Continuing research and
thought on aspects of social identity I note the following entry concerning
Third Place Theory from Professor Ray Oldenburg:
 |
| Oldenburg |
The third place (also
known as third space) is a term used in the concept of community
building to refer to social surroundings separate from the two usual social
environments of home and the workplace. In his influential book The Great Good Place, Ray Oldenburg
(1989, 1991) argues that third places are important for civil society,
democracy, Civic engagement, and establishing feelings of a sense of place.
Oldenburg calls one's
"first d; place" the home and those that one lives with. The
"second place" is the workplace — where people may actually spend
most of their time. Third places, then, are "anchors" of community
life and facilitate and foster broader, more creative interaction. All
societies already have informal meeting places; what is new in modern times is
the intentionality of seeking them out as vital to current societal needs.
Oldenburg suggests the following hallmarks of a true "third place":
•
Free
or inexpensive
•
Food
and drink, while not essential, are important
•
Highly
accessible: proximate for many (walking distance)
•
Involve
regulars – those who habitually congregate there
•
Welcoming
and comfortable
Both new friends and old should be found
there.
There are eight
characteristics that define a Third Place, as described by Oldenburg.
Neutral Ground: Occupants of Third Places have little to
no obligation to be there. They are not tied down to the area financially,
politically, legally, or otherwise and are free to come and go as they please.
Leveler: Third Places put no importance on an
individual’s status in a society. Someone's economic or social status does not
matter in a Third Place, allowing for a sense of commonality among its
occupants. There are no prerequisites or requirements that would prevent
acceptance or participation in the Third Place.
Conversation is Main
Activity: Playful and
happy conversation is the main focus of activity in Third Places, although it
is not required to be the only activity. The tone of conversation is usually
light hearted and humorous; wit and good-natured playfulness are highly valued.
Accessibility and
Accommodation: Third
places must be open and readily accessible to those who occupy them. They must
also be accommodating, meaning they provide the wants of their inhabitants, and
all occupants feel their needs have been fulfilled.
The Regulars: Third Places harbour a number of
regulars that help give the space its tone, and help set the mood and
characteristics of the area. Regulars to Third Places also attract newcomers,
and are there to help someone new to the space feel welcome and accommodated.
A Low Profile: Third Places are characteristically
wholesome. The inside of a Third Place is without extravagance or grandiosity,
and has a homely feel. Third Places are never snobby or pretentious, and are
accepting of all types of individuals, from several different walks of life.
The Mood is Playful: The tones of conversation in Third
Places are never marked with tension or hostility. Instead, they have a playful
nature, where witty conversation and frivolous banter are not only common, but
highly valued.
A Home Away From Home: Occupants of Third Places will often
have the same , feelings of warmth, possession, and belonging as they would in
their own homes. They feel a piece of themselves is rooted in the space, and
gain spiritual regeneration by spending time there.
With the increase in social
mobility and the limitations caused by economic constraints, a strange paradox
has arisen. The increase in mobility appears to have created a stronger
attachment to ‘first places’ and ‘second places’. Not ‘growing up’ in a
particular neighbourhood leaves a gap, and getting to know one’s surroundings
can be daunting, therefor assimilating in the workplace becomes a stronger
object. It appears that ‘third places’ are more likely to be created through
associations formed in the ‘second place’ rather than through associations with
neighbours. With the advent of the internet and ‘Social Websites’ there is now
the digital or virtual third place, which is more naturally interacted with
whilst the individual is at home in the ‘first place’; however, the ‘smart
phone’ and the ‘notebook’ have enabled the ‘third place’ to evolve into what
can only be called a ‘Personal Info Cloud’. Social Network Software is now
ubiquitous. It too, has developed its own theory and theoreticians.
There is an interesting
piece by Thomas Vander Wal, described as an information architect, entitled The Elements in the Social Software Stack,
which includes the following: (note the eight characteristics as defined by
Oldenburg)
Order
of the Elements
The order is: Identity and
Object; Presence; Actions; Sharing; Reputation; Relationships; Conversation;
Groups; and Collaboration.
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| Vander Wal |
IDENTITY:
Identity is comprised of the
information about the person using the social software tool. Often the identity
is a built upon profile information such as name, username, location, personal
website, e-mail, photo or avatar, and sometimes the person's age. These pieces
help others recognize the person and can carry associations from other
interactions and/or services to the current service (that is if the individual
wants this cross-service tracking). Contact information is normally required
for setting up an account so the service (and the people running the service)
can communicate with the person. Sometimes the contact information is shared if
the person using the service permits the sharing of the contact information
with other people using the software/service.
Identity is also
augmented through the inclusion of usernames on other services and sites the
person contributes to or has an account on. This cross-service identity helps
people who use other services to find their friends and contacts more easily.
The cross-service identity also helps tie others understanding of the identity
and possibly reputation as understood by other people. Cross-service identity
connecting can also be used for aggregating content that an identity shared on
another service into a new service.
Identity is included in the focus on object-centred sociality as it is
people who are being social around the object. It seems that there is a co-dependent
relationship between the person (their perceptions as expressed through their
interest and actions around and about an object). The identity is a pivot to
learn more about these understandings for a richer understanding by those
reading/consuming what has been shared. This is much like the object is a pivot
to find others who have interest in the same type of things.
OBJECT:
The object is the
core focus of object-centred sociality and in this representation with one
identity interacting it is part of them co-dependent at the core of the
graphic. The object is the centre of the sociality. The object is what is being
shared with others. This shared object may be a photo, bookmark/link, video,
statement, or other matter. The object may be digital or non-digital in nature.
Lastly, the object can also be what is being built in a collaboration-focused
effort.
Active Elements: Now that we have the cornerstone set of the two main
components for sociality we can start looking at the elements around these two
components. Again, these actions and elements are in a specific order that
build upon the previous elements. These are active elements because they are
either actions or are the result of sets of actions.
Presence: The identity is often built around static profile
information, but people are not static as they have lives they lead and people
have locations and tasks they perform that provide context for understanding
perspective of statements or related actions. Presence can be a simple as
Twitter’s question of "what are you doing?" It can also be location,
time, availability, and/or activity. These provide others a glimpse of
understanding, or at least a hint of the identity's perspective. In the case of
Twitter and similar services the statement of presence is not necessarily
related to another object, but the presence statement in and of itself acts as
the object. In the case where presence is the object, the object is directly
related to the person and not an external object. The presence statements may
or may not be shared with others as the understanding is quite helpful
information for the individual for later recollection as to why they made other
statements or actions.
Actions: Using stated presence or the inferred presence, as the actions
connote presence around an object that action is taking place around. The
actions are what is being done as an expression communicating to one's
self or to others what they understand. This may be as simple as just
expressing interest (even if the interest is negative). These actions are
expressions of the person's understanding can take the form of annotation,
messaging, modification of the object, commenting, rating, tagging, flagging or
favouring, storing, naming, etc. The actions are tied to the person who is
taking the action and linked to the object around which they are taking the
action. These actions are in most cases the some form of adding data or meta
data to or around the object. In social bookmarking in del.icio.us the object is
the link expressed as the URL and the person is taking the action of saving the
link and is likely also annotating and tagging that link for at least their own
retrieval. The actions always include the identity and the object (which may be
the person's own identity and presence). Actions may or may not be shared with
others. As many services provide public, selective, and private access to the
information and actions.
Sharing: The act of sharing is where we finally start fully
acknowledging social actions. The presence and actions elements can be private,
if the person behind the identity wishes. Sharing is the social action that
opens up the capability for all others (or only others whom have been given
permission) to see their actions and possibly presence around an object. This
can also include opening access to an object for others to see and others to
add their annotations and actions around the object. This includes open
annotations of other's openly shared objects or objects shared to a closed
community to which the person has access.
Reputation: Shared presence and actions are the elemental building
blocks for reputation. Reputation can build upon something as simple as
existence on a service, by having an identity there. Reputation grows based on
the interpretation of others based on shared presence and actions. The actions
that build reputation can be through the content that has been created by that
identity. Others' understanding grows through seeing annotations that are by an
identity (ratings, notes, comments, what is shared, etc.). Others also see
actions that have been attributed to the identity, which may not be the direct
actions that are seen, but can be actions of stating a relationship, joining a
group, rewards (top contributor, etc.), or other indirectly perceived action.
The volume of actions also builds reputation. This can be the breadth of
actions or breadth of subjects covered. Volume can also be depth of actions.
Depth is how many in a subject area and/or the depth of understanding showed on
a subject. The breadth and depth lead to understanding of quality. Quality is
often attributed by others based on their own perceptions and understanding.
Perceptions, as we know, vary from person to person and that builds trends of
reputation. Quality is also interpreted through perception. These
interpretations are can be reflected in what others actions taken around an
identity (identity can be the focal object in this activity) such as rating
contributions made by an identity, favouring/holding on to the actions of an
identity (comments, their favourites, etc.), electing to follow the actions
through subscribing or other similar actions, etc. Others may also write about
an identity to express and understanding of the identity.
Relationships: Based on reputation people chose to interact with that
identity. Through interaction, relationships are established or built. This may
be explicitly stated in some manner (the "connection" or
"collaborator" or "friend" distinctions in some social
services are examples). Relationships may also be an inferred relationship
based upon actions. The inferred relationship is through another's actions of
following, subscribing to actions, annotating an object, or other actions.
Relationships may be causal (as result of actions) or intended. The breadth of
the relationship needs also be considered. A relationship between people or
their identities can be based only on a precise subject matter or many distinct
subjects in a granular social manner. The relationship may be more broad-line
by encompassing most subjects that around a person and their identity. There is
rich derived value that can be built upon through identifying and understanding
the granular subjects of common interest between people. The relationship can be
one that is expansive, in that one person or both are learning and exploring
new ideas and material through the shared experiences and shared understanding
of the other. Understanding that a relationship is only as broad as a similar
interest(s) (it does not have to be the same polarity (like/dislike)) such as
for acoustic bebop jazz will help framing the relationship for what is shared,
followed, and interaction made around.
Conversation: A relationship predicated on some understanding of
reputation (remembering that it may be a rather thin understanding of
reputation) provides a good foundation the next stage, conversation. The
conversation is most often with an identity about or around an object. The
conversation may be a 2-way or multi-directional. This communication may be a
synchronous live conversation or asynchronous over time (message boards or
other services what allow comments or time ordered annotations. The
conversation in a social environment is open and often around an object
(keeping in mind the object may be a person's presence statements as in
Twitter). These conversations may be structured through form-based forums or
list serves. The conversations may be free-form as in Consummating’s flirting
through tagging or other open communication structures.
Groups: It is in the conversation (derived from relationships based on
reputation) that people with similar interest come to the point where they want
a more formal relationship so to have more focused communication and sharing
and these people form a group. The group is a sub-set of the whole service, as
in Ma.gnolia’s groups for sharing social bookmarks (Ma.gnolia's groups can be
open to all or they can be closed and not seen). The sharing is a collective
understanding of the group with each individual identity openly sharing their
actions around that subject matter or interest. The group is normally comprised
of trusted listeners who have a relatively strong understanding of reputation.
The group is a collective voice what accounts for each voice. There does not
have to be a common goal other than sharing information around (tightly or
broadly clinging to the subject of interest) and each voice matters in the
group.
Collaboration: Groups working often leads to collaboration where not
only are people openly sharing information as individuals, but aim to work
together to build objects. One example of this is a wiki where there the object
is the development of a page or set of pages built through a collaborative
process. The collaborative process has one goal (explaining a subject in the
case of a wiki) and the group works with a single focus and intentionally
becomes a single voice. The object being built may be text content, video with
different production tasks and skills needed, other media, an application or
service, or other object (physical or digital). Central to collaboration is an
understanding of what is being built. Collaboration is most often iterative
though building upon what is there with the goal of improving it.
And now its business:
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