Time to Reflect

Image by Sophie Janotta

Via Wikimedia Commons Blog Photo

As a student at the University of Arizona, I have learned so much about collaborating in online communities over the course of the Fall 2017 Semester. At the beginning of the course, I had never blogged before, I had not given much thought to how groups form, nor about how online communities use collective intelligence. Now as the semester is coming to a close, l realize that I have began to implement key points from the UA ESOC 211 into my everyday life. For example, in one of my favorite blog posts from September 7, 2017, I discussed Tuckman’s 5 Stages of Group Development and how I have seen the five stages in my life. This has continued to be a reoccurring topic throughout my semester at the U of A, as many of my classes required collaboration both online and offline with classmates. In my other favorite post on September 28, 2017, I wrote about Fair Use. In work and school projects, understanding copyright, Creative Commons licenses, and fair use have come in handy. This class also gave me the opportunity to reply to other members of the class. Two occasions in particular stood out to me. The first response I made that I wish to reflect upon was to Ryan Cohn’s blog on November 9, 2017 on Wikiality. The second was a response to Alan Castillo’s blog on Artificial Intelligence. 

Both of these student’s blogs continued to influence my blog, as well as myself throughout the semester. Ryan’s blog was very interesting to read, as he included many movie references within his blog writing. He devoted a few blog posts to specific movies, relating them to concepts from our class. Alan and I tended to write about similar topics, so it was fun to see differing opinions on the same topic. You can check out Ryan’s blog here and Alan’s blog here. 

Overall, I think Ryan Cohn has the best blog of the class. As I mentioned, he used many pop culture references in his writing. This made his blog interesting to read. He included references to movies such as Ocean’s Eleven, Baby Driver, and Moneyball. Other times, he talks about important topics, such as the Wikipedia’s gender gap.

Running a blog has been a learning experience. I have never run a blog before taking UA ESOC 211, but have loved learning to write on this platform. Thanks for reading my thoughts this semester!

 - Hannah Leigh Johnson

Image by Adrianemporio

Via Wikimedia Commons Blogger Photo

ZONAZOOniverse

Image by Grant Miller for the Zooniverse

Via Wikimedia Commons Zooniverse Photo

Zooniverse is a website designed around citizen science. In Katherine Xue’s article in the Harvard Magazine she defines citizen science as, “enabling ordinary people, often without formal training, to contribute to scientific research in their spare time.” Later in the article, Xue also states that, “Technology may have provided citizen science with diverse avenues to narrow the gap between amateurs and experts, but further progress—if that is indeed the movement’s goal—will require dedicated effort on both sides.” 

I recently participated in a Zooniverse citizen science project, classifying animals from Africa. Agreeing with Xue’s statement, I noticed this online platform allows for collaboration between expert researchers and everyday individuals, who may in this case be considered amateurs. Zooniverse gives those expert researchers the opportunity to crowdsource from across the globe, which then does help close the gap between amateurs and experts. 

In my case of participating in a study on African animals, I collaborated with eleven other active participants. When collaborating with one individual through a message board, I realized how amazing technology is, allowing researchers to crowdsource, as well as participants to collaborate. Citizen science is an avenue of online collaboration I had not previously given much thought to, but after participating, I strongly encourage you to check out Zooniverse and participate.

WikiWOMEN

Image by Feakgok

Via Wikimedia Commons Wiki Logo

Wikipedia is improving its brand reputation. Research such as Buzzfeed’s study on Wikipedia versus the Encyclopedia  Brittanica showed there was not a huge difference in the number of errors on entries from these two encyclopedias. One thing Wikipedia needs to now focus on improving is the number of women involved in the creation of this online source.

In 2011, the Wikimedia foundation stated that less that ten percent of its contributor base identifies with the female gender. This leaves me asking why there is such a huge gender gap?

In an interview with the New York Times, long time Wikipedia contributor Kat Walsh stated, “The big problem is that the current Wikipedia community is what came about by letting things develop naturally – trying to influence it in another direction is no linger the easiest path, and requires conscious effort to change.” 

Now in 2017, we need to be taking conscious effort to fix Wikipedia’s gender gap. I can now say that as a female, I recently created an account with Wikipedia and contributed to a page. I hope that other females will see the lack of women contributing to this global website and will join me in getting those numbers up.

To read more on Wikipedia’s gender gap, check out this article from the Digital Pedagogy Lab.

-Hannah Leigh Johnson

"Fake" News

Image by Daniel Lobo

Via Wikimedia Commons News Photo

Locally, elections have been happening in Tucson this week. Thinking back to the 2016 presidential election, I find myself with so many questions about what really happened when it came to political social media. Candidates and political parties were not the only ones sharing “facts” about the election. 

Many fake news sources began publishing information on the internet about both U.S. presidential candidates Trump and Clinton. Buzzfeed found that more than 100 of these fake news sources were being run from a small town in Macedonia. This particular hub of fake news published mainly positive news about President Trump. 

Buzzfeed noticed that right before the election, more people were engaged with the fake news sites than the real news sites. This is something that has not affected past elections, but certainly will come into play in future elections. 

To learn more about fake news, the Buzzfeed study, and the U.S. Election of 2016, check out this video from PBS. 

-Hannah Leigh Johnson

Blogs out for Harambe

Image by Picasa, Carine06, Silverback

Via Wikimedia Commons Harambe Photo

After a 3 year old boy fell into the gorilla exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo, Harambe the gorilla became infamous. Harabme was then killed, leading to reactions from individuals across the world choosing sides with either the parents of the child or Harambe himself. In light of this situation, the dark sense of humor that lurks on the internet came out in the form of memes.

Right after the news of Harambe’s death, memes started showing up on the internet. While the gorilla died, he was portrayed as a legend who lives forever. His name became a punch line of its own. His story was compared, although rather different, to Cecil the lion. In some memes relating the two famous dead animals, they are seen fighting each other like the wild animals they are in heaven. 

While many thought the Harambe meme would not stay relevant, it has continued to appear throughout social media websites.

To read more about the legacy of Harambe’s meme, check out this article by Brian Feldman, or this youtube video.

-Hannah Leigh Johnson

Thank You, Etsy

Image by Etsy Brand Design Team

Via Wikimedia Commons Public Domain Etsy

Part of collaborating in online communities is collaborating with people from all backgrounds. The online marketplace Etsy realized that even though their main consumers are female, they did not have enough female software engineers. In fact, by December of 2011, only one of their 40 newly hired software engineers was a woman, making a total of 35% of their technologists female. 

My first thought of how to make this workplace more equal was to just hire more female coders, but Etsy found an even better solution. They decided to invest in training women, with the hope of hiring them in the future. This “Hacker School” had over 600 applications from potential students for the Summer of 2012. 

Eventually, this 600 was narrowed down to 23 actual students. By the end of the summer, eight were hired by Etsy and five were female. The “Hacker School” grew in the summer of 2013 with the support from Dropbox, GitHib, and PhotoShelter. I am excited to see companies like these embrace what movies and documentaries, such as Code: Debugging the Gender Gap, are fighting for. 

To read more on how Etsy is supporting women in technology, click here.

-Hannah Leigh Johnson

Still Smarter than Siri

Image by Apple Inc.

Via Wikimedia Commons WitherOrNot Siri

Everyday, I find myself using the “Siri” function on my iPhone. I ask her to call my fiancé, to text my boss, email a fellow student, and how long it will take me to get home. Although she seems to be very smart and helpful when completing these tasks, sometimes I wonder if Siri is as smart as she seems.

The answer us undeniably no. Siri is able to complete these tasks because she is programed a certain way. If I say “Call Mom,” she will call my mom, as that is my mom’s contact name in my phone. Although, if I say “Call my fiancé,” she will not know who to call and will not be able to complete this task as she does not know which contact in my phone is my fiancé, as the words “my fiancé” is not his contact name.

Check out a list of commands that Apple’s Siri can complete for you here.

Like all other computers, Siri can follow a set of programed algorithms. If we stray want to use her function, we have to follow those algorithms to complete our desired task. While computers can use elements artificial intelligence (see this BBC video on artificial intelligence to learn more), it is up to us to program these computers with our own human intelligence to follow our commands and achieved the desired outcome.

-Hannah Leigh Johnson