[Air-l] Reading on anonymity, gdss

Charles Ess cmess at lib.drury.edu
Wed Aug 21 07:05:55 PDT 2002


Caroline and aoir:
I still think Susan Herring's analysis in "Posting in a Different Voice:
Gender and Ethics in CMC" (in Charles Ess (ed.), _Philosophical Perspectives
on Computer-Mediated Communication_, 115-145.  Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1996)
is one of the best pieces for examining anonymity and its impact on
communicative behavior - including an "amplifier effect" on predominantly
male "anarchic/agonistic" communication style (_contra_ the then prevailing
view that cyberspace represented a "gender-blind" medium).

Sjarif Abdat (Indonesia) and Graham P. Pervan (Australia). "Reducing the
Negative Effects of Power Distancee During Asynchronous Pre-meeting without
Using Anonymity in Indonesian Culture" (in Fay Sudweeks and Charles Ess
[eds.], _Second International Conference on Cultural Attitudes towards
Technology and Communication 2000_, pp. 209-215.  Murdoch, WA: Murdoch
University, 2000 - ISBN 0-86905-747-2) analyzes from a cross-cultural
perspective the impact of anonymity on Group Support Systems.  The impact,
BTW, is frequently _negative_ in a culture marked by Confucian values of
face-saving, as well as South Asian characteristics of high power distance;
they recommend, in light of these negative impacts, that anonymity be a
switchable feature of GSS - at least as designed for use in South Asia.
(The volume is available at cost on the CATaC web site - <
http://www.it.murdoch.edu.au/~sudweeks/catac02/>

Hope that helps!

Cheers,


Charles Ess
Director, Interdisciplinary Studies Center
Drury University
900 N. Benton Ave.                          Voice: 417-873-7230
Springfield, MO  65802  USA            FAX: 417-873-7435
Home page:  http://www.drury.edu/ess/ess.html
Co-chair, CATaC 2002: http://www.it.murdoch.edu.au/~sudweeks/catac02/

Education is what is left over after you've forgotten everything that you've
learned.  (source unknown)


> From: "Caroline Haythornthwaite" <haythorn at uiuc.edu>
> Reply-To: air-l at aoir.org
> Date: Mon, 19 Aug 2002 17:46:01 -0500
> To: <air-l at aoir.org>
> Subject: [Air-l] Reading on anonymity, gdss
> 
> I'm looking for a good reading for undergraduates on the impact of anonymity
> in CMC on communication and other behaviors, and also one on Group Decision
> Support Systems. I know of a number of articles that discuss anonymity along
> with other things, but I wanted one that brings that work together. With
> GDSS there are some books but I'd like something shorter. I'm interested in
> something that is quite recent (say 5 years or so) and can give a bit of
> state of the art on the subject.
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> /Caroline
> 
> -------
> Caroline Haythornthwaite
> Graduate School of Library and Information Science
> University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
> 
> 
> 
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