January 2008 - Air-L - lists.aoir.org

Re: [Air-L] WGA strike
by Tuszynski, Stephanie 04 Jan '08

04 Jan '08

Michael - I'm not following your connection between people who write for the web and the WGA. The WGA only represents film and tv writers. You can't become a Guild member until you meet certain thresholds of working in the film and tv industry. People who write "for the web" in general would never be part of the WGA. It's only for screenwriters who work on scripts and teleplays. And for years the studios have assumed that they can get unknowns in to fill the place of the more experience writers if they have to, but I think that's bunk. That's where all those "story editors" on reality shows come from. But again, the talent pool is limited (screenwriting is the single hardest branch of creative writing to do well) and it's going to run dry. (This is why the Guild has been fighting for years to get the reality show writers under their umbrella.) Stephanie Tuszynski Visiting Assistant Professor Department of Theatre and Film University of Toledo Message: 2 Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2008 09:07:19 +1100 From: "Michael Baron" <webbaron(a)gmail.com> Subject: Re: [Air-L] WGA strike To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org Cc: aoir list <air-l(a)aoir.org> Message-ID: <c78ecacf0801031407s5d85b7c7x5fdf48dc7c750a7d(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 While, I do agree with Barry on the entitlements issue and find the strike to be fully justifiable, to be honest i doubt it is going to be successful. There are currently many Web writers who do not happen to be memebers of the Writers Guild. Chances are they will be prepared to work for little money just to "put their foot in" and get published. Unfortunately, the perception of the Web writing as non-commercial still appears to be very strong in the writers' community. Hopefully, this will turn around one day (and the strike may make this day come sooner rather than later).

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Re: [Air-L] writers striking for internet payment?
by Tuszynski, Stephanie 04 Jan '08

04 Jan '08

Marcela - As a writer/director myself, I've been following the WGA strike very closely. Screenwriters are compensated at the rate of one-third of a penny for every digital download (i.e. iTunes), and nothing for streaming video. The networks are claiming when they stream a television show on their websites it's a "promotion" and therefore the current contract doesn't require them to pay the writers/actors/etc. The television writers feel they are not being fairly compensated. Neither are the actors or directors, for that matter. This is only one of the issues at stake, however. Residuals for DVD sales (which are currently at $.04 per disc) and other terms of the contract which expired in October are also on the table. I don't really see how the EFF would have any interest in this, as this is a business practice issue, not a legal one. There's no law requiring the AMPTP to pay anyone any specific rate for digital content. There's no question of access or legal activity, just corporations behaving badly because they think they can. I can tell you that the SEIU, the teamsters local in LA and both the Screen Actor's Guild and Director's Guilds are all supporting the WGA. The actors and directors have as much a stake in this as the writers, obviously. A completely partisan site on behalf of the WGA is www.unitedhollywood.com Also, for those of you who heard about the strike and like me immediately thought of all the craftspeople and below the line crew who are now out of work while the strike goes on, The Motion Picture & Television Fund has set up a Work Stoppage relief fund to help those people. You can donate online here: http://new.mptvfund.org/cm/Foundation/Donate%20Online.html Stephanie Tuszynski Visiting Assistant Professor Department of Theatre and Film University of Toledo www.dlfilms.com Message: 1 Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2007 20:58:38 -0500 From: "Marcela Musgrove" <mmusgrove(a)gmail.com> Subject: [Air-L] writers striking for internet payment? To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org Message-ID: <a000d0c60712311758v70bc62b9t5bafe3eb197c9041(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 I hadn't really been paying attention to the writer's strike going on but just found out today that it's over writers wanting to be paid residuals when their TV shows are shown on the internet. So now I'm surprised that there hasn't been more online discussion/activism/petitions though I was able to see some videos on YouTube that explained what was going on. Has anyone been following this closely? Would this be relevant to EFF or any of the other advocacy groups? Happy new year! Marcela

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Event - Great Expectations - White House 2.0 Presentation and Discussion - 3-5 pm, 9 Jan 2008 -Washington DC
by Steven Clift 03 Jan '08

03 Jan '08

Those Internet researchers in the DC area are welcome to join us at GW next week. Please share your ideas/research on what citizens will demand of the next White House online and related topics. - Steve *** Democracies Online Newswire - http://DoWire.Org *** To access links, see Steven Clift's blog: http://dowire.org/notes/?p=389 Post: Event - Great Expectations - Clift Presentation and Discussion - 3-5 pm, 9 Jan 2008 -Washington DC * What: Great Expectations: After the vote - citizens online, e-democracy in governance, and White House 2.0. A presentation and facilitated discussion with Steven Clift, one of the first Internet and politics/government gurus dating back to 1993. * When: 3-5 p.m, Wednesday, January 9th, 2008 * Where: State Room, 6th Floor Elliott School (1957 E Street NW), George Washington University - Paid parking available in building. Bonus: Post-event happy hour gathering at Karma at corner of 19th and "I". * Cost: Free. A voluntary donation to E-Democracy.Org is encouraged at the event by check or donate now online. * RSVP Requested via Wiki Here - Space is Limited: http://pages.e-democracy.org/Great_Expectations * Sponsors: This event is hosted by the Institute for Politics, Democracy, and the Internet at George Washington University (and host of the March 2008 Politics Online conference) and co-hosted by Ashoka - Innovators for the Public, the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, and the Center for Democracy and Technology. * Online Networking: Everyone is invited to join the new U.S. Democracy Online Exchange at DoWire.Org to continue event discussions as well as the E-Democracy.Org supporters group on Facebook. Details: Great Expectations: After the vote - citizens online, e-democracy in governance, and White House 2.0 Join Steven Clift for an afternoon exploring real world democracy and the Internet. The United States excels at online campaigning and advocacy - or put another way raising money and making noise online. Does this really matter when come election day those in power turn off the tools of interactivity? Can citizens really have a voice online and meet public challenges if we haven't developed an online listening infrastructure at all levels of governance and community? With the "e-campaign" of 2008 raising citizen expectations for the use of the Internet in democracy, Steven Clift will share his top ten "to do list" with examples from around the world that will help us meet those expectations in governance not just elections. Join us from 3-5 p.m. on Wednesday, January 9th in the State Room, 6th Floor Elliott School, George Washington University for a two part presentation. The first hour will cover ten online steps for government support of democracy spiced up with e-democracy in governance stories from around the world as well as an update on the "local up" strategy of E-Democracy.Org. The next "two-way" hour will focus on an in-depth discussion of the theme "White House 2.0" and reactions to the General Services Administration's new and extremely important publication on "How E-Government is Changing Society and Strengthening Democracy.? Access Steven Clift's contribution and links to the 46 short articles in this collection from: http://www.dowire.org/notes/?p=383 Steven Clift, a new Ashoka Fellow, is the Founder and Board Chair of E-Democracy.Org and convener of the Democracies Online (DoWire.Org) online community of practice. In 1994 E-Democracy.Org hosted the world's first election information website in Minnesota. Today, they host local Issues Forums (aka online town halls) across ten communities in three countries. His international democracy online story is based on public speaking visits across 27 countries. For articles, blogs, online groups and more see http://stevenclift.com *** Democracies Online Newswire - http://DoWire.Org *** To comment/for links: http://dowire.org/notes/?p=389 To network: http://groups.dowire.org Submit posts: http://dowire.org/submit

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CfP: Green Pervasive 2008, Sydney
by Marcus Foth 03 Jan '08

03 Jan '08

REMINDER: PAPERS DUE 25th JAN 2008 Pervasive Persuasive Technology and Environmental Sustainability Workshop to be held at the 6th International Conference on Pervasive Computing, 2008 May 19-22, Sydney, Australia http://www.urbaninformatics.net/green/ Environmental sustainability and climate change are issues which must no longer be ignored by anyone, any industry or any academic community. The pervasive technology, ubiquitous computing and HCI community is slowly waking up to these global concerns. The Nobel Peace Price 2007 was awarded to Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change”. The citation highlights the urgency of the fact that information and awareness around causes and implications are necessary but not sufficient to combat climate change. Action is required. The key theme of this workshop around environmental sustainability will be addressed threefold: 1. Providing people with environmental data and educational information – via mass communications such as film, TV and print and new media, or micro communications such as pervasive sensor networks (cf. Participatory Urbanism and Ergo at urban-atmospheres.net; real- time Rome at senseable.mit.edu; biomapping.net; placeengine.com) – may not trigger sufficient motivation to get people to change their habits towards a more environmentally sustainable lifestyle. This workshop seeks to develop a better understanding how to go beyond just informing and into motivating and encouraging action and change. 2. Pervasiveness can easily turn invasive. It has already caused negative consequences in biological settings (e.g., algae in lakes and oceans, kudzu vine in the southeastern US, rabbits and cane toads in Australia). Pervasive can be a dangerous term when the ecological impacts are disregarded. Pervasive technology is no different. In order to avoid further serious damage to the environment, this workshop aims to lay the foundations to start re-considering the impact of pervasive technology from an ecological perspective. 3. Addressing the 21st century Digital Divide: The mass uptake of pervasive technology brings about digitally networked and augmented societies; however, access is still not universal. Castells and others use the notion of the ‘digital divide’ to account for those whose voices are not heard by this technology. Initially, the divide was seen only between the first and third worlds and then between urban and rural, but with today’s near ubiquitous coverage, the digital divide between humans and the environment needs to be addressed. Virtual environments could give the natural world an opportunity to ‘speak’. How can we address imbalances? For example, sensors embedded in the environment could allow creeks and rivers to blog their own pollution levels, local parks can upload images of native bird life. Can the process of ‘blogging sensor data’ (sensorbase.org) assist us in becoming more aware of the needs of nature? How can we avoid the downsides? We kindly ask prospective participants to submit a position paper (2-4 pages total, in English, .doc, .rtf or .pdf file formats) related to one of the workshop topics to Marcus Foth at m.foth [AT] qut.edu.au by January 25, 2008. Each submission should include a short biography stating the author’s background and motivation for attending the workshop. Papers will be reviewed by the workshop committee and selected on the basis of relevance, originality and impact. Accepted position papers will appear in the Pervasive 2008 Workshops Proceedings. A template will be made available at the Pervasive 2008 website. The workshops proceedings will also be published online and distributed electronically at the conference (on a CD or memory stick). All workshop participants will need to register for the conference. Further information is available at http://www.urbaninformatics.net/green/ Marcus Foth, Queensland University of Technology Christine Satchell, Queensland University of Technology Eric Paulos, Intel Research Berkeley Tom Igoe, Interactive Telecommunications Program, Tisch School of the Arts, New York Carlo Ratti, SENSEable City Laboratory, MIT -- Dr Marcus Foth Australian Postdoctoral Fellow Institute for Creative Industries and Innovation Queensland University of Technology (CRICOS No. 00213J) Creative Industries Precinct, Brisbane QLD 4059, Australia Phone +61 7 313 x88772 - Fax x88195 - Office Z6-511 m.foth(a)qut.edu.au - http://www.vrolik.de/publications/

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WGA strike
by Barry Wellman 03 Jan '08

03 Jan '08

1. It's sad when the person criticizing the Writers Guild has grammatical trouble herself. 2. The logic is even sadder. As I understand it, she is saying the writers are not morally obligated to a reasonable share because they didn't back a tangentially related law 10 years ago. By the same logic, only workers who voted for Bill Clinton should be entitled to union protection. YMMV Barry Wellman _______________________________________________________________________ S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC NetLab Director Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Room 418 Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman fax:+1-416-978-7162 Updating history: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php Elvis wouldn't be singing "Return to Sender" these days _______________________________________________________________________

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Re: [Air-L] writers striking for internet payment?
by Tuszynski, Stephanie 03 Jan '08

03 Jan '08

Donna- You said the following: >>the writers do not have a right to these residuals they demand. What basis are you using for the argument that the writers do not have the right to these residuals? How is the purchasing or streaming of a piece of their work online (with advertisements) not something they are entitled to be compensated for? Or do you believe the writers should not be paid residuals at all? I'm not seeing how going on strike to try and protect their livelihood and the future of their craft is making them appear "out of touch." I'm not sure what you mean by "they haven't had anything to do with it" since we're talking about film and television writers. What were they supposed to have done to legitimate this issue before now? A number of tv writers, including the staffs of "The Office" and "Battlestar Galactica" if I'm remembering correctly, have been obligated by their studios to produce special web content for the past several years (content, by the way, which they weren't paid for). And you bring up the DMCA but I'm not clear on why. I don't know off the top of my head what the Guilds had to say about it. And while I certainly share a lot of the hatred for the RIAA and the overbearing attempts at controlling what people do with things they've purchased, I can at least see the logic on the part of the WGA, DGA and SAG if they indeed stayed out of the discussion regarding the DMCA. While they only get paid a pittance for legal digital sales, a pittance is still more than the absolute nothing they get when people pirate material. They would have a vested interest in protecting even the pittance if possible. But because they didn't protest the DCMA, are you somehow equating that with signing away their right to be compensated when their work is sold digitally? >>They dont care about the Web or the Internet or monetizing it in a sustainable way, so their strike is boring. That's... quite a massive generalization, I have to say. I find the strike vitally important in regards to what the future will bring in the entertainment industry and the continuing convergence of online and offline media. I think the outcome of this conflict is crucial to more than just a handful of screenwriters. It affects actors and directors and consumers. Whatever you may yourself feel, what I've seen on YouTube has never convinced me that professionally produced material has anything to worry about from amateur challengers (and I even include my own film in that judgment, as I'm well aware of the aesthetic limitations of non-pro work). How the corporations use the work of artists and what they can and can't get away with doing in the digital world is at the heart of this strike, at least for me. And no, before anyone asks, I'm not a member of the WGA myself. Stephanie Tuszynski Visiting Assistant Professor Department of Theatre and Film University of Toledo

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Re: [Air-L] Glossary: new media + journalism
by Niels Hendriks 03 Jan '08

03 Jan '08

Some days ago I sent a message to this list to ask for help in preparing a course on the opportunities of new media for journalism students. I wanted to create a glossary with relevant terms. I wish to thank Julian, Kath, Ismael & Alex for their suggestions. This is the glossary so far. If you have any new suggestions do not hesitate in replying. I will send updates as the glossary grows… Citizen media editor Citizen journalism Weblog Rss Mash-up Podcast Youtube Social bookmarking Web2.0 Social media Online community Folksonomy Social networking Tagging User generated content Wiki Gatekeeper vs Gatewatcher CAR Twitter Vlogging Digg Second Life Mobile internet ubiquitous computing privacy participative democracy reputation intellectual property rights/ creative commons smart mob flickr photoshop geotagging __________________________________________ niels.hendriks(a)mda.khlim.be docent & projectmedewerker Communication & multimediadesign http://c-md.khlim.be (mob) 0032 476 24 29 45 (skype) nielshendriks Favourites: http://del.icio.us/nielshendriks LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/nielshendriks __________________________________________ No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.17.12/1203 - Release Date: 30/12/2007 11:27

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irony & web2
by Paula Graham 01 Jan '08

01 Jan '08

http://www.metamute.org/en/Irony-Two-Point-Zero

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International Journal of Design -- current TOC & Special Issue CFP
by Ken Friedman 01 Jan '08

01 Jan '08

Friends, The current issue of the International Journal of Design was released yesterday. The International Journal of Design is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal devoted to publishing research papers in all fields of design, including industrial design, visual communication design, interface design, animation and game design, architectural design, urban design, and other design related fields. It aims to provide an international forum for the exchange of ideas and findings from researchers across different cultures and encourages research on the impact of cultural factors on design theory and practice. It also seeks to promote the transfer of knowledge between professionals in academia and industry by emphasizing research in which results are of interest or applicable to design practices. The editors are now seeking papers for a special issue on Cultural Aspects of Interaction Design. The special issue editors are Prof. Keiichi Sato of the Institute of Design at Illinois Institute of Technology and Prof. Kuohsiang Chen of the Department and Institute of Industrial Design at National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan. The deadline is February 28, 2008. To read the current issue and to get more information on proposing articles for the special issue, please visit the journal web site at: http://www.ijdesign.org/ojs/index.php/IJDesign/ With warm wishes for 2008. Ken Friedman -- International Journal of Design Vol. 1(3) December 2007 | Table of Contents Original Articles Fluency as an Experiential Quality in Augmented Spaces Jonas Löwgren Towards Female Preferences in Design - A Pilot Study Lishan Xue, Ching Chiuan Yen Effects of Visual-Auditory Incongruity on Product Expression and Surprise Geke D.S. Ludden, Hendrik N.J. Schifferstein Materials in Products Selection: Tools for Including User-Interaction in Materials Selection Ilse van Kesteren, Pieter Jan Stappers, Sjef de Bruijn Path-dependent Foundation of Global Design-driven Outdoor Trade in the Northwest of England Mary B Rose, Terence Love, Mike Parsons Perspectives Unstated Contributions - How Artistic Inquiry Can Inform Interdisciplinary Research Chris Rust Acknowledgement of Reviewers

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writers striking for internet payment?
by Marcela Musgrove 31 Dec '07

31 Dec '07

I hadn't really been paying attention to the writer's strike going on but just found out today that it's over writers wanting to be paid residuals when their TV shows are shown on the internet. So now I'm surprised that there hasn't been more online discussion/activism/petitions though I was able to see some videos on YouTube that explained what was going on. Has anyone been following this closely? Would this be relevant to EFF or any of the other advocacy groups? Happy new year! Marcela

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