October 2006 - Air-L - lists.aoir.org

Organisational differences?
by Elizabeth Van Couvering 18 Oct '06

18 Oct '06

Hi everyone, I wonder if anyone can lend some literature to the impression I have from interviewing a series of software engineers that their work in technology organisations is more valuable that the work of other parts of the organisation - e.g., "management", marketing, facilities, etc. Thanks a bunch, Elizabeth Elizabeth Van Couvering PhD Student Department of Media & Communications London School of Economics and Political Science http://personal.lse.ac.uk/vancouve/ e.j.van-couvering(a)lse.ac.uk

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Re: [Air-l] Practical bon log application advice
by Christopher J. Richter 18 Oct '06

18 Oct '06

Thanks! Christopher J. Richter Assoc. Prof. & Chair, Communication Studies Hollins University P.O. Box 9652 Roanoke VA, 24020 Tel. 5403626358 Fax 5403626286 e-mail crichter(a)hollins.edu web www.hollins.edu -----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces(a)listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of elw(a)stderr.org Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2006 2:17 PM To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-l] Practical bon log application advice > We will probably be able to get server space on a university computer. > But I need advice on possible software/applications. At a minimum we > want our students to be able to input/upload text and images (video > would be nice, too). The interface needs to be relatively simple, as we > will sometimes be working from cybercafés, with limited time to fuss > with things. And, of course, cost is a factor. Any suggestions? "geeky street cred" these days seems to go to serendipity: http://www.s9y.com/ It lacks some of the most annoying warts that affect Wordpress (http://www.wordpress.org) and Movable Type (http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype) the other two weblog publishing systems that people are likely to recommend to you. Other systems, such as Drupal and Joomla! and Moodle, could be tweaked into meeting your needs-- but probably significantly outstrip your need for flexibility or your desire to carry out extensive configuration. Hope this helps, --elijah

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PhD blogring proposal
by Mary-Helen Ward 18 Oct '06

18 Oct '06

At the AoIR conference in Brisbane a group (well, three is a small group!) of us PhD students met with the graduate student representative on the AoIR board, Ted Coopman. One of the things that was suggested at that meeting was that some kind of central place be set up with a list of the blogs of graduate student members of the Association - a blog ring, I guess, although it could be as simple as a click able listing of all the sites with some details about their owners and their research interests. I'm not sure if there's somewhere this could be done on the Association website, or whether one of us should just take the initiative and call for addresses to create this page and stick it somewhere. I'm happy to have a go at designing a button we could have on our sites - it could link to this (as yet uncreated) list if we decided not to have a 'proper' blogring or it could be the blogring button. The advantage to this would be that this could be a kick start to forming a community of common interest - many of us are already linking to each other and have each other on RSS feeds, but this would create a quick way to connect with and for new student members. Also, at the PhD colloquium many PhD presenters found the input from faculty to be really helpful, especially as we're all working in such a multi-disciplinary and 'out there' academic area and many have supervisors with more traditional research experience. Having our blogs linked would mean that we could bring up issues we were concerned about for discussion among a wider audience that has a deeper understanding of the issues of our research areas than many of the people we are in face-to-face contact with. What do people think? Mary-Helen __ Educational Developer Flexible Online Learning Team USyd eLearning Office of the Pro Vice Chancellor, Teaching and Learning

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ASIS&T AM 07 Call for Participation
by Richard Hill 18 Oct '06

18 Oct '06

Joining Research and Practice: Social Computing and Information Science October 18-25, 2007 Hyatt Regency Milwaukee, Wisconsin Web 2.0 and social computing are changing the way people use and perceive the Internet as well as the ways they work and play. When users are no longer simply consumers of information, and become active producers and contributors, what are the implications for information science? How are social computing and Web 2.0 trends affecting the work of information professionals? What current research and applications are shaping future directions? ASIS&T 2007 aims to bring together researchers and practitioners from all aspects of information science, industry, academe, and information professionals for lively discussions and debates about the social aspects of information, about all things 2.0 (or looking to the future) or higher. Please see the complete Call for Participation at http://www.asis.org/Conferences/AM07/am07cfp.html TYPES OF SUBMISSIONS Contributed papers Contributed papers present original, recent, formally conducted research and design projects, theoretical developments, or innovative practical applications providing more general insight into an area of practice. These are generally reports of completed or well-developed projects on topics suitable for publication in scholarly and professional journals. Contributed posters/short papers Two types of posters/short papers are encouraged. Contributed research posters present new and promising work or preliminary results of research projects. Contributed best practices posters present the results of design projects, practical implementations of an organization's practices or industry innovations. The content should clearly point out how the application advances the state of the art and key challenges, as well as potential impact on the participant's organization and/or practices in the field. Especially welcome are submissions that discuss applications for which a market analysis and/or evaluation of utility has been conducted. Joint submissions from researchers and practitioners showing different perspectives on a single issue are particularly encouraged. Posters are expected to invite questions and discussion in a personal and less formal setting. Technical sessions and panels Technical sessions and panels present topics for discussion such as cutting-edge research and design, analyses of hot or emerging trends, opinions on controversial issues, reports by practitioners on current information science and technology projects, and contrasting viewpoints from experts in complementary professional areas. Innovative formats that involve audience participation are encouraged. These may include panels, debates, forums, or case studies. Pre-conference sessions Pre-conference sessions present topics such as theoretical research, management strategies, and new and innovative systems or products, typically for purposes of concept development or continuing education. Purely promotional programs are excluded. Formats may include seminars, courses, workshops, and symposia. Sessions are scheduled for half to a full day and require a registration fee beyond the regular conference fee. SUBMISSION GUIDELINES Deadlines January 21, 2007 Proposals due for contributed papers, technical sessions and panels, and pre- conference sessions February 25, 2007 Proposals due for contributed posters/short papers March 31, 2007 Authors/proposers notified of acceptance May 27, 2007 Final versions due for conference proceedings All submissions are made electronically via a link from the ASIST Web site (http://www.asis.org) Details on acceptable file formats, citation style, and specific contact information required in the online submission form are on the Web page. Any problems with electronic submissions should be directed to: Richard Hill, Executive Director (rhill(a)asis.org) ASIS&T, 1320 Fenwick Lane, Suite 510, Silver Spring, MD 20910 Fax: 301-495-0810 Phone: 301-495-0900 rhill(a)asis.org Executive Director American Society for Information Science and Technology 1320 Fenwick Lane, Suite 510 Silver Spring, MD 20910 FAX: (301) 495-0810 (301) 495-0900

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Fwd: HYPERPOLIS 3.0: Really Useful Media
by Jeremy Hunsinger 18 Oct '06

18 Oct '06

> > This doesn't seem to have made much splash, but some of the panels > look interesting. > > http://idmi.poly.edu/hyperpolis/doku.php?id=info > > Annual conference and celebration on Thursday, October 19th and > Friday, October 20th, 2006 in the Dibner Auditorium at Polytechnic > University, 6 MetroTech Center, Brooklyn, New York 11201 > Jeremy Hunsinger School of Library and Information Science Pratt Institute () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail /\ - against microsoft attachments http://www.aoir.org The Association of Internet Researchers http://www.stswiki.org/ stswiki http://cfp.learning-inquiry.info/ LI-the journal http://transdisciplinarystudies.tmttlt.com/ Transdisciplinary Studies:the book series

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Re: [Air-l] old computer ads
by Jeremy Depauw 18 Oct '06

18 Oct '06

Thanks a lot Nancy ! It was great to discover all this commercials, suach as the 1984-like macintosh one. And youpla ! In my del.icio.us ! 2006/10/17, Nancy Baym <nbaym(a)ku.edu>: > > Since the topic comes up here now and again, those who haven't run > across this yet may be interested in PC World's YouTube compilation > article "A brief history of computers, as seen in old TV ads": > > http://blogs.pcworld.com/techlog/archives/002950.html > > Nancy > _______________________________________________ > The air-l(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://www.aoir.org/ > -- Jeremy Depauw The Power of Knoweldge Sharing and Skills Synegism Journal de recherche: http://dev.ulb.ac.be/~jdepauw/dotclear/index.php

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Re: [Air-l] Latour, ANT, and Internet Research
by Dominique Lazanski 18 Oct '06

18 Oct '06

My department is full of people who think about ANT and IS. Here is a good reference to start with: McMaster, T., R. T. Vidgen, et al. (1997). Technology transfer: diffusion or translation. Facilitating Technology Transfer through Partnership: Learning from practice and research. IFIP TC8 WG8.6 International Working Conference on Diffusion, Adoption and Implementation of Information Technology 25th-27th June, Ambleside, Cumbria, UK. T. McMaster, E. Mumford, E. B. Swanson, B. Warboys and D. G. Wastell. London, Chapman & Hall. Cheers, Dominique Dominique M. Lazanski PhD Candidate Dept. of Management, Information Systems Group London School of Economics Houghton Street London WC2A 2AE UK d.m.lazanski(a)lse.ac.uk Mobile: +44 (0)7783 431 555 Fax: +44 (0)20 7955 7385

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Making Links 2006 - Early birds close soon
by Marcus Foth 18 Oct '06

18 Oct '06

Colleagues, forwarding the email below FYI on behalf of the conference committee. cheers, marcus Making Links 2006: Technology for Social Action and Community Building, Tuesday 14th and Wednesday 15th of November NSW Teachers Federation Conference Centre in Sydney Register now - last opportunity for reduced early bird rates! Don’t miss out on the discounted registration fees for this great event. Early birds close Friday 20th October. At the non-profit rate of $260 for a two day event, or $140 for one day, it’s a bargain! Building on the popularity and success of last year’s conference, organisers have put together program that is diverse, thought provoking and informative. Targeting people working in IT, multimedia, web development and the wider not-for-profit & community sectors, presentations include: Introductions to website design using open source content management system Joomla and commercial product Dreamweaver Lessons learned from an online auction and other fundraising suggestions Implementing RSS feeds and other audio on your website Learning Indigenous languages using the wide reach of the internet A panel discussion on VOIP – telephone calls via the internet Case studies of how IT is used to connect people and services in rural and remote areas Projects to engage seniors with IT Strategies for managing community directories Online Campaigning Youth multimedia and film projects…and much more View the draft program and abstracts online at www.makinglinks.org.au Multimedia fair and Conference Dinner A not-to-be-missed feature of Making Links 2006 will be the multimedia display fair in the afternoon and evening of the 14th November. All registrations include entry to this event and to the night-market style conference dinner, even if you only register for one day. For further information about the conference, contact Jill Sergeant on 02 8568 1106. Making Links 2006 is organised by: Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations (AFAO), CommunIT a CISA Project, Information and Cultural Exchange, Infoxchange Australia, TRI Community Exchange Jill Sergeant Website Officer Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations (AFAO) PO Box 51 King St Newtown NSW 2042 Ph: 02 8568 1106 Fax: 02 9557 9867 Switchboard: 02 9557 9399 www.afao.org.au -- Dr Marcus Foth Australian Postdoctoral Fellow Institute for Creative Industries and Innovation Queensland University of Technology (CRICOS No. 00213J) Creative Industries Precinct, Brisbane QLD 4059, Australia Phone +61 7 313 x88772 - Fax x88195 - Room Z6-511 m.foth(a)qut.edu.au - http://www.vrolik.de/ http://eprints.qut.edu.au/view/person/Foth,_Marcus.html

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Re: [Air-l] Internet definition & ANT
by James Downing 18 Oct '06

18 Oct '06

Hi , Would like to add this to the ANT and the internet discussion A cosmosgram to circulate amongst the circulations. This text I am typing by the time it reaches you and everyone else, has gone through various changes. It has started its journey of circulation. It is now both a thought and a product. It is digital .It travels from A to B while staying at point A. It is available through a network. There is no far/ close, outside/inside that exists on that network. This text could have started as a word document and have been cut and pasted by me into the box. It wasn't but it could have been. So as all the packets aggregate to make up what you and others now see on your screen this thing (thought and product) already has been transformed. Now it is visible to you. Think of the manipulations you can make of this object. The further transformations! It now resides on the server that hosts this site. It has been stored. It already has history. You have called it up. My artifact has politics! It is part of my world as I type excitedly knowing that soon it is going to be part of yours as well as all who see. The machines have already had to engage with it, and now it is your turn. You must see it by now, my cosmogram. My thoughts race ahead of my fingers as I dream of the gestalt (ah ah moment) you will have. Then sink as I tell myself ah ah will be so what. Never the less I press on with my offering. It already has effected me, now it is going to effect you. Good, bad, indifferent, who cares. My gift, my cosmogram. Too late, like trying to catch the wind, I press submit. Once captive of me it now circulates. It is no longer mine! It’s now a cosmosgram. You have already judged me. This thought has no content. Well to that I say, this is not mine at all. I disown it. It may bring me into disrepute. It has already exposed my deviance. Hasn't it? This circulation of mine is now dear reader part of your circulations. It may be copied cut and pasted wherever you will. It may be e-mailed. It may end up on the hard drive. Already its life is being mapped and recorded. I am doing that myself. This object of mine, this thought without content is an "other" as far as I am concerned. I am worried now. What if my supervisor learns that I have published a thought without content? It is no longer just me is it? The reputation of the University may be at stake.” How many other students at R.M.I.T University publish thought without content?" the opposition leader asks in the House. This artifacts politics have turned ugly. But I am not my thought! I know what happened. Yes yes that's it. You see in the transformations all the content must have been separated from the thought. It’ s been lost. But I can find it. You will help me won't you? That's it! We can all find it together so thoughts with content will rule once more. A triumph of pure reason Hope you didn't mind Kind regards to all Jim Downing >>> Julian Hopkins <julianh(a)help.edu.my> 18/10/06 1:24 PM >>> Hello All, As usual I come late in the day into this - I think it's the time zone difference and the fact I get this in 'digest form'. Anyway... Definition of the internet, I once tried this and came up with four elements rather than a definition as such: 1) The physical network of cables, servers and hardware 2) Email, chatrooms, and other types of person-to-person text based computer mediated communications (CMC). 3) The World Wide Web (WWW): the collection of online electronic documents and databases held in Internet servers – mostly in the form of websites. 4) Software: the browsers, programmes and protocols that enable the transmission and retrieval of electronic data in formats that permit the accessing and operation of elements 2 and 3, above. * This seems similar to Robert Cannon. Also: the idea of it being an agreement is very interesting. And I would very much agree with Christian Fuchs who said " Without meaningful human knowledge and social activity the internet is a dead block, useless." 'Internetting Overall an Internet practice may be identified as any activity related to the Internet – however, analytically, it is important to isolate particular aspects that are differ in kind from other similar types of activities, which I shall try to do now - what I mean by that is - for example - an email is essentially the same as a letter, but the consequesnce of the speed, one-to-many possibilitiess, etc. are the differences that makes it relevant to call it an 'internet practice'. ANT: Miller & Slater affirm the Internet as an ‘actant’, allowing for ways in which the Internet has agency. However, one criticism that might be made of the authors is that they have failed to properly explore the possibility that a 'meta-culture' [this is from an old piece, I was imagining some kind of culture/social realm defined by internet-specific practices] and the local culture proper to the person’s lived offline life articulate and dynamically construct each other. We can see another aspect of this in the way in which companies have to integrate the ‘front office’ with the ‘back-end’ of the company, or in cybercafés: people present at such ‘intersections’ should be the focus of detailed investigation. Miller and Slater. “The Internet: an Ethnographic Approach.” Oxford: Berg, 2000 Regards, Julian ++++++++++ Julian Hopkins Senior Lecturer HELP University College - ADP Kuala Lumpur tel: +60 3 2095 8791 x2913 email: julianh(a)help.edu.my web: http://www.help.edu.my _______________________________________________ The air-l(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://www.aoir.org/

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Re: [Air-l] Internet definition & ANT
by Julian Hopkins 18 Oct '06

18 Oct '06

Hello All, As usual I come late in the day into this - I think it's the time zone difference and the fact I get this in 'digest form'. Anyway... Definition of the internet, I once tried this and came up with four elements rather than a definition as such: 1) The physical network of cables, servers and hardware 2) Email, chatrooms, and other types of person-to-person text based computer mediated communications (CMC). 3) The World Wide Web (WWW): the collection of online electronic documents and databases held in Internet servers mostly in the form of websites. 4) Software: the browsers, programmes and protocols that enable the transmission and retrieval of electronic data in formats that permit the accessing and operation of elements 2 and 3, above. * This seems similar to Robert Cannon. Also: the idea of it being an agreement is very interesting. And I would very much agree with Christian Fuchs who said " Without meaningful human knowledge and social activity the internet is a dead block, useless." 'Internetting'? I would suggest 'internet practices'. Overall an Internet practice may be identified as any activity related to the Internet however, analytically, it is important to isolate particular aspects that are differ in kind from other similar types of activities, which I shall try to do now - what I mean by that is - for example - an email is essentially the same as a letter, but the consequesnce of the speed, one-to-many possibilitiess, etc. are the differences that makes it relevant to call it an 'internet practice'. ANT: Miller & Slater affirm the Internet as an actant, allowing for ways in which the Internet has agency. However, one criticism that might be made of the authors is that they have failed to properly explore the possibility that a 'meta-culture' [this is from an old piece, I was imagining some kind of culture/social realm defined by internet-specific practices] and the local culture proper to the persons lived offline life articulate and dynamically construct each other. We can see another aspect of this in the way in which companies have to integrate the front office with the back-end of the company, or in cybercafés: people present at such intersections should be the focus of detailed investigation. Miller and Slater. The Internet: an Ethnographic Approach. Oxford: Berg, 2000 Regards, Julian ++++++++++ Julian Hopkins Senior Lecturer HELP University College - ADP Kuala Lumpur tel: +60 3 2095 8791 x2913 email: julianh(a)help.edu.my web: http://www.help.edu.my

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