Leave me alone?

"A state of perfect privacy would be akin to a state of absolute solitude, which is not only undesirable but also the harshest modern judicial punishment short of the death penalty" (Tufecki, 2008: 22).

I have written several articles where I discuss the conundrum of disclosure vs. privacy-concerns with regard to social technologies (in my doctoral thesis, and three (!) forthcoming articles this autumn*). Zeynep Tufecki's "Can you see me now? Audience and disclosure regulation in online social network sites" has nevertheless escaped my attention till now. I still haven't read it, only the two first pages. The obvious truth of the above quote made me stop. I do believe the essence is quite same as what I have written a number of times already. Tufecki, however, refers to Irwin Altman's conception of privacy as a balance between optional withdrawal and disclosure. She emphasizes the difference between Altman and the limited conception of privacy as social withdrawal (the right to be let alone), the latter conception being flawed: We do not want to be let alone at all times. Human beings crave disclosure to some extent.

Which is what I find again and again. I'm currently working on a small privacy-focused research-project for the Concumer Council of Norway (together with my collegues Petter Brandtzæg and Jan Håvard Skjetne). We've conducted interviews with Facebook-users aged 16 - 50 as well as a a survey (her er prosjektets Facebookgruppe). A report in Norwegian will be published later this autumn, but I am sure we will also write a couple of conference/journal articles.

* Forthcoming articles where I discuss social technologies and privacy:

Lüders, M, Brandtzæg, P. and Dunkels, E. (forthcoming 2009): Risky Contacts. In S. Livingstone & L. Haddon (Eds.), Kids Online: Opportunities and Risks for Children: The Policy Press (link)

Lüders, M (forthcoming 2009). Why and how online sociability became part and parcel of teenage life. In R. Burnett, M. Consalvo & C. Ess (Eds.), The Handbook of Internet studies. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell (link)

Lüders, M. (under utgivelse). Ung, dum og deilig? In Clemet, K & Egeland, J.O. (red), Til Forsvar for Personvernet (arbeidstittel). Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.

Kontaktannonse: Søker norsk partner til EU-prosjekt-søknad

Interessert i å være med i et fremtidsrettet EU-finansiert forskningsprosjekt med partnere fra hele Europa? SINTEF vil gjerne komme i kontakt med norske utviklere/leverandører av sosiale medier og brukerskapte innholdstjenester, eventuelt innholdsleverandører med et sterkt fokus på brukerinvolvering.

SINTEF er en av 16 partnere i det EU-finansierte prosjektet CITIZEN MEDIA. I dette prosjektet har bruker-sentrerte metoder vært sentrale for målsetningen om å utvikle sosiale medier og brukerskapte innholdstjenester. CITIZEN MEDIA går mot slutten, og SINTEF og de andre konsortiepartnerne arbeider med en ny søknad rettet mot 7. rammeprogram call 4, objective 1.5 Networked Media and 3D Internet. 70-80 millioner euro er satt av til denne delen av utlysningen.

Det nye prosjektet bygger på CITIZEN MEDIA og handler således i stor grad om sosiale medier. Men i det nye prosjektet er buzz-ord som ubiquitous computing, future Internet og Internet of things også helt sentrale. Vi har allerede mange ideer, men ønsker å ta utgangspunkt i hva en ny norsk parner arbeider med og ønsker å utvikle i årene fremover.

Interessert? Send en e-post til marika.luders@sintef.no eller ring.

Heekya: Wikipedia for stories

I'm a lousy blogger, I know. But if you happen to visit, have a few minutes to spare, an interest in social/collaborative storytelling and the potentials emerging by integrating social network sites, take a look at this project. Looks very interesting.


Heekya: Wikipedia for Stories from DavidAdewumi on Vimeo.

Life as it should be

Originally uploaded by Marika

A week of snow, sun, mountains and crosscountry skiing. I understand why this is the preferred way to spend Easter for quite a few Norwegians (most stay home though). We've tested wonderful tracks around Nordseter, approximately 100 km in total. Not too much if compared to some crazy sport-fanatics, but it's more than enought for me. Now I'm totally ready to get back to work next week, I have quite a lot of it waiting for me actually.

US library of congress on flickr

Woman aircraft worker, Vega Aircraft Corporation, Burbank, Calif. Shown checking electrical assemblies (LOC)
Originally uploaded by The Library of Congress

The national library of the US has uploaded more than 3000 photos to flickr, encouraging people to tag and comment. That's a great and rather simple way to construct and facilitate national narratives and history. Additionally, some of the photos are absolutely beautiful. Thanks to Stig at Underskog for posting an entry about this project (members only).

my thesis and defense

Want to read my thesis? Get a copy! Contact Kristin Sandberg at the Department of media and communication, phone: +47 22 85 04 02, k.l.sandberg at media.uio.no

/EDIT/ I don't think there are any printed copies left, but I'd be happy to send you a pdf-version of my thesis if you're interested. Let me know.

My trial lecture is next Tuesday (18th of December) from 5.15 pm - 6pm, aud. 2, Sophus Bugges hus at Blindern (at campus). Assigned title: "Changes and consistencies in subjectivity in an age of new media"

The defense will take place on the 19th of December at 9.15 am, aud. 2, Sophus Bugges hus at Blindern.

Committee: Professor Charles Ess (Drury University) and Professor Nancy Baym (University of Kansas). Third member of the committee is Associate Professor Tanja Storsul (University of Oslo).

It'll be fun, I'm sure!

crime scenes, stories and truths

I've been a lay-judge at "Tingretten" in Oslo for a few years. Yesterday and today I attended my third time in the court as a lay-judge, trying to grasp what actually happened, or did not happen in a specific case. Tingretten is the first court instance in the Norwegian courts system. A full trial is conducted and the verdict is decided by a court judge assisted by two lay-judges. Naturally I can't tell you anything about the actual case or verdict, but my experiences as lay-judge have been extremely interesting. The procedures, the contrasts between the stories told by the witnesses, the rhetorics used, and the fact that these oral stories with often rather dubious connections to "the reality of what happened" constitute the background for the verdict.

Audun Kjus just defended his PhD with the thesis Sakens fakta - fortellerstrategier i straffesaker (The facts of the case - storystrategies in criminal cases, my translation of title).

ipodbatteri rules

Last week I thought my ipod finally died. I tried everything to fix it, but the hard disk just didn't respond. I wondered whether I should buy another type of media player. Can't stand devices with an expected lifetime of a couple of years. It's unethical.

Now it seems my ipod works. The owner of ipodbatteri.no fixed it. While I was waiting. Charging nothing as he couldn't guarantee that he'd repaired it for good. When my ipod finally gives in, I will probably buy another one. As long as ipodbatteri is there to help me prolong it's life.

Ambivalence Towards Convergence

One of my thesis-articles, "Converging forms of communication?", is one of the contributions in a newly published anthology: Ambivalence Towards Convergence. Digitalization and Media Change, edited by Tanja Storsul and Dagny Stuedahl.

Concepts of convergence and converging processes have triggered considerable attention and activities in media research during recent years. This has been an inspiring context for the discussions and analyses presented in this book.

The book elucidates a variety of understandings related to the concept of convergence, and at the same time reflects on the analytical advantage of the concept. The contributions discuss the impact of media digitalization and the degree to which the prospects of convergence have been realized. The studies range from investigations of institutional and regulatory change within media and cultural institutions, to analyses of communicative genres and social practices related to digital media.

For table of contents and ordering the book, visit Nordicom.

citizens in danger

Last week BBC encouraged people inside Burma to share their stories: Accounts from inside Burma. At the very bottom of the web page, the following message has been written: "At no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws." Appropriate of course, considering Burmese people risk jail and abuse for telling the world what has been going on. It's "citizen journalism" at its most interesting and perhaps cruel, mass media actors taking advantage of the upsurge of amateur quasi-reporters in conflict-areas. With the possibility of air-time on BBC and CNN, people will probably be more willing to take chances. It must represent a rather delicate dilemma for the media industry, and I don't know whether a warning such as the one above solves it.