Large scale persistent conversations such as newsgroups and
bulletin boards are a new communication medium. They make it possible
for people from all over the world to engage in conversations on a
variety of topics. Yet, the textual media that makes them so
accessible also makes many useful and communicative social patterns
invisible. This week we will think about ways of visualizing these
conversations.
Their two key features - that they are large-scale and persistant
- should guide your work. A: there are lots of people
involved. How can the visualization help to differentiate among them
and highlight their different roles? B: Their activity is writing
text and this text becomes the foundation and setting for subsequent
interaction within the group. How can the visualization show both the
structure of the accumulated text and the activity that occurs upon it?
- Read the papers listed above. The first three will give you
background on the structure of large scale conversations and on
the problems involved in visualizing them; the second three are
examples of visualizations (which you can skim).
- Look at several Usenet newsgroups or other large public online
text-based forum. (But look at all within the same interface,
i.e. 4 newsgroups or 4 slashot boards, not a mix). Keep these
questions in mind: What are the salient patterns that you see? Are the threads long or
short? Are there lots of participants? Do a few people
dominate the conversation? How much of the discussion is
on topic, how much is spam, how much is flaming? Would you
describe it as supportive, informative, humorous? Are there
topics that return over time (look in the archives to see what
it was like a year or more ago). Is there a rhythm you can
detect to particular discussions - how long do threads remain
active?
- Make two sketches of different visualizations of these
conversations. For the first sketch, think about the work we
did on conversations a few weeks ago - revisit some of the
ideas about making the people the salient element in the
visualization. For the second sketch, think about the readings
for last week's class on time - "Artifacts of the Presence Era"
and the Wiki history (which I realize we did not discuss in
class). Here, the key element is the accumulation of
material. Use this concept as the structuring element in your
second sketch.
For both sketches, ground your work in actual material from a
real large-scale persistent conversation.
This assignment is due Monday. Please submit your work online. If you have any problems with doing so, send email to Fernanda Viegas fviegas@media.mit.edu