Tableau des équivalences web occidental / web chinois

Il y a quelques mois, lors de la conférence Lift10, l’auditoire a été capturé par le brillant exposé de Basile Zimmermann. Le jeune professeur de l’Université de Genève a expliqué – d’une manière extrêmement convaincante – comment la différence culturelle entre la Chine et les sociétés euro-étasuniennes soit encodée dans le langage et dans les pratiques d’écriture. Et quand les usages technologiques s’en mêlent, l’écart peut se creuser encore davantage. Les claviers, les écrans, et les conventions communicationnelles opposent radicalement la manière de lire des contenus en ligne en Chine et dans les pays « alphabetiques ».

http://www.thomascrampton.com/china/social-media-china/

Infographic of Social Media Equivalents in China – Thomas Crampton

Certes utile pour se repérer dans le web chinois, le tableau concocté par l’expert de médias sociaux Thomas Crampton, doit IMHO être lu à l’aune des commentaires de Basile Zimmermann – qui nous invite à ne pas réduire la différence culturelle à un simple jeu d’équivalences.

—a

août 27, 2010 | Filed Under social networks | 23 Comments

Scratch the surface of any vandal and you find a “regular” Wikipedia user

On August 13, 2010, a database of the most reverted English Wikipedia pages has been released by Dmitry Chichkov on the Wiki-research mailing list. « Reverts ratio » (i.e. the ratio of invalidated changes to a certain article / the total number of revisions) is considered as a reliable indicator of vandalism in Wikipedia. (In case you wanted a piece of the action, here is the link to the list of the most reverted pages and here is the python script used to calculate it). A preliminary analysis performed by one of the administrators, Utkarshraj Atmaram, provides us with a good insight as to who vandals are.

Categories-of-top-100-Wikipedia-articles-by-reverts-ratio

Source: Utkarshraj Atmaram, ut7.in / blog

Of course, the target pages fall in some predictable categories, like sex (16%), excrements (7%), and insults (7%). Read more

août 23, 2010 | Filed Under social capital, social networks | 14 Comments

Max Weber and Bono in a godless world (Sunday Sociological Song)

Famously, Max Weber discribed himself as religiously « unmusical ». So, it might come as a surprise that I picked him for this Sunday Sociological Song episode focusing on religion (or lack thereof). Fact is, early this week I had the chance to listen to a good episode of BBC Radio 4′s Thinking allowed discussing the weberian notion of disenchantment (Entzauberung) and… well, that was such a refreshing break from the usual xenophobic newscasts and crappy programmes about the farming of berries in Great Britain which represent so much of BBC Radio 4 everyday schedule, that I decided to celebrate by choosing a song to illustrate that. And I also decided to venture outside my comfort zone, by choosing a song by U2 – a band that (and that’s an understatement) I was never fond of. But, you know, all that talk about a man wondering in an urban setting, missing his « inner beauty » (or is it Grace?), arguing that « blessings are not just for the ones who kneel »… I like to think that it’s all kinda reminescent of old Max’s « dialectics of disenchantment and reenchantment ». Better this than surrendering to the idea of just another song about Bono trying to get laid.

août 22, 2010 | Filed Under space | 3 Comments

Knowtex, Culture Visuelle et les autres

C’est le mois d’août, tout le monde est en vacances et moi j’ai envie d’écrire un petit billet pour vous annoncer que dans le milieu de la recherche française on assiste – avec beaucoup de satisfaction – à la naissance de médias sociaux pour la mise en relation d’universitaires, étudiants, scientifiques et grand public. Ma sensibilité (exquise, vous vous en doutez) et mes intérêts (on ne peut plus éclairés, ça va sans dire) me font privilégier deux services particulièrement bien conçus : Knowtex et Culture Visuelle. L’un, plus orienté sciences exactes, et avec un penchant pour la divulgation ; l’autre plutôt sciences humaines, et centré sur l’enseignement. Moi, je suis délicieusement (paraît-il) polymorphe, donc vous me trouvez parfois sur l’un, parfois sur l’autre.

knowtex : le réseau social de la culture scientifique et technique via kwout

août 10, 2010 | Filed Under unclassified | 15 Comments

What has country music ever done for urban sociology? (Sunday Sociological Song)

Ready for another installment of our cross-blog Sunday Sociological Song? This week, I was looking for a song illustrating Nels Anderson’s classic, The Hobo: The Sociology of the Homeless Man (1923). Now of course, the first thought goes to Like a Hobo by Charlie Winston. But sincerely, that was too obvious a choice.

Instead I picked an old Merle Haggard‘s hit, I Take A Lot Of Pride In What I Am. I’m sure you will appreciate the irony of a country musician so thoroughly conveying the atmosphere of the « urban jungle » of Chicago.

Read more

août 8, 2010 | Filed Under space | 2 Comments

Who’s fatter, the US or Europe?

Just a very quick post (more of a reminder actually). Here’s a picture of the US obesity situation, state per state.

Source: U.S. Centers for Disease Control, Aug. 3, 2010

Now you can come up with all your favourite explaining factors: soul food? income level? music style? Pick one. Hold onto it. And now, let’s have look at the situation in the European Union, nation per nation, and… Read more

août 4, 2010 | Filed Under body, space | 5 Comments

Donald Duck, conflict simulations and the military-entertainment complex

Today, the BBC Asia-Pacific website features an article about « manga-style comics » published by the US military « to teach Japanese children about the two countries’ security alliance ».

US military propaganda (2010)

As a conscientious objector, I cannot help but find the all thing disturbing. Especially because I’m sure the Japanese public has not yet digested this other fine example of American comics, pre-dating the US/Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security: Read more

août 3, 2010 | Filed Under unclassified | 14 Comments

This week in Anomie (Sunday Sociological Song)

Quick background information: after Tom Leher delivered his infamous « Sociology » song, we were pretty much sure that music and social science did not really belong together. Luckily for us, a couple of years ago, people at Scatterplot blog came up with a nice idea: trading sociologically-meaningful songs. How would you deal with – I dunno – social stratification or racial segregation in musical terms?

The seed was planted and, as of last July, Josh McCabe started a Sunday Sociological Song series on his Sociological Imagination blog. Following the example of SocProf, who himself contributed a song, I’m willing to submit an old piece by anarcho-punk British band Crass: Reject of Society is, in my opinion, a pretty literal illustration of Durkheim’s anomie – one that could be used safely in undergrad teaching. Anyone willing to explore other topics?