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

RE: [Air-l] democracy and culture
by Gina Neff 01 Jul '03

01 Jul '03

Charles, I'd be very interested in the link to the article that started this debate. Gina Gina Neff PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology Research Fellow, Center on Organizational Innovation Columbia University New York, NY -----Original Message----- From: Charles Ess [SMTP:cmess@lib.drury.edu] Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2003 7:21 AM To: aoir list Cc: Liza Tsaliki Subject: [Air-l] democracy and culture Colleagues: I've been engaged in an interesting debate via e-mail with a colleague in the U.K. regarding a claim in a recent article, i.e., that in addition to well-known examples of organization via the Internet, etc., it takes _bodies_ to bring about significant political change, as in the cases of Yugoslavia, the Philippines, Indonesia, and elsewhere. In this context, I observed that in the U.S., the view seems to be that politicians are far less impressed with e-mail campaigns, precisely because they're so easy to organize, than with actual paper / postage stamped letters. (The current U.S. administration's ability to ignore e-mail protests over the past year or so regarding Iraq is perhaps an extreme example?) My colleague responded with an example of successfully lobbying the government in the U.K. via e-mail regarding a procedure for classroom evaluation. My response in turn - I should not be surprised that, as the Swiss say, these things vary from canton to canton, much less from country to country. And now, the query: has anyone done a systematic, comparative study of how far electronic democracy initiatives have been successful among a range of countries - especially with a view towards uncovering underlying cultural and other factors that might explain the differences? (I know from her very interesting presentation at AoIR 1.0 that Liza Tsaliki has been involved in an E.U. project on electronic democracy that had to engage with cultural differences, hence this message is copied to her. Any insights and results you can share, Liza?) Thanks in advance for any advice and assistance - and in the meantime, cheers - Charles Ess Distinguished Research Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies 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: http://www.it.murdoch.edu.au/catac/ Exemplary persons seek harmony, not sameness. -- Analects 13.23 _______________________________________________ Air-l mailing list Air-l(a)aoir.org http://www.aoir.org/mailman/listinfo/air-l

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Warchalking does not exist: a wager.
by Christian Sandvig 01 Jul '03

01 Jul '03

Hi Steve and air-l colleagues, Steve: Remember the hallway conversation we had last fall about whether or not 'true' Warchalking exists? If I remember, it was your contention that it does and that you'd seen it in the Loop. As you know I'm doing a research project on Wi-Fi and I've been trying to settle this for a while. I'm writing this note to air-l because I need help. For background, Warchalking is the use of symbols (marked with chalk) to indicate the presence of a Wi-Fi hotspot. In pure form, the story of warchalking is that there is a subculture of Wi-Fi users that use chalk to communicate with each other about Wi-Fi locations. Hip/cool businesses then co-opted the subcultural warchalking to advertise their own hotspots. More at: http://www.warchalking.org/ My contention is that the first (subcultural) story about warchalking above is entirely a media phenomenon -- it is a beautiful idea, but it doesn't make any sense as a directory service to find Wi-Fi. It is too easy to miss a warchalk mark, and the chalk wears away (or washes away in the rain) too quickly. Warchalking symbols were heavily promoted in the New York Times just *48 hours* after they were first made public on the Web. There was a subsequent wave of media stories about warchalking, giving everyone ideas. Every single occurrence of chalk I've found can be attributed to chalkers who want to self-promote their own mark. So I believe that people *do* rarely make warchalking marks for various reasons (to be cool, to advertise for their own network) but I *don't* believe that people use warchalking marks in a meaningful way to find Wi-Fi. After the conversation with Steve, on December 18th I posted an call to many colleagues around the world asking for verifiable instances of warchalking that work the way that warchalking describes itself. Reports to date: zero. If warchalking worked as a directory location service, shouldn't I be able to find it? I just had a close call -- a friend told me that my office at Oxford had been warchalked. Since it is a WEP (non-open) node and I didn't do it, this could be half of a "true" instance of warchalking! I ran out as soon as I heard but couldn't find the mark. It must have washed away? (Here in England, it is raining.) So I am willing to propose a wager, or a bounty. I'll bet one dollar that warchalking is not a meaningful way of locating Wi-Fi hotspots. To win the bounty, can anyone deliver someone that uses warchalking to locate Wi-Fi hotspots? Caveats: (1) Warchalking done by the provider of the hotspot does not count -- it is supposedly a co-option of the "pure" subculture. I dispute the subculture, not the self-promotion. (2) I am not disputing that wardriving, warwalking, and online hotspot mapping (warchalking with bits in GIS databases, not with chalk) exist as advertised. (Though others have.) My beef here is only about the chalk part. I've made a web page for this bet that has the relevant emails I've sent and some links: http://www.niftyc.org/bet/ As you may have guessed I'm writing a paper about this. Email me if you want a copy when I finish. Thank you for any help! Christian -- http://www.niftyc.org/

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Call - Social Structures, Decision Making & Governance (CMOT) (fwd)
by Barry Wellman 01 Jul '03

01 Jul '03

fyi Barry _____________________________________________________________________ Barry Wellman Professor of Sociology NetLab Director wellman at 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 _____________________________________________________________________ ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2003 14:54:28 +0200 From: Karl M. van Meter <vanmeter(a)iresco.fr> To: aimsoc(a)wanadoo.fr Subject: Call - Social Structures, Decision Making & Governance (CMOT) The journal, "Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory" (CMOT) <http://www.wkap.nl/journalhome.htm/1381-298X> has issued a Call for Papers for its special issue on: Social Structures, Decision Making, and Governance in the Information Society. The guest editor is Giampiero Beroggi <giampiero(a)beroggi.net> and the deadline for submissions is: 30 June 2003. Joint 2002-2006 RC33 membership & full BMS subscription: 110 euros! Payment is now possible by credit card. ****************************************************************** Karl M. van Meter vanmeter(a)iresco.fr tel/fax 33 (0)1 40 51 85 19 LASMAS-CNRS, 59 rue Pouchet 75017 Paris, France BMS, Bulletin de Methodologie Sociologique (Bulletin of Sociological Methodology) bms-aims(a)wanadoo.fr RC33, Research Committee Logic & Methodology, International Sociological Association rc33(a)ext.jussieu.fr ******************************************************************

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Call - Global & Local in Mobile Communication (10-11 Jun Budapest) (fwd)
by Barry Wellman 01 Jul '03

01 Jul '03

fyi Barry _____________________________________________________________________ Barry Wellman Professor of Sociology NetLab Director wellman at 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 _____________________________________________________________________ ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2003 14:33:32 +0200 From: Karl M. van Meter <vanmeter(a)iresco.fr> To: aimsoc(a)wanadoo.fr Subject: Call - Global & Local in Mobile Communication (10-11 Jun Budapest) Thanks to SocNet Submissions are invited for a conference on "The Global and the Local in Mobile Communication" to take place in Budapest, June 10-11, 2004. Four sections of submitted papers are planned on the topics of 1. GLOBALIZATION AND MOBILE COMMUNICATION 2. MOBILE COMMUNICATION AND LOCAL LIFE 3. MMS AND VIDEO IN MOBILE COMMUNICATION 4. MOBILE COMMUNICATION AND THE NEW INTIMACY Target dates: Submission of abstracts (max. 600 words) and short biographical statements (max. 150 words) by January 12, 2004. Abstracts should emphasize (a) where the proposed paper fits within the broader set of inquiries in the area of interest, and (b) what is new and substantial in the proposed contribution relative to the state of art in the field. Abstract submitters will be notified of the decision concerning acceptance by February 2, 2004. Deadline for receipt of draft full-length versions of papers (max. 3000 words, references formatted according to the Chicago Manual of Style): April 26. Receipt of draft papers by this deadline is a condition for inclusion in the program. The papers will be compiled and distributed at the time of the conference to all participants. Deadline for receipt of final manuscripts for inclusion in the published conference proceedings: July 19. Speakers will include: Albert-László Barabási György Csepeli Jonathan Donner Leopoldina Fortunati James E. Katz Shin Dong Kim On-Kwok Lai Joshua Meyrowitz Kristóf Nyíri Mark Poster For further information do not hesitate to contact Kristóf Nyíri Director, Institute for Philosophical Research of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences nyiri(a)phil-inst.hu http://www.fil.hu/mobil/2004/ Joint 2002-2006 RC33 membership & full BMS subscription: 110 euros! Payment is now possible by credit card. ****************************************************************** Karl M. van Meter vanmeter(a)iresco.fr tel/fax 33 (0)1 40 51 85 19 LASMAS-CNRS, 59 rue Pouchet 75017 Paris, France BMS, Bulletin de Methodologie Sociologique (Bulletin of Sociological Methodology) bms-aims(a)wanadoo.fr RC33, Research Committee Logic & Methodology, International Sociological Association rc33(a)ext.jussieu.fr ******************************************************************

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