This week my blog has been focusing on the idea of the cyborg and whether the addition of superhuman parts makes them less human. Is this physical addition stripping the human of what Muris (2003) refers to as physical embodiment – the spirit, conciousness and identity? I don’t think that this is so as in essence it is the addition of a physical peice, but perhaps the person who has the addition to their body may experience feelings of alienation because of their difference to others? This may then effect their own feelings of embodiment with the part of the body that has been replaced? Pickering (2005) discusses academics carving up the sciences into human and non human and suggests the addition of non human to human creates non human. Pickering wants to focus on the interface between the human and non human – where they overlap. This suggests that the body part is not actually human if it is a prosthetic, however it is being controlled by the same spirit and conciencse that the other parts are being controlled by – so why is this so. What can be judged as human ability and what as non human and where is the line drawn? In the case of the Olympics size of the prosthetic affected what was classed as non human ability. “In a post-race interview Pistorius said it was “an unfair race” because Oliveira was wearing elongated running blades which added about four inches to his height and, more pertinently, his stride length.An IPC spokesman says the blades of all the athletes were measured prior to the Games and all were deemed to be within the rules” (a)

Is the fact that the body part is controlled by humans mind what makes it a human body part? The artist Stelarc experimented with the idea of the body as obsolete and allowed others to electrically control his muscular movement. If he were to compete in the Olympics but his body and muscles were controlled by others would he be allowed to participate in the “normal” olympics or the paraolympics and would it be considered as an equal competition?

I am not sure where this all fits in but my mind is going crazy with ideas and with the most conceptually difficult of readings

I have also been focusing more on the idea of the meme, which links in well with this discussion on what is and isn’t human. I have looked at he idea that the meme has an identity and this identity can be parasitic or enhancing. But how is the meme supported? Do we have an actual part in our brains which supports the replicator. And if so how human is the meme?

Muri, A. (2003). Of Shit and the Soul: Tropes of Cybernetic Disembodiment in Contemporary Culture. Body & Society, 9/3
Pickering, A. (2005). Asian eels and global warming: a posthumanist perspective on society and the environment. Ethics and the Environment, 10(2), 29-43
(a) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/paralympic-sport/9517576/Oscar-Pistorius-controversy-Alan-Oliveiras-blades-dont-look-right.html

The current “unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation.” as Dennett (1991) referred to them that are doing the rounds on the Internet are:

1. Recut movie trailers

Brokeback to the future

100. Recut Movie Trailers — The 100 Greatest Internet Memes of All Time | Complex.

2. planking

actually lost people jobs

Doctors and nurses suspended for playing Facebook 'Lying Down Game' | Metro News.

3. Blend it
people blending household objects and filming it

Click here to view the embedded video.

4. Box opening

Click here to view the embedded video.

5. LOL cats

The list goes on but today I read about the idea of crisis meme – like the joke that go around after a disaster or horrific incident, making light of the situation. There have been many,

I want to work on the idea of the individual wanting to be part of the masses, wanting to be part of a group. Looking at where the individual ends and the group begins. About how the individual is happy do something as part of a group or because other are doing it but wouldn’t normally do it And how / or if technology has exacerbate this.

This weeks blog has been rather random, with further exploration of communities to the separation of mind and technology.

I have been spending most time exploring and commenting on other people’s ethnographies. It was so interesting to find out other students areas of interest and to gain a broader perspective of them as a person through their choice of topic, It was also good to see a variety of different creative software used to present the information.

I really enjoyed Candace study on the community within #durbbu and loved the journey it took and it study of the people involved, I would be interested in looking at the journey of #Mscel students and the rise and fall of postings and the development of relationships within course.

I enjoyed the fiat 500 community group Steph Carr, but had problems with the technology and didn’t get to the end of it, which is a shame as it appeared t be a very interesting piece of work

I was very interested in Phil’s #fellrunning and like how the community and sport had grown through Internet involvement promoting user groups and events and also the link with advertising helping to create a greater sense of community

Nikki Bourke – Nirvana/Grunge Rock Youtube was very nicely presented using issuu and is something I will definitely use to present work in the future

I really enjoyed reading everyone’s comments on my work and felt pleased with the response from our #ededc community. The timetoast really helped to develop te idea of the community growing and developing by showing the order of events. However as Steph Carr commented “I wonder whether they are shaping the rules and behaviours because of their own value judgements as to what a forum should look like; or whether they are reacting to feedback from their members.” Unless I could speak with the administrators and moderators 1:1 I don’t think I could get a true idea of how the rules / regulations and developments came about.

Is Minecraft the Ultimate Educational Tool? | Idea Channel | PBS youtube.com/watch?v=RI0BN5… #edidgbl

— Hamish Macleod (@hamacleod) March 11, 2013

My son Thomas (9) is an avid minecraft fan, he plays it on xbox, computer and ipod touch, he connects with friends and neighbours on it and plays for hours on it. He has encouraged his sister Alice (7) to play by playing on her creative side and staying in creative mode with her.

He has created his own world with her and with his next door neighbour, they have their own community with their own houses and their own adventure parks, slides, rollercoasters, Parkour playgrounds.

I actually love seeing them playing together on this game, there is so much co-operation and negotiation and support going on between them, they talk creatively and imaginatively continuously through play. They focus together on a shared activity without fighting for much longer periods of time than in real life games – infact they played real life minecraft by creating their own outfits and weapons and then went survival but soon both began arguing and complaining.

I am beginning to think about how I could use game based communities for my essay

Introduction

I have stumbled upon the Weight Weenies website for this ethnographic study due to a discussion with friends about forums and who actually uses them. I am not an active member of any forum, firstly because I don’t have time and I feel they need a certain level of commitment to make them worth while, secondly I don’t want to put my name on the internet anymore than necessary (I could always assume an identity) Thirdly I don’t really feel passionate about an online community other than through this course.

Weight Weenies provides the reason why the site exists

Postings saying “How much does X bike component weigh?” can be found on almost every bicycle related message board.
Often the same parts weight is stated several times further down the board.
So, why isn’t there a website that already lists component & bike weights?
Well that’s what we do. Component lists are updated almost daily.

Ethical considerations

I started by thinking becoming a member would be enough to allow me to access information and do this ethnography but discussions in the hub gave me a better understanding and if it is a private group i.e. you have to become a member before accessing posts I wouldnt be able to use it without permission. I didn’t have the time to ask and wait for a response so although I did become a member, I only used information from posts I could access as a non member. This limited me in that I couldn’t use the search facility, and it took longer to find information. I also thought about the sensitivity of the information and decided it was not somthing people would feel sensitive about. I therefore felt able to use the forum for the ethnography without asking for permission

Authenticity
I posted on the blog It also comes up in the following section when members are instructed not to have two identities or they will be banned. I have no explanation of why they would want to do this?

A brief over view of what happened when (not so sure this is brief!)

Website set up and forum created in Decemeber 2000. There are no records from 2000 until 2004 when the first recorded instruction came in June 2004 against unsolicited advertising by companies, however it was noted the companies could answer questions about their products. It was perhaps an indicator that the site was becoming popular and reputable as the advertisers had moved in. By August 2004 there were 1000 Users in the forum and the listings were divided into different categories for different users which is quite a big marker of the development of the site and community – road bike and mountain bike users are very different communities, with different interests and often a pseudo dislike for one another!

In 2005 the first recorded instructional note was placed “Please do not repost – if you think that your original topic wasn’t answered to your satisfaction feel free to bump it by posting a reply in it” The community was still relatively small at this point and perhaps were not posting responses to questions asked by members as quickly as they wanted. The small community may also not have had all the answers at this time. Or it could have just been annoyance by the moderators in having reposts!

In the same month another two instructions were placed “Please read before posting” which had the added information to clarify “Threads which turn into endless off-topic chit chat might get the postings removed or even locked.” This was also followed with advice to “Please open only one thread to introduce yourself & your bike(s)” These instructions appear to be about the organisation of the forum, an attempt to keep the focus and structure of the forum intact. The next month forum members were advised “Please don’t crosspost and give the people a chance to post in your original thread. Not all WW live in the same timezone and some use to work over the day” Again this is about keeping the structure and also trying to prevent any negative feedback and comments between users which may have been starting to arise due to speed of replies and interactions.

By the end of the year the forum had 100,000 posts so it was really growing and got its own server in May 2006 and many commented on the increased speed and lack of double posts that had been problematic before. The website also got a new server and the company stated “the site should now have enough resources for future growth and features and the performance problems at certain times should be solved.”

By mid 2006 the advertisers had found a new way to promote their products, so another rule came in place “Advertising banners on signatures are banned” This would have helped to ensure that forum members were genuinely interested weight weenies.

The sales section of the website and forum must have developed further with the increased speed of the new server as new instructions were given on who could sell their bikes and bike parts ” In order to be allowed to post an add users (posting in the marketplace) must have a minimum of 30 posts. And users (posting in the marketplace) must be an active member of the board for a minimum of one month. – Posts by members that do not live up to these rules will be removed by the moderators. – If we find you spam posting the forums in order to increase post count you will get one warning.” These instructions appear quite harsh but they are obviously there for a reason. The moderators must have decided what actually constitutes a community member and how this is represented. I liked the fact they added that spam postings would not count – which shows a dedication to the forum and an interest in the relationships in the community. They also show they do not want to be just another sales site by the commitment to the saring of information.

At the end of 2006 members were reminded that they shouldn’t have dual accounts and that some member had been banned because of this, I am not certain why this rule would come about, it could be perhaps to increase clarity and visibility between users, I am aslo not certain why member would want to have two accounts?

There was a minor intsruction to “Only post images of new builds in Gallery section” in 2007 followed by an “On topic” note in 2009 Things must have been going well since the new server was in place

At the start of 2010 there were two instructions “Do not reply to spam posting” followed by a request to “report off topic conversations” These sound like organisational instruction which perhaps follow an increase in members or posts as was seen in 2005, but there are no figures for this at this time.

In October 2011 Forum rules were posted - they are organisational – where postings should be placed. Instructional – what members should and shouldn’t say. Punative – what will happen if you break the rules!

Advice was given in March 2012 “Do not use paypal as a gift to pay for items” as members had been subject to scams from sellers who had obviously got past the restrictions on posting items for sale. Later in the year there were a few instructional reminders “No off topic talk in Introductions” and “not to use the quote button” except for “the special occasion such as reacting to a post 2 or more posts up on the page”

There was a final request to “stop adding new topics” to a specific section in 2013 but this is just an organisational request.

The site and the forum has really grown – Total members 24807 Total posts 914425 Total topics 70984 over the last few years and is very popular amongst keen cyclists and they now produce their own cycling clothing range.

Although this may not be very interesting to read it has been very interesting to do. I have thoroughly enjoyed searching through postings and TimeToast (although not aesthetically as pleasing as i hoped) has been great for organising the information chronologically and has helped given some clarification to why things change. It is interesting to see how the inadequacies of the server affected the community relationships and effectiveness. It was interesting to see how as the size of the forum grew the number of instructions increased. It was also interesting that the moderators decided on the level of participation one must have before posting sales and i wonder if a new level will come into force in the near future as that was decided over 5 years ago.

A great website and great moderators, who are reacting to change and keeping true to their ideals.

parkrun are weekly, 5km timed runs around the world, that are open to everyone, free, safe and easy to take part in.

The groups are represented online through a website, but use social media like facebook and twitter to pass on messages about condition, up and coming events, pleading for volunteers and congratulating and inspiring members.

It is very similar to an online community as it involves various worldwide locations with a 100+ participants at each event, some are organisers and volunteers, some are active community members who run and volunteer, some are just runners, some are lurkers and watch but don’t participate or volunteer. It reminds me of an online community in that many people are participating in a shared activity but not necessarily communicating, interacting or responding to one another.

The groups are represented online through a website, but use social media like facebook and twitter to pass on messages about condition, up and coming events, pleading for volunteers and congratulating and inspiring members.

This new technology is allowing rats to develop an online relationship at a distance – a community of two – it’s a start! “rats can share, and act on, each other’s sensory information by electrically connecting their brains via tiny grids of electrodes that reach into the motor cortex, the brain region that processes movement.”

The scientists studying the rats acknowledge that communities work together and create a greater knowledge and understanding. “In theory, you could imagine that a combination of brains could provide solutions that individual brains cannot achieve by themselves.”

The brains are talking to one another and the rat knew which lever to press without going through the learning process. It is gaining knowledge but is it actually learning without going through the process and without letting the rats own life experiences impact upon the knowledge. This is similar to the concept of the meme in that an knowledge is passed on and imitated or replicated without having to learn it first?

I think I must stop there as I hate rats and I can’t imagine them having a theory of mind.

But if this happened in humans………………..

Online communities get real

via BBC NEWS | Technology | Online communities get real.

It is about how people assume online communities will behave and relationships develop within these communities. It was interesting to note how things have changed over time

One of the initial comments that online communities were “much more localised, more honest and less chaotic than original predictions thought” in 2003. However in 2012, I would perhaps describe communities as less localised but more focused

They also found that people were not “creating false online personas” however this has changed and people are becoming more aware of their digital footprint and are beginning to create online identities which are perhaps different to their own.

Mr Davies. “They don’t really want to get married, meet new people, or make money entirely on the internet. Instead they want to make the internet work for them,” he said. Again this is very different to 2003 as now many people do use the internet to find future husbands and wives. Whole businesses have been set up solely online and have made millions

Other findings are however still current “Social software is being used to support real world interaction and is enhancing face-to-face contact” and the suggestion that “”People are finally ditching the two-worlds view, which separates the internet from everyday life and now realise the two are part of one picture” was forward thinking at the time and appropriate.

This week I have been focusing on the community groups in a forum called Weight Weenies as you may have noticed!!!! I mentioned it on the discussion board and Jen said I needed to think about ethical issues around using a information from a private groups discussion “because people involved may have an expectation of privacy, that means not having their words or activities studied or published without their knowledge.”

I signed up as a member and had planned to post a question as mentioned in participation post on blog. I began to question what actually is the community and by posting do I actually become part of the community?

This is a further development from last weeks summary about being part of a community, I still do not feel part of this community and just by posting a comment I don’t think this will make me feel included.I began to question the idea that there is a particular amount of times I need to post to become a member or is it about the number of times I interact that make me become part of the community?

The site appears to have an answer – it values the number of posts – In the rules on sales a member has to have made 30 posts before they are allowed to advertise something for sale

How did they come up with this rule?
How did they come up with the number?
Did they check up on people?
What was the majority of the 30 postings about?

Although this may well be a problem in other forums, this doesn’t appear to be an issue here. There have been posts about what bike do you have and people have listed bikes,put photo’s online of their bike.

People have also posted questions on what was your first bike and some have written and some have photo’s and some have photo’s from Google but have actually said it is not their actual own bike.

With regard to the weight issue, people have sent in a stream of photo’s of their bike components on scales – I think the authenticity here is not in question.

However, there are people who have been deleted as they have a duplicate account. I cannot see the benefit in having two accounts, but I also cannot see why this would be problematic for the site administrators and that they would choose to delete their accounts

Hine, C (2000) The virtual objects of ethnography, chapter 3 of Virtual ethnography. London: Sage. pp41-66