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

Gaming on computercafés?
by Louise og Morten 23 May '02

23 May '02

I'm presently conducting a study of sociality and neo-tribalisme in the gaming communities in computercafés in Copenhagen, as part of an assignment at the Institutet of sociology at The University of Copenhagen. Unfortunatly I'm unable to locate any research in this field - and has been advised to post the question here to find out if any such exists. I hope some af you are able to help. Morten Frederiksen

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Re: [Air-l] case studies of mailinglists
by Ben Davidson 23 May '02

23 May '02

www.bendavidson.co.uk/professional_pages/publications/articles/lrgegrp.htm The Internet and the Large Group Abstract Although communication via the Internet attracts suspicion, it is more similar to other communication media than different. The practical workings and the experience of membership of an Internet forum are described both through some general samples of discourse and through a case study relating to a thread of discourse in which the author was centrally involved. The shared features of this forum and other groups are sketched, drawing on the case study discourse and drawing parallels between the role and function of group analyst and that of group moderator. Other features of the forum which demonstrate some of the large group phenomena described in Kreeger's seminal text are also explored, challenging Foulkes' notion that 'it is ... doubtful whether ... ideal [large group] conditions are realisable'. Ben ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ben Davidson" <bendavidson(a)totalise.co.uk> To: <air-l(a)aoir.org> Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2002 7:14 AM Subject: Re: [Air-l] case studies of mailinglists > I used a case study approach in a paper The Internet and the Large Group > that was published in Group Analysis a few years back: > > Davidson, B. (1998) The Internet and the Large Group Group Analysis 31[4] > pp.457-471 > > http://www.bendavidson.co.uk/professional_pages/publications/articles/lrgegr > p.htm > > Ben > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "geert lovink" <geert(a)desk.nl> > To: <air-l(a)aoir.org> > Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2002 3:23 AM > Subject: [Air-l] case studies of mailinglists > > > > Dear Air-l, > > > > for my PhD at the University of Melbourne I have recently written a few > case > > studies of mailinglist communities. Now I am winding up this project and > for > > the introduction and conclusion I would like to refer to a few similar > case > > studies, but I can't find all that many of them. Does anyone have a > > suggestion? It could be studies about virtual communities but that's > perhaps > > a bit too broad. I am in particularly interested in internal dynamics and > > issues of sustainability. Any reference is most welcome. > > > > BTW. I do like the (new) afterword Howard Rheingold wrote for his Virtual > > Community book which MIT Press reprinted recently. I am not sure how > > welknown this text is. It's a good and honest reassessment of his > passions. > > > > Yours, > > > > Geert Lovink (Sydney) > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Air-l mailing list > > Air-l(a)aoir.org > > http://www.aoir.org/mailman/listinfo/air-l >

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Re: AUP (Acceptable Use Policy)
by Bram Dov Abramson 22 May '02

22 May '02

jhuns(a)vt.edu: >the sole problem, from my analysis of the wide variety of aup available >from around the world, is that each governs part, but not all of the >network after a certain point of plurality. because of this, even >though we can speak of an nsfnet aup, it may have been possible even >that time to use nsfnet without being necessarily bound by that policy >because of interconnections between networks I think maybe this collapses two different things: (1) When the NSFNET was the One True Backbone -- and governed "all of the network" -- networks could not interconnect to it and legitimately pass commercial traffic. Some commercial traffic was passed of course but no network provider wished to connect to NSFNET as a business model. This preserved a non-commercial character but stifled growth, and is why the NSFNET AUP was important in functional (organizational/institutional) terms although naturally yuo could find many individual traffic streams which didn't respect said AUP on a usage basis. Some network providers saw a commercial opportunity in Internet though and created CIX. CIX danced around NSFNET so that NSFNET no longer governed "all of the network", 1991. Then NSFNET declared that it was no longer responsible for the whole backbone, only one of them, 1992, and got out of the way entirely, 1994. So, between 1991 and 1994 the Internet progressively became a set of interconnected networks abiding by common standards instead of a hierarchical system. By serving as the initial technical interface for non-NSFNET-AUP inteconnection, CIX was the turning point in the Internet's passage from a narrowly-used research network to a widely-used commercial network. (2) Once the NSFNET replaced itself with 4 Network Access Points (NAPs), alongside CIX, and hence consecrated the Internet's many-interconnected-networks architecture, indeed the only relevant traditional AUPs became the Acceptable Use Policies that the majority of networks impose upon their users (the "wide variety of aup available from around the world" which you have analysed). But note also a third element which maybe brings us back to where this discussion started: (3) There continues as you know to be another, more diffuse AUP-like device that governs the Internet -- Internet standards. Collectively, the Internet's corpus of RFCs (Requests for Comments) and, specifically, the BCPs (Best Current Practice documents) which award some of them special status, constitute today's version of the NSFNET AUP (rfc-editor.org) Those who do not obey the RFCs open themselves to losing interoperability. Like any policy document however enforcement of the RFCs/BCPs -- copyright still held, I think, by ISOC (isoc.org) -- is diffuse and somewhat inconsistent. Especially so on the Internet where said enforcement is collaborative not centralised. Hence non-compliance means, again, likelihood of less interoperability (outcomes of provider-by-provider decisions), not black-or-white on-net or off-net status. Social sanctions not legal sanctions comprising governance whose institutional and informal materialisations are a quite valid research subject, as socio-legal scholars might chime in. my C$0.02, Bram

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AoIR 3.0 Reminder
by Steve Jones 22 May '02

22 May '02

[Feel free to circulate to other lists, but please avoid excessive crossposting. Thank you.] Internet Research 3.0: NET / WORK / THEORY, the International and Interdisciplinary Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR), International Institute of Infonomics and University of Maastricht, The Netherlands, is taking place October 13-16, 2002. Confirmed keynoters for the conference are: 1) Dr. Detlef Eckert, Head of Unit for Policy Planning, European Commission, Directorate General Information Society 2) Professor Bill Dutton, Director, Oxford Internet Institute 3) Professor Dr. Cees J. Hamelink, University of Amsterdam 4) Professor Dr. Robin Mansell, London School of Economics Registration is open at the conference website: http://www.aoir.org/2002 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Internet Research (IR) 3.0, an international and interdisciplinary conference, will feature a variety of perspectives on Internet research, in order to develop a better theoretical and pragmatic understanding of the Internet. Building on the previous well-attended international conferences, IR 3.0 will bring together prominent scholars, researchers, and practitioners from many disciplines, fields and countries for a program of presentations, panel discussions, and informal exchanges. Over 300 proposals for panels and scholarly presentations have been accepted. Additionally, there will be the following pre-conference workshops: "Intellectual Property for Internet Researchers" and "Social, Technical and Democratic Origins of the Internet." Additional information about these workshops is available at http://www.aoir/org/2002/program. A complete program will be posted soon on the conference website. This year's theme, Net/Work/Theory, is intended to encourage participants to reflect on how to theorize what we know about the Internet and on how to apply what we know theoretically in practice. The conference will be held for the first time in Europe, where intellectual environments have traditionally been a source of social and cultural theory. IR 3.0 will be hosted by the International Institute of Infonomics in the beautiful city of Maastricht in the Netherlands. As the city in which one of the key treaties of the European Union was signed, Maastricht also symbolizes a changing Europe in a changing international setting. The conference will provide opportunities to network, learn from other researchers, hear from leading players in Internet development, and enjoy the "art of fine living" of Maastricht, in the south of the Netherlands. CONTACT INFORMATION: If you have questions about the conference, program, or AoIR, please contact: Conference Coordinator: Monica Murero, Infonomics and University of Maastricht, Monica.Murero(a)infonomics.nl Program Chair: Klaus Bruhn Jensen, University of Copenhagen: kbj(a)hum.ku.dk A(o)IR President: Steve Jones, sjones(a)uic.edu More Information about IR 3.0 can be found on the Conference Website: http://www.aoir.org/2002 For more information about the Association of Internet Researchers, including information on joining the association, visit AoIR's http://aoir.org For more information about the International Institute of Infonomics visit http://www.infonomics.nl

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sociality and neo-tribalisme in the
by Gitte Stald 22 May '02

22 May '02

Hi Morten, Denmark is a small country and research milieus accordingly so - and still we haven't been in contact! - I am doing research on online gaming communities and would be very interested in exchanging experience and information. There are a number of relevant research web-sites (please see below) where you can find more information/inspiration. Furthermore, a Danish network of computer game researchers has been established (spilforskning.dk). Also, an international network is being established these days. Mail me and I shall provide you with further information. http://www.game-research.com/ http://www.digiplay.org.uk/ http://www.game-culture.com/index.html http://cmc.uib.no/gamestudies/ Best, Gitte -------------------------------------- Gitte Bang Stald Assistant Professor Film & Media Studies University of Copenhagen Njalsgade 80, 2300 Copenhagen S DK-Denmark Tel: +45 35329181 E-mail: stald(a)hum.ku.dk web: www.ifm.ku.dk -----------------------------------------

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Interesting new search engine
by Steve Jones 22 May '02

22 May '02

> >Kartoo > >On April 25, Kartoo SA launched a new generation meta-search engine >called Kartoo. It provides an innovative, visual way to retrieve >information from the web. The Kartoo technology has been under >development for two years and http://www.kartoo.com/ is it's first >'proof of concept' application. > >Laurent Baleydier, the designer of Kartoo, set himself the goal of >developing a powerful meta-search engine that would help internet >users precisely tune their information searching through a very >intuitive interface, with no need for them to master the Boolean >processing units. Kartoo resides online, requiring no prior software >downloading. It provides a multilingual interface (English, French, >and soon Spanish and Portuguese). Web sites are classified according >to a proprietary algorithm that emphasizes the most relevant sites >and the software automatically selects the most pertinent search >engines. > > > >Web sites identified by a search are placed on a map; the sites are >represented by balls, with their size in proportion to how relevant >they are. The balls are connected together by dynamic semantic links >(e.g. the semantic link between daewoo.com and renault.fr is "car >manufacturer"). Clicking on the link allows to add or subtract the >theme to your initial request, and Kartoo translates the syntax >depending on which search engines are activated. > >Advanced search functions (URL, near, domain, images) are also >available. Kartoo allows you to choose the graphic environment in >which selected sites appear. The visual graphic results display can >also be modified: background colour, representation of semantic >links, and moving from a cartographic mode to a "standard" mode with >a list of brief descriptions. Maps can be stored locally and >forwarded. >Few software products are marketed solely as a public search engine, >and Kartoo is no exception. They offer several products for >commercial market: intranet, portal, thematic (software research, >finance, medical), and digital TV. Its major application to CI >searching is its capability to identify and elegantly display >complex relationships between topics and company sites. > > >

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Re: AUP (Acceptable Use Policy)
by Bram Dov Abramson 21 May '02

21 May '02

http://commposite.org/99.1/articles/abramson.htm#fn9: >Jusqu'en 1991, les utilisations de l'Internet à caractère commercial >étaient limitées par la politique édictée dans l'AUP (Acceptable Use >Policy) de la National Science Foundation (NSF), qui énonçait le principe >général suivant: "NSFNET backbone services are provided to support open >research and education in and between US research and instructional >institutions, plus research arms of for-profit firms when engaged in open >scholarly communications and research. Use for other purposes is not >acceptable". Plus spécifiquement, la politique qualifiait d'usage >inacceptable l'utilisation du backbone du NSF -- la base de l'architecture >de l'Internet -- pour des activités lucratives. En 1991, le point >d'échange CIX (Commercial Internet eXchange Association) a été formé par >les réseaux General Atomics (CERFnet), Performance Systems International, >Inc. (PSInet) et UUNET Technologies, Inc. (AlterNet), pour transiter du >trafic commercial, passant ainsi à travers NSFNET et son AUP. S'apercevant >de l'énorme potentiel commercial de l'Internet, le gouvernement >états-unien a jugé que le temps était arrivé de modifier son rôle pour >encourager un financement privé et privatiser l'architecture du réseau. Le >23 décembre 1992, la National Science Foundation a annoncé qu'elle >arrêterait de fournir le backbone de l'Internet et, quelques deux ans plus >tard, des contrats ont été rédigés pour l'exploitation de points d'accès >central (Network Access Points - NAPs). Depuis, certains fournisseurs de >services ont adopté des "politiques d'utilisation acceptable des >ressources mises à la disposition de leurs abonnés". Translated: Until 1991, commercial uses of the Internet were limited by the policy set out in the AUP (Acceptable Use Policy) of the National Science Foundation (NSF), which set out the following general principle: "NSFNET backbone services are provided to support open research and education in and between US research and instructional institutions, plus research arms of for-profit firms when engaged in open scholarly communications and research. Use for other purposes is not acceptable". More specifically, the policy qualified as unacceptable any use of the NSF backbone -- the basis of the Internet's (then-)architecture -- for profit-based activity. In 1991, the CIX (Commercial Internet eXchange Association) exchange point was formed by the networks General Atomics (CERFnet), Performance Systems International Inc (PSInet) and UUNET Technologies Inc (AlterNet) in order to transit commecial traffic, thus going around the NSFNET and its AUP. Noting the substantial commercial potential of the Internet, the U.S. government judged that it was time to modify its role by encouraging private financing and privatise the network architecture. On 23 December 1992, the National Science Foundation announced that it would stop supplying the Internet backbone and, two-odd years later, contracts were awarded for the operation of central access points (Network Access Points - NAPs). Since then, certain service providers have adopted acceptable usage policies as to the resources made available to their subscribers. >Le texte intégral de la politique de la NSFNET en matière d'"Acceptable >Use Policy" est reproduit dans l'ouvrage de J.H. Ellsworth et M.V. >Ellsworth, "The Internet Business Book" (cf. >http://www.oak-ridge.com/ibb.html) dont le chapitre 4, intitulé >"Acceptable and Unacceptable Uses of the Internet", est disponible à >l'adresse électronique suivante: http://www.oak-ridge.com/ibbch4p1.html The text of the NSFNET Acceptable Use Policy is reproduced in the book by J.H. Ellsworth et M.V. Ellsworth, "The Internet Business Book" (cf. http://www.oak-ridge.com/ibb.html) whose chapter 4, titled "Acceptable and Unacceptable Uses of the Internet", is available at the url http://www.oak-ridge.com/ibbch4p1.html. cheers Bram

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Re: responses re: my Q about cellular phones & digital divide
by Bram Dov Abramson 21 May '02

21 May '02

myildiz(a)indiana.edu: >These are the responses I got to my question regarding the use of mobile >phones for bridging the digital gap/ divide especially in developing >countries. Enjoy! Maybe one more useful resource is the ITU-D's indicators programme, then. As I understand it, they administer an annual questionnaire to members administrations which, linked with some off-the-cuff data gathering of their own, helps them compile annual country-by-country statistics showing "main lines" (wireline subscriptions), mobile phones, penetration, etc.: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/ cheers Bram

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AUP (Acceptable Use Policy)
by Rajiv Shah 20 May '02

20 May '02

The Internet has had an AUP (Acceptable Use Policy) from its origins as the ARPANET, because the Internet was a government-sponsored network. The AUP was gradually relaxed because of commercial pressure. Legislation in 1992 led the National Science Foundation to allow commercial use of the NSFNET. For more details and citations I would refer you to my paper on the privatization of the Internet which is available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=260834 Rajiv Shah r-shah4(a)uiuc.edu http://www.RajivShah.com

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responses re: my Q about cellular phones & digital divide
by Mete Yildiz 20 May '02

20 May '02

Hi all, These are the responses I got to my question regarding the use of mobile phones for bridging the digital gap/ divide especially in developing countries. Enjoy! Special thanks go to Kursat Cagiltay, John Daly, Nalini Kotamraju and Ewa Callahan. Answer 1: Volume 9 Number 2/April 01, 2002 of Journal of European Public Policy EU regulatory strategy for mobile Internet p. 273, by Johan Lembke URL of article: http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/link.asp?id=DA093VD0V4R2YAVQ A2: I don't know how much has been written about it, but the number of cellular phones has exploded in developing countries, and wireless telephony seems to be a leap frog technology that is helping increase connectivity rapidly. The Grameen Bank in India is an example of a program that is promoting rural connectivity via cellular phones. A3: A running bibliography I have on mobile phones http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~nalinik/mobile.html A4: During the CHI2002, there was an intitiative to start SIG on cross-cultural issues and mobile devices, which I would assume includes the phones. The person who started the initiative is Aaron Marcus. Some news articles: 1. http://www.economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=954329 Mobile telephones: From cell-phones to self-phones Jan 24th 2002, From The Economist print edition 2. Banning pre-paid mobile phones http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_1777000/1777516.stm 3. Cordless e-mail phones to hit Europe Panasonic, Philips and Siemens say they plan to launch cordless landline phones across Europe that can send and receive e-mail. Source: http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=10061 Cheers, Mete Mete Yildiz School of Public and Environmental Affairs Indiana University, Bloomington

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