a long december

check that, 2003 has been a long year in a lot of ways. Like any it’s been filled with ups and downs. 2004 stands pre­pared to match it.

The paper work is off­i­cally in to Uni­ver­sity of Chicago. The next few months will be spent wait­ing to learn whether or not I’m accepted. I’m both excited and scared at the thought of going back to school.

For those who might be inter­ested, here’s my final statement:

My goal in enrolling in the Mas­ters of Arts in the Social Sci­ences (MASS) pro­gram at the Uni­ver­sity of Chicago is to develop the skills nec­es­sary to study the ongo­ing evo­lu­tion in the meth­ods used by net­worked com­mu­ni­ties to com­mu­ni­cate and the impact those changes have on the broader social land­scape. By “net­worked communities”, I refer to groups of indi­vid­u­als who share common inter­ests and use net­worked com­mu­ni­ca­tion tools such as Inter­net chat as a method of com­mu­ni­ca­tion within the group. Since mem­bers of net­worked com­mu­ni­ties are often phys­i­cally dis­persed over large dis­tances, they tend to rely on a mix of these tools as the pri­mary enablers of par­tic­i­pa­tion. Thus, a group’s meth­ods of com­mu­ni­ca­tion and inter­ac­tion are con­stantly evolv­ing based, in part, on the evo­lu­tion of their com­mu­ni­ca­tion tools.

One man­i­fes­ta­tion of this sym­bi­otic evo­lu­tion is the way that net­worked com­mu­ni­ties are alter­ing per­sonal pho­tog­ra­phy. As net­worked com­mu­ni­ca­tion tools incor­po­rate visual media shar­ing func­tions, pho­tographs play an increas­ingly impor­tant role in inter­per­sonal net­worked com­mu­ni­ca­tion. Tra­di­tion­ally, indi­vid­u­als used pho­tog­ra­phy pri­mar­ily to doc­u­ment mem­o­rable moments. Pho­tographs served as “memory containers” – visual cues to access the mem­o­ries of spe­cific events and times. Now, how­ever, one sees mem­bers of net­worked com­mu­ni­ties embrac­ing dig­i­tal pho­tog­ra­phy as a method to bring visual con­text to tra­di­tion­ally text-​based com­mu­ni­ca­tion tools such as online dis­cus­sion boards and instant mes­sag­ing pro­grams. For exam­ple, mem­bers of these com­mu­ni­ties use pic­tures as avatars, visual rep­re­sen­ta­tions of them­selves in the tools, and as replace­ments for “emoticons” (e.g. :-) , ;-P , etc.), adding new visual con­text to their pre­vi­ously one-​dimensional comments.

Beyond pro­vid­ing con­text, dig­i­tal pho­tographs also serve as a form of “social currency” in net­worked com­mu­ni­ties. The worth of a member is pri­mar­ily based on two fac­tors: the level of par­tic­i­pa­tion and the qual­ity of that par­tic­i­pa­tion. Of the two, the qual­ity of the par­tic­i­pa­tion is typ­i­cally more valued. Mem­bers are there­fore encour­aged to take steps to enrich their post­ings and mes­sages in order to fur­ther their posi­tion within the com­mu­nity. One method com­monly used is to include sup­port­ing pho­tog­ra­phy in their post­ings. When rel­e­vant, pic­tures are capa­ble of con­vey­ing infor­ma­tion more effi­ciently and com­pellingly than text. Thus, the old adage “a pic­ture is worth a thou­sand words” has proved true again: these com­mu­ni­ties place greater value on con­tri­bu­tions that inte­grate per­ti­nent pic­tures. In turn, the member who has rel­e­vant pho­tographs to share wields more pres­tige and power within the com­mu­nity than those who do not.

The above-​described uses of dig­i­tal pho­tog­ra­phy are caus­ing a shift in the mean­ing and intent of a per­sonal pho­to­graph; mem­bers of net­worked com­mu­ni­ties use dig­i­tal pic­tures to convey imme­di­ate emo­tional or fac­tual data to help sup­port their posi­tions in com­mu­ni­ties. As such, their per­sonal attach­ment to these pic­tures is typ­i­cally short-​lived; these pic­tures are nei­ther printed nor archived. These pictures’ con­tents rep­re­sent fleet­ing moments that usu­ally have no last­ing emo­tional sig­nif­i­cance to the pic­ture taker. In con­trast with tra­di­tional home pho­tog­ra­phers, who cap­ture moments of per­sonal, last­ing sig­nif­i­cance, mem­bers of these com­mu­ni­ties act more as pho­to­jour­nal­ists, doc­u­ment­ing and com­mu­ni­cat­ing ideas to a broad audi­ence with pic­tures. This in turn affects how indi­vid­ual mem­bers of these com­mu­ni­ties per­ceive and doc­u­ment their lives.

The rate and scope of this social evo­lu­tion only stands to increase with the con­tin­ued pro­lif­er­a­tion of afford­able, portable net­worked com­mu­ni­ca­tion tools. For instance, mobile phones and other wire­less com­mu­ni­ca­tion devices stand ready to sup­plant Internet-​connected PCs as the pri­mary tool for net­worked com­mu­ni­ties. Across the globe, there are more Internet-​enabled mobile phones in use than Internet-​enabled PCs. Unlike a PC con­nect­ing to the Inter­net via a phone line, these new tools do not require a hard-​wired con­nec­tion to the net­work. As a result they allow mem­bers access to their com­mu­ni­ties from any loca­tion where a cell phone can broad­cast. This mobil­ity will enable people who pre­vi­ously have not had Inter­net access to jump-​start their par­tic­i­pa­tion in net­worked com­mu­ni­ties. As all of this leads towards broader par­tic­i­pa­tion in these types of com­mu­ni­ties, changes in behav­ior, like those described above, will begin to affect a greater por­tion of the population.

My inter­est in the evo­lu­tion of net­worked com­mu­ni­ties began as an under­grad­u­ate stu­dent at the Rochester Insti­tute of Tech­nol­ogy (RIT) where I par­tic­i­pated in prim­i­tive net­worked com­mu­ni­ties such as Usenet groups and Multi User Dun­geons (online text-​based multi-​user games). As a result of these expe­ri­ences, I worked with RIT’s School of Print­ing Man­age­ment and Sci­ences to craft an inter­dis­ci­pli­nary con­cen­tra­tion in New Media Pub­lish­ing in order to study the emerg­ing areas of computer-​based pub­lish­ing and net­worked communities.

I have con­tin­ued this explo­ration through­out my tenure with East­man Kodak Com­pany (Kodak). During this time, I rep­re­sented Kodak in online dig­i­tal camera com­mu­ni­ties and co-​hosted a weekly Inter­net photo-​based chat. In addi­tion, I served as the imple­men­ta­tion and pro­duc­tion man­ager for a net­worked com­mu­nity enabled through a col­lec­tion of photo-​based net­worked com­mu­nity tools (chat and dis­cus­sion boards).

Most rel­e­vantly, I helped to facil­i­tate the cre­ation of a net­worked com­mu­nity ded­i­cated to fol­low­ing the progress of a clutch of pere­grine fal­cons nest­ing on top of Kodak’s Head­quar­ters. For the past three years I have stud­ied this close-​knit com­mu­nity as it devel­oped on a photo enabled dis­cus­sion board. In par­tic­u­lar, I have observed how the member’s uses of pho­tog­ra­phy have evolved and how in turn it affected com­mu­ni­ca­tions and inter­ac­tions within the community.

My inter­ac­tions with net­worked com­mu­ni­ties have fos­tered a deep inter­est in study­ing the fun­da­men­tal social build­ing blocks that drive their devel­op­ment and evo­lu­tion. Addi­tion­ally, my work at Kodak has exposed me to the vast poten­tial of pho­tographs as a com­mu­ni­ca­tion tool and a form of social cur­rency. These expe­ri­ences, cou­pled with a firm belief that the only way to fully under­stand the social impli­ca­tions of these new tech­nolo­gies is through the social sci­ences, have led me to the Uni­ver­sity of Chicago.

I believe that the mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary approach of the MASS pro­gram is uniquely suited to help me design the best cur­ricu­lum for study­ing these ongo­ing social devel­op­ments. In turn, my pro­fes­sional expe­ri­ences enable me to present ideas and views that might not nor­mally be rep­re­sented in the Divi­sion of Social Sci­ences. I believe this will be an asset in inter­ac­tions with other pro­gram par­tic­i­pants and fac­ulty mem­bers. At the same time, I look for­ward to being exposed to con­cepts and meth­ods that I would not gain in a pro­fes­sional envi­ron­ment. I view this as an invalu­able oppor­tu­nity to “empty my cup”, to set aside any pre­con­ceived notions and embrace new lessons and challenges.

I cannot speak to all of the poten­tial aca­d­e­mic appli­ca­tions of my intended research. That is a per­spec­tive I would gain as part of my grad­u­ate work. From a pro­fes­sional view, how­ever, there is no way to develop cred­i­ble prod­uct and ser­vice offer­ings in this rapidly evolv­ing envi­ron­ment with­out sig­nif­i­cant guid­ance from social sci­en­tists. Tra­di­tion­ally, new prod­ucts are devel­oped by taking an exist­ing prod­uct and enhanc­ing one aspect of it. For exam­ple, Kodak essen­tially has been evolv­ing the per­sonal camera based on con­cepts set at the begin­ning of the twen­ti­eth cen­tury. How­ever, when faced with major behav­ioral changes in the net­worked com­mu­ni­ca­tions, the only way to effec­tively develop prod­ucts is first to use the social sci­ences to under­stand a community’s needs and values.

Ulti­mately, I believe that the insights gained through my stud­ies at the Uni­ver­sity, in con­junc­tion with my pro­fes­sional expe­ri­ence, will reveal valu­able avenues of explo­ration and research appli­ca­tions. I also look for­ward to gain­ing the expe­ri­ence to study the ongo­ing devel­op­ment of net­worked com­mu­ni­ties and the impli­ca­tions that holds for soci­ety at large. I hope that the Uni­ver­sity sees the same poten­tial that I do, both in this area of study and in me as a student.

Respect­fully yours,

Matthew Bernius

Just a quickie. I’m still alive. But between the hol­i­days and trying to finish my Mas­ters State­ment for my U Chicago appli­ca­tion, I’ve been blitzed. But it’s not like anyone is read­ing the blog. Oy… I am in decline.