October 2004 - Air-L - lists.aoir.org

CFP: mobile democracy
by Sean Cubitt 07 Oct '04

07 Oct '04

apologies for cross-listing Call for Papers M-Democracy a Special Session at the Euro mGov 2005, 10-12 July 2005, Sussex University, Brighton, UK http://www.icmg.mgovernment.org/specialsessions.htm Session Chair: Associate Professor Mary Griffiths Department of Screen and Media University of Waikato Hamilton 1 N.Z. Email : maryg(a)waikato.ac.nz Ph. +64 7 856 2889 ext. 8604 Fax. +64 7 838 4767 Combining e-government and mobility, The First Euro Conference on Mobile Government (EURO mGOV 2005) aims to attract Representatives from the Public Sector, Academia, and IT and Telecom Companies, to establish a forum and networking platform for discussion and dissemination of knowledge on all aspects of Mobile Government including research, policy, implementation issues and impact on the government organizations and the society. More information can be found at http://www.icmg.mgovernment.org Session title: M-Democracy Converging new communication technologies and uses, and the associated new media trainings, are impacting on traditional democratic public spheres and polities globally. Mobile connectivity has been directly instrumental in altering political events in the Philippines, and elsewhere in, for example, the recent US election campaigns. Political representatives' websites and blogs are enhancing the building of community, participation, democratic transparency and accountability. By interacting online in 'horizontal' ways, mobilized citizen journalists are also making a democratic contribution by acting as watchdogs on government, and the mainstream media, through the free circulation of information. But the current priority uses of the internet (e-commerce and entertainment) and the hi-functionality mobile phone (intimate personal communication) have an initial tendency to make both technologies powerful individualizers and commodifiers. The regular conduct of print, online, television, radio, phone opinion polls; the customization of online news and other information sent to pcs and mobile phones; and the address of entertainment media audiences through quasi-democratic online ballots and competitions are all phenomena which are transforming mediated, mobile democracies. Can the approaches and mobile technologies used to build connectivity and consumerism be equally useful for mobilizing reflective democratic practice? What can governments and/or citizens successfully transfer from existing interactive media practices, in order to build stronger democracies? Is the trend to 'me media' rather than 'we media' militating against older forms of civic behavior and active citizenship? Both case studies and research papers are invited for this session. Submission Instructions: All interested authors should initially send a page-long paper proposal to the session chair at maryg(a)waikato.ac.nz to see the suitability of their paper for the session. All full paper submissions are subject to EURO mGOV submission and review procedures as outlined at http://www.icmg.mgovernment.org/submission.htm. Please send your full paper submissions to submissions(a)mgovernment.org *and* copy (Cc) ing to the session chair at maryg(a)waikato.ac.nz by the full paper submission deadline (January, 28, 2005) indicating "special session" on the subject line *and* the title of the session at the top of the first page of the paper. -- Sean Cubitt * Screen and Media Studies * University of Waikato * Private Bag 3105 * Hamilton * New Zealand * seanc(a)waikato.ac.nz * T: +64 (0)7 838 4543 * F: +64 (0)7 838 4767 http://www.waikato.ac.nz/film

1 0

Re: [Air-l] Why not make Aoir 5.0 "Virtual conference"?
by Nentwich, Michael 06 Oct '04

06 Oct '04

> As we are all researchers on the "virtual world", why should we still keep > to the old, pre-Internet tradition of holding an annual conference in a "real > venue," but not in a "virtual venue"? Please have a look at my paper presented IN SUSSEX (sic!) on exactly this topic. My conclusion was (and still is) that we will probably meet for ever in real space (for a variety of reasons): Nentwich, M., 2004, Ubiquitous cyberscience? On the limits to the virtualisation of research in the digital age, IR 5.0 "Ubiquity?" 19.-22.9., Brighton. (hopefully up for download in the members area of the aoir website soon) > What I suggest is that Aoir 5.0 could select one "real venue," and at the > same time, set up a "virtual venue" for those who have registered, but for > whatever reasons (be entry regulations, cost consideration, busy schedules, > hurricanes, etc..) > could not come to the "real venue" to participate, specially for panel > discussions. A combined venture would be an interesting experience, which needs however a lot of extra organisational effort. Just to do it for those few who have registred but didn't make would not be efficient. If we want to do it then it should be an event (or series of events) in its own right. Cheers, Michael ------------- M. Nentwich http://eiop.or.at/mn/ author of "Cyberscience" http://hw.oeaw.ac.at/3188-7

2 1

RE: [Air-l] please remove me off the list
by Drouin.Jacques＠ic.gc.ca 06 Oct '04

06 Oct '04

Please remove my name from AIR-1 list -----Original Message----- From: air-l-aoir.org-bounces(a)listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-aoir.org-bounces@listserv.aoir.org]On Behalf Of Dr. Larisa V. Genin Sent: Wednesday, October 6, 2004 11:27 AM To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org Subject: [Air-l] please remove me off the list __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Y! Messenger - Communicate in real time. Download now. http://messenger.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Air-l-aoir.org mailing list Air-l-aoir.org(a)listserv.aoir.org http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org

1 0

please remove me off the list
by Dr. Larisa V. Genin 06 Oct '04

06 Oct '04

__________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Y! Messenger - Communicate in real time. Download now. http://messenger.yahoo.com

2 1

Minority languages online
by Cunliffe D J (Comp) 06 Oct '04

06 Oct '04

Hi, Pedro Oiarzabal was asking about figures for minority languages. From my own reading of the 'literature' there is very little written about this. Some of the figures that have been produced are based on really crass assumptions, for instance assuming that patterns of internet access for majority language speakers can be generalised to minority language speakers. However, here are some of the fragments that I have managed to glean (sorry for odd phrasing, I have cut these bits out of a book chapter): Estimates from 2000 (Vilaweb, cited in Pastore, 2000) suggested that 0.14% of web pages were in Catalan and 0.01% in Basque. Langer (2001) suggests that between 1999 and 2001 the number of web pages (per speaker) in Basque almost doubled, in Catalan more than doubled, in Galician increased by almost four times and in Welsh by almost five times. The Global Reach (2004) figures include an estimate of 3.4 million native Catalan speakers online. Pastore, M. (2000) Web pages by language. Online document: http://www.clickz.com/stats/big_picture/demographics/article.php/408521 Langer, S. (2001) Natural languages and the world wide web. In Bulag. Revue Annuelle (pp. 89-100). France: Presses Universitaires Franc-Comtoises. Online document: http://www.cis.uni-muenchen.de/people/langer/veroeffentlichungen/bulag.pdf Global Reach (2004) Global internet statistics (by language). Online document: http://global-reach.biz/globstats/ One of my Research Assistants is working on a project looking at measuring minority language presence on the web, but also characterising that presence. We don't just want to know how much, we want to know what sort. We are still at an early stage with this, so unfortunately don't have any results at this stage. The UNESCO Institute for Statistics has a report on Language Diversity on the Internet forthcoming http://www.uis.unesco.org/ev.php?URL_ID=5213&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201 I don't know if this is the work mentioned by Elijah Wright in an earlier email, or whether it will include minority languages. Be seeing you. Daniel. ==== Daniel Cunliffe Minority Cultures & ICT Group University of Glamorgan Wales, UK.

2 1

please remove me from the list
by MSJANEW＠aol.com 06 Oct '04

06 Oct '04

1 0

RE: [Air-l] AoIR conference venues
by Charlie Breindahl 06 Oct '04

06 Oct '04

> I fully concur with Dr. Wu. Why is it that every > person on the planet (except Canadians and Mexicans > who are not crooks) has to be fingerprinted by the > FBI? Is it because Canadians and Mexicans are more > honest? Or, is it because these two countries border > the U.S. of A. and are no threat whatsoever? In light > of this, I think the AoIR conference should be held > anywhere but the US. > > Peter Jakubowicz > The Chinese University of Hong Kong I think that the discussion so far has framed the issue as being aligned with the digital divide between internet "have and have-not" countries (Mexico possibly excepted). I am not sure this is the case. Many Europeans are uncomfortable with current US politics as well. It has not gone unnoticed that the present US government refers to European hesitance towards the US policy in Iraq in less than flattering terms. We Europeans sometimes find it hard to understand why the US government would expect its friends in Europe to go to war in Iraq for reasons that seem somewhat dubious (weapons of mass destruction, etc.) and simultaneously tutor us about how to avoid terrorism and further democracy in the world. Subjects like nationalism, terrorism, fundamentalist beliefs, and democracracy versus security have unfortunately been part of the political agenda in Europe since the early seventies. Examples include, but are not limited to, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the Basque separatist organization ETA, the German Baader-Meinhof group, the Italian Red Brigades, the November 17 group in Greece, German nationalist skinheads, etc. We have - unfortunately - a great deal of experience in treating such problems. The present US government acts as if terrorism was a new problem predominantly concerning the US. All this is background and only periferally relevant to the question of AoIR conference locations. What really matters is this: I don't feel comfortable about going to the US anymore. I feel that my personal security is threatened and my dignity is violated in ways that are probably hard to understand if you are a US national. Electronic fingerprints that go to vast registers, rampant collection of information on foreign travellers, suspects held captive for undetermined periods of time, political radicals killed with remotely controlled missiles, electronic conversations monitored automatically and recorded routinely, credit card transactions traced at a whim... it gives me the creeps! It is directly against my beliefs about the information age and all that I have taught my students about information policy. I think it is very real and has very little to do with hysterics. With regrets, Charlie -- Charlie Breindahl External Lecturer Department of Media, Cognition, and Communication Division of Film and Media Studies University of Copenhagen Web: http://staff.hum.ku.dk/hitch/ Phone: +45 35 32 81 14 Mobile: +45 51 92 15 98 E-mail: hitch(a)hum.ku.dk "For the modern Don Quixote, the windmills have been preprogrammed to turn into knights" - Janet H. Murray

7 7

Re: [Air-l] minorities
by J. J. 06 Oct '04

06 Oct '04

>>Ok, so we dont have the Pentagon budget. Can we afford the loss? I think >>that our priorities >>should be put first, then the money will follow, not >>the other way around. >then we go bankrupt:) no thanks:) sustainability is the first goal. if >we don't exist anymore, we >can't have goals.... I am sorry, if I didnt make my point clear. Historically, division between mainstream and its unquestionably justified reasons for sustainability and marginalized others has brought nothing but misery to those who do not make decisions, about whose interests are defended (sustained) and at what price. If nothing else, we should have learned by now, how to be more respectful to our experience. Jarek >Jeremy Hunsinger >Center for Digital Discourse and Culture >() ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail >/\ - against microsoft attachments > >_______________________________________________ >Air-l-aoir.org mailing list >Air-l-aoir.org(a)listserv.aoir.org >http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org _________________________________________________________________ Get ready for school! Find articles, homework help and more in the Back to School Guide! http://special.msn.com/network/04backtoschool.armx

1 0

Re: [Air-l] Hungarian and others
by J. J. 06 Oct '04

06 Oct '04

Hi Laszlo, Do you have any good ideas why this is the case? Jarek Perhaps this is also an interesting aspect of the problem: about two years ago the complete Hungarian Internet (texts only) was downloadable to a single (few GB) hard disc. And there are no essential changes in the last two years. Laszlo _________________________________________________________________ Dont just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search! http://search.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200636ave/direct/01/

1 0

Re: [Air-l] Why not make Aoir 5.0 "Virtual conference"?
by Lauren Langman 06 Oct '04

06 Oct '04

Dear Wu Mei : I hate to sound like a sociologist, but I am one, let me say that human beings do have needs for networks and connections that can only be realized face to face contact, even if we all had webcams and could see each other, it would not be enough. I know its a bit essentialist, but I am not a pomo, but I would go so far as to say that contect, connection and attachment are in our DNA. While professional and colleagial relations are not like deep friendships and relationships, it does happen that meetings can lead to such (I met my wife at a meeting. But even for our scientific work we gain much from sitting and talking with each other in a face to face context. As Durkhiem, in his analysis of primitive religion, the otherwise dispersed clans came together once a year to affirm their common roots, shared identities, and rekindle the bonds of solidarity. In this way, many of our conferences serve very similar functions. And while most of us are quite comfortable with emails, websites, blogs, virtual communities and who knows, someday teledildonics, a community of scholars, not all that different from premodern Australian nomads, do have a need to come together and enact rituals and beliefs that join us together in a scholarly community. And as we know, those of us who do internet stuff, from a number of disciplines, are not typically likely to meet each other in most other venues. Hope to see you in Chicago next year, and perhaps have another great dinner. Warmly, Lauren >>> meiwu(a)umac.mo 10/05/04 9:02 PM >>> As we are all researchers on the "virtual world", why should we still keep to the old, pre-Internet tradition of holding an annual conference in a "real venue," but not in a "virtual venue"? All the technologies to hold a virtual conference are available. What we need is to be more innovative in practising what we have been campaigning in our research: being global and connecting to as many people as possible with the help of the internet. What I suggest is that Aoir 5.0 could select one "real venue," and at the same time, set up a "virtual venue" for those who have registered, but for whatever reasons (be entry regulations, cost consideration, busy schedules, hurricanes, etc..) could not come to the "real venue" to participate, specially for panel discussions. Virtual participants can also organize local panels. Just throw my little thought here. Wu Mei University of Macau _______________________________________________ Air-l-aoir.org mailing list Air-l-aoir.org(a)listserv.aoir.org http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org

1 0