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

road warriors
by Barry Wellman 05 Nov '02

05 Nov '02

I am posting this query to both the Community list and the AOIR list, because of its relevance to both. I've been flying around a lot recently giving lectures and attending conferences: to scholarly, governmental and corporate dot.com groups. In so doing, I frequently encounter what _PC Magazine_ calls "road warriors", albeit the opposite of Mad Max. These are managers, professionals and technicians who spend a good deal of time traveling, either between organizational offices, or to other organizations or conferences. Modally, 2-4 days per week. They live by computer-supported and 800-number contact back to their home base. If you get into business lounges, you can see them pounding their laptops, checking their emails, and talking via 800 numbers to their colleagues elsewhere. They spend a lot of time in corporate hotels (e.g., the misnamed Holiday Inn), bars, medium-priced restaurants, and airport lounges. Has anyone seriously studied such folks? How do they sustain this mobile life? What is their community, with work colleagues and friends -- and household members? Etc. 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] How do journalists report internet research? (Request for experi...
by Zunt＠aol.com 15 Aug '02

15 Aug '02

In a message dated 3/4/2002 3:46:13 PM Eastern Standard Time, jvc(a)MIT.EDU writes: > I have a large set of two paragraph texts saved in separate HTML files that > I want to conver to MS Word. Does anyone know a way to do it without having > to open the files one by one? maybe try Web2Text: w2t16v12.zip http://www.simtel.net/pub/pd/24799.html Cheers, Bob Briggs Westport, MA

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Fwd: AoIR ethics draft statement
by Steve Jones 26 Jul '02

26 Jul '02

At 7:14 AM -0500 5/18/02, Charles Ess wrote: >Colleagues: >On behalf of the aoir ethics working committee, I am pleased to call your >attention to a DRAFT statement, "Ethical decision-making and Internet >research" - ><http://www.cddc.vt.edu/aoir/ethics/public/draftthree.html> > >This new document approaches issues of Internet research ethics in terms of >the questions and issues that researchers from a variety of disciplines >frequently encounter, and diverse ethical / cultural / national / legal >responses to those questions and issues. It is emphatically _not_ an effort >to legislate specific ethical requirements: it is rather intended as a way >of helping researchers and those who may have oversight responsibilities for >Internet research to sift through common issues and problems in ways that >reflect both the considerable research experience of the aoir ethics working >committee _and_ our best overview of the pertinent literatures (including >conference presentations), etc. > >The document is also emphatically a DRAFT. We present it to you now for >comment, in hopes that the aoir membership will help us see ways to improve >and revise the document. The final version of the document will be >presented to the aoir membership for discussion and (we hope) approval at >the October meeting in Maastricht. We'd very much like to work through your >comments and insights as much as possible prior to the October meeting so >that we can develop a document that represents reasonably well the aoir >membership. > >I note this in the report, but let me reiterate it here: my profound thanks >to the members of the committee who have generously shared their time, >expertise, and care through discussion and critical evaluation of the issues >raised in this document. The committee includes: Poline Bala - Malaysia; >Amy Bruckman - USA; Sarina Chen - USA; Brenda Danet - Israel/USA; Dag >Elgesem - Norway; Charles Ess - USA; Andrew Feenberg - USA; Stine Gotved - >Denmark; Christine M. Hine - UK; Soraj Hongladarom - Thailand; Jeremy >Hunsinger - USA; Klaus Jensen - Denmark; Storm King - USA; Chris Mann - UK; >Helen Nissenbaum - USA; Kate O'Riordan - UK; Paula Roberts - Australia; >Wendy Robinson - USA; Leslie Shade - Canada; Malin Sveningson - Sweden; >Leslie Tkach - Japan; John Weckert - Australia. > >My thanks also to Jeremy Hunsinger who has served as our webmaster with >unswerving efficiency and grace, and to Steve Jones for his continuing >support and encouragement. As well - there was a recent discussion of >Internet research ethics on the aoir list, including a nice summary by David >Eddy Spicer. I have incorporated the several suggestions for pertinent >literature in the document, noting the original contributors. Thanks >especially to David, Yvonne Waern, Lois Ann Scheidt, Vincent Dwyer, and >Amanda Lenhart for their contributions! > >FWIW: I'm out of the States until June 10 - in part, in order to participate >in some lectures, a conference, and a graduate course organized by aoir's >very own Gitte Stald, Janne Bromseth, and Dag Elgesem (and announced on this >list by Gitte and Janne: please contact them for more details if you're >interested! Gitte Stald <stald(a)hum.ku.dk>, Janne Bromseth ><janne.bromseth(a)hf.ntnu.no>). I hope to have e-mail in those most wired of >all possible worlds - but I may not have the leisure to reply specifically >to responses until we return in June. > >Thanks again to all who have contributed to this document - beyond those >mentioned above, this includes a number of aoir members who have commented >on our preliminary report and the panel presentation on Internet research >ethics at aoir 2.0, and others who have corresponded with me and the >committee over time regarding specific concerns and debates. > >On behalf of the ethics working committee, I very much look forward to your >comments and discussion. > >Cheers, > >Charles Ess >Director, Interdisciplinary Studies Center >Drury University >900 N. Benton Ave. Voice: 417-873-7230 >Springfield, MO 65802 USA FAX: 417-873-7435 >Home page: http://www.drury.edu/ess/ess.html >Co-chair, CATaC 2002: http://www.it.murdoch.edu.au/~sudweeks/catac02/ >"...to be non-violent, we must not wish for anything on this earth which the >meanest and lowest of human beings cannot have." -- Gandhi

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spa > slum
by Barry Wellman 05 Jun '02

05 Jun '02

Kurt Reymer likens business class lounges to "spas". Perhaps once, and yes, still in comparison to sitting by the gate. But it is more Holiday Inn vs Motel 6, than Ritz-Carlton level. Most people in business class lounges are there because of deals their organizations have negotiated such privileges as part of their volume purchases of air travel. Kurt is right that class is analytically useful, but we have to specify which class. In class terms, the "road warriors" who use them are not upper elite, but upper middle class. They have no control over the means of production, but usually some control over the terms of production. They are often technicans, as well as professionals and managers. As business lounges have gotten broader in their clientele -- and not just elite -- they have changed. For one thing, they are pretty good on road warrior production amenities: printer, internet plug-ins, desks for PCs, lotsa phones. However, they provide much less reproduction/consumption amenities: rarely any food altho lotsa beverages; seats are not good; CNN blasts as irritatingly there as iin the main terminal. They are also not as well maintained as 5 years ago, in accord with the general decline in airline service. (My impressions come mostly from Air Canada, United, American and Lufthansa.) Kurt is also right that "road warrior" is a macho term (although I'd count Xenia in when she gets a laptop and 800 number;-)). It is clearly a marketing hype term that PC Magazine [and perhaps] others started using 5-7 years ago, originally with respect to people using laptops and their anciliaries. 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: Road Warriors -- anomie, etcetera
by Wendy Robinson 31 May '02

31 May '02

To be clear, I said that "those who have been influenced by Innis, McLuhan, Beniger and Carey" -- which is a lot of people, most of us on the list, I assume. Those who have considered the effect of the telegraph and distributed communication, pre-Internet. Anomie as a condition of life on the road and the virtual community and modern to postmodern communication and the existential condition thereof. The life of the contemporary, vagabond, technomadic scholar is one sort of road warrior. the Taliban with their cell phones and dish transmissions are another, and quite literally warriors on the old silk road. But actually I don't know that I would privilege that term. What interests me in the thread is taking your work and gizmos with you wherever you go, the fact that the logging in and out metaphors are losing their centrality and that this changing paradigm is global. We're better connected, yet more atomized. Thus far, enthusiastic claims aside, the Net has not brought about universal brotherhood and understanding. We communicate more, but perhaps listen less (very old dystopic claims, again dating to the electric telegraph). We have conveniences that contribute to our business and social lives and that enable the most recent iteration of the "road warrior" lifestyle, yet they're also a pain in the neck. It's more stuff to buy and keep up with, encouraging greater corporate incursion, however nearly undeniably cool, mobilizing, etcetera.

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re: road warriors, study of
by Reymers, Kurt 31 May '02

31 May '02

I agree with the confusion regarding anomie and the e-road writings; I would see Mumford or Ellul more problematic when considering community effects of technically distributed communication. After thinking about the idea of road warriors, I find a class perspective might be helpful in engaging in a study of "road warriors." As Barry has described them, they are the "travel elite," provided with special lounges, equipment, entertainment and other resources to make the road more amenable and to keep a 'lifeline' to the locus of big business, the main office. These are the latter-day bourgeoisie making their business travel purposeful through the means of electronic communication and vice-versa - making their laptops, pda's, etc. purposeful through business travel. Contrast these road warriors with other occupations that necessitate travel - the musician and her roadies, the nearly-extinct traditional traveling salesman (the Willie Loman archetype), the professor traveling to conferences. None are as glamorous or as benefitted by the niceties available to the road warrior. Look too at the very name: "road warrior" connotes strength, courage, bravery in the face of the grueling opposition (the harsh realities of the road). Yet the executive lounge is more like a spa than a foxhole. As a once-traveling musician myself, I can speak empirically of foxholes on the road. I found that keeping a journal was helpful in overcoming such difficulties; I would certainly have welcomed an internet connection, not to mention an executive lounge (quite different than the 'lounges' a musician on the road might frequent). Perhaps an interesting study could be done comparing and contrasting road warriors by their occupation, to differentiate if, how and why these various classes are tied back to their community by the umbilical cord of the Internet. writing from the road, Kurt Reymers ----------------------------------------------------------------- > Date: Tue, 28 May 2002 12:16:21 -0400 > From: Barry Wellman <wellman(a)chass.utoronto.ca> > To: aoir list <air-l(a)aoir.org>, Wendy Robinson <wgrobin(a)duke.edu> > Subject: [Air-l] road-warriors, study of > Reply-To: air-l(a)aoir.org > > Wendy Robinson writes; > "As is so often the case, e-roads and railroads typically lead back to the > anomie and distributed communication enabled by the telegraph. Many of the > "road warrior" issues have been theoretically considered within cultural > studies by those influenced by Innis, McLuhan, Beniger and Carey for many > years. Nothing new in that for most on this list." > > BW: > 1. I don't understand the anomie reference to e-roads, RRs and > telegraphs. I know the e-road data pretty well, and it shows no effect or a > positive effect on sentiments and behaviors of community. (Time for another > plug for our Nov 2002 issue of American Behavioral Scientist, and > Wellman-Haythornthwaite's forthcoming _Internet in Everyday Life_). > > 2. As to "Innis, McLuhan, Beniger and Carey. Nothing new for most on > this list". > BW: I knew McLuhan, know Carey, and Beniger slightly and work often in > a building named for Harold Innis. These are all smart guys and deep > theorist. But except possibly for Beninger, none did a systematic study > of long-distance communication and community at the interpersonal level. > Innis, to be sure, wrote the wonderful Empire and COmmunication, etc., > but as the title implies, that was not a detailed, deeply-textured look at > community or work relations. Surely, we don't think that deep theorizing is > enough without systematic evidence to back it up and, more likely, develop > and extend it. > I have received one pointer to a study of road warriors. I am leaving on > the road myself in 10 minutes; will check it out when I get a chance. > > 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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digital divide consumer report
by Nancy Baym 30 May '02

30 May '02

A new report from the Consumer Federation of America may interest those of you concerned with policy and access disparities in the US: Does the Digital Divide Still Exist? Bush Administration Shrugs, But Evidence Says "Yes", 5/30/2002 http://www.consumerfed.org/DigitalDivideReport20020530.pdf ________________________________________________________ Nancy Baym http://www.ku.edu/home/nbaym Communication Studies, University of Kansas 102 Bailey, 1440 Jayhawk Blvd., Lawrence, KS 66045, USA Association of Internet Researchers: http://aoir.org

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new reviews in cyberculture studies (june 2002)
by david silver 29 May '02

29 May '02

AIRers, *** feel free to distribute *** New Book Reviews in Cyberculture Studies (June 2002) Each month, the Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies (RCCS) <http://www.com.washington.edu/rccs> publishes two or three full-length book reviews. The reviews reflect a modest attempt to locate critically various contours of the emerging and interdisciplinary field of cyberculture studies. RCCS's book reviews section now includes full-length reviews of over 130 books on cyberculture, the Internet, and technoculture. New reviews for June 2002 (found at http://www.com.washington.edu/rccs/books/) include: Anne Wells Branscomb, Who Owns Information? From Privacy to Public Access. Basic Books, 1994. Reviewed by Benjamin Bates. Marie-Laure Ryan, editor, Cyberspace Textuality: Computer Technology & Literary Theory. Indiana University Press, 1999. Reviewed by Sara Jenkins. Barbara Warnick, Critical Literacy in a Digital Era: Technology, Rhetoric, and the Public Interest. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2002. Reviewed by Mia Consalvo. If you or your colleagues are interested in reviewing books for RCCS, contact us directly at <dsilver(a)u.washington.edu>. As always, please feel free to forward this message. david silver http://faculty.washington.edu/dsilver To SUBSCRIBE to cyberculture-announce, a low volume announcement list for RCCS events and updates, email: listproc(a)u.washington.edu; No subject is needed. In the body, type: subscribe cyberculture-announce

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A new method of online research: CAPOI
by L.L. 29 May '02

29 May '02

(the 29th of May 2002) - Until now, online research had a significant disadvantage: in most cases, it just publishes a questionnaire on the Internet, therefore lacking personal impetus when contacting and questioning interviewees. This results in high drop-out-rates too often. Neither a high number of interviews nor the use of online panels with questionable reward-systems can cover the resulting considerable lack of data quality. Consequently, I have developed a new method of multi-channel marketing and opinion research that I named CAPOI (computer aided personal online interview) CAPOI is a questioning led via telephone or text-/voice-chat, and the internet/browser. As a further development of the idea of web-sharing, CAPOI allows the interviewer to flexibly show questions or presentation material of his/her electronic questionnaire to the interviewee via internet browser. Thus, the advantages of online questionnaires and personal questioning can be combined as required. Furthermore, CAPOI offers interesting possibilities in marketing and customer relationship management. CAPOI is especially interesting as a method that replaces paper and pencil or CAPI questionings in business to business research, saving a lot of money because traveling is not necessary anymore. CATI (computer aided telephone interview)-questionings can be enriched and online surveys gain a lot through personal rapport. I have developed a ready-to-use online dialogue system [2ai.de INTERACTION] to be able to conduct CAPOI. Further information can be found on my homepage http://www.2ai.de. <http://www.2ai.de> I am looking for interested research companies and science people interested in further exploring the method. Best regards, Lars Ludwig [2ai.de] Diplom-Psychologe Lars Ludwig Decksteiner Strasse 2 50935 Cologne - Germany - +49 (221) 420 87-38 Telephone +49 (221) 420 87-39 Fax eMail: 2aide(a)L-Ludwig.com

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road-warriors, study of
by Barry Wellman 28 May '02

28 May '02

Wendy Robinson writes; "As is so often the case, e-roads and railroads typically lead back to the anomie and distributed communication enabled by the telegraph. Many of the "road warrior" issues have been theoretically considered within cultural studies by those influenced by Innis, McLuhan, Beniger and Carey for many years. Nothing new in that for most on this list." BW: 1. I don't understand the anomie reference to e-roads, RRs and telegraphs. I know the e-road data pretty well, and it shows no effect or a positive effect on sentiments and behaviors of community. (Time for another plug for our Nov 2002 issue of American Behavioral Scientist, and Wellman-Haythornthwaite's forthcoming _Internet in Everyday Life_). 2. As to "Innis, McLuhan, Beniger and Carey. Nothing new for most on this list". BW: I knew McLuhan, know Carey, and Beniger slightly and work often in a building named for Harold Innis. These are all smart guys and deep theorist. But except possibly for Beninger, none did a systematic study of long-distance communication and community at the interpersonal level. Innis, to be sure, wrote the wonderful Empire and COmmunication, etc., but as the title implies, that was not a detailed, deeply-textured look at community or work relations. Surely, we don't think that deep theorizing is enough without systematic evidence to back it up and, more likely, develop and extend it. I have received one pointer to a study of road warriors. I am leaving on the road myself in 10 minutes; will check it out when I get a chance. 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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