online.
• Amy Bruckman, (2006), "A New Perspective on "Community" and its Implications for Computer-Mediated Communication Systems," In Proceedings of the 2006 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Extended Abstracts (pp. 616-621). Montréal, Québec, 22-27 April, 2006.   available online.

Assignments:

• Participate in online discussion of readings via email list -- instructor will initiate discussion; each student is expected to respond to each discussion question
• Continue to blog twice and comment on other students' blog posts twice each week
  

Key Questions To Keep In Mind:

• What is community?
• What does "what is community" mean?
• What is the value of community?
• Can community be studied, analyzed, designed, grown, or created?

Session Three: Class Resumes Face to Face Tues, Oct 9

Theme: Roots and origins of social cyberspace

Required Readings:

• Licklider, J. C. R., & R. W. Taylor. (1968). "The computer as a communication device," Science and Technology, April. Republished in SRC Research Report 61, Digital Equipment Corporation, 1990. Available online as PDF
• Howard Rheingold, (1992) "A Slice of Life in My Virtual Community," available online.
• Howard Rheingold, (1993) "The Heart of The Well," from The Virtual Community, available online.
  
• Fred Turner, "Where the counterculture met the new economy: the WELL and the origins of virtual community," Technology and Culture, Volume 46, Number 3, July 2005, pp. 485-512 available online as PDF.

Recommended Readings:

• Howard Rheingold, (1985) "Xanadu, Network Culture, and Beyond,"  Tools for Thought. Available online.

Lab: Deeper into social media

• Blogging II
• Wiki II
• Introduction to Forum Software and Sociality
  

Assignments

• Sign up to refactor notes
• Start your personal learning journal
• Continue blogging
• Log in to the forum and contribute two substantial comments per week

Key Questions To Keep In Mind:

• How did the invention and early use of computer-mediated communication media differ from the way mainframe computer technology and culture developed?
  
• In what ways did the predictions of Taylor, Licklider, and Rheingold about the future of online culture hit or miss the mark of today's social cyberspaces?
  
• Did a counterculture subvert the megamachine, or the other way around?
  

Session Four: Tues, Oct 16

Theme: Networks, social networks, and online social networks

Required Readings:

• Manuel Castells, "Why Networks Matter," Network Logic: Who Governs in an Interconnected World?, Helen McCarthy, Paul Miller, Paul Skidmore, eds, London: Demos, 2004, pp 221-224; available online.
  
• D. J. Watts. The “new” science of networks. Annual Review of Sociology, 30, 243-270 (2004). available online.
  
• Wellman, B., Salaff, J., Dimitrova, D., Garton, L., Gulia, M., and C. Haythornthwaite. (1996.) Computer Networks as Social Networks: Virtual Community, Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Telework. Annual Review of Sociology 22: 213-38. available online.

Recommended Readings:

• Mark Granovetter, "The Strength of Weak Ties, A Network Theory Revisited," Sociological Theory, Volume 1 (1983), 201-233 available online.

Lab

• Wiki III
• Twitter
• Facebook
  

Assignments

• Use the comment features of your group's wiki page to continue your classroom discussion of your project; revise the wiki page and add linked pages if needed to reflect your decisions.

Key Questions To Keep In Mind:

• What is the relationship between technological and social networks?
  
• What is the relationship between the architecture of a communication medium and the social, political, economic characteristics of its use?
  
• Why are online social networks popular today and what might they mean in the future?

Refactored class notes for October 16

Session Five: Tues, October 23

Theme: Collective action and technologies of cooperation

Required Readings:

• Garrett Hardin, (1968) "The Tragedy of the Commons," Science, 162(1968):1243-1248. available online.
• Peter Kollock, "Social Dilemmas: The Anatomy of Cooperation," available online.
  
• Elinor Ostrom, [excerpts  TK from Governing the Commons and summaries from cooperationcommons]
  
• Robert Axelrod, [excerpts  TK from The Evolution of Cooperation]
• Robert Axelrod, "Three Conditions for Human Cooperation." available online
  
• Andrea Saveri, Howard Rheingold, Kathi Vian, Technologies of Cooperation, a report for Institute for the Future, 2003, available online.

Recommended Readings:

• Mancur Olson, [excerpts  TK from The Logic of Collective Action]
• Peter Kollock, "The Economics of Online Cooperation: Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace," in Smith and Kollock, Communities in Cyberspace, available online.

Lab

• Cooperation games
• Synchronous media -- IM, Presence, and Chat

Assignments

• IM/Chat with instructor and other students during online office hours (TBS)

Key Questions To Keep In Mind:

• How do social dilemmas figure in daily life?
  
• In what ways do communication media and practices influence the capability to organize collective action?
  
• Are humans successful because we are competitive, cooperative, or some as-yet undefined tendency?
  

Refactored class notes for October 23

Session Six: Tues, October 30

Theme: Identity -- onscreen and off

Required Readings:

• Sherry Turkle, (1995) "Aspects of the Self," Chapter Seven from Life On The Screen, Simon & Schuster, pp 177-210(READER ONLY)
• Erving Goffman, excerpt from Presentation of Self in Everyday Life , Introduction and Chapter One,  (pp TK) [READER ONLY]
  
• Julian Dibbell, (1998). A Rape in Cyberspace. In My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World (pp. 11-30). New York: Henry Holt and Company. available online.
• danah boyd, 2006. "Identity Production in a Networked Culture: Why Youth Heart MySpace." American Association for the Advancement of Science, St. Louis, MO. February 19. available online
  

Recommended Readings:

• Donath, J. (1999). "Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community," In M. A. Smith & P. Kollock (Eds.), Communities in Cyberspace (pp. 29-59). New York: Routledge. available online.
  
• Regina Lynn, "Virtual rape is traumatic, but is it a crime?," Wired, May 4, 2007, available online.
  
• Rheingold Mind-to-Mind with Sherry Turkle available online.
  

Lab

• Introduction to Second Life

Assignments

• Create and customize a Second Life avatar and explore the world, blog about your observations
• Participate in an online tour of Second Life

Key Questions To Keep In Mind:

• What is the connection between identity and performance online?
  
• How do we distinguish between virtual social interactions between avatars and physical social interactions between people? How should we?
  
• What does the immersion in an always-on life do to human minds, relationships, communities?
  

Refactored class notes for October 30

Session Seven: Tues, November 6

Theme: Designing and Maintaining Online Communities

Required Readings:

• John Coate, "Cyberspace Innkeeping: Building Online Community," available online.
  
• Peter Kollock,  (1996), "Design Principles for Online Communities," Harvard Conference on the Internet and Society. available online.
• Amy Jo Kim, (2000) "Purpose: The Heart of Your Community," from Community Building on the Web, Peachpit Press, pp 1-18, available online.
• Amy Jo Kim, (2000), "Nine Principles of Community Design," attached.
  
• Howard Rheingold, (1999), "The Art of Hosting Good Conversations Online," available online.

Recommended Readings:

• The WELL Host Manual, chapter two, available online.
• Chip Morningstar and F. Randall Farmer, "Lessons from Lucasfilms Habitat,", available online.
  

Lab

• Second Life and First Life

Assignments

• During the following week, meet at agreed times in Second Life.

Key Questions To Keep In Mind:

• What are the continuities and discontinuities between community-building in virtual and physical worlds?
  
• What is the tension between planning and growing when dealing with human social behavior?
  
• How do graphical simulations such as Second Life avatars affect how you think of yourself online, how people interact socially

Refactored class notes for November 6

Session Eight: Tues, November 13

Theme: Social capital

Readings:

• Robert Putnam, excerpt from Making Democracy Work (TK)
  
• Paul Resnick, (2007) "Beyond Bowling Together: Sociotechnical Capital" HCI in the New Millenium, edited by John Carroll. Addison-Wesley attached.
  
• T. Kobayashi, T, K. i. Ikeda and K. Miyata (2006) "Social Capital Online: Collective Use of the Internet and Reciprocity as Lubricants of Democracy", Information, Communication & Society, 9 (5), pp. 582-611.    available online.
• Ronald Burt, "Social Origins of Good Ideas," available online.

Lab: Media sharing

Assignments

Key Questions To Keep In Mind:

• What is the relationship between community and democracy?
  
• What can only be done alone, and what requires collective action?
  
• Do networks of trust and reciprocity work better or worse in the always-on era?
  

Refactored class notes for November 13

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THANKSGIVING BREAK

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Session Nine: Tues, November 27

Theme: Psychology of life online

Readings:

• John Suler, Basic Psychological Features of Cyberspace, available online.
  
• K. Ling,  Beenen, G., Ludford, P., Wang, X., Chang, K., Cosley, D., Frankowski, D., Terveen, L., Rashid, A. M., Resnick, P., and Kraut, R. (2005). "Using social psychology to motivate contributions to online communities." Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 10(4), article 10. available online.
• Sherry Turkle (2007), "Can You Hear Me Now," Forbes, May 7, 2007 http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2007/0507/176.html
• Something from Rich Ling
  

Lab

Assignments

Key Questions To Keep In Mind:

• How do your digital media and online social practices affect the way you think?
• Where does social cyberspace collide with physical sociality in your life, or in the lives of others?
  
• How do you determine whether life online is happier than life without the online part?
  

Refactored class notes for November 27

Session Ten: Tues, December 4

Theme: Virtual Community and Real Life

Required Readings:

• Henry Jenkins, "How Second Life Impacts our First Life" (blog posting) available online.
• danah boyd, (2007) "Incantations for Muggles," Presentation at O'Reilly Emerging Technologies Conference, February. available online.
  
• Christian Fuchs,  (2006) "The Self-Organization of Virtual Communities," In: Journal of New Communications Research. Vol. 1. No. 1. pp. 29-68. attached
  

Recommended Readings:

• Barry Wellman, "Physical Place and Cyber Place: The Rise of Personalized Networking," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 25 (2001), Special Issue on "Networks, Class and Place," edited by Talja Blokland and Mike Savage. available online.
  

Lab:

• Group Presentations
• Discussion: How can this course work better?

Key Questions To Keep In Mind:

• Does the shift from community-centric media to networked individualism online (from virtual communities to social network services, from BBSs to blogs, from Usenet to Google Groups) signal a psychosocial shift?
  
• What is the connection between attentional, social, and normative considerations?
  
• Are you different from your parents because of the way you use media, and will your children be different from you?
  

Refactored class notes for November 13