A7WeLovePeaches

A7WeLovePeaches

To-Do

• describe the most important themes from the lectures for your project
• describe important themes for your project that are not discussed in any of the course lectures

describe the most important themes from the lectures for your project

Lectures 8 and 9: The shift between consumer and producer, or more specifically a "pro-sumer" is a culture change that has not been fully qualified in society. With the advent of Web 2.0 concepts those, who in the past had to become motivated to submit feedback to a webmaster, can now dynamically change the content of their favorite site. The intrinsic value of this is evident in the hacker culture and those who maintain Wikis. Now the pro-sumers feel invested in the site they frequent and add content not only to improve the quality of the site but to also feel like champions of the content. Where the lecture falls short is in sites that aren't Wiki based. Those sites where the content is modified by the users but there is more entertainment related to the content than information, there needs to be incentive for users to add that media to a certain site. How is it that some sites gain popularity quickly while others flounder? Is it possible that there is a reward structure, whether based on popularity, currency, or award that motivates users to move media from their own personal stash into the website? The notoriety structure was explored briefly in lecture when it was mentioned that the energy usage by a neighborhood was published in the monthly bill for each household. It was observed that when the notoriety structure of the bill either reflected pro-consume or pro-save then the residents of that block changed their consumption accordingly. Sites like SecondLife use a currency that users actually have made a profit off of in the real world. In March 2009, it was found that a small number of SecondLife users have grossed a million dollars a year using the sites currency to turn a profit in the real world. This psuedo-currency was at first meant to grow the site and maintain interest in creating goods and services in this virtual world, but it has now grown to a larger extent as a whole separate economy that effects, in essence, the world market. Lecture 8 discusses "Usable" verses "Useful" and "Tools for Learning" and "Tools for Living". Both sets of concepts relate to HCI design in terms of cognitive abilities of the users of a website. These are important concepts to keep in mind before adding ascetic qualities to the site that it being designed. But how much does ascetics ultimately play into the end user experience and therefore the likely-hood that a user will add content to a site because they like using it for the subtle things like font, color, or dynamic forms. There are plenty of sources online that have studied the use of color and possibly the introduction of dynamic forms to the user experience that not only provide new insight into our project but also provide another area of study into "Usable" verses "Useful." Motivational aspects and meta design. Paper: Fischer, G., Scharff, E., & Ye, Y. (2004) "Fostering Social Creativity by Increasing Social Capital." In M. Huysman, & V. Wulf (Eds.), Social Capital and Information Technology, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 355-399. Lectures 11 and 12 both include consideration of what motivates people in general. Lecture 13: the ‘challenge of the 21st century’ is to work smarter, not harder. If this idea is related to learner-centered design, I believe that motivation towards any sort of participation will increase. The ‘four essential attributes’ mentioned in this lecture are very close to what one would expect from any person contributing to an user content-generated website. Originality, expression, social evaluation, and social appreciation are all good arguments in respect to contributing to a site like Wikipedia, also many of these aspects are a good inclusion to learner-centered design. By using these attributes in a learner-centered design environment, I think there could be the start of a stronger system of education because of the many different users and contributors each with their own style of learning. Distributed Cognition: It could be argued that the prevalence and pervasiveness of user-generated content on the web is resulting in a recognition that we no longer individually need to know details about the world. Instead, as long as we have access to communities of others online, we can access the information we need across a far broader space of knowledge than any individual could ever hope to achieve. In developing human-centered environments where people are more willing to share and connect, the ease of distributed cognition is increased. Evolution of Design - The SER Model: The design of spaces that seek to empower users to generate content must evolve, reflecting the needs of the content being created (both volume and format). Design must not be static - it is better to fail fast and often than to stay the same. Funnel effect/Turing Tar Pit must be recognized and appreciated, with the user's needs in mind. Meta Design: In order to create an environment that is not only conducive, but inviting to user-generated content contribution and community creation, it is necessary to establish a meta design that supports this type of environment. Establishing a good meta-design enables an environment to exist that is functional for all users, rather than creating a specific design for each type of user. Cultures of Participation: Having a log-in gives people the impression the space is exclusive to others like themselves. The mentality people are a special group or community is reinforced through a type of membership.

describe important themes for your project that are not discussed in any of the course lectures

Social Capital: 1. Social capital remains key in building communities. In the latent sphere of community capital is highly valued and revolves strongly around identity work, built both online and offline. Research has indicated that impressions of others are felt more strongly if they are introduced primarily through online conversations. These impressions are reinforced through an individual’s actions both online and offline. In text-driven spaces, people build identity and capital through the language used (sentiment and word choice), the people they connect and converse with, and the 'volume' or amount of content they produce. In video spaces, this is also seen, but with a layer of mediatized physical representations of themselves. In all these spaces, social capital is built through their production of content. Different levels of involvement give content producers an invitation to engage, with little risk to their social capital. As they become more confident, their social capital climbs and they produce: a) More content and b) A broader range or greater detail to their content. (Paper: Influence and Passivity in Social Media, Romero, D., Asur, S., Wojciech, G. and Huberman, B., 2010) Strong and weak ties: Expanding upon the realm of social capital is an examination of how - or if - the network actually works as a community. Research has theorized that online 'relationships' are based on weak ties. If this is true, then how are we able to identify those ties, and how can we see them working together? (Paper: Tie Strength and the Impact of New Media, Caroline Haythornthwaite, 2001) Motivation theory (sociology): Since we are doing the project about motivation, learning about motivation theories may help us a lot. The class covered a little bit about motivation, but it was not covering the deep side of motivation. There are many factors affect human beings to decide something whether it is externally or internally. If we study more about motivation theories, that will give us a brief outline about what may motivate people. User-centered design when the user is not tested: How much influence do children have on the technology developed for them? I say this because mostly adults are designing these programs for children, without using participatory design standards and not knowing what problems or preferences a child might have. Whereas if the child were included in the design process, maybe the program would be more suited towards the child’s learning style. I think this goes along with any sort of design where there is a certain group of users who are contributors; it is difficult to understand the dynamic of contributions, and how people will actively ‘create’ the content of the site. There is a challenge in maintaining an interface and overall site that reflects the needs of the users as they change.