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

"If you don't belong ..."
by Barry Wellman 24 Jun '07

24 Jun '07

Someone on the list wrongly ascribed to Lauren Squires the following quote: "If you don't belong to some kind of social network, you soon may not belong anywhere." Instead, it was Lauren (I think) who called to our attention the quote which comes from Daniel Tynan's article for US Airways magazine, June 07. I love the quote as a straw being (formerly known in less PC times as a straw man), and I plan to start my next article with it -- a review of Lin Freeman's history of social network analysis. Why do I love it? Because a generation ago (in human years, not ICT years), we could barely sell the concept of Social Network to anyone. Now, it has been Tynan-ized. Barry Wellman _____________________________________________________________________ Barry Wellman S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology NetLab Director Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman For fun -- updating songs, movies and history: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php Elvis wouldn't be singing Return to Sender now _____________________________________________________________________

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Fwd: Final Call for Abstracts - uOttawa Student Conference on Privacy and Identity
by Michael Zimmer 24 Jun '07

24 Jun '07

thought this would be of interest to students on the list -mz ----- Michael Zimmer, PhD Microsoft Fellow, Information Society Project, Yale Law School e: michael.zimmer(a)nyu.edu w: http://michaelzimmer.org Begin forwarded message: FINAL CALL FOR STUDENT ABSTRACTS The Student "I": A student conference on privacy and anonymity University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law October 25, 2007 http://revealedi.org Graduate and undergraduate students from all disciplines are invited to submit an abstract for The Student “I”, a student conference on October 25, 2007 at the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, Canada. Preceding the Revealed “I” conference hosted by researchers from On the Identity Trail, this day long student conference brings together students from around the world, selected through a peer-review process, to present research relating to identity, privacy, anonymity, technology, surveillance, and other related topics engaged by the On the Identity Trail project (idtrail.org) Abstracts should not exceed 1,000 words (including notes and citations). Successful abstracts will seek to make an original contribution. Inter-disciplinary submissions are encouraged. Abstracts should be accompanied with a short bio, which should include the student’s program and institution of study, and an email address for correspondence. The deadline for abstracts is July 1, 2007. Send to: Julia Ladouceur University of Ottawa Faculty of Law, Common Law Section 57 Louis Pasteur Street Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5 Email: anonplan(a)uottawa.ca Successful applicants will be notified at the email address provided no later than August 1, 2007. Successful applicants who are unable to obtain funding from their home institution may apply for a student bursary to cover expenses relating to travel and accommodation. -- Julia Ladouceur Administratrice de projet / Project Administrator Projet d'anonymat / Anonymity Project Faculté de Droit / Faculty of Law Section Common Law / Common Law Section Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa 57 rue Louis Pasteur Street Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5 tel: 613-562-5800 (2370) fax: 613-562-5417 anonplan(a)uottawa.ca

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Postdoctoral Fellowships at Ryerson University: Deadline 3 July 2007
by Catherine Middleton 24 Jun '07

24 Jun '07

Here is a reminder of the Ryerson University (Toronto, Canada) Postdoctoral Fellowship competition. The application deadline is fast approaching (3 July 2007). Program details are below. If you are looking for a postdoc position in areas related to adoption/uptake/usage of broadband, mobile or wireless technologies, or broader questions related to technology adoption in the information society please contact me directly prior to applying. Dr. Catherine Middleton cmiddlet(a)ryerson.ca http://www.ryerson.ca/~cmiddlet If you are interested in the area of new media politics (political blogging, media blogging, user-generated content and poltiics, video blogging, online news analysis, social networking, etc., potential supervisors are: Dr. Greg Elmer http://www.infoscapelab.ca Dr. Abby Goodrum http://www.ryerson.ca/journalism/facultydirectory/faculty/goodrum.html **************************************************************************** Ryerson University Post-Doctoral Fellow (RPDF) and SRC Associate (SRCA) Program Deadline for candidate: July 3, 2007 See http://www.ryerson.ca/research/RPDF.html for full details. The aim of this program is to attract outstanding post-doctoral fellows and distinguished practitioners who will enhance Ryerson's Scholarly, Research and Creative (SRC) productivity. Successful candidates in the July 3rd competition must assume their appointment by January 2008 at the latest. Criteria for Ryerson Post Doctoral Fellows: (a) Applicants must have completed all doctoral requirements prior to commencement of the position and be within three years of their actual doctoral graduation date. (b) There must be evidence of significant and exciting promise in SRC in relation to the candidate's career stage and background. (c) Given that the candidate qualifies under the preceding criteria, priority will be given to the objective of increasing the representation of designated groups on faculty. (d) Preference will normally be given to persons who may be appointed at the rank of Assistant Professor.

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AoIR Facebook Group
by Nancy Baym 23 Jun '07

23 Jun '07

In keeping with the recent discourse about Facebook on this list, the increasing number of AIR-L folks showing up on that site, and Richard Smith's leadership in creating an AoIR 8.0 group, I've created an all purpose AoIR group on Facebook. All AIR-L subscribers are invited to join. Here's the group page: http://ku.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2468341531 Cheers, Nancy

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indie music scenes + internet
by Holly Kruse 23 Jun '07

23 Jun '07

I'm starting to work on a book chapter that I was asked to write for a collection on music geographies, an area with which I'm pretty familiar and have written about from an "old media" perspective, especially concerning identity, locality, space and place, and all that (as in my book, Site and Sound: Understanding Independent Music Scenes and a long-ago article in the journal Popular Music called "Subcultural Identity in Alternative Music Culture.") This chapter thus updates my old research/book on indie music scenes by specifically focusing on the effect that the internet has had on notions of locality, local scenes, and local sounds. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, there was a fair amount of popular media attention to local music scenes -- e.g. Athens, GA; Manchester, UK; Seattle; etc. -- and assertions (in many cases spurious) that particular "sounds" were associated with these local scenes. And whatever the validity of these claims, there was little doubt that within localities there were complicated, incestuous genealogies of bands over the years. The persistence of many local players, even as they moved into different bands and collaborated with different people, may contribute to the existence of a local sound or sounds to varying degrees. The key question that I'm interested in is to what extent, if any, MySpace, file sharing, iTunes, lastfm, and the like have changed/diminished the perception that there are local music scenes, changed the way that participants identify with a local scene, and affected the places and spaces of local music. Clearly one consequence is the demise in many places of the local indie record store as a gathering place and source of local knowledge. I'm also re-reading Kembrew McLeod's work on the internet and music/indie music. As much as anything, I'm interested in people's musings on the internet, music, and locality... even just the internet and locality and local identity. The internet and local community work (e.g. the Netville studies and others) and internet and globalization work is all very interesting to me, but I'm not sure how applicable it is to this particular project. Thanks in advance for any reactions and insights! 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 http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~holly-kruse

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core ict indicators
by Jeremy Hunsinger 22 Jun '07

22 Jun '07

from the itu, a report on proposed core indicators http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/partnership/material/CoreICTIndicators.pdf Jeremy Hunsinger Information Ethics Fellow, Center for Information Policy Research, School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (www.cipr.uwm.edu) Words are things; and a small drop of ink, falling like dew upon a thought, produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think. --Byron

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Re: [Air-l] air-l Digest, Vol 35, Issue 17
by Ellen Helsper 22 Jun '07

22 Jun '07

Lauren Squires wrote: >> "If you don't belong to some kind of social network, you soon may not belong anywhere." ... I'm not even sure what this is supposed to mean other than being a dramatic sell for social network sites, but the implication is obviously that if you're not part of an ONLINE social network, you'll have no reason to be online at all; or, you'll have no social life? But we all have social networks that aren't contingent on broadband, yes? That emerge via neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, hobbies, travel..... Anyway, this usage got my goat, for whatever reason. >> In the research that I have done with teenagers (interviews, surveys and observation/experiments) it seemed that online social networking on sites like Facebook and MySpace is very much an extension of offline social networks. Most the good and nasty things that happen in the 'Real World' are replicated online: bullying, flirting, gossip, hanging out, and yes, even homework (and cheating). These young people were very aware that what they put on their online social networks would spread rapidly to their offline social networks which might have all kinds of undesirable consequences. I guess this is strongly related to the 'path dependency' mentioned by Barry Wellman in another posting to this list. It might therefore be the case that without an offline social network you have no chance of getting a true online social network. Both seemed to reinforce eachother in the research that I have done. I have less (research) experience with those over 25 but from, admittedly anecdotal, experience I would say that this is pretty much true for older online social networkers to. My question would be: Are adults using 'new' media to continue 'old boys networks'? Is it all same old, same old or is there really evidence that people break out of the mould of offline social networks and start completely new and different networks online. Best, Ellen _______________________________________________________________________________ Ellen J Helsper Research Fellow Oxford Internet Institute University of Oxford 1 St Giles Oxford OX1 3JS Tel: +44 (0)1865 287229 Fax: +44 (0)1865 287211 http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/microsites/oxis/

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Open Source Use in Online News and Citizen Media
by Steven Clift 21 Jun '07

21 Jun '07

Is anyone out there researching this topic/trend? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Steven Clift - clift(a)publicus.net Web: http://publicus.net Blog: http://dowire.org/notes NGO: http://e-democracy.org Replies to slc@ may be missed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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International Summit of Free Networks 2007 in Catalonia (SAX2007) & WSFII (World Summit for Free Information Infrastructures)
by Josep Vives 21 Jun '07

21 Jun '07

FYI International Summit of Free Networks 2007 in Catalonia (SAX2007 & WSFII) WEB http://guifi.net/ca/SAX2007En SCHEDULE: http://guifi.net/SAX2007Programa OVERVIEW This year, the traditional meeting for the free civil networks in Catalonia (SAX) will be extended to new contents, will take a week and will be extended to new participants worldwide and therefore affiliated to the WSFII (World Summit for Free Information Infrastructures). The registration will be free and everyone interested in developing non-proprietary networks is invited. The main purpose of the SAX & WSFII event in Catalonia is to empower and develop at all levels the civilian, open and free infrastructures as an alternative to the classic proprietary/corporate owned or operated network models. Around this objective, we plan to have presence with panelists from all the actors involved, including local government, enterprises of any size, regulator authority, and of course, the geek community involved in the research and development activities and the users in general. You should come to this SAX2007 & WSFII event if you are part of a user community or you want to start one, a local government or local business and you whish to share your experience or understand how free networks can become a success and sustainable instead of just draining funds to feed unprofitable "business" models. Take a look at the schedule. Wou'll see there the topics and the major actors of the open networks worldwide. The event will be scheduled by days; some might be in parallel (stay tuned to the schedule, which may change until the very last day): In all cases, will be keynotes, panelists and open discussions. Where makes sense, will be also practical exercises. * Business day. How can any business be friendly developed within the context of neutral and free infrastructures? How this can provide good ROI cases and boost productivity? What is saying the Spanish regulators about that? Success stories. * Developer's day. How developers, hackers and geeks can contribute? Which are the methodologies for doing so? Hacking, new things, what to do... o Hardware for Open Source wireless systems o guifi.net decentralized povisioning system o B.A.T.M.A.N. Roadshow * Backbone day. Keeping the network up to date to the state of the art of the technology. We will configure a telecommunications tower with both long distance links and CPE coverage to the users at Sant Bartomeu del Grau. * Local government and municipalities day. What means civil and free networks and which unique benefits local governments and municipalities can take from them? Why they are a great opportunity for developing the civil society and increase digital inclusion percentages up to unprecedented levels? Real world examples: Hear some elected people experiencies and regulators. Understand how more than 40 municipalities have succesfully participated in building free networks around guifi.net. * User's day. How it works and how non-technical people can participate in the free networks? Benefits. How to connect. What has to be done at home. Equipments to buy or consct. Trainings. * "guifi.net tour". Visit and see how solar powered backbone long-distance links provide broadband access to rural areas in the pyrenees mountains. * Community day. What we can do, as a community, to help each other? Find out synergies, common tactics and strategies. o In Catalonia (SAX) o In Spain (redlibre) o South Europe, Europe worldwide and developing countries (WSFII) Everyone interested in adding content to the SAX&WSFII is very welcome, just contact us. Only take in mind that SAX&WSFII is about free (as in freedom, not as in beer or as in built with open source but proprietary) network infrastructures. If you think that you have something in that direction, please join to the guifi-saxcatalunya list (english interface available). Logistics: Where will be the SAX2007 & WSFII and where to sleep. ------------------------------------------------- Josep Vives Jounou jvives(a)cibersociedad.net Sociologist, Internet Researcher Observatory For Cibersociety www.cibersociedad.net Guifi.Net http://guifi.net -------------------------------------------------

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the choice of social network is a social network phenomenon?
by William Bain 21 Jun '07

21 Jun '07

Barry Wellman wrote: "It is path dependency. If most of your friends are on FB or MS, then you will choose that one. I haven't seen hard data on socioeconomic differences, and I'd be reluctant to generalize that FB is mid-class and MS working-class." I would be interested in knowing whether anything *has* been published with that type of hard data and how you'd anallyse the paths. I assume vissually (charts? tables?). Maybe this has been talked about before, but fwiw on a learning basis. In a field arguably outside the scope of my usual one. Especially: would anyone know of something publiehshed online? Best regards, Will William Bain PhD Student Comparative Literature Department of Spanish Philology Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona --------------------------------- Be a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship answers from someone who knows. Yahoo! Answers - Check it out.

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