February 2002 - Air-L - lists.aoir.org

AoIR member Laura Gurak in Chronicle of Higher Ed.
by Steve Jones 19 Feb '02

19 Feb '02

[Congratulations, Laura, on the prominent notice of your work, and the granting of more than a "soundbite" for your ideas! -Sj] >Tuesday, February 19, 2002 > > >http://chronicle.com/free/2002/02/2002021901t.htm > > LOGGING IN WITH . . . >Laura J. Gurak > > >Minnesota Professor Takes a Critical Look at Online-Privacy Issues >By DAN CARNEVALE > > >Laura J. Gurak is director of the Internet Studies Center and >associate professor in the rhetoric department at the University of >Minnesota-Twin Cities. She is the author of a book called >Cyberliteracy: Navigating the Internet with Awareness (Yale >University Press). In it, she discusses a number of issues, >including the erosion of privacy and what state and federal >governments should be doing to protect personal information in the >digital age. > >Q. What are some of the biggest concerns regarding privacy online? > >A. In the U.S. one of the biggest concerns is that we don't really >have any overarching principles. We just do everything on a really >ad-hoc basis. We don't have any laws that are federal except at the >most minimal kind of level. >And in terms of data protection, just as an example, you look at all >the conflicts that have come up over the past few years, like the >DoubleClick controversy [a plan, ultimately scuttled, in which the >company was going to track which Web sites individual Internet users >visited so that it could customize advertisements for them] or >things where people are innocently shopping or surfing online, and >all this stuff is happening in the background with their data being >collected and mined. We don't really have any policies in place to >deal with that. > >Even if you read the privacy statements on most shopping sites, they >really don't say much. They just say, like, "Oh yeah, we respect >your privacy, and we'll be nice to you, and you can trust us." But >they actually don't have a lot of legal weight, and they really >don't have a lot of legal backing. So people right now are kind of >giving away the store without really knowing it. > >And the other thing is that the European Union passed this EU data >directive -- it was a couple of years ago. And the idea there is >that when you're doing business over the Internet with a citizen of >the EU, you're not allowed to collect and use their personal data >without their permission. > >Q. So is the United States behind the rest of the world with privacy >standards? > >A. The EU, of course, has an opt-in policy. They have to get >people's permission [to collect information about them]. I think the >Canadians have been a little more attentive to it. What it looks >like in the U.S. is that the Federal Trade Commission under >[President] Clinton was starting to think about issuing guidelines, >and then under Bush it looks like nothing's going to happen at all. >... So as far as privacy on the Internet, it's still a complete >laissez-faire situation in the U.S., and the companies really rule. > >Q. How does an opt-in policy work compared with the American opt-out? > >A. In the U.S. people always tell you that if you don't like getting >so much junk mail, you can send your name to one of those companies >that will take you off mailing lists -- that's opt-out. You have to >do it. The consumer has to do it. In Europe, and particularly under >the EU data directive, it's the other way around. Companies have to >ask your permission to use your name and address and spending habits >and stuff. So we have the exact opposite approach of the EU. And >that was fine before the Internet, but now it's really tricky. If >people are shopping at Amazon.com or something and they're from >different countries, you have to figure out how to deal with that. > >Q. Should the U.S. government be doing more to regulate this? > >A. They should at least be doing more to talk about it in the U.S., >anyway. At a minimum we should have some national discussion on >this. But of course, after September 11 that kind of thing doesn't >seem really important to people. You know, for obvious reasons, >after September 11 we've seen an increase in proposed legislation >for the wiretap laws that [U.S. Attorney General John] Ashcroft >wants the Senate to pass. > >Q. It sounds like the government is trying to become more intrusive, not less. > >A. Right, that's the funny turn of events that have happened. It's >kind of unfortunate. Like one thing that's being discussed now is >this national ID card, which is really not going to do much at all. >Because if you can fake your identity well enough, you can fake it >with an ID card too. > >Q. How does this affect colleges and universities? > >A. The University of Minnesota ... just developed an online privacy >policy for the whole university because we wanted to take a >proactive stance. When students use our online registration system >-- it's really nice, it's Web based, and they can register for >courses from home -- it sends cookies [bits of computer code that >reside on a computer and identify its user over the Web]. Students >can't even register for a class without a cookie being sent. So I >think one thing universities can do is take an active stance in >determining what kind of privacy policies they want to have that are >maybe different than the private sector. Universities have a >different role to play. We can think these things through >thoughtfully. We can think about the balance of the public's rights >and the rights of individuals. > >Q. So universities should lead by example? > >A. Yes, very much so. Universities can do that with copyright, too. >We can do that by making sure that we exercise fair use, that we >don't follow these excessively restrictive guidelines on course-pack >copying. I mean the reason most copy centers on campuses won't copy >course packets is that they're afraid to be sued. But part of it is >that no university is stepping forward and saying, "Listen, if we do >it on our copy facilities at our university, it's fair use. Go ahead >and sue us." So universities can certainly lead by example in all >those areas. > >Q. What should students on campus be most concerned about? > >A. Students already have some pretty good protections in the way of >federal laws ... and student records. Most universities are pretty >open about student data. ... I don't think students have too much to >fear at universities. They should be aware, though, that a >university Web page or a university home page is really not theirs. >It belongs to the university. So whatever they do on there is being >backed up every night and tracked. Not really surreptitiously, but >just as part of the natural IT process. > >So students running any sort of interesting or controversial Web >sites on a university server shouldn't feel like they're just >completely anonymous. But another thing students could do is get >involved with university government, because a lot of our committees >... have a student member on the committee. So it's good for >students to get involved in the university-wide decisions on these >things, too. Because I think a lot of students know more than we do >about the real issues. > >Q. What sorts of problems have professors run into? > >A. One thing for professors to think about is, How much data is too >much? Here, [we have] those student evaluations that are due at the >end of every term, and you get this quantitative score. Well they >want professors to let all their quantitative scores be posted on >the Web so when students decide what classes to take, they'll look >you up and say, "Oh, she got a 6.9." > >... I think professors have to decide whether they really want that. >That's not necessarily private information, but it's new in the >sense that students can suddenly click on your name and see your >ranking. It's kind of like the eBaying of higher education. Is that >the kind of thing that's good or not? > >There's also another issue, too, which is that a lot of professors >use the Internet for research data -- collecting data and working >with data. And there's going to have to be more and more protections >on that kind of thing so that data that's being used for >human-subjects research is safe and protected. > > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ >Copyright © 2002 by The Chronicle of Higher Education

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Reminder: Pew Internet & American Life Writing Fellowship
by Philip Howard 19 Feb '02

19 Feb '02

Dear AIR: Deadline coming up in about 10 days. This fellowship is intended for ABD or senior graduate students who have a well developed research project, but who need a little extra financial support to turn a good rough draft into a manuscript suitable for submission to a journal or other scholarly publication. p. Philip Howard Sociology, Northwestern University, pubweb.nwu.edu/~pho442/ Survey2001 Project - http://survey2001.nationalgeographic.com Pew Internet & American Life Project, www.pewinternet.org ph. (773) 274-6817 / c. (202) 271-7170 / p-howard(a)northwestern.edu Pew Internet & American Life Writing Fellowship 9/30/01 Through its Open Research Initiative, The Pew Internet and American Life Project (www.pewinternet.org) seeks to support scholarly and accessible research on the role of the Internet in contemporary American society. This fellowship is for students who have advanced to candidacy in their PhD program and are in need of financial assistance while preparing research for submission to a scholarly journal or other publication. The fellowship has three goals: - to support students writing about the complex roles of new media technologies in social life; - to support students writing about how new media technologies are managed by different economic and political actors governments, businesses, civic groups and individuals around the United States; - to make the research results of young scholars who critically assess the consequences of technology-related social, economic, political and cultural trends accessible to a wide audience. - to give young scholars access to Pew survey data. Fellowship holders can maintain their residence of choice. This support is for writing up the results from research projects that are well advanced or that can be supplemented with survey data collected by the Project. Applicants should view this as an opportunity to turn their part of a well-developed dissertation argument into a focused, polished piece for publication as a Project Working Paper and ultimately for submission to a scholarly journal. The Project will promote these pieces to a wider audience through its schedule of widely respected media briefs and research reports. Applicants should submit a 5-page proposal that identifies the research questions, summarizes the status of the larger research agenda, and sketches an outline of the piece to be produced over the two-month period. The proposal should include a reasonable time frame for completing the writing, suggest several individuals to act as peer reviewers, and identify the scholarly journals to which the piece may ultimately be submitted. Name: Pew Internet and American Life Project Writing Fellowship Deadline: March 1, 2002 Value: $2,000 each Number of Fellowships: 5 Eligibility: Students in the social sciences, humanities, and related scientific or engineering fields. Applications are considered from students who have advanced to candidacy but not yet completed their Ph.D. program. This grant may be held in conjunction with other forms of financial support. Terms: Student must be registered and in good standing at an accredited university. The student must devote 2 months to writing up research results in a scholarly and accessible manner. For more details on the research priorities of the Pew Internet and American Life Project, see website. Web: www.pewinternet.org Contact: Philip Howard, Research Fellow, Pew Internet & American Life Project, c/o Department of Sociology, Northwestern University, 1810 Chicago Avenue, Evanston, Illinois, 60208-1330, Email: p-howard(a)northwestern.edu.

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NSF HPNC Announcement Released
by Monaco, Gregory E. 19 Feb '02

19 Feb '02

> The latest High Performance Network Connection program from NSF has been > announced. The purpose of this program is to encourage additional U.S. > institutions of higher education and institutions with significant > research and education missions to establish high performance Internet > connections (at or above 45mbits per second) where required to facilitate > cutting edge science and engineering research. > > The announcement, itself, and instructions for proposal submission are > located at > > http://www.interact.nsf.gov/cise/descriptions.nsf/pd/hpnc?openDocument > > Some significant changes from previous announcements are that > * In addition to universities and colleges, proposals may be submitted > by non-profit, non-academic organizations, including independent museums, > observatories, research laboratories, professional societies and similar > organizations in the US that are directly associated with educational and > research activities and are not currently connected to an advanced network > (45mbps) ; > * Proposals from groups of institutions, none of which has been > previously funded by NSF for a high performance connection, are encouraged > where the proposers can, in addition to meeting other criteria outlined in > the Program Solicitation, demonstrate a clear cost savings by connecting > together rather than separately ; > * Scientists involved in the proposed research must be represented as > co-PIs (principle investigators); > * Proposals must include a plan to extend the reach of the proposed > connection beyond the group of early adopters. > If you do not have a high performance/advanced network connection, let me > encourage you to read the solicitation and consider applying. > If you already have a connection, please consider circulating this > information so that other institutions have a similar chance to benefit > from this program. > If you are interested in attending proposal writing workshop aimed > specifically at this announcement, please send me an email to that effect. > > Do not hesitate to contact me for additional information. > > Gregory E. Monaco, Ph.D. > Program Director, Advanced Networking > __________________________________ > National Science Foundation > 4201 Wilson Boulevard, Rm. 1175 > Arlington, VA 22230 > 703-292-8948 (voice ANIR) > 703-292-4550 (voice direct) > 785-554-9657 (cell) > 703-292-9010 (fax) >

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RE: Re: [Air-l] Research on Internet in German & French
by frankthomasft＠netscape.net 18 Feb '02

18 Feb '02

Hi, I forgot one major German-language source: the Media-Perspektiven, the journal of the Mass Media Research group of the two public broadcasting chaines in Germany. They publish the results from their annual studies on onliners and on offliners. abstracts on the web since 1997, full text since 2000: http://www.ard-werbung.de/MediaPerspektiven/inhalt/ Very worthwhile to read. Cheers Frank -- Dr. Frank Thomas FTR 34 rue Jean-Baptiste Pigalle 75009 Paris France __________________________________________________________________ Your favorite stores, helpful shopping tools and great gift ideas. Experience the convenience of buying online with Shop@Netscape! http://shopnow.netscape.com/ Get your own FREE, personal Netscape Mail account today at http://webmail.netscape.com/

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RE: Re: [Air-l] Research on Internet in German & French
by frankthomasft＠netscape.net 18 Feb '02

18 Feb '02

"Serge Courrier" <Serge.Courrier(a)pobox.com> wrote: >Even France Télécom R&D http://www.rd.francetelecom.fr/ is very >pusillanimus Serge, without going too much into the reasons - the target of usage research at a R&S lab of a major telecom player is not the academic public, but the other internal customers of the same firm - the usage lab of France Télécom R&D in fact publishes quite a lot: Look at the ICUST conferences in 1999 and 2001 http://vest.gu.se/vest_mail/1147.html http://www.adera.fr/icust2001/ The academic journal Réseaux and its english-language version are the foremost platform for French-speaking Internet research and for my colleagues within the France Télécom R&D UCE lab. You get the index of Réseaux no. 1 to 86 as well as the complete textes textes of no. 49 à 91 (années 1991 à 1998). The English-language edition is edited twice a year by University of Luton Press 75 Castel Street Luton, UK LUI 3 AJ tel:44 1582 743 297 fax:44 1582 743 298 E-mail: ulp(a)luton.ac.uk Amicalement Frank Thomas http://www.enssib.fr/autres-sites/reseaux-cnet/ >Revue Réseaux : http://www.editions-hermes.fr/rev_accueil.asp?id=17 > >Serge Courrier >Freelance journalist >Internet Section Editor for Science & Vie magazine >Paris, France > > > > > >_______________________________________________ >Air-l mailing list >Air-l(a)aoir.org >http://www.aoir.org/mailman/listinfo/air-l > -- Dr. Frank Thomas FTR 34 rue Jean-Baptiste Pigalle 75009 Paris France __________________________________________________________________ Your favorite stores, helpful shopping tools and great gift ideas. Experience the convenience of buying online with Shop@Netscape! http://shopnow.netscape.com/ Get your own FREE, personal Netscape Mail account today at http://webmail.netscape.com/

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Science magazine article
by Barry Wellman 18 Feb '02

18 Feb '02

Folks, I'm delighted to alert folks to a review article I wrote in Science, reviewing work about computer networks as social networks. In addition to arguing that computer networks are social networks, it substantively focuses on how the Internet fits into everyday (nonwork) life and computer-mediated tools for knowledge acquisition and management in networked organizations. You can access this article via my website. The URL is below, just click on Publications. While you're there, feel free to sightsee some of my other recent, relevant stuff. Cheers, Barry ___________________________________________________________________ Barry Wellman Professor of Sociology NetLab Director wellman(a)chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 ___________________________________________________________________

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RE: [Air-l] Question about computer/Internet surveys/experiments in a class
by Kris Gowen 18 Feb '02

18 Feb '02

Clifford Nass and Byron Reeves out of Stanford University do some interesting work on how humans will sometimes treat computers as people, or at least machines with a personality. Not sure if this is too far afield, but they have some interesting work out there, and some pretty neat experiments. Clifford Nass's bio page is at http://www.stanford.edu/~nass/

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Citing Online resources 1/2
by Lachlan Brown 18 Feb '02

18 Feb '02

This is the first of two messages. For some reason the first post did not go up. Citing online sources. >Give your best effort to provide the reader with a guide to where to find it. And for Internet stuff, the date accessed (or should it be the date posted >to the Web, if avai[l]able?) This is a great example of a 'renversement' brought about by new relations of mediation and distribution. The date produced (which very often may not be known) or the date read? It seems this is a significant difference in the authority of the text (and this 'authority' of the text is marked by its citation in scholarship). It foregrounds the context of the production of the citation while rendering the general 'context' or general historical (given) media background less relevant in an understanding of the governance in knowledge that applies to this field. Scholarship of Internet, ethically and legally, must cite both the date of production of digital files (where known - and if not known this merely indicates the place of further productive scholarship - Internet hermenuetics?) and the date of consumption. The outcome is an institutionalisation of a subjective/objective collective scholarship. The same method can be applied to conventional (scriptural economy) scholarship. Lachlan Brown -- _______________________________________________ Sign-up for your own FREE Personalized E-mail at Mail.com http://www.mail.com/?sr=signup 1 cent a minute calls anywhere in the U.S.! http://www.getpennytalk.com/cgi-bin/adforward.cgi?p_key=RG9853KJ&url=http:/…

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Citing Online Resources
by Lachlan Brown 18 Feb '02

18 Feb '02

Oh, I almost forgot... If the production of knowledge is to be the growth industry we are led to believe it will be, and clearly expect it to be where we have investments in the field, there is an additional complication to help provide endless work for the scholars of the future, particularly those concerned with the heremeneutics of the digital file. Not only the date of production and consumption of the online work must be cited, but the date, in specific instances, where these instances cast light upon the politics of the production of knowledge, and insight into the 'megla-media' aspirations of particular scholars, of erasure of files must also be cited. One suspects feminism(s) might extend their inquiry to The Archive to extend the domains of feminist inquiry to the very basis of the University and of Scholarship. I love scholarship. Lachlan -- _______________________________________________ Sign-up for your own FREE Personalized E-mail at Mail.com http://www.mail.com/?sr=signup Win a ski trip! http://www.nowcode.com/register.asp?affiliate=1net2phone3a

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Fw: Lessig
by Lachlan Brown 18 Feb '02

18 Feb '02

-----Original Message----- From: <editors(a)london.com> Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2002 09:52:54 -0500 To: air-l(a)aior.org Subject: Tragedy of the Commons/Tragedy of Capital 1 > Computer Systems Laboratory Colloquium > 4:15PM, Wednesday, Feb 20, 2002 > NEC Auditorium, Gates Computer Science Building B03 > http://ee380.stanford.edu > > Topic: Free Code, Free Labor > > Speaker: Lawrence Lessig > Professor of Law, Stanford University > > About the talk: > > In this talk, Professor Lessig will develop the links between > free labor movement of the 19th century, and the free software. > Stallman says his free software is free in the sense of free > speech; it is more richly seen as free in the sense of free > labor. The struggle for free labor today -- in coders, and > artists generally -- is restricted by the same controls that > restricted free labor in the past: by a legal system that gives > overly strong rights to the few against the many. > > About the speaker: > > Lawrence Lessig is a Professor of Law at the Stanford Law School. > He was the Berkman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School[3]. > >From 1991 to 1997, he was a professor at the University of > Chicago Law School. He graduated from Yale Law School in 1989, > and then clerked for Judge Richard Posner of the 7th Circuit > Court of Appeals, and Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme > Court. Lessig teaches and writes in the areas of constitutional > law, contracts, comparative constitutional law, and the law of > cyberspace. Lessig serves as a member of the Board of Directors > of the Electronic Freedoms Foundation, http://www.eff.org[4], the > Red Hat Center for Open Source[5], and was a monthly columnist > for the Industry Standard. In 1999-2000, he was a fellow at the > Wissenschaftskolleg[6] zu Berlin. > > Lessig's c. v.[7] lists his postions and publications. His most > recent book is The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a > Connected World[8]. It follows an earlier book, Code, and Other > Laws of Cyberspace[9]. [Both have been well received as > thoughtful examinations of important problems. -dra] > > Contact information: > > Lawrence Lessig > Stanford Law School > Crown Quadrangle > 559 Nathan Abbott Way > Stanford, CA 94305-8610 > 650.736.0999 (vx) > 650.723.8440 (fx) > http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/lessig[10] > lessig(a)pobox.com > > > [ 3 ] http://www.law.harvard.edu > [ 4 ] http://www.eff.org > [ 5 ] http://www.redhat.com/about/presscenter/1999/press_rhcos.html > [ 6 ] http://www.wiko-berlin.de > [ 7 ] http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/works/lessig/cv%20pub/CV_public_temp.html > [ 8 ] http://the-future-of-ideas.com > [ 9 ] http://code-is-law.org > [ 10 ] http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/lessig -- _______________________________________________ Sign-up for your own FREE Personalized E-mail at Mail.com http://www.mail.com/?sr=signup Win a ski trip! http://www.nowcode.com/register.asp?affiliate=1net2phone3a -- _______________________________________________ Sign-up for your own FREE Personalized E-mail at Mail.com http://www.mail.com/?sr=signup Win a ski trip! http://www.nowcode.com/register.asp?affiliate=1net2phone3a

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