From Eunice

1. Educational Applications of CMCS: Solving Case Studies through Asynchronous Learning Networks
http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol4/issue3/benbunan-fich.html

2. Document-centered Peer Collaborations:
An Exploration of the Educational Uses of Networked Communication Technologies
http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol4/issue3/gay.html

links for lit review

Computer-Mediated Communication: An Interpersonal Mass Medium

http://research.haifa.ac.il/~jmjaffe/genderpseudocmc/cmc.html


and..
http://www.cybercorp.net/rhiggins/thesis/higlitb.html

RRRREEEESSSEEEAAARRRCCCHHH.

http://www.google.com.sg/search?q=cache:JwFfXtopj0gJ:kitkat.wvu.edu:8080/files/3645.2.Casanova_Ana_dissertation.pdf+popularity+computer+mediated+communication++various+OR+forms+OR+many+OR+types+site:.edu+filetype:pdf&hl=en&lr=lang_en
: Analysis of CMC technologies as tools to enhance learning.

http://www.google.com.sg/search?q=cache:xMS7paP6vMsJ:www.american.edu/tesol/wpsquires.pdf+popularity+computer+mediated+communication++various+OR+forms+OR+many+OR+types+site:.edu+filetype:pdf&hl=en&lr=lang_en:
In particular, about the popularity of IM among American teenagers.

more more

w00t

sociology culture and what not

BINGO

THE MAGIC LINK TO MUCH JOY AND GOODNESS

woohooooo

On to Quantitative! Tra ta ta taaaaa!! *flourish*

Like, ok galfriends, (PK included) , there's like this really awesome book we like sooo should've picked up for qualitative but like oh my God, we so totally didn't! What a bummer! *ahem* But anyway it's got a whole load of stuff relevant for our quant...so, exerpts from Computer-Mediated Commmunication: Human-to-Human Communication Across the Internet, by Susan B. Barnes. (2003) It's a very simple book to read, I think we should all have a look at it if we can. Useful. Anyway,

p.5:
"Internet genres:
-Simple e-mail exchange (similar to a phone call, two people exchange messages.)
-Mailing list/discussion group (A consistent multiple-user interaction that occurs over a long period of time. Core group members may remain the same as others join and leave the list. Over time, members can begin to bond as they share a sense of communual space.)
-Bulletin boards/forums/newsgroups (A more complicated social interaction with an increased sense of space)
-Real-time chat/IRC chat (Conversations are more fluid and overlapping because they occur in close to real time. A sense of being in the same room with other people is created. the "room" metaphor makes it easier to perceive a sense of space.
-Instant messenger (Short conversations that occur in close to real time. IMs are often exchanged between people who know each other through face-t-face situations, such as family members and friends.
-Multiplayer games/MUDs/MOOs (The use of characters and the structure of these games fosters complex group dynamics and adds a stronger element of fantasy to online interactions.)
-Webpages (In contrast to the other genres that are text=only interactions, Web pages add pictures, graphics, sounds, and movies to the Internet experience. Many Web pages are designed to present rather than exchange information. However, discussion and chat features can be incorporated into page designs.)"

**
Viv's note: I'm thinking the second last category may not be so relevant, and the last one can be substituted for blogs, which as we have seen before encourage two-way interaction to some extent.
**

p.17:
Definition of interpersonal mediated communication, according to Gumpert and Cathcart (1986):
"any person-to-person interaction where a medium has been interposed to transcend the limitations of time and space"

pp.18-19:
"Although CMC correspondents are physically separated, interpersonal relationships do develop through the Internet. In some instances, levels of affection and emotion that develop through CM relationships can equal or surpas face-to-face relationships. Walther (1996) calls this phenomenon hyperpersonal communication. Hyperpersonal CMC occurs when CMC 'is more socially desirable than we tend to experience in parallel FtF[Face-to-Face] interaction' (p.17)"

p.105:
"Language Usage and CMC
...A study conducted by Murphy and Collins (1997) revealed that students develop and carry out their own linguistic conventions to help them make meaning out of text-based exchanges...Students used acronyms, graphic accents, and paralinguistic cues to more clearly communicate with each other.
Murray (1991) studied office workers to explore how they use CMC. She discovered that CMC provides another communication option. Some people will use e-mail instead of face-to-face meetings or the telephone. For example, a quick, simple request for information is easily done through e-mail, but long, detailed explanations are better given in a face-to-face meeting. CMC is also a preferred method for requests for action because people do not need to spend extra time engaging in social niceties. Additionally, e-mail is more permanent and it keeps a record of the conversation. Finally, e-mail allows people to think before they reply, something that is difficult to do in face-to-face meetings. Although CMC provides another way for people to communicate with each other, communication patterns tend to follow the same gender styles that exist in face-to-face settings."

**
Viv's note: There's an entire chapter here on Internet Interpersonal relationships. Excessively relevant, but I haven't looked through the whole thing yet. I'll get little bits out of it as soon as I've read it through...

Will try to find other stuff more relevant...I need time to think through our hypothesis and research questions first though. Will be Bach. I have a Handel on the situation, don't you worry. Ahahaha.

Outline of Findings.

Still subject to change but this is roughly how I'm structuring it. Expect it in your mail boxes at an unearthly hour tonight.

interpersonal comms:
1. for different audiences: general and particular
2. complements/substitutes
a) daily interaction
b) other forms of CMC
3. Issues of responsiveness, power and liking (I may not use this point)peer pressure/influence:

Peer pressure/influence:
1. the initial reason for many to even start considering keeping blogs
2. subsequently becomes the reason they update frequently (either overt pressure or internal pressure)
3. In one case, peer pressure actually changes the reason for blogging
4. All in all, issues of personal climate (motivator or demotivator to blog)

intrapersonal communication:
Regeneration :: Before you learn to clean up shit, you learn to swim in shit says:
1. personal journalling
a. For the sake of personal history
b. for the sake of forging identity
2. self expression (not just of feelings or thoughts, but also of opinions)

and lastly, exposure to internet/computers (but this point truly has me scratching my head, it seems completely inconsequential. What do y'all think? )

Changes to questions

Recent changes made.
Title remains "Blogging in Singapore"

Research questions changed to
What motivates Singaporeans (18-23) to blog?

Sub-questions
How does peer influence affect Singaporeans' motivation to blog?
How does the need for interpersonal communication affect Singaporeans to blog?
How does the need for intrapersonal communication affect Singaporeans to blog?
How does exposure/access to internet affect Singaporeans' motivation to blog?

PK out

Workload

Divison of labour goes like this...

Cover page - Eunice
Abstract - Yoon Lin
Introduction - Eunice
Literature Review - Everyone (around half a page each person)
Method - Eunice
Findings - Vivenne
Discussions / Conclusions - PK
References - Yoon Lin
Appendix - PK
Press Release - Yoon Lin
Powerpoint Presentation - PK
Compilation - PK

I didn't decide this, Eunice and Viv sitting across me did. We is a democratic people though, and if you don't like what you are supposed to do, just let us know. (us meaning viv and eunice heh heh heh)

Report Format

Hello all.
Report format is out.
After we split the workload, try (no don't try just do it) to do up the report in the following format so that we can organise the final report easier.


Introduction
Definitions/parameters
Research questions / subjects
Why you did the project / Why the topic?

Literature review
History of blogging
Motivation to blog
Why the growing popularity / preference for blogs
Implications of blogs

Method
Medium: In-depth interview
Profile of interviewees à who we interviewed, and why we chose them

Findings
Reason for blogging?
Peer influence / pressure
Interpersonal communication (reaching out to friends / other people)
. General others (general public)
. Particular others (specific groups of friends, etc)
Intrapersonal communication
Access of exposure to computers / internet

more links dee da dee

http://blog.holtz.com/
a shel of my former self - page contents mainly related to online PR, pretty interesting consider how it's a blog by itself

http://arago.cprost.sfu.ca/marcelo/
technology, self and community - "think I've honestly made a contribution to Internet studies specifically and communication studies generally by showing how we can reacquaint ourselves, as an emerging discipline of communication, with our humanist roots" - jackpot, this guy's actually doing a thesis pretty similar to our topic. ANOTHER blog by itself.

http://blog.humlab.umu.se/therese/
emerging communications - mainly about CMC, also in blog format

http://www.newmediastudies.com/intro2004.htm
web studies - website about this book written by david gauntlett - talks about the internet in the first few paras, origins, etc. not very relevant to our studies. the interesting part comes further down the page, when he talks about going back to the basics of internet (primarily a communicative tool) and the rise of blogging. "The most striking thing about these recent debates is that it's all so … 1996! Blogging is a good old-style use of the internet, and thus we see just the same debates as when the first personal homepages were put on the Web in the early to mid 1990s. Those in favour see these things as 'democratic' and a chance for everyone to 'have their say'. The critics, usually professional print journalists who do not want to be usurped by the new technology, condemn the phenomenon as a sandpit for the rambling amateur."

Check out your CS111 notes...PAYDIRT!

Ok, not quite. But check through your stack of CS111 readings and you'll find quite a fair bit of material concerning the internet, and in particular a thesis by Tracy Loh called "The Internet and Interpersonal Communication: An exploratory study". Haven't read through it yet but it looks promising. And it'll be our first piece of non-digital research too. Hurrah!