Cuneo's Comments on PBL

Cuneo's Comments on PBL_6 Group Research Project

Dan: under suggestions welcome, you have an incorrect email address for your muss account.
I would suggest that, for your main page, create a separate file for a table of contents, then create indepdendent files for each major section of the paper. This increases accessibility for those users with slow modem speeds and narrow bandwith.
Is technology having a major impact on our lives and society, or is it the design of technology, and those who control the design, that is having the effect on society? In other words, does the former assume technological determinism?
When you resize images, you have to maintain the ratio between width and height; otherwise, you get text difficult to read, as in the two images I transmitted to you.
You can read the gender demographic stats on the net in two ways: one, is that gender inequality in access is decreasing, therefore proving that the net is supportive for women; the other is that there continues to be a gender gap in web access, implying that there is the continuation of hostile environments for women on the net, or at least in terms of financial resources affecting access.
You state: "Gender differences in expression, and communication style seem to be relatively common across the various components of the Internet." Is there not a gender different in difference modes of internet communication? e.g. moderated versus unmoderated listserves????? Women might more likely participated if a listserv is moderated by a women's group than if it is unmoderated, or moderated by men??
Are MOOS not violent often, thereby discouraging the participation by women?
You state: "It is not uncommon to hear of women being harassed by persistent men while logged

onto bulletin board systems." Do you have a survey that would report on more systematic data on this issue?

Does the pseudo-anonymity of the net lead to gender-less interaction, or to greater gender-based harassment?
Is the Hagedorn definition of community less relevant to the Net since it makes reference to territory? Notice that territoriality is absent from Rheingold's definition of virtual community.
For references that are not on the net, a hypertext link to the endnotes would provide the reader with better understanding of your resources, or at least quicker understanding.
Are there not instances of negative communities; that is, people who repel each other on the basis of mutually-shared interests; they attack one another on the basis of shared interests?
Do moderated sites provide a protective environment for women on the net, or create another kind of gender ghetto where women are not exposed to the rough and tumble of the net?
There seems quite a sudden shift from women and community to tatooing; you need more transitional statements to maintain coherence in the overall paper.
This site takes ages to load: http://www.eskimo.com/~rab/lobby.html
This subtitle should have been made active: http://www.tattoos.com
In the section on Representation of Women in the Community, references to 'I' and 'my' suggest the tension between individual and group levels has not been overcome. But this group seems to have it 'together' more than some groups.
Why do you assume the same gender ratio among posters and lurkers? My guess is that there is a higher proportion of women among lurkers (ie, fear of posting).
I thought the conclusion was anemic, despite an excellent paper.
Overall I think this is a very good paper. You have done a good job at trying to integrate the issues of gender, community, and tatooing, not an easy thing to do.
This is a bad link in the endnotes: [http://www.research.att.com/~cherny/genderMOO.html]
Another bad link: http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/soc/courses/soc4jj3/stuweb/pbl_6/[http://cspr.org/cspr/gender/herring.txt].

Carl Cuneo