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

RE: [Air-l] Mapping the net with crawlers/robots
by Van-Couvering,EJ (pgr) 21 Oct '04

21 Oct '04

Hi, I know Mike Thelwall at Wolverhampton has free link analysis software available for just these purposes. At least he promised he did at the last conference. Let's see if I can find a link. Ah yes: http://socscibot.wlv.ac.uk/ Regards, Elizabeth -----Original Message----- From: Christopher Helland [mailto:c_hella@yahoo.com] Sent: 20 October 2004 17:44 To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-l] Mapping the net with crawlers/robots Hi Rafel, Touch Graph Google Browser might be able to help you with the project. The software can be found at: http://www.touchgraph.com/TGGoogleBrowser.html Chris > > I am trying to analyze the relationships between > organizations on the > > web. In particular, I want to map the linking > behavior of a set of > > organizations subjectively defined. ===== Christopher Helland, Ph.D. SSHRC Research Fellow Gorsebrook Research Institute for Atlantic Canada Studies Saint Mary's University Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada B3H 3C3 http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~chelland/index.html __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Address AutoComplete - You start. We finish. http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail _______________________________________________ The Air-l-aoir.org(a)listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://aoir.org/airjoin.html

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Re: Mapping the net with crawlers/robots
by Alla Genkina 21 Oct '04

21 Oct '04

Rafel, Here is a good web page that describes link analysis: http://linkanalysis.wlv.ac.uk/ Here is a software product that might do what you are looking for, although I have never tried it out myself: http://www.thinkmap.com/ Hope this helps, Alla

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mapping organizatoina links
by Barry Wellman 20 Oct '04

20 Oct '04

Chris Helland wrote asking how to map organizational links. You can do this easily with social network analysis software -- such as UCINet, NetDraw and Pajek. All low cost and easily searched for on the web. Avoid non-analytic allegedly social network stuff such as Friendster. To know more about the methods and concepts, read Stanley Wasserman & Katherine Faust, _Social Network Analysis_. 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 To network is to live; to live is to network _____________________________________________________________________

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Re: indymedia -- clarification
by Liss Jeffrey 20 Oct '04

20 Oct '04

Here is the latest info: From: dhalleck(a)weber.ucsd.edu Indymedia Summary of Facts Indymedia Two Internet servers, known as ahimsa1 and ahimsa2, provided space to over twenty Independent Media Centers in the United States and around the world, offering independent journalists a soapbox upon which to speak in a public forum. Independent Media Centers are autonomous portions of Indymedia, a collective of independent media organizations and thousands of journalists offering grassroots, non-corporate coverage of news events. IMCs publish information often missed by mainstream media organizations, and offer unique perspectives on world events. The IMC content is a widely read news medium, with the two servers transmitting over 3.2 terabytes of information a month, serving over 18 million page views a month. The Ahimsa servers were hosted by Rackspace Managed Hosting, a San Antonio-based Internet hosting company that provides dedicated servers to customers. Rackspace provided initially one, then two, dedicated servers, supplying the data center, hardware (servers and other devices) and Internet connectivity necessary to operate an online service, but allowed the customer to directly operate the machines. The first server went online in September 2001, the second sever came online in April 2003. The servers were physically located in Rackspaces facility in London, England. Through the Ahimsa servers, Indymedia IMCs had access to Internet services for news websites and an online radio server. The hosted websites included local IMCs from Western Massachusetts, Andorra, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Euskal Herria (Basque Country), Galzia, Italy, Poland, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Uruguay, multiple sites from France and Belgium and popular Indymedia Internet radio streams. The Internet radio streams used the domain radio.uk1.indymedia.org, providing about ten streams to the public. The servers provided email services for BLAG (Brixton Linux Action Group), syndicate.org.uk, and foref.org (For Refugees), and a beta test email service at indymail.org. The servers also contained an archive of the email communications from the ahimsa techs. In addition, the servers hosted www.blagblagblag.org, a website offering BLAG (BLAG Linux And GNU), a version of the Linux operating system, along with technical support and forums for communicating about the software. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is representing Indymedia's interests. EFF is the leading civil liberties organization working to protect rights in the digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF actively encourages and challenges industry and government to support free expression and privacy online. In addition, various particular IMCs are represented by lawyers in their countries, working in cooperation with EFF. The Seizure On or around Thursday, October 7, 2004, Rackspace was served with a Commissioners Subpoena, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1782 and a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (the Seizure Order). A Commissioners Subpoena is a special subpoena issued by the District Court in which the entity holding the requested information resides. Since Rackspace is based in San Antonio, this would be the Court in the Western District of Texas. Ordinarily, an Assistant United States Attorney for the relevant district is appointed as the Commissioner, and is empowered under the statute to issue a subpoena. While Rackspace has refused to provide a copy of the Seizure Order or even discuss its contents, in an October 7, 2004 email, Rackspace explained that it had received a federal order to provide your hardware to the requesting agency. The hardware was seized the same day, and all of the news media and other material on the Ahimsa servers was silenced around 17:18 GMT on October 7, 2004. On October 8, 2004, Rackspace further explained: "In the present matter regarding Indymedia, Rackspace Managed Hosting, a U.S. based company with offices in London, is acting in compliance with a court order pursuant to a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT), which establishes procedures for countries to assist each other in investigations such as international terrorism, kidnapping and money laundering. Rackspace responded to a Commissioners subpoena, duly issued under Title 28, United States Code, Section 1782 in an investigation that did not arise in the United States. Rackspace is acting as a good corporate citizen and is cooperating with international law enforcement authorities. The court prohibits Rackspace from commenting further on this matter." Rackspace has refused to provide further explanation, or even the name or contact information of a government representative with whom anyone could discuss the Seizure Order, contending that the case was under seal. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Departments of State and Justice, the U.S. Attorneys Office in San Antonio and the US District Court for the Western District of Texas in an effort to independently determine the origin of the Seizure Order, but no agency has accepted responsibility. On October 12, 2004, Jason Carter, an Account Representative of Rackspace, said that the court order is being complied with and your servers in London will be online at 5pm GMT. Rackspace did not explain why the server was returned, or provide any further explanation of why the server had been seized in the first place. Italy On October 13, 2004, Morena Plazzi, a public prosecutor in Bologna, Italy, admitted -- unofficially -- that the she requested IP address log information from the Italy Indymedia server through the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, but did not seek the seizure of the server hardware. Efforts are underway to obtain a copy of this request. While the Servers logged aggregate traffic information, pursuant to the IMC policy of preserving privacy, they were configured never to log the specific Internet Protocol address of the computer that reads or posts news and information to IMC sites. An Internet Protocol address, or IP address, is a unique number used by machines to refer to each other when sending information through the Internet. UK In the United Kingdom, Sheffield Member of Parliament Richard Alan plans to ask a question in the House of Commons to determine what, if any, involvement the Home Office had with the seizure. The answer is due to become public on October 19. The Nantes Dispute On Wednesday, September 22, 2004, the Federal Bureau of Investigation contacted Rackspace regarding some images and material hosted on the Ahimsa servers by the Nantes Independent Media Center. According to Rackspace, the FBI alleged that a particular article on the website nantes.indymedia.org contained personal information and threats regarding two Swiss undercover police officers. Immediately upon receipt of the inquiry through Rackspace, the Ahimsa systems administrator reviewed the article on the Nantes server, and determined that it contained neither threats nor names or address information, finding only photographs of the officers disguised as anti-globalization protesters. Nevertheless, Swiss request was conveyed to the Nantes IMC webmasters, who then digitally masked the faces of the officers in the photos. On Friday, October 1, 2004, the FBI followed up with a visit to Devin Theriot-Orr, the registered agent for the Seattle Independent Media Center. The agents again incorrectly alleged that the Nantes article contained personally identifying information about the Swiss officers including their home address and phone numbers. During this meeting, FBI Special Agent Eric Meuller clarified that they were not contending any laws had been broken, and that there was nothing wrong with the photos of the officers, but were rather passing on a request from the Swiss government. Theriot-Orr informed the agents that the Seattle IMC has no authority regarding the Nantes IMC and that they should direct their request directly to the Nantes IMC. On Tuesday, October 5, 2004, Jennifer OConnell, the Rackspace Acceptable Use Manager, wrote to say I have received no further communications from either the FBI or the Swiss authorities, so I feel like we can close this issue. Accordingly, since the faces were obscured, no threats or personal information were in the article, and the FBI seemed to have forgotten about it, Indymedia considered the matter resolved. While the FBI inquiry and visit suggested that the Commissioners Subpoena could be related to Swiss concerns over the Nantes post, there has been no confirmation that the Swiss government invoked the MLAT in this instance. Indeed, Special Agent Eric Mueller, when contacted by EFF on October 12, 2004, denied any knowledge of the seizure, and inquiries with the Swiss General Attorney in Généve, Switzerland have not led to any confirmation from the Swiss. _______________________________________________ Plenary mailing list Plenary(a)wsis-cs.org http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/plenary -- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus (http://www.grisoft.com) Version: 7.0.269 / Virus Database: 264.12.0 - Release Date: 19/10/2004

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Mapping the net with crawlers/robots
by rafel Lucea 20 Oct '04

20 Oct '04

Hi all, I am trying to analyze the relationships between organizations on the web. In particular, I want to map the linking behavior of a set of organizations subjectively defined. I have explored a number of software packages (Website Watcher, Sphinx, MnoGoSearch, issuecrawler...) but they are either not thought for this specific purpose (WW, Issuecrawler) or require coding abilities that are beyond my knowledge (Sphinx -OS). I would be most grateful if someone could indicate me whether there exists some web crawler that allows to define - a set of URLs from where to start the crawl - the depth - how many levels one wants to look in a given target domain - and number of iterations -how far from the original URL domain one wants to go. - and a few filters -limit specific types of pages (pdf for example) and returns either a map, a table of relationships (some sort of adjacency matrix) or both. Thanks in advance, Rafel Lucea MIT - Sloan School of Management

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RE: [Air-l] Mapping the net with crawlers/robots
by DANIELLE WIESE 20 Oct '04

20 Oct '04

Check out Grab-A-Site software from Blue Squirrell. You can find it through google. Danielle Wiese Florida Staet University >From: "rafel Lucea" <rafel(a)MIT.EDU> >Reply-To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org >To: <air-l-aoir.org(a)listserv.aoir.org> >Subject: [Air-l] Mapping the net with crawlers/robots >Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2004 10:50:27 -0400 > >Hi all, > >I am trying to analyze the relationships between organizations on the >web. In particular, I want to map the linking behavior of a set of >organizations subjectively defined. > >I have explored a number of software packages (Website Watcher, Sphinx, >MnoGoSearch, issuecrawler...) but they are either not thought for this >specific purpose (WW, Issuecrawler) or require coding abilities that are >beyond my knowledge (Sphinx -OS). > >I would be most grateful if someone could indicate me whether there >exists some web crawler that allows to define > - a set of URLs from where to start the crawl > - the depth - how many levels one wants to look in a given target >domain > - and number of iterations -how far from the original URL domain one >wants to go. > - and a few filters -limit specific types of pages (pdf for example) > >and returns either a map, a table of relationships (some sort of >adjacency matrix) or both. > >Thanks in advance, > >Rafel Lucea >MIT - Sloan School of Management > >_______________________________________________ >The Air-l-aoir.org(a)listserv.aoir.org mailing list >is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org >Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: >http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org > >Join the Association of Internet Researchers: >http://aoir.org/airjoin.html

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Fwd: ::fc-announce:: introducing the institute of network cultures
by jeremy hunsinger 20 Oct '04

20 Oct '04

Begin forwarded message: > From: geert <geert(a)xs4all.nl> > Date: October 20, 2004 5:36:00 AM EDT > To: "fibreculture-announce(a)lists.myspinach.org" > <fibreculture-announce(a)lists.myspinach.org> > Subject: ::fc-announce:: introducing the institute of network cultures > > Launch of website: http://www.networkcultures.org > > Introducing the Institute of Network Cultures > Based within the Hogeschool of Amsterdam (HvA) > > Director and founder: Geert Lovink > Assistent producer: Sabine Niederer > > The Institute of Network Cultures (INC), which was set up in June 2004, > caters to research, meetings and (online) initiatives in the area of > new > media and society with a particular focus on the internet. > > If you are interested in internships, linked events, providing > screenings, lectures and workshops in Amsterdam, fellowships and > international collaborative research, please contact us. > > The INC originates from the ‘lectorate’ of the department of > Interactive > Media at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam. The media theorist Geert Lovink > was appointed ‘lector’ of this department in January 2004. The purpose > of ‘lectorates’ as these, in principle, four year term positions are > called in Dutch, is to introduce research into the Dutch system of > higher vocational education, and to enable the development of so-called > ‘centres of excellence’. Within the department of interactive media at > HvA (http://www.interactievemedia.hva.nl/) the responsibilities of the > lectorate include the provision of traineeships, lectures and the > theory > programme. The INC is also involved in the Media Lab (initiated by the > Hogeschool and the University of Amsterdam) which started with a BA > pilot for 18 students in October 2004. > > The INC is also closely affiliated to the University of Amsterdam, > where > Geert Lovink is working as an associated professor at the department of > Media & Culture. The University of Amsterdam and the Hogeschool, which > have merged at a managerial level, are cooperating in many areas. > > The URL of the seperate blog of the Institute of Network Cultures: > http://www.networkcultures.org/weblog/ > > Events: > > - HvA lecture series New Media in the Netherlands (in Dutch), 2004-2005 > > - Conference Decade of Webdesign, PostCS, January 21-22, 2005. The > website of this event will be launched later this week. > > - Seminar on German Media Theory, April 2005. See also the recent > debate > on the German language Rohrpost list. > > - Incommunicado Working Conference on Alternatives in ICT & > Development, > De Balie, June 16-17, 2004. More info on www.incommunicado.info > > - Conference on art & politics of netporn (in preparation), October > 2005. > > Contact details: > > Sabine Niederer > Institute of Network Cultures > sabine(a)networkcultures.org > +31 (0)20 5951866 > www.networkcultures.org > > > _______________________________________________ > ::fibreculture::announcements:: > To subscribe, please visit > http://lists.myspinach.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fibreculture- > announce and enter your e-mail address. > > to unsubscribe from ::fc-announce::, send an email to: > fibreculture-announce-unsubscribe(a)lists.myspinach.org > > http://www.fibreculture.org > > Jeremy Hunsinger Center for Digital Discourse and Culture () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail /\ - against microsoft attachments

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indymedia -- clarification wanted
by Barry Wellman 20 Oct '04

20 Oct '04

I am confused about the Indymedia story that was just posted. In one para, we are told that the hard disks were taken at the request of the US Justice dept. Yet, later in the story, we are told that there is still no info as to who took them and under what auspices. What is really known; what is supposition? 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 To network is to live; to live is to network _____________________________________________________________________

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Feminists, Postcolonial Theorists, and Queers Doing Internet Research listserv
by Michele White 19 Oct '04

19 Oct '04

Dear Colleagues, I am pleased to announce the "Feminists, Postcolonial Theorists, and Queers Doing Internet Research" listserv (FemPTheoryQueer(a)listserv.aoir.org) and the accompanying sign-up site (http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/FemPTheoryQueer-aoir.org) This list is available to all the academics, activists, technologists, and other individuals who are interested in considering how feminist, postcolonial, and queer issues and methods can assist us in understanding the Internet, related cultures, and computer technologies. This list developed from a number of exciting "birds of a feather" meetings that occurred during the Association of Internet Researchers' conference and our commitment to making connections among individuals with shared interests. Some of our current concerns are the politics of Internet research; continuing to develop Internet research methods and practices; communicating with individuals in related fields; mentoring among women, people of color, and queers in the Internet research areas; developing bibliographies and syllabi; communicating about teaching issues; increasing our visibility in keynotes and other positions of honor; and academic hiring and promotion practices. We intend to address the ways that our research relates to Internet and new media studies scholarship and the significant work in women and gender studies, critical race studies, postcolonial theory, gay and lesbian studies, and queer theory. Please view the following web site for additional information on joining the list: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/FemPTheoryQueer-aoir.org This list is hosted by the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR), an international academic association dedicated to the advancement of the cross-disciplinary field of Internet studies. It is a resource and support network promoting critical and scholarly Internet research independent from traditional disciplines and existing across academic borders. More information about AoIR is available at http://aoir.org All my best, Michele White

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popular culture and Internet practices
by Kevin Leander 19 Oct '04

19 Oct '04

Hello, I've been browsing this list for some time but haven't posted. I admire the work of a number of people on the list and am happy to see it running. I've been thinking lately about the relations between popular culture and internet practices. In particular, I'm interested in how youth draw on widely circulating (more global) texts while simultaneously being involved in producing these texts in, sometimes, surprisingly new ways. This interest especially came up with one youth I've been researching who is involved in building a new online game with others from different countries. I keep thinking about the different popular cultural texts he is drawing on, while he is also an active producer of culture. Anyway, I'm wondering if others on this list could point me in the direction of work that considers forms of activity of consuming and (re)producing popular culture with digital practices. My apologies if this is old ground on the list. Kevin -- Kevin Leander, Ph.D. Vanderbilt University http://www.vanderbilt.edu/litspace

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