Spinuzzi network-1

How to improve information flow in organizations (c) 2011 Clay Spinuzzi

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Chapter 1. Networks, Genres, and Four Little Disruptions

Clay [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


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Value

• Understand concept of genre• Examine genre developmentally• Examine genre at different levels of activity• Examine how genres interact in an activity• Learn to map relationships among genres


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WHAT IS GENRE?


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Spinuzzi 2008, p.17

• “not just text types”• “typified rhetorical responses to recurring

social situations”• “tools-in-use”• “a behavioral descriptor rather than a formal

one”• Through their use, genres “weave together”

networks


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…rhetoric?


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“typified rhetorical responses to recurring social situations”


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NOT just structure


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NOT Medium


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A “Tool-In-Use”


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TWO WAYS TO EXAMINE GENRE

DevelopmentLevels of activity


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GENRE DEVELOPMENT

“Genre (from French, genre, "kind" or "sort", from Latin: genus (stem gener-), Greek: genos, γένος)” – WikipediaSame root word as gene, genealogy, Genesis.


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Case: Accident Location and Analysis System (ALAS)

• Based on Spinuzzi (2003), Tracing Genres through Organizations.


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ALAS Evolved…

• Before 1974• 1974• 1989• 1996


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Before 1974


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1974 – Mainframe-ALAS


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1974 – Mainframe-ALAS


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1989: PC-ALAS


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1989: PC-ALAS


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1996: GIS-ALAS


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1996: GIS-ALAS


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Accidents in the Cornfield


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Genres Developed Over Iterations


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Case: LinkedIn


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Case: Facebook


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LEVELS OF ACTIVITYGenre functions at three different levels.


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Genre at three levelsLevel Focus Chars Timescale Aware? Disruption

Macro Activity Culture, history; social action, social memory

Year, decades

No Contradiction

Meso Goal Tool-in-use; tactics

Minutes, hours

Yes Discoordination

Micro Operation Rules, habits Seconds No Breakdown


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Genre: The Macro LevelLevel Focus Chars Timescale Aware? Disruption


Year, decades

No Contradiction


Minutes, hours

Yes Discoordination



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Genre: The Macro Level


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Case 2: “Darrel thinks Gil is being Unreasonable”

• Different genres focus on different aspects and make different assumptions.


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Genre: The Meso LevelLevel Focus Chars Timescale Aware? Disruption


Year, decades

No Contradiction


Minutes, hours

Yes Discoordination



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Genre: The Meso Level


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Case 3: “Abraham Threatens to Fire Workers”

• A freeform genre becomes more structured and oriented to a specific goal.


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Genre: The Micro LevelLevel Focus Chars Timescale Aware? Disruption


Year, decades

No Contradiction


Minutes, hours

Yes Discoordination



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Genre: The Micro Level


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Case 4: “Jeannie Talks Past Local Provisioners”

• The two groups of provisioners encounter breakdowns over the common term “prem-to-prem,” which means different things to them.

• As they repair the breakdown, they realize differences at other levels.


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Genre tracing

Development

Leve

ls


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Genre Tracing

• Genre tracing involves examining genres across these two dimensions:

• Development. How did a genre develop? What assumptions are bundled into it, from the designer’s side and from the user’s?

• Levels of activity. How is the genre used at each level? What disruptions occur, and how are they manifested at each level?


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Genre Tracing


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Genre Tracing


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Genre & Social Media: Development


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Genre & Social Media: Levels of Activity


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GENRE ECOLOGIESExamining how genres relate to each other


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Genre Ecologies


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Kinds of relationships among genres

• juxtaposition (two texts attached to or overlapping each other)

• placing (two texts placed side by side, in a stack, or in regular places)

• annotation (writing or altering a text)• transfer (using one text as source for filling in another)• modeling (using one text as a model for another)• reference (using one text to interpret or operate

another)• And ???


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Genre Ecology Models


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Case 1: “Anita Thinks Geraldine is Slacking”

• Participants sometimes think there are connections when there aren’t.


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Genre Ecologies & Social Media


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Takeaways

• Genre as social action• Genre development• Genre at different levels of activity• Genre ecologies


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Applications

• Determining what genres are being used.• Determining what they’re for.• Determining where they’re from.• Examining how they’re used at different levels.• Examining how they connect.


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Exercise: Genre Development (5 minutes)

• Identify genres that have developed in your project, especially in social media: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

• Select one. How has it developed over time? Can you identify preexisting genres from which it developed?

• How is it perceived by users? Do they associate it with other familiar genres?


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Exercise: Levels of Activity (5 minutes)

• Select a genre from a work example.• Macro: Where did this genre come from and to

what sort of problem was it originally oriented? Think in terms of originating activities (ex: LinkedIn profile: based on job search)

• Meso: What conscious goals might users identify as they use it?

• Micro: What sorts of unconscious habits of interpretation and use are involved in using it?


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Exercise: Genre Ecologies (5 minutes)

• Identify sets of genres in a work example, especially unofficial, improvised innovations.

• How are they related in use? Think in terms of relationships such as juxtaposition, placing, annotation, transfer, modeling, and reference.

• If you must speculate, that’s okay – but observed relationships are better.

Spinuzzi network-1

Education

genre development

freeform genre

genre functions

concept of genre

different levels of

different aspectsand

different assumptions

macro levelhow