Feb 25, 2010 0
Tennis courts
Another 1-3 inches are expected today. You can’t tell from the photo, but it has already begun to snow, and fluffy flakes are swirling in the air.
Feb 22, 2010 0
Random soup day
My favorite thing about soup: the days I don’t feel up to making something from a recipe, I can just throw an assortment of ingredients in a pot, and it will turn out all right. If only life were like that all the time!
Feb 21, 2010 0
Um, a clown melted here?
Or else someone had a badly misguided DIY snowcone experiment.
Feb 11, 2010 0
Anonymity in online discussions
I noticed this nugget in the sidebar of the Wall Street Journal Online today.
Only online subscribers can create groups, so I created a (free) account to see how the group feature works. In the process, I noticed something interesting in the registration dialog box, but only after I expanded the fine print.
The line that caught my eye in particular was, “The quality of conversations can deteriorate when real identities are not provided.” Okay…under certain circumstances, with certain individuals, it can. People can more easily avoid real-world consequences when they post inflammatory comments anonymously.
More generally, attaching a person’s legal name to comments increases the likelihood that something they post could affect their personal lives or work. But anonymity is not a shield exclusively for bad behavior.
Say someone posts with their legal name in a discussion about healthcare and shares the fact that they are coping with an illness. An insurance company could conceivably use that information to deny the person coverage on the basis of a pre-existing condition. Or say someone who has been victimized posts with their legal name in a discussion about dealing with domestic violence, sexual assault, or harassment in the workplace. Oh wait – most wouldn’t do that. Would allowing them to post anonymously really deteriorate the quality of the conversation?
One might argue that the WSJO is a source for business and financial news, so the kinds of discussions that would take place on the site aren’t as sensitive as the examples I just gave. Well, I am browsing the Groups directory and here are some discussion groups I’ve found in the past minute:
Heathcare
Addictions (Members: 3)
Drugs and medical care (Members: 7)
Faces of Health Care (Members: 29)
Health Care Economics (Members: 98)
Workplace & Career
Diversity and Inclusion (Members: 7)
Global Neighborhoods & Social Media (Members: 313)
Management issues (Members: 1081)
Rebuilding Trust (Members: 5)
Looking at these numbers, I wonder how much the site’s policy of self-identification influences the groups people choose to join and what they disclose in their posts. In placing such focus on real identities, how much of the real conversation is not being voiced?
Feb 10, 2010 0
Snow and a survey
Unprecedented snowfall has closed Carnegie Mellon for three days running, forcing my team to find creative ways to collaborate and plan our research efforts in the 2010 Social + Service design challenge. Using a combination of Skype, Google Wave, and email, we created an online survey to gather information about people’s views, behavior, and values relating to news consumption. As we designed the questions, we also reflected on some interesting points: what it means to be a news consumer, what is the purpose of news, and the many ways in which we get news in a media-saturated environment.
*The survey is anonymous, but if you take it, you will earn my undying anonymous gratitude – and possibly reflect on the presence of news in your own life.
Feb 6, 2010 0
After, before, and after
I wanted to show you the same scene from yesterday as it appears today, but a tree in the foreground now obscures the view from my original vantage point. Here it is anyway, along with another set of before-after shots of another scene.
Feb 5, 2010 0
It has begun
Pittsburgh meteorologists forecast 4-7 inches of snow with the storm arriving this afternoon. My personal forecast for the weekend: homemade soup, literature review, and brainstorming project ideas.