By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Jeffrey Boase, et.al.[Edit][Delete]: The Strength of Internet Ties, Pew [Edit][Delete] January 25, 2006

A Pew study is released which casts doubt on the idea that online communication weakens local and family ties. Instead, the internet has assumed a role in supplementing those ties (the report even notes that people with more local ties also use the internet more frequently) while at the same time providing people with access to multiple communities worldwide from which they can draw help and support. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Grant McCracke[Edit][Delete]: Internet 2.0: the economic, social and cultural consequences of the new Internet, This Blog Sits At The Intersection of Anthropology and Economics [Edit][Delete] December 26, 2005

[link: 0 Hits] Observing that "our enthusiasm for the internet is returning," Grant McCracken offers a three (or four) part model describing the impact of the internet. "The Internet is a reformation machine. It will create new fundamentals of and for our world. It change the units of analysis and the relationships between them. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Paul Genoni, Helen Merrick and Michele Willson: The Use of the Internet to Activate Latent Ties in Scholarly Communities, First Monday December 14, 2005

Latent contacts are those people you would contact, but for some reason, have not contacted. A natural example is the connection of podcast researchers in education; as people developed expertise in the subject the would reach out to other people in the same field, if they knew they existed. Eventually these latent contacts do make a connection, usually via blog or email. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Gustavo Gonzalez: The Internet, Friend or Foe of Learning, TerraViva November 21, 2005

Interesting look at some of the issues raised by using computers in schools in Latin America (and in particular, Chile and Peru). This seems to be a key point: "Teachers who are not familiar with the use of information and communication technologies are at a clear disadvantage in relation to their students". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. John Hagel: Mary's Back - The Internet, China and Bubbles, Edge Perspectives with John Hagel October 10, 2005

Summary of a talk by Morgan-Stanley's Mary Meeker at the recent web 2.0 conference. The question on everyone's mind, it seems, is whether we are in another bubble. And while the tenor seems to be that we are not, there are still trends worth watching. Mobile computing in China, for example. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Internet at School
The latest Pew study is all over the internet. The main news is that "Teen use of the internet at school has grown 45% since 2000" and that they are more likely to use instant messaging than email. Though the telephone survey is of American teens only, it is usually repeated (for example here) without that qualification. More...