Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Blog Post 7


I decided to focus away from my professional learning network for the sake of variety. In many ways it is diminutive at the moment so that would be wasting my time. 
I instead focused on the learning network I have regarding my personal life, the club I lead at the University with my friend, and the collective that I seem to have conjured upon this campus. 
At first I thought the Rheingold chapter on social networking was a bit redundant to the one on collaboration. It was not until I looked at the way he demonstrates the graphs that I got an idea of the message he was trying to relay. The ways groups connect so much easier thanks to digital networking is truly astounding, The centrality, degrees, and bridges example is essentially how the hierarchy of the group my friend and me  control has become. We have individuals who are established in other groups and have joined us via the horror club, they introduce us to their friends, and quickly we end up becoming popular individuals with considerable influence. The section Rheingold speaks about regarding contexts in networking individualism really resonates. I have been able to blend in with very different groups and adjust my vocabulary and norms accordingly: from metalheads to Otaku, our club brings in very different people who have given us much social capital.

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