2006.04.13

seth

(personal) communication
hidden costs of lower costs
ways to communicate: care packages, letters, IMs, phones
display communications you've received to manage your reputation
costs with sending something (in decreasing cost):
care package: time to get materials, money and effort to send it, gift economy
handwritten letter: time to get materials, stamp, postal, paper/pen, thoughtfulness for each participant
postcards: less time to write, less-cost version of handwritten letter
calling: investment of real-time, invest in relationship, daytime vs nighttime minutes
email: asynchronous, almost no-cost
IM: low cost, time cost (synchronous), multi-task
IM -- same formality, low content, 'how are you' kind of thing
token gesture of 'hello' to maintain contact

signals:
care package - if you know the sender, it's fine (mom).
if you don't know sender, wooer / secret admirer.
letter - signals the letter's intent. "dear" "love" "hi" "sincerely"
typos, kind of paper, handwriting, packaging, postmark, doodles
postcard - (a) im on vacation (b) thinking of you (c) shorter message, how much they allocate space
phonecalls - long-distance, time of day
email: from address (a premium email address), to address (mailing list?)
IM: away messages, time of idleness, what message program they are using

reputation:
care package - seth's mom cares and can bake
letters - person who keeps up communication consistently is a good friend, reliable if it's someone you know
imitations - mass mailing, fake handwriting, post-it notes, real stamps, etc
phonecalls - popularity, unanswered calls
emails - spam, identity rep of the sender depending of content, black/white list, email address (@mit vs @yahoo)

conclusions:
many more connections that last longer
cost: weaker connections
ability to keep in touch with more people
cost: efficiency trumps individuality connection
messages are delivered more quickly, regardless of location
cost: creativity stifled, 'christmas newsletters'

think about: cue vs signal
a signal is deliberate

reputation - community / group

postcards - editing , aesthetic change, artistry on the postcard
signal on how you construct or design the postcard

cost: a letter from someone who never writes letter vs. a letter from someone who writes ten letters a day
signal of relative resource - absolute or relative signal

letter is more focus on the message, the communication
a postcard is an object; between a gift and a message; a mini-gift

new way to email?
oldfashion: typewriter (business) vs. handwritten (personal)
new: email (business) vs. ?
- trace of you of a physical person, a person physically wrote it
ref: fuzzmail (fuzzmail.org)

malte

housing bulletin board of the mit european club (online message boards)
simple system
market for people - roommates for housing
minimalist: text-based (no photos), rely on subject, date, sender
cross-cultural element, international students who look for housing in US

two parties:
- students looking for housing
- landlords/students looking for tenants

qualities:
- technical facts (qualities of the room: price, location, room, details)
- personal characteristics
- reliability of a tenant (can pay rent)
- suitability as a community member (can get along)

signals + cues:
"2 young professionals looking for quiet 2BR or 3BR (cambridge)"
- the subject line covers all the bases
- who they are, and who they're looking for
"ame and katharina"
- northern european names, background

reliability + reputation:
jose's letter (seeking)
- what are signals and cues?
- signal a seriousness, or formality to make sure it's clear in english
- reliability? no reputation system / history in this housing system
- spelling mistakes - not meticulous? or just an honest mistake with 2nd language?
specific signals
- scholarships
- associated email addresses
assessment signals
- international calls
gift culture?

offer postings:
location (detail vs vague description)
- "14-min walk"
- is vagueness for poster's safety, or to shield a bad location?
condition - "nice", "wonderful"

social practices:
site intro
learning through experience
- conventions of abbreviations and wroding
- trial and error, change posting as time passes

this bulletin board - what is the feedback? hard to tell sometimes
versus craigslist - more sense of deception

interesting to interview people on what they thought a house was like, and then what it really was
new orleans, ppl looking for people/house, and the subject lines were at first were uninformative ("looking for my uncle")
eventually, people need to make their subject lines super-detailed (specific names / location)
community learning over time

pallavi

car lovers websites
jabbasworld.net/portal.php
ferrarichat.com/forum/index.php

jabbas:
general car-loving community, diverse
talk about cars
signal about their lifestyle
fun, enjoy cars
signal knowledge they have
post pix to show their involvement and expertise in cars, either their own or others on street / in shows
- a lot to show off their skills, not that super-expert in cars but devoted to appreciation, photographing a lot of cars

ferrari:
narrow ferrari-loving community
more specific, want to talk about ferrari
owners, serious buyers, are there to learn
signal lifestyle (owning multiple ferraris, etc)
signal knowledge, expertise
dishonest people are almost instantly identified
very very specific and earnest experts, serious buyers, almost professional knowledge, fervent
- people get together for face-to-face meetings, have events
- give a lot to the community

reliability in jabbas:
- your car: put your keys and service manual on the hood to signal it's your car
- lots of rules, moderation
- first post has a series of rules
- maintained
costs - addictive, costly in time; go to events, car shows, scoping on streets
benefits - making friends, community, learning knowledge
gifts - pooling money + gifting the moderators; giving knowledge by experts to community

reliability in ferrari:
- you test someone's knowledge
- some people spend lots of energy to unearth deception / lies
cost - time
gifts - knowledge

jabbas: more of a community - but you want to show special cars, not generic ones; bound by an interest in cars
- level of coolness, identity equates to your car, want something extraordinary, better
ferrari: more of a resource, insane + rich car enthusiasts

alea

wrongplanet.net community
support for those with asperger's syndrome, autism
- online help with offline communication
"i have a problem? what should i do?"

resources: articles, links, blogs
relationship section - forums begin with description, segue into conversation
finding a match - signaling 'who i am'

signal, and interpretation (is he sarcastic?)
takes away signals in face-to-face, speeches, tonalities
text taken as text

the community is open to all
good place for ppl with issues with communication
not beneficial for people to be deceptive
can see the history of people, how many notes they've contributed

'wrong planet' - name connotates that people alienated from the 'real' world
people are feeling alienated, upset, angry, wanting support
the rest of the world is rah-rah, but we want to be a community that feels right in opposition to the 'right' planet
not necessarily wanting to assimilate - associate with the everyday world
make it unappealing to 'outsiders' to the community, a subculture

deception

jeff: courtroom situation
defending yourself, more about law strategy
how much do you believe what you are saying, truth or lies?
doubt, guilt,
duty to defend your defendent vs. absolute truth
balancing conflicting views of not liking your defendent but believing in one's right to a proper defense

on bullshit: spin
'democracy is messy'
statement is related / not-related to facts?
weird deception - it shifts the discussion
using mass media to say there is limited
'democracy' - inarguably good (?)
additional unstated things - is a messy democracy better than a neat dictatorship?
- an avoidance of discussing truth

how do topics move?
how to people steer the discsussion to and from a certain focus?
how directly are things answered?

what is the truth?

depaulo - ubiquity of 'everyday lying', social smoothing
social truth versus internal truthful state
'how are you' ' fine' <-- really?

next week: conversation!