Debate on social networks on 26 February 2008
21 February 2008 at 0:49 (Europe/London) in AnnouncementsI will be engaging in a debate on social networks on 26 February 2008 at LSE with Ofer Engel, Wifak Houij-Gueddana and Patrick Kärrberg. My plan is to reflect upon the idea of social network as an extremely powerful metaphor for seeing the world and how this aspect has been elevated on a new level by internet-based tools.
The metaphor of network immediately evokes an imagery of interlinked nodes and, crucially, it is easy to see networks almost anywhere. While social life has been configured into what might be described as networks maybe for thousands of years, Internet-based tools have dramatically altered the characteristics of ego-centric networks that used to be embodied, fuzzy and private.
Facebook not only enables you to expand your network and manage vastly more connections, but it essentially renders networks and networking as technological information. Personal networking that was before embodied and private experience becomes now brutally visible to everybody.
It is not anymore few social scientists who talk about networks and see the world as networks, but most of us cannot avoid and are forced to reflect upon them in our everyday experience.
More information
- Events at the Information Systems and Innovation Group at LSE
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The debate will take place on 26 February 2008 in IS554 Research Seminar at the Information Systems and Innovation Group (ISIG) of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
