December 2007 - Air-L - lists.aoir.org

UPI (was: AoIR in today's Washington Post)
by Michael Zimmer 18 Dec '07

18 Dec '07

What's worse than a poorly researched and skewed WP article? The UPI crib-note version, of course: <http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Quirks/2007/12/16/ majoring_in_facebook_at_uc_berkely/4780/> Yikes. -mz On Dec 16, 2007, at 3:39 PM, Holly Kruse wrote: > Has no one really posted about this yet? The story about the > academic study > of social networking sites in today's Washington Post is really all > about > AoIR'ers. AoIR is mentioned, danah boyd is featured, Nancy Baym > and Nicole > Ellison weigh in, the latest issue of JCMC is commented upon: > > http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/14/ > AR2007121400 > 606.htm > > > Holly > > -- > Holly Kruse > Faculty of Communication > The University of Tulsa > 600 S. College Ave. > Tulsa, OK 74104 > 918-631-3845 > holly-kruse(a)utulsa.edu or holly.kruse(a)gmail.com > http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~holly-kruse > > > _______________________________________________ > 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] Post article
by Tuszynski, Stephanie 18 Dec '07

18 Dec '07

I remember back when "Buffy" was starting to get a lot of media attention and they were writing about how "devoted" the fans were, I just wanted to dig my head into the sand to muffle my "GO AWAY" screaming. "You all looked so normal!" Oy. There's nothing like reading a news story intended to appeal to a large swath of the population who do not and will never know a lot about your particular interest that summarizes something you think of in deeply nuanced terms into a breezy chunk of text that can be easily read while chewing a donut and sipping hot coffee. As I've complained/boasted before, if you go into the library and search for books related to our field, your results are likely to crop up all over the place - English/language studies, comm, philosophy, sociology, anthro, law, and on and on. I always thought that was the *good* part about being one of these silly, well-fed, ivory-tower academics frittering her time away trying to make my farking around on the internet sound like a legitimate research agenda and chatting with that tiny circle of people that I cite incessantly (where's my sarcasm font tag?) danah - As others have said, this is not your fault. The reporter was looking to fit her framework and no matter how accurate you were when you spoke, anything you said was going to be made to fit the frame. Case in point: I did a phone interview with a reporter about the WGA strike a couple weeks ago. I spent the entire interview thinking to myself "keep your foot out of your mouth!" while trying to make the point that the WGA strike is about a lot more than just the writers. But when the reporter asked me what I felt was a fairly whiny question ("What would you say to someone who says they're entitled to have their new tv shows?") I snapped "Well, I'd tell them to pick up a book." I *knew* as soon as I said it that it would be the last line of the article, because that's exactly how journalists think and it would fit the "professors privileging real art over entertainment" framework, even if I'm a film professor. And darned if I wasn't right. At least my students found it amusing. Stephanie Tuszynski http://www.dlfilms.com Visiting Assistant Professor of Film Departments of Theatre, Film and Music University of Toledo

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BAM Workshop: EMERGING OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES IN E-BUSINESS
by Savvas Papagiannidis 17 Dec '07

17 Dec '07

For more information please visit: http://www.ebusiness-newcastle.com/news/events/08_01_ebusiness.php e-Business & e-Government Special Interest Group (SIG) Workshop EMERGING OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES IN E-BUSINESS: THEORIES, METHODS AND APPLICATIONS 24th - 25th January 2008 - Caledonian Business School, Glasgow, United Kingdom Deadline for submissions: 10th of January 2008 // Thanks to the sponsorship of BAM ebusiness & e-Government SIG and Caledonian Business School, registration for this event is FREE. Following the successful workshops at Newcastle and Brunel in 2006 and 2007, the BAM e-Business & e-Government special interest group would like to invite academics and practitioners to participate in another interactive workshop in Glasgow to explore emerging opportunities and challenges in e-Business. The main purposes are to identify emerging technologies and applications in e-Business, to explore emerging methodological challenges in e-Business research and to facilitate collaborations in research and publications amongst SIG members. In the past few years, this SIG has successfully edited six journal special issues and one edited book, in conjunction with the e-Business & e-Government Track at BAM annual conferences and with SIG workshops between annual conferences. We plan to organise a journal special issue after the workshop and all participants are encouraged to submit your paper for consideration. You are invited to submit extended abstracts (One side of A4) about emerging technologies and applications in e-Business; and/or emerging methodological challenges in e-Business research, by 10th of January 2008. To submit an abstract or register for the event please send it via email to Dr Savvas Papagiannidis ( savvas.papagiannidis(a)ncl.ac.uk ).

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NYT story on academic facebook research
by Eszter Hargittai 17 Dec '07

17 Dec '07

Hi, I was also quoted in both the WaPo and the NYTimes pieces. I enjoyed speaking with both reporters, but like others was somewhat disappointed by Monica's particular angle in the WaPo article. In addition to the general tone, I found it unfortunate to be misquoted. (I can't imagine I would've said that in two years "we may not even call these things social networks." since I didn't talk to her about social networks in general nor would I have said what she quotes me as saying if I had. I spoke to her about social network sites in particular, two concepts that are unfortunate to confuse.) Mary-Helen mentioned earlier that journalists seem to feel more comfortable discussing quantitative results. That comment made me chuckle. If you only knew how much time I (and I suspect others in similar shoes) spend explaining relatively simple statistical findings to journalists only to have the results misrepresented in the end you would not make that assumption. I suspect it's just another case where that comment about journalists' coverage of other areas applies: if it's not your specialty you're more likely to think they cover it well.:-} Eszter http://www.eszter.com

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CFP: University of Leeds ICS Postgrad Conference "Communications and Space/Place"
by Paul Aitken 17 Dec '07

17 Dec '07

Communication and Space/ Place 2nd Postgraduate Conference University of Leeds, Institute of Communications Studies Leeds, United Kingdom Friday, 6 June 2008 Following the great success of last year's first PhD conference, the Institute of Communications Studies (ICS) at the University of Leeds will be hosting a second post-graduate conference for research in communications and media. We invite students from all disciplines at the Master's or Doctoral level to present research that pertains to the conceptualisation and/or observation of �space/place� in relation to communication, media and culture. Although Space and Place can be understood broadly, the theoretical and material implications of their relationship to media and communications are important to studies in this field. The two words, taken either together or separately, are crucial to all manner of media and communications structures/networks/economies/policies, such as the discursive 'space' of contemporary politics, shifting conceptions of public and private 'places', the focus on flows between locales in a global capitalist economy, the importance of creative 'space' in the culture industries, the decentralised 'space' of online 'citizen media', and so on. While a look at various definitions of either word reveals at once their potential compatibilities and irreconcilabilities, the linguistic convergence marked by each word's functionality as both verb and noun presents us with myriad possibilities of thinking Space and Place. Spaces and places may be 'real' or 'virtual' environments and locales; sites of expansion or contraction; material realisations or policies of freedom or restriction. Space/Place can also be understood in terms of culture and discursive relationships; they can be formations where the identities of groups and individuals are explored and/or constructed, and where notions of human agency encounter forces and ideologies that influence and are influenced by the ways that social actors and institutions communicate. The following are some possible areas of inquiry: The problematic dichotomies of public-private, 'real'-virtual, spaces and places for the use/consumption of media. Meaning/Representation: The spaces and places in which media and communication are produced and consumed have a profound relationship to how 'meaning' is derived from them. How are people from different cultures, ethnicities, etc. represented by and in media and communications? What are the policies that shape the relationship of communication, space/place, and 'stakeholders' (public, state, market, NGOs etc) how is space/place regulated? How do space/place relate to prohibition of communication, or the use of various media as propaganda? The spaces and places in which media and communication are produced and consumed have a profound relationship to how 'meaning' is derived from them. To what extent, and in which ways, are media and communications spaces/places contingent (or not) on aspects of each other and on media producers and consumers? Are there barriers to participation in certain media/communications spaces/places? How does power operate in these spaces/places? How are new formations of power relationships developed with relation to space/place? How are old formations changing or being reinforced in contemporary media? What happens at the edges and intersections of spaces/places, i.e. when traditional media meet the Internet, or when communications cross over between genres and media? Does a place necessarily constitute a space, and vice versa? Are they fluid; are they mutually exclusive? Please submit an abstract by 21 January 2008 with a general description of your research paper, indicating your topic, theoretical framework, research questions or hypotheses, and methodological considerations. The abstract should not exceed 500 words and should be attached to your email in a common document format (MS Word compatible, Word Perfect). Should your proposal be accepted, we will ask you to provide a full paper before the conference. All accepted full papers will be read, discussed and commented on by members of the academic staff from the Institute of Communications Studies who have expertise in your topic, method, or theoretical framework. This can be a golden opportunity for you to refine your thoughts, openly share your concerns, and receive constructive critique from professors and fellow postgraduate students working in your area. It is also a great chance to start building or expanding your professional and academic network. Following the conference your paper will be published in the forthcoming ICS Postgraduate Conference proceedings open access online journal. Contact Information: Email: ics-pg-conference(a)leeds.ac.uk Conference Website: http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~cspaa/ics-pg-conference/ Important Dates: Abstracts: 21 January 2008 Acceptance Notification: 3 March 2008 Full papers: 30 April 2008 Please indicate the following in the body of your email: Title of presentation as it appears on the abstract Name Affiliaton (program and university) Level and year of study (ex. Master's, 2nd year) Phone number E-mail address Mailing address A/V requirements (computer/projector, film projector, VCR/DVD, stereo, etc.) Other requirements (table, easel, hooks, display materials). Mobility and other special needs requirements (wheel chair access, etc.) We look forward to receiving your abstracts, and thank you for your interest! -The Organising Committee. -- Paul Aitken Guitarist - Improviser - Academic +44 (0) 7942 610 871 info(a)paulaitken.com http://www.paulaitken.com http://ics.leeds.ac.uk/staff/paitken "I am well aware that I have not written anything but fictions...which is not to say that they have nothing to do with the truth." - Michel Foucault

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CfP: 2nd Workshop on Social Aspects of the Web (SAW 2008); deadline: 12 Jan 2008
by Dominik Flejter 17 Dec '07

17 Dec '07

=========================================================================== Call for papers =========================================================================== 2nd Workshop on Social Aspects of the Web (SAW 2008) in conjunction with 11th International Conference on Business Information Systems (BIS 2008) Innsbruck, Austria May 5, 6 or 7, 2008 http://bis.kie.ae.poznan.pl/11th_bis/wscfp.php?ws=saw2008 =========================================================================== Deadline for submissions: January 12, 2008 =========================================================================== In recent years, the Web has moved from a simple one-way communication channel extending traditional media, to a complex "peer-to-peer" communication space with a blurred author/audience distinction and new ways to create, share and use knowledge in a social way. This change of paradigm is currently profoundly transforming most areas of our life: our interactions with other people, our relationships, ways of gathering information, ways of developing social norms, opinions, attitudes and even legal aspects as well as ways of working and doing business. It also raises a strong need for theoretical, empirical and applied studies related to how people may interact on the Web, how they actually do and what new possibilities and challenges are emerging in the social, business and technology dimensions. The goal of this workshop is to bring researchers and practitioners together to explore the issues and challenges related to social aspects of the Web. We want to facilitate discussion on topics including theoretical, empirical and applied studies related to: TOPICS OF INTEREST * Users in the social Web * User identity/identities on the Web * Activity patterns * Privacy / intimacy in the social Web * Psychological aspects of acting in the social Web * Analysis and reduction of the socio-technical gap in social software * Communities on the Web * User roles, leadership and interactions * Conflicts and their resolution * Social norms and their enforcement * Trust and reputation in communities * Relations of on-line and off-line communities * Social discourse and decision-taking on the Web * Large-scale social Web mining and empirical studies * Social network analysis * Associations mining from social network * Large-scale behaviour patterns and anomalies' mining * Moods' / opinions' / social problems' analysis * Experts finding on the social Web * Mining formal semantics from social sources * Methodologies of Web-based social macro and micro studies * Social Web and business * Social Web as a source of business information * Social Web as a business communication channel * Business models for social software and services * Specific types of social software on the Web (bookmarking, social networks etc.) * Use cases and best practices * Applications of Web-based social software * Social software architectures * Social software on the Semantic Web * Strategies for bootstrapping social software systems and bypassing the critical mass problem * Social software in information processing and retrieval * Social software in collaborative maintenance of content and data SUBMISSION * Long papers: max. 5000 words * Work-in-progress rep.: max. 2500 words * Position papers: max. 2500 words * Demo papers: max. 2500 words Papers must be submitted in PDF format according to Springer LNBIP template available from http://www.springer.com/east/home/computer/lncs?SGWID=5-164-7-487211-0. Submission system is available on-line at http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=SAW2008. The proceedings will be published jointly with proceedings of other BIS workshops as a book or CD with ISBN number, and on-line at CEUR WS.org workshop proceedings publication service (open content). Extended version of selected papers submitted to the workshop will be published as special issue of International Journal on WWW/Internet (http://www.iadis.org/ijwi/, ISSN: 1645-7641). WORKSHOP FORMAT All authors of accepted papers as well as other participants will be asked to read accepted papers abstracts before the workshop (papers will be available on-line in advance) to facilitate discussion. The workshop will consist in two parts: first (more formal) devoted to presentation and discussion of accepted papers and second (less formal) devoted to discussion of several issues related to present and future of the social Web. Workshop participants will be also invited to take part in the BIS conference and topically related BIS workshops on Mashups, Enterprise Mashups, and Lightweight Composition on the Web (M&LCW 2008) and Advances in Accessing the Deep Web (ADW 2008). IMPORTANT DATES * January 12, 2008 - submission deadline for papers * February 12, 2008 - notification of acceptance/rejection * March 12, 2008 - submission of final papers * May 5, 6 or 7, 2008 - the workshop ORGANIZERS * Poznan University of Economics, Department of Information Systems (http://kie.ae.poznan.pl/) CHAIRS * Dominik Flejter * Tomasz Kaczmarek * Marek Kowalkiewicz PROGRAM COMMITTEE * Krisztian Balog, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands * Simone Braun, FZI Karlsruhe, Germany * John Breslin, DERI, NUI Galway, Ireland * Tanguy Coenen, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium * Jon Dron, Athabasca University, Canada * Davide Eynard, Politecnico di Milano, Italy * Andrew T. Fiore, University of California, Berkeley, the USA * Dominik Flejter, Poznan University of Economics, Poland * Tomasz Kaczmarek, Poznan University of Economics, Poland * Marek Kowalkiewicz, SAP Research Brisbane, Australia * Sebastian Kruk, DERI, NUI Galway, Ireland * Marcin Paprzycki, Polish Academy of Science, Poland * Katharina Siorpaes, STI, University of Innsbruck, Austria * Marcin Sydow, Polish-Japanese Institute of Information Technology, Poland * Jie Tang, Tshingua University, China * Celine van Damme, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium * Valentin Zacharias, FZI Karlsruhe, Germany ===========================================================================

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archived social network site
by Bilbo Poynter 17 Dec '07

17 Dec '07

Hello, I am a journalist with a quick question: Does anyone know if it is possible to recover an archived member page of a social network site, once it has been removed by the member, specifically Facebook? Any direction here would be great. -- Bilbo Poynter bilbopoynter(a)gmail.com

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new CC license for Open Data (semantic web, etc)
by elw＠stderr.org 17 Dec '07

17 Dec '07

fyi - of possibly very great interest to folks on this list. --elijah ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Paul Miller <Paul.Miller(a)talis.com> Date: Dec 17, 2007 6:35 AM Subject: [Linking-open-data] New licence for Open Data from Talis and Creative Commons To: linking-open-data(a)simile.mit.edu Cc: Jordan Hatcher <jordan(a)opencontentlawyer.com> All, As you are aware, appropriate licensing for data remains a stumbling block to achieving significant buy-in to activities such as the Linking Open Data initiative. We do see contributors such as those already involved who are prepared to participate despite the legal uncertainties, but if we are to achieve break-out growth and see the pool of linked and open data achieve the potential we all wish for it then it would appear that there is a requirement for appropriate licensing as discussed in the Open Data panel back in Banff this Spring.I'm therefore delighted to share the attached press release with you, which announces a new licensing framework that we have just released with Creative Commons. There's a lot still to do, and we'd very much welcome the involvement of all of you in making this a success... Paul -- Dr Paul Miller Technology Evangelist, Talis w: www.talis.com/platform skype: napm1971 mobile/cell: +44 7769 740083 *www.linkedin.com/in/pau1mi11er* <http://www.linkedin.com/in/pau1mi11er> Talis and Creative Commons launch new open data licence a milestone for sharing data on the Internet17 December 2007 Talis and Creative Commons are delighted to announce the release of the *Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and Licence*, the first output of a successful partnership with the Science Commons project of Creative Commons. Creative Commons is well known for its advocacy and licensing work in the arena of 'creative works' such as songs, images, and copyrightable text. In developing the Public Domain Dedication and Licence, Talis secured the efforts of Jordan Hatcher and Dr. Charlotte Waelde, asking them to build upon the principles of the earlier Talis Community Licence in ways that ensured its fitness for international purpose whilst aligning it more closely to the phrasing of Creative Commons' overarching protocol. Talis' Technology Evangelist Dr. Paul Miller commented, "At Talis we've been arguing for a more permissive culture around use and reuse of data for a very long time. Working with our partners at Creative Commons and elsewhere we now have a clear framework upon which to build, and in our Public Domain Dedication and Licence we have the very first licence to conform to that new Science Commons Open Access Data Protocol. With this announcement we provide a tool to those who already understand the value of unlocking their data. We can also use discussion of this first tool to carry a wider set of messages to those who remain unaware of the importance of data licensing to their own activities." The legal environment within which data exist is radically different to that for creative works, and although there have been attempts to apply existing Creative Commons licences to data, the legal validity of those efforts is questionable. In Europe we have Directive 96/9/EC of the European Parliament, and its various expressions in the laws of member states to define the so-called Database Right. These protections do not apply in jurisdictions such as the United States. A different approach is therefore required if we are to facilitate the widespread availability of data upon which the emerging Semantic Web will depend. John Wilbanks, Creative Commons' Vice President responsible for the Science Commons project, commented "For a commercial organisation such as Talis, with a heritage in the business of creating and managing data, to recognise the importance of the 'freedom to integrate' says much about changing attitudes to the ownership and use of data. That they went beyond this recognition and did something about it with their licensing and advocacy work says much about them and the team with which they collaborated. The Open Data Commons Licence (ODCL) is the fruit of that collaboration. Both CC0 and the ODCL offer a sound legal basis upon which creators can follow Talis' example and recognise that there is far more to be gained by enabling access to data than by continuing to lock it away. Uniquely built for data, the Open Data Commons Licence approach furthermore implements the norms of data sharing for scientific data, providing the guidance for scientists to act as good citizens without exposing them to lawsuits and lawyers." Jordan Hatcher, who completed the redrafting effort, commented, "Building an open data licence for the community is very much a collaborative process and we need everyone's input to make the licence be the best it can be -- including meeting everyone's needs for open data. The project's goal is to produce an easy to understand licence and that means having it user tested just like software. In the end, the Open Data Commons Licence will provide a workable and easy to use solution for data integration that will take care of the relevant rights over data and databases." The Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and Licence is available for use from today. We are working with the Cambridge-based Open Knowledge Foundation in the expectation that they can take on the support and development of this and related licences in the future, ensuring true community ownership of the licensing cornerstone upon which so much data will come to rely. The Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and Licence is available for download from www.opendatacommons.org, along with the first set of documented Community Norms. For further information contact Ceri McCall on ceri.mccall(a)talis.com or by telephone on +44 870 400 5029. _______________________________________________ Linking-open-data mailing list Linking-open-data(a)simile.mit.edu http://simile.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/linking-open-data

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My letter to Monica Hesse at the Post (was: snide, , cute...)
by Bill Herman 17 Dec '07

17 Dec '07

Hi all, I'm also delurking for my first post. I agree with much of what has been said thus far about the piece (thanks/sorry danah, etc.). Thank you, Terri, for inviting Monica to the list; complaining to each other is not as useful as educating outsiders. Two points stick out for me. First, while I agree this piece was definitely not up to snuff (the comment that all of us save danah have so little expertise that a reporter could exhaust it for a newspaper story is just laughable), I'm scared to say that it may be better than most of what the print world writes about the internet. For starters, she actually looked up and cited something from the internet, including the author's name--unjustified mockery notwithstanding. How many articles have you read that describe blogging and bloggers without citing a single blog--even citing specific breaking news stories without citing their source? (Yes, I know I'm returning the favor; I'd be embarrassed to do it in a blog post, though, and nobody's paying me to write those.) It's part of the broader trope of the internet as a dangerous place composed primarily of unsubstantiated rumors, dopey videos, and malware. "Internet as citation-worthy" and "internet as object of study" is a move up, even if we're portrayed as a backbiting lot of landgrabbers who have little to offer past danah's email address. Second, and relatedly, our corner of the world is particularly subject to a lack of quality coverage as the result of cutbacks in newsroom budgets. I can't speak to the specifics of this story, but in an era when most newspapers are cutting the staff they already have, they can't possibly be investing in the new people required to cover the internet competently and train their other beat reporters to do the same. Most of the other major topics in the newspaper--crime, business, policymaking, war, movies, sports--were well-established when Wall Street was still hungry for newspapers. They cope with cutbacks by forcing internet coverage through those strainers, so we get: internet crime, mergers & acquisitions news for tech stocks, and (abhorrent) coverage of (generally abhorrent) proposed tech legislation. This time, we got run through the "style" strainer and (surprise!) it's all about idol worship and jealous gossip. Internet-as-new-social-phenomenon coverage would be challenging in the best of times, and it's coming along when newspapers aren't laying out the capital to invest in new areas of investigation. Expect this trend to continue. Happy holidays, Bill Bill D. Herman Ph.D. Candidate Annenberg School for Communication University of Pennsylvania bherman (ampersand) asc.upenn.edu billdherman(a)gmail.com

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Re: [Air-L] Landrushes and Interdisciplinarity
by Sam Ladner 17 Dec '07

17 Dec '07

I would disagree that the WP journalist's view was entirely unjustified. Unlike Nancy, I believe it wasn't a story about disciplines competing for "ownership" over online social networking (I think only an academic might think like that ;-). No I believe the journalist was writing from her perspective, likely shaped in the past, that academics are a petty lot who often grind down the very people who are to take their craft to the next generation. As a former journalist and current academic, I know that journalists tend not to see academics as ego-driven and self-indulgent. They also truly do not know what constitutes "good research," but then, why would they? What they do know is what constitutes a "good story." This involves drama, tension, a peak, and a denoument. It is possible this journalist had previous but subconscious knowledge about a a very real phenomenon in academia, that is, the closing out of emerging research and researchers, which is driven in part by power struggles. Sounds like a good story to me! Even if it's wrong... Of course this does not justify the inaccurate representation of the researchers. Nor does it excuse this journalist's very quick and surface review of the subject. Like Bill, however, I would choose to apply a political economy of journalism to this. The "landrush" mentality is partly the journalist's herself! Everyone wants to be the expert of the big thing, whether it be Bre-X, Dot-Com, or Asset-backed Commercial Paper. All of these take years to understand well but journalists do not have that luxury. It is the constraints of their jobs that force them to be superficial and stake their claims quickly.

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