[taxonomy of social network services]

Recently Christophe Prieur shared with the AoIR list this interesting take on a taxonomy of social network services. According to him, he's tried to "map" the various services along two trajectories. Going left to right is the notion of action, being (etre) to doing (faire). The top to bottom axis seems to reflect the kind of identity construction, is it more "real" (reel) or virtual (projete)?

More precisely:

"L’extériorisation de soi caractérise la tension entre les signes qui se réfèrent à ce que la personne est dans son être (sexe, âge, statut matrimonial, etc.), de façon durable et incorporée, et ceux qui renvoient à ce que fait la personne (ses œuvres, ses projets, ses productions). Ce processus d’extériorisation du soi dans les activités et les oeuvres renvoie à ce que la sociologie qualifie de subjectivation.
La simulation de soi caractérise la tension entre les traits qui se réfèrent à la personne dans sa vie réelle (quotidienne, professionnelle, amicale) et ceux qui renvoient à une projection ou à une simulation de soi, virtuelle au sens premier du terme, qui permet aux personnes d’exprimer une partie ou une potentialité d’elles-mêmes."

And graphically:

The five highlighted areas signify types of visibility. There is the "partition" or "folding screen" (my translation so perhaps not 100% reliable...) which allows users to "hide" behind categories, eventually revealing themselves only to those of their choosing. There is also "clair-obscur" which sounds like the Italian "chiaro-scuro", a technique which allows users to "rendent visibles leur intimité, leur quotidien et leur vie sociale, mais ils s’adressent principalement à un réseau social de proches et sont difficilement accessibles pour les autres." Other categories include the lighthouse (Le phare), the post-it and the magical lantern (think avatar identities in Second Life).

Take a look here for more.

[taking over the {virtual} world]

Created by Michael Wesch for his teaching on Cultural Anthropology; "a massive experiment in education created for (and by) [his] Introduction to Cultural Anthropology class at Kansas State University." He's begun a "world simulation" game where students must create their own "realistic" cultures. Fascinating - a real cross-over between *real* and *virtual* worlds.

Here is a taster:



More:



The conclusion:

[transliteracy colloqiuim - summing up session]

xposted at PaRT and the IoCT Blog

While everyone has an hour to work in their groups, refining the definition and characteristics of transliteracy, I'll add a bit about our summing up session. After lunch everyone had a chance to share ideas and ask questions to the panel about presentations or about the idea of transliteracy in general.

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