There was an article in yesterday’s Inman News (a real estate news service) on the growth of Internet based neighborhood search services. It focused on the problems that some Web services have in defining the boundaries of neighborhoods. It also provided an interesting statistic, that 15 percent of all searches on the Web are local (unspecified source). Unfortunately there was an error in my quote, \”localization\” should of course be \”glocalization\”. Back in 1999 Barry Wellman and I did a user study for onemain.com (now Earthlink). We found huge demand for local content, but users were completely unable to find local content at the time. It seems that this need is now partly being met. It is interesting that almost every site I have seen focuses on the \”outsiders\” view, that is what content an outsider would like to know about a neighborhood. Few if any provide content from the perspective of what an \”insider\” might want to know. This includes the ability to communicate with other local residents. Another finding from the 1999 Onemain study, low interest in local syncronous chat forums – based on my experience with Netvill, E-neighbors and i-neighbors.org, this is something I think remains true today. Asynchronous email lists are the way to go.
In a followup to last week\’s posting on mobile phones and surveillance of personal networks, I was forwarded an article from the Penn State Digital Collegian on how Facebook is being used by campus police to identify students who \”rushed the field\” after a recent football game (as a Canadian not having experienced college football, I have no idea why this is illegal). Penn State has the largest number of students on facebook (52,016 students) and apparently a significant number had posted pictures of themselves and friends (often taken with mobile phones) on the field after the game. Students appear legitimately surprised that police and university administrators would access the site and view profiles that were \”only meant for fellow students\”. One of my undergrads recently pointed out to me just how much information people post on facebook about themselves. In particular she noted that student journalists regularly entered their political affiliation as part of their profile, she wondered how these future \”objective\” reporters would react when someone produced copies of their facebook profiles (from when they were in college) in response to an article. This also brought up memories of two recent articles in the Chronicle of Higher Education warning graduate students of the dangers of blogging, Google searches and being on the academic job market (article 1, article 2). Regarding the football game, according to the article, students found guilty could face up two years in jail, up to $2,000 in fines, and discipline from the university.
There have been two conferences on Communities and Technologies, one in 2003 and another in 2005. Both have produced excellent collections based on the conference proceedings (links to the books: 2003, 2005). This conference is probably the best single gathering of academics interested in the social aspects of computing, new media, mobile devices, etc., and I am pleased to announce that a third conference has been planned for 2007. Have a look at the conference website and the call for papers. I am a member of the program committee (along with a truly standout list of researchers) and would strongly encourage anyone doing research in this area to submit a paper.