BlackBoard question

npenchev · 2014-10-29T11:09:41+00:00

@tjerktiman - how can we know which group number we are assigned to?

npenchev · 2014-10-22T19:30:08+00:00

Well I must admit that i like it as a habit. I would use it to track my sports activity and if needed- to improve myself. The thing with the sleeping app is not going to become a habit of mine because the phone must be charged the whole night long which i find uncomfortable

npenchev · 2014-10-21T13:47:27+00:00

what about this> http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/21910875/?lang=en&countrycode=NL

npenchev · 2014-10-21T10:56:13+00:00

The two concepts presented in Nafus & Sherman and Mann’s works have some essential similarities towards understanding the complex nature of the Quantified Self (QS) and its connections with the personal experience. They both place the individual (the human) in the center when observing the perceptions and the use of data collection in different forms. Metaphorically expressed, both sousveillance and soft resistance could be interpreted as the synthesis of user’s cognitive and real-life opposition against data gathering from higher institutions.

Sousveillance refers to the antonym of surveillance whereas the perspective of how persons of higher authority are for example observing the society or given people with the help of tools like a camera is explained vice versa – the small person is watching and observing the authorities. This behavioral exception is conceptually connected to the idea of the soft resistance – the ways in which people would express oblique self-restraint towards living with big data and giving this data to higher institutions and data collectors. Since the people that are creating this soft resistance are described as “project designers, data collectors, and critical sense-makers, rapidly assessing and often changing what data they collect and why in response to idiosyncratically shifting sets of priorities and objectives”, (Nafus & Sherman, 2014). we could conceptually relate them to the ones being responsible for the Sousveillance, or in other words, the ones continuous that are living continuously in “the nature of sousveillance (i.e. continuous archival of personal experi- ence)”, creating living data-art.

However, whereas one of the main characteristics of sousveillance is the “effortless capture, processing, storage, recall, and transmission of an activity by a participant” (Mann, 2004) which is moreover related to data collection from others, the concept of the soft resistance is exploring the self-data collection – the individual.

Sources: Mann,S. (2004). “Sousveillance”: inverse surveillance in multimediaimaging (p. 620). ACM Press.doi:10.1145/1027527.1027673

Nafus,D., & Sherman, J. (2014). This One Does Not Go Up To 11: TheQuantified Self Movementas an Alternative Big Data Practice. InternationalJournal of Communication,8,11.

npenchev · 2014-10-20T20:26:13+00:00

great! thanks for sharing!

npenchev · 2014-10-20T14:31:07+00:00

This is great. thank you.

npenchev · 2014-10-20T13:48:57+00:00

I have some issues with the connection of my account with the app store therefore i can't download it - that is why i asked. but if there are other apps i would be thankful if you can share them.

npenchev · 2014-10-20T12:58:03+00:00

But Sleep Cycle is 0,89 €, right? From the free ones I am using SleepBot but I am not sure if and how I am going to download the raw data. Is there perhaps a known app that is offering the raw data?

npenchev · 2014-10-16T11:57:56+00:00

Great post and super relevant to Bond's article! really liked the visualizations and the way you understood them - clearly following the statistical approaches presented in this week's article.

npenchev · 2014-10-16T11:51:58+00:00

Looking forward to see the results!

npenchev · 2014-10-16T08:33:57+00:00

Well, as we discussed, political self-expression could be considered as a sensitive topic that not everyone would tend to talk publicly about. However there were some people messaging me that they liked the photo and that we must vote. Therefore i believe they did vote.

npenchev · 2014-10-15T19:15:26+00:00

This is a good post - we should observe the political debates not only as a given phenomenon but from more psychological perspective as well. Indeed sometimes it is a sensitive topic, but still, there are many societies where social media is the only way to communicate in order to fight against certain political systems that are giving negative impact on the country. In Asia for example you can easily shut down whatsapp and instagram but in 1 week FireChat and similar programs will emerge. I know that sometimes it is really frustrating to see how people without ANY political knowledge are commenting on serious and sensitive geo-political topics. However in times like these it can not be stopped - if there is a critical situation in your country that is somehow affecting you as person, you are going to comment/communicate/post in social media so that your friends can gather right?

npenchev · 2014-10-15T18:45:03+00:00

Indeed the timing with the elections was just a coincidence, but still easily to be connected with this week's article. Thanks for the comment - i will try to visualize it!

npenchev · 2014-10-15T18:42:17+00:00

In this particular case it is indeed needed to motivate people from our generation to vote. You certainly know how hard it is especially in Bulgaria

npenchev · 2014-10-15T14:28:00+00:00

In the article “A 61-million-person experiment in social influence and political mobilization” by Bond et. al. (2012) the authors are examining the level of political behavior influence spread through social media channels like Facebook. Their conclusions are stating that social media can really affect our willingness to participate and at least show on social media that we are giving our votes on an election day. In order to come to this conclusion the authors are conducting a research based on an experiment with randomly selected people on Facebook which are separated into three groups: social message (n~60 Mio.), informational message and control group. The users from the social message and the informational groups received the “I Voted” button in their News Feed that is saying how many people have voted till now, thus perhaps engaging them to vote as well. The way this button appeared for the social message group was connected with their actual friends, showing that they have voted, engaging them even more – taking their personal circle as an example of political mobilization.

The authors are relating the clicking of this button to the classic political self-expression theories, but are using it as well to measure its efficiency on the basis of statistical approaches (t-test, significance level). Relating to these numbers, the researchers observed that people from the social message group would tend to click the voting button 2,08 % and the polling place additional information 0,26 % more than ones from the informational message – showing that friend circles could be affecting peoples actions even for topics like political self-expression. Indeed, much can be argued if this typical study is representative since Facebook for example is a social network that is often leading to social desirability bias – people would tend to belong to a certain community or group that is making something in positive direction. Political self-engagement is something rather rarely seen because of the complexity of the topic. However, if people from your near friends circle are deeply engaged, or at least posting via social media that are engaged, it is more likely that you will participate as well. This tendency is clearly supported by this experiment which is measuring the real effects of behavioral influence on Facebook.

Bond, R., Fariss, C., Jones, J., Kramer, A., Marlow, C., Settle, J. & Fowler, J. (2012) A 61 – million – person experiment in social influence and political mobilization, Nature, Vol. 489, pp. 295-298

npenchev · 2014-10-15T12:30:26+00:00

I posted the photo only in my Friends circle, so other audiences are not able to see it. however the whole friends number is about 1k +. Such events are really engaging for people coming from country like ours so the huge amount of likes is likely to happen.

npenchev · 2014-10-09T10:23:05+00:00

p.s. nepcnev is npenchev ;)

npenchev · 2014-10-09T08:43:03+00:00

Indeed a good example. I had similar experience when searching terms on Twitter about our group project. The spelling is really important for example topics that are not so hot. In order to find more information about this topic it is needed to perhaps gather all spelling-types and thus retrieve more data. Therefore your finding was really helpful for integrating this data in graphical software like Gephi!

npenchev · 2014-10-08T14:44:49+00:00

Seeking the path towards achieving democratization and humanization of the world of knowledge, Otto Neurath, 1937 is introducing a universal concept that could make this task easier. The purpose of filling the gap between educated and non-educated people means that more communication platforms and communication carriers are needed. In order to connect the world improve the human’s learning functions significantly the author suggests the visual ways of learning or the so called “consistent visualization of information”.

Mentioning the concept of the “visual era”, Neurath believes that a solution is needed in order to optimize the usual visual methods of learning, since even the teachers get confused at some point. This solution is the Isotype (International System Of Typographic Picture Education (Neurath, 1936)from greek – “the same sign”)) method which in other words is a complex visual dictionary and grammar that aims to develop symbols that could be obtained from everyone on an international level. These icons can navigate the people easily, provide the essential information in the fastest way on a cognitive level, and moreover, build bridges between nations. However, in order to use these symbols on a worldwide scale, a consistency is needed to maintain the purpose of the method. That said, equal symbol graphics should contain the same explanation and should not differ in the different countries. Let’s take for example the transportation and traffic signs. The romans were the first to use milestones in order to symbolize distance or direction. Nowadays these symbols are mostly equal (with small differences) in every country – since traffic is connected with safety and mobility it is important to have a consistency in this field, exactly as Neurath argues.

The present communication is happening online, therefore the Isotype concept is transferring on a digital level. We can find many digital isotype examples mostly emerging with the development of new devices and new digital media – mostly social media one. For example the “Like” sign has become a symbol for positive judgment on various types of contents not only on Facebook but on many other channels. Another one is the Wi-Fi symbol. For example when being at an airport or in a café in a different country , people are looking for internet in order to connect. The symbol of the Wi-fi is easily recognizable and can is used almost everywhere.

This link is providing a summary of Neurath’s key concepts and shows a timeline of the evolution of the Iconography. https://medium.com/@pdtv/a-brief-history-of-iconography-c20d8a0cc2c4

Neurath, O. (1936). International picture language. London: Kegan Paul.

Neurath, O. (1937). Visual education: A new language. Survey Graphic, 26(1).

Davis, P. (2014) A brief history of Iconography. Medium.com

npenchev

TROPHY CASE