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2009by Jon GarfunkelSpam is the name we give to unsolicited emails from unknown people. We shouldn't call spam what our friends send to us, but we have the same problem, that of having to wade through too many unimportant messages in a limited amount of time. by Jon GarfunkelThe Open Community Enablement Model (oCEM) is a definition of how a service provider works with its client community to enable them to do their jobs. It is similar to the CRM/CEM paradigms, but the "C" does not stand for "Customer"; it does not assume a customer/vendor relationship where the end goal is customer retention / expansion (i.e., more sales). 2008by Jon Garfunkel[A work in progress]
In the realm of Free Speech, there are the Absolutists and the Balancers. The abolutists read the First Amendment literally and without qualification: Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press." As for the balancers, well, it's not universally clear that they have been represented by a cohesive philosophy. by Jon GarfunkelIn September 2002, Clay Shirky sent an essay to his mailing list titled Broadcast Institutions, Community Values. He suggested how the former could employ the latter, and in doing so, explained the difference between the two. 2007by Jon GarfunkelA couple of years ago, I offered a set of blogger archetypes. I came up with six based on the motivations of bloggers (singers, ringers, wingers, fingers, stringers, flingers). They didn't catch on very well, perhaps because there wasn't very much holding the set together beyond the rhyme. But I did want to distinguish those bloggers who didn't see themselves as playing any role in the news process and those that didn't take themselves to seriously (the “singers,” with a nod to Walt Whitman) from those that do. by Jon GarfunkelSearch Engine Orientation (SEOr) is SEO for Ordinary people.
by Jon GarfunkelThe concept of a meme was coined by the eminent biologist Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene. Dawkins suggested that it one can view genes as propagating through organisms, and not the other way around; similiarly, a meme propagates through minds and media. 2006by Jon GarfunkelLast year, in part 7 of the New Gatekeepers series, I introduced the term “peg” as a shorthand for an aggregatable declaration-- as I had no other way to contract that term. Suppose you make a declaration (a vote, endorsement) in such a way that it can be aggregated with others, or better yet, statistically integrated. This data becomes very meaningful. It's constructive. Think Zagat's restaurant guide, and you can peg. by Jon GarfunkelWhen I started the civilities project over two years ago, my aim was to put forth a cohesive theory of communications media to underlie my software work. I called the theory constructive media. The ensuing research has helped me validate it, which, for the passing time, was more important than selling it. I have not till now revisited the original definition, so I will preserve that on its own, and replace it with the definition here. 2005by Jon GarfunkelLast night I stopped by the Symposium for Social Architecture, sponsored by Corante and the Berkman Center at Harvard Law School (I hosted one of the panelists, and another one crashed on my couch following a red-eye flight from San Francisco). The “social architecture” up for discussion is really about social software, which has proved to be a very useful term for framing contemporary Internet technology. I was curious about how it should apply for businesses and other community of practice, and whether it is all-encompassing. But first, I wanted to make sure I had a complete understanding of what the term has meant over time. by Jon GarfunkelWelcome to Civilities-- and the latest “about” page (this is a long-overdue update of previous versions). My name is Jon Garfunkel and I've been publishing my research, observations, and documentation on Civilities since January 2004. By “publish” I mean that I stand by the words written in articles, and I keep a higher standard for what is written here than what I would articulate in spoken conversations or in private emails or in public online forums. Comments are open to registered users, and reflect the views of their respective writers. by Jon GarfunkelThe word “blogger” gets thrown around quite a bit these days, with shape-shifting definitions. Having studied this over the past year, I thought it best to cleave out four senses of a definition. (Note: The definitions have been updated with clearer names from the original post twelve days ago.) by Jon GarfunkelThis is a technical design document for the Webzine module for Drupal. It will be updated in an ongoing basis as I work with other Drupal developers. by Jon GarfunkelThere are two fundamental styles of writing which comprise most of the writing around us. I call them normative and narrative, though it shouldn't surprise me if this has been thought of communications theorists prior. Each style lends itself to a different type of publishing platform. I will explain here what the ramifications are for online publications.
by Jon GarfunkelWhat if there were no blogosphere? Would participitory media still thrive? I'd like to introduce some alternative constructs which may perhaps be as virtual as the blogosphere, and just as instructive in understanding the new media.
2004by Jon GarfunkelWhat motivates people to work on campaigns? I wondered this while interacting with a number of organizers throughout the country on a few of the Democratic/Kerry mailing lists. I think it's important for organizers to consider as they get people involved, and for volunteers to consider when choosing an organization to work with. Here's what you should look for:
by Jon GarfunkelI came up with the term journalactivist to describe what I do here. I wanted to work on journalism-- pursuing truth through the collection and presentation of facts-- as well as activism-- doing something based on those facts. "Journalactivist" may be useful word to describe this, so I will discuss the definition and some of the ramifications. by Jon GarfunkelAs Internet discussions have moved from primarily text-based environments (such as mailing lists) to the web, it has become possible to greatly augment the experience. Participants can quickly scan multiple discussions at once, and catch up on older discussions. The downside is that as barriers to entry and exit dropped, many more casual users could disrupt what were once small community discussions.
by Jon GarfunkelHow important is it to use headlines to organize a community/news website?
It's hard to think of a world without news headlines as we know them today, but that existed before 1889, when Joseph Pulitzer stretched headlines beyond a single column and thus made them a more prominent part of the front page. by Jon GarfunkelThis is a brief introduction to the taxonomy, or classification systems on this site.
by Jon GarfunkelI've picked some major themes in order to focus my writing, somewhat related to communications theory. This keeps my site rather constrained, and should give any potential contributors an idea of what sort of pieces I'd like to publish alongside mine.
by Jon GarfunkelThis describes the story types (akin to departments in magazines) used by Civilities to drive the layout, and help the reader know what's what. This is in contrast to the all-content-is-blog-posts mentality pandemic through the blogosphere. by Jon GarfunkelWhat do you call a website which features a community of people writing to each other? A BBS? A Forum? Virtual Community? We're calling it a Civ.
by Jon GarfunkelWhat should people be doing on the Internet-- particularly on all those community websites? What do you want them to do? We have an idea. We call it constructive media.
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