For anyone interested in an academic outlook of hoax virus messages, can I
recommend this paper:
http://www.sosig.ac.uk/iriss/papers/paper37.htm
...written by a colleague of mine, Edmund Chattoe, and presented at the
IRISS conference in March last year (Internet Research and Information for
Social Scientists).
Stuart Peters
Title: Virtual Urban Legends:
Investigating the Ecology of the World
Wide Web
Presenter: Edmund Chattoe
Paper Abstract: This paper traces the evolution of several
interesting ecological phenomena connected with the spread of
replicating messages on the web. The paper begins by analysing
some common features of these replicating messages, which have
adapted them to survive in the particular "ecology" of the WWW.
Specifically replicating messages survive best when they take
advantage of the altruistic and "information sharing" ethos of the
web, when they deal with issues of universal interest (most
commonly the maintenance of the web itself), when there is a
steady influx of non immunised transmitters and when it is
difficult to falsify the content of the message definitively. (Certain
very successful replicating messages share features of urban
legends as suggested by Woolgar in his analysis of computer virus
stories. In particular, a strong belief that some of these stories
"ought" to be true dramatically decreases the effectiveness of hoax
warning web pages.) These features can be illustrated by specific
reference to the developments of the "meta replicator" known
variously as xxx-1 or Good News. Good News is interesting
because it is the warning and not the fictitious virus which
constitutes the replicator. The paper concludes by drawing out the
more general implications of studies of replicating messages.
Firstly, the dialogues about these messages which occur on
newsgroups are a very interesting source of secondary data about
the transmission process which can be considered from the
perspective of Conversation Analysis. Secondly, it may be
appropriate to consider web phenomena like replicating messages
from an "ecological" perspective. Thirdly, the web serves as an
extremely useful research tool for the study of replicators. (It may
help to operationalise research on the spread of the memes
suggested by Dawkins.) The paper concludes with some thoughts
on the design and ethics of a "tracer" or replicator deliberately
released for research purposes.
____________________________________________________________________________
Stuart Peters, Dept of Sociology, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 5XH,
United Kingdom. Tel: +44 (0)1483 259292 Fax: +44 (0)1483 259551
Electronic Publishing Resource Service - EPRESS http://www.epress.ac.uk/
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|