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

Job: Viability of online communities
by Nigel Gilbert 03 Aug '07

03 Aug '07

Research Fellow Viability of online communities Centre for Research in Social Simulation University of Surrey, UK Salary: up to GBP 30,012 (Level 4, point 5) per annum Summary Applications are invited for a researcher to work with Professor Nigel Gilbert and Dr Camille Roth on a project investigating the determinants of the viability of online communities and networks. The post will involve the collection and analysis of data about online communities such as tagging systems (e.g. Flickr), wiki-based systems (e.g. Wikipedia) and social networking sites (e.g. MySpace). The post will involve describing and analyzing the sustainability and demographics of these communities, both in terms of their population and their knowledge-based content, in order to understand the determinants of their viability or non-viability. An interest in complex systems and/or networks, and programming skills in one or more of scripting languages, java and web programming is essential for this post. A PhD in a quantitative social science, computer science or statistical physics would be helpful. It will involve some travel in Europe. The post is available from 1st October 2007, or as soon as possible thereafter, until 31st January 2010. The post is associated with the European Union Framework 6 project, PATRES (Pattern Resilience), which will develop new methods defining the actions favouring the recovery from perturbations, applicable from ecology to cognitive sciences and sociology. An overview of the project may be found at http://www.patres-project.eu/. The post will be located in Guildford, Surrey, England, on a modern campus that sits on the hillside leading up to Guildford Cathedral. The campus is surrounded by landscaped grounds, playing fields and a beautiful lake populated by ducks and swans. Academic, sports, catering and entertainment facilities are all on hand with the close-knit community creating a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. While the centre of London can be reached within 35 minutes by rail, Guildford is a market town in an area of outstanding natural beauty. For informal discussions about the post, contact Professor Nigel Gilbert at n.gilbert(a)surrey.ac.uk. For an application pack and to apply on line, please visit www.surrey.ac.uk/vacancies. Alternatively please contact Stephanie Lesanne via email on s.lesanne(a)surrey.ac.uk or by telephone on +44 1483 682605 quoting reference number 6192. To send an application, please email or post to Stephanie Lesanne, HR Officer, School of Human Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 7XH, UK. The closing date for applications is 2nd September 2007. Interview board will be held on 18th September 2007 The University is committed to an Equal Opportunities Policy

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Call for Expressions of Interest to contribute to a proposed International Virtual Reality Teaching and Learning Research Institute
by OLE BRUDVIK 03 Aug '07

03 Aug '07

*Title: Call for Expressions of Interest to contribute to a proposed International Virtual Reality Teaching and Learning Research Institute * *This is a general call for academics and practitioners involved or interested in the field of Virtual Reality Teaching and Learning (using environments such as Second Life) to express their interest in contributing to or being associated with an International Virtual Reality Teaching and Learning Research Institute. The range of research and development that the proposed Institute would support is intentionally left open, but could include projects such as investigating the efficacy of various virtual reality learning designs, researching the sociological and psychological aspects of learning in virtual reality environments, and the success with which tools and scripts can be applied across different curricula. Interested parties can nominate roles that they would like to perform, which may include* - *advice on the policies of the Institute and the services it provides* - *research and development in conjunction with the Institute (utilising support services that would be provided by the Institute)* - *evaluation of Institute performance.* *If you are interested in becoming involved with the proposed Institute, please provide an Expression of Interest (of no longer than one page) outlining your experience with VREs or related technology based learning applications, any research experience, the reasons for your interest in becoming associated, and the ways in which you would like to be involved. Please return all Expressions of Interest no later than 9th August 2007. * *Prospective contributors would form part of a Carrick Grant Application to establish the Institute. This initiative is being lead by Professor John Hedberg, Macquarie University Australia. * *Kind regards,* Ole C. Brudvik School of Education Australia Centre for Educational Studies Macquarie University

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Ethics in online virtual worlds
by Kevin Sherman 02 Aug '07

02 Aug '07

I will be interviewing and observing avatars within Second Life as research for my phd. I have been asked by my ethics board to obtain hard copy signature consent from my participants rather than online digital consent. Can anyone direct me to literature pertaining to the practicalities of informed consent in online virtual worlds (mmogs, mmorpgs, second life, etc..) or discuss their own experience with this? Thank you, Kevin

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Re: [Air-L] Ethics in online virtual worlds
by Matthew Bernius 01 Aug '07

01 Aug '07

Kevin, I did my masters research work in YahooChat! rooms dealing with sexbots. In terms of observation, I was able to successfully argue that YahooChat! rooms represented a quasi public space because it could be freely accessed by individuals with e-mail addresses, including free ones available from Yahoo and other services. As far as I remember, joining Second Life is free so the same argument could be made. So I didn't need to get permission to reproduce conversations that occurred in "public" chatrooms. In terms of the interviews, like others, I was able to get by on just an e-mail confirmation. However, I chose to only use screen names in my paper. In fact, in just about every case I never knew the actual name of interviewees. Interesting, part of my IRB had to include my process for IDing bots in order to justify why I didn't need to get permissions to quote them. - Matt I will be interviewing and observing avatars within Second Life as research for my phd. I have been asked by my ethics board to obtain hard copy signature consent from my participants rather than online digital consent. Can anyone direct me to literature pertaining to the practicalities of informed consent in online virtual worlds (mmogs, mmorpgs, second life, etc..) or discuss their own experience with this? Thank you, Kevin -- ----------------------------- Matthew Bernius New Media and Customer Intelligence Strategist for Hire mBernius(a)gMail.com http://www.waking-dream.com

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Fwd: [cultstud-l] CFP: Consoling Passions Conference 2008
by Lois Ann Scheidt 01 Aug '07

01 Aug '07

Several AoIR members have presented at this conference and found good reception for our work. I personally found the discussion of my presentation to be very important toward the final published paper. Lois Ann Scheidt Doctoral Student - School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University, Bloomington IN USA Adjunct Instructor - School of Informatics, IUPUI, Indianapolis IN USA and IUPUC, Columbus IN USA Webpage: http://www.loisscheidt.com Blog: http://www.professional-lurker.com ----- Forwarded message from parks(a)filmandmedia.ucsb.edu ----- Date: Wed, 01 Aug 2007 10:57:16 -0600 From: Lisa Parks <parks(a)filmandmedia.ucsb.edu> Reply-To: Cultural Studies <cultstud-l(a)lists.comm.umn.edu> Subject: [cultstud-l] CFP: Consoling Passions Conference 2008 To: Cultural Studies <cultstud-l(a)lists.comm.umn.edu> Call for Papers We are now accepting proposals for: Console-ing Passions: A Conference on Television, Audio, Video, New Media, and Feminism April 24-26, 2008 - Santa Barbara, California Founded by a group of feminist media scholars and artists, Console-ing Passions works to create collegial spaces for new work and scholarship on culture and identity in television and related media, with an emphasis on gender and sexuality. Since the early 1990s, Console-ing Passions conferences have featured new research on feminist perspectives, including race and ethnicity, post-colonialism, queer studies, globalization, national identity, television genres, the social and cultural study of new media, the historical development of media, and an ongoing feminist concern with gender dynamics in the production and consumption of electronic media. Our consideration of television, digital, and aural media comes at a pivotal moment of political, social, cultural, and technological transformation. Key among our concerns for the 2008 Console-ing Passions conference is the fact that race, gender and important feminist issues will be prominent topics of political discourse in electronic and digital media during this crucial presidential election year. Issues such as reproductive rights, and gay marriage, for example, are hotly contested issues often addressed in the mediasphere. The introduction of blogs, viral video, and social networking sites has had a tremendous impact on traditional media, and their influences on politics represent a shift in the mediation of democratic processes in the U.S., and in different parts of the world. We are also interested in how new mobile video technologies (i.e., cell phones, and ipods) inaugurate a new era of ubiquitous media and participate in the renegotiation of the private and public spheres. Some of these recent changes are related to historical processes. As always, we are very interested in historical research on television, audio and new media. Taking advantage of our conference location in Santa Barbara, California, which is very close to both the Hollywood film and TV industry, and the information technology hub of Silicon Valley, we also invite submissions that explore the position of women and ethnic minorities in these media and information industries. We are interested in these and other topics that consider such developments specifically from feminist perspectives. We invite paper proposals that consider, but are not limited to the following: ? gender, media and presidential politics ? history and theory of television ? women, race, and the Don Imus effect ? feminism and the blogosphere ? YouTube and social networking ? gender, 'nature' and media ? experimental media histories and criticism ? women in media industries ? gender and media spaces ? media and reproductive politics ? media and gay/lesbian politics ? reality TV ? second life, gaming, virtual reality online ? religion and media ? gender and technology ? gender and violence ? militarism ? mobile media activism ? theories of post-television ? theorizing TV in the age of Tivo ? gender, media and globalization Deadline for receipt of proposals is NOVEMBER 1, 2007 Conference convenes April 24-26, 2008 GUIDELINES FOR PROPOSAL SUBMISSIONS: Individual Papers: Please submit an abstract of no more than 500 words with a short bio. Be sure to include titles for all submissions (papers, panels, workshops, and screenings). Panels: Submit a rationale for the panel (3-4 papers) of no more than 150 words, as well as abstracts of 500 words for each paper and a short bio and contact information for each contributor. Workshops: Submit a rationale for the workshop (a series of short, informal presentations on a related topic, meant to encourage discussion), along with individual abstracts of no more than 200 words and a short bio and contact information for each participant. Screenings of video, audio, or new media work: Please submit an abstract of no more than 500 words and a short bio of the producer/director. All submissions must include an email message with the following information: name, title (if applicable), affiliation, email address, and telephone number for the author, panel or workshop organizer, or producer/director for screenings. Email message should also specify the audio/visual equipment needed for the presentation. Please be as specific about a/v needs as possible. It is preferable that proposals be saved as PDF files. All proposals must have a title. All proposals must be attached to the email message. Email message and PDF files should be labeled as follows: your last name and the type of proposal (i.e. Smithpaper or Smithpanel or Smithworkshop or Smithscreening). Submit all proposals to ? cptvconference(a)filmandmedia.ucsb.edu. Direct all questions about the conference and the submission process to: cptvconference(a)filmandmedia.ucsb.edu See the Console-ing Passions website: http://www.cp.commarts.wisc.edu for more information about Console-ing Passions and links to the 2008 conference. Or you can go directly to the conference website at: http://www.filmandmedia.ucsb.edu/cptv/cptv.html. The conference will take place in the UCEN on the UCSB campus. We look forward to seeing you in Santa Barbara! Conference Co-Chairs: Anna Everett and Lisa Parks Dept. of Film and Media Studies University of California-Santa Barbara _______________________________________________ CULTSTUD-L mailing list: CULTSTUD-L(a)lists.comm.umn.edu http://lists.comm.umn.edu/mailman/listinfo/cultstud-l ----- End forwarded message -----

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IRL DVD now on sale!
by Tuszynski, Stephanie 01 Aug '07

01 Aug '07

Hi everyone- Some of you have been following the torturous progress of this project ever since the rough cut was shown at AOIR in Sussex. Well, the long wait is finally over and the DVD is now for sale! Just in time for fall semester. ;) Go to this page on the website for details: http://www.dlfilms.com/irl/index.html The film is also listed through Amazon.com but going through the URL above will provide a special discount code for $5 off the list price of $29.99. Customflix ships internationally and the DVDs are region-free, but they are formatted in NTSC and not PAL, for those of you outside the US. "IRL (In Real Life)" is a documentary about an online community called "The Bronze." 25 people were interviewed discussing their involvement with this particular online group of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" fans and the film focuses on the life, death and after-life of the community. The goal of the project was to let the Bronzers tell their story in their own words and provide a narrative to counter the tendency of the media to focus solely on the dangers of the Internet. In other words, this is a mass-market targeted production, not an academic project. Please e-mail me with any questions. And if you enjoy the film, we could use some good word-of-mouth advertising! Stephanie Tuszynski Visiting Assistant Professor Department of Theatre and Film University of Toledo

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Ethics in online virtual worlds (follow up point)
by Kevin Sherman 01 Aug '07

01 Aug '07

..also wanted to mention that i have asked a similar question within the SLRL...with good results. just thought i'd open it up to those on this list as well. (so sorry for the cross-posting)

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Re: [Air-L] Air-L Digest, Vol 36, Issue 33
by Nicole David 01 Aug '07

01 Aug '07

Thank you for your e-mail. I am currently on annual leave, and will return to the office on Wednesday, 1 August 2007. I look forward to responding to your message then. Kind regards, Nicole Nicole David Web Multimedia Designer Properties, Vice Chancellory Curtin University of Technology

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