Matsumura.+Communication+Gap+Management+Towards+a+Fertile+Community

=Preface. The Grammar of Technology Development. = Ed. H. Tsubaki, K. Nishina, and S. Yamada. Tokyo: Springer, 2008. 7-9. Print. =Matsumura, Naohiro. "Communication Gap Management Towards a Fertile Community." = Ed. H. Tsubaki, K. Nishina, and S. Yamada. The Grammar of Technology Development. Tokyo: Springer, 2008. 61-70. Print.

Summary -- What's in the Preface
The book is essentially about creating standardization in developing technology, thereby increasing the pace in advancing technology. To do this, a group of people in Japan gathered at a conference and delivered lectures on describing a general guidelines, supporting concepts, and tools for conceiving technology development as a grammar. Recent advancements of the past decade calls for a requirement in approaching different techniques of dealing with new technologies that are cropping up every month. Using a standard--a grammar--will help order the information, prevention information overload.

Editors believe the essays will raise an acceleration in technology through the application of grammar of technology in applications.

The title is influenced by a book published in 1892, "Grammar of Science," and the writers of this book saw similarities between the old and the new. Back then people needed a standard in which to order the data they collected in the science fields. The same is taking place with different types of technologies today. We need to develop a new general approach to technology, so that developments in a standard will help users use technology as well as others inventing new ones.

A systematic approach to developing technology will also help manage communication.

=Argument = In an online setting, the social networks present an interesting environment. In theory, anyone can contribute to the discussion of a topic. However, in practice, this is not the case. Some people lurk as some may feel they don't have anything to add to the conversations, and others have a very strong, determined personality that causes other users not communicate as much with the strong-willed user. This essay presents a way of figuring out who is the weakest link, why that is so, and how to reduce the communication gap. The end goal is creating a fertile ground where anyone can contribute to the discussion at hand.

Communication Gap Management
Page 61: [Use] social networks to understand the state of communication['s gap].

Social network is a platform for new way of communication.

"fertile communication" as communication within the community where one communicates their aims to one another.

Communication gap management is identifying the roles of individuals, different types of communication, and important ties [among individuals]. These three are and can be used to manage any gaps in communication.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Page 62: Psychological distance is measured using "influence" one has among users in a network.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Using a formula, they measured how a comment is replied and how widespread/often it is replied to.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">..."Greater the influence, the shorter the distance" [there is among individuals in a network.]

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Page 63: The netizens who have the smallest impact (or none at all) on others are weakest in an online world. They do not influence anything.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Gaps in communication is "based on the forward and backward of stones between two individuals in a social network, we can consider [...] them as "communication gap" where we can understand the state of their communication."

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The closer one pair/group are to each other, the easier it is to share information/ideas quickly, a "close centrality."

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Page 64: Interactive Communication - Topics are chosen by individuals which are natural, such as hobbies, romance, people are more likely to communicate about these things and anyone can share information easily.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Page 65: Distributed Communication - In specialized fields like finance, government, buying of a house, the individual(s) contributing would have a higher influence because they contribute more knowledge about a specialized subject matter than interactive communications.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Page 66: Soapbox Communication - Topics that are there to inform rather than take part of a dialogue among users. The information is there for users to read, rather than there to communicate their own aims about the topics. These topics can be technology or sciences.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Using a formula, we are able to figure out how to measure gaps in communication, and whether users have influence--held by few, or by many.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Using this formula, we can remedy the gaps in communication if the current state of communication in a certain network is undesireable.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Page 67: Case studies -

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Log 1 is about the topic on cell phones, a topic familiar to all, but Log 2 is about the purchase of a house, and the information is controlled by few. The graphs shown on page 67 reflect this nature accurately.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Page 68: If, theoretically, we can reduce one person with too much influence to help raise the influence of another, it would be an ideal state, allowing all users have a chance at contributing in discussions online.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">However, in an interview, they considered Fabian--a strong-willed user--as having too much of a personality that other users did not want to have a conversation with Fabian.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">After gathering information on what causes gaps in communication, and what links are important, we then can fix the gap.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Page 69: There are three remedies:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Persuade inactive users to participate more. (Don't be a lurker.)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Take away the inactive or strong user. (But doing so, will take away possible contributions the users taken away may have upon a discussion.)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Add more users (Those who may communicate with others, bringing out the lurker into the limelight, or a matching user who can take on a strong user.)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Have interviews with users to figure out how to manage a gap in communication. This will help realize fertile ground, and have prompt and smooth revolution of communication.

=<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Selected Works Cited =

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Freeman, L.C. (1978) Centrality in Social Networks, Social Networks, 1, 215-39.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Matsumura, N. (2003) Topic Diffusion in a Community, Yukio Ohsawa and Peter McBurney (Eds.), Chance Discovery, Springer Verlag, 84-97.