Sociology, problem finding and idea generation
Sociology lecture by Dr. Rich Ling.
After an introduction to the industrial revolution and the information revolution and their effects on society, Rich talked about social networks. He has specialized in the use of mobile phones, so this dominated the lecture and discussions.
He talked about "The strength of weak ties" as a sociological theory. The theory states that your weak social ties are the ones most likely to be your recourse of anything from job opportunities to finding a boy/girl friend.
Strong ties are the people you have frequent contact with. Weak ties are people you might have shared a single experience with. You're more likely to find new business or social contacts through your weak ties than within your strong social network. This seems only logical, as the sum of your weak ties' strong ties is likely to be a lot larger than your own amount of strong ties.
Mobile phones are known to connect the small groups. A question was raised about how tight a group should be. Closed groups create ideologies. Like "we hate school" or "we love football" or "we hate black people". If the group is to tight, ideologies like these can dominate and be dangerous rules of living for everyone within the group. This makes personal views unwelcome and makes it hard for other people to penetrate and get socially accepted by the group.
So overly bounded groups are problematic, and perhaps weak ties allow to balance the group.
After this introduction to some aspects of sociology we started throwing out ideas for problem areas to work with within social networks, some of which were:
After an introduction to the industrial revolution and the information revolution and their effects on society, Rich talked about social networks. He has specialized in the use of mobile phones, so this dominated the lecture and discussions.
He talked about "The strength of weak ties" as a sociological theory. The theory states that your weak social ties are the ones most likely to be your recourse of anything from job opportunities to finding a boy/girl friend.
Strong ties are the people you have frequent contact with. Weak ties are people you might have shared a single experience with. You're more likely to find new business or social contacts through your weak ties than within your strong social network. This seems only logical, as the sum of your weak ties' strong ties is likely to be a lot larger than your own amount of strong ties.Mobile phones are known to connect the small groups. A question was raised about how tight a group should be. Closed groups create ideologies. Like "we hate school" or "we love football" or "we hate black people". If the group is to tight, ideologies like these can dominate and be dangerous rules of living for everyone within the group. This makes personal views unwelcome and makes it hard for other people to penetrate and get socially accepted by the group.
So overly bounded groups are problematic, and perhaps weak ties allow to balance the group.
After this introduction to some aspects of sociology we started throwing out ideas for problem areas to work with within social networks, some of which were:
- How to reject people
- How to create a totem for a small group
- We defined a totem (totem pole) to be something like: an object which has some kind of significance to a group of people on an emotional level rather than functional - recurring use - ritual based
- How to counteract urbanisation
- How to increase emotional communication
- How to increase precense
- How to increase trust in groups (increase social capital)
- How to manage (more) weak links
- How to share experiences/gifts
- How to design a TV (or other) ritual that contributes to strengthening social ties
- Combining TV with computer games
- example: you could drive a WRC rally course with the worlds best drivers (and possibly some friends) real time - you would be competing against the pro's during the actual race
- Group subscriptions to TV programs
- subscribing to a TV program - getting together as a group to enjoy a common interest
- Outdoor TV
- outdoor big screens featuring popular block buster series like "Lost" and "Prison Break"
- kind of like a cinema - beverages and snacks
- choosing location and setting the scene to inhance the experience and match the mood in the TV series - like bonfire/torches during Lost
- could introduce a multi modal approach to experiencing TV
- Feel - heat, cold, vibration, electric shock..
- Sight - surroundings (artifacts, fog..)
- Smell - matching what's going on in the series
- Sound - advanced surround sound
- Touch screen TV shows for kids - participating and learning
- Educational TV with "homework"
- example: "learn how to skate", "ronaldino soccer class", "the game of poker"
- perfect for kids or grownups to get together and share new experiences through learning rituals
- AR TV (Augmented Reality TV)
- AR is a way of combining the real world with computer generated elements
- example: projecting glasses and headset to hang out with your friends around the world while enjoying a movie....or something :)
- TV + chat room combo
- layer of graphics on top of a TV show where you can chat with buddies while watching the show
posted by Øyvind Østmo at 8:35 AM
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