2006.03.23

readings: art arguments
provocative arguments that raise questions about the issue
dont want to confuse 'what could have happened' with 'what happened'

miller:
art as an evolutionary perspective
art is a mating display, show your fitness
- resource of time invested into art
- variable (small differences in creativity -> diff quality of artwork)
- can judge between artworks
- symmetry is a form of craftmanship
conflating craftmanship (manual dexterity) with artisal (making useful, well-made things) with aesthetics (symmetry, beauty) with sexual selection (how to discern)
bower birds have larger brain size
- what are selection pressures that lead to different tastes/preferences?
natural ability + time of craft + evolved taste

conflating ART with general art
art as a profession vs. everyday craftsmanship

how to trust photographs on dating sites?
is it a 'true' photograph? just indicative? truly candid? associative?
editing process - how do you choose *which* photo that's flattering and indicative?

what ability does the person have in the creation process?
choosing a photograph, creating, editing
having a digital camera, photoshopping it to look marvelous
well-crafted profile (photo, writing, etc)

cost of profile writing
- effort to write it
- a direction / focus / opinion-making / intent
checkboxes, questionnaire

interests: threshold? if you have 2 things? 200 things? what does it say about person?

indian dating sites
astrology
'mars in lunar houses'
if you marry someone in the same sign, the aggression is off-set

checkboxes - fit in cultural boundaries
compartmental
more and more specific markets (dating site for a narrow community)
users of the site define the culture + definition of the site design

do you buy into the psychology?
take a questionnaire and follow the matchmaking algorithm
believe that it has a bit of truth

what is a reliable set of signals? and a telling set of signals?
(data) nonsmokers only correspond with nonsmokers, etc
signaling something too generic

not enough effort vs. too much effort (too much investment, too clever)
want to fit the community culture
there's a set of norms that are established

dan ariely research
'are you appropriate for me?' - how do you self-select?
how do you sort through - how do you fit in social space - who do you approach?

how can you avoid certain attractive people getting bombarded with requests?
- cost of rejection is higher?
- public correspondence

consider cost for messaging
- money (fee)
- fixed quota (only # per time period)
can you

rejection costs are low because you dont expect a need to reply

psychology of attraction
algorithm - astrology, chemical, match metrics

is someone approachable?
anything invisible is not a community standard
hard to know if email-responding a community standard if it's private
what if it's public?

rejection - feedback by clicking on the unattractive parts
the 'reason' for rejecting
specify whats wrong - help people adapt?
public vs private critique
identified vs anonymous feedback
encourage to get responses (curiousity on the other end)

part of your profile is your responses to other people (your tone?)

feedback to help you fit into the 'norm'

deal with competition - how to glean information from competitors?
people are supposed to be exclusive - dont want to share

common ground, common participation for people's profiles
come out in how people interact with each other
how generous is this person as a person? are they really funny?
what are costs / benefits?
cost - showing interaction

what types of deception happen on these spaces?
- relationship status
- distance between ideal self and real self
how to elucidate truth on the profile?

before you meet online
build your image of yourself and of the other person
fall in love with the mental representation
meet in person, and then they perhaps dont match up to expectations

black box algorithm - gives you an extra bit of information
if you think it's not important you can ignore it

deception in dating sites
true.com threatens to prosecute deceptors

within the match.com type sites, not much development except different questions to pose to people to answer in their profiles
all similar style


dont want to turn cues into signals
measuring sensing vs. intentional communication

giftgiving waste / loss is a signaling cost
making a risk on finding something that will match the other person

thinking of wishlists, public request lists
costly way of telling someone about your investment in them
boundaries of gifts (services, bribery)

have a good spring break!

2006.03.16

social networks
theory + readings

next week: online dating, trying to find people

what will social networking sites look like in 15 years?
how to make more sophisticated design choices

laszlo barabasi - physical / mathematical models of social networks
"linked"
grounded in scientific theory
how to adapt and apply the model?

how do you find things about people that you wouldnt otherwise
develop network of people around one particular interest
connection through lifestyles
disconnection over time and location --
now we're all 'connected' and in a continuum

how do the number of personal correspondants change over time?
active network (current correspondence) versus inactive network (you knew them at some time) versus unknown strangers

'interesting' people to you, usually within 2 degrees (friend-of-friend)
beyond 3 degrees, it gets pretty random

people change in parallel ways
someone you reconnect with after knowing each other in elementary school
still feel 'close'

how do we keep boundaries between different parts of our lives?
multi-faced identity
work, family, hobby, you play a role throughout
change of context, assuming the accepted behaviour
understand how the information flows

interest commonalities - but then diverging interests
ex. you know someone through one thing, but then learn about new things through that friend (i.e. friend from work now knows about salsa dancing)
transformative knowledge and dentity through networks
political transformation - how do opinions spread?
one-by-one, the idea flows through the network

alea - "dancing"
partners
salsa clubs
classes
social circles expand
salsa x tango

barabasi - infinitely scalable networks
take a generic graph
look the number of connections
resembles a gaussian curve

real social networks - power curve
nodes are not generic in how many links they have
some people are super-connected
some have very few connections
# of friends - not evenly distributed
super-connectors are the 'hubs'
bridges - connect the big circles
- one person that the milgrim letters tended to be sent to

common interest is a focus - hobby, work, book

feld - potential for more connection but people have constraints on time and resources, need to manage your contact relationships

what are resources that ppl have for adding contacts?
first year in grad school versus someone who has a saturated schedule

what is the potential of the nodes? what about foci?

dynamics - how much do people want to be the go-between? who, and why, to share ideas and people, to create change?

impression management, you tailor your approach depending on the kind of people you're communicating with, and also display what kind of person they are

*how do people display these connections?*

name-dropping in the acknowledgments: subtle signaling connection through a gesture of thank-you
acknowledgments versus bibliography - 2-way mutual connection versus 1-way connection (and it's public, accountable responsibility)

display people of a network implicit

displaying photographs or names of people

honestly friends with famous people? or just 'official' photos that mean nothing?
in personal photographs, it's 'social' marketing, to give evidence that you were at particular places with particular people
- cost to maintain honesty of the signal

cue vs signal : a signal is more apt to be deceptive

jeff - 'parties'
number of population: large (popular), small (exclusive)
deceptive - lie about some particular draw beforehand

next gen social networking
what is the function of the party host?
dinner party salon-style?
how do you directly introduce people?
giving interesting people a reason to meet each other

evite.com - how to scope out who is connected to this one event

what should stick in someone's mind versus explicit declaration

sites are to help you comprehend or access complicated information
make design decisions to help people help themselves
do not constrain people's behaviour explicitly, allow interesting freedoms

effort = cost
how do you connect the people?
profile = existence

how do you draw a social network?
weak vs strong bonds
different facets of communities

modern society is rich with
have your support networks, help each other out
support people are the ones in which you rely on
you give, you receive
how do you rely on people?

high cost connections - having trust, reliable
cost of social connection, or by service fees

milgrim - how do we navigate through a social world?
familiar strangers, how to interact with people in public, in private communities

letter experiment
interesting perception of major connectors

doing the experiment is a favour - bother someone
who am i going to ask to do a favour
what does it mean to pass a favour on through a network?
want to avoid chain letter syndrome - pyramid scheme?

six degrees of separation (movie)
claims to be a friend of the prep school son
can offer small tidbits of knowledge
true story about con-artist
- the power of using these knowledge negotiations to build trust
http://www.colorado.edu/TheatreDance/OldSite/9899/siximp.html

david buss, evolutionary psychologist
dating relationships
women look for security, men look for short-term relationships
mismatched signals lead to deceptive practices

dating sites: competitive element
want to beat out all the others who are vying for attractive targets
what is the optimal amount of lying that you can put on a dating profile?
how do people read the profile?
read between the lines, what does what one say or not say mean? how do you interpret or negotiate the differences? what are cues to make insights about the other person?
holding back a home phone number: they have another relationship to hide vs wanting privacy before gaining trust

what do you want? how do you filter it through your profile expression?
negotiate, articulate, what words mean, what effect it gives off

reputation as a 'dating' partner?
you dont necessarily want a multitude of 'recommendations'
- gossip to spread useful information
- keep people accountable

gifts, gift relationships, gifting signals

2006.03.09

[ack, my computer crashed... notes beginning around gossip...]

evolution of identity over time
concept of memory and consistency

multiple people inhabiting one identity

social custom / comfort against railing against person directly
more natural (and share communication) between party through gossip

how do you design
to represent people effectively
position of role

disambiguate through face
not so much through voice
punishment costs to faking it

face vs voice
snapshot of moment in time vs timebased medium

what are the markings of individual identity

disguising faces - the things that are most permanent (bone structure) arent the most distinguishing, however, we remember things like hair, colouring, accessories, etc

names are mere labels, easy to change or fake, but easy to access
physical markers are more difficult to fake, though to read

human memory - traces and forgetten and imperfect and adaptable
vs computer memory

individuality

generic or

meaningfulness to other people
does it matter to know people's dna, license #, or face?

differentiation of humans to humans
descriptiveness of names ("smith")
tribal grouping names, occupational names, reflective of culture

email addresses, the domain
member of a community
responsibility on behalf of an institution

free email services lower the bar, harder to trust

how much can you read into email addresses?
or any naming system
hotmail versus gmail
names as individuality
strange or offbeat names more common because easier to find domain names?

stanley lieberman - names as fashion
prof watternberg - baby name handbook

popularity of names
different systems, icelandic naming

name == communicatable identifier
face == strong recognition, categorizable

reputation is very easy to manipulate online
what's at stake for the rater?

do a long-standing low-risk thing, and then drop the (scam)bomb

newcomers treated with suspicion

ebay vs craigslist
repercussions
craigslist - more localised, you physically meet

reputation systems - reward vs. greater good vs.
people arent that motivated for doing stuff for greater good
need the right motivations? benefits? pleasurable?
gossip is fun, rating systems are difficult

expectations
service is good - approval comes with continued service, loyalty
reputation of distributed memory across a community

positive feedback
worth the risk?
what if you just pat-backs to positive-positive
strength of tie to community to give an honest rating

anonymity --> pseudonymity --> identity

osama bin laden
easier to pick an individual as the malefactor
solution: get rid of this one person, then the problem will go away
person is a representative of a group, a movement

verifiability

anonymity on online systems
track through IP address
send messages through collective: ANYA routing
nobody knows the gateway or the source
anonymous -- going thru a blender before being transmitted
identity is the 'tor' network
your identity can only be tracked back to a network

is it possible to make something purely anonymous?

discuss.

notes: 2006.03.02

fashion as a signal

significant in design of new technologies

what does it mean to interpret something as a signal?
complicated interlocking pieces

handicap (simplified)
signaling of need (expenditure of another resource)
- how much do you care about the signal
conflation of handicap and amount of resource
ambiguous, subjective, depending on amount of resource
ex. chicks who peep for food -- what if they dont have enough energy to peep?

expensive clothes, expensive cars
- signal of resource (you are spending a lot)
- conflated with knowledge of fashion (it's the hot thing)

fashion in clothing
- knowledge of new fashion designers, etc
- industry insider knowledge, trendsetting, buying/merchandising
- costly to acquire high-quality knowledge, fashion shows, street spotting
- mistakes can be costly: liquidated merchandise, bad series of lines

'interval'

full cowboy suit guy : affiliation with a look, style

what seems 'natural' and 'right'?
it become enculturated, to imitate a crowd for association/affiliation
basis of imitation: how and what does imitation come about in human learning + fashion?
imitation happens on small and large scale: gesture to language to mannerisms to thought
fashion --> innate sense of imitating people around us

fashion: change for its own sake
colors palette (in general -- art, clothing, cars, homes)

notions of progress vs. notions of fashion
adopting new technology (e.g. iPod), i know whats fashionable
cellphones are smaller and more featured
tech advance is pushing what is fashionable in gadgets

fashion in ideas
actual progress in ideas? or are we recycling the concepts?

progressive advancement -- how much is it changing? for change's own sake or for progressive development?

where do new ideas come from?
fashion in ideas:
trying to come up with a development
some of the ability of showing you're in the right path of knowledge
signal: 'we're in the right direction", we're on the right track
i have the knowledge, i can reference the right buzzwords, but not disclose everything explicitly

blogs:
eytan adar

relationship of sources of trend, and the followers

jeevan:
sources may not be the most linked
the ideas come from little guys
then blow up when linked to from large sites (slashdot/boingboing)
the most-read are not necessarily the trend-setters
big hubs are early adopters
people will tend to link back to the big hubs instead of the original seed

you trust the big hub, the aggregator

veblen: simplified model
information flows from high-status to low-status (through imitation)
same affiliation-type

there's an infinite number of dimensions of the social stratosphere
numerous ways to set your affiliations
who is on top? source/inspiration might be outside of the competitive domain
a choice of affiliation, you do or do not want to be part of a certain group
quest to be more extreme: tattoo --> pierced eyeball (competitive)
you can have knowledge but choose not to apply it (level of commitment)

is it fashionable to link to boingboing?
or maybe it will be fashionable to link to other esoteric sources?
fashion of the content of the link + the identity of the source
signal of what you write + what you choose not to write
- individual choice

the framework / context shapes your approach
ex. seeing a story on slashdot vs. seeing same story in a small thing
being an originator vs being a follower (shared audience)
link to slashdot: safe, not risky
link to no-name: risk, but vouch for originality

pre-filtered fashion: it has been 'sanctioned' by a trusted source
chelsea first floor galleries, popular aggregators, trendy boutiques
fashion on painting?
academic discipline that's in-style at a particular time or location
what is new and upcoming? progressive? oudated or avant garde?

adopting, co-opting ideas, position, writing on conceptual art

assignments;

jeff
blogs + digital video
people being less than straightforward about naming their sources
people will bypass you and go to the source

it's hard to trace back exactly where an idea came from
people want to position themselves higher up
people wanting to get as much credit to the originators
how you credit -- how to establish one's position in chain of information

want to effectively filter information without disclosing all your sources
easy to 'skip' over gateways in web-based ideas
costly to find out better music: listen to a lot of music, ask someone you trust, read reviews

reliability: where in the hierarchy of originators and followers is somebody?
are you at the top? who will have a leg up or down? contested issues
does the person get the first-hand knowledge? or is it trickle down (easy street)?
competition in same domain
'testing' the authenticity of someone's knowledge -- comprehensive? not sound-bitey?

risk management: how much do you put your choices on the line?
being at forefront is risky because you need followers, to be a trusted source
need confidence to do something different that people will accept
e.g. it's easier to get funding to do something that's already accepted as popular

qualitative differences between the top, middle, and bottom (choice of position)
types of behaviour in different approaches; someone might choose to be a great 'middle'

temporal rhythm of fashion
should people stay in their correct social place?

people spend a lot of time to gather information for a useful blog

'moved into an era of seasonless fashion' -- everything changing at a faster rate
fashion changing faster today
design: should we slow it down? find alternatives? make it easier to display the change?
respond to this shift into accelerated fashion

how to redesign cars?
make it so people dont dispose of their cars every year
want to make it expensive (value in expense)
shows new knowledge without getting a whole new car
costs of society vs costs of individual vs costs to the environment

seth:
fashion + magician
premium of secrecy
producers of magic
purveyors of magic content
knockoffs (magic-maker)
super low knockoff tricks (magic cafe) - cheap tricks online
class war between casual shoppers and the established experts/apprentice system
want authenticity -- central of knowledge from the iconic magicians
the 'easier' things are, the 'less authentic' it is

orkan:
subcultures, countercultures - extreme in resistance
everything is a subculture (arbitrary boundary of communities)

counter culturing - culture in opposition to another, a differentiation
counter signaling - high vs. medium vs. low levels of hierarchy
counter signaling against youth - want to avoid association with another group

individuals + reputation.
what makes someone an individual?
- face
- name
- individual versus social identity
how do we remember particular people?
reputation, history
identity is problematic online
google: identifier (unique names), things that link to you
biological markers?
fingerprints, dna
reliable signals of distinction?

reputation is closely tied with identity
need to have strong notion of identity -- strong notion of reputation
individual histories
gossip

what do you want to know about people online?
can this knowledge be reliable?