New Media M.A. Research Blog | Media Studies, University of Amsterdam

Secondary Orality in Microblogging

Orality versus literacy in the history of human consciousness In the book “Orality and Literacy: the Technologizing of the World”, Walter Ong compares orality and literacy, as defining features of oral cultures (cultures which do not have a system...

By Liliana Bounegru on 10/13/08 3

Event: Now is the Time, Media. Digital Elements In Analogue Artworks.

What is the status of the medium in art production and the discourse in art, in this situation referred to by Rosalind Kraus as the ‘postmedium condition’? How can an artist act critically in this complex cultural field now...

By saskia korsten on 10/06/08 Comments Off

Typing Social Links: Modeling Relations In On-Line Networks

There is a good chance that most addicts to Mark Zuckerberg’s social gossip platform will easily recognize the modal window depicted down here. It’s what users are asked for when they click the option details accessible from the friends...

By Andrea Fiore on 10/06/08 Comments Off

Reassembling Social Networks

Currently the massive public adoption of social software has changed our habitat and has created shifts in our behaviour. While we know how to behave in unmediated publics (for example we know what is expected from us when we...

By Inge Ploum on 10/05/08 1

PICNIC 08 – Secrets and Lies

Genevieve Bell: on Secrets and Lies After the Clay Shirky speech there is no time for questions because it is time for Genevieve Bell, an anthropologist working for Intel (apology accepted), to talk about secrets and lies. She wants...

By Jasper Moes on 09/25/08 5

Visualizing the network

As a result of the course information visualization, a public screening was organized where all project teams involved got a chance to present their work at the Waag Society venue. Within a tight 6 minutes, concept explanation and implementation...

By Tjerk Timan on 05/22/08 9

Rivers of Reputation

This post will be about Lifestreaming, or Data Streams. “Lifestreaming, in essence, is a site dedicated to collecting and publishing online activity – all in one place. In its most basic definition, lifestreams are information aggregators that funnel...

By Daphne Ben Shachar on 12/16/07 5

Entering a virtual world inside Facebook

A couple of weeks ago I bumped into an interesting short post on the Seeriously blog. It was a post about a new Facebook application by Activeworlds (AW) and yesterday I decided to give it a closer look by...

By Pieter-Paul Walraven on 11/15/07 13

Virtual Worlds in Modern China

Since the launch of Second Life (SL) by Linden Lab in 2003 it has attracted the attention of many Chinese users. Despite the popularity of SL in China and partly because SL has never been officially launched in China,...

By Pieter-Paul Walraven on 10/24/07 18

Football with the boys 2.0

As a new media student I'm always interested in examples of how new media applications find their way in peoples everyday lives. My football team is a good example off a social event that formerly only took place in...

By Rikus Wegman on 10/16/07 2

Big Brother Award of 2007 goes out to … You!

Friday the 21st of September, the annual Dutch Big Brother Awards were held at the Balie in Amsterdam. It was organized by the – unfortunately no longer existent – Bits of Freedom, an organisation which came up for your...

By Erik Borra on 09/25/07 5

Book Review: Six Degrees: The science of a connected age

Six Degrees: The science of a connected age Duncan J. Watts, Norton, 2003 Duncan J. Watts (1971-) is a professor of sociology at Columbia University, head of the CDG Collective Dynamics Group and in 2003 he wrote the book...

By Daphne Ben Shachar on 09/24/07 Comments Off

Self Promotion

Brand equals Interface? According to the Information Architects Japan design agency, brands are not mere reflections of their graphical attributes (Logo’s, color schemes, etcetera). A corporate identity or product is just as much defined by its interface. This means...

By Raoul Siepers on 09/23/07 Comments Off

Review: The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell.

In this book review the theory and ideas that come forward in the book The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, will be discussed. Tipping point: one dramatic moment in an epidemic when everything can change all at once. The...

By Pieter-Paul Walraven on 09/16/07 1

Smart Mobs: smart mob(ile)s or smart Men On Bits?

In this review, Howard Rheingold’s vision on the future of communication and interaction is explained, as layed out in his book ‘Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution’, 2002. Rheingold noted that SMS has been used for dating in teenage...

By Erik Borra on 09/16/07 21

Review: Extreme Democracy

Politics is always changing as society incorporates new technology for disseminating information and connecting people’ (6) Extreme democracy is a political philosophy of the information era that puts people in charge of the entire political process. It suggests a...

By Fleur Dujardin on 09/16/07 2

New Network Theory – Review

For three executive sunny days last week, the humanity studies faculty of the University of Amsterdam hosted the New Network Theory conference. This four party collaborative initiative – consisting of Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis, Institute of Network cultures,...

By Roman Tol on 07/09/07 5

New Network Theory – Noshir Contractor

Noshir Contractor is the first speaker today, here to present MTML meets Web 2.0: Theorizing social processes in multidimensional networks. Noshir begins with a story of the social life of (technologically-enhanced) pets. Your smart-tagged dog can meet other dogs...

By Michael Stevenson on 06/29/07 Comments Off