As we mentioned in the workshops, from time to time we’ll be giving everyone some general feedback about the interaction blog posts. If you don't have time to read all this jibber-jabber and just want to skim, the super-important stuff is in bold.
Overall, everyone got the idea that they’re meant to pick a social/mobile app or service and write about it. However, there were three patterns that we saw in a few of the blog posts that we’d like to talk about.
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The first issue we found was that some people chose to write about an app/service that has a social element, but their post wasn’t about the social features of the app. Since this is a course about social and mobile software, you should write about the social and mobile aspects of the app or service you've chosen. If you’re going to write about Steam (which a few people did, and it’s a great choice), write about the aspects of Steam that are relevant to this course — the social, mobile, or CSCW elements. For example, one really good example of awareness (the concept from this week’s lecture material) is how Steam shows you what game your Steam friends are currently playing (or have played recently). If you repeatedly see your friend playing a game that you haven’t heard about, that might make you want to go and find out more information about that game (and possibly buy it and enjoy it). By making users aware of what games their friends are playing, Steam can act as a social recommendation service for new games. Users find out about new games they might like, and Valve makes more money when people buy those games. It’s a win-win.
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The example I gave just then is a good lead-in to the second issue we found with some blog posts. We’d really like it if you relate what you’re writing about back to the concepts from the lecture material. When you’re writing about an app/service, tell us about why you like/dislike/whatever some aspect of the app in terms of the theory from the course. Above, I wrote about a feature of Steam that I like (that I can see what my friends are playing), but I framed it as being an example of awareness, a concept from the lectures.
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Some blog posts just described the app/service the student chose to write about. We’re looking for a bit more insight and critical thinking than that — in addition to briefly telling us what an app does, we want you to tell us something that you think is interesting about that app, as well as why you think that thing is interesting. Above, I described a feature of Steam that I thought was interesting (that I can see what my friends are playing), but I also followed that up by saying why I think that feature’s interesting (because I can discover new games to play).
What we’re looking for in these blog posts is that you’re taking in the theory from the lectures and that you understand how the social/mobile apps you already use are examples of the concepts from the course.