Blogs as social technological spaces

I have been searching for ethnographic studies of blogs in lieu of locating sources to inform my methodology for my own doctoral research. To keep you up to speed on my research ideas, I have narrowed down my research to doing an ethnographic analysis of blogs and tweets for the narratives they present on the identity, work and profile of library consultants and library consulting. My new direction has therefore sparked my interest in ethnographic methodologies on online social worlds. As a result, in this blog post, I wish to share on one of the readings about this methodology as it relates to the environments of blogs. This reading I want to report on is Amanda Lenhart's (2005) Masters thesis.

Since my comprehensive examination I have been following some of the work of Lenhart, whose name I am acquainted with from Pew Internet Research Centre. Lenhart is one of the authors of Pew Internet Research's reports around blogging (See Lenhart & Fox, 2006).

Apart from her literature review defines blogs identifying blogs as having headers, side bars and posts among other technical features, in the methods section, Lenhart articulates that blogs are both technology and spaces that both reflects culture and around which culture is built. It is this concept that I feel is very important, that blogs are not only technology with specific features, but also social technology around which culture develops.

A second important idea that I derived from Lenhart's thesis is the idea that institutions are encroaching on this once personal and individual technological and social space. In the introductory chapter of her Masters thesis, Lenhart mentions that institutions are co-opting blogs and in their attempt to 'engage with the universe of blogs, their instinct is to regulate and to control, to bring blogs in line with the values embodied within the institution' (p. 4). She continues:

Still, bloggers themselves relish their location outside of institutions—free of
gatekeepers deciding what is important or meaningful enough to publish, but also free
of people and organizations whose livelihoods are based on the accuracy and
compelling nature of the information they present. In the next few years it will be
interesting to see how blogging and institutions negotiate with each other. Will blogs
become an institution of their own, complete with codes and ethics of their own
creations? Will they be subsumed into another institution? Or will blogs fragment and
be absorbed by all types of institutions based on content, gathered as a tool to forward
and foster certain public goals of any given institution? Or will blogs successfully
remain completely outside of institutions? Or all of these things at the same time?

Later, Lenhart (2005) stated that blogs allow "those who are traditionally silenced by institutions to have their voices...heard..." (p. 156). This jibes with an earlier popular post that I published on how institutions have been entering the blogosphere in order to curtail individual's freedom of expression in these spaces (See Threats to the freedom to blog).

References:

Lenhart, A. B. (2005). Unstable texts: An ethnographic look at how bloggers and their audience negotiate self-presentation, authenticity and norm formation(Doctoral dissertation, Georgetown University).

Lenhart, A., & Fox, S. (2006). Bloggers: A portrait of the internet’s new storytellers. pew internet & American life project. ( No. 2012). Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/~/media/Files/Reports/2006/PIP%20Bloggers%20Report%20July%2019%202006.pdf.pdf

Threats to the freedom to blog

In this blog entry, I would like to focus on the issues concerning the growing threats to the freedom to blog. My reasons for posting my views on the matter comes as a result of two particular developments within this month that I see as representing threats to the blogosphere. Specifically, one of the incidents is the case of Edwin Mellen Press suing a university librarian for libel (New, 2013).  Another incident is the issue of employees getting fired for user-generated content as reflected in the Applebee's waitress who posted a receipt with a customer's complaint regarding tipping (Stableford, 2013).

Both stories indicate the dangers of the growing powers of organizations and institutions to take away the freedom to create user-generated content via social media. Organisations and institutions today are able to take away the freedom of people to blog and share content via social media through

1. law suit for libel or defamation and
2. the threat of termination of employment. 

I note that today all human beings are affected by organisations and institutions. We are not only citizens governed by governmental institutions that regulate who are citizens and who are not, but we are also either employees of organisations or can be sued by them for rants or exchanges that we make via social media. As such, I note that the freedom of persons to blog, especially blogs critical of organisations or institutions including religious ones and businesses are in threat of being curtailed by:

1. threats of law suit
2. threats of disciplinary action from an employer

In light of this, I saw an interesting event by Harvard Business Review on Wednesday, 23 January 2013, the #HBRchat Topic, January 24: It’s My Job and I’ll Tweet If I Want To . While I did not participate, I noted the important questions the public chat raised:

Q1: How much freedom should employees have to discuss work problems online?
Q2: Are you comfortable using social media to complain about work?
Q3: Does your company have a policy about employee conduct on social media?

These are important questions that are increasingly relevant as our freedom to blog and share content via social media is now one that employers and other institutions are now monitoring or are planning to monitor in the future. We must note then that the freedom to blog cannot protect us from losing our jobs or from law suits from organisations and may indeed impact on what information we will be able to share and access on blogs in the future.

This brings me to the issue that such pressures will change forever the information sources that blogs are. Blogs will no longer become authentic and real sources of personal information. People instead will be censored and provide only information that they know they cannot get in trouble for. Imagine the world that this creates, where I want to find authentic and real information online about a company or an institution, and all I can find are positive stories and comments about the company and institution? No complaints? No criticism? No person's real thoughts or beliefs about that company or institution? Is that the online world that we want to live in and create?

Where are the values of freedom and freedom of information? Librarians and the information professional community need to speak out against this new online world order, where organisations and institutions are robbing individuals of the freedom to make authentic contributions to the blogosphere and user-generated content that gives us expanded realities about our world and the institutions and organizations that inhabit them.



References

New, J. (2013, Feb 8). Edwin Mellen Press sues university librarian for libel. The Chronicle of Higher Education Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/edwin-mellen-press-sues-university-librarian-for-libel/42193


Stableford,  D. (2013, Jan 31). Applebee’s fires waitress who posted receipt from pastor complaining about auto-tip. Yahoo! News Retrieved from http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/applebees-waitress-fired-pastor-receipt-193820748.html

Thesis Idea Update: Providing Access to Entrepreneur Blogs through Conversational Agents?

I have been working for the entire summer on two guided reading papers, after which I will prepare for comprehensive examinations, all things going well.

I just wanted to post an update on my thoughts as to a possible direction for my thesis. As some of you know, I have an interest in the use of conversational type agents for providing online information to entrepreneurs. As it stands today, I am not sure if I have the time to develop a prototype adequate enough to be tested for dissertation purposes. Hence, I am considering to just include agents as a chapter in the thesis, perhaps proposing that agents be considered for future in connecting business persons to stories shared on the Web.

 

I guess the larger vision is to create a system for sharing business information, that captures people's business stories in whatever format, and make that accessible to users. This could be through conversational interaction with virtual agents or otherwise (which may involve multimedia information retrieval). 

 

Since no such system exist, but would have to be created, I guess I have limited options, especially constrained by time. I could undertake a project where I would collect the online stories shared by  Jamaican/Canadian entrepreneurs (or both) in whatever online format (social media or regularly Web), and then index and categorise them into motifs. These categories and motifs I would input into multiple conversational agents: the trickster personality for stories that feature wit and intelligence to outsmarting bureaucratic obstacles; the victim personality for stories that deal with tragedy and the hero personality: that deals with stories about overcoming odds and attaining success.

Based on Technorati  2011 report, I know that a large percentage of blogs are created by entrepreneurs who are sharing their stories. I also know that based on a Pew Internet Research report, bloggers are seen as storytellers (Lenhart & Fox, 2006). I see the possibility of indexing and categorising these stories to be the source materials for developing the agents. However, I also believe I could provide access to these entrepreneur blogs or stories  without the use of conversational agents, as I can use a blog or content management system to index and organise a kind of directory to entrepreneur blogs and stories on the Web.

 

Possible research questions thus far for such a project:

 

1. What knowledge is being shared via social media by entrepreneurs' storytelling?
2. Are current motifs and categories of organisational storytelling literature adequate for indexing and categorising entrepreneurs' storytelling via social media?
3. To what extent would making entrepreneur stories accessible via the Web be useful?

 

If I was able to create an adequate agent, I would add this question for testing:

 

4. Would such stories be more accessible if users interacted with virtual agents rather than browsing and keyword searching?

References;

Lenhart, A., & Fox, S. (2006). Bloggers: A portrait of the internet’s new storytellers. Pew Internet & American Life Project. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2006/PIP%20Bloggers%20Report%20July%2019%202006.pdf.pdf 

Technorati. (2011). State of the blogosphere 2011: Introduction and methodology. Retrieved 6/13/2012, 2012, from http://technorati.com/social-media/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-2011-introduction/

Reflections on blogs as life-writing information sources

This week as I focus on writing a paper on blogs as information sources, I am learning and inspired. As I have been reading, I have encountered one author who has explicitly shared my perspective that blogging is a form of life-writing (Keren, 2006 p. 7). According to Keren (2006), blogging is a form of life writing encompassing all the life writing genres: autobiographies, memoirs, confessions, spiritual quests, meditations, personal essays, travelogs, autobiographical short stories and novels, portraits, complaints, conceptual writings, works of humor and family histories.


Keren's (2006) mention of family histories peeks my interest in developing my own blog to document my family history, including photographs, in order to preserve the historical record of my family and pass it on to my daughters for their heritage.


On another matter, I think the LIS community needs to be better educated about blogs. While libraries are using blogging software to create their own blogs and apply blogging platforms for various library applications, I wonder when I will see blogs incorporated into library collection development policies.

So far I have learned that blogs are dynamic web pages, that presents content in a chronological manner. I have also learned that the majority of the blogosphere (in America) blog personal life stories and experiences (Lenhart & Fox, 2006). I have also learned that a great portion of bloggers are actually entrepreneurs (Technorati, 2011).

Technorati's (2011) State of the Blogosphere report states that:

13% of the blogosphere is characterized as entrepreneurs [N=526 of 4,114 bloggers around the world], or individuals blogging for a company or organization they own. 84% of these bloggers blog primarily about the industry they work in, with 46% blogging about business and 40% about technology. 76% blog to share expertise; 70% blog to gain professional recognition; and 68% to attract new clients for their business.

This tells me that a lot of entrepreneurs are sharing their own life stories and experiences online.

This brings me to my final conclusion. For me, I foresee libraries being actively in pursuit of these stories and life experiences being shared online just the way that they pursue the purchase of other lifeworks. Books about real people and their lives and experiences are among the bestsellers of the world and are also in high demand in our libraries. Yet those life stories and experiences actually published are done by publishing enterprises who make them because they know that the people whose lives are be written about are famous and will be bought and sold in millions of copies. Publishing companies take risk to publish books only if they are confident that there is a potential market for the content.

Libraries end up only buying books from these dominant publishers and players in the publishing market, while the voices and stories of the poor and ordinary are not covered, unless the media or press captures it. (Or perhaps the musicians and other artistes and players in the popular music industry)

If future libraries want to ensure social equity in the voices represented and truly democratic representation of stories and experiences of members of their community, libraries need to see blogs as important information sources that capture alternative community voices that are not necessarily represented in the published literature of life writing.


References:

Keren, M. (2006). Blogosphere :The new political arena. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.


Lenhart, A., & Fox, S. (2006). Bloggers: A portrait of the internet’s new storytellers. Pew Internet & American Life Project. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2006/PIP%20Bloggers%20Report%20July%2019%202006.pdf.pdf

Technorati. (2011). State of the blogosphere 2011: Introduction and methodology. Retrieved 6/13/2012, 2012, from http://technorati.com/social-media/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-2011-introduction/

Conversation on blogs as nonfiction information sources

I have been exploring as part of my research for this term blogs as nonfiction information sources. I am conceptualizing blogs as genres of non-fiction writing, memoirs and other genres of personal stories.

From conversation, a friend of mine stated that such a study on blogs sounds interesting but posed the following questions, concerns and even answers. I have edited the responses and flow of conversation to more effectively communicate in dialogue form my emerging ideas about blogs as valuable sources of information:


Friend [slightly edited by me]:

How can you verify the accuracy of the information if it comes from a blog? Would you check who wrote it ? And even then it has not been peer reviewed, so it has to be a lower level non fiction information source to corroborate credible sources, not so?

 My response

 Well depends on which blog you use. Who produces it is important, whether it be an organisation or a company. The authority and authenticity of the blog must be ascertained.

Obviously there are some blogs being maintained by experts in a subject field (Clyde, 2004). In addition there are archives that publishes original or primary sources from their collection through blogs (Theimer, 2011).


Libraries already purchase biographies and memoirs and other non-fiction information sources written by individuals from their personal experiences.  So why not look at blogs of celebrity and important persons as also primary sources and as the online extensions of memoirs and biographies? 

My friend also raised other issues [slightly edited by me]:

        Yes you can use them [blogs] but it depends on what you are using them for, because you have to take into account the type of information you can glean from the source. A biography or a memoir is still subjective but it gives you an understanding from which to work...it is merely a point of view

My response:

        Most definitely. As you put it...the printed genre is as subjective as the online genre.Not because it is in print makes it authentic. All printed sources are mere perspectives. But if blogs provide links to other perspectives, just like how other print books provide references, then it can also refer one to alternative perspectives and other range of perspectives

My friend [slightly edited by me]:

        Most printed sources have to go through many channels to check it is at least a researched and solid point of view and its peer reviewed by others. Unless you publish it yourself, but a blog does not go through those same channels. Hence the difference between the Internet sources and databases.The Internet sources can be good but they must be corroborated if you are using it for scholarly papers.

 
My response :

        Some persons and organisations upload documents and other primary sources on blogs.  Law librarians have found that they can access court documents and cases on blogs (Maxwell, 2008).

My Friend:

        Then that changes the nature of the blog. What you are then using is the primary source found through a blog.

 My response:

     Whatever is present, blogs can still be sources to locate the information. Even if they are referrals, just like bibliographies.

My friend [slightly edited by me]:

        Yes. That's what I meant.  You are using the credited material found via a blog, but some blogs are merely airings of non qualified people with non credited opinions.

My response:

      Even journalist are using blogs sometimes as sources for news reports or to identify sources to be interviewed. (Bailey, 2008) 

My friend [slightly edited by me]:

    Yes but the news is merely an event. Any event is  news. Scholarly research is different from news. I'm not saying that you can't use a blog or the information on it.

 My response:

         Sociologists are using blogs for research now. Studies have been published indicating that blogs are valuable sources of information for academic social research (qualitative and quantitative) (Hookway, 2008).

 My friend [slightly edited by me]:

         Because it is the nature of the information. That's what I said. You can use a blog depending on what you need the information for. A blog shows us human opinions, behaviours and workings of the mind. [Hookway, 2008]

My concluding remarks and commentary on the dialogue:

I had to abruptly end the conversation with my friend on this point. However, my friend by this point eventually argues my position on blogs. My only difference in view is that I doubt that any person is unqualified to write a blog. Every blog is a source of information and a perspective that should be voiced and represented. This issue therefore is of criteria in selecting what blogs to collect, and showcase to one's public. Libraries need to take into consideration the audience they are serving in those decisions and collect and bring to the mind of those audiences the blogs that may be of most information value to them.


References:


Bailey, O. G. (2008). “Blogs in the Second Iraqi War: Alternative Media Challenging the Mainstream?” pp.72- 83. In Olgo Guedes Bailey, Bart Cammaerts and Nico Carpentier.  Understanding Alternative Media. New York: Open University Press.

Clyde, L. (2004). Weblogs and libraries. Oxford: Chandos.

Hookway, N. (2008). Entering the blogosphere: Some strategies for using blogs in social research Qualitative Research  8 (1): 91-113. 

Maxwell, R. (2008). Flash and Substance: Blogs as Alternative Sources of Legal Information. American Association of Law Libraries [AALL] Spectrum, 12(4), 9-10.

Theimer, K. (2011). A different kind of web :New connections between archives and our users. Chicago: Society of American Archivists.

(Revised for errors September 11, 2012)

Why blog? The benefits of blogging

As a research student getting ready to go into PhD studies, I have decided to use the online writing tools of  blogging to allow for personal development as a writer. What I love about blogging is the opportunity to keep track of my thoughts and notes with keyword searching. I also love the opportunity for the public to give feedback and comment on my thoughts and ideas.

Blogging helps to preserve a record of my intellectual development on a subject in a format that can be easily retrievable. In the past, I kept written notebooks and even note cards, that I had to flip through all the pages to locate a specific record of what I had written. Blogs however allow me to locate specific information through keyword searching making retrieval of written ideas faster than skimming the pages of a notebook or indexed note cards.

Audience feedback helps me to know what gaps I have left in my writing and what I need to do further research on. Peer review has taken on a special meaning to me as a published writer (of scholarly papers). Many eyes are needed to see common spelling mistakes, or to discover unclear and ambiguously constructed sentences, ideas or concepts. As a writer, you know what you are thinking and what you mean to say, and you believe that what you are saying is clear and very convincing. However, that does not mean that your audience will get the same message and understand it clearly as you do. Just the other day I posted a note and someone was able to point out another item of interest that could be included to make my argument/communicated ideas stronger or more persuasive. Even now, I have an article that I wrote being critiqued by the editorial team, which has helped me to sharpen my communication for reaching my intended audience.

Apart from these reasons professional blogging can have an impact on your career dreams and hopes.

What is the impact of blogging professionally?

It can definitely lead to you getting a job:

Meredith Farkas:

"I can't say this 100 percent, but I believe that it helped me get a job. There are more new librarians than there are library jobs out there, and I didn't have a lot of experience, so what did they have to go on?… With a blog, they can see that she's passionate about the profession. She's tech-savvy. She has thoughts in her head. It made me a known entity." (qtd. in Kenney and Stephens)

It can also lead to you getting speaking and training engagements and to publishing opportunities

Laura Smart: "Professionally, it's been really great. It has led to a lot of speaking engagements and training and publishing opportunities". (qtd. in Kenney and Stephens)

Further, Asgedom recommends that in order to launch a career in the writing/speaking business, one needs to begin by blogging, rather than by writing a book.

Works Cited:

Asgedom, Mawi. "How to Start a Writing/Speaking Business"  Mawi Develop Greatness. July 13, 2011. Web. 14 July 2011. <http://mawiasgedom.com/how-to-start-a-writingspeaking-business/>.

Kenney, Brian and Michael Stephens. "LJ Round Table: Talkin' Blogs: Library Bloggers Discuss the Impact of their Work."  Library Journal. 1 Oct. 2005. Web. 14 July 2011. <http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6261414.html>.