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

CFP: OZCHI 2006 Virtual Communities Workshop
by Alastair Weakley 04 Sep '06

04 Sep '06

http://www.virtual-communities.net.au/ozchi06/ Virtual Communities OzCHI 2006 Workshop Approaches to the Design of Social Software for Dis-Organisations : A One-Day Workshop in Association with OZCHI 2006 http://www.ozchi.org/ A fundamental challenge exists for distributed organisations seeking to foster collaboration: understanding and capitalising on the inter- relationships between collaborative tools and techniques to support generation of ideas and innovation. Commercial imperatives underpin research into these inter-relationships, in terms of how to create a culture and environment in which ideation and innovation can flourish. This workshop will address the collaborative needs of organisations that are distributed or otherwise informally structured. In particular we will explore approaches to the design of tools that support increased communication and social interaction within such groups. Traditionally, support systems have been introduced from the top downwards but there is increasing evidence to suggest that alternative approaches can be even more effective. The increasing use of bottom-up, emergent technologies such as wikis and weblogs, is a well-known phenomenon. This workshop seeks to address approaches for the design of such tools. The purpose of this workshop is to bring together people with an interest in social software and those whose concerns relate to user- centred design approaches. Social software as embodied in current systems, such as wikis, is typically developed and introduced from the bottom of an organisation and works its way upwards. Even when more traditional design adopts a user-centred approach, instigation for the introduction of new systems often comes from the top of an organisation. The workshop will address this seeming dichotomy: how can this bottom-up adoption be facilitated and encouraged by those at the top. More specifically, we aim to address how approaches to the design of the tools themselves can stimulate increased adoption. There are also fundamental differences in the nature of the software itself which the workshop will also cover. In comparison to traditional groupware like Groove, social software tends to be more lightweight and at least in the case of wikis and weblogs more extensible. One important question is how these characteristics contribute to the apparent success of social software. Many of these tools come from a technically minded background and have not received any formal usability testing, let alone had any form of user participation during the design process. How could such testing or participation be of benefit? We invite papers, which may describe approaches and work in progress as well as finished research, length 3-5 pages. In keeping with the workshop theme of bottom-up social software at work, topics of interest include, but are not limited to: * Design methods for social software * Evaluation of social software impact * Categorisation of social tools * Social Software at Work * Integrating social software and task oriented software * Issues around self-image as represented through social software usage Important Dates : * Submission of papers: 22nd September * Notification to authors: 6th October 2006 * Camera Ready papers due: 12th October 2006 The Virtual Communities Project is funded by the Australasian CRC for Interaction Design http://www.interactiondesign.com.au . Virtual communities is researching how to improve work in distributed organisations, looking at how to help these organisations translate their ideas into actions. We develop models and business cases that describe key principles, success stories and how-tos. Programme Committee: Jeremy Yuille (RMIT), Ralf Muhlberger (University of Queensland), Fiona Peterson (RMIT), Laurene Vaughan (RMIT), Markus Rittenbruch (University of Queensland), Alastair Weakley (University of Technology, Sydney) ___________________________________________ Alastair Weakley Senior Research Assistant Australasian CRC for Interaction Design Creativity & Cognition Studios Faculty of IT University of Technology, Sydney Australia Mobile: +61 (0)424316744 alastair(a)weakley.org.uk http://www.weakley.org.uk AIM: alwkly

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SCHOLARSHIPS, AWARDS AND GRANTS FOR AFRICAN STUDENTS/SCHOLARS
by olalekan olagunju 04 Sep '06

04 Sep '06

Dear Sirs, SCHOLARSHIPS, AWARDS AND GRANTS FOR AFRICAN STUDENTS / SCHOLARS I am an Educator and a Resource Person with Lagos State Ministry of Education [Nigeria]. I will like to be furnished with Scholarships or Grants that I can utilise for my Master's Programme. My area of interest are as follows: Publishing, Educational Technology, Graphic Arts, Educational Researches, Multimedia Studies, Educational / Internet Broadcast and Curriculum Development. Kindly please, send me information in this regard. Olalekan Olagunju Lagos State Ministry of Education Science and Technology Department, [Nigeria]. Email:olasgracom_ng2005@yahoo.com --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail.

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New book by CRITO researchers [09.01.2006] (fwd)
by Barry Wellman 01 Sep '06

01 Sep '06

FYI _____________________________________________________________________ Barry Wellman Professor of Sociology NetLab Director wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman CRITO is pleased to announce a new book, Global E-Commerce: Impacts of National Environment and Policy, edited by Kenneth L. Kraemer, Jason Dedrick, Nigel P. Melville and Kevin Zhu is now available. The book examines the diffusion of e-commerce in eight economies: Brazil, China, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Taiwan and the U.S. A more detailed description of the book as well as ordering information can be accessed at: http://www.crito.uci.edu/spotlight2006-09.asp For more information on the Center for Research on Information Technology and Organizations (CRITO), please visit our website at http://www.crito.uci.edu/ Debora E. Dunkle Research Specialist CRITO University of California, Irvine 3200 Berkeley, Irvine, CA 92697-4650 949-824-7098 dedunkle(a)uci.edu

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"Open Source Philosophy" (fwd)
by Barry Wellman 01 Sep '06

01 Sep '06

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 You're invited to visit & contribute to the new version of "Updating Cybertimes: It's Time to Bring Our Culture into Cyberspace" http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _____________________________________________________________________ Call it open-source philosophy, or deep thought for the networked age. A Berlin-based group dubbed Dropping Knowledge is drawing 112 high-profile artists, activists, intellectuals and policymakers to the German capital on Saturday, Sept. 9, to discuss the world's most pressing questions, as submitted and rated by you, the internet community. The Table of Free Voices event, to be held in what was once the Nazis' favorite book-burning square, will see participants from Bill Joy to Cindy Sheehan spend a day discussing the top 100 user-suggested questions. Each individual answer will be filmed, transcribed, translated and put online to seed a discussion site that organizers hope will stay active afterwards, and ultimately help spark social change. You can see the site at http://www.droppingknowledge.org/ And questions at http://www.droppingknowledge.org/bin/dk?ph=questions

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Re: [Air-l] Craigslist Demographics
by Ellis Godard 01 Sep '06

01 Sep '06

An important strand of substantive conversations throughout this list's history has concerned terminology (academic and popular) to describe Internet services. -eg > -----Original Message----- > From: Jonathan Cornwell [mailto:jrc@tcfir.org] > Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2006 9:11 PM > To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org; ellis.godard(a)csun.edu > Subject: RE: [Air-l] Craigslist Demographics > > > > Dear Ellis, > > Could you please explain to me your purpose in the "List > Serve"/"listserv" bit? > > I've unsubscribed from the AOIR listserv in part because of > this exchange. The other reason is that in two weeks I've see > a bunch of cross-posting, a good number of questions posted > that no one has bothered to even acknowledge and a discussion > of privacy and property that I could have had with my IP > lawyer. I have yet to see one substantive conversation about > the Internet... a subject which I would have thought would be > near and dear to a group calling itself the Association of > Internet Researchers. The archives are only moderately better. *sigh* > > Whatever. > > Be well, > Jonathan Cornwell > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: air-l-bounces(a)listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l- > > bounces(a)listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Ellis Godard > > Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2006 7:54 PM > > To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org > > Subject: Re: [Air-l] Craigslist Demographics > > > > I've seen newbies use "listserv", an appropriation of > LSoft's product > > name akin to informal use of Band-Aid, Levi's, Coke, Kleenex, and > > Clorox. > > > > But I've never seen "the List Serve" (two words, > capitalized, with an > > added > > "e") and am surprised to be introduced to it by an AoIR member and > > director of a Center for Internet Research. Is that common in > > Colorado, or in business circles, or among commercial > Centers? Or am > > *I* the newbie? > > > > Curious indeed. > > > > -eg > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > From: air-l-bounces(a)listserv.aoir.org > > > [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Dr. W. Reid > > > Cornwell > > > Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2006 3:50 PM > > > To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org; 'KQ-AMAZON' > > > Subject: Re: [Air-l] Craigslist Demographics > > > > > > > > > This is quite rude. You must have had a bad day. > > > > > > I was simply offering some support to a young researcher on his > > > first visit to the List Serve. You've given him an > introduction as > > > well. > > > > > > If you really think this was a "juicy" story you should > get a life. > > > > > > I noticed that you didn't sign your email. Curious > > > > > > Reid Cornwell > > > > _______________________________________________ > > 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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Craigslist Demographics
by Andrew Famiglietti 01 Sep '06

01 Sep '06

Hey everybody, I've been lurking here for awhile, but haven't gotten around to posting anything yet. So, before I hit y'all up with a question, I just thought I would say hello. erm... hello... So, here's the question: Does anybody know of any research out there on the demographics (I'm thinking specifically of income range, but age, gender, race and other data would also be of interest) of craigslist users? I have an idea for a research project along those lines, but I don't want to re-invent the wheel. Thanks everybody! -Andy Famiglietti PhD Student American Culture Studies Program Bowling Green State University

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