tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679714.post7760795880135991229..comments2024-03-29T03:42:44.933-04:00Comments on Half an Hour: Homophily and AssociationStephen Downeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06140591903467372209noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679714.post-50960142947127099612007-10-25T11:25:00.000-04:002007-10-25T11:25:00.000-04:00Please feel free to link to this post (you do not ...Please feel free to link to this post (you do not need to ask permission to link, just link).Stephen Downeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06140591903467372209noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679714.post-70504546340512082382007-10-24T20:45:00.000-04:002007-10-24T20:45:00.000-04:00Hi, I am a University of Canberra student and I am...Hi, <BR/>I am a University of Canberra student and I am writing an essay on homophily on my blog...and I wanted to ask if you would mind if I linked to your post on homophily within my post. I haven't written much yet but I would like to include a link to your page if you don't mind. Thank You. Zoe.ZPeelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03813225662389103047noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679714.post-48554560129189946372007-10-23T09:45:00.000-04:002007-10-23T09:45:00.000-04:00Thanks for the comment Alex. No response for now, ...Thanks for the comment Alex. No response for now, but I appreciate the thoughts.Stephen Downeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06140591903467372209noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679714.post-69944143972626286752007-10-22T01:21:00.000-04:002007-10-22T01:21:00.000-04:00Hi Stephen,A great post summing up nicely what my ...Hi Stephen,<BR/><BR/>A great post summing up nicely what my experiences of life have been building on unsustainable surfaces amidst connections, disconnections and a whole heap of waffle, bacn and misfiring neurons in between.<BR/><BR/>You know what ? When you made a point of stating the unstated at FLNW1 regarding individuals, groups and networks I was too smug, insecure and concious to note the absolute deep to the core validity of your position.<BR/><BR/>I've listened to a few recordings ( audio ) which will go unpublished, of our ranting and raving as a "group" over there in NZ but most of all I wish to thank you for bringing me forward in the way that I relate with other people in this networked machine.<BR/><BR/>I'm begining to get you. <BR/><BR/>It's taken time but I can assure you that my sacrifice of a great deal of ego is to ensure that our lines of association dont get cluttered with the noise in between the signals.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12593735969463935403noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679714.post-40969378579113013182007-10-14T21:31:00.000-04:002007-10-14T21:31:00.000-04:00The key point, of course, is not to argue that an ...The key point, of course, is not to argue that an event or a debate should be dismissed simply because an instance of 'homophily' (awful word) occurs around it, but to argue about the fundamental assumptions and reasoning embedded in the event or debate itself. There's an innate lack of respect in the former and a deserved respect accorded by the latter.<BR/><BR/>In any case, it's a somewhat pointless remark to make since the debate generated by, for instance, ULearn07 goes far beyond that which we can read in the blogosphere. There will be many attendees and contributors to the event that will conduct strands of the debate within their own heads, in their institutions, and through other media, or none.<BR/><BR/>So the fact that bees gather around the honey-pot tells us nothing about the broader benefits to be wrought from honey<BR/><BR/>Being a gadfly can become a thing in itself sometimes.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679714.post-45432502037611337342007-10-12T14:39:00.000-04:002007-10-12T14:39:00.000-04:00One of these frustrating moments, as I'm about to ...One of these frustrating moments, as I'm about to get on a plane home. I like your rundown on association, Stephen. I think there is a degree of that, although the conference F2F-wise did have plenty of people analysing - it would be a mistake to take online as being 'The Conference'. It's folly to rely just on blog coverage, too, since the bloggers are almost certainly a particular 'type' of participant with a degree of flock mentality. And why not? It's the same as any social group.<BR/><BR/>One of the reasons there is so little analysis at the moment (and I agree with you there) is that<BR/><BR/>a) it was busy, with over 200 seminars in two days, and most people I know can't absorb, analyse and enjoy a conference at the same time.<BR/>b) NZ schools went back on Monday after a long holiday, meaning that many attendees, who came in their vacation, had the thump of paperwork and greeting new students after the conference.<BR/><BR/>I'll do my best to analyse what I saw and heard, although I've got my own thump back to non-stopness next week.<BR/><BR/>Rest assured, if there's one nation that has no trouble reflecting critically on what they've heard and seen, it's New Zealand.Ewan McIntoshhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12885676413351678827noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679714.post-56152785807898036182007-10-12T11:18:00.000-04:002007-10-12T11:18:00.000-04:00anonymous said...But what does it ultimately achie...<I>anonymous said...<BR/>But what does it ultimately achieve? Answer...nothing! And you know what? It's not even interesting! Be nice if you could all find proper jobs and actually contribute something useful to society rather than this useless waffle. I would leave my name but would you care? No. It's either going to get deleted or you'll all just flap around in distress and outrage. Let's just call me an irate taxpayer who is fed up of their money being distributed to fund worthless "educational" research, let's face it, I doubt you would be looking into today's buzzword "Homophily" if you didn't think it would lead to an educational grant. It's load of cobblers and you know it.</I><BR/><BR/>Well, you're not that anonymous - it's a pretty small world we run in, but thanks for the opportunity to expand on the point or pointlessness of thinking, blogging and working around this area. <BR/><BR/>Firstly, I'm delighted that a word that's been picked up on by three bloggers can be considered a buzzword. The last row about buzzwords I entered into was over the usefulness of 'web 2.0', and I don't really think that this has that kind of currency - so thanks for the vote of confidence. <BR/><BR/>For me, like most words within any specialist vocabulary, they are only useful in so far as they pay their way. In this instance I've been thinking about this area for a while now, at least since the boyd's the biases of links in 2005 (http://many.corante.com/archives/2005/08/08/the_biases_of_links.php) - the long standing issue of how spaces which are perceived as 'not-political' are actually just those which transparently reproduce popular power dynamics and inequalities. The reason I'm interested in this isn't because I'm looking for research funding in this area but because I give a damn about the world we live in and would like to do something to challenge those inequalities. So 'Homophily' works for me as a good short hand descriptor of an otherwise long and rambling definition. Actually I’m with you on the dangers of ‘theoretical fluency’ – like web 2.0, that value of this or any other term for me lies in its contestability. <BR/><BR/>In terms of finding a proper job - I'd value your suggestions. I actually really struggled with the long running debate over the political value of theory myself, which is one of the reasons I don't work within academia but focus on bringing about social change within more of a policy context. However, I don’t think this outburst is necessarily aimed at me (I’m not going to take it personally anyway) or at academia in general– I think your gripe is with the value of educational technology as a discipline. There’s certainly a collective response to be made there – as there is within any other discipline. Public value is obviously an important topic for the field to continue to engage in.Josie Fraserhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14075904557654980265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679714.post-49982098727334993552007-10-12T09:53:00.000-04:002007-10-12T09:53:00.000-04:00But what does it ultimately achieve? Answer...noth...But what does it ultimately achieve? Answer...nothing! And you know what? It's not even interesting! Be nice if you could all find proper jobs and actually contribute something useful to society rather than this useless waffle. <BR/><BR/>I would leave my name but would you care? No. It's either going to get deleted or you'll all just flap around in distress and outrage. Let's just call me an irate taxpayer who is fed up of their money being distributed to fund worthless "educational" reseach, let's face it, I doubt you would be looking into today's buzzword "Homophily" if you didn't think it would lead to an educational grant. It's load of cobblers and you know it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679714.post-10877858666474622422007-10-12T04:17:00.000-04:002007-10-12T04:17:00.000-04:00Thanks for this Stephen. It's a really neat overvi...Thanks for this Stephen. It's a really neat overview of association. I'm particularly interested in homophily because it's the structuring principle behind social search, and critical I think to explore as we increasingly start to switch to search within network connections. <BR/><BR/>I'm going to talk about all this at December's Bazaar conference in Utrecht - since Graham is in charge it probably will get recorded for once! My session is going to be called <B>Social search & the perils of homophily (or, if internet dating really worked how would anyone make any money)</B>Josie Fraserhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14075904557654980265noreply@blogger.com