180 Notes

Day 15

10/19/98

Assignments in your folders outside library

1. One-minute paper Summary

Big Points

Social networks help diffuse knowledge

Electronic social networks are inherently less important that f-t-f social nets

Liked having discussion rather than reviewing 1 min papers

In social nets, there are helpers (gatekeepers and gardeners)

Knowledge is power in a social net

Q:s

When new people join a network, how do members feel (threatened, welcoming, etc.?)

Of people who meet through email, what % requred f-t-f contact before considering the other a friend?

Will everyone become a gatekeeper?

What are the best devices for change agents?

Are gatekeepers self-appointed or assigned? How much is gossip?

Will we eventually maintain separate physical and virtual relationships?

How and why do people become info outsiders?

Can we develop electronic social nets or must they grow organically?

How does Internet affect the generation gap?

2. Speeches: Rita Van Duinen, Hope McCullough, Scott Adams
3. Discuss newspaper structure:

How much is communicated by the structure?

4. Libraries as communities

What are libraries? (roles) repositories? Gathering places (Alexandria was a university)?

How are they different than schools? Government agencies? Community centers?

Community (including individuals), content, services, technology

Where do libraries fit in the comm process?

5. Assignment: TV structure: due November 2 (emailed to list)

Television Structures Assignment

1. Macrostructure: In any given hour of time, there are hundreds of "programs" accessible globally and dozens available in any locality. There are some linkages across these "programs" (e.g., serials, dialog allusions).
2. Microstructure: In any given program there are multiple communication channels: video and two or more audio channels (spoken, music, background sounds, etc.). In each channel, there is a hierarchy of structural information units (note that just as in other media, there are also thematic structures). For example, in the visual channel, we might consider the following: [program|segment|scene|shot|frame] American television (NTSC) uses 30 frames per second and each frame can be manipulated in principle. The human visual system can recognize visual images in 50-100 milliseconds, depending on experimental condition. Taking 100 ms as an estimate, the theoretical "speed limit" of recognition is somewhere around 10 frames per second (we know that for most people, when frame rates are between 8 and 12 fps, a series of still images becomes motion). So many of the frames are not "seen" at all (are those frames information?).
3. Consider one single program—your choice of genre--whether drama, documentary, news, comedy, etc. Watch the program and "log" its structure using any information "chunking" strategy that makes sense to you (include commercials if you are watching commercial TV). Turn in this log, with a key to what your tags mean.
4. Watch any other program of your choice for 5 minutes. Count the number of seconds each "shot" takes. Consider a shot to be a camera cut—not a zoom or pan.
5. Watch three different commercials and count the number of seconds per shot. You may have to estimate!

1. One-minute paper