Final Post

I have learned a lot about collaboration in this class. I think that the most helpful reading for me in this class was Tuckman's Stages of Group Development. By applying some of rules in this reading, I think that I have improved some of my ability to work in teams. I loved working in teams this semester and look forward to seeing my classmates next year. 

My favorite blog post is my second one called Class dates 1/31 and 2/2. It provides an overview of the readings "The Secret to Smart Groups" and explains the classifications of different types of groups using characters from Breaking Bad. Another one of my favorite blog posts is about "Wikipedia and the Death of the Expert." I talked about my experience with Wikipedia and linked one of my favorite viral internet videos to my post as an example of some of the content that goes viral. 

Two of my best comments: 

The three people that influenced most in this class were Eden, Miros, and  Caleb. Eden was a great leader and produced amazing work and ideas. Miros and Caleb were reliable and positive. I have Miros in three of my classes and he is really responsible. They were all really easy to work with! 

Class dates 4/18 and 4/20

Hi everybody! This week we deepened our understanding of Spreadable Media by Jenkins et al. In class, we tried to understand the distinction between spreadable and sticky media. When I think of spreadable media, I think of sites that does not provide content itself, but instead is generated by the users themselves. This leads to the users becoming the consumers and producers of popular culture. I think that Twitter is the embodiments of spreadable media because it does not generate much of the content that keeps users on the site and it allows for easy communication/"copying"/retweeting. I also think that it is very democratic because it allows for honest public discourse on a very influential and media friendly platform. I think that Reddit and its frequently discussed hivemind compared to Instagram is a good example of the importance of the demographic that uses the social media (male vs female demographics and differing values/interests). It is important to note that these platforms are not purely democratic and moderators have admitted to manipulating the visibility of certain opinions (see this article about Reddit's CEO meddling with Trump supporters' posts) Sticky websites, on the other hand, rely upon their own content to maintain their user/consumer base.

This picture exhibits the interconnected nature of spreadability and sticky content. This sticky content developed by Buzzfeed is being spread through highly spreadable media (Twitter)

I envision Buzzfeed to be an embodiment of a sticky website because they develop material specific to their demographic and user content (only in the form of comments on posts) is barely visible. Buzzfeed certainly follows the sticky business model built upon demographic data, as seen in this picture (as of 4/23/2017):

This picture discusses a specific television show that would be nostalgic for millennials and a list of memes. It also contains lite news articles that contain simplified news stories.


Thank you! Have a great day :)

Class dates 4/11 and 4/13

Hey everyone! This week we read Wikipedia and the Death of the Expert by Maria Bustillos. The article claims that the three main advantages of Wikipedia are that:

1) Wikipedia offers comprehensive citations and source material and therefore provides a better entry point for serious study
2) Is instantly responsive to new developments
3) It provides the history and the controversy of any given subject

McLuhan believed that "technology alters cognition itself, all the way down the its deepest, most elemental processes." I thought that it was confusing that the article first states that sites like Wikipedia has caused the internet to become anti-intellectual and then it later stated that we are all "entering into the democracy of the intellect that is already bearing spectacular fruit". They stated that the internet is facilitating a number of spectacular project, such as the Gutenberg Project, Tor, and Linux.

I understand that they are attempting to discuss all sides of an issue but I was still confused about the point that they were trying to make at the end of the article. I believe that they were simply trying to say that experts are no longer the authority upon their subjects anymore due to the democratic/Maoist nature of collaborative sites such as Wikipedia. I think the implicated devaluation of the contributions of the common people really undermines the overall point of the article. Maybe I missed something? It seemed elitist while conceding that common people can do some things.

This article mentioned Comcast and how internet user were able to improve some of Comcast's customer service through mass outcry. This Reddit link goes to a subreddit that explains how/why it escalated to the point that thousands of people collaborated to associate Comcast with the Nazi symbol.

The association of the Nazi symbol with Comcast was the result of massive collaboration through the website Reddit

I love Wikipedia because encyclopedias never really provided enough information for me to completely understand certain events throughout history. I like that it was made for common people like me and I feel that I have better understanding of information I am interested in for it. I actually based a large amount of my history research proposal on an Anti-Suffrage Wikipedia page. It provided a lot of background information and gave a broad overview that I couldn't find in my primary sources and I was able to cite the Wikipedia sources in my proposal. I don't think that I would've gotten such a good grade on it if it weren't for Wikipedia.

I wrote my proposal about anti-suffrage men and (especially) women and the relevance of public discourse in a political forum. Turns out, there isn't much relevance and politicians just care about maintaining power most of the time. 

We also read about Spreadable Media-guided Resource Demonstrations. I linked the study guide because it is really helpful for understanding such a dense chapter. It really makes sense that the platform that the information is shared on impacts the spreadability of the content. For example, I never would've found out about Marnie the Derpy Dog if it weren't for my sister sending me the link on Instagram. The convenience of being able to access information definitely impacts whether or not I'm going to look at something. Typically if I have to choose between a video and gif, I am always going to choose the GIF because it is easier to view in public and I don't have to wait for the video to load.

 This video is of the adorable Marnie the Derpy Dog, who has a massive internet following

Thanks for looking at my blog, have a great week!

Class dates 4/4 and 4/6

This week, we read The Tweaker by Malcolm Gladwell. I had heard that Steve Jobs was pretty strange before, but I had no idea it was to the extent that the author asserts that it was. The article states that Steve Jobs waited to buy a washer and dryer for 8 years because he was such a perfectionist. I certainly couldn't have dated the man; He sounds exhausting. The article also states that the industrial revolution occurred in England because it possessed an advantage in "human capital", which means that England possessed a large population of engineers and artisans that could tweak existing technologies. I thought that it was interesting that he and Gates did not get along at all, especially since they're both such influential visionaries in today's society.

The antagonistic relationship between Gates and Jobs has been lampooned in popular society. The above rap battle is an example of how well their poor relationship was known. 

We also watched RIP Remix Manifesto last week. Here are some of my notes on the film:

- There are four main ideas of remixing:
1) Culture always builds on the past
2) The past is always trying to control the future
3) Our future is becoming less free
4) To build free societies you must limit the control of the past

- corporations unfairly control most copyrights and buying the rights to most songs is extremely expensive (Girl Talks album would cost a few million to buy all the songs used)
- "nobody creates in a vacuum" basically means that without the ability to use past songs, new music will be difficult to create
- Brazil is leading in sampling and creating great new music


As much as I wanted to like GirlTalk's music, I couldn't get into it! I suppose I am a purist when it comes to Black Sabbath.

I think that its great that Brazil is making inexpensive HIV medication for their people. I am really happy to see how their music (remixing) programs help the youth and I can't wait to see the art that these kids make!

Class dates 3/28 and 3/30

This week we read "Is Foucault a Plagiarist?" by Mickey Hess. It states that Foucault faulted the reader for not knowing Marx's principles and states that his literature is so pervasive that people should know what it is. The reading also states that "hip hop producers create powerful juxtaposition by recontextualizing sources" and that sampling "transforms critiques, and responds to sources." The reading also asserts that hip-hop producers guard their sources to prevent legal action or to protect themselves from being copied. In academic writing, on the other hand, sources are highly recommended because they give their assertions credibility. These conflicting messages of sampling are resolved with Hess stating that he desires for his students to examine and critique their sources, and therefore create original arguments. I thought that this was interesting because many teacher do not possess the same mentality and they do not enjoy critiques of material that they provide. If I were in their position, I would probably feel the same way. I also thought that it was funny that Foucault thought that Marx was so pervasive within culture that he assumed the reader would know his material from his; I have no idea what Marx's principles are and only vaguely know what he probably wrote about. I think that was great that Foucault was building upon another philosopher's ideas, however I do think that it he might've been trying to take credit for Marx's work.

We also listened to the audio clip entitled "Renegades". I cannot find the clip on the internet so unfortunately I can't link it. Essentially, the clip states that the illegality of sampling was why sampling was so lucrative to musicians in the first place; It seems that the musicians associate sampling with Robin Hood in that it gives control of the music back to the people and musicians and out of corporate pockets. I thought it was interesting that the interviewee stated that he did not feel guilty sampling other artist's material because the music industry did not pay the musicians that created it. I think that the music industry is terrible in that it does not take care of the artists and really does appear to be corrupt. I have a friend that states that she is fine with illegal downloading because the artist does not really receive any money from their album sales.

Here is a short video of Left Eye from TLC breaking down how much she made 

Class dates 3/21 and 3/23

This Thursday we read the article "Can a Video Game Tame Toxic Behavior?" by Brenden Maher. I really loved reading this article because I love this game and was really excited to see something on the curriculum that I'm familiar with. This article discussed how neuroscientists were able to collaborate with game designers to create a less toxic game experience for players. I have been playing the game for about 4 years. The decision to include feedback from the Tribunal, color coded advice, and automatically generated feedback are reported to have increased the satisfaction of gameplay.

My personal experiences have been somewhat similar to the stories about toxic behavior in the article. While I am nice to my teammates, this game can be very frustrating and I understand why some people get angry with each other. The majority of the disrespectful comments said to other players are said to people who do not possess the same skill level with their champion (character that they play during the game) as their opponents. These bad players can easily cause the entire team to lose the game, which can be frustrating because the game provides many perks for winning games and losing games can be very disappointing, especially because so much time is devoted to finishing one game (games can last over an hour and require constant concentration). Team cohesion and willingness to fulfill your specific role in the game are really important to the overall experience. 

I think that they also group accounts with penalties (which can be gotten from delivering abusive comments or being away from the keyboard during the game) together during gameplay, so that most likely has also improved my experience. I've played with some really nice people over the years and it still is a great stress relief when I've had a bad day.

Many video game and movie franchises (especially ones that I played as a child) tend to sideline women into support roles, so I enjoyed that this game actually has female characters that are 3-dimensional, powerful within the game, and defy gender stereotypes. While many of these powerful female characters are sexualized, I'd rather them be there than not at all. The male characters are also frequently very muscular, tall, and good looking, so women's bodies are not the only ones that are idealized. The game lore draws upon legends all around the world, so a wide variety of cultures and mythical creatures are represented within the game. The lack of racial diversity is disappointing; There is only a handful of characters of color within the game. I hope that they address these issues of diversity in the future.

Picture of some of the female characters within LoL

This is a picture of my favorite character Morgana. I like how this "skin" created by the game lampoons gender roles. She is often a very overpowered character to play within the game and she has been frequently used by pro gamers in LoL championships in the past.

I think that our speaker did a great job of educating us about the gender gap. I think that I was a little too excited during the Jeopardy game, but I was mostly just excited to talk about one of my favorite games. Some of these statistics can be discouraging because I'm worried about working for companies that might not protect their employees and might not find many other women to relate with at work. However, I love programming/computers and hold onto hope that I can find a company that is good to work for. Based upon her great presentation, I think that a higher representation of women in the media that work in STEM will most likely increase the enrollment of women within technology. I think that the movie Hidden Figures did a great job of showing doing that women and people of color are fully capable of such a technical job. I hope more media is created in the future to increase the depiction of diversity of the people that can fill these roles.

After some research I found an article that attests to the massive ripple effect of inclusivity in Hollywood: "'Hidden Figures’ Is Already Inspiring More Girls To Go Into STEM"

Class dates 2/28 and 3/2

This week we watched the class's presentations on their websites. I think that everybody did a great job and I was really impressed with the effort that everybody put into their presentations. The group that did their presentation on Body Cameras did an amazing job of driving their point home with videos. They did an amazing job executing their presentation. I can't believe that they aren't in use today. I believe that public engagement on social media has catalyzed the fight for body cameras on Police Officers. I also really liked that the #FreeTheNipple movement used GIFs to make their background more engaging and memorable.


Here is a NPR story about the great effects of police wearing body cameras

Class dates 2/21 and 2/23

The reading "How Black Lives Matter Uses Social Media to Fight the Power" was interesting because it paralleled with what I've learned in Africana Studies classes (AFAS) and also provided a bridge between the past and the preset. The professors in these AFAS classes stated when slavery was legal, it was illegal for Black people to congregate in groups and testify against white people in civil cases. Even in criminal cases, where they were allowed to testify, the likelihood of a Black person receiving a good verdict was extremely low. These laws were enforced to prevent violent uprisings and continue their oppression of people of African descent, enslaved or not. My professor also said that many white Southerners (especially politicians, who were very often plantation owners) believed that a race war would break out if Black people were not subdued. 

It was sad, albeit not surprising, to see that these old laws were in place in the 1960's, as seen in the Black population's need for a WATS line to organize their protests. I'm glad that the technology exists today for groups of all types to communicate and video tape their interactions with police officers. While most of the interactions that I have had with police officers have been fine, I have experienced one situation where I was scared and alone with one in a vacant lot in rural Virginia. I cannot imagine what it must be like for somebody that encountered racism and discrimination to go through much higher levels of fear and threat upon their personal safety on a consistent basis. Again, I am glad that body cameras are being used and I hope that everybody that feels in danger uses a car camera to protect themselves. My friend, whose Dad was a cop, told me that asking for their badge number might also cause them to change their behavior towards you.  There are a lot of good cops out there but the bad ones are the most memorable.

We also read Anti-racist Activism and the Transformational Principles of Hashtag Publics- from #HandsUpDontShoot to #PantsUpDontLoot, which discusses the flexibility of hashtags. It seems that the main point of this paper is to keep in mind that hashtags increase visibility to the public and it draws attention from a wide variety of people. Unfortunately, in this case it allowed bigots to publicly attack a peaceful equal rights movement.

We also read about Karpf, who explained how online organization changes politics. I thought Karpf was insightful and his three claims aligned with the movement that I wrote about (the Umbrella Movement). Below is a copy of Karpf's 3 main claims (via Dr. Daly on D2L): 

"Three claims by Karpf of how online organizing has changed politics

1st claim - organizing without organizations (organization or a specific group are not needed to assemble people)

2nd claim - clicktivism or slacktivism; no real effect on US politics?

3rd claim that Karpf is making - New media leads to advocacy groups that are lightweight, fast, difficult to attack, and easy to reassemble under new organizational names or leaders or places"

Below is a video made to recap the Umbrella movement:

Here is a video made by the organizers themselves. It's interesting to see how they used media to inspire change

Thanks and have a great day! 

Class dates 2/14 and 2/16

This week we read Where is Black Lives Matter Headed? by Jelani Cobb examines the Black Lives Matter movement. It states that there is a lack of unity amongst Civil Rights groups that primarily advocate for Black rights. I thought it was interesting that Black Lives Matter did not want to work with Obama because they believed that he did not address important issues, such as police brutality. I think that differing mentalities and methods of achieving ones goal is an important facet of group development that is easy to forget about because it is not covered very much in Tuckman's Stages of Group Development or Communities of Practice. 

A Black Lives Matter protest that hashtags helped organize

The lack of a figurehead and "hierarchal structure" of Black Lives Matter also puts it at odds with "old-school" civil rights movements. The lack of centralized leadership that the Black Lives Matter movement utilized has proven to be a double-edged sword. A positive aspect of decentralized leadership is that they can "catalyze a movement in our own community.” Centralized leadership from Jesse Jackson has also been rejected by the youth of the Black Lives Movement because they believed that he was injecting himself into a situation where he did not belong. On the other hand, the lack of centrality has lead to spontaneous protests that have not been organized by the movements leaders, as seen in the protest in Oakland where protestors halted traffic into Oakland on Martin Luther King Day. The intense criticism of cops has also lead to acts of violence against cops to be attributed to the Black Lives Matter movement. These issues have greatly tarnished the image of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The Black Lives Matter movement has encountered widespread criticism from outside and within the Black Community.

We also read about Anti-Police Brutality Hashtags and the effect that it had upon awareness and protests against police brutality. The way that hashtags were utilized by those concerned with police brutality caused them to become a medium to strong collaboration because they were used to spread worldwide awareness and organized massive protests. The hashtags were generally used to converse amongst one another (and occasionally to argue with those that opposed their cause). 

Some results from a #MyNYPD search on Twitter

On February 16th, we read The Hijacking #myNYPD: Social Media Dissent and Networked Counterpublics. It discusses  the public relations campaign of the NYPD through the employment of the #myNYPD. The hashtag was "hijacked" by people who had encountered abuses and brutality from the NYPD and spread awareness of the state of affairs in New York. The "counterpublic" was able to connect with one another through mentions and retweets. They did not interact much with one another other than retweeting a few "central sources." The counterpublic's hijacking of #myNYPD was able to trend without the help of mainstream media. Most of the "hijacking" was conducted by women or people of color. I thought that this was interesting, because this demographic also statistically predominantly is apart of the Democratic party. This aligns with the picture shown on the first day of class that depicted how often the different political parties communicated with one another. 

Class dates 2/7 and 2/9

Class dates 2/7 and 2/9

On the 7th we read about Reddit and Suicide Intervention. This reading described Reddit, which is an online community that contains user-generated content and the users determine the visibility of each post by "upvoting" or "downvoting" each comment/thread. The ability of the users to determine the popularity of each post (at best) allows for Reddit to become an almost self-moderated forum with the best advice being the most visible. At worst, it can become a "hivemind", which consists of a large number of people attacking anything that does not conform to their narrow view perspective, therefore effectively stamping out all other opinions than their own through the utilization of the downvote button. The predominant demographic if each subreddit generally determines the nature of the content (for example, the men of Reddit tend to upvote sexual content or things that they find funny, which is sometimes at the expense of political correctness).

The up and down arrows to the left of each thread respectively upvotes and downvotes each thread. The amount of upvotes a post has determines its visibility. 

The SuicideWatch subreddit is different than Reddit is general because it is heavily moderated using guidelines set forth by licensed healthcare professionals. The moderators of this site state that Reddit is not an ideal place for those struggling to seek help, but it is frequently utilized instead of healthcare services. The frequent usage of the subreddit SuicideWatch also reveals some of the weaknesses of healthcare settings. These weaknesses in include many mental health websites being geared towards women (i.e. purple hearts on a mental health's webpage) which leaves men feeling alienated, formal healthcare is too expensive for some people, there is a lack of reciprocity between a healthcare professional and a patient (the patient is not able to help the professional and the patient is the only one emotionally vulnerable), the feeling that loved ones are pawning them off on mental health workers because they do not desire to help them, and many find comfort in anonymously sharing their experiences with a Community of Practice that they identify with. However, Reddit contains many weaknesses, such as users who are a danger to themselves are not receiving proper medical supervision and treatment, trolls harassing a suicidal user and the user seeing the comments before they are deleted, a "domino effect" where one user's suicide triggers other's, and some peoples posts not being replied to (which our guest speaker said can really hurt at-risk users).

Above is a screenshot of the top threads in Reddit's SuicideWatch on 2/11/17. The most popular threads are about issues that men typically struggle with, like a lack of physical intimacy or hiding their sadness to maintain their masculinity (the content of "People will be hell confused..." thread). The popularity of these specific threads reflects the overall demographics of Reddit and validates the reasons stated above on why men tend to gravitate to online communities to express their need for help. 

I am somewhat familiar with Reddit after being told about it by a coworker two years ago. I only use it to look at subreddits like SkincareAddiction (which is a small community of acne-sufferers like myself trying to solve our skin issues). I do not go on the front page of Reddit  because the general site contains some fake news that are propagated as fact, which to strips it of its credibility to me. While I have seen a couple of misogynistic comments on Reddit over the years, I have not had the experience described on the video (which says that women are targeted and spoken poorly about). To be completely honest, I have encountered many more misogynistic men in real life than I have on Reddit. This is probably because the subreddits that I go to are geared towards women (although there are some men that use the subreddits as well).

We also received a lecture by a guest speaker, that discussed how pro-ana groups were treated on Tumblr.  Anorexia is the deadliest psychiatric disorder and I sincerely hope that all of those suffering from that mental illness receive the help they need. The fact that some of these people trigger each other's deadly mental disorder worries me and I am glad that Tumblr provides links to places that they can receive help. However, their desire for finding a community where they can feel normal is understandable. I wish there was something that I could do to help them.

This is a website that informed the international community about the plight of the Zapatistas

On February 9th, we read The Zapatista Effect and the Untold Story of Women in the Zapatistas before class. These stories told of the effects of telling their story online and the international outreach and activism that resulted. The latter article also resulted in activism for the movement from feminist outlets, which was great to see. In class, we watched a video called New Media Technologies and the Zapatistas and Todd Wolfson: Zapatistas and the Power of the Internet. Both of these videos again described the power of the internet in saving the lives of Zapatista farmers. I think that Dr. Daly's timeline of the events on the board was a helpful in understanding the impact that the internet had upon the Zapatista movement.

I hope you have a great weekend!

Class dates 1/31 and 2/2

Class dates 1/31 and 2/2

This week we continued working on our presentations and watched a movie about Tuckman's Five stages of group development. I liked working with my group and after some technical difficulties I was able to finish our presentation five minutes after we finished class.  Based upon the assertions in the reading "The Secret to Smart Groups", I think that the group with the most women is most likely to be the best out of all the presentations.

The Secret to Smart Groups  written by Derek Thompson asserts that the overall intelligence of groups is not conducive to "smart groups". Instead, he states that amount of women in the group, "distribution of conversational turn taking", and social sensitivity of group members is what makes a group smart. It also stated that the higher the group member's RME scores were, the better their teams performed. To explain, RME score were based upon how well the participant was able to read complex emotions. Emotional intelligence is proven to trump IQ if the problem requires deep collaboration.

Warning: The below portion of this post may contain spoilers about the show Breaking Bad. If you haven't seen it and are interested in learning more about it, you can find more information here.


Group Dynamics by David Forsyth compiles research, empirical studies, and case studies to better understand groups.  A group is defined by David Forsyth as "two or more individuals who are connected to one another by social relationships." The size of groups can range from two to thousands of members. The average size of formal and informal groups are approximately the same, at 2.4 vs. 2.3, respectively. As groups increase in size, they become more formal. The quote that best helped me understand the nuances between planned and emergent groups is: " People found planned groups, but they often find emergent groups." A really helpful resource for further understanding important terms in this text is here.

Below are examples of main types of groups from one of my favorite TV shows, Breaking Bad:

• Concocted groups emerge when an external authority figure puts together a group to work together. 

The partnership of Gomez and Schrader are an example of a concocted group because they were paired up by their boss. They work together to achieve their common goal of eradicating drug related crime.

•  Founded groups are created by at least one member that remains within the group. 

Jesse and Walter's working relationship began organically when Walt approached Jesse and asked to work together. They are founding members of their group.

• Circumstantial groups are unplanned groups that occur when people around each other (often temporarily) form a group. 

Jesse and Jane's relationship began purely out of circumstance. They knew each other because he responded to a craigslist ad for an apartment. They shared common hobbies that led to them spending large amounts of time together and forming a relationship.

• Self-organizing groups begin when people have similar goals and adjust to other members within the group. Groups of friends hanging out together or drivers all leaving together are examples of this type of group. 

Combo, Skinny Pete, Badger, and Jesse spend time together because they have similar interests and enjoy each others company. They are a self-organizing group because they not only spend time together for social reasons but for business reasons. They all work together towards the common group of meeting their sales goals and loss prevention

•  Intimacy groups are small in size and are characterized by substantial amounts of interaction between members. They are typically "moderate in duration". 

Walter pictured with most of his immediate family. This group is an example of an intimacy group because the group is small and they frequently interact with one another. While Walt and his wife does not possess as long-standing of a bond that his wife has with her sister, they are still close. 

• Primary groups (such as family and friends) are intimate groups characterized by member identification and cohesion. 

Marie and Skylar's close relationship is an example of a primary group because it is small, long-term, and they get along very well. Membership and solidarity is important to the both of them. 

•  Task groups are goal focused groups often in employment settings. 

Gale and Walt meet while at work after being grouped together by their employer to accomplish an important task. They bond over their shared skill set and interests. 

• Weak associations are groups of people that have weak and transitory connections with one another. Examples include people waiting at a bus stop together, classmates in the same class, or living in the same neighborhood.

Walter White is conducting a chemistry demonstration to his students. The classmates exhibit weak social relationships with one another during the show. 

• Social categories are essentially groups of people who all fall under the same vast category (gender, nationality, job title) who have loose associations with one another. 

Pictured above is a group of men in Breaking Bad. This grouping is simply based upon gender, which falls into a social grouping category. 

Class dates 1/24 and 1/26

Class dates 1/24 and 1/26

The reading entitled "Cultivating Communities of Practice" made a few statements about Communities of Practice. First of all,  Communities of Practice are defined as groups of people who share a common interest and desire to deepen their expertise/problem-solving by interacting with one another. It also said that these Communities of Practice can share a common sense of identity because of their shared interest. The practice of sharing information within a community of practice can be essential, in some cases, for financial growth within a business. This reading also states that not all information can be cataloged and that sharing information face to face is important for growing one's body of knowledge.

The group activity of the day required for me to work with people that I had never met before. I enjoyed working with my group and thought that they employed the technique "yes, and...?" very well. They were very welcoming to new people (even though they already knew each other).

After reading Tuckman's Stages of Development, I condensed what I think characterizes the different stages of development:
     1) Forming- safe discussion, dependence on each other and the group leader, discussion on how to approach the task
           must be comfortable enough with group to broach potentially conflict causing topics    to progress to the next stage.

     2) Storming - beginning to get an understanding of each other, using a "testing and proving mentality", needs structure (i.e. roles within the group, leadership)
           The ability to listen is necessary for the group to progress to the next stage

     3) Norming - group cohesion, shared leadership, conflict resolution, sense of group belonging, resistance to change
            True "interdependence" is required to reach the next stage. I imagine interdependence to  be when all group members fulfill their assigned roles.
          
     4) Performing - group is most productive, group unity, individual members are self-assuring

     5) Adjourning - to take care of any loose ends of the assignment, indicates that the group was productive/effective enough to finish their task.

Colvin's "What Really Makes Teams Work" overviewed the importance of "dense" social interactions and how it improves productivity in the workplace. While I respect the research of a MIT scientist, his statement that online communities were ineffective did not make much sense to me. I've known people that have begun some of the best relationships in their lives through online communities. Online communities combines the principles of Communities of Practice, where people seek others with similar interests as them, with removing some potentially troublesome cultural differences and allows the user to objectively analyze what the other person has said. This article also assumes that face to face interactions consists of effective/respectful communication and the members are bound in some way to work with one another, which definitely isn't always the case. Also, from anecdotal experience, real life groups can amplify bad ideas if people are not invested in the group or are afraid of social repercussions from a disagreement.

Introduction

Hi, my name is Katie! I am a junior ISTA major and enjoy cooking, hiking, and playing video games in my spare time.

This course is going to be helpful when I am in a professional setting because the ability to effectively communicate is very important in computer programming. This class may help me better understand the data structures of various types of social media that I may analyze in the future because I will know the characteristics of the collaborations that helped create them. An unexpected benefit of this course is that it may help me better understand needs of the consumer and therefore help me create better products suited to their needs. I also enjoy meeting new people and look forward to this course.

While I knew that ReCAPTCHA was used to digitize information, I did not know that Duolingo was used for the same purpose. I have used Duolingo in the past and thought it was a good teaching tool and would recommend it to others. The only thing that I did not like about it was that it required you to speak into the phone for some exercises, which can be awkward if you're doing it in a public place. As a result of that feature, I deleted the app and now use quizlet to study Spanish on my phone.

I enjoyed seeing the different analyses of social media on the first day, since analyzing large amounts of data is something I may do in the future. The picture of how people of different political parties interacted was especially interesting to me, since the recent presidential election greatly divided our country and revealed some biased reporting practices employed by the media.

I enjoyed reading Tina Fey's rules of improvisation and was surprised at how effective it could be when working with people. While assertively communicating your thoughts is important, it is also important when you respectfully listen to and expand upon your teammates thoughts even if you do not see the merit of their ideas immediately. Also, I have done a lot of group activities in the past and I agree with Lemon's suggestion to make statements because my ideas have been ignored when I didn't assertively communicate my thoughts. I used to be really shy and working with other people has really helped me learn how to communicate with other people. This was my favorite article to read.

I think I understand Levy's assertion that collective imagination creates reality, because some of the science fiction/fantasy in the past has become reality (such as mankind's ability to fly, travel through space, and carry around hand-held computers full of collective knowledge and the ability to immediately interact with one another).

The article "What is Collaboration Anyway?" was helpful in understanding the different types of collaboration and importance of similar goals when doing so. I did not realize hashtags were a type of collaboration, but after reading this article it makes sense that they are. Hashtags are especially effective on sites such as Twitter, because it is more text/communication based than sites such as Instagram. I think that hashtags are especially important for social movements and compiling public discourse because they help facilitate discussion and organization over enormous distances.

I look forward to working with you all and hope you have a great semester! :)