Coye Cheshire & Andrew Fiore June 18, 2015 // Computer-Mediated Communication The Nature of Community

6/18/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore1 Today Community, Boundaries and Symbols Defining and Justifying Problems (part 1)

6/18/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore2 The ‘Myths’ of Community Simplicity and F2F “…the anatomy of social life at the micro-level is more intricate, and no less revealing, than among … the macro- level” Egalitarianism “…community generates multitudinous means of making evaluative distinctions among its members, means of differentiating among them…” Inevitable Conformity “suggests that the outward spread of cultural influences from the centre will make communities … less like their former selves…[this assumes that] people are somehow passive in relation to culture: they receive it, transmit it, but do not create it.”

6/18/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore3 Community Boundaries

6/18/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore4 other, outgroup ingroup other, outgroup

6/18/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore5 Symbols and Community

6/18/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore6 Symbols versus Emblems, Signs

6/18/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore7 from 37signals.com

6/18/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore8 Symbolic Meaning (and variation) within Communities

6/18/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore9 Symbols are effective because they are imprecise. … They are, therefore, ideal media through which people can speak a ‘common’ language, behave in apparently similar ways, participate in the ‘same’ rituals, pray to the ‘same’ gods, wear similar clothes, and so forth, without subordinating themselves to a tyranny of orthodoxy. Individuality and commonality are thus reconcilable. “ ”

6/18/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore10 Community Boundaries and Symbols “Symbols do not so much express meaning as give us the capacity to make meaning.”

6/18/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore11 Community Boundaries and Symbols Public face (symbolically simple) Private face (symbolically complex) “ ”

6/18/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore12 Some questions to consider Examples of communities in CMC and the use of symbols? How does the community define its boundaries? If there have been times when those boundaries were violated, how did members respond?

6/18/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore13 Defining and Justifying Problems (Part 1)

6/18/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore14 What makes a good research problem? Research Questions for Theoretical Development Research Questions for Practical Application

6/18/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore15 How Research is Supposed to Work ProblemMethod Data Collection Support or Reject Hypotheses How Research Really Works…

6/18/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore16 Defining Problems  What is an example research problem? “an interrogative sentence or statement that asks: What relation exists between two or more concepts?”  What is an example design problem? “an interrogative sentence or statement that asks: What elements of a given system affect (or might affect) the behavior(s) of users, and in what specific ways?”

6/18/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore17 Characteristics of good problems 1)Should state the concepts to be related clearly and unambiguously 2)Should be testable (or constructible)– even if you don’t test it or build it! (robertnlee.com)

6/18/2015Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore18 Specific Criteria for a Problem  What are we going to learn as the result of the proposed project that we do not know now?  Why is it worth knowing?  How will we know that the conclusions are valid?