November 2003 - Air-L - lists.aoir.org

new technologies: diffusion comparison diagra
by Bernie Hogan 14 Nov '03

14 Nov '03

Hi everyone, #1 DVD is diffusing faster than the Internet, as is the mobile phone in many places. It is not unprecedented. Furthermore, the diffusion curve here suggests that television might have been as steep. #2 Everett Roger's book "Diffusion of Innovations" is highly recommended. I haven't read the fifth edition so I cannot speak to it, but the fourth is really great. #3 Internet diffusion should be probably broken down by dail-up vs high-speed and definately by country. #4 It shold also be noted that this chart wold sugest the internet was invented 9 years ago. Would that make the chart 2000, and the internet being correlated with WWW? One should be very careful to make such claims, given that the role of DARPAnet and all sorts of precommercial work has been embedded in the history of the Internet's development. It would still behave like a logarithmic curve but it does inject a different sort of ideology into the picture about who is responsible for the Internet's diffusion, AOL, the FCC or general diffusion trends. #5 There is some evidence to suggest that the Internet will not receive the total diffusion that telelvision did. It is already being outpaced by mobile phones in many places. Nonetheless, this is still an interesting graphic. Thanks! BERNiE Bernie Hogan Ph.D. Student Department of Sociology NetLab, Knowledge Media Design Institute University of Toronto bernie.hogan(a)utoronto.ca http://edublog.com/hogan/

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Two jobs, Michigan
by Charlie Breindahl 13 Nov '03

13 Nov '03

The Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media in the Michigan State University College of Communication Arts and Sciences is currently searching for: 1) an Assistant Professor whose primary area of teaching and scholarship is the interaction between communication media and society, with a strong emphasis on new and emerging media and technologies. 2) an Assistant Professor in digital media arts and technology, with expertise in several of the following areas interactive multimedia design, web design, video and audio production, compositing and effects (CGI), 3D graphics design, game design, programming, and human-computer interaction. If you or someone else, might me interested in these fine opportunities, further details are available at: http://cas.msu.edu/faculty-hiring/tccms.html http://cas.msu.edu/faculty-hiring/tcdmat.html Thanks very much. Mark R. Levy Professor and Chairperson Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, & Media Michigan State University Room 409 Comm Arts & Sciences Building East Lansing, MI 48824-1212 Phone: (517) 355-8372 Fax: (517) 355-1292 mlevy(a)msu.edu

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Fwd: CTP Call for Papers - IAMCR Porto Alegre 2004
by Maren Hartmann 13 Nov '03

13 Nov '03

>*** Apologies for possible cross postings *** > > >Porto Alegre - CTP Call for Papers > > >The Communications Technology Policy section invites submission of >abstracts for papers and posters to be presented at the 2004 IAMCR >Conference to be held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, 25.-30. July 2004. >The Conference will be held under the theme: Communication and >Democracy: Perspectives for a New World. More information about the >conference is available at: http://www.pucrs.br/famecos/iamcr/ > >Digital technology opens up new possibilities for democratization. >Through ICTs citizens may get better access to information and find >new means to participate in democratic debate and decision-making. >Yet, there are a number of political and social challenges to enable >these potentials to be fully realized on local, national and global >levels. These challenges include questions of culture, capabilities, >access and social inclusion, of the openness of the networks and of >the possibilities for citizens to use ICTs effectively for >participatory purposes. How does policy address these issues - and >how does this interact with new market developments? How do user >aspects enable or constrain possibilities of digital participation? >What new dimensions of research can contribute to a better >understanding of the relationships between policy, information and >communication technology and democracy? > >Papers and posters to be presented in the CTP Section should relate >to the overall theme of the conference and contributions on the >following sub-themes are especially invited: > >* Digital Divide vs Democratic Inclusion - political, social and >cultural challenges on local and global levels. >* Structures and governance of the liberalized ICT industries. >* Strategies and policies regarding gate keepers in converging markets. >* Global Technologies and Local Power Relations - policies, >adaptation and use at community levels. > >The CTP section encourages papers that address these themes from the >perspective of the production and/or consumption of technologies. >Although the sub-themes above are of particular interest, the >section welcomes submissions on closely related issues and will give >consideration to such abstracts. The section encourages papers >offering theoretically informed and empirically grounded >contributions. > >Abstracts of about 500 words should be sent by 14. February 2003 to >iamcr-ctp(a)encip.org. In addition you should also put the four e-mail >addresses of the section heads and deputies in CC (Carbon Copy) >(hdunn(a)cwjamaica.com, Verhoest2(a)stb.tno.nl, jo.pierson(a)vub.ac.be, >tanja.storsul(a)media.uio.no) Please indicate whether the abstract is >intended for the paper or poster sessions. All prospective >presenters will be advised by 12. April 2004 of the outcome of their >applications. The full text of accepted papers would be due for >submission no later than 13. July 2004. > >For updates and further information about the section, please visit >eCTP - the section's website: >http://www.komdat.sbg.ac.at/ectp/ >

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EQ Researchers Meet
by T.L. Taylor 13 Nov '03

13 Nov '03

Hi folks. I'm hoping this reaches everyone who expressed an interest in EQ researchers event. I'm also forwarding this message to a couple extra lists that might contain members who would like to join in. Please feel free to pass this announcement along to interested parties as well. On Saturday, Nov 22 there will an online meeting of EQ researchers (or researchers interested in doing work in the game). In fine Norrathian tradition everyone will start out as a level 1 and we will proceed to have drunken races, fireworks, and who knows, maybe some serious talk in between ;) The details: Saturday, Nov 22 @ 3pm EST (12pm PST and 9pm CET) EverQuest, Bristlebane server, Butcherblock Mountains outside the city of Kaladim (everyone is encouraged to start a level 1 dwarf, beards optional!) Feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions or already have a character on BB and want to help out with any of the pre-fest preparations. Look forward to seeing folks there! TL -- ___________________________________ T.L. Taylor, Assistant Professor Center for Computer Games Research Dept. of Digital Aesthetics and Communiction IT University of Copenhagen Glentevej 67, 2400-DK NV Copenhagen +45 38 16 89 61 (tele) / +45 38 16 88 99 (fax) tltaylor(a)itu.dk / http://www.itu.dk/~tltaylor/

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RE: [Air-l] AoIR Presidential Thoughts
by Blanchard, Anita L 12 Nov '03

12 Nov '03

APOLOGIES! That was meant as a private email. I'm sorry! Anita

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RE: [Air-l] AoIR Presidential Thoughts
by Blanchard, Anita L 12 Nov '03

12 Nov '03

Hi Nancy-- This is a AOIR conference issue, but I need help. I've emailed the treasurer and the conference chair to no avail. I cannot find my receipt for the conference and I need to turn in my expenses. Could you please forward this to the right person so that I can be helped out? Thanks! Anita Anita L. Blanchard, Ph.D. Dept of Psychology UNC Charlotte 9201 University City Blvd Charlotte, NC 28223 phone: 704.687.4847 fax: 704.687.3296 email: alblanch(a)email.uncc.edu web: http://www.uncc.edu/alblanch -----Original Message----- From: Nancy Baym [mailto:nbaym@ku.edu] Sent: Friday, October 31, 2003 11:08 AM To: air-l(a)aoir.org Subject: [Air-l] AoIR Presidential Thoughts Hello, At our General Meeting in Toronto I did not give any sort of innagural address. I would like to offer a few thoughts here. I hope you will take some time to think about these issues and engage in their discussion on list or with me. I was struck (again) in Toronto at the extent to which, in a remarkably short time, this association has come to be an institution suspiciously similar to other academic associations. Sitting in panels, it was almost hard to remember how recently the very idea of this conference seemed like an overly-ambitious dream or how, less than four years ago, I was making arrangements for our first meeting in Kansas and wondering if anyone outside the midwestern United States would come. We have now had over 1,000 individuals come to our four meetings, and we have nearly 2,000 subscribers to air-l. Our first Internet Research Annual, bringing together selected papers from the first three conferences, will be released in a few weeks and reviewing for the second annual will begin shortly. In addition, a number of books have already been published or are being planned based on panels and collaborative research projects that grew out of our conferences, and many research papers have been published in journals. Our ethics working group has created a guide that is being used by many scholars and increasing numbers of institutional review boards. Being able to help make all this happen has easily been the most rewarding enterprise of my professional life. I've also been amazed and deeply personally rewarded by the extent to which we have created a community of friends as well as colleagues. I think I speak for many repeat attenders when I say that people who were just names to me before our first meeting are now among my dearest friends and that one regret of our meetings is that I don't have time to get to know all those other interesting looking people walking around. That said, the association's rapid growth and the increased expectations people have of us present a number of challenges and issues, particularly given our status as an all-volunteer association. Like my predecessor in this role, Steve Jones, I believe that my role, and the role of the executive committee in general, is to facilitate the association's organic growth based on the interests, desires, needs, and energies of the members. I do not have a strong agenda I wish to impose on you. I hope all of us will be engaged in making AoIR what we want it to be, recognizing that there are some tensions which may ultimately be unresolvable. In Interpersonal Communication Theory, we talk about "relational dialectics," the idea that all relationships involve continuous efforts to find satisfactory points of balance between competing demands (for instance, the desires that our conferences include scholars from more and more disciplines yet have fewer simultaneous sessions). I hope that AoIR can find balance points that work for most of us, but acknowledge that some will always want more or less of something than others do, and that no approach will ever satisfy everyone. One challenge we face is the expectation that we should always be doing more and exploring areas we haven't. In essense, the challenge here is to take full advantages of the scarce resources we do have and to find new resources in order to create what we want to have. People point out on occassion that as an internet association, we should do more with the internet. Ideas range from overhauling the web site, to creating new online spaces, to creating complex databases of internet research, publications, and so on. There is indeed a tremendous amount of unrealized potential. There are also right now exactly two people who are doing all of our web work, and they are both in the midst of writing Ph.D. dissertations. We have had some successes in this area, most recently the list of AoIR bloggers compiled by Jeremy Hunsinger and Thomas Burg, and the List of Lists compiled by Jeremy, Ulla Bunz, David Silver, and Matt Allen. What we have not had, thus far, are the financial resources to pay people to do these things nor the volunteers it would take to create as many of these resources as we want. One way to reach our online potential is to charge considerably more for membership and conference fees so that we can pay for initiatives like these. Another is for more people who can make these things happen and are willing to see them through to volunteer. Perhaps the most exciting possibility would be if people who have great ideas (and skills) for novel and beneficial ways to use the internet could partner with us in seeking grant funding to make those ideas happen. There are doubtless other possibilities as well, and we will be putting together at least one working group to guide us in thinking through these issues in the coming months. Your thoughts and energies are welcome. If you have the energy to build resources, don't ever be shy about coming to us with your ideas. Another challenge seems to me to be our greatest strength, which is interdisciplinarity. We have a dialectic between wanting to be exposed to and informed by different ways of approaching the topics we care about and at the same time wanting others' work to conform to the standards by which we assess work in our home disciplines. We all need to rise to the challenge of presenting our ideas in ways that will be compelling to those who are not grounded in our traditions while at the same time reaching the standards of our traditions. Part of our challenge as readers and listeners is to find the strengths in work that comes from traditions we don't share. I hear a consistent desire from all ends of the methodological spectrums that, regardless of its tradition, work should offer its audience theoretical significance beyond the case or project presented. One direct way in which you can influence what counts as "quality" at our conferences is to serve as a reviewer next year, and I hope more and more of you will do so. Yet another issue is what we can do to bring more people in from underrepresented parts of the world, particularly those areas where the likelihood of being able to afford our conference is minimal. One of the great promises of the internet is the ability to link people globally in the face of great challenges -- indeed I saw at least one panel talking about the ways in which the internet allows grassroots movements in poor nations to expand their resources through affiliation with one another -- yet making this happen in an association such as ours is far from easy (or cheap). This connects more broadly to the issue of recruitment. My general feeling is that there are so many targets for recruitment (based on methodology, discipline, race/ethnicity, stature, etc) that recruitment is best left to our members to call on those they wish were here to join us. However, I think it is imperative that we do what we can to lessen the financial barriers to participation in AoIR for those who would like to join us but cannot afford to. Any inspirations you have on how we might be able to do this while still breaking even on our conferences (which are expensive to run) would be most appreciated. The last issue I'll raise here is that of what benefits we need to provide in order to make more people and institutions who are interested in AoIR take the leap and become paid members. Dialectic = I want to get more, I don't want to pay for it! As you know, air-l is offered free to everyone. Right now about 1/4 of air-l subscribers are members of the association. Paid members currently get access to the archives of conference papers and discounts on several journals and Routledge's Cyberculture book series. Related to this is whether or not we should have a journal of our own, which would entail higher membership fees and an editorial board (and editor) willing to do editing. Another possibility is to charge somewhat more for membership and include subscriptions to one or several of the existing journals that are relevant to internet research (examples include those to which our members currently receive discounts, such as IcS, NM&S, TIS, Cyberpsychology and Behavior, and so on). A third possiblity is to leave things as they are now and offer our members discounts on a range of journals without building them into the membership fee. We will be putting together another working group to look at these and other possibilities and make recommendations to us. Again, your opinions on journal preferences (or lack thereof) and benefits in general are welcomed. These are by no means the only issues before us, and I am interested to hear your thoughts on what else you would have us consider as well as your thoughts on any of those I have raised. In my time as a steward of this association, I invite all of you to think about what this association does or has the potential to do for you, and what you can do for the association to make it better. Thank you, Nancy -- Nancy Baym http://www.ku.edu/home/nbaym Communication Studies, University of Kansas Bailey Hall, 1440 Jayhawk Blvd., Room 102, Lawrence, KS 66045-7574, USA Association of Internet Researchers: http://aoir.org _______________________________________________ Air-l mailing list Air-l(a)aoir.org http://www.aoir.org/mailman/listinfo/air-l

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Fwd: Teaching and employment opportunities, Fall 2004
by Steve Jones 12 Nov '03

12 Nov '03

>Mercy College >Center for Digital Arts >Computer Arts + Technology program >White Plains, New York campus > >The Computer Arts program offers a 4-year BFA degree in Animation, >Game Design, and Digital Media + Interaction Design. We also >anticipate a BA degree in Digital Media Production to begin Fall >2004. > >The following employment opportunities are available for the >2004-2005 academic year: >1) Full-time teaching position; Instructor, Assistant, or Associate >Professor rank; tenure track or multi-year >2) Part-time teaching positions; Associate Lecturer rank; teach up >to three courses per semester >3) Facilities Manager; full-time; oversee all aspects of digital studios > >Full descriptions and application instructions are available on our >website the under employment opportunities links at: >http://www.mercy.edu/cda/cart/cart.html

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RE: cyberculture novels
by Stine Gotved 12 Nov '03

12 Nov '03

Although this novel might be better for holiday reading than for class, I'll recommend it: Richard Morgan: Altered Carbon (2001?). It's hardcore cyberpunk, hardboiled detective story, and a bit of 'galaxy sci-fi' in a fascinating combination - even though the latter isn't my favorite topic. /Stine

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Re: [Air-l] Sports Science Technology Grant Ideas
by MSJANEW＠aol.com 12 Nov '03

12 Nov '03

Thanks for the Sports Smarts grant leads. I sincerely appreciate the links and suggestions. Matthew Newman Executive Editor Sports Smarts msjanew(a)aol.com

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PATRIOT ACT EVENT, Thursday Nov. 20
by Hans Klein 12 Nov '03

12 Nov '03

* * * Please Forward * * * The Internet and Public Policy Project (IP3) of the Georgia Tech School of Public Policy presents: ================================ BALANCING FREEDOM AND SECURITY: THE PATRIOT ACT AND HOMELAND SECURITY Thursday, November 20 7:30 PM (reception at 6:30) Clary Theater at Georgia Tech www.IP3.gatech.edu ================================ The Patriot Act has given rise to a lively policy debate. Citizen groups and lawmakers on both the right and left have criticized the legislation for allowing secret searches and the monitoring of citizens' reading habits, medical history, and financial records. Federal officials argue that these powers are necessary to ensure homeland security. This event features a rare face-to-face meeting of a supporter and a critic of the Patriot Act: * Randy Chartash, Assistant US Attorney * Bob Barr, former US Congressman They will present their respective views and take questions from a distinguished panel consisting of: * Jabari Simama, Atlanta Mayor's Office of Community Technology * Ann Woolner, Bloomberg News * John Sugg, Creative Loafing Rachel Tobin Ramos of the Atlanta Press Club will make introductory comments, and Hans Klein of Georgia Tech will moderate. The event begins at 7:30 PM and is free and open to the public. It will be preceded by a reception at 6:30 PM. The Clary Theater is located in the west side of the Georgia Tech football stadium, near the base of Tech Tower. For directions and information about parking, please go to: www.IP3.gatech.edu This event is part of the fall speaker series of the Internet and Public Policy Project (IP3) of the School of Public Policy. It is co-sponsored by: * The Atlanta Press Club * The Georgia Electronic Commerce Association (GECA) For more information, please see the IP3 web site: www.IP3.gatech.edu ###

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