The interpersonal nature of blogs

http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/stefanone.html

The Economist Debate on Social "Networking"

http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2008/01/15/the_economist_d.html

I'll come back to this one, from dana boyd, in due course. I think it's important I frame what is included in what I'll focus on my thesis.

The Fractalization of the Public and Private

I sense my thesis will address the issue of what constitutes the private and public. Social networking and social networks can be particularly problematic when it comes to defining what is a private or public space.

As Patricia Lange points out, a number of scholars draw the private and public divide without defining what is meant by these terms. Warren and Brandeis' (actually it was the judge, but we'll let that slide) said that privacy was the "right to be let alone". Perhaps this was an easy way to define privacy back then, but defining the notion of a private space is a complex undertaking.

Lange argues that spaces are fractal in that there component parts take on the nature of the context in which they are situated. She provides the example of a home which, to the community is a private space, but within the home there are both private and public spaces. Lange refers to Gal (2002) who proposes that spaces can be defined as both private and public dependant on the perspective of the observer at the time of the observation. In other words, what is a private space at one point of a day may become public at another - a public toilet is no longer a public space when in use.

Lange suggests YouTube videos are posted in a similarly fractalised manner as publicly private (where people post videos that are potentially available to a very wide audience but use the software and coded tags as a way to make the videos fact difficult to find and view except for close friends) and privately public (where people post public videos but actively hide or disguise their identities in the movies and/or their profiles). One such example provided by Lange is that of MadV who actively takes steps to disguise his identity both in the video and an his profile but presents videos that have broad appeal to a wide audience.

In the context of research into the issue of sovereignty between organisations and employees, much of the parry and thrust of the debate must occur in the realm of what constitutes a public space. Does a blog intended for the writer's family and friends become a public space because it can be found - albeit with some effort - by members of a wider audience? And what rights do companies have to dictate what is said inside walled gardens, such as Facebook? If a person takes active steps to disguise the identity of the subjects of the blog or the writer?

Gal, S. (2002). A semiotics of the public/private distinction. Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies, 13 (1), 77-95.

A couple of beauties

A couple of beauties
Originally uploaded by peterfletcher38

Rita and Kaz at the Queen's. Hot looking pair, huh?

Thesis statement

In working on being clear on what my thesis is going to be I recently posted an article about what was meant by social network sites. Much of this article was based on the work of dana boyd, and whilst useful, it really doesn't serve the purpose and the direction of my thesis. Let me explain.

My thesis is going to focus on the battle for sovereignty between individuals and employers as evidenced by the extent to which an employer can control what an employer says or does on a social networking site. To make the definition of social network/ing too narrow I will remove sites such as YouTube, flickr, RSVP, and Youporn, along with blogs and wikis. All these sites utilise collaborative, social software, and all provide the user with the ability to publish.

It is the act of publishing the self that is at the heart of the battle for sovereignty. If the issue were merely one of lost productivity my thesis would best be addressed through a legal framework - it is well tested that companies can direct what activities are conducted on their corporate networks. However, the waters become very much murkier when we start addressing how far an organisation can go in directing the private activities of an employee.

These activities are only ever problematic when they become public; and it is the public nature of social networking that makes these issues so interesting for businesses. Really, therefore, any media which an employee might utilise to publish becomes relevant in this regard (and I think that's a point that's worth making in the thesis) but it's the nature of self-publishing on the Internet - ubiquitous, public, permanent, replicable - that makes such technologies so fascinating for individuals and so concerning for employers.

Leading from this clarification I will say that it is "the-self publication" software that will be the focus of my thesis. That is to say, any software that allows an individual to publish any aspect of the self to an online audience. I'm confident this early definition is in some way problematic, but I think it's a useful start. It includes the sites and software genres mentioned above, but it excludes print media and public demonstrations (although I'm sure the same "battle for sovereignty" thesis could be proposed).

Cisco emraces social networking - others not so sure

A recent article on Times Online points out that tech firm Cisco actively encourages their employees to get involved with social networking. The company is reported to have built their own social networking and collaboration platforms that they claim improves innovation and speeds product development. Cisco management, the article suggests, is unfazed by the possible loss of productivty that has lead to many companies implementing a blanket ban on social networking sites.

Such a ban, the article reports, may be a knee-jerk reaction by people who fail to understand the business benefits. The author points out that banning social networking may be inconsistent in that many companies presume to invade on the private lives of employees through the Internet bringing work to a person's home - but the same companies have issues when people bring their private lives to work.

"Others make the point that bans on bringing one’s personal life into work time are a bit rich when companies now harness the internet to such effect that employees can never entirely escape from work."

The article also points out that the conflict between social networking and employment predates the techhnology that brought with it social networking sites. It shows that social networking - company golf days for example - has been an important part of business life for a very long time.

The long tail of social networking

I'm in the throws of reading Chris Anderson's book, The Long Tail, a story of an Australian bush kangaroo - kidding, OK? - and got to thinking that a power law may exist in the world of social networking. Such a power law (1/x) may show up in the amount of time spent on SNS activity and the threat to a business as a result of SN activity may follow a similar power law. For example the threat to a business of the most dangerous post is twice as much as that of the next most threatening and three times that of the following etc.

Not sure if this will go anywhere but thought I'd jot it down anyway.