zerodraft

(paragraph-per-day project)
(also: evidence of how much I can "get done" in one hour--not so much!)

This project will draw on texts that involve research in network studies, which emerges from disciplines ranging from anthropology, social science, and information science. Also, I’ll draw heavily from the field of rhetoric and technology, specifically those scholars and texts that deal with technology and literacy.

Key Terms:

Social capital: In Putnam: “I’ll do for you if you do for me” (20). See also reciprocity. Putnam offers two levels of social capital: bonding social capital, which creates exclusivity; and bridging social capital, which connects outward or creates inclusivity (22). Bonding social capital is created by “homogenous groups” such as ethnic fraternities or country clubs (22). Bridging connections “are outward looking and encompass people across diverse social cleavages” like the civil rights movement (22). “To build bridging social capital requires that we transcend our social and political and professional identities to connect with people unlike ourselves” (411). “No sector of American society will have more influence on the future state of our social capital than the electronic mass media and especially the Internet…Let us foster new forms of electronic entertainment and communication that reinforce community rather than forestalling it” (410). Putnam’s concern is that “virtual community” is not as good as “real” or “face-to-face” community. His call is for us as a nation to return to making the civic connections of yesteryear, but that we must find ways that Internet technology can support the rebuilding of conventional communities (“place-based, face-to-face, enduring social networks” [411]) rather than replace them. Putnam would be pleased to find that blogging has already fostered these sorts of conventional networks. For instance BlogHer, originally a multi-authored Typepad blog [include history here from Elisa’s response], has evolved into a sizeable community of women writers who attend the yearly Blogher conference. The BlogHer conference is as much about seminars about feminism and workshops on using Photoshop as it is about reinforcing the virtual into the place-based. Another example of blog networks evolving (or succumbing?) to IRL meetings is that of the Chicago RBFers. The RBF (or “Running Blog Family”) is supported by completerunning.com, a site dedicated to issues of running and racing. Any blogger can join request his blog be added to the list (which numbers 1023 at the time of this writing). In the summer of 2006, a group of RBFers based in Chicago began monthly meet-ups at local eateries.