Power, Gender, and Collective Action

The first of these papers that is being presented is entitled “When Technology Matters.” Their research question is “Why go public with the private?” Nice slides — black background with white text that just jumps out at us.

The first part is about a woman who blogged without people initially knowing her, but then people recognizing her and her struggles with that. The next paper was about bloggers who starve themselves or otherwise hurt themselves. Finally, another person who blogs about her body. Fascinating experiences of people who speak public about issues that others can easily miss.

Hmm, what is important to me may not be important to you? Talk about a jolt to worldview!

The role of technology in the private / public. Where is control? Whose control? How does ethics work with this? I am getting more and more confused with how to handle this research if using other people’s blogs. Thus far, my research is leading me to direct interaction with bloggers; phew.

Ahh, a presentation on female gamers by Malin Sveningsson. Gender and sexuality with female gamers. There certainly seems to be a a theme here at the confernce around gamers / online games. Think I want to know a little more about this area (sounds familiar?)

Interesting theme that female gamers bring a friendly touch to the game. Yes, Fatal attraction with knives and guns and such like fatal attraction. Hmm, homosociality (cf. Sedgwick, 1985).  Same-sex gaming environments can be liberating or constraining. I wonder what future areas of research exist in this area?

Hmm, how do gender differences disrupt online gamer expectations / experiences?

Girls being made invisible on the Internet, with a reference to Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. Not quite sure what population of girls that is being studied, as girls in general may be a little general for research. Their focus is on the individual lived lives researchers.

I like hearing about the everyday activism, and it is seen in this research and images that were provided in the blog here.

Rong Wang will present her paper via Skype from Singapore. This is exactly the sort of presentation style that we will only see more of. Hmm, new experiences = new research opportunities.

The theory of social capital, social ties, and collective action are all considered. Nice use of social network analysis (SNA). Makes me wonder what methodologies are most common in Internet Research?