Circling Back to 2011

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Charles Kadushin, COMM 506, Diffusion, Leadership, MACT, Social Media, Twitter

We have come full circle this week, back to an idea first covered last year during spring institute 2011. Thank you to Charles Kadushin for discussing a theory of communication that I actually understood last year without wanting to tear my hair out. That ladies and gents is the theory of diffusion. More to the point, in chapter 9 of Understanding Social Networks, Kadushin links diffusion to the ability of people to influence one another.

As Kadushin explains, those who are considered leaders usually are the ones that others look to and listen to when there is diffusion of a new idea. However, that does not mean that leaders are the innovators or the early adopters. In fact, leaders tend follow the norm. Quite often it is those out in the periphery that take on new ideas first and through brokers or bridgers their unconventional ideas are spread out from the leaders and to late adopters.

This made me consider my place in the cohort in terms of adoption of these social media tools. I was personally always on the fence about Twitter and LinkedIn, not because I didn’t see that they could have a purpose, but I felt like I was putting myself out in the public too much. I didn’t mind Facebook though. I set my privacy so that I couldn’t be publically searched and I was able to connect with friends far and wide.

Then during last year’s cohort, I found myself sitting there, looking around and realizing how behind the times I was. Not just because of social media (I kept telling myself that I needed to get in the loop and sign up for Twitter), but because of the physical tools I had at my disposal. Everyone had a laptop or a smartphone and there was me with my trusty, almost three year old talk-only phone. I vowed that when my cellphone contract was up in June that I was trading in for a shiny new data-capable phone.

Fast forward to today and I’m about to celebrate my one year anniversary with my smartphone and everything that it encompasses. Mostly that means the inability to stop checking my e-mail. But, now in addition to that, I went from almost 0 to hero with respect to social media usage, all due to COMM506.

While I am still learning the ins and outs of blogging, Twitter and curating my LinkedIn profile, I am honestly amazed at how quickly I and others in my cohort have picked everything up. Does it take a long time to talk us into something? For some of us, it sure does. But, when we embrace something, we seem to do it wholeheartedly.

So, late adopter, yes. Black sheep, nope.

Power of the Web Means Power to the People

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Centralization, Collaboration, COMM 506, Coordination, Decentralization, Hierarchy, Horizontal, Kate Milberry, MACT, Networks, Organizational Communication, Twitter, Vertical, Web, Wiki, Yochai Benkler

Throughout the past week the notion of hierarchical and horizontal interactions has come up during class discussion and it is a concept that is the foundation of chapter 3 in Yochai Benkler’s book The Wealth of Networks. What I like about Benkler’s discussion is the ideas are something that we have seen crop up in other classes, such as COMM504 about organizational communications whereby we dissected vertical (hierarchical) vs. horizontal communication within an organizational context. All of us could find relevance in those concepts and apply them directly to our personal and professional lives, giving us a better understanding of why things are being done a certain way, for example, in our workplaces.

Here, Benkler links the idea of hierarchical/vertical interaction to that of “centralization,” meaning that there is a central authority and he then compares it to horizontal interaction or “decentralization” meaning all agents are equal and each person has the same ability to affect the situation as anyone else (p. 62).

Decentralization allows for better collaboration and coordination, especially today when we have what seems to be endless tools that make it easier for us to connect, share and converse. If I apply this to our spring institute right now, I guess we can argue that there is a slight hierarchy in that the professors and the program are dictating many of our actions.

However, solely within this cohort, we as students are working in a very horizontal manner. We’re doing this in ways that are open and accessible to each other by using tools like Twitter (allows for quick and easy messaging), Google Docs (to share documents for editing allowing us to collaborate even when we’re all in separate spaces), PBworks wiki (houses information for class, but is modifiable by anyone in the group) and our blogs (giving each of us the ability to expound upon our thoughts and get feedback from one another).

Benkler also talks about the power of the Web and the fact that using peer production can lead to purposes that were not previously intended. A perfect example for this class is our wiki for COMM506. As a demonstration of how to create a new page on the wiki, our professor, Kate Milberry, added a “Party Page” to the site. It wasn’t intended that it actually be used, but it was never removed from the wiki either. A few in the class then decided to actually use the page to invite the rest of the cohort out to various gatherings and as it turns out, it was a success. Our first pub night of the institute and the majority of the group was able to attend, most having seen the call to action on the wiki.

Therefore, power comes from the tools available to the people and when more people have ease of access to those tools, great things can happen.

Network Segmentation

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Charles Kadushin, COMM 506, Core, In-crowd, Kate Milberry, MACT, Periphery, Social Networks

This is my first post regarding readings in my COMM 506 course instructed by Kate Milberry. Tomorrow’s class will be covering Chapter 4 in Understanding Social Networks: Theories, Concepts, and Findings (2012) by Charles Kadushin.

The chapter is a continuation of Kadushin’s discussion of the basic concepts of social networks and in it he discusses network segmentation. In particular, Kadushin (2012) talks about how groups cluster and are partitioned into the “core and periphery” (p. 45). The core and periphery in simplified terms is what we remember from the playground in school where there was a group of cool kids (the in-crowd) that everyone wanted to be friends with and those outside in the periphery who were aquaintances or wallflowers, not part of the main group.

Taking it further, you can break it down to the point where relationships form depending upon similarities members share or based on what members can offer each other. Usually those in the core will relate to others in the core, but may or may not relate to those in the periphery. Those in the periphery might not relate to anyone in the core, but will likely relate with others in the periphery. If those in the periphery have connections to those in the core, it’s because they provide something of worth to those in the core.

These are quick generalizations that I have taken out of the chapter to help myself better understand it, but I do know that networks and matrixes can become much more complicated than I have alluded to. Yet those complications are what get me in trouble, especially when mathematics and graphs start to get involved. My hope is that discussion with my classmates will better shed light on the subject.

Inspirational Guest Lecture

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COMM 506, Dr. Raul Pacheco-Vega, Inspirational, Kate Milberry, MACT, Tweeting, Twitter

Well, I had typed out a full blog post, clicked on the “Publish” button and it didn’t show up on my page, so I am going to do a shortened version to quickly cover the highlight of my COMM 506 class today.

Kate Milberry (@KateMilberry) invited Dr. Raul Pacheco-Vega (@hummingbird604, author of www.hummingbird604.com and http://www.raulpacheco.org/) to guest lecture on the role social media can play in our lives.

As someone who has been weary of joining Twitter, thinking it full of mundane posts, Dr. Pacheco-Vega’s discussion really opened my eyes to the use of social media in smart ways. As long as you define your online presence in both a professional and personal aspect, you have the possibility of connecting with countless people. The online realm can open real-life doors by helping you to build social capital. Don’t be scared to put yourself out there and own it when you make mistakes.

I have now been tweeting for two days and I feel like those in my cohort that I am following and who are following me have created a community around our program and our courses. We look to each other for advice and we are each others’ cheerleaders as we work towards our final research projects in the MACT program. If I continue to make connections with people like them, I will be happy to add to my online social profile now and in the future.

Hello world!

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About Me, COMM 506, Kate Milberry, MACT, Welcome

From the standpoint of being a creator, I’m new to the world of blogging. It is something I’ve been considering for some time. Though my own personal blog would have been about fashion or style, any push to start a page at all is a step in the right direction.

About me: I graduated from the University of Alberta in 2007 after majoring in Film and Media Studies with a minor in International Studies. Along the way I found myself interested in the field of advertising. When I arrived home from a month long European excursion in the summer of 2007 I ended up finding employment as an Advertising Account Coordinator at the Edmonton Journal and have worked there ever since. Last May, I started my studies in the Master of Arts in Communications and Technology (MACT) program with the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Extension and have found the classes to be insightful and practical. I also like to think it has helped me with my move into my new position at the Edmonton Journal. As of April 2012, I’m their Sales Planning and Research Coordinator in the advertising department. The learning curve is huge, but I’m looking forward to tackling whatever challenges are thrown my way and the same goes for this last year with MACT.

It is due to Kate Milberry’s COMM 506 class that I start this blog. I hope that my posts on readings throughout this 2012 Spring Institute will prove to be a useful outlet for me, in addition to providing a way to share thoughts with my classmates and others who may happen upon my site. And, perhaps, when the Institute ends, I will transform the blog into something that encompasses more of my interests as I do intend to continue with it in the future.

So, with that, welcome to my page. I look forward to your thoughts as I muddle my way through subsequent posts. Cheers!