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

Re: [Air-l] groups, intentions and conventions
by William Bain 26 Sep '06

26 Sep '06

Michele Sohn wrote No set agenda - it's water cooler conversation for knowledge workers. And I wonder if this and much of the discourse in the previous thread doesn't address the distinction that's been made on this listserve several times between community and network. The main purpose of any group with set organizing principles or statutes may not be to discuss those principles but inevitably it seems to me they'll sometimes do so. this obviously happens at certain given times (e.g., when they're dividing into subgroups, working groups, merging, breaking up...). It seems to me that there is always a kind of meta-narrative in any group. Is that tribal? Does tribal mean level of technological sophistication? Best regards, William William Bain PhD Student Comparative Literature Department of Spanish Philology Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail.

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FW: Creative Commons workshop - Wednesday 27 September
by Axel Bruns 26 Sep '06

26 Sep '06

G'day ! Dear colleagues, I'm forwarding this on behalf of Nic Suzor, one of the organisers of the Creative Commons pre-conference workshop tomorrow (Wednesday). If you're interested in joining this workshop (or the Humanities Online or Mobile Learning workshops, for which some spaces are also still available), you can register on-site at the Hilton or Creative Industries Precinct registration desk from 8 a.m. on Wednesday. Registration costs US$35/A$50, and is payable by cheque or cash. Please remember that all workshops take place in building Z2, mostly on level 3 of the QUT Creative Industries Precinct at Kelvin Grove (corner of Kelvin Grove Rd and Musk Ave): . Doctoral Colloquium: 9am - 4pm. Z2 - 304, Z2 - 305, Z2 - 310 . Mobile Learning: 9am - 12pm. Z2 - 232 . Humanities Online: 9am - 12pm. Z2 - 307 . Creative Commons: 1pm - 4pm. Z2 - 307 . Internationalising Internet Studies: 9am - 4pm. Z2 - 315 . Koala Tour - Meet 9am at the Hilton registration desk The conference reception is in the Glasshouse, on level 4 of Z2. Buses will travel from the Brisbane Hilton to the CI Precinct at 8.30 a.m., 12 noon, and 4 p.m. Looking forward to seeing you all at the conference very soon! > -----Original Message----- > From: nic.suzor(a)gmail.com [mailto:nic.suzor@gmail.com] On > Behalf Of Nic Suzor > Sent: Tuesday, 26 September 2006 14:54 > To: Axel Bruns > Subject: Creative Commons workshop - Wednesday 27 September > > Hi everyone, > > Just a reminder about our Creative Commons pre-conference > workshop we're holding Tomorrow afternoon (1pm, level 3, > building Z2, on the CI Precinct at Kelvin Grove). There are > still some spaces available, and I encourage anyone with an > interest in open access licensing or culture to come along > and participate. You can register on the day if you haven't already. > > Jessica Coates and Nic Suzor from Creative Commons Australia > will be holding a practical and theoretical discussion group, > and are very interested in hearing everyone's ideas and comments. > > Some things we'll be discussing: > * a quick introduction to Creative Commons, the underlying > principles, and its history and rationale > * a quick introduction to the licences, licence generator, > formats, and metadata > * CC and online communities - how CC-licensing changes the > way people interact (spotlight on Flickr and Second Life) > * CC and public institutions - the trend towards open access > in government, education, and public organisations (spotlight > on National Library of Australia and Open Courseware) > * Researchers and open access - the motivations behind and > difficulties with open access licensing research results and data > * Business models - making money from free content > * Problems with open access licensing > > ------------- > > -- > Nic Suzor > nic(a)suzor.com > http://nic.suzor.com/ > 2B5F 5A21 7F3A D38E 99C0 > 7BC4 A2BA 7B79 B7E1 0D1C -- Dr Axel Bruns a.bruns(a)qut.edu.au - http://snurb.info/ Media & Communication Musk Ave, Kelvin Grove, Qld. 4059, Australia Creative Industries Faculty Z2-202, CIP - (07) 3864 5548 Queensland University of Technology CRICOS No.: 00213J

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Re: [Air-l] groups
by Dr. Steve Eskow 25 Sep '06

25 Sep '06

Edward, Your message suggests to me that somewhere in the literature there are attempts to distinguish between a "group," a "team," a "society," an "organization," and so on. Or are these terms used imprecisely in the literature? Another hunch: most of the research and writing on "groups" assumes that "groups" will be meeting in real time and face-to-face for most of their "groupness." Thus the possibibility that much of the research does not fit well or easily such new creations as online assemblages of people such as this one where time and space are used in novel ways. Steve Eskow -----Original Message----- From: Lamoureux, Edward [mailto:ell@bumail.bradley.edu] Sent: Saturday, September 23, 2006 8:45 PM To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org; drseskow(a)cox.net Subject: groups I don't want to either overstate the obvious or to sound offensive or condescending in any way. It is certainly the case that merely because a topic of study has gotten a lot of attention does not guarantee that the findings there are helpful to everyone in every circumstance. My comments also don't directly refer to whether or not a particular approach or concepts (like Tuckman's work) cross apply/generalize to other (such as online) research contexts. But in general, I'm sort of responding to Steve's question as to the usefulness of the term "group." There are established literatures about group behavior in (just to name a few) psychology, sociology, and communication studies. Each set (and others) have taught us a lot about how groups function. There are a lot of definitions of the term "group," just as there are a lot of definitions of terms such as "communication" or "peace." But I don't take the plethera of definitions, or the interest that they reflect, as evidence in favor of dropping the terms. Most certainly one (or other) definition will be better suited to the particular phenomena at hand for study. But I don't think one gets very far by trying to drop a key taxonomical item. -----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces(a)listserv.aoir.org on behalf of Dr. Steve Eskow Sent: Sat 9/23/2006 4:51 PM To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-l] Listserv research Perhaps the term "group" has become too large and vague for any research findings to be useful. Are four men who meet one a month to play poker a "group"? Are the students in the freshman class of the local community college a "group"? Is the Women's Auxiliary of the local Episcopal Church a "group"? Is each chapter of Rotary a "group"? If a taxonomy of "groups" exist, it would be helpful to know about it. If not, such a taxonomy seems needed. Steve Eskow -----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces(a)listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Alexander Kuskis Sent: Saturday, September 23, 2006 4:23 PM To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-l] Listserv research Yet, the reasons for it would be inappropriate to apply Tuckman to a group of online learners are as much as an assumption as it is to say Tuckman would be appropriate. Are the differences between therapy groups and groups of online learners proved? And in which ways? Furthermore, if differences do exists, are they relevant to the aspect(s) that is/are being studied? ------>I make no assumption either way. Tuckman's stages of group formation might or might not be appropriate to online groups. (My own experience and action research indicates that it is not). But before stating that they are, the research needs to be done to prove it. You don't just adopt a F2F group dynamic and apply it to online groups and willy-nilly state that they're the same. Palloff & Pratt (1999) make no claims for having based any of their assertions on research. By the time they write 'Lessons from the Cyberspace Classroom' (2001), they state that Tuckman's stages exist for online groups, but not in the order in which Tuckman placed them. And in 'The Virtual Student' (2003) they drop the matter of group formation entirely. But, if you want a model of online group development that is specific to online courses and is based on action research, I suggest the model of Dr. Gilly Salmon: http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/Articles/salmonmodel/index.htm . At some point, I will publish my own research on this matter. ................................[snip].................................. ................................. So to get back to the issue, what specifically do you think is the problem in applying Tuckman to groups of online learners? Does it have something to do with the unconventional models they adopt at Fielding? What specifically do you think is the problem in framing group life in terms of cycles/stages? Have you ever thought that the discomfort with models of groups lies into the cultural bias we Westerners have against group and in favor of individualism? Rosanna Tarsiero --------->The problem is that the research needs to be done before making claims of applicability to the online context. Tuckman has been adopted uncritically for both F2F group formation, as well as online. The words "forming, norming, storming, performing" have become a mantra in all kinds of group dynamics literature (just plug them into Google, and you'll see what I mean). But, whatever warrant there is for it F2F, there is none online. I have no idea what models Palloff & Pratt adopt at Fielding. And having taught university courses entirely online for more than 5 years, employing collaborative and learning community strategies, I have no discomfort whatsoever with group learning models. I think that most online instructors recognize that the bias of online learning is towards collaborative and group work, rather than the individualism of classroom learning.........Alex Kuskis _______________________________________________ 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/ _______________________________________________ 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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CFP: World Building: Space and Community: UF Games and Digital Media Conference
by Zach Whalen 25 Sep '06

25 Sep '06

(my apologies for any cross-posting) CFP: World Building: Space and Community: UF Games and Digital Media Conference The University of Florida's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Department of English are pleased to announce the 2007 UF Conference on Games and Digital Media: "World Building: Space and Community," which will be held in Gainesville, Florida, on March 1-2, 2007, in conjunction with the annual Conference on Comics, which will be March 3-4. This third annual conference on games will focus on the construction of digital worlds, with particular emphasis on the various spatialities of games and other digital media. We are especially interested in spatiality as it is employed in the construction of virtual worlds both in terms of the graphemic representation of game objects, as well as the dual role these spaces perform as both narrative structures and sites of play. We are also interested in spatiality as it relates to the development of social space (including online spaces like World of Warcraft and gaming message boards) as well as the relationship of real-world locations like arcades and game cafes to the play experience. Confirmed speakers include Scott Jennings, senior designer for NCSoft and writer for The Rantings of Lum The Mad and Broken Toys, ARG designer Dave Szulborski, and Nick Montfort, author of Twisty Little Passages and co-editor of the New Media Reader. Possible topics include but are not limited to: · Classic roleplaying games, and their construction of narrative and social spaces. · Narrative eccentricity of gaming worlds (Extra lives, continues, linear level design, etc) · Single-screen games (Pong, Tetris, Popcap's web-based games, etc) · The spaces beyond the screen (Pits, the sky, halls of mirrors, etc) · Constraints of gaming (Forced scrolling, immovable objects, level timers, etc) · Play as narrative advancement (The restriction of game plots to plots that involve frequent breaks for violence) · Human opponents, monsters, and bots · Hints and Advice (Informal social networks and professional help) · Playing together (MMOG clans, hanging out in the basement, and family gaming) · Games as performance (DDR, party games, and speedruns) · Alternative reality games (As social spaces and as worlds "layered" on the real world) · Artificial socities and virtual pets (The Sims, Civilization, and Tamagochi) · Spaces of play (Arcades and gaming cafes) · Representations of three-dimensional spaces on the screen (Old side-scrollers, the fake-3D of Doom, and "true" 3D gaming) · The many failures of virtual reality · Stories in/about gaming (Roleplaying stories, official fiction, historical reenactment) · Competitiveness in gaming (High score lists, tournaments, and professional gaming) · Games on television (Captain Power, the Super Mario Super Show, and G4) · Digital reworkings (Photoshopping, machinima, and fanvids) · Gaming and "geek" culture (Penny Arcade, gaming conventions, the legacy of E3) · Interfaces and the mediation of mediality We also encourage submissions that cross over with the Comics conference, on the topic of "World Building: Seriality and History," particularly those that consider the role of time and space across multiple media. We will also consider two-part submissions on related topics to be presented across the two conferences, and other proposals that push the formal constraints of a conference presentation. Abstract submissions should be approximately 250-500 words in length. Presentations will be 15 minutes with 5 minutes of question and answer. The deadline for abstract submissions is January 1st, 2007. Abstracts should be submitted via the conference website at http://www.english.ufl.edu/worlds . Please direct all questions to sandifer(a)english.ufl.edu.

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Deadline Extended: OZCHI 2006 Virtual Communities Workshop
by Alastair Weakley 24 Sep '06

24 Sep '06

FINAL CALL FOR PAPERS - Deadline extended until 29th September. DEST SUBMISSION- PLEASE NOTE: Papers will be peer-reviewed, published and authors will be invited to present their papers at the workshop as required for DEST submission. 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: - extended deadline: 29th September 2006 * 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

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Brisbane Conference: Changes to the Participatory Pedagogies Panel (Fri, 29 Sept, 12.45 - 14.15)
by Tama Leaver 24 Sep '06

24 Sep '06

Hi All, (Apols to those getting this email not attending the conference.) Due to circumstances beyond his control, one of the panelists in the "Participatory Pedagogies Convergence and the Extended Blogosphere" is unable to attend the conference this week. Adrian Miles and I will still be presenting our papers -- "Networked knowledge objects (videographic pedagogy for new knowledges" and "iPodium: Student podcasting and participatory pedagogies" -- as planned, but in the latter half of our session (12.45 - 14.15 in the Lockyer Room) we would like to hold a more informal and wide-ranging discussion around participatory cultural tools and approaches (blogs, podcasts, vlogs, IMing, social bookmarking, etc.) and their place in higher education. Anyone at the conference is more than welcome to participate, but can I especially urge those people doing interesting and innovative things with social software in their teaching to join the conversation if you possibly can! See you all in Brisbane in a few days! Cheers, Tama -- Dr Tama Leaver Associate Lecturer (Higher Education Development) Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (M400) University of Western Australia 35 Stirling Highway Crawley WA 6009 Australia Ph: (+61 8) 6488 1502 Fax: (+61 8) 6488 1156 email: tama.leaver(a)uwa.edu.au www: http://www.catl.uwa.edu.au blog: http://ponderance.blogspot.com edublog: http://tama.edublogs.org

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Tagging AoIR 7.0
by Ericka Menchen Trevino 24 Sep '06

24 Sep '06

Hello, I noticed the conference program suggested the Technorati tag for blog posts aoir2006 so I wanted to mention this on the list since I haven't seen it mentioned here. There will be a number of new faces attending the conference this year so this should be useful for finding commentary. The posts do take some time to show up, so don't worry if your post isn't there instantly. The place to view blog posts thus tagged as the conference progresses is http://www.technorati.com/tag/aoir2006 Also, judging by the surveys we sent last year many people liked sharing pictures on Flickr. (I'll be talking about this and and many other issues 10:00 Saturday) To keep it simple I vote for aoir2006 for Flickr as well. View these at http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/aoir2006 Best, Ericka Menchen Trevino Graduate Student University of Illinois at Chicago http://blog.erickamenchen.net

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Listserve research
by 'Gail Taylor 24 Sep '06

24 Sep '06

Rosanna Tosario wrote: "There is a lot of fuss, and a lot of studies, about "community", online as well as offline. The bottom line of what makes a community is participation in shared governance forms (any form). When groups form and especially *norm*, they create rules as well as procedures to create new rules and change old ones, ie governance. That's why I said that whenever there is a governance problem Tuckman can't be applied, in my opinion. If governance is problematic, there can be no norming." First off, it can be argued that members of this listserve are members of a group. This listserve is institutionalized, and hosted by the Association of Internet Researchers. Officers of this organization are controlling processes related to making this online forum available to members of the association, and interested others. They are also controlling behavioral norms through the development of policies and procedures that guide participation in this forum. The actions of the officers are similar to their peers in other institutionalized settings, both educational and business, who are choosing to use Internet-based technologies to facilitate group formation processes. I was the person who first suggested that Tuckman's group formation stage theory was transferrable to online environments. It is widely used in educational and business settings, or institutionalized settings, as a way to understand group formation processes in online environments. I introduced Tuckman's theory at a time when members of this group were exhibiting behaviors of the norming stage. At that time, postings were being made by members suggesting officers should change policies governing the number of postings a person might make to the group on any given day. Prior to that time, the members of the group had gone through an extended performing stage without any major disruptions. There were some minor disruptions associated with a new member who chose to remain anonymous. It has been suggested that the Fielding Model might be a better choice for assessing online group behaviors. This model is also one that is representative of an institutionalized approach. Here's a link to an overview of the model. Http://ciara.fiu.edu/pasi/publications/Sewell-Fielding_Model-PASI.pdf. It is one that implies group members are in control when in reality their actions are controlled by the institution. ~Gail ***************************** Gail D. Taylor, M.Ed. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Human Resource Education Ph.D. Student Educational Psychology Teaching Assistant "We can't just have mainstream behavior on television in a free society. We have to make sure we see the whole panorama of human behavior." -- Jerry Springer

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Listserv research
by 'Gail Taylor 24 Sep '06

24 Sep '06

There is a growing body of literature related to this topic in the business sciences. You might want to take a look at articles that have been written about interactions among members of online communities of practice, as well as how groups form and maintain sustained performance in online environments (i.e., virtual groups, virtual organizations). You might also want to take a look at what Bruce Tuckman has been writing about group formation processes. His stage theory -- forming, storming, norming, and performing -- is transferrable to online group interactions. There is also a lot of valuable information available on group interaction processes in the growing body of change management literature. ***************************** Gail D. Taylor, M.Ed. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Human Resource Education Ph.D. Student Educational Psychology Teaching Assistant "We can't just have mainstream behavior on television in a free society. We have to make sure we see the whole panorama of human behavior." -- Jerry Springer

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A DistributedTeach-In on Guantanamo
by David M Silver 23 Sep '06

23 Sep '06

Dear list members, On October 5, 2006, there will be a national teach-in called Guantanamo: How Should We Respond? ( http://law.shu.edu/guantanamoteachin/index.htm ). The teach-in takes place at Seton Hall Law School in Newark, New Jersey and will be broadcasted to over 200 participating campuses in 44 states. Because October 5 is near, most of us won't be able to organize an event on our own campuses. But as engaged scholars, events like this, especially in times like ours, merit our attention and thoughts. This project has three main elements: 1. On October 5th, Seton Hall will host an all-day conference available at academic institutions across the United States to study the national and international implications of indefinitely detaining hundreds of individuals deemed "enemy combatants." The program ( http://law.shu.edu/guantanamoteachin/page3.htm ) is impressive. Topics range from "medical professionals and guantanamo" and "journalists look behind the wire" to "history of torture in the modern world" and "american detention policy: the next frontier." Speakers include professors, attorneys, governmental officials, military officials, religious leaders, and human rights advocates. Among the speakers are journalists from the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Miami Herald, and Time magazine. 2. Beginning at 10:00 EST, the Teach-In will be available via high-quality video streams accessed through this website. Schools in earlier time zones can pick up the sessions in progress or, by accessing a recording of the earlier sessions, view the whole program from the beginning. This teach-in is truly national. Currently, as of September 20, over 200 campuses in 44 states are organizing teach-ins about guantanamo. The overwhelming majority of hosts are law schools, colleges, and universities. There are also 5 seminaries and 1 medical school participating in the teach-in. Additional information regarding the technology that connects the events at Seton Hall to the rest of the participating campuses can be found here ( http://law.shu.edu/guantanamoteachin/Teach-In_Tech_9-13-06.pdf ) 3. And, of course, participating schools can schedule their own programming instead of or in addition to some of the nationally broadcast sessions. For example, here at the university of San Francisco ( http://law.shu.edu/guantanamoteachin/page11.htm ), a large number of professors and administrators have organized the following events: Tuesday, October 5 9:00 am - 3:00 pm Terrace Room, USF Law School 9:00 - 10:30: Attorneys Bud Walsh and Bernie Casey, both of whom represent Guantanamo Bay detainees, will present. 10:30 - noon: Professor Richard Leo (Law School) will speak on interrogations, with emphasis on interrogations at Guantanamo. Noon - 1:30: Frank Lindh (father of John Walker Lindh, the "American Taliban") will speak along with a lawyer from the firm that represented John. 1:30 - 3:00: Attorney and Professor Banafsheh Akhlaghi (Politics) will speak on representing deportees, refugees, people on the no-fly list and other people under the radar. 3:00 pm - : We will run the Internet feed from Seton Hall, beginning with the first presentation. A national teach-in on how to respond to guantanamo - what a great idea. (Actually, if YOU are reading this from outside the US and are interested in making this an INTERNATIONAL teach-in, please contact Mark Denbeaux at denbeama [at ] shu.edu) It takes a great deal of work to organize projects like this. It also takes a great deal of courage, since so many college and university campuses, like so many other sectors of American society, are hostile to engaged debate and dissent. Finally, it takes a great deal of faith to organize projects like this - faith in college campuses as spheres of relevance, spheres of creativity, and spheres of democracy. david silver department of media studies university of san francisco http://silverinsf.blogspot.com

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