World of Connections 2

1. World of Connections 2 Week 11 Tutorial – The Hive Mind Krystina.Benson@qut.edu.au

2. Agenda • LEX • Attendance • Readings Review • So what is the hive mind? • Activities • Case Study consultation time 

3. Week 1 Required Readings • 1)Digital Maoism: the Hazards of the New Online Collectivism by Jaron Lanier, June 2006, The Edge. • (2) The Limits of Networks as Models for Organising the Socialby Ulises A. Mejias, 2010,   New Media & Society, volume 12, issue 4, pp. 603-617.

4. What is the Hive Mind? • What does Wiki say… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hive_mind • What does Google Images say: http://www.google.com.au/images?q=hive+mind&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=HiCpTLOlEYKiuQOo6sXNAw&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CDkQsAQwAw&biw=1280&bih=645 • What does TED.com say: http://www.ted.com/themes/the_rise_of_collaboration.html

5. What is the Hive Mind? • What is he talking about: “At the very least it’s a success at revealing what the online people with the most determination and time on their hands are thinking” • “Sometimes loosely structured collective activities yield continuous improvements and sometimes they don’t” • “In some cases I have noticed specific texts get cloned form original sites at universities or labs onto wiki pages And when that happens, each text loses part of its value” – WHY? • “The beauty of the Internet is that it connects people. The value is in the other people. If we start to believe that the Internet itself is an entity that has something to say, we’re devaluing those people and making ourselves into idiots” Lanier

6. What is the Hive Mind? • “Linux programmers are not anonymous and in fact personal glory is part of the motivational engine that keeps such enterprises in motion. But there are similarities, and the lack of a coherent voice or design sensibility in an esthetic sense is one negative quality of both open source software and the Wikipedia” • Think back to Lessig's and Wark's work and compare their arguments to Lanier's. Now, which makes better sense to you? Why? (Week 7) • The Gift Economy, Hybrid Economics, Smart Mobs . . . Lanier

7. What is the Hive Mind? • What does Jaron Lanier’s wiki page now say about his film maker status? • Google Instant and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) changes: www.2600.com/googleblacklist/ • Is the hive mind stupid and boring? • Do you pay attention to it? • Do you have concerns? Lanier

8. Limits of networks as models for organizing the social • What is a network society? • “A network is a society whose social structure is made of networks powered by microelectronics-based information and communication technologies (Castells, 2004, 3) • “The network society is made up of complex social networks. The infrastructure of this Social Network is made of computer networks that connect people and organisations. ‘Just as a computer network is a set of machines connected by a set of wires, a social network is a set of machines connected by a set of people (or organisations or other social entities) connected by a set of socially meaningful relationships” (Wellman, 2004) • What is nodocentrism? • “an epistemology based on the exclusionary reality of nodes” • What is paranodality? • “a model for disindentifying from the network” Mejias

9. Limits of networks as models for organizing the social • What is epistemology? • “a way of understanding and explaining how we know what we know (Crotty, 1998, 4). • What is a node? • The connection, link, in/out point, ties • What is nodocentrism? • “an epistemology based on the exclusionary reality of nodes” • What is paranodality? • “a model for disindentifying from the network” Mejias

10. Limits of networks as models for organizing the social • “… some authors […] have suggested that we have experienced a shift away from a mass society to a new kind of network society: from densely knit urban communities that are isolated from each other but organized under the umbrella of a the nation-state, to a society comprised of diffused individuals operating in small sparsely-knit communities not bound by location but interconnected by networks” (608) • Page 609 – First, in a public… • “nodocentrism constructs a social reality in which nodes can only see other nodes” (612) • “in short, the instability of paranodal space is what animates the network, and to attempt to render the paranodal space invisible is to arrive at less, not more, complete explanations of the network as a social reality” (612) (HOW does this relate to Lanier?) Mejias

11. Activity: Hiving Working as a group, 2 or more: • 1) Draw up a master plan on how to promote the next Brisbane Festival to inter-state visitors listing potential audiences, means of communication, sponsorship, schedules, etc. You may refer to this year’s festival as a guide www.brisbanefestival.com.au/iPhone-App/0,40,346,040.aspx. • How would you plan the new media campaign for a specific event in the festival?

12. Activity: Hiving Working as a group, 2 or more: • 2) use new media to mobilise a certain number of people (say 1,000) to action over a cause • For example - World Peace, Global Warming, Aid, choose your cause

13. Activity: Hiving Working as a group, 2 or more: • 3) set out instructions as a group for getting from QUT, KG to Hervey Bay for a budget of $50 per person