(This is the fourth post of a multi-post series on the relationship between the real and digital world. To read them all, start here, and continue here and here.)

“Does anyone know when the new ‘primetime’ is?” Dr. Tinkcom posed this question one day during a critical theory seminar. We had been discussing advertising and the impact of the Internet on traditional television viewership. Several students hypothesized that busy schedules had shifted prime-time back a couple hours. Others, myself included, wondered if it had been obliterated all together.

“Its between 8 and 9 in the morning, and 5 and 7 at night,” he answered, but then asked: “Does anyone know why?” Considering my own penchant for anything in syndication, I figured it was due to shows like The Simpsons and King of the Hill that show across the nation during the 5-7 time block. It was one of my quieter peers who answered his question correctly. “Commuters,” she said simply. (more…)

(This is the third post of a multi-post series on the relationship between the real and digital world. To read them all, start here, and continue here.)

Say you spot a cute guy across the dance floor, and try to make a move, only to get blocked by his posse. It happens to us all. This is a prime candidate for a Missed Connection, right? “blocked by posse at Town – m4m – 24.” Town, that new DC gay club that is harvesting club kids’ personal information, is interested in a more immediate response. My friend John brought me up to speed.

“So as soon as they scan your driver’s license, they slap a number on you.” The look on my face must have been priceless. Not only are they scanning you like a number, but then they actually slap a number on you. In this case, however, the numbers aren’t for Town. Instead, they are for Town’s “users.”

“You can just look at some guy’s number,” John continued, “and then write a message on a piece of paper, and you hand it to this guy, and he types it up. Then the message goes up on these screens in the club. So like ‘342, you are totally hot – let me buy you a drink – 126.'” (more…)

(This is the second post of a multi-post series on the relationship between the real and digital world. To read them all, start here.)

Last year I attended a session at the Aspen Institute featuring John Clippinger of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society. His book, A Crowd of One: The Future of Individual Identity, was about to hit the shelves and so a conversation ensued about how digital identity (in the technical sense) was transmitted and authenticated in digital environments. What struck me about the group, however, was the absence of discussion about protocols and authentication schemas. Instead, this group was looking for examples from outside of technology (policy, biology, psychology, etc.) to help guide technical efforts. It was not an easy conversation.

“The problem with identity on the internet,” Clippinger said, cutting through the palatable frustration in the room (and paraphrased of course), “is the same as going to a bar.” The room held its breath, waiting to see the connection. “When you hand the bouncer your driver’s license, how much of that information does he need?” (more…)

What is the relationship between ‘real’ and digital world? Anyone who reads my blog knows that much of my research revolves around this very question, but I wanted to return to the topic explicitly. It seems that in many recent conversations I have been arguing that they are tightly coupled. Castranova seems to agree with me:

There is certainly a relationship between the synthetic world and the real one… people are crossing all the time,… carrying their behavioral assumptions and attitudes with them. (Edward Castranova, Synthetic Worlds)

While I feel it is theoretically sound, and have spent most of my time discussing implications of this connection, my more pragmatic peers have been looking for an example. I can’t blame them. When I argue, for example, that the m4m section on craigslist is a proxy for the gay community, they want to know where I get off making such a claim. If that isn’t enough to get them riled up, I frequently continue on to insist that the distinctions between online and offline selves are not as tidy as we might like.

We are going to trying something new over the next couple of posts, and try to build out these concepts with some interesting examples based on recent occurrences locally in DC and across the broader interwebs. What is on the agenda? Privacy, relationships, and Missed Connections, of course.

(Image credit: SecondLife via abcNews, and on a side note… I probably need to invest some more time there.)

A little bit of humor is needed for this Friday. Remember those LOL Theorists? (here and here) I thought I would try my hand.

These two theorists are the perfect signifiers of my week. Critical theory and economics. Same theory, completely different outcomes, leaving you with no where to go. Yep, that kind of sums up this week. What’s one to do? Sit back and LOL, I guess.

(Thanks Patrick for loosing sleep for the sake of the lulz.)

New semesters bring challenges, for sure. I was expecting that. What I wasn’t expecting was how disorienting my economics class would be. This semester I am taking “The Networked Economy” from Dr. Garcia. After enjoying her lectures in our Communication, Culture and Technology course last semester, I decided to take her course and see if economics was as interesting as her lectures and Freakonomics had made it seem. (more…)

I usually keep my posts about craigslist to the Missed Connections section, but when Steve sent me this ad, it made me laugh – so I am sharing it with you!

RE: Cannondale R600c Compact Frame –
NEW – $900 Stop posting! – $1

Reply to: sale-562997321@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-02-04, 6:32PM EST

I think I am not alone in saying I am sick and tired of seeing this post!!

Look buddy new or not your bike has the lowest level of components there is.

People can buy a new bike at the bike store that is a current model with current components for half of what you are asking. Give up!!

I have never flagged your ad but I see others have. They are sick of looking at it too.

A BLACK and White TV was once a thousand dollars too!! New or not you cant give it away unless it was to a museum

* Location: NoVa
* it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 562997321

(Academic note: Isn’t it interesting how a post about an item — the bike — can be posted multiple times, but if someone were to follow suite in a missed connection it would be disastrous? Instead the entire online dating genre is plagued with “I don’t normally do this kind of thing…” disclaimers. Something to think about.)

Just to put us all at ease, here is some more typical craigslist based regulation:

I am gay but,I have to stop reading these CL listings. I am getting sick of what people are writing it makes me sick to my stomach sometimes. It shames me to be gay ,how did gay come to be basically all about sex. I am good looking and enjoy my sexually but some of you are just sick and perverts.If half of you that hang out in the suana and showers actually spent sometime on the floor working out you would not have to lower or degrade yourself. My gym has placed a camera in the showers and locker room, theirs a small notice at the desk to cover them for any law sui.t I will not tell you what gym. (The  bold is all me.)

Hall Johnson, an American composer in the 20th century, is praised for bringing African American spirituals into the concert halls. It is interesting that this transition was not brought about by a wealthy financier, or changing cultural trends. It was Johnson’s arrangements that provided the ability for these spirituals to extend beyond their original community. But one has to wonder, would I have ever heard powerful pieces such as Lord, I Don’t Feel No Ways Tired, had it not been for Johnson? And if you consider his arrangements as more or less cultural translations, have I ever heard the song at all?

In Friedman’s book, The World is Flat, he describes an interconnected world that has emerged as a by product of “The Ten Forces That Flattened the World.” The list is comprised of technological and business innovations and the cultural implications of their adoption. Windows, the Internet, Out/In-sourcing, and even Blogs are covered by the wide net cast with each item on his list. The items on his list, however, serve less to isolate particular phenomena, and instead seem to capture an innovative trend or period. Each item captures a solution to some hurdle in production, and specifically, production of the self. (more…)

Approximately one year ago, Eric Nakagawa launched a site entitled “I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?” and provided one internet meme the focal point with which to start one of our quirkier fads.

A year later most people are familiar with the “LOLCat”, even if they don’t know it by name. The unmistakable combination of cat and garbled text that began with Happy Cat is now inextricably entrenched workforce culture. During last semester’s finals, when disclosed that I had wandered the library navigating browsers to LOLCats, what I didn’t mention was that it was the LOLCats posted everywhere in paper form (they were being used for some flier on stress) that had me thinking about LOLCats in the first place. Some how they had escaped from the ‘nets.

Last fall I had the opportunity to learn a distressingly large amount about LOLCats while writing do research on media comparisons. The resulting paper argued that the relationships between image and text in both LOLCats and silent films share striking similarities. Both captions and intertitles were introduced to augment and extend the possibilities of the visual content. Probably more important, the paper included plenty of pictures of really cute cats.

In the name of those cute cats, I am posting it here. Enjoy!

wants moar: the appropriation of text in the framing of visual media a comparison between LOLcats and intertitles

(cartoon courtesy of xkdc.com)

It’s official. I am presenting some of my craigslist research this Spring at the Space, Place and the Imagination conference at the University of Rhode Island. “Intimately tied to our understanding of ourselves and others, our environment(s), and our institutions, space and place shape who we are and how we understand the world in which we live.”

My presentation will focus on message production and content regulation in a space absent of persistent identities. Read the abstract after the jump. (more…)