Social capital has become a key concept in the study of social network sites such as Facebook. An influential body of literature has emerged which links the accumulation of social capital on Facebook to various psychological traits and depositions. There is a need to augment this work with a more critical, qualitative approach which recognises other key social and technological aspects of Facebook. Based on ethnographic research, I explore how the exchange of social capital on Facebook is significantly influenced by mobility, surveillance and norms of public intimacy. Facebook users must continually negotiate intimacy when claiming on social capital, and this involves a nascent set of social skills and digital literacies. I suggest the term 'intimacy capital' to conceptualise the way in which these skills are distributed unevenly in society, opening up a critical way of thinking about social capital and intimacy on Facebook.
Web platforms such as Facebook and Google have recently developed features which algorithmically curate digital artefacts composed of posts taken from personal online archives. While these artefacts ask people to fondly remember their digital histories, they can cause controversy when they depict recently deceased loved ones. We explore these controversies by situating algorithmic curation within the media ethics of grief, mourning and commemoration. In the vein of media archaeology, we compare these algorithms to similar work done by skilled professionals using older media forms, drawing on interviews with Australian funeral slideshow curators. This professional commemorative labour makes up part of a broader, institutionalised system of 'death work', a concept we take from thanatology. Through the media ethics of death work, we critique the current shortcomings of algorithmic memorials and propose a way of addressing them by 'coding ethically'.
Summary: Public Wi-Fi services are rolling out across Australia, with city councils and telcos building large-scale networks in urban areas. Questions as to the value of public Wi-Fi have never been more significant in the Australian context. In this article we explore how free Wi-Fi services offered by cultural institutions and municipalities influence public spaces, and ask how such services can engender practices which promote the social good. Drawing on ethnographic research into six WiFi equipped spaces in Victoria, we find a variety of issues which influence whether a service will be popular and hence have a significant influence on public space. Services which are popular enable a range of uses, and this can add to the appeal and atmosphere of a space. However, Wi-Fi has yet to truly facilitate the kind of social interactions and rich civic placemaking we associate with the social good.
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