Submitted by Cathy Davidson on Dec 21, 2009, 08:38 AM

Here's a fascinating analysis of diversity on Facebook brought to us by the "Facebook team"

"How Diverse is Facebook?"   http://tiny.cc/6jlxO

Submitted by Amanda Visconti on Oct 25, 2009, 01:16 PM

Between returning to Facebook (after a hiatus of frustration with its poor interface) and reading Randall Stross's Planet Google, I've been thinking a lot about how the success of many web ventures depends on a snowball effect, combined with brand loyalty.

Submitted by gerrycanavan on Sep 11, 2009, 01:48 PM

"I want everybody here to be careful about what you post on Facebook, because in the YouTube age whatever you do, it will be pulled up again later somewhere in your life." -Barack Obama, fifteen years too late for me

Submitted by gerrycanavan on Sep 03, 2009, 05:34 PM

If your Facebook newsfeed is like mine, endless variations on "...thinks no one should die because he or she cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because he or she gets sick" have been scrolling down your screen all day. My kneejerk reaction to this new meme was, I'll admit, a crusty cynicism -- status updates don't have votes in the Senate -- but at the same time we should recognize that this sort of identitarian signaling behavior is an increasingly important part of what we "millennials" understand as political-cultural engagement.

Submitted by Cathy Davidson on Sep 01, 2009, 10:02 AM

f you read traditional media anymore, you might believe there is a "Facebook Exodus" and it is caused by the demonic invasion of privacy and vampiric body-snatching that is Facebook. That is what Virginia Heffernan suggests in her piece in today's New York Times. Here's the url: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/magazine/30FOB-medium-t.html

Submitted by Cathy Davidson on Jul 29, 2009, 03:44 PM

Is it possible in this so-called fragmented, decentralized, customizing life of ours that some of these digital devices actually restore community that was lost in the so-called "bowling alone" suburbanized era in post-War modernity? Is it possible social networks put together the fragmented, alienated self?

Submitted by Michael Widner on May 14, 2009, 09:58 PM
I came across two items of interest recently, both treating the ways in which we communicate with students. It looks like online office hours are catching on. Stanford now has professors holding office hours on F

Submitted by Cathy Davidson on Feb 24, 2009, 07:12 AM
It is a SCIENTIFIC fact. Facebook rots your brain. Here are three articles that prove it, beyond a shadow of a doubt. http://tinyurl.com/d34v4l , http://tinyurl.com/ckxpap, and http://tinyurl.com/ampf5f

Submitted by Michael Widner on Feb 16, 2009, 11:05 AM
For the past month or so, I have been collecting links to articles discussing Facebook. Most of them, as you might expect, discuss the privacy issue the site raises. After all, the value in the site comes precisely from the relative openness it requires from its users. The more you update and share, the more ?friends? you add, the more interesting the site becomes and the more comments you receive from others. While most people are, I think, relatively aware that the site involves a degree of sharing that is not compatible with absolute privacy, there are a number of nuances raised by the articles I've read that we may not be immediately aware of and which I would like to examine. I also have a very few words to say on another favorite topic of privacy advocates: the future of privacy itself

Submitted by jonathan.tarr on Jan 17, 2009, 04:33 PM

Our hosts for this session are Cameron Neylon and Deepak Singh, who have themselves explored the many social networks developed especially for scientists and bring to us the question: Why aren't these more successful?  Some examples are Nature Network, MyExperiment.  Others?  Please add others that you know of, and your thoughts on them.