Does a well defined social group's internet communication support theories about networks?
I suppose I couldn't get more esoteric if I tried. But this is not some news magazine. Oh but wait... This is a news magazine.
Well actually this is just the blog for a news magazine.
These are thoughts behind news reporting. Just like hospital drama makes doctors and nurse seem, well, dramatic.
We don't see the TV show looking at a doctor reading for an hour straight. But surgery still is fascinating.
I can't think of a more well-defined social group than Pittsburgh women's roller derby teams.
So how does the group communicate? Who sends and receives the most emails. Who posts the most on what websites? Who calls who with what frequency? Anything that measures the dynamics of communications.
Mapping the communication structure of this small group and how it could possibly relate to the larger network roller derby league could be rich in data.
Seeing how this democratic organization works and communicates could provide insight in modeling how to structure efficient communication networks.
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Restaurant reviews and School reviews
We could learn a lot if everyone writes a 50-100 word review of their impressions with our schools.
Like a comment card at a restaurant just it maybe instructive for better service. It might also be a rant or a personal vendetta. But why would knowing what's on peoples mind hurt.
Obviously, someone would have to read and sort through them. Finding the pearls of wisdom might come from sorting pile a manure. But those pearls improve our schools tremendously.
Even if twenty people say the service is bad then maybe we should listen. The kicker here is the management of this team is the public. That right we own the schools and if people are getting crap service we need to do something about it.
We can't simply hope that our elected officials that run our schools will listen. We must tell them how to make it better.
If our service is bad maybe the schools are understaffed. So perhaps we need to spend more and we need to come up with a way raise more money.
After all what is at stake is not just a bad dining experience but the next generation of society.
Like a comment card at a restaurant just it maybe instructive for better service. It might also be a rant or a personal vendetta. But why would knowing what's on peoples mind hurt.
Obviously, someone would have to read and sort through them. Finding the pearls of wisdom might come from sorting pile a manure. But those pearls improve our schools tremendously.
Even if twenty people say the service is bad then maybe we should listen. The kicker here is the management of this team is the public. That right we own the schools and if people are getting crap service we need to do something about it.
We can't simply hope that our elected officials that run our schools will listen. We must tell them how to make it better.
If our service is bad maybe the schools are understaffed. So perhaps we need to spend more and we need to come up with a way raise more money.
After all what is at stake is not just a bad dining experience but the next generation of society.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Hosting Interactive Networked Journalism
Communication networks now allows everyone's voices to be heard. Chances are, however, that your voice isn't louder than ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox.
Collectively we maybe heard.
But how do we do this? It won't be easy but perhaps this could be an outline of sorts. I'll make it specific for education but this could apply to any public affairs journalism. Such as health care, environment, and of course politics.
A moderator or host of a website formally meets the PTO president of every school in the school district. Also the principal, the high school newspaper and any other interested parties
We engage them and ask them for input. We want their interaction. We as journalist need their interaction.
They need to tell us their concerns for the schools. They need to tell us about their experiences. They need to tell each other about their experiences.
We as journalist need to facilitate conversations based on the important issues that effect our lives. We foster communication.
Each school has a network leader who they can inform about a concern. The issue could then be examined as whether it stays in that particular network or whether that issue is for concern for the large school district network. Eventually this could work it way up to the state and federal public sphere.
The size of the network only has to be relevant to the size of the issue.
This is the underlying structure of the network and doesn't get in to the web design or technical logistics.
What it means is that we can ask elected officials and educators the hard questions and get real answers. If the people in power ignore our questions they are simply not doing their job.
Perhaps some might think that this gives the moderator a lot of power to set the agenda or give priority to personal issues. But that is no worse than it is currently. Furthermore this is an improvement because every bit of information can be posted and is open to examination.
The host play the role of a hub linking the nodes with relevant information that impacts their education or child or taxes. We are all involved whether we like it or not. We need to take advantage of our communication to realize our collective goal.
Collectively we maybe heard.
But how do we do this? It won't be easy but perhaps this could be an outline of sorts. I'll make it specific for education but this could apply to any public affairs journalism. Such as health care, environment, and of course politics.
A moderator or host of a website formally meets the PTO president of every school in the school district. Also the principal, the high school newspaper and any other interested parties
We engage them and ask them for input. We want their interaction. We as journalist need their interaction.
They need to tell us their concerns for the schools. They need to tell us about their experiences. They need to tell each other about their experiences.
We as journalist need to facilitate conversations based on the important issues that effect our lives. We foster communication.
Each school has a network leader who they can inform about a concern. The issue could then be examined as whether it stays in that particular network or whether that issue is for concern for the large school district network. Eventually this could work it way up to the state and federal public sphere.
The size of the network only has to be relevant to the size of the issue.
This is the underlying structure of the network and doesn't get in to the web design or technical logistics.
What it means is that we can ask elected officials and educators the hard questions and get real answers. If the people in power ignore our questions they are simply not doing their job.
Perhaps some might think that this gives the moderator a lot of power to set the agenda or give priority to personal issues. But that is no worse than it is currently. Furthermore this is an improvement because every bit of information can be posted and is open to examination.
The host play the role of a hub linking the nodes with relevant information that impacts their education or child or taxes. We are all involved whether we like it or not. We need to take advantage of our communication to realize our collective goal.
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