Community Mobilization

Teen Communication Modality - A Look Forward

They say you can take a good guess about the future by looking at those who will be in charge then, and if that holds the Pew study on Teens and Social Media is pretty  telling. It focuses on the fact that social media gained a greater foothold in teen life as they embrace the conversational nature of interactive online media. the study found that 39% of online teens share their own artistic creations online such as artwork, photos stories, or videos. They are creating a culture and location of sharing work unlike anything mass media could ever have dreamed.

Even more telling is that girls (who we knew communicated more than boys) are taking it online too. Girls continue to dominate most elements of content creation. Some 35% of all teen girls blog, compared with 20% of online boys, and 54% of wired girls post photos online compared with 40% of online boys. And the most interesting statistic to me is HOW the teens are communicating when they communicate. Social portals and networks WAY out pace face to face (duh - we have global friendships now) but face to face is higher than e-mail. The killer app is dying! Amazing. Asked about the communication they have every day with their friends, the multi-channel teens say:

70% talk daily with friends on a cell phone
60% send text messages daily
54% instant message
47% send messages daily over social network sites
46% talk to friends on a landline phone
35% spend time with friends in person daily
22% send email every day to friends

Video Sharing Website Grow

The Pew Internet & American Life Project has just released findings showing that 48% of internet users have been to video-sharing sites such as YouTube. In 2007 48% of internet users said they had ever visited a video-sharing site such as YouTube. Pew conducted a similar interview and found that in December 2006, 33% of internet users said they had ever visited such sites. 15% of respondents said they had used a video-sharing site "yesterday" - the day before they were contacted for our survey. A year ago, 8% had visited such a site "yesterday."

So from a community perspective this is good news, I think. More people are going to these sites and I hope it is because there is more compelling content. The growth of these sites also points to the need of individuals to share in a media rich way. We are seeing the evolution of a delivery platform of information. Blogs are to news papers as pod casts are to talk radio as video is to TV. Fun question will be what is the internet to the internet?

Influence of Internal and External Networks on the Outcomes of Strategic Change in Organizations

Alexander Alexiev is presenting on the internal and external networks have direct impact on strategic decision making from top level leadership. The complexity of decision making is complex so the research looked at the difference in exploitation and exploration. He is looking at the network differentiation in ration vs. consensus decision making. Only Ration is featured in the report. Two major factors were the homogeneity and consistency of senior management and the change pace of the market the industry was in.

In exploration having a Heterogeneous  board for  exploration overrules outside social network influences. The same thing is true in the dynamic fast paced environment - a heterogeneous core is very critical. One of the key future factors will be the tracking of centrality of executive officers and the bounds of external networks and their reach. Access of those networks is also a key consideration. The dependent variable was sales and product development and the question was if the new innovations were tied to new technologies or revivals of existing items.

Conflics Between Reciprosity and Rationale

The Study by Phillip Bonacich is looking at the norms of reciprocity, which has been explained as a rational behavior such as the prisoners dilemma situation. He is looking at the structural implication of reciprocity networks.  What w was interesting in the study was tat knowledge of the network in the simulations severely skews natural behavior and also created value exchanges that would not occur blind in the filtered network. With network knowledge there is a variable of exploitation where certain positions will exploit other. In network study knowledge of network construction can help to eliminate the potential for the exploitation variable and create a even field for exchange.

INSNA Conference morning sessions

Neighborhood norms of Reciprocity, Netwrok Social Capital and Depressive symptoms.

 

Valerie Haines presented this unique study that examined health care, and how neighborhoods helped themselves stay connected to mental health care in particular surrounding depressive symptoms. The study looked at 32 neighborhoods in a mid sized southern city. They study employed phone and personal interviews. The study was looking at Network social capital – the ability and capacity to get members of the network the capital and access they need. The questions looked at perception of how willing neighbors were to be of help. The research questioned a set of resources including education, health care, and employment resources. The studies overall state that perceived support is more important than received support.

 

The study found that the access to social capital impacts depressive systems. Moreover the study team did conduct a study in

New Orleans

pre-Katrina and they plan to return to follow up, now that a good amount of the network social capital has been eroded by the storm and ensuing population change.

 

 

Mass Media Programming and Contraceptive use in

Nepal

Marc Boulay

 

The study evaluated the personal network for injunctive (active) and Descriptive norms (passive) around birth control. So the study looked at if these norms influenced birth control adoption and how. This is a significant research as it addresses basic personal network power to persuade an individual health choice. As a matter of research it shows that if a majority (51%) of your network uses contraceptive then you are 90% more likely to do so. Moreover there was an additive effect (sum is greater than the parts) when there was injunctive and descriptive norms in individual’s personal network. As a matter of research those who listened to the radio serials that discussed birth control, and then participated in a discussion group, were much more likely to have a favorable opinion of contraceptive.

 

Social network activities in Health Promoting Schools in Thiland

 

The WHO identifies

Health

Promoting

School

as an effective methodology to develop effective education system within countries.

Thailand

began the HPS in 1988. The study looks at networks of Gold standard quality (as measured by 10 metrics set by the Thai education department) and Bronze schools. The researcher looked at the difference between the network structure of the school population using survey questions and UCINet for analysis.  One of the questions that was posed in the discussion was if a segregated group that appeared on the network map were the smokers.

 

How Does network Structure impact performance – On Water Collection and Utilization

Water collectives serve about 850 K households with some cooperative being as small as 40 houses and some being as large as 50,000 houses. The cooperative managers were a key subject in the study. The study looked at how do different networks address the low income household need for water. Part of the intrigue is that water cooperatives serve a wide range of socio economic homes from lean-toos to million dollar mansions. Social networks of the water managers as well as the social pressures are key to keeping the water on to all homes. Formal affiliation with a national water management organization or another national league did not have a significant impact on the performance of the water cooperative.

INSNA Conference morning sessions

Neighborhood norms of Reciprocity, Netwrok Social Capital and Depressive symptoms.

 

Valerie Haines presented this unique study that examined health care, and how neighborhoods helped themselves stay connected to mental health care in particular surrounding depressive symptoms. The study looked at 32 neighborhoods in a mid sized southern city. They study employed phone and personal interviews. The study was looking at Network social capital – the ability and capacity to get members of the network the capital and access they need. The questions looked at perception of how willing neighbors were to be of help. The research questioned a set of resources including education, health care, and employment resources. The studies overall state that perceived support is more important than received support.

 

The study found that the access to social capital impacts depressive systems. Moreover the study team did conduct a study in

New Orleans

pre-Katrina and they plan to return to follow up, now that a good amount of the network social capital has been eroded by the storm and ensuing population change.

 

 

Mass Media Programming and Contraceptive use in

Nepal

Marc Boulay

 

The study evaluated the personal network for injunctive (active) and Descriptive norms (passive) around birth control. So the study looked at if these norms influenced birth control adoption and how. This is a significant research as it addresses basic personal network power to persuade an individual health choice. As a matter of research it shows that if a majority (51%) of your network uses contraceptive then you are 90% more likely to do so. Moreover there was an additive effect (sum is greater than the parts) when there was injunctive and descriptive norms in individual’s personal network. As a matter of research those who listened to the radio serials that discussed birth control, and then participated in a discussion group, were much more likely to have a favorable opinion of contraceptive.

 

Social network activities in Health Promoting Schools in Thiland

 

The WHO identifies

Health

Promoting

School

as an effective methodology to develop effective education system within countries.

Thailand

began the HPS in 1988. The study looks at networks of Gold standard quality (as measured by 10 metrics set by the Thai education department) and Bronze schools. The researcher looked at the difference between the network structure of the school population using survey questions and UCINet for analysis.  One of the questions that was posed in the discussion was if a segregated group that appeared on the network map were the smokers.

 

How Does network Structure impact performance – On Water Collection and Utilization

Water collectives serve about 850 K households with some cooperative being as small as 40 houses and some being as large as 50,000 houses. The cooperative managers were a key subject in the study. The study looked at how do different networks address the low income household need for water. Part of the intrigue is that water cooperatives serve a wide range of socio economic homes from lean-toos to million dollar mansions. Social networks of the water managers as well as the social pressures are key to keeping the water on to all homes. Formal affiliation with a national water management organization or another national league did not have a significant impact on the performance of the water cooperative.

Moving up in The Game: Status and Attention in Hip Hop Music

The Social Network of Hip Hop Dis songs Within hip hop there are directional relationships amongst dis songs and the flow of energy to and from rappers. There is a centrality  component in dis networks. The questions become what happens to the actors involved in the network and why are they dissing each others. In the late 1990s dis songs lost popularity in lieu of murders. The qualitative data included in a dis includes content as well as album sales. Furthermore there is a public perception attribute to dis. Affiliation with a high status person (positive or negative) has a positive impact on popularity or status. Methodology looked at may 1 2001 – January 1 2007. The sample included 203 rappers looking at sales and award data as well. What impact to the relationships have on performance in terms of sales. In degrees are disses in and out degree are disses out. Disses in have a positive sales impact. Status was determined by Gold record sales. Being dissed by a higher status improves your own status. However dissing upwards is more beneficial than dissing down. Reciprocity view over a one year period says that diss reciprocity is positive. Giving a response to a diss has an inconclusive impact on sales. Most importantly the Diss is mediated by the industry status structure.

Boundry Spanners, Close Collaborators and Old Friends: An Eploratory Analysis of Distributed Workers Individual Social Networks

John Bakke With distributed work force there is a fear that the workplace will become less cohesive and fragment. There is a distinct difference between habitual ad hoc work groups and consistent cooperative work groups. The study sample came from the combination of two Nordic shipping companies where there were employees in Norway and Denmark. The questionnaires were e-mail based as well as some personal interviews.

Most frequently workers named other close  workers as collaborators. They did not list family or friends denoting a distinct division between work and social / familial relationships. The network diagrams showed three kinds of workers - Boundary Spanners and Close Collaborators, and the Old Friends Network. Boundary Spanners had wide and shallow network ties. Close Collaborators had networks consisting of co-located coworkers, and Old Friends were people who were once co-located and have moved on but still rely on the network of old friends to get jobs and activities done.

Dynamics of Friednship Netwokrs: Ho Durable are First Impressions?

Otto Koppius is back talking about the impacts of student's Social networks as well as individual friendships on their long term educational success in his Masters program. Building and creating friendships within a educational cohort could potentially develop stronger bonds particularly in the face of group projects. Where as professors can assign groups it is better to all students to self select. Integration activities start and are based on first impressions so the value evaluation should focus on the value of the first impressions.

Part of the research is a very detailed interview of each of the students including friendship network. hey students are reinterviewed 3 months later regarding friendship network. Analytics compare the impacts of the initial educational excursion to Barcelona (first week of school). The integration week statistically has a positive impact on social network development. First impressions and teamwork are both important but the initial activity has long term positive impact on team performance and graduation rates.

Sample for the study is 34 people

Network of Motivation of Participants in Political Protest

Marije Boekkooi from the University of Amsterdam is focusing in on the desire to achieve a goal and the energy to change in four different facets. 1. Instrumental motives (low importance) 2. Identity motive (sense of group think and participation) 3. Idealogical motives (Personal sense of need to take action) 4. Emotions.

Her hypothesis was that stronger bonds with the organizers promote identity and instrumental motivation. The survey tool used actual live interviews as well as mail interviews and asked questions about group motivation and personal obligation to the groups. Internal motivation seemed to carry a lot of weight as did responsibility to the group not just the cause. It seems like there was less personal obligation to friends and members of the groups.

I caught up with Marije Boekkooi and we talked a bit about the difference between donation activties for a cause and protesting. We came down to two key factors - risk and energy. Donation to a cause can me so simple in terms of writing a check, or dropping some change in a  bucket. Moreover there is very little risk in donating to a worthy cause. However in participating in a protest there is a lot of energy that goes into arranging transportation, attending, and putting your self in harms way potentially. So in the protest there is high energy and risk. We talked around the idea of where is the threshold of tolerance for each. Could be a very cool variable to investigate.