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

Re: [Air-l] Internet as medium with different sub-media or channels?
by William Bain 16 Mar '06

16 Mar '06

Regarding the idea of the Internet as a library and the talk of possible theoretical works, I wonder if I could just note that in air-l list Vol 20, Issue 17 Bob Rehak posted some references to theoretical works and also convincingly compared the Internet with movies. At this point, with my neophyte status, the medium with different sub-media or channels idea seems to me a pretty powerful description. I'd like to share some places I've found recently, largely with the help of things posted on air-l. These include: Gonzalo Frasca's Ludology.org, http://ludology.org/staticpages/index.php?page=20030129004146960 and Jesper Juul's The Ludologist, http://www.jesperjuul.net/ludologist/?p=108 and the e-Learning Centre, http://www.e-learningcentre.co.uk/eclipse/Resources/games.htm I for one hope more will get discussed on the semiological aspects soon! Best wishes to All, William Bain, UAB, Barcelona --------------------------------- Yahoo! Mail Use Photomail to share photos without annoying attachments.

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Visiting Research Fellowships at Annenberg Center for Communication USC
by Merlyna Lim 16 Mar '06

16 Mar '06

Visiting Research Fellowships: The Meaning of the New Networked Age Annenberg Center for Communication University of Southern California The Annenberg Center for Communication (ACC) (www.annenberg.edu) at the University of Southern California invites applications for up to eight postdoctoral positions and one visiting scholar position. These Visiting Research fellows will take part in a major multi-disciplinary research initiative to explore the “The Meaning of the New Networked Age: Innovation, Content, Society, and Policy.” We welcome researchers from various disciplines including anthropology, architecture, the arts, business, communications, computer science, design, economics, engineering, history, international relations, law, library science, neurosciences, political science, rhetoric, and sociology. ACC is a research institute devoted to the study of new media from a multi-disciplinary perspective. We are in a period of fundamental transformation in the nature of the networks that connect people, information, objects, and locations. But, what does it mean and what, if anything, should be done to guide the process? The ACC research program will explore the drivers of these changes, their meaning, and their implications for business and government policy. The 2006-2007 theme investigates the structure and evolution of today’s political, social, cultural, technological, and knowledge networks. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: - How new technology is transforming politics and citizen engagement worldwide, - Communication law and policy - New models of intellectual discourse and citation, - Peer-to-peer cultural production and distribution, - The emergence of pervasive mobile and wireless networks. The ACC intends to convene a multi-disciplinary cohort of scholars to focus on a topic of pressing concern not well addressed in more established disciplinary and departmental institutions. The visiting fellows will work with the ACC’s senior fellows and also will be expected to pursue their research in residence at the Annenberg Center during the 2006-2007 academic year. They will collectively be responsible for organizing one conference and a monthly speakers series, and to attend two weekly Fellows’ seminars of graduate, postdoctoral, and faculty fellows on the theme of the meaning of the new networked age. They may not hold any other appointment during the period of the fellowship. The postdoctoral fellowship is intended for scholars who have completed their Ph.D since 2001, but we also will consider researchers with at least four years of relevant, real- world experience. The ACC fellowship carries a stipend of $45,000 in addition to a limited amount of funds to support research and relocation expenses. The visiting scholar position is intended for a mid-career scholar with a well -established track record and demonstrated leadership and expertise related to the theme. The stipend will be commensurate with the scholar’s current position. ACC will also provide a limited amount of funds to support research and relocation expenses. Applicants should clearly indicate whether they are applying for a postdoctoral position or the visiting scholar position. Applications should include a CV, a cover letter including a personal statement, and a brief statement of research goals in relation to the theme. Three letters of recommendation are to be sent directly by the writers (letters may also be faxed to 213-747-4981). Address all application materials to Elizabeth Harmon, Annenberg Center for Communication, University of Southern California, 734 West Adams Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90089-7725. Email contact: eharmon(a)annenberg.edu. The deadline for receipt in our office is April 30, 2006. -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "A picture is worth a thousand words but it uses up a thousand times the memory" Merlyna Lim, Ph.D. Annenberg Center for Communication University of Southern California (USC) 734 West Adams Boulevard Los Angeles - CA, 90089 http://www.annenberg.edu http://www.merlyna.org e-mail_1: merlyn(a)bdg.centrin.net.id e-mail_2: mlim(a)annenberg.edu

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[cultstud-l] VECTORS CALL FOR FELLOWS (fwd)
by david silver 16 Mar '06

16 Mar '06

vectors has been publishing / platforming some really interesting work. see below for details. david ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2006 11:37:04 -0800 From: Tara McPherson <tmcphers(a)usc.edu> Reply-To: Cultural Studies <cultstud-l(a)comm.umn.edu> To: CULTSTUD-L(a)comm.umn.edu Subject: [cultstud-l] VECTORS CALL FOR FELLOWS Summer 2006 Fellowship Call for Proposals Vectors: Journal of Culture and Technology in a Dynamic Vernacular The University of Southern California’s Institute for Multimedia Literacy is pleased to announce a third annual Fellowship program for summer 2006 to foster innovative research for its digital publishing venture, Vectors: Journal of Culture and Technology in a Dynamic Vernacular. First launched in 2005, Vectors is an international electronic journal dedicated to expanding the potentials of academic publication via emergent and transitional media. Moving well beyond the text-with-pictures format of much electronic scholarly publishing, Vectors brings together visionary scholars with cutting-edge designers and technologists to propose a thorough rethinking of the dynamic relationship of form to content in academic research, focusing on the ways technology shapes, transforms and reconfigures social and cultural relations. Vectors adheres to the highest standards of quality in a strenuously reviewed format. The journal is edited by Tara McPherson and Steve Anderson, with Creative Directors Erik Loyer and Raegan Kelly and Lead Programmer Craig Dietrich, and is guided by the collective knowledge of a prestigious international board. About the Fellowships · Vectors Fellowships will be awarded to up to eight individuals or teams of collaborators in the early to mid- stages of development of a scholarly multimedia project related to the themes of Difference or Memory. Completed projects will be included in Volume 3 of the journal in 2007. Vectors features next-generation multimedia scholarship, publishing work that can only be realized in an online format. Volume Three, Issue One: Difference From Charles Babbage's 19th century "Difference Engine" to Derrida's 1980s neographism "Différance," the notion of difference has served as a provocative metaphor for thinking about language, culture, politics, technology and identity. This issue of Vectors encourages diverse examinations of the notion of difference as it plays out in a variety of cultural spheres, discourses and practices. We are interested in a broadly-conceived notion of difference, one that engages technology and culture or that might be productively examined through the format of an interactive multimedia journal. In particular, we seek proposals that foreground the cultural or political manifestations of racial, gender, national, religious, ethnic, geographic, technological or economic differences. Possible areas of investigation include but are not limited to: -historical and future conceptions of difference -rethinking otherness, multi-culturalism, convergence -technologies of difference -legacies + limits of 1990s theories and manifestations of difference -sounding out difference(s) -afro-futurism, speculative differences, future species -sameness and/or difference, the logics of both/and -rethinking identity; difference/multiplicity/fragmentation -post-Katrina, post-9/11, post-racism -post-feminist gender differences -war and ethnic/religious differences -economic disparity and cultural differences Volume Three, Issue Two: Memory Jean Luc Godard's dictum that "only the hand that erases can write" underscores the ironic and contradictory status of memory in postmodern culture. In an age when both history and memory are routinely characterized as being at an end, it is more important than ever to closely examine the epistemological precepts and rhetorical strategies by which we engage, remember and speak about the past. This issue of Vectors explores a range of possible frameworks for thinking about memory as a phenomenon that is fundamentally entangled with the discourses of competing disciplines, political imperatives and cultural contexts. We are particularly interested in proposals that engage the eccentric, disruptive and dynamic potentials of memory as it relates to history, media, technology, and/or the sciences. Possible areas of investigation include but are not limited to: -the impact of proliferating technological and prosthetic forms of memory -scientific and medical visualization -visual memory, media and popular culture memories -memorialization, reminiscence, recall -the role of nostalgia, desire, psychology and narrative -amnesia, displacement, erasure, regeneration -the dynamic interplay of remembering and forgetting; "creative forgetting," "active forgetting" -memory as practice, process and ritual -reconstruction, reenactment, rescripting and remixing of memories -counter-memory, chaos and resistance -discontinuous, fragmentary or disruptive visions of the past -individual vs. social, cultural and popular memory About the Awards All fellowship recipients will participate in a one-week residency June 19-23, 2006 at USC’s Institute for Multimedia Literacy, where they will have access to state of the art production facilities. Fellows work in collaboration with world-class designers and Vectors' technical support and programming team throughout the project’s development, typically during a span of 3-5 months. The residency will include colloquia and working sessions where participants will have the chance to develop project foundations and collectively engage relevant issues in scholarly multimedia. Applicants need not be proficient with new media authoring, but must demonstrate familiarity with the potentials of digital media forms. Evidence of the capacity for successful collaboration and for scholarly innovation is required. Fellowship awards will include an honorarium of $1500 for each participant or team of collaborators, in addition to travel and accommodation expenses. About the Proposals We are seeking project proposals that creatively address issues related to the themes of Difference and Memory. While the format of the journal is meant to explore innovative modes of multimedia scholarship, we are not necessarily looking for projects that are about new media. Rather, we are interested in the various ways that 'old' and 'new' technologies suggest a transformation of scholarship, art and communication practices and their relevance to everyday life in an unevenly mediated world. Applicants are encouraged to think beyond the computer screen to consider possibilities created by the proliferation of wireless technology, handheld devices, alternative exhibition venues, etc. Projects may translate existing scholarly work or be entirely conceived for new media. We are particularly interested in projects that re-imagine the role of the user and seek to reach broader publics. Work that creatively explores innovations in interactivity, cross-disciplinary collaboration, or scholarly applications for newly developing scientific or engineering technologies are also encouraged. Proposals should include the following · Title of project and a one-sentence description · A 3-5 page description of the project concept, goals and outcome. This description should address questions of audience; innovative uses of interactivity, address and form. Please also detail the project’s argument and its contribution to multimedia scholarship and, more generally, to contemporary scholarship in your field. · Brief biography of each applicant, including relevant qualifications and experience for this fellowship · Full CV for each applicant · Anticipated required resources (design, technical, hardware, software, exhibition, etc.) · Projected timeline for project development · Sample media if available (CD, DVD, VHS (any standard), or NTSC Mini-DV); for electronic submissions, URLs are preferred but still images may be sent as e-mail attachments if necessary) Projects that articulate a clear understanding of the value of multimedia to their execution will be the most successful. Take seriously the questions "Why does this project need to be realized in multimedia? What is to be gained by the use of a rich media format for the argument or experience I aim to present?" Electronic applications are preferred. Please submit to: vectors(a)annenberg.edu Mailing address Vectors Summer Fellowships Annenberg Center for Communication 746 W. Adams Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90089-7727 Priority will be given to applications received by April 15, 2006. Fellowship recipients will be notified in May 2006. Additional Information For additional information about Vectors and the Vectors Summer Fellowship Program, please visit http://www.vectorsjournal.org Questions may be directed to Tara McPherson tmcphers(a)usc.edu or Steve Anderson sfanders(a)usc.edu _______________________________________________ CULTSTUD-L mailing list: CULTSTUD-L(a)comm.umn.edu http://www.comm.umn.edu/mailman/listinfo/cultstud-l

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La List
by Suely Fragoso 16 Mar '06

16 Mar '06

Charles and others LA AoIR is nearly set up - in fact I must have finished the process yesterday but had no time to send the general call for participation. Please hold a little while more - it will be running soon (in 3 languages, btw - Spanish, Portuguese and English) I will keep the AoIR exec up to date with whatever is said in weird languages over there ;) Sue >>> cmess(a)drury.edu 16/03/2006 11:40 >>> I have _got_ to figure out this email thing... My apologies to the list - and to Suely and our colleagues in a nascent group of scholars interested in supporting Internet research in Latin America - for relying too much on my mailer and not enough on my paying attention to whom is an email is actually addressed... Sigh. On we go... - cX Charles Ess Distinguished Research Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies <http://www.drury.edu/gp21> 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'06: http://www.catacconference.org Co-chair, ECAP'06: http://www.eu-cap.org Professor II, Globalization and Applied Ethics Programmes Norwegian University of Science and Technology NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway http://www.anvendtetikk.ntnu.no/pres/bridgingcultures.php Exemplary persons seek harmony, not sameness. -- Analects 13.23 _______________________________________________ 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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apologies for previous post
by Charles Ess 16 Mar '06

16 Mar '06

I have _got_ to figure out this email thing... My apologies to the list - and to Suely and our colleagues in a nascent group of scholars interested in supporting Internet research in Latin America - for relying too much on my mailer and not enough on my paying attention to whom is an email is actually addressed... Sigh. On we go... - cX Charles Ess Distinguished Research Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies <http://www.drury.edu/gp21> 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'06: http://www.catacconference.org Co-chair, ECAP'06: http://www.eu-cap.org Professor II, Globalization and Applied Ethics Programmes Norwegian University of Science and Technology NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway http://www.anvendtetikk.ntnu.no/pres/bridgingcultures.php Exemplary persons seek harmony, not sameness. -- Analects 13.23

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Re: [Air-l] AoIR and Latin America
by Suely Fragoso 16 Mar '06

16 Mar '06

Dear all, but mostly Charles, Michel, Erick and Raul I think Michel, Erick, Raul and I should join forces asap - I propose that we start an off-list exchange of messages about helping AoIR take off in LAmerica so we do not fill the list with this specific subject. I have a colleague here who has already shown willingness to help us, Mr Adilson Cabral. He is an active Brazilian researcher, who leads some very interesting initiatives. I think he will help us greatly. Other Brazilian colleagues are starting to join the AoIR list in response to Adilson's comments in other fora, what is great! Charles mentioned the possibility of sharing > with you a rough version of the sort of >guidelines we're using with potential local organizers for >considering basic >issues regarding venue and negotiations with hotels I definitely want to see them! If Raul and Erick could be so kind as to send me their email addresses, I will be happy to start a list for us. I have michel's - we have participated in a panel together (what was a great pleasure). I will also include Adilson and other I know of, and obviously the more the better Cheers Sue

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conference proposals ...
by Charles Ess 16 Mar '06

16 Mar '06

Hello all, I'm writing AoIR-ists a) to ask if there are any final bids from Canada for 2007? (We have received one strong proposal and it is under consideration) b) and to encourage additional expressions of interest from Europe for 2008. Obviously, we have more lead-time for Europe 2008 than for NA in 2007 - please feel free to contact me with any particular questions, etc.) Thanks! It's lookin' good... - cX Charles Ess Distinguished Research Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies <http://www.drury.edu/gp21> 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'06: http://www.catacconference.org Co-chair, ECAP'06: http://www.eu-cap.org Professor II, Globalization and Applied Ethics Programmes Norwegian University of Science and Technology NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway http://www.anvendtetikk.ntnu.no/pres/bridgingcultures.php Exemplary persons seek harmony, not sameness. -- Analects 13.23

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Re: [Air-l] Action Researchers?
by Darren Sharp 16 Mar '06

16 Mar '06

Andy, Thanks for your post. This may be of interest to yourself and the list. I recently wrote an article for a special themed issue on 'Practice-based Research' for Media International Australia Incorporating Culture and Policy. http://www.emsah.uq.edu.au/mia/issues/miacp118.html Title: Participatory Cultural Production and the DIY Internet: From Theory to Practice and Back Again Author: Darren Sharp Abstract: The free and open source software movements have inspired a new mode of participatory cultural production. The early hacker communities elaborated a sophisticated socio-technical system of network-enabled collaboration culminating in the GNU-Linux operating system. More recently, a range of do-it-yourself (DIY) media technologies have given any user with internet access the ability to become a producer in a variety of social fields. This has spawned an entirely new understanding of authorship and content production in film (machinima), games (player-producers), journalism (blogs), radio (podcasting) and knowledge production (Wikipedia). A number of social science epistemologies embrace 'practice' as a representational category to explain the relationship between structure and agency, such as Giddens' (1984) and Bourdieu's (1977) theories of structuration. Missing from most of these accounts is any engagement in practice-based research to construct knowledge about their domains. It will be shown that action research provides an important empirical method capable of extending the field of knowledge about user-led innovation. Action research provides a practice-based method to explore how social shaping occurs in the development of participatory cultural production systems. Regards, Darren Swinburne University of Technology CRICOS Provider Code: 00111D NOTICE This e-mail and any attachments are confidential and intended only for the use of the addressee. They may contain information that is privileged or protected by copyright. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution, printing, copying or use is strictly prohibited. The University does not warrant that this e-mail and any attachments are secure and there is also a risk that it may be corrupted in transmission. It is your responsibility to check any attachments for viruses or defects before opening them. If you have received this transmission in error, please contact us on +61 3 9214 8000 and delete it immediately from your system. We do not accept liability in connection with computer virus, data corruption, delay, interruption, unauthorised access or unauthorised amendment. Please consider the environment before printing this email.

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Re: [Air-l] Internet as medium with different sub-media or channels?
by William Bain 16 Mar '06

16 Mar '06

Equally humbly seeking further information in relation to Bob Rehak's very interesting contribution (and expressing my appreciation to those who posted the related things), I quote again (apologies again for the awkward form & single quotes) what Bob wrote: 'My question, then, is this: if packet transmission methods are specialized according to different end needs, then doesn't this argue for the presence of the internet as a medium, in the sense that its protocols are made to serve specific expressive functions? If all packets are not created equal, then we can't reduce the model to "the packet doesn't care what data it carries." 'To return to the analogy of the printing press, perhaps the press *is* just a tool for replicating content -- but if its design includes the ability to handle different fonts, colors of ink, sizes and types of paper, etc., then the "hardware" is materially implicated in the medium's expressive activity.' I'd like to comment that I see nothing illogical (or technologically unsound?) about calling the Internet a medium, which it seems to be, (and in a/some layered form). But while "the 'hardware' is materially implicated in the medium's *expressive* activity" does it follow that the hardware can be assigned an *affective* activity? In the spirit of the seeker, William Bain, UAB, Barcelona --------------------------------- Yahoo! Mail Use Photomail to share photos without annoying attachments.

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CFP- HICSS-40 - Digital DIvide Minitrack
by Karine Barzilai-Nahon 15 Mar '06

15 Mar '06

Sorry for cross-posting CALL FOR PAPERS for the Digital Divide minitrack Forty Annual Hawai'i International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-40) January 3-6, 2007 Hilton Waikoloa Village, Big Island Additional detail may be found on HICSS primary web site: http://www.hicss.hawaii.edu Digital divide plays an important role in last years' discourse in theory and practice as well. Starting in the 90's by focusing on infrastructures divides between the 'have' and 'have-not' and continuing in the following years to other dimensions of the divide such as skill, usage, governmental and communal support and more... The mini-track calls for papers that study the digital divide in different levels, methods and perspectives. Levels of the digital divide such as: international, national, local, sector, communal, and also individual. Subjects related to the digital divide that are in the scope of this mini-track but not limited to: Socio-demographic factors- gender, age, education, income, ethnic diversity, race diversity, language diversity, religiosity Social and governmental support - for example the use of supportive initiatives, policy and applications to bridge the gap, or how society and communities impact e-Inclusion Conceptualization and theory of digital divide Comparative and local analysis of policy Use - skills, frequency and time, locus, autonomy of use, what do users do online and for what purpose Access and technology - infrastructure factors Affordability Accessibility focusing mainly in populations with special needs Measurements index - e-readiness, DiDix and more MINITRACK CHAIR: Karine Barzilai-Nahon Assistant Professor The Information School University of Washington Mary Gates Hall, Room 370B, Box 352840 Seattle, WA 98195-2840, Tel- (206) 685-6668 Email - karineb(a)u.washington.edu Website - www.ischool.washington.edu/karineb IMPORTANT DEADLINES Abstract Authors may contact Minitrack Chair for guidance and indication of appropriate content at anytime. June 15 Authors submit full papers to the Peer Review System, following Author Instructions found on the HICSS web site (www.hicss.hawaii.edu) Papers undergo a double-blind review. August 15 Acceptance/Rejection notices are sent to Authors via the Peer Review System. September 15 Authors submit Final Version of papers to the Peer Review System web site. The Digital Divide minitrack is part of the Digital Media: Content and Communication Track Chaired by Michael Shepherd (shepherd(a)cs.dal.ca) ------------------------------------------------------------- Karine Barzilai-Nahon Assistant Professor The Information School University of Washington Mary Gates Hall, Room 370B, Box 352840 Seattle, WA 98195-2840 (206) 685-6668, http://www.ischool.washington.edu/karineb

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