Category Archives: Team Post

Listen Up, Can Anyone Hear Us?

To prepare for Thursday’s synthesis presentations, those of us that like to be Too Disruptive would like for you to do two things. First, take a look at Sam Richards’s Ted Talk,  “A Radical Experiment in Empathy.”

Then, we would like for you to take a brief, semi-anonymous quiz. Especially since this is such a small class, we hope that everyone gets a chance to take the quiz (even Cole). Also, please do so no later than Thursday at noon so we will have time to compile the results.

Click here to take the brief quiz, Making ‘My’ Way Downtown

[We] Identify as Disruptive Too

A person’s identity indicates something about them. As a set of social classifications, identity is created by viewing two or more people or groups in relation to one another (oneself is included). Identity  is a paradox in two ways.

First,  it is constantly in flux, but at the same time, suggests an ever-developing constant within a person. How someone chooses to identify his/herself (or someone else) can change over time; there can be momentary or long-term changes. For example:

  • Momentary: Role as friend takes precedence over role as student if a friend is in a car accident.
  • Long-Term: Gender or sexuality can fluctuate over time.

Second, a person’s understanding of their own identity affects the lens through which they view his/herself and others.

 

Reaction to Week 6 readings – Team Right Shark

Early on Wenger mentioned “We define who we are by the ways we experience ourselves through participation as well as by the ways we and others reify ourselves.” Far too often people say nobody affects who they are as a person. To which we would argue is not true. The way we define our identity has a lot to do with the world around us and how we react and respond to other people asserting their identity.
In the Wenger reading I got caught up in the way trajectory was defined. The world is more networked than it has ever been before, so it makes sense how we, as people identify become networked as well. Wenger suggests trajectory in not a fixed path nor is it a fixed destination but continuous motion. The former definition of trajectory falls more in line with past definitions of identity, static and rigid. Thinking about how you can have “multiple” identities thanks to the power of anonymity on the Internet a more fluid definition of identity works. A definition where you are not only identify with your physical characteristics, but also your interest, your thoughts, and the content you create.

An interesting part of Youth, Identity, and Digital Culture was the dichotomy between Giddens’s and Foucault’s views. The true nature of identity probably lies somewhere in between these two opposing philosophies. The individual is shaped by societal norms and constricted by society’s expectations, which can be both good and bad. Society deems what is acceptable behavior, which can act as a chilling effect on undesirable behavior but also any behavior at all that deviates from the norm. The Internet just accelerates this process by providing a more effective feedback loop.

Right Shark – Video post

We chose YouTube as our disruptive medium.  Since YouTube was created 10 years ago, 300 hours of video are uploaded to the site every minute. (source).

YouTube disrupts traditional television stations and contributes to “cord-cutting” by providing an alternative source of content, one where anyone can produce as well as consume. It can even deliver a replacement for the “10 foot experience” using YouTube Leanback, which allows videos to be viewed on a TV and controlled using a smartphone.

http://youtu.be/I_mXZtYgTfo

/r/McLuhan Drives a Ford

McLuhan:

  • The problem of using old tools in a new world. Linear understanding / experience of knowledge (through reading) VS. immersive epistemology, connectivity, and multi-modal discourse.
  • Truly living in the present involves embracing modulating and advancing forms of technology. These adapting technologies began with what people called quill and paper, but was really random access memory. We don’t really know anything… we have it stored for later reference.

 

Ford:

  • Who is in control of your information, and are you okay with it?
  • “The web is not, despite the desires of so many, a publishing medium. The web is a customer service medium. ‘Intense moderation’ in a customer service medium is what ‘editing’ was for publishing.”
  • “That’s what I tell my Gutenbourgeois friends, if they’ll listen. I say: Create a service experience around what you publish and sell. Whatever “customer service” means when it comes to books and authors, figure it out and do it. Do it in partnership with your readers. Turn your readers into members. Not visitors, not subscribers; you want members.” This speaks volumes about business, post-Web 2.0. By creating a community interested in what is being peddled, the community has the potential to influence the future direction of the product which makes it more suitable for that community.

 

Thoughts:

We now see Reddit as a CoP, whereas before, we only viewed subreddits as this type of community. Redditors constantly ask WWIC? People want to not only ask questions, but be heard as well. Reddit offers a medium through which crowd-sourcing information from hundreds of people is available.

The medium is the Massage – Team post – Right Shark

The Medium is the Massage – Core idea 1: Technology acting as an extension of the body/ senses with the electrical system being an extension of the nervous system allowing what was once the public to now act as the mass.

The Medium is the Massage – Core idea 2: “Now, with TV and folk singing, thought and action are closer and social involvement is greater. We again live in a village. Get it?”

“Electrical information devices for universal, tyrannical womb-to tomb surveillance are causing a very serious dilemma between our claim to privacy and the community’s need to know”

-Quotes from reading

The Web is a Customer Service Medium – Core idea 1: WWIC- individuals have a desire and need to express opinions, thoughts and feeling on everything and the web provides a unique medium where this is possible.

The Web is a Customer Service Medium – Core idea 2: there are three levels to a website with the”like” option at the foundation. Apps attempt to bridge the gap between the businesses finding a way to profit while still appealing to the WWIC mass.

Discuss them in the context of both community and identity

The web allows for a return to the tribal notion of community where instant discussion is possible. What used to be our private  Identity is now public and our identity Is less fluid because once something has been expressed on the web it is not easy to retract and it is possible for someone to go back and view every mistake you have made despite the fact that as a person you grow and change over time.

Do you feel differently about your team video now that you have read McLuhan’s ?

I think it’s interesting  that we are making a video about YouTube on YouTube.  We are massaging the medium.

Readings for Synthesis Presentation – Too Disruptive

Please complete the following readings before class on Thursday.

Related to Cluetrain Manifesto:

  • http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2009/03/cluetrain-manifesto-still-relevant-10-years-later086/

    While reading, think about what theses from the original Cluetrain Manifesto (1999) are still relevant today. Which theses are no longer relevant in 2015?

  • We will also be watching a scene from the 1986 film Jumpin Jack Flash during class. You do not need to watch the movie as a homework assignment, as we will just be showing a short clip during our presentation.

Wenger Readings:

http://wenger-trayner.com/resources/are-the-new-web-2-0-technologies-relevant/

http://wenger-trayner.com/resources/online-communities-of-practice/