# Reading Responses Set 1
**Feb 19 Fri - Social Has a Shape: Why Networks Matter**

In chapter 5, Social Has a Shape: Why Networks Matter, Rheingold (2012) believes that social networks have multiple structures and are important for us. Rheingold introduces sections include social network analysis, networked individualism, social capital, developing personal learning networks, and Facebook facts of life. Rheingold(2012) pointed out that nodes connect people together, and the technology-based communication extends our social networks. Rheingold(2012) also brings in the example of Italian cities to show how collaboration and observing reciprocity prevail in the social networks. While each person has strong-tied connections and weak-tied connections, it is better for the individual to embrace diverse networks in order to maximize one’s social capital.
In the section of social network analysis, Rheingold agreed with Granovetter’s definition about factors that determine the strength of a strong-tie connection. I agree with Rheingold’s opinion that “the numerous weak ties can be important in seeking new information or stimulating innovation”.(p16) As Rheingold stated, the strong-tied connection tends to be homophilous, which limits the amount of information that we receive. It is true when I relate to my own experience. When I hang out with different groups of people who less likely interact with me in daily life, I experience different kinds of activities and events. As a result, I obtained new information and connections. For example, I made a new friend recently who’s not that close with me, but she has the same major as me and already worked for three years. When I needed some professional advice while doing projects, I reached out to her and she connected me with other professionals in our fields. In this case, she’s the bridge between me and these new people. It makes me realize that it is the distant connection that usually broadens my horizon and connects me with new people.

**Feb 26 Fri - Midterm Questions**
Mutiple Choices
1. According to our lecture, what's an example of the Tragedy of the Commons in real life?
A. Ocean garbage gyres
B. Street lighting
C. Flood control systems
D. Fresh air
2. According to Rheignold, *Social Has a Shape*, the value of network is proportional to the number of viewers: N is from what law?
A. Metcalfe's law
B. Reed's law
C. Sarnoff's law
D. None of the above

Short Answer Questions
3.Explain what's DNS and how does it work?
4. What's the difference between filter bubble and echo chamber?

Answers
1. A
2. C
3. DNS is Domain Name Service, it translates hostnames to IP addresses. It's a central part of the internest, providing a way to match names (a website you're seeking) to numbers (the address for the website).
4. Filter bubble - our own choices plus algorithms constrain what we see. Echo Chamber - a filter bubble leading to more extremism.

**March 5 Fri - "Free as in sexist?"**

Gender imbalance in the technology field caused by many factors including geek identities, cultural environment and communities, and “the ideas of freedom and openness can be used to dismiss concerns and rationalize the gender gap as a matter of preference and choice”. (Reagle, 2013) Reagle discusses the issues in the free culture movement such as continually growing unfairness towards women because of imbalance in their participation and representation, despite the propaganda of freedom and openness. He gives examples of the sexism phenomenon in FLOSS and provides specific data about the relatively small percentage of women positions in the big technology companies.

In the bad apples, poison people, and anonymous cowards section, Reagle includes other statements and discusses some toxic people could hurt the chance of women participation. I am very resonated with the phenomena mentioned from the second paragraph about how some toxic people in the online community or even real life attack comments contributed from women. I have not experienced this myself, but I have seen it so many times as I surf the internet a lot and love to see the comment area. Sometimes it makes me so mad to see disrespectful comments towards female contributors or even other female commentators. These malicious voices do not make sense at all but only to defeat others. What surprised me is that some violent comments are even from women. I think such online sexism has existed for a long time. When I relate to my own culture, I realize that such sexism is even worse in some Asian countries. It’s because traditionally men are superior to women. People don’t even realize this sexism but ignorantly call it freedom of speech, which is ridiculous and pathetic. Overall, I think sexism is a serious issue that we need to address. We should promote free as in sexism and create a real opening community.

**March 9th Tuesday - Chapter 3, Manipulated: "Which Ice Cube Is the Best"**

In chapter 3, Reagle discusses the value of online reviews and manipulation of it. The chapter introduces different sections including research on reviews, introduction of terminologies such as spam, fakes, and sockpuppets, different casts of manipulators, the markets involving the review manipulation, the application Captcha, extortion, reputation management, the social graph, and the “loss of innocence”. The data and abundant examples such as Amazon and Yelp provide insight about how these reviews relate to the marketing and sales. Many of these researches and examples show that online reviews could be faked and used as a strategy to promote certain business. The high value of comments brings the benefits to the users but also has lost the truth while being manipulated by manufacturers in the purpose of making profits.

In the last section of the chapter, A “Loss of Innocence”, Reagle mentions that “an external imposition (such as payment or punishment) often lessens people’s internal motives related to feelings such as autonomy, mastery, usefulness, and self-esteem”. I agree with this statement because it’s very relatable to my personal experience. As a customer, I barely write reviews after I purchase any product unless it’s really satisfying or surprising like the context talks about how Amazon users comment on products due to intrinsic values. However, I was “bribed” to write good reviews on Amazon sometimes as well. Long time ago, my friend added me to an Amazon product group. The host would send different products in the groupchat everyday, and they are all free. But you have to write a decent comment with pictures and give all five stars after you receive the product. Now after I read this chapter, I am sure that this is the example of review manipulation. I was happy that I could just write about some comments and exchange for something free. Those external factors made me think of less how I really felt about the products. Also, if they were not free, I probably wouldn’t even buy the products, let alone left good comments. It did take time and some efforts to think about good titles and “truthful” content. I only saw it as their product promotion strategy, but now I guess I was faking the comments as well. Some potential on Amazon even asked me questions due to my “genuine ”comments, but I never responded. Overall, this chapter is really practical because it does not just reveal how e-commerce manipulates reviews and comments, but also relates to our daily lives. I was onced fooled by good comments regarding a restaurant but I was so disappointed after tasting it. I left a really bad and angry comment after my visit. So we should now be careful with those reviews and comments as they could be faked nowadays.

**March 12th Fri - The Dark Web (Previous Reading)**

David Kushner introduces what Darknet is and discusses good and bad sides of it. In the third paragraph, Kushner defines Darknet as a “free software that masks your location and activity” on the Tor browser, which is an anonymity tool designed to protect users’ privacy. The Darknet was first created by the Navy Research Lab to create an absolute security online for whoever needs it, but now it has become the nest of terrorists and illegal trades. Tor was also created to protect dissidents to share opinions freely but now makes it hard for the government to track all the criminals because they can’t reveal the real IP addresses… Now it becomes vital to crack the seemingly impenetrable region.
In the last few paragraphs, David states that “As the battle continues over the Darknet, Tor’s popularity only becomes more mainstream” (2015). As I read the article, I have a similar opinion. Despite the fact that Darknet has become something “bad” since it has been used for so many illegal things. But people still need a browser that could hide their identities. I was shocked when I read the paragraph about how democracy is unsafe in some countries and how some bloggers went to jail for what they said. People should be able to exchange information freely without worries, but clearly the so-called democracy is not what we think. The real situation might be a lot more complicated if it involves the politics or the government. Tor becoming the mainstream is understandable especially when our phone and daily surfing habits are spied somehow by the higher power. It’s harder and harder to keep our privacy because of the surveillance. As a result, it’s necessary to keep and develop such browsers as we are watched more and more every day.