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

We need your help! "Recommending contacts in a social network" is about to expire on Peer-to-Patent
by info＠peertopatent.org 23 Jun '08

23 Jun '08

Dear Friends, The patent application "Recommending contacts in a social network" is about to expire. This patent application was submitted to the Peer-to-Patent community review pilot by Microsoft for examination by the community. A summary is below. If you have any information to add, prior art that has not been submitted, or further comment, please visit http://peertopatent.org/patent/20080059576/activity. We strongly encourage you to forward this to your peers. Application Summary: A social network consists of individuals and their relationships to other individuals. Two individuals in a social network may have a direct relationship and may also have indirect relationships. For example, if Tom and Mary both have a direct relationship with Jim they have an indirect relationship to each other. The number of relationships between two individuals is commonly referred to as their “degree of separation”. For example, Tom and Mary have two degrees of separation. Because social networks can have thousands of individuals social networks can be very complex. Luckily, much of a person’s direct relationships can be derived from data stored by computer system such as contact lists for e-mail programs, instant messaging programs, event organizing programs, or so on. This application relates to a method and system for recommending potential contacts who are related to the user through no more than a maximum degree of separation. The system identifies the user’s contacts and then identifies contacts of those contacts until the maximum degree of separation is reached. The system then may rank the contacts based on contact paths and may also filter out identified users who do not satisfy a recommendation criterion. The user can then decide whether to add the presented users as one of their contacts. Your continued support of this project is greatly appreciated and is having noticeable effects. Our recently released Anniversary Report details your success. It is available for download at http://dotank.nyls.edu/communitypatent/P2Panniversaryreport.pdf Regards, The Peer-to-Patent Team

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Time beyond depicted moment
by Stephan Humer 23 Jun '08

23 Jun '08

Hello I´m searching for papers that deal with time in stagnant (digital) media, especially (digital) photos. Or a little bit more precise: the paper should discuss the role of proceeding time in a medium that usually offers no acceleration or presentation of time beyond the depicted moment. Thanks! Best -- Dr. Stephan G. Humer Research Director, Digital Class University of the Arts Berlin humer(a)udk-berlin.de - stephan(a)humer.de Phone: +49 (0)176 6719 3413 - www.humer.de

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Re: [Air-L] nerd culture and new media
by Suely Fragoso 22 Jun '08

22 Jun '08

As far as we (all) don't oblige the men to "perform (or overperform) their gender role" to validate whatever tendencies either... Sue >>> stuszyn(a)UTNet.UToledo.Edu 18/06/08 11:38 >>> I had a feeling that godawful Newsweek article was going to come up. Because it's only okay for women to be geeks/nerds/"fill in intellectual stereotype here" as long as they "sex it up" enough? grr. Broadsheet wrote about that article last week as well: http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2008/06/12/nerd_girls/index.html There's a big difference between being able to be yourself without suffering the repercussions and *having* to perform (or overperform) your gender role in order to validate or offset your non-conformist tendencies. Rar. Stephanie Tuszynski Visiting Assistant Professor Department of Theatre and Film University of Toledo Message: 7 Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:26:56 -0400 From: Steve Cavrak <Steve.Cavrak(a)Uvm.Edu> Subject: Re: [Air-L] nerd culture and new media To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org Message-ID: <09B29B8B-B795-45AD-B832-FF2A387B3FB1(a)Uvm.Edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=WINDOWS-1252; delsp=yes; format=flowed A post on the Chronicle of Higher Education Wired Campus points to a Newsweek story on "nerdchic," the follow up comments provide interesting reflections on the value of nerds and role models, etc. 'Nerd Girl' Group at Tufts U. Seeks to Challenge Stereotypes of Engineering June 16, 2008 | 4 comments http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/3092/nerd-girl-group-at- tufts-u-seeks-to-challenge-stereotypes-of-engineering The latest issue of Newsweek features an article about?and plenty of glossy pictures of??Nerd Girls,? a student group at Tufts University. They group is working on building a solar car that they plan to drive around the country visiting schools and encouraging girls to pursue engineering?and making a documentary about their adventures. ?They?re ?Beauty and the Geek? all in one package!? says their Web site. ? Jeffrey R. Young Posted on Mon Jun 16, 03:25 PM | Permalink | Comment [4] [1] Revenge of the Nerdette, http://www.newsweek.com/id/140457 "As geeks become chic in all levels of society, an unlikely subset is starting to roar. Meet the Nerd Girls: they're smart, they're techie and they're hot." [2] NerdGirls.org, http://www.nerdgirls.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/ -- Esta mensagem foi verificada pelo sistema de antiv�rus e acredita-se estar livre de perigo.

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International arrests of citizen bloggers more than triple
by Philip Howard 22 Jun '08

22 Jun '08

Dear AIR Community - The 2008 briefing booklet from the World Information Access team at the University of Washington is now online: www.wiareport.org The color briefing booklet is here: http://www.wiareport.org/wp-content/uploads/wiar_2008_final.pdf The data memo on the arrests of citizen bloggers is here: http://www.wiareport.org/index.php/56/blogger-arrests This year there are three stories, developed by a team of undergrad researchers, on the arrest of citizen bloggers internationally, the ideological bent of political party websites in Muslim countries, and the concentration of media assets (old and new) in 15 large Muslim countries. The main news release by the university is pasted below. We've shared the spreadsheet of raw data on the website. If you know of additional incidents where citizen bloggers were arrested for their posts, incidents we didn't track, please let me know. We print hardcopies of the briefing booklet and send them to 1,000 policy makers and researchers, so if you would like a hardcopy please send me your physical address. Best, Phil Dr. Philip N. Howard Assistant Professor Department of Communication University of Washington INTERNATIONAL ARRESTS OF CITIZEN BLOGGERS MORE THAN TRIPLE Publication Date: Jun. 10, 2008 Authoritarian regimes around the world are dealing with troublesome citizen bloggers by arresting them, and they're doing it more often, according to researchers at the University of Washington. "Last year, 2007, was a record year for blogger arrests, with three times as many as in 2006. Egypt, Iran and China are the most dangerous places to blog about political life, accounting for more than half of all arrests since blogging became big," said Phil Howard, an assistant professor of communication. With his students, Howard prepared the World Information Access Report, which documents sources and consequences of social inequality in the information age. In response to harassment, a significant number of political bloggers are going underground. They are blogging anonymously, and using other online tools such as MySpace and YouTube to post critical commentary. Since 2003, 64 citizens unaffiliated with news organizations have been arrested for their blogging. Topics of these blog posts vary, as do the kinds of criminal charges and punishments. But these arrests are probably just the tip of the iceberg, Howard said. "The real number of arrested bloggers is probably much higher, since many arrests in China, Zimbabwe, and Iran go unreported in the international media." Altogether around the world, bloggers have served 940 months of jail time in the last five years, the researchers found. During those years, the average prison term for citizen journalists was 15 months. "Many countries have political bloggers, and many persecute journalists," Howard said. "More and more citizens are expressing themselves online, and being punished for it." Jail sentences varied from blogger to blogger, the least amount a few hours and the longest eight years. Nine of Egypt's 14 known blogger arrests occurred in 2007, an election year. In 2005, Iranian blogger Mojtaba Saminejad was arrested for writing about the arrests of other bloggers. "Some people blog about their arrests as soon as they get out of jail," Howard said. See additional data about blogging arrests at: http://www.wiareport.org/wp-content/uploads/arrestedbloggingtable.doc This information likely reflects the growing number of citizens who blog, but also growing recognition among authoritarian governments that citizen bloggers cause problems, Howard said. By targeting nonprofessional journalists who express themselves online, authoritarian governments can promote fear among their Internet users, Howard said. These bloggers expose bureaucratic corruption or human rights abuses, and express opinions about political figures and public policy. They post reports and photos from social protests. They write about political art or share images and writing that according to their governments violate cultural norms. In democratic countries such as England and the U.S., blogger arrests often involve people accused of posting pornography or inciting racial hatred online. But even the most democratic countries have cases where bloggers were arrested for activities many would consider free speech. For example, Canadian Charles Leblanc was arrested for photographing a protest for his blog. Howard's team studied news reports in major print, television, radio and online media outlets. Some arrests were reported only online in specialized news sources, and these were double- checked for accuracy. The compiled list of incident reports was then coded for variables such as length of arrest or amount of fine, official charges (if any) and the type of blogging for which the offender had been arrested. Researchers looked for incidents involving people unaffiliated with a news organization who were arrested for posting content to their blogs. The World Information Access team also reviewed trends in the global digital divide. They downloaded Web sites for 356 political parties in the Muslim world, and found ideological content to be surprisingly mainstream: Traditional liberal and conservative political parties have the largest volume of gigabytes of content, and the most Web pages. ###

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"YouTube and the 2008 Election Cycle in the United States" - First Call for Papers - April 3 & 4, 2009 - Amherst, Massachusetts
by Stuart Shulman 21 Jun '08

21 Jun '08

Call for Papers "YouTube and the 2008 Election Cycle in the United States" April 3 & 4, 2009 - Amherst, Massachusetts http://youtube08election.crowdvine.com/ A two-day conference jointly hosted by: The University of Massachusetts Amherst Department of Political Science The Science, Technology, and Society Initiative (STS) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst The College of Social and Behavioral Sciences The Journal of Information Technology & Politics (JITP) The Qualitative Data Analysis Program (QDAP) Keynote Speakers Day 1: Richard Rogers, Professor in New Media & Digital Culture at the University of Amsterdam and Director of govcom.org. Dr. Rogers is a Web epistemologist, an area of study where the main claim is that the Web is a knowledge culture distinct from other media. Rogers concentrates on the research opportunities that would have been improbable or impossible without the Internet. His research involves studying and building info-tools. He studies and makes use of the adjudicative or 'recommender' cultures of the Web that help to determine the reputation of information as well as organizations. The most well-known tool Rogers has developed with his colleagues is the Issue Crawler, a server-side Web crawler, co-link machine and graph visualizer. Day 2: Noshir Contractor, Northwestern University, the Jane S. & William J. White Professor of Behavioral Sciences in the School of Engineering, School of Communication and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, USA. He is the Director of the Science of Networks in Communities (SONIC) Research Group at Northwestern University. He is investigating factors that lead to the formation, maintenance, and dissolution of dynamically linked social and knowledge networks in communities. Specifically, his research team is developing and testing theories and methods of network science to map, understand and enable more effective networks in a wide variety of contexts including communities of practice in business, science and engineering communities, disaster response teams, public health networks, digital media and learning networks, and in virtual worlds, such as Second Life. Approach The Program Committee encourages disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches rooted in political science, media studies, and communication scholarship. The JITP Editor strongly endorses new and experimental approaches involving collaboration with information and computer science scholars. Potential topics might include, but are not limited to: - citizen initiated campaign videos, - candidates' use of YouTube, - bloggers use of YouTube to influence the primaries or election, - the impact of YouTube on traditional or new media coverage of the election cycle, - the effect of YouTube on citizen interest, knowledge, engagement, or voting behavior, - social network analysis of YouTube and related election-oriented sites, - political theory or communication theory and YouTube in the context of the 2008 election, - new metrics that support the study of the "YouTube Effect" on elections, - archives for saving and tools for mapping the full landscape of YouTube election content, - use of YouTube in the classroom as a way to teach American electoral politics, or - reviews of existing scholarship about YouTube. Paper Submissions Authors are invited to prepare and submit to JITP a manuscript following one of the six submission formats by January 7, 2009. These formats include research papers, policy viewpoints, workbench notes, review essays, book reviews, and papers on teaching innovation. The goal is to produce a special issue, or double issue, of JITP with a wide variety of approaches to the broad theme of "YouTube and the 2008 Election Cycle in the United States." How to Submit Everything you need to know about how to prepare and submit a strong JITP paper via the JITP web site is documented at http://www.jitp.net/. Papers will be put through an expedited blind peer review process by the Program Committee and authors will be notified about a decision by February 15, 2009. A small number of papers will be accepted for presentation at the conference. Other paper authors will be invited to present a poster during the Friday evening reception. All posters must include a "YouTube" version of their research findings. Best Paper and Poster Cash Prizes The author (or authors) of the best research paper will receive a single $1,000 prize. The creator (or creators) of the best YouTube poster/research presentation will also receive a single prize of $1,000. Conference Co-Chairs Stuart Shulman, University of Pittsburgh (mailto:shulman@pitt.edu) Michael Xenos, Louisiana State University (mailto:xenos@lsu.edu) Program Committee Sam Abrams, Harvard University Micah Altman, Harvard University Karine Barzilai-Nahon, University of Washington Lance Bennett, University of Washington Ryan Biava, University of Wisconsin Bob Boynton, University of Iowa Tom Carlson, Åbo Akademi University Andrew Chadwick, Royal Holloway University of London Greg Elmer, Ryerson University Kirsten Foot, University of Washington Jane Fountain, University of Massachusetts Amherst Jeff Guliati, Bentley College Mike Hais, Co-author, Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube and the Future of American Politics Matthew Hale, Seton Hall University Justin Holmes, University of Minnesota Helen Margetts, Oxford Internet Institute Mike Margolis, University of Cincinnati Andrew McCallum, University of Massachusetts Amherst John McNutt, University of Delaware Andrew Philpot, University of Southern California-Information Sciences Institute Antoinette Pole, Montclair State University Stephen Purpura, Cornell University Lee Rainie, Pew Internet & American Life Project Jeffrey Seifert, Congressional Research Service Mack Shelley, Iowa State University Charlie Schweik, University of Massachusetts Amherst Chirag Shah, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill John Wilkerson, University of Washington Christine Williams, Bentley College Morley Winograd, University of Southern California Quan Zhou, University of Wisconsin-Stout

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Metaphors in Technology
by Gordon Carlson 20 Jun '08

20 Jun '08

Hi All, I am working on a project dealing with the use of metaphor in communication about technology, as well as communication within software. I am trying to compile a list of metaphors used on the web and in computer software. For example, the "shopping cart" in online shopping, PowerPoint using "slides", "dialog" boxes in operating systems, "bulletin boards", etc. Have any of you come across or perhaps even thought of other metaphors employed in software, online or off, or in communication about technology? I would like to make a giant list of examples. Also, any recommended readings would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for any help! -Gordon Carlson -University of Illinois at Chicago -PhD Student of New Media Communication and RA in Electronic Visualization Lab

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Fwd: Call: Emerging Ethical Issues of Life in Virtual Worlds
by Michael Zimmer 19 Jun '08

19 Jun '08

Begin forwarded message: > From: Charles Wankel <wankelc(a)VERIZON.NET> > Date: June 19, 2008 12:53:23 PM EDT > To: COMPUTER-ETHICS(a)JISCMAIL.AC.UK > Subject: Call: Emerging Ethical Issues of Life in Virtual Worlds > Reply-To: Charles Wankel <wankelc(a)VERIZON.NET> > > Emerging Ethical Issues of Life in Virtual Worlds > Call for chapters > > Scholarly articles on emerging issues of life in virtual worlds such > as Second Life are solicited. Work that connects streams of ethics > research and theory to virtual worlds as they are and to what they > are developing into is particularly sought. Among the virtual world > issues explicitly invited are: privacy, monitoring and > eavesdropping, the fear of being exploited, the loss of identity, > ethical impacts of aesthetic decisions, values and ethics manifested > in the social processes and their relevance for activities such as > design there, professional ethics, standards of integrity given > identity issues and practices, malevolence and altruism, legal and > ethical doctrines of confidential and privileged information, ethics > for students and instructors, ethical development stages and issues, > vandalism, harassment and crime, how ethics and values are inscribed > in the discourse and practices of social groups, and how they can > change and emerge in the midst of pragmatic concerns, such as > collective tasks. > > Proposals of any length are welcome, though the more detailed and > clear the easier it will be for us to have it properly reviewed. > Also, include your full contact information, institution affiliation > and position. Please include information on your related > publications and other work. > > Schedule. > Proposals due August 15, 2008. > Notification of acceptance/rejection decision after review process, > September 1, 2008. > First drafts of chapters due, January 15, 2009. > Revised final drafts due, March 15, 2009. > Publication, June 15, 2009 (Information Age Publishing, Charlotte, > NC). > > Editors: Charles Wankel, St. John’s University, New York, and Shaun > Malleck, University of California, Irvine. Send all correspondence > to bothwankelc(a)stjohns.edu and skmalleck(a)gmail.com . Include in the > subject field VW ETHICS. >

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XML intersection
by dlaurent＠selu.edu 19 Jun '08

19 Jun '08

Greetings, Can anyone give me leads on information about making choices to showcase revisions of an author's work in a literary archive coded in XML? Thank you. Kindest Regards, Dianna Dianna Laurent, Ph.D. English Department Southeastern Louisiana University Hammond, Louisiana 70402 USA

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Re: [Air-L] nerd culture and new media
by Tuszynski, Stephanie 18 Jun '08

18 Jun '08

Sue - absolutely. Of course, the very act of labeling someone a "nerd" or a "geek" carries connotations that are heavily identified with gender or the performance of it (calling a guy a "nerd" implies he's physically weak, wears glasses and a pocket protector, etc.) to begin with. But articles like that one just reinforce the underlying problems. There's a reason I dropped my Newsweek subscription a while ago. *sigh* Message: 5 Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:41:55 +0000 From: "Suely Fragoso " <suely(a)unisinos.br> Subject: Re: [Air-L] nerd culture and new media To: <air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org> Message-ID: <s85902a3.024(a)minerva.unisinos.br> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII As far as we (all) don't oblige the men to "perform (or overperform) their gender role" to validate whatever tendencies either... Sue >>> stuszyn(a)UTNet.UToledo.Edu 18/06/08 11:38 >>> I had a feeling that godawful Newsweek article was going to come up. Because it's only okay for women to be geeks/nerds/"fill in intellectual stereotype here" as long as they "sex it up" enough? grr. Broadsheet wrote about that article last week as well: http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2008/06/12/nerd_girls/index.html There's a big difference between being able to be yourself without suffering the repercussions and *having* to perform (or overperform) your gender role in order to validate or offset your non-conformist tendencies. Rar.

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Power in SEA Asia conference
by Yanuar Nugroho 18 Jun '08

18 Jun '08

sent on behalf Dr. Lee Wilson of CRASSH maybe of your interest. cheers, y ----------------- 'Continuity and Change: (Re)conceptualising Power in Southeast Asia' March 26th-28th 2009 Hosted by CRASSH (Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities), University of Cambridge, UK Keynote Speakers: James Scott (Sterling Professor of Political Science and Professor of Anthropology, Yale University) Shelly Errington (Professor of Anthropology, UC Santa Cruz) The study of power in contemporary Southeast Asia has never been more timely. Over the last half-century, the region has undergone innumerable far-reaching changes. It has witnessed the rise of postcolonial nation-states, rapid industrialization, economic growth and democratization but also genocide, political upheaval and widespread repression. Power lies at the core of these important developments, whether in the form of brute military force or as a more capillary 'disciplinary' influence on religious and political subjectivities. New religious, economic and political movements—all drawing deeply on local traditions while proposing new forms of personhood, civil and political society—cut across national, cultural, ideological and sectarian boundaries. Yet for all that power can be detected in Southeast Asia, there seems to be little specifically Southeast Asian about it contemporary scholarly analyses. This is both puzzling and ironic given the central role that earlier ethnographic studies of Southeast Asia once played in identifying distinctively regional modalities of power, prompting us to reconsider how 'power' could be most profitably studied in Southeast Asian contexts. 'Continuity and Change' will be a major interdisciplinary and international conference on Southeast Asia. Its key aim is to reopen the debate on the issue of 'power'—both in real life and academic scholarship—as it is manifest across the region. Conference themes and questions will include: • Are there, or were there ever, distinctly 'Southeast Asian' notions of power that could still exist as alternatives—or complements—to Western folk and political models? • Are scholars' analytic imaginaries of power in relation to nationhood and governance congruent with the imaginaries of Southeast Asians witnessing or involved in such projects and processes? • What are the shapes that power takes? • How have recent theoretical developments within various disciplines reshaped our understanding of the nature and location of power? • How useful is the concept of 'Southeast Asia' as a geographical, political and analytical entity in dealing with these issues? We invite papers from scholars working in the arts, humanities and social sciences whose research illuminates novel, exciting and challenging dimensions of power in Southeast Asian contexts across space and time. Abstracts, 250 words in length, should be submitted to sea.continuity.change(a)googlemail.com For further details, see our website: http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/542, or email us at the address above. Key dates: Submission of Proposal: 1st October 2008 Announcement of accepted proposals: 1st November 2008 Circulation of Paper Abstracts and Panels: 1st March 2009 Organizing Committee: Liana Chua Joanna Cook Nick Long Lee Wilson _______ Dr. Lee Wilson Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities University of Cambridge, 17 Mill Lane, Cambridge, CB2 1RX Tel: +44 1223 766886 Fax: +44 1223 765276 http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/ ____________________ Dr. Yanuar Nugroho Manchester Institute of Innovation Research (MIoIR/PREST) MBS, The University of Manchester Harold Hankins Building, Precinct Centre Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL Tel. +44-161-275-5904 Fax. +44-161-275-0923 URL. audentis.wordpress.com Email. yanuar.nugroho(a)manchester.ac.uk

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