Liquid Learning

Just-in-time social networks

I have just been having an interesting exchange with David Wilcox about the use of lightweight networking tools that can be set up quickly and easily with minimum fuss and disruption (and from an educational institution perspective - staying under the radar of IT Services departments).  I think we are talking about the 'just-in-time' social networking solution that may be for that meeting, conference or seminar day. A collaborative and social way to capture ideas and artifacts.

This led me to ponder further on my own interest in the sustainability of social groupings and mapping communities as they rise and fall (perhaps 'wane' is a better word here). This raises for me the question of why collaborate? Why contribute? There seems to be something of a pattern here from past ... assumptions around community or group behaviours in that we naturally expect others around us to feel the desire share themselves. The course discussion board tool is a sobering reminder that actually this is often not the case. Classically the educationally situated discussion forum would fail miserably unless driven by the tutor and even then would experience a very short life-cycle. For me, uncovering a selfish motive for contributing is key and for this we need to enable channels for hooking our personal spaces into these varied and ad hoc community spaces. In other words ... I want to post to my blog/portfolio but push it to your site as well. Post once but publish many.

Blog stop: overlays and maps

How about this for mapping virtual spaces to real locations. The London bloggers directory overlaid on the iconic London tube map ... but does this work? There is something here which implies that geographical proximity automatically places one within a parallel online community. For me, the joy of an online community or network is precisely the opposite ... the sense of release from such geographical anchors.

Mapping mapping

A new book is available that explores mapping connections across people and places, data and  organizations, physical and virtual spaces. Edited by Janet Abrams  and Peter Hall it features an array of essays (by US and European historians, designers, cultural critics, geographers and social scientists) with several specially commissioned projects at the forefront of locative media art and technology.  The most exciting part for me is the focus on how new technologies of navigation and location are emerging to chart "virtual" terrain such as social networks and online conversations. Something I will write more on as soon as I have a copy in my hands.

ELSE/WHERE: MAPPING — New Cartographies of Networks and Territories

Published by the Design Institute, and distributed  by the University of Minnesota Press.