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Here is my page as a hot link and here is the general page

Virtual policial communities and new forms of social capital: Zeke Speir and the facilitation of socialmovements; Obama and political organizingonline

First, read "the radicalization of Zeke Speir" under course documents. Zeke (his real name) became radicalized by his experience with the police when he attempted to engage in political activism. The story here is positive and optimistic: the Internet facilitates democracy and creates new forms of social capital (defined as the degree of engagement with others to achieve social goals that add value to society). Be sure to read the counterargument, summarized on p. 103, that the Internet leads to the decline of social capital and therefore undercuts democracy. Some things to consider:

What does the author mean by "new forms of social capital?" What are these new forms? How do they differ from creating social capital the old fashioned way, i.e., face to face?

This article recounts activities from 1999-2000. What can you find out about social movements, political activism and the Internet today?

Barack Obama became president on the strength at least in part on his clever use of the Internet both to raise money and to create a "social movement" around his candidacy.

1. How does this constitute a "new form of social capital"?
2. How his web site organized to maximize the potential for social networking?

Here is my page on MyBarackObama.com http://my.barackobama.com/page/dashboard/private

and here is the signup page. For fun, you might want to sign up and create a page for yourself. You can always cancel it once the conversation is concluded.

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/







The posting period is from Monday June 15 through Thursday June 18.

The development of romantic relationships online

By now you have received an email from me to which is attached an interview done by my research assistant, Elisa Wiherin some years ago. The interview is of a woman who was a student at the time and agreed to share her experience falling in love online and then what transpired in the relationship. The names of the two principals are changed but they have given me permission to show the interview to others. I suggest that you print out the interview to work with it. Here
http://www.cyberlove101.com/story21.htm
is a web site devoted to stories (usually interviews) of people who have met and fallen in love online. I suggest you start with story 21 and then look around at other stories. Draw our attention to interesting tidbits that illustrate points you'd like to make.

Here are some questions to start you off. As usual, you can answer these or create your own questions:

1. There is no doubt that Alexis falls in love online. But what does that mean? What does love mean for Alexis and what is it about the online chat room environment that might facilitate this love relationship?

2. This is an example of a relationship in which the people, feeling strongly attracted to each other online, exchange pictures, phone calls and finally meet. This is one end of a spectrum, the other end of which would be people who fall in love online but maintain their love relationship entirely online, only relating through text. What might be the differences in "love" for this hypothetical couple as opposed to the case study example?

3. Based on her responses, what kind of a person do you think Alexis is? How might your interpretation of her as a person explain why she fell in love and how she behaved both in the lead up to the face to face meeting and during that first meeting?

4. You have spent some considerable effort thinking about the nature of personhood online. How are the insights you exchanged with each other (and from the reading) related to thinking aboutg relationships (I appreciate that you have already had some conversation about this; those of you who made comments about individuals and relationships in that forum might remind the rest of us of what you said).

5. What are the similarities and differences between the "cyberlove101" web site stories and this case study?

Good luck; keep the conversation going!

Dr. Bob

I'm not surprised at the scare stories about relationships gone bad online. They reflect our deepest fears about trust and its betrayal in our connections with others. But online relationships, particularly those in which people are trying to make a "love" connection, are increasingly one of the major ways in which people use the Internet. After all, the Internet is all about connectivity and the Internet opens an enormous frontier for people to reach out and connect with others in meaningful ways. I've been studying the dynamics of falling in love online for the last 12 years or so and have been impressed with the way the Internet enlarges the pool of potential positive matches. As soon as most members of the class have created their blog, I will post two case studies, one an interview with a Lehigh student from some 12 years ago which is a rich account of this woman's developing relationship with a young man. The other case study comes from an online site which gives accounts of love relationships formed online. Stay tuned.