World Internet Report: Pioneering Report Finds Remarkable Similarities and Significant Differences Globally

Some headlines from this report from13 partner countries or regions, issued by the Center for the Digital Future at the University of South California.

• 40 percent or more of users said that one-half or less of information on the Internet is reliable.
• Larger percentages ranked the Internet as an important or very important source of information compared to television, newspapers, and radio.
• In 10 countries and regions, more than 70 percent of students who are Internet users go online for school-related work at least weekly, and in nine of the WIP countries and regions, more than 30 percent of students go online daily or several times a day for schoolwork.
• Nine of the WIP countries reported 22 percent or less of non-users who said they don’t go online because they don’t know how to use the Internet or they are confused by technology.

One stand-out issue for me is whether in a broadband, and mobile-rich West we forget the diversity of problematic personal, economic and cultural experiences that exist for internet users.

WP2: Leaders and Managers

The main areas of work under leaders and managers focus upon 3 areas.

1. Mapping the fit between interventions that involve a mix of technologies (namely blogs and multimedia) and personal engagements, in particular focus upon institutional coaching for team leaders. This is run by Vincent Cornelius at DMU. We intend to interview both Vincent and some coachees, in order to understand the impact of these interventions on team leaders.
2. Development sessions with Senior Managers in each faculty, bring them up to speed with the contextualised, local implementation of Web 2.0 technologies. So far, five sessions have been held, and an evaluation paper is to follow. This will connect to a paper on reward and recognition for academic leadership in e-learning.
3. Development sessions with Teacher Fellows, in order to assess the impact of Web 2.0 technologies on the growth of pedagogic research. So far, two sessions have being held and another will follow on February 14, and an evaluation paper is to follow.
   

No Wii?! I'd die

I played my first game on the Nintendo Wii last night. Okay, I got thrashed by an eight-year-old at tennis, and I've woken up this morning with an ache in my shoulder, but the way in which I holed-out on the ninth to snatch victory in a game of golf was magisterial. That said Jude (a very mature eight-year-old) was also playing Ben 10 on his PS2, whilst attempting to give me the runaround. Now whether this was because he was bored of my company, simply multitasking, or just living his life is another story. I also happened to be texting a few mates and taking photos of the avatar created for me on the Wii by Jude's Mom.


His mum's take on why he focused on both the kinesthetic and cognitive outcomes from both games was put in terms of "socially interactive" and "emotionally engaging". Watching Jude in action, the games were not just about achievement, but competition, and in gathering new resources. In Ben 10 these included new moves for the game and also movie clips, which could be watched outside the game and saved. This developed into a more holistic experience, perhaps focused around the brand of the game, but also in an environment where these resources can be shared with friends. Jude's engagement is central to his lifestyle, which is underpinned by words like "cool" and "wicked".

So when I asked him about what he would do if he didn't live an interconnected life, one in which the Web had never existed and he didn't have access to a PS2 or Wii, it is said that "I'd die". When I pushed the issue, he said that he "would play marbles", or "I'd invent them".

What I thought was interesting, was the dynamic of the space in which we were engaging, and how engaged we all were. The mix between technology and physical space is taken for granted.That becomes more so when WiFi and mobiles become dominant factors. This enabled us to sit quite happily in the front room, using mobile phones and two types of game console, one of which was hooked up to a TV, whilst we discussed how best to return serve, access a particular game level, whether Merlot was a better grape than Shiraz (Jude had some good things to say on this point), and the impact of continual performance testing on schoolkids.
Rather than distancing us, in this context, it was really interesting to see how technologies enhanced social bonds.

"It's like watching someone else's firework display"

A nice piece on the BBC website today about "stealing" other people's Wi-Fi. What does this say about social spaces and networking, co-operation and individualism? We see legal and moral issues around technology trailing both technological advances and usage-and-custom. Usage-and-custom being impacted by institutionalised norms is one of the really interesting debates over Web 2.0. It gets me thinking about control and the connections between real and virtual spaces. Does locking down Wi-Fi smack of enclosure? Should we really be encouraging more Wi-Fi commons?

Secret lives

The Independent on Sunday carried an article entitled "How embarassing is it to see your parents on Facebook?" The point being that the original users of the system are becoming uneasy about the influx of johnny-come-lately parents, politicians and the 'strange tide of "friends".'

So is this pioneer-fear or resentment of settlers within a space that pioneers thought was for them and for their university or college-based nonsense? Or is it less resentment of settlers and more a resentment of the presence of different communities [similar to the way that immigrant Japanese or native American communities were regarded, driven out or coralled by pioneers in the West of America?]. Or is it simply pioneers getting tired of their landscape, which has become less risky, adventurous and enthralling.

The flip side of this is the view that parents should be on social networking sites precisely because it is regarded as risky and adventurous, and because you do not know whom it will enthral. There are growing reports of police and parents spending more time on-line because more space, that is not regulated in the same way as "real space", is 'a perfect hunting ground' for ne'er do wells.

This tension between the psychologies of pioneers and settlers, and their precise reasons for being in a particular space or matrix of spaces, will impact upon the development of specific social networking sites, in just the same way that advertisers' refusal to have their brands linked with extremist and facist political organisations impact on those sites.

These ownership tensions exist with every form of "land": real; virtual; institutional; personal. Social networking requires social conventions and accepted rules of engagement. This is something that we spend less time on than we should; maybe issues of control and ownership in Web 2.0 will alter that.

Ron Paul: How a Fringe Politician Took Over the Web

Internet activism at it's best?! (or worse!)

When Texas Congressman Ron Paul entered the race for next year's Republican presidential nomination, few political analysts paid much notice....

Yet despite his status among the longest of the long shots, the 71-year-old has become one of the internet's most omnipresent.

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Social sites reveal class divide

Fans of MySpace and Facebook are divided by much more than which music they like, suggests a study.



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Testing the limits of forum bashing: two law students sue over personal attacks

Two law school students filed a lawsuit against the administrator of a web site and 28 of the site's users last week for psychological and economic injury. The two plaintiffs, anonymously listed as Doe I and Doe II, are female students at Yale Law School and claim that the users of a third-party law school message board have consistently and regularly made such disparaging remarks about their characters that it has cost them not only their emotional wellbeing, but internships and jobs. And despite repeated requests to remove the offensive posts, the site's administrators continually refused to do so.



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Lecturer Fired for Blogging

Apologies for putting seemingly negative stuff about Web 2.0 stuff. I'm certainly very positive about it, and think that after the initial teething troubles, Web 2.0 will proliferate - I also think that the pathfinder project will help somewhat with the teething stages.



Story from THES regarding a recent dismissal of an academic for blogging!

Too old for networking?

Interesting article I recently came across about a journalist in his middle ages trying to 'social-network'.It's interesting that he finds that he can't make much friends due to his age. For me it certainly dampens the idea of having such a thing for staff at DMU as most of us are past the juvenile ages....or are we?



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News Items relating to the DMU Pathfinder project

Dear all,



I've been musing lately whether to start emailing round some interesting stories or articles that may interest members of the Pathfinder project, however now due to having the blog, I think this would be a great place to start posting items - I hope you all agree?



Anyway, I think I'll start here with my first posting.



Today, I found a link to the BBC Newsnight programme that discusses a little about the perils of Web 2.0.



You may view it here.