Cellphones, Cyborgs and Cemetaries

Cellphones, Cemetaries and Cyborgs

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1. Listen to the entire podcast

2. Answer the following question by 9pm to pklawton@ucalgary.ca (Subject: Mini-Quiz #5)

Provide an example of Haraway’s “cyborg”, and one example of Sherry Turkle’s “tethered self” from the stories that you heard in this podcast. Which metaphor do you think better describes where we are at in 2008?

This class…

is discussion based, not lecture based. Our learning comes from questions, comments, ideas, arguments and epiphanies that YOU bring to the class. You will learn from the texts though active engagement in them; you will learn from your classmates through active engagement with them.

In class, we did some brief biographical sketches of some of the main theorists covered in Chapter two of “Internet Society”

Habermas Powerpoint

Feenberg Powerpoint

Dorothy Smith

Bio:
•    Born in England in 1926
•    Canadian Sociologist
•    Obtained first degree in social anthropology at the London School of Economics
•    Degree in Sociology at University of California @ Berkley in 1963; Dorothy’s thesis supervisor was Erving Goffman who, she says, made the everyday world visible to sociology
•    Taught one of the first Women’s Studies courses at UBC
•    Currently a Professor at the University of Victoria and works in Institutional Ethnography
•    Leader in Feminist Theory

Academic Impact:
•    Idea of Institutional Ethnography
•    Writer of Feminism and Marxism
•    Feminist Theory aims to understand the nature of inequality and focuses on gender politics, power relations and sexuality.  Also focuses on analysing gender inequality and the promotion of women’s rights, interests and issues
•    Her teaching, writing drew from Alfred Schutz, George Herbert Mead in symbolic interactions, Harold Garfinkel and heavily influenced by Marx
•    Created a sociology “for” women, rather than “about” them; Speak to women rather than at them.  Dorothy Smith believes the symbols, the vocabulary, the codes of our culture reflect the standpoint of the male
•    How the text comes about and is given meaning and is understood and used in specific relations, is her focus
•    She prefers to discover a great deal about the social as you discover your own practices, from the inside, prefers to focus on the value of an ethnography

Who did she influence:
•    She influenced feminist theory and women’s studies as whole
•    Work has influenced Nancy Hartsock who wrote Standpoint Theory – to understand the point of the oppressed need to look at society from their view

Why do we care?
•    Smith asserts that knowledge is routinely counted on and usually is available as an unquestioned resource.  Smith believes that certain forms of knowing are a basis for ruling
•    Smith believes that text mediated ruling practices subordinate knowing and impose perspectives
•    Applying Smith’s theories can help us understand how different perspectives of technology influences our daily lives
•    Dorothy’s study of intuitional ethnography looks at a map of social relations, how its experienced, acted upon and theorizes that the mapping is always in motion.  Technology is constantly changing our social relations.

Lefebvre

brief biographical sketch

Born in Southwest France 1901.   Studied philosophy at the University of Paris, graduated in 1920.  In 1924, he pursued the idea of a “philosophical revolution”, which would inform his work throughout his career. Member of the Situationist International and associated with the surrealists, joined the French Communist Party in 1928, later leaving the party and rejoining it, continuing to be a member until his death. Lived through both world wars, and in 1940 joined the French Resistance to Nazi occupation.  Taught at the universities of Strasbourg and Nanterre.    Called Catherine Regulier a former communist militant 50 years his junior, his wife, but was constantly in the company of other women, and they had a cat.  Loved coffee and wine.  Had a warm, slow, melodious voice, his boyish passions, his virility—even in old age—and the posse of young, attractive women invariably in his train.
Academic impact that these people have
“During his long career, his work has gone in and out of fashion several times, and has influenced the development not only of philosophy but also of sociology, geography, political science and literary criticism”  – Radical Philosophy magazine
Helped Jean Baudrillard with his doctorate, a notorious French sociologist, cultural critic, and theorist of postmodernity.  Developed the idea of the “Critique of Everyday Life”, the “Theory of Moments”, and Rhythmanalysis, the idea that there are “rhythms” to everyday life that affect humanity.

Reason why we should care about this person
He provides an interesting viewpoint, created a “Marxist sociology” which is a different framework than other figures we are studying.
He helped nurture the generation of students that participated in the 1968 upheaval, showing that his work had political reverberations as well as in sociology.
An assertive and energetic Marxist to the very end of his long life, Henri Lefebvre continued to believe that an undogmatic reading of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels provided the best framework for understanding the nature and development of society, and that an ambitious revolutionary project offered the best chance of assisting positive human development through the reverses and uncertainties of history.
Constantly updated his ideas throughout his career.  La révolution n’est pas ce qu’elle était (1978)—“the revolution isn’t what it used to be”—expressed Lefebvre’s open-ended, inventive Marxist spirit, which continually updated itself as society updated itself.

ScreenShot Scavenger Hunt!

Screenshot Scavenger hunt:

1. What is the possible ties between illness and success? (Screenshot + Answer)
2. Find a picture of the man who dresses like Peter Pan, but wearing something blue. (screenshot only)
3. (Screenshot + Fill in the blank)
Chocolate Rain / Dirty secrets of economy
Chocolate Rain / Turns _______________
4. INVISIBLE BIKE! (screenshot)
5. ‘Leave Britney Alone!’ (screenshot + name of the person who said this + the relatives who he lives with)
6. What is the deal with Gmail Paper? (answer)
7. Who is John Titor? Show me what he travels with! (Answer +Screenshot)
8. What is the name of the Digg Podcast? Who are the hosts (answer)
9. Screenshot and link from someone from class who appears on YouTube.
10. Go to ask.metafilter.com
a. Find a question, copy and paste it on your word document
b. Answer it on your word document
11. What is Ailurophobia? Name three famous people who suffer from it.
12. What is the premise of the new movie “Untraceable” – screenshot from the trailer please!
13. Play a quick round of Line Rider. Screenshot your course.
14. Describe ytmnd, then screenshot an example
15. Find +Screenshot evidence that 3/5 of you exist online.

Blogging Assignment

. Your Topic
Any idea for your blog is a good idea – you will be successful no matter what topic you choose.

Ask yourself – do you care enough about your topic to maintain interest? If you don’t care, it will show. Find something that really gets you excited – what kind of websites are you spending your time on when you are messing around online? Do that and jump in!

Write about what you know, or care enough to know more about. Perhaps you are a knitter? A sci-fi freak? An MMORPG player? A political junkie? A music fan? What about a Sociology or a blog specific to your major? What about a Celeb blog?

Whatever you choose, do what you can to narrow your scope down enough that you are filling a niche, but big enough that it will appeal to a large number of people. This is tricky, but I am absolutely willing to help you out in determining the right framing for your blog. Again, the best way to see if you are filling a niche is to spend some time reading other blogs in your topic. Generally, googling your topic +blog will get you going if you don’t know what’s out there. See what other bloggers are doing, and then DO IT BETTER. It won’t matter where your blog is coming from (do you really pay attention to the geographic location of where the blogs you read are located? Cartesian space is DEAD!)

2. Your Blog Appearance

Take some care in honing your blog title – people will decide quickly if your blog is worth reading, and your blog title is essential in establishing your online presence. Also, never have the word “blog” anywhere near your title. Be creative. Similarly, “My Thoughts!” “Paul’s Ramblings” “All About Me!” are blogs that no one is interested in reading.

Blogs are a highly visual medium, so pay attention to how your writing looks on the screen. Does it look too dense? Does it look too thin? How does your template design look? Is it easy to read, to find your posts? Does it look too “generic”?

3. Frequency of Posting

The simple equation is this: the more often you update, the more popular your blog will be. Many blog readers like to read their favorite blogs on a daily basis. If you do not blog regularly, you run the risk of losing readers. Pick a schedule and stick with it! Once a day is fine – but don’t hold back if you have more to add.

4. Content
Write well! Obey proper grammar, spelling, punctuation.

Also, while it is ok to post YouTube video’s once in a while, don’t make that your sole content. People can easily go to YouTube themselves – why do they need your blog? The most important job you have is putting things into context. With a world of information out there, why should anyone care about your blog? This is your job – to make people care.

To add youtube, in your blogging window type the following where the part after the = sign is the URL of your video.

5. Making Friends

After you have a few posts under your belt, get the word out! Start with friends that share a common interest, comment on like-minded blogs, submit to DIGG or link to a lot of blogs at your same level (small-ish, but active), and comment on all of their posts – they will often feel the need to reciprocate. Make a point to comment on every good post you read – try to add to the conversation, or ask a relevant question. Commenting is the #1 strategy for getting your blog out there.

Spend some time on Technorati to see who is linking to you, and watch your rank move up and down! What are you doing to move up?

Online Scavenger Hunt!

Screenshot Scavenger hunt:

1. What is the possible ties between illness and success? (Screenshot + Answer)
2. Find a picture of the man who dresses like Peter Pan, but wearing something blue. (screenshot only)
3. (Screenshot + Fill in the blank)
Chocolate Rain / Dirty secrets of economy
Chocolate Rain / Turns _______________
4. INVISIBLE BIKE! (screenshot)
5. ‘Leave Britney Alone!’ (screenshot + name of the person who said this + the relatives who he lives with)
6. What is the deal with Gmail Paper? (answer)
7. Who is John Titor? Show me what he travels with! (Answer +Screenshot)
8. What is the name of the Digg Podcast? Who are the hosts (answer)
9. Screenshot from someone from class who appears on YouTube (including Paul)
10. Go to ask.metafilter.com
a. Find a question, copy and paste it on your word document
b. Answer it on your word document
11. What is Ailurophobia? Name three famous people who suffer from it.
12. What is the premise of the new movie “Untraceable” – screenshot from the trailer please!
13. Play a quick round of Line Rider. Screenshot your course.
14. Describe ytmnd, then screenshot an example
15. Find +Screenshot evidence that 3/5 of you exist online.