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Posts by Fang-Yu Yang (1) By Fang-Yu Yang, on December 11th, 2012
The title: “A Small World After All?” makes me think of “Six degree of
separation”. This theory not only reveals the hidden fate and mystery
of the Internet, its further application will certainly be treated as
a hidden power of social movement for the Internet.
For “six degree of separation” theory, it can be easier explained that
it is a connection of interpersonal relations. Under this theory, to
get to know an unfamiliar friend among friends of you only needs six
people’s connection. In other words, no matter it is Dan Shiffman,
Clay Shirky, or you have long admired Nancy, Obama, Al; You , in
theory, only need six people’s relationship to get to know him/her!
This theory can be traced back to the 1960s, Mill Gülen design a chain
letter experiment. In 1967 Mill Gülen design a chain letter
experiment. Kashmir Gülen will set chain letters randomly sent to 160
individuals living in Omaha, Nebraska, he put a letter in the name of
a Boston stockbroker, and requires each recipient to bring this letter
to the considered to be close to that stockbroker friend, all the
participants to do the same after receiving the letter. Eventually,
all the letter arrived after five or six steps of the stockbroker. So
he verified their assumptions: any two strangers can establish contact
through a friend of a friend, and the interval between them is no more
than six.
In the fall of 2001, Watts (Duncan Watts), a professor of sociology at
Columbia University, set up a study group to begin on the Internet
experiment. Watts establish a “small world” experiment sites, the
endpoints(people) are distributed in 18 different countries (including
a writer in New York, a policeman in Australia and Paris, a librarian,
etc.), voluntary through this web site, e-mailed to relatives and
friends are most likely to achieve the task. As a result, a total of
384 volunteers’ mail arrived at the station of arrival, and e-mail in
six steps or less then passed to the target! Push a bit to the
current world, “Six Degrees of Separation” theory will be an
exceptionally important meaning In the Internet age.
The author mentioned about the Arab Spring in 2009, we all know about
that the Internet played a important role, but why? One of the
important reasons, in my opinion, should be considered because of the
6 degree relationship of Internet. Because of that, people can trust
that information including story, pictures, events comes from
somewhere/ someone unknown but it is trusted. And then, in terms of
reliance, the information of Arab Spring was spreading widely and
efficiently.
It is good to know that Internet has a power to push social movement
besides browsing news, play on-line games and press ‘like’ button.
Here is a speech by Clay Shirky talked about “How Can Social Media
Make History?”(http://www.npr.org/2012/05/18/152868437/how-can-social-media-make-history)
you should also listen about that (or take Clay’s class?) after read
this article.
The title: “A Small World After All?” makes me think of “Six degree of separation”. This theory not only reveals the hidden fate and mystery of the Internet, its further application will certainly be treated as a hidden power of social movement for the Internet.
For “six degree of separation” theory, it can be easier […]
By Asli Aydin, on December 9th, 2012
I have written comments about Ethan Zurkerman’s article “A Small World After All?” but I would also like to pin point to some other issues concerning the issue.
While the empowerment we get from the internet is undeniable, as the article suggests, it cannot be said that we completely understand and use that power, neither is it very easy to do so. First of all, using that power would mean taking responsibility and action and while we’re busy living our lives, it may not always be what we want to do (unless the situation threatens us or the ones we love). Secondly, most of the times we are not aware of the cultural dynamics of a country (which is totally understandable) to be able to use the power we have. How do you decide on the right action or how to help people when you don’t know what the right action to take is. (more…)
I have written comments about Ethan Zurkerman’s article “A Small World After All?” but I would also like to pin point to some other issues concerning the issue.
While the empowerment we get from the internet is undeniable, as the article suggests, it cannot be said that we completely understand and use that power, neither […]
By Tianyu Wu, on December 7th, 2012
It still shock me when i meet my friends who are in tourist when I am in Taiwan. He never contact me, but we meet at a place of interest. It is full of coincidence. When I think of the issue“ the smallest world”, it is about friendship and surprise.
So I seldom feel uncomfortable about the smallest world, if people can find their old friend all of the world,find the resource everywhere, why don’t we keep the world smaller and much tighter?
But I feel a little bit uncomfortable now, especially when psy’s dance cover the world. We sing and dance and we have same feeling for the song- it is interesting and lively with psy’s weird body movement. When all the happiness are too easy to approach because of the small world, people become lazy to create their own stuff. Such famous singers easilily grabbed our attention from ourselve to others since they are always occupy the header of newspaper and homepage of internet.
Does a smaller world means a much poor creativity of individual? Everyone need a space to leave them alone, avoiding the noise of the world and think and create their own stuff. A smaller world makes this status more and more impossible. We’d better to take care of our mind, and don’t let it stolen by others.
It still shock me when i meet my friends who are in tourist when I am in Taiwan. He never contact me, but we meet at a place of interest. It is full of coincidence. When I think of the issue“ the smallest world”, it is about friendship and surprise. So I seldom feel uncomfortable […]
Posts by Wajma Mohseni (1) By Wajma Mohseni, on November 14th, 2012
This seems like a popular article so I will summarize my thoughts in point form. Personally I am intrigued at how technology has aided political activism in such a profound way. I studied political economy in a networked society in my last program as well as the cultural and political policies in Iran (and its effect on media).
* Technology is essentially a tool or a vehicle for gathering, collecting and distributing information that can help drive causes or movements. Samizdat in the Russian bloc decades ago famously showed that tools can and will be created to aide grass roots movements. Social media in the Arab Spring expedited an uprising that was probably bound to happen, though I agree with the author that Tunisia was an unusual trigger point. Political dissent had been brewing in all these Arab countries for a long time. Likewise, Iranian dissent had fomented long before the 1979 collapse of the Shah (who incidentally, ruled Iran with an iron fist). Probably the main surprise to people in Iran or the region was the swiftness of the change, not the opposition itself. Having lived and worked in this part of the world, it is admittedly hard to know what is going on unless you’re actually on the ground, or otherwise have access to very good intelligence, despite the plethora of media and news channels available.
* The increase in globalization has developed a greater demand for localization. The trend in media seems to reflects this – populations want to hold on to something that’s their own, which that they can relate to, whether its culture, language, politics, religion or economy. Programs like ‘Everybody loves Raymond’ and ‘Friends’ are now being sold as formats rather than dubbed versions because as the world is awash with generic programming, audiences are demanding more localized content.
* Images tell a powerful story. The Bouazizi story runs deep and is extraordinary, culminating when a (female) police officer slapped him in public. When corruption, brutality, poverty and injustice are manifested and multiplied manifold, there is enough force to topple a dictatorial regime (some call it people power). I agree with the author that much of what happened in Tunisia remained invisible to the rest of the world, but it could also do with the fact that it happened so quickly. Media access was limited. On the other hand Tahrir square protests were drawn out and images of the millions of people gathered at the square were splashed across the world.
* Information overload chiefly brought on by the internet i think has made news stories and events more ephemeral. We have greater access to media, which is fantastic, but at the same time we juggle more tasks and process more info. Our attention span (in the western world anyway) has decreased which has even impacted newspaper formats – news is now delivered in bite sized pieces . The Internet has perpetuated a breed of couch activists or “slacktivists” . The Kony / Invisible Children campaign is an example of this. This is probably what the author is referring to when he mentions that we encounter a narrower picture of the world than we did in less connected days. We have a lot of information but simply lack the capacity or time to pay as much attention to the details.
* The Green movement protests happened several months before the Arab spring, however, it failed and in some respects, worsened the internal situation as the regime stepped up censorship and blocked media and online access further. Why do you think it failed while the Arab Spring succeeded (Syria TBD)?
I think over time our ability to sift through and process information will improve, but because of the rapid changes in technology, our ability to keep up with it is a challenge. Can you trust any media outlet ? Probably not. But even if the majority of information is biased, there is always an opposing side or story. It rests in our hands to look for that information (or on the flip side, provide it). And the Internet allows us that opportunity.
This seems like a popular article so I will summarize my thoughts in point form. Personally I am intrigued at how technology has aided political activism in such a profound way. I studied political economy in a networked society in my last program as well as the cultural and political policies in Iran (and its […]
By Kang-Ting Peng, on October 8th, 2012
Ethan Zuckerman mentions a disappointing situation that though modern people have more efficient tool, the internet, to connect to the world, we do not take an advantage of it. Instead, we still concentrate on our daily life but do not see broadly and trying to solve the mysteries in our world.
To my mind, this might be an example of improvements of technologies will not definitely lead changes to how people think and act. Regarding to the internet, in my opinion, the basic nature of it may be just like a library, though it is a super huge one, with unlimited books and multimedia materials, and readers can look up books anywhere and anytime. Something even better, every single person can publish his/her own articles immediately and it costs nearly free.
But do all these features change the way how people use a library? We might use a library for study or for work, which are mostly related to our daily life. We might use a library for entertainment, which basically according to what we are interested in. And the same thing we do when we surf on the internet. I think seldom people will go to library and start to find a book about a topic they know little or are not interested in at all. Therefore, I can’t imagine someone just open the browser and automatically search unfamiliar information either. People will find something they think is important to them and they decide what is important on their own.
Ethan Zuckerman indicates that people don’t try to learn important issues in the world and merely focus on the circle of their life. But to some people, they have already concentrated on the most important topics and get plenty of good information online. The Arabic Spring is important, but the 7 Train will stop every weekend since October is important, too. The problem here is how we can nudge people to take a balanced information digest, focusing more on the issues happens at the other side of the world. By education? Perhaps. Adding the exposure of the different news, like Global Voices, it might work. But I think the way to improve social media and search engine in the article might not work due to the nature that people are tend to decide what is important by themselves. Therefore, the main effort should be to make these issues be seen to them, connect them to their life and become as important as one thing they might think when they wait the train in the morning.
Ethan Zuckerman mentions a disappointing situation that though modern people have more efficient tool, the internet, to connect to the world, we do not take an advantage of it. Instead, we still concentrate on our daily life but do not see broadly and trying to solve the mysteries in our world.
To my mind, this […]
By Hanbyul Jo, on September 18th, 2012
The author analyzes many cases that small media has amplified the social movements from Islamic revolution to Arab spring. By comparing the cases in different ages, the author says that connection with the world has not been increased that much despite of enormous development of media technology.
Compared to the time when people struggled to get the fact, the media technology has been developed enormously. Now, all kinds of informations are wandering around the Internet, all we have to do is just grasping those news. We can identify with all sadness in the world. But we don’t do that. Instead, we spend most of our times to check the things we are already familiar with. It seems that we are doing only what we want to do instead of what we might need to do. Blame on us.
However, bunch of important things are happening in this world, what should we get among them? What should we type in google to connect to the world? One-sided media such as TV is better than the Internet in this point of view, even though the author is skeptical about TV because it does not contribute much to the world-connection. TV is for people who don’t even know what they want, evening news talks about the war across the world even if I don’t want to listen to. On the other hand, the Internet is for people who already know what they want. All the hyperlinks do not show their contents until I click on them, search results are not shown until I type right search term.
For better connection with the world, the news need to be specified. Local people who know the context of the news should convert unheard mystery into concrete news. Then, it should be translated, explained, remixed, given all shots to make it attractive to other people. Global Voice is the author’s endeavor to do it. This site is great, but I wish this would be more appealing.
I found the ted speaking by the author, fun and worth watching : http://www.ted.com/talks/ethan_zuckerman.html
The author analyzes many cases that small media has amplified the social movements from Islamic revolution to Arab spring. By comparing the cases in different ages, the author says that connection with the world has not been increased that much despite of enormous development of media technology.
Compared to the time when people struggled to […]
By Negar Behbahani, on September 18th, 2012
The article discuses that nowadays the role of Internet in globalization is too much over-hyped based on this fact that actually in this so-called age of increased global connection the coverage of international news in western media and newspapers are half as many as it was in 1970’s and even most American Internet users read the news that is published in the United States; It emphasizes on the point that Increased global connection does not automatically lead to increased global understanding.
According to the article the main obstacle for a more effective global connection and understanding is the cold war attitude of finding secrets of the Other/enemy and the solution is changing this attitude to the one of tying to understand and decipher mysteries of other global communities. It suggests for reaching such a global understanding the Internet engineers should use some of even existing today’s functions of search engines and social networks to connect more diverse cultures, communities and nations together.
Although the article makes some thought evoking points but overall it underestimates the role of Internet in today’s global relationships between diverse cultures and nations and Its impact on political and activist movements around the world. In my opinion we are more effectively globally connected together nowadays than ever before and I would like to use some of examples that the writer uses in this article to prove my point.
Being an Iranian I see Internet as a very powerful and effective tool for global connection and understanding; the article depicts the connection mechanisms in 1979 revolution but not compare it to the later 2009 Green movement, a resistant and non-obedience protests to the fraudulent election, most importantly under a regime that has all media and papers in its hands with no international journalists being able to report the protests; Internet and digital connections was the only way not solely for inner movement connections to manage and schedule protests but also for international awareness of it; the writer admits the its global widespread coverage but do not consider that without Internet with the censorship of conventional media by the regime, the world would know nothing about it.
On the other hand it is important to know that the global connecting function of Internet was not only spreading the news, for example Iran Green movement made a new global pattern of using Internet, weblogs and social networks that created a powerful alternative media, a citizen-reporter that does not wait for TV stations or papers, activists that schedule their protest by internet, a pattern latter was used widely in Arab spring movements -a fact confirmed by Egyptian activists- and then becoming aware of the power of Internet as a powerful alternative media, Internet made a key role in Occupy movement through out many cities in United States. This point shows that Internet was successful in connecting diverse nations, communities and cultures through out world and helped them to influence and affect each other, giving us all the hope of more globally connected world in future.
The article discuses that nowadays the role of Internet in globalization is too much over-hyped based on this fact that actually in this so-called age of increased global connection the coverage of international news in western media and newspapers are half as many as it was in 1970’s and even most American Internet users read […]
By Andres Taraciuk, on September 9th, 2012
The article is about the availability of information, and how internet should make us more connected. It states that no one expected the Iranian revolution of 1979, mostly because the resistance started in mosques and homes, instead of palaces and barracks. The calls to resistance were transmitted via leaflets and cassettes instead of broadcast media.
It then mentions the Arab Spring, and asks why it came unexpectedly to the Western world in this age of massive communication and participation through social networks. The author then states that ‘we may be encountering a narrower picture of the world than we did in less connected days.’, and that today’s television in the U.S. features less than half as many international stories as in the 1970s.
The article continues listing limits to the way we discover new information online. First, the search engines are only good as the questions we ask for them, if nobody asks about a particular subject nobody will read about them. As of social media, it says it is limited to the circle of friends we have in them. In the end, the article asks for the engineers of ‘the web’ to build tools that will make us more interconnected. It cites as en example that google, after every search, could use our search information not only for ads, but also for helping us discover compelling subjects we have never explored; Facebook, in turn, apart from suggesting us to connect with a person from high school, could look for strangers in remote parts of the world with whom we share common interests.
In my opinion, the critique should not be directed at the tools of the internet, but instead at our education systems or our culture. I think that, should Google or Facebook do the changes that the author wishes, there would be minimal impact on the interconnectivity of the societies. The author states that the insular habits of the mind have not changed, and, for me, this has more to do with the social values. The author should ask parents to teach their children to be curious about all that’s happening in the world.
The idea that we live in a less interconnected world than 40 years ago seems a bit exaggerated to me, but I don’t know how to compare that.
The article is about the availability of information, and how internet should make us more connected. It states that no one expected the Iranian revolution of 1979, mostly because the resistance started in mosques and homes, instead of palaces and barracks. The calls to resistance were transmitted via leaflets and cassettes instead of broadcast media.
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