Content Sharing Bighugelabs Poster

Anonymity and Self Disclosure on Weblogs
Qian and Scott (2007) pose questions about the difference between visual and discursive anonymity on weblogs and the relationship to the level of self disclosure.
I found the information regarding bloggers concerns (page 11) curious. Of the 207 surveyed, 87 people expressed concern that what they blogged about could negatively impact their lives. Of these 87 people, 42.53% choose to censor themselves. Does this mean the other 63% don't ?
The conclusion that discursive not visual anonymity is related to the amount of self disclosure is interesting. People who refrain from giving identification information are more likely to self disclose, free from the constrains of accountability. However as we and the web progress the ability to search and find connections between obscure sites becomes more prolific. "Oh what a tangled web we weave"
Deception or the intention of hiding behind a pseudonym can be a tricky thing
My curiosity revolves around the need for some people to disclose highly sensitive and personal information. What did we do before weblogs?
Are weblogs some form of a cathartic medium
I expect that some people find the writing and telling of their thoughts via weblogs (even if they are only intended for themselves) a release of some sort. A catalogue of feelings and thoughts to reflect upon.
I stumbled upon the following site as a result of my curiosity about the psychology that drives people to express private and sensitive matters via weblogs. It revolves around the "disinhibition effect" and i found it very interesting, you might too.

Suler,J . (2004) CyberPsychology and Behaviour
http://www-usr.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/disinhibit.html


Qian, H. , & Scott, C.R (2007) Anonymity and self-disclosure on weblogs. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, 12(4) http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue4/qian.html

Indymedia movement

I love the quirkiness of life, those unusual odd things, coincidences, parallels, deliberate attempts to avoid following a path to often travelled by too many, only to find yourself arriving at the same destination, standing in the same queue, realizing that there may have been tremendous value in watching and learning from the patterns of those before you, rather than trying so hard to be defiantly different. Of course that’s just my opinion for the day. Tomorrow I might change my mind.



What tweaked my quirk radar today was the reference to the Participatory/Citizen journalism emergence in Seattle by Leaver (2010) in the lecture notes for Blogging.

Leaver refers to it as the indymedia movement. It got me thinking about a recent documentary I watched about the emergence of grunge rock in Seattle in 1980’s. (Would have been on SBS or ABC about a two months ago)

My first memory of Seattle was it being the hometown of Jimmy Hendrix, I later found out it was also the hometown of Bill Gates and Ray Charles and Bruce and Brendon Lee. Then the grunge rock doco and now the birthplace (in a way) of blogging

So what is it about Seattle that promotes such progressive independent radical free thinking, great music, unique artists and people.

Could be the 100,000 people who annually attend the Seattle hemp fest or is it the reputation for heavy coffee consumption.

Six of the top Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in Seattle one of them being Amazon.com.

Seattle has the greatest concentration of multiracial Americans and 53.8% of the population over the age of 25 hold a bachelor degree, now that’s a recipe for a hotbed of something – surely?

And so the indyemedia movement seems to follow in the same line as other pioneers native to Seattle. They tout themselves as an outlet “ for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of the truth. We work out of a love and inspiration for people who continue to work for a better world, despite corporate media's distortions and unwillingness to cover the efforts to free humanity”.

I for one just appreciate their efforts and the consequential evolution of the blog which allows me to be here right now passing on these thoughts to you.

SEATTLE - YOU ROCK!! (sorry, that’s a bit corny but I always wanted to use the ‘you rock’ reference somewhere somehow.

http://www.indymedia.org/en/static/about.html

http://seattle.indymedia.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grunge

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle

Leaver, T (2010). Blogging lecture http://www.lms.curtin.edu.au/courses/1/305033-Vice-Chancell-1118175685/content/_1253746_1/dir_Web101.zip/Web101/2.1.html