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Web cam sex January 25, 2008

Posted by Malene Charlotte Larsen in Chat, Internet Safety.
34 comments

In Denmark young people use the phrase “camme frækt” about having web cam sex.

Here is a video that shows why web cam sex is not always a good idea:

See other videos from the Danish Media Council for Children and Young People here.

Exam rush is over January 24, 2008

Posted by Malene Charlotte Larsen in Aalborg University, Academic, Examination.
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As some of you might know, the students at Aalborg University are studying under what is called “The Aalborg Model”, which means that they do problem oriented project work in groups. Therefore, they hand in a rather huge (usually 100-120 pages) project report each semester dealing with an open-ended problem of their own choosing.

Formerly, each group would defend their project during a group exam lasting approxemately two or three hours. This semester, however, we were not allowed to conduct the group exams due to a resolution carried out by the government saying that group exams are not allowed at the Danish universities; the students have to sit for an examination individually. Therefore, our students studying under “The Aalborg Model” are forced to defend their joint projects during an individual exam.

Because of that, my January has been more than usually busy. I just counted that I have held 32 individual oral exams this past weeks (in stead of eight group exams as it would have been in the good old days).

Even though all the exams went really well and the students had produced some interesting projects, I cannot help but feel that it is a real pity that they cannot defend them together. Not only is it more time consuming for me as the examiner to prepare 32 different individual 30 minute-exams rather than eight group exams, but it is also a shame that the great discussions and the high level of abstraction, that usually are part of a group exam, now disappear.

Well, I just wanted to let you know why I have been so absent on the blog lately – and tell you that now the exam rush is over I will be blogging about the many interesting upcoming activities I am attending – e.g. a PhD course next week, a trip to Berlin and Safer Internet Day 2008 on February 12.

More about that in blog posts to come 😀

New phone number January 17, 2008

Posted by Malene Charlotte Larsen in Aalborg University, Contact.
2 comments

Please notice that I have a new office phone number. See contact info.

New article: Facebook and 10 fascinating phenomenons January 9, 2008

Posted by Malene Charlotte Larsen in Articles, Facebook, Social Networking.
8 comments

Today I have an article out on the Danish internet portal Kommunikationsforum. The article is called “Hvorfor fænger Facebook?” (Why is Facebook fascinating?) In the article I describe 10 fascinating phenomenons about Facebook. I do so by drawing some parallels between Danish youngsters’ use of social network sites and how grown-ups in Denmark are using Facebook at the moment.

The article is only in Danish, but can be read here.

Brainstorm: Social network site categories January 8, 2008

Posted by Malene Charlotte Larsen in Brainstorm, Social network sites, Social Networking.
35 comments

As my first blog post in 2008 I hereby invite all the readers of “My PhD Blog” to participate in a little post-holiday exercise :-D.

It is a brainstorm on all the different categories of social network sites that exist at the moment. I will start by listing the categories I can think of – with exemplary sites. Please feel free to add more. And feel free to correct me if you think that some of my categories, or examples used, are off.

I am aware that some of the sites I mention will fall into more than one category. Many of the sites are – because of my research interests – Danish, but I would like to know about international examples as well.

Social network site categories

  1. Youth – e.g. Arto, NationX, SKUM, LunarStorm, Bebo
  2. Friendship – e.g. Facebook, Friendster
  3. Games/fun – e.g. Habbo Hotel, Netstationen
  4. Business/CV – e.g. LinkedIn
  5. Music – e.g. LastFM, MySpace, myvoice
  6. Video/entertainment – e.g. YouTube, Vix.dk
  7. Photos – e.g. Flickr
  8. Pets – e.g. Catster, Dogster
  9. Religion – e.g. MyChurch, GodTube
  10. Academic/professional – e.g. KForum
  11. Political – e.g. Radikale.net
  12. Libraries – e.g. Vores Bibliotek
  13. Discussion – e.g. Mingler
  14. Death – e.g. Mindet.dk
  15. Enemies/hate – e.g. Enemybook, Hatebook, IFHY (I Fucking Hate You)
  16. Anti-social – e.g. isolatr, NoSo, Snubster
  17. School – e.g. HG Space, Ekademia
  18. Design – e.g. Threadless, NotABrand
  19. Children – e.g. GoSupermodel
  20. Blogging – e.g. Blog.dk
  21. Sleep and wake up – e.g. Sleep.Fm

Those were the different categories I could think of. There must be several others 🙂

(I know that some of the sites I used as examples would perhaps not fall under the definition of a social network site – that depends on the definition…)