www.nickhodge.com

The fol­low­ing is a blog-best-effort tran­script of danah boyd in Bris­bane on the 6^th August 2007. This is not a ver­batim tran­script.

This blog post, and Flickr images by Nick Hodge are licensed under the Cre­at­ive Com­mons License:

1. Where are geeks/freaks/queers now?

• gay men still on friendster
• tribe.net / myspace for “freaks“
• geeks whatever is the coolest new­est thing. twit­ter etc.
• seg­ment­a­tion: US split based on class lines; danah men­tioned media tak­ing the wrong per­spect­ive of her recent postings
• world where the cul­ture is of celebrity to get out of cur­rent “class“
• in AU, split more on age

2. where are those who are not online?

• 93% US teen­agers have inter­net access (of vari­ous speeds/feeds/modes)
• 7% know what it is, but are restric­ted (eg: evan­gel­ic­als in US)
• the digital divide is method of access (school/library only)
  • hyper­con­nec­ted, basic, (and a few others)
  • evid­ence that with con­nectiv­ity, digital soci­ety has reduced young gay suicide
  • (danah noted: doing eth­no­graphic stud­ies, wor­ried about kids with no friends, online or offline)
  • hanging around with friends is import­ant; SNS is US/English based vs. mobile cul­ture (nb: mobile phones now advert­ised with myspace logo in AU on the weekend)

3. Vir­tual Worlds

• immers­ive vir­tual worlds such as WoW, gamer sites: another place to hang out with friends (more WoW than SL)
• Second Life: edu­cat­ors watch­ing edu­cat­ors watch­ing educators…
• SNS when kids use it for fun
• “is this tech­no­logy some­thing gen­eral users use?”

4. Lib­rar­ies in myspace, OK?

• most teens know that you exist
• when non-profits/politicians/etc are there, but they need to con­verse, not just be there. need to digit­ally shake hands
• some people in the SNS will use the link as a marker

5. Addicted to MSN/WoW (what to do with kids “addicted”)
• online is a place to inter­act with friends, and avoid school­work. this has been com­mon for many gen­er­a­tions where home­work existed
• WoW/MSN is hanging out with their friends
• more wor­ry­ing are those who have no friends
• prob­lem deeper than “the tech­no­logy” if there is no com­mu­nic­a­tion and understanding
• ques­tion on how soci­ety acts in the “digital street” to look out for kids who need help.

6/7. SNS, use within schools?

•  works when teach­ers respond online, not just “appear”
• remem­ber, SNS is for fun/friends. not school work
• engage in the con­ver­sa­tion, don’t be judgemental.
• worst thing is for­cing “decep­tion” where kids cre­ate shadow inden­tit­ies — are we for­cing kids to do this?

8. Gen­er­a­tion “Y” in the workplace

• lifest­ages; online vs off­line; and use of SNS changes when life interferes
• mobile; out and about greater import­ance with pro­fes­sion­als who are not at their desks
• email is NOT social; its work. it’s hell. spam, par­ents, cor­por­ate emails etc
• IM is the new email. more import­ant than email. Phone is a jar­ring interruption

9. Property/ IP hold­ing back?

• remix gen­er­a­tion; kids mix­ing point­ers (URLs) rather than base content
• own­er­ship is inter­est­ing in a world where copy­ing is easy

10. edu­ca­tion: in schools, cyber­bul­ly­ing etc == ban on access to SNS

• kids route around cen­sor­ship; prox­ies, etc. ask them how they do it
• mobiles change the ground rules
• teach­ers must push back

11. future of SNS?

• mobile
• 10 years all this will be nat­ural and there­fore calmed down
• embrace the new digital publics.