Abstract: The authors examine the experience of the residents of Netville, a suburban neighborhood with access to some of the most advanced new communication technologies available, and how this technology affected the amount of contact and support exchanged with members of their distant social networks. Focusing exclusively on friends and relatives external to the neighborhood of Netville, we analyze "community" as relations that provide a sense of belonging rather than as a group of people living near each other. Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is treated as one of several means of communication used in the maintenance of social networks. Contrary to expectations that the Internet encourages a "global village," those ties that previously were "just out of reach" geographically, experience the greatest increase in contact and support as a result of access to CMC.

27 double-spaced pages in Acrobat PDF. Citations include Don Norman, Howard Rheingold, Marc Smith and Peter Kollock. Several of the references look particularly interesting.

Long Distance Community in the Network Society [PDF]

Abstract: Social scientists are increasingly interested in new organizational forms -- labeled epistemic communities, knowledge networks, or communities of practice depending on the discipline. These new organizational forms are made possible by new communication technologies, but they can be difficult to study qualitatively, often because their human, social, cultural or symbolic capital is transmitted over significant distances with technologies that do not carry the full range of human expressions that a researcher using participant observation or ethnography hopes to experience. Qualitative methods are desirable for rendering rich data on human interaction, but alone are ill equipped for studying community life conducted in diverse formal and informal organizations and over many new media. Social network analysis is desirable for rendering an overarching sketch of social interaction, but alone is ill equipped for giving detail on incommensurate yet meaningful relationships. I propose ?Network Ethnography? as a synergistic research design that synthesizes these two methods, using the strengths of each to make up for the weaknesses of the other. Network ethnography uses social network analysis to justify case selection for ethnography, facilitating the qualitative study of the varied organizational forms of knowledge networks.

42 double-spaced pages in Acrobat PDF format. The bibliography includes Manuel Castells, John Seely Brown, Paul Duguid, and numerous other authors whose work looks interesting and relevant.

Network Ethnography and the Hypermedia Organization: New Organizations, New Media, New Methods [PDF]

Very cool and Important topic for a workshop. SF crew, check it! Members of the program committee include Hal Varian, Ross Anderson, Li Gong, Andrew Odlyzko, and Bruce Schneier. Get to work on your position paper ... time's a-wasting!

"Do we spend enough on keeping `hackers' out of our computer systems? Do we not spend enough? Or do we spend too much?

Many system security failures occur not so much for technical reasons but because of failures of organisation and motivation. For example, the person or company best placed to protect a system may be insufficiently motivated to do so, because the costs of system failure fall on others. Such perverse incentives raise many issues best discussed using economic concepts such as externalities, asymmetric information, adverse selection and moral hazard. They are becoming increasingly important now that information security mechanisms are not merely used to protect against malicious attacks, but also to protect monopolies, differentiate products and segment markets. There are also interesting security issues raised by industry monopolization and the accompanying reduction in product heterogenity. For these and other reasons, the confluence between information security and economics is of growing importance.

We are organising the first workshop on the topic, to be held in the School of Information Management and Systems at the University of California, Berkeley, on the 16th and 17th May 2002. In order to keep the event informal and interactive, attendance will be limited to about 30-35 participants. If you would like to participate, please send us a position paper (of 1-2 pages) by the 31st March 2002.

We welcome interest not just from economists and information security professionals, but from people with relevant experience, such as in the insurance industry, corporate risk management, or law enforcement agencies.

Workshop on Economics and Information Security

Overdue for more than a week, the latest First Monday is now available. This issue has a number of worthwhile articles. Have a look. The table of contents is included below.

Volume 7, Number 1 - January 7th 2002

Sleepless in Belgrade: A Virtual Community during War
"I don't watch TV to like learn anything": The Leisure Use of TV and the Internet
Mapping the Information Society Literature: Topics, Perspectives, and Root Metaphors
Object Lessons: Critical Visions of Educational Technology
Finding Balance: The Vices of Our "Versus"
Globalization of Information: Intellectual Property Law Implications
Internet the Globalizer, and the Impossibility of the Impossibility of the Global Dialog
Music in the Age of Free Distribution: MP3 and Society

First Monday, January 2002

David Gerlernter complains about how Apple's "innovation" is anything but. He talks about his "lifestream" concept, which seems reasonable and useful. I've referenced a paper about it previously. Phil Agre says that he doesn't see how the "lifestream" is advantageous. You decide.

Bold New Look, Tired Old Metaphor

Cooperation can flourish if the public-spirited majority can punish freeloaders, say Swiss economists. People will pay to punish - suggesting that their notions of fairness outweigh selfish considerations. The work may help explain why people cooperate in society. ...

(Published on 10 January 2002 in Nature Science Update. Subscription not required for access, although there is a related technical article in the subscription journal _Nature_.)

Prosperity through punishment: Retribution can breed cooperation

"The business environment is rapidly changing, and intellectual capital is a key asset of the enterprise. By managing its knowledge assets, an enterprise can improve its adaptability and increase its chances for survival. The papers in this issue of the IBM Systems Journal deal with various aspects of knowledge management: supporting technologies, products, and social aspects."

Here's the abstract for the first article, entitled _Communities of practice and organizational performance_:

As organizations grow in size, geographical scope, and complexity, it is increasingly apparent that sponsorship and support of communities of practice -- groups whose members regularly engage in sharing and learning, based on common interests -- can improve organizational performance. ... To build an understanding of how communities of practice create organizational value, we suggest thinking of a community as an engine for the development of social capital. We argue that the social capital resident in communities of practice leads to behavioral changes, which in turn positively influence business performance. We identify four specific performance outcomes associated with the communities of practice we studied and link these outcomes to the basic dimensions of social capital. These dimensions include connections among practitioners who may or may not be co-located, relationships that build a sense of trust and mutual obligation, and a common language and context that can be shared by community members. Our conclusions are based on a study of seven organizations where communities of practice are acknowledged to be creating value.

IBM Systems Journal - Vol. 40, No. 4, 2001 - Knowledge Management

A subscription is required for this 9 page paper, published in May 2001 in the journal _Accounts of Chemical Research_ as part of a special issue on molecular machines. The URL links to the table of contents.

Abstract: Molecular motors convert chemical energy into mechanical force and movement. Operating at energies just above those of the thermal bath, these motors experience large fluctuations, and their physical description must be necessarily stochastic. Here, motor operation is described as a biased diffusion on a potential energy surface defined by the interactions of the motor with its track and its fuel. These ideas are illustrated with a model of the rotary movement of the motor.

The Physics of Molecular Motors

The Fall 2001 issue of the _[Lawrence] Berkeley [National] Lab Research Review_ includes seven articles about nanotechnology.

The Coming of the Nano-age: The emerging field of nanotechnology promises to change the way almost everything?from vaccines to computers?is designed and made. Legos for the Nano-age: Scientists and engineers are designing, synthesizing and characterizing new types of nanoscale building blocks in an effort to create the micromachines of the future. Beyond Alchemy and the Wright Brothers: It's their nanostructure that makes many crucial materials useful: there's a lot more to nanoscience than itty-bitty widgets. Microtools for the Nanoworld: An array of new micromachines is helping researchers understand and manipulate nanoscale devices. Imagining the Nanoworld: Theorists create atom-by-atom models from "first principles" to study the mysterious world of nanodevices. Tiny Particle Causes Big Stir: After collecting more than a year's worth of data, the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory delivers a long-awaited verdict: neutrinos have mass. Travels of a Young Physicist: A young researcher's work in basic materials science unexpectedly leads him to develop new approaches for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

The Coming of the Nano-Age: Shaping the World Atom by Atom

Abstract: For group decision making to be effective, each group member must contribute to the outcome. However, social factors ... may prevent some from participating. A group decision support system (GDSS) can reduce social influences by allowing group members to contribute anonymously and in parallel through networked desktop computers ... This study explores how a simple and inexpensive GDSS ... can augment face-to-face groups by mitigating the adverse impact of status differences. ... [R]esults indicated that [participants] generated more ideas when they were able to do so anonymously. ... [R]esults suggest that a wireless GDSS can be used to reduce social bias that influences face-to-face decision making tasks.

Wireless Brainstorming: Overcoming Status Effects in Small Group Decisions [PDF]