Monday, September 26, 2005

How do you do?


mixer2
How do we relate in our social networks? It seems that several continuums (continua?) operate simultaneously (like sliders on a mixing desk). We have strong to weak ties; close to loose relationships; local to distant links. And, can we be dispersed and still intimate? AFP reports that Japanese mobile telephone operator KDDI will start a group chat service later this year allowing five users to converse and share text messages and pictures (from this week’s top blog textually.org). So, a dispersed group can then maintain social ties with regular updates on location and situation. Interesting.

Back on street-level we have Skewville self-styled subversive street artists. Here’s their Flickr tag cluster. Also on the page there’s a link to the strange world of when dogs fly. I just don’t get it..... but then the idea of footprint stamps really appeals.

[all mixed up Monday]

2 comments:

Clare said...

The maintenance of social networks across on and offline spaces... hmmm. I have spent hours today trying to create a survey/ questionnaire/ interview schedule (not too hot at this research lark) about this very topic for use with twelve year olds. Does 50 questions sound too many? HELP

Mary Plain said...

just came by to say I love the idea of sliders as a way of describing the continuum. Then I saw SC's cri de coeur.. well I guess it depends. Fifty sounds a lot but are they dead easy/quick to do and what 12 year olds would want to talk about? if so they may work. try it out on us maybe? by this time of night the average 12 year old is much more together than me.