Gender similarities in blog use


David Huffaker examines the online identity and language among blogging teenagers in his M.A. thesis. The conclusion is: "Contrary to prediction, the results indicate that there are more gender similarities than differences in blog use." Although I generally oppose to categories of "female" and "male" use of and ways of doing things, I enjoyed reading Huffaker's study.

This weekend, I re-read and checked the spelling in my Master's thesis, as it's about to be published. Again, my findings on gendered differences in the mere use of e-communications amongst the students I studied surprised me. The women were far less active ICT users than men. I didn't quite expect such a strong correlation between gender and use of ICT:s.

Study found via Misbehaving.net

Blog paper

by Cameron Marlow on two different metrics for measuring authority within weblogs. Paper found via jill/txt.

The power of blogging

An interesting article in Online Journalism review on how Blogger Robert Cox got one of the heavies in media, the NYT, to change its ways. And Australian blogger, Tim Blair, managed to get Chicago Tribune correspondent Uli Schmetzer, who fabricated a quote in one of her texts, to take the consequences of her actions.

Skeletons in the closets?

Google is getting competition from a perhaps unexpected direction: the latest company to offer e-mail with 1 gigabyte of storage is British-based Planet-Tolkien.com.

The founder of Planet-Tolkien.com, Tarrant Costelloe, says: "It was discussed what people might use that amount of space for. If people use it for 'warez' or put us in a position where we don't want to be, we can shut them down on a case-by-case basis."

I for one would love to know what people store. I wonder if I'd get surprised or not.

Responsability and consequences

Instead of getting a good night's sleep last night, I decided to watch Enter the dragon, a martial arts movie by Bruce Lee, dated 1973.

One of the Shaolin monks said that the 13th command of the temple members is to take responsability for your actions and accept the consequences thereof. This took on a new meaning today, as I attended - for the first time ever - a disputation. A friend of mine defended her doctor's thesis. Her work was scrutinized, from choise of methods and theories (which is as it ought to be) to frequency of colon and inverted commas. There was not one aspect of the work that the opponent overlooked. My friend was sweating for over two hours, obliged to defend her choise of this and that, and justify her text and even phonemes. There wasn't however any real discussion between her and the opponent, as she elegantly explained her choices and referred to other scholars claiming almost the same thing. The opponent didn't really pursue his arguments more than a couple of times. Since I don't have anything to refer to, I'm not sure if that's all there is to it. Perhaps. But I would have enjoyed some more discussion on the topic.

Anyhows, she did great and she got her hat.

Taking turns

The Financial Times Global 500-list provides a snapshot of the world's largest companies. In this year's version, General Electric regained the number one spot, leaving last years number one, Microsoft, with the silver medal.

Wormwood in the academic flora

Finnish professors and researchers are worried about the trend of temporary positions at universities. 33 % of the professors, and a whopping 75 % of the members of the Researcher's union, don't have a permanent job. Now, the academics believe that the budget of the Ministry of Education will only increase the number of temporary positions. Instead of Government subsidy, the academics call for more fundamental State funding, which would foster competition and thereby the quality of academic activity.

Ring-a-ling!

I finally got myself a new mobile phone. I dare not give away in public what model I've had up until now, as it is to be found at a mobile phones museum already :)

I'd love to own a Nokia 6600, to mark the progress from being a poor, pasta-fed student to a mobile professional. Sadly, my wallet doesn't agree, so I had to settle with a Nokia 6220. But I like it, and I'm infantly in love with the tune: Pink Panther. :)

Having upgraded my technical toy, I'm out of excuses when somebody says: Haven't you checked your mail? Or that's how it feels at times. I wonder: Does having access to my mailbox 24/7 come along with an obligation to check it every 10 minutes? If you would have asked me a couple of years ago, I would have been thrilled about the idea. Now I'm more reluctant. I rather spend my nights watching movies and playing games, than sorting out messy inboxes, just because I can.

Ny look, new mission!
Nu har jag ansat lite i rabatten och piffat upp sidan. Nu återstår det att få tid över att skriva lite också :)

Eftersom jag numera är doktorand så lär det bli en hel del mer skrivet i min blogg. Men nu aktualiseras frågan jag grunnat på en längre tid, ska jag blogga på engelska eller svenska. Hittills har jag, som synes, i mina noserier på hur det är att blogga skrivit på svenska, eftersom det faller sig naturligt att använda modersmålet. Men eftersom detta är en forskningsblogg är jag ju intresserad av att diskutera med andra forskare och bloggare, och då begränsas min publik och mina kontakter väsentligt om jag använder svenska. De flesta forskare inom webbloggar och Internet jag känner till är de facto inte från Norden, så majoriteten av forskarna skulle inte ha någon större glädje av att läsa mina funderingar.

Man kunde ju tänka sig att jag skriver den här bloggen enbart för mig själv, och använder den som en personlig, virtuell skrivbordslåda där jag kan förvara intressanta idéer och uppslag, papers och nyheter. Därmed kunde jag skriva på min egen österbottniska dialekt om jag så ville. Jo, förvisso, men jag är övertygad om att både arbetsprocessen och resultatet, dvs avhandlingen, vinner på att intresserade läsare och kolleger kan läsa varandras bloggtexter och kommentera. Jag tror det är viktigt att arbetsprocessen som leder till en avhandling inte försiggår isolerat och utan impulser utifrån. Och en weblog på Internet är väl ett ypperligt sätt att byta åsikter och erfarenheter, och ge kolleger emellan nya uppslag och visioner. Som landet ligger i dag tror jag att det görs bäst genom att skriva på engelska.

This being the case, Paeonia hereby enters a far greater scene with a far greater audience. From now on, Paeonia is a researcher blog in English.

Gräsligt!

Männen i det så kallade Tumbamålet frikändes idag, skriver Aftonbladet.
Mycket upprörande!

"Det räcker inte med att en person har haft nedsatt omdöme till följd av alkohol eller droger för att den ska kunna betraktas som hjälplös." säger HD. Jo, i vissa fall. Då en berusad man uppför sig olämpligt, exempelvis våldtar, misshandlar, avfyrar vådaskott, slår sönder saker. "Jo, men han var ju full. Det måste man förstå" lyder den friande domen då. Då slätar man över skadan och menar att mannen haft nedsatt omdöme till följd av alkohol, och därmed inte kunnat ansvara för sina handlingar, och än mindre kunnat förutse konsekvenserna.