Netville-Big Brother Really Is Watching You!

Once again, I was distracted by one piece of the readings this week. In "Creating Community with Media: History, Theories, and Scientific Investigations", Nicholas Jankowski spent a few paragraphs talking about "Netville", a suburban neighborhood of Toronto which was designed in the mid 1990's to be "wired". Residents who purchased homes in this neighborhood essentially volunteered to be labrats as "a special research consortium was established to monitor technical and social developments" (Jankowski). According to Jankowski, 'Netville provided the opportunity for an extended field study". It was a three-year investigation of how living in a newly developed residential community, equipped with a series of advanced computer and communication technologies as part of its design, affects work, community and family relations. Keith Hampton, of MIT, and Barry Wellman led the study.

I came across book, The cybercities reader, by Stephen Graham which devotes a whole chapter to Netville, and Hampton's findings. The more I read about Netville the more I was reminded of two very powerful images. One, that of Big Brother, from George Orwell's 1984. The issue of mass surveillance kept running through my mind. The other was Peter Weir's The Truman Show. In that film, an unknowing person was being observed (in that case for entertainment, more so than research). In the case of Netville, the residents were being observed to see how ICTs impacted their lives. (Hampton's conclusion? ICTS increased their social capital-a theme we have discussed before). Despite some of the positive outcomes that are highlighted in the study, I can't help but feel that the method was a little creepy.

I managed to find a copy of Hampton and Wellman's study, "Neighboring in Netville" and I am interested in reading more about the process they used to conduct their ethnography.

*Actual billboard advertising "Netville"

In my quest to learn if Netville was an isolated incident, or, the start of something big, I kept digging. Imagine my shock and awe when I came across another study, this time, by a professor I worked with at the University of California, Irvine, Alladi Venkatesh. His study was conducted in 2003 and was called "A Study of a Southern California Wired Community: Where Technology Meets Social Utopianism" (Great title!)

The purpose of the study?:

The purpose of the study is to examine the role of Information and Communication Technology

(ICT) in the creation, organization, and functioning of a networked community.

Hmm...sounds vaguely familiar. It should come as no surprise that Hampton's dissertation was cited in the References.

So, our communities are more "wired" than ever before. Google tracks our internet browsing to customize our banner ads, our phones provide tracking and geolocating...seems like someone really is keeping tabs on us. But who is it?