Computer-Mediated Collective Action

Or, The Electrification of the

Interaction Order

Marc Smith

Chief Social Scientisthttp://www.telligent.com

Email (and more) is from people to people 2

Patterns are left behind

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Sociological Frames:Collective Goods

produced through Computer-Mediated

Collective Action-

Digital Augmentation of the

Interaction Order-

New forms of Social Network Ties

Interactionist Sociology

• Central tenet– Focus on the active effort of

accomplishing interaction• Phenomena of interest– Presentation of self – Claims to membership– Juggling multiple (conflicting) roles– Frontstage/Backstage – Strategic interaction– Managing one’s own and others’ “face”

• Methods– Ethnography and participant observation

(Goffman, 1959; Hall, 1990)

http://flickr.com/photos/csb13/2178250762/

The Fan Dance of Concealment

And Exposure

Innovations in the interaction order:

45,000 years ago: Speech, body adornment10,000 years ago: Amphitheater 5,000 years ago: Maps 150 years ago: Clock time

-2 years from now: machines with socially awareness

When will my phone notice your phone?

Collective Action Dilemma Theory

Common goods that require controlled consumption

http://flickr.com/photos/himalayan-trails/275941886/

Common goods that require collective contribution

http://flickr.com/photos/jose1jose2jose3/241450368/

• Central tenet – Social structure emerges from

the aggregate of relationships (ties) among members of a population

• Phenomena of interest– Emergence of cliques and clusters

from patterns of relationships– Centrality (core), periphery (isolates),

betweenness

• Methods– Surveys, interviews, observations, log file

analysis, computational analysis of matrices

(Hampton &Wellman, 1999; Paolillo, 2001; Wellman, 2001)

Source: Richards, W. (1986). The NEGOPY network analysis program. Burnaby, BC: Department of Communication, Simon Fraser University. pp.7-16

Social NetworkTheory

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Whyte, William H. 1971. City: Rediscovering the Center. New York: Anchor Books.Whyte, William H. 1971. City: Rediscovering the Center. New York: Anchor Books.

Socially aware machines

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Sensors, Routes, Community

SpotMe: Wireless device for meetings and events

Community Aspects: A Sociological Revolution?

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Sensors, Routes, Community

nTag: Electronic name badge

Community Aspects: A Sociological Revolution?

Trace Encounters: http://www.traceencounters.org/

Sensors, Routes, CommunityHardware

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Social Omniscience (or, the event loop of existence):

[1] Who has what I want?[2] Who wants what I have?[3] Repeat

Search in the Interaction Order

• Who are you?• How do I know you?• How do you know me?• Who do we know in common?• What do we have in common?• Where do we go in common

(but not necessarily at the same time)?

Reply-To NetworkNetwork at distance 2 for the most prolific author of the microsoft.public.internetexplorer.general newsgroup

The Ties that Blind?

Darwin Bell28

• Answer person– Outward ties to local isolates– Relative absence of triangles– Few intense ties

• Reply Magnet– Ties from local isolates often

inward only– Sparse, few triangles– Few intense ties

Distinguishing attributes:

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Excel .NetMapAdd-in: http://www.codeplex.com/netmap

Tag Ecologies I

Adamic et al. WWW 2008

Shifting from anEphemeral society

to an Archival Society

Computer-Mediated Collective Action

Or, The Electrification of the

Interaction OrderMarc Smith

Chief Social Scientisthttp://www.telligent.com