Monthly Archives: October 2009

A portrait of the artist as a Google search history

23 October 2009adminNon classéart, google, privacy

The concept seems to be pretty easy. 3 years ago, French artist Albertine Meunier opened a Google account and enabled the Web history. Then she copied/pasted her history and made a video out of it. Just white letters over a black background, and a voice reciting all her search queries like a mantra. The result is My Google Search History and it goes like this:

A self-portrait, allegedly – an uncanny, hypnotic one which plays out “like a big souvenir movie”. A foucauldian technology of the self, in all its lo-tech online glory. But also, according to the artist, a way to “[highlight] privacy concerns on internet and more particularly privacy concerns on personal data and Google”. One of the most remarkable features of contemporary search engines is their ability to exploit our personal data for commercial purposes. This project is not only a social commentary about that: it is also a most welcome contribution aiming to the re-appropriation of this huge harvest of personal information.

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Séminaire réseaux sociaux et santé publique – Paris (eng) (fr)

13 October 2009adminbody, social networksbody, health, lecture, medicine, paris, seminar, social network analysis, university

L’Université Paris Descartes, l’Hôtel Dieu et l’EHESP ont le plaisir de vous inviter à participer au prochain séminaire de santé publique :

Using social networks to understand and change health behavior

Intervention du Professeur Thomas VALENTE

Département de santé publique/University of Southern California

Vendredi 16 octobre, 12h à 13h

Amphithéâtre Lapersonne de l’Hôtel Dieu (galerie B – RDC – entre B2 et B3)

Moyens d’accès ici

Pour tout renseignement, contactez : E GUEVARA, Direction des études, EHESP – emmanuelle.guevara@ehesp.fr

Virtual Worlds are in Good Shape after All: Who Would Have Guessed?

10 October 2009adminsocial networks, spaceavatar, Habbo, metaverse, MMORPG, network, second life, virtual worlds

Ever wondered just how many users dwell in so-called virtual worlds nowadays? Here’s a quick visual tool developed by UK-based company Kzero: total registered accounts, average user age, and year of creation.

: Virtual Worlds user census – (c) Kzero 2009

It’s only a fancy graph, I admit it, and it comes from a market research report. But the point here is that, despite adverse reports, virtual worlds are still in pretty good shape. One would imagine that, after the demise of the 1990s virtual reality craze, and after the mid-2000s half-assed attempt to revamp metaverses, plain non-MMORPG computer-based simulated environments would fall short in attracting new users and end up in the dustbin of history.

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L'amitié dans le Web 2.0 : le powerpoint de mon séminaire à l'Institut Telecom

7 October 2009adminsocial capital, social networksacademia, facebook, friendship, lecture, paris, philosophy, powerpoint, seminar, social capital, social isolation, social network analysis, social networking, sociology, teaching, university

Violà le powerpoint de mon intervention dans le cadre du cours Quelle éthique dans la société en réseaux de l’Institut Télécom & Management SudParis, coordonné par Pierre-Antoine Chardel. Un merci à tou(te)s les étudiant(e)s pour leur questions et leur attention !

Mes “friends” ne sont pas mes amis : transformations de l’amitié à l’heure des réseaux sociaux

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