Chapter 8 Networking and Digital Communication

Two Faces of Facebook’s Social Engineering

March 1, 2015

in -Cross Currents, 8.7 Social Networks, 9.1 Inside the Internet, 9.3 Internet Issues: Ethical and Political Dilemmas

Facebook made lots of headlines a few months ago when people discovered that their news feeds had been manipulated for research purposes. Many people were shocked that they’d been unwitting participants in massive social science studies. But similar research at Facebook has also been used to help the company to determine how to best help customers deal with unwanted posts. This Radiolab program explores the light and dark sides of Facebook’s gigantic social engineering projects.

www.radiolab.org/story/trust-engineers/

Tagged as: Facebook, privacy, research, social engineering, Social Networks

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Email Lessons We Wish We Didn’t Have to Learn the Hard Way

January 10, 2014

in -Context, 8.5 Interpersonal Computing: From Communication to Communities

unequal Email is a necessary part of everyday life today. This cartoon-illustrated article outlines many of the most uncomfortable aspects of email, and provides suggestions for minimizing discomfort.

waitbutwhy.com/2013/12/11-awkward-things-about-email.html

Tagged as: email, netiquette

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Is the Dollar an Endangered Species?

August 6, 2013

When you get past all of the emotional trappings, your money is nothing more than a symbol of value, and it’s only as good as the trust we place in it. This TED talk suggests that we may be headed into an era of multiple monies.

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The Internet Isn’t Just for People Anymore

July 25, 2013

The Internet was conceived as a way of connecting computers, but its inventors quickly realized that the Internet was a way of connecting people. Now one of those founders, Vint Cerf, is working with Peter Gabriel, Diana Reiss, Neil Gershendfeild, and others to bring dolphins, bonobos, elephants, and other species into the Internet community. This TED talk gives us a peek at the early stages of a research project that could profoundly change our relationship with non-human inhabitants of our planet—and possibly other planets.

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Collaboration on Collaboration

July 22, 2013

The Internet makes it possible for people to collaborate on a massive scale, working together to accomplish tasks that might otherwise be impossible. The world of online collaboration is changing rapidly—and changing our lives in the process. Many TED talks and NPR podcasts have helped us to understand the applications and implications of collaborative technology. In this fascinating radio program, TED and NPR collaborate to explore collaboration by combining excerpts from several TED talks with interviews and commentary.

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Five Minutes, Ten Tips. How Many Hours Will You Save?

May 3, 2013

David Pogue is one of the most prolific–and entertaining–tech writers we know. In this short TED talk, he runs through a list of tips that can save you time every day.

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Android Phones Show a New Face(book)

April 5, 2013

Rumors of a Facebook phone have rattled around the tech world for quite a while. Today Facebook announced not a a phone, but software that can convert many Android phones into Facebook machines. Facebook is available in app form on most smart phones. But the new Facebook Home software will replace the Android home screen with a Facebook-centered home, making it possible for social networkers to keep Facebook at the center of their phone experiences.

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A Human Statue Talks about Crowdfunding

March 20, 2013

Crowdfunding—funding a project by asking many people for small contributions—has exploded in popularity because of Internet tools and social networks. Crowdfunding is being used to fund high-tech ventures, microbusinesses, charities, and artistic expressions. In this entertaining, moving TED talk, musician Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls talks about a dimension of crowdfunding that’s rarely discussed: the emotional connections that happen when we ask friends, fans, or strangers for what we need. She argues that Internet tools aren’t as important as our attitude about asking.

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The Flash inside the Cloud

March 19, 2013

When you post something on Facebook, stream a movie from Netflix, or share data with Dropbox, you’re using “the cloud.” Apple’s iCloud makes it possible for 250 million people to store their music, appointments, and documents “out there” and effortlessly access them via iPhones, iPads, Macs, and other digital devices. But what, and where, is the cloud, and how does it work?

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Faster than the Speed of Money

February 21, 2013

NPR’s Radiolab is radio at its best—entertaining, informative, provocative. This episode will change the way you think about time and speed. One segment reveals the surprising truth about the relative speeds of the human nervous system and the Internet, and the a critical role of speed in today’s computer-controlled financial marketplace.

radiolab.org/2013/feb/05

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