Design for very large-scale conversations
Name
45303429-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
22.45 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
8cc05af240d98ad14c1d4829cb24e047
Author(s)
Sack, Warren
Advisor(s)
Kenneth Haase.
Date Issued
2000
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
On the Internet there are now very large-scale conversations (VLSCs) in which hundreds, even thousands, of people exchange messages across international borders in daily, many-to-many communications. It is my thesis that VLSC is an emergent communication medium that engenders new social and linguistic connections between people. VLSC poses fundamental challenges to the analytic tools and descriptive methodologies of linguistics and sociology previously developed to understand conversations of a much smaller scale. Consequently, the challenge for software design is this: How can the tools of social science be appropriated and improved upon to create better interfaces for participants and interested observers to understand and critically reflect upon conversation? This dissertation accomplishes two pieces of work. Firstly, the design, implementation, and demonstration of a proof-of-concept, VLSC interface is presented. The Conversation Map system provides a means to explore and question the social and linguistic structure of very large-scale conversations (e.g., Usenet newsgroups). Secondly, the thinking that went into the design of the Conversation Map system is generalized and articulated as an aesthetics, ethics, and epistemology of design for VLSC. The goal of the second, theoretical portion of the thesis is to provide a means to describe the emergent phenomenon of VLSC and a vocabulary for critiquing software designed for VLSC and computer-mediated conversation in general.
Description
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2000.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 184-200).
Subjects
Architecture. Program In Media Arts and Sciences.
MIT Department
Program in Media Arts and Sciences (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
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