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April 11, 2006
Noor Ali-Hasan: Analyzing the Social Patterns and Behaviors Associated with Blogrolls and Blog Comments
You are invited to Noor Ali-Hasan's masters thesis defense.
Place: 411 West Hall (Ehrlicher room)
Date: Monday, April 17th
Time: 10:10-11:30
Title: Analyzing the Social Patterns and Behaviors Associated with
Blogrolls and Blog Comments
Abstract:
During the past few years, blogging, the keeping of a regularly updated
online journal, has enabled individuals and organizations to quickly and
easily share information and links with a large set of readers.
Nonetheless, most bloggers write about their everyday lives and
generally have a small audience of regular readers. These readers
usually respond to the bloggers’ specific entries (referred to as blog
posts) by entering short messages (known as comments) on the same blog.
Moreover, the readers are often times bloggers themselves and
acknowledge their favorite blogs by adding them to their blogrolls,
lists of links to other blogs that are posted on most blogs. In
reviewing the social structures created by blogrolls and blog comments,
it is unclear how these relationships and social networks were formed.
Did these social networks emerge due to blogging or are these
blogospheres merely representations of real life social networks? In
other words, do blogs help facilitate the formation of new friendships
or do they emphasize existing relationships in the real world?
Furthermore, how do the social aspects of blogging differ across various
cultures? Examining the link between blogs and real life social
networks, this thesis presents a study of three blog communities:
bloggers in Kuwait, bloggers in Dallas/Ft. Worth, and bloggers in the
United Arab Emirates.
Posted by emv at April 11, 2006 10:46 AM