January 2009 - Air-L - lists.aoir.org

Re: [Air-L] Ask Your Lawmaker
by Deborah Elizabeth Finn 12 Jan '09

12 Jan '09

Dear Murrary, Steve, Tom, and other AIR Colleagues, Thanks for your thought-provoking reflections! I do want to clarify a point: the "Ask Your Lawmaker" widget is not a tool that I developed and launched. Capitol News Connection is the nonprofit, nonpartisan news agency that is responsible for it, and Melinda Wittstock is the driving force behind it. Melinda Wittstock Bureau Chief / Founder / Executive Director Capitol New Connection Email: <mwittstock(a)cncnews.org> Phone: 202.546.8650 Fax: 202.546.0283 I'd like to encourage you to be in touch with her with your ideas. Best regards from Deborah Deborah Elizabeth Finn Cyber-Yenta Boston, Massachusetts, USA deborah_elizabeth_finn(a)post.harvard.edu www.cyber-yenta.org Skype: Deborah909 Twitter: Deborah909 LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/deborah909 "Nothing softeneth the Arrogance of our Nature like a Mixture of some Frailties. It is by them that we are best told, that we must not strike too hard upon others....They pull our Rage by the sleeve and whisper Gentleness to us in our censures." -George Savile (1633 - 1695)

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ask your lawmaker
by Murray Turoff 12 Jan '09

12 Jan '09

Deborah, I applaud what you did and you might be interested there is a facebook users group based upon efforts to allow citizens to directly vote on budget allocations in local government that is receiving some experimental usage in Italy, it is titled something like participatory democracy. It does generate specific dialogues between citizens and elected official. One potential improvement is to have some sort of list of very specific topics of concern to the users and to encourage group discussions. The reverse application of allowing lawmakers to ask questions they need answers for is described below. Two reports on a system designed to allow state legislative lawmakers to ask questions of professionals in many different fields and among the state legislature science advisers, usually volunteers retired, or representatives of major scientific and engineering societies. It worked very well for about three years before they ran out of NSF funds. http://library.njit.edu/archives/cccc-materials/ RR#13 Guide to the topics system Jan. 1981 Peter Johnson-Lenz, Trudy Johnson Lenz RR#14 The evolution of a tailored communications structure : the topics system Jan. 1981 Peter Johnson-Lenz, Trudy Johnson Lenz There was a system set up in text for what you are doing for the Santa Monica city government in California. The citizens participated but many of the elective officials chose to ignore the system. It is referenced in the "network nation" book I believe along with related things like "community memory" in Berkely. > Message: 1 > Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2009 15:23:19 -0500 > From: "Deborah Elizabeth Finn" > <deborah_elizabeth_finn(a)post.harvard.edu> > Subject: [Air-L] Just launched: The "Ask Your Lawmaker" widget > To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org > Message-ID: > <3228c2a50901111223s4f0951c5wf7a03cc721d6c59d(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > > Dear AIR Colleagues, > > Before I start bubbling over with enthusiasm, I need to make a full > disclosure: I serve as a paid consultant to Capitol News Connection > (CNC). Urging people to use the Ask Your Lawmaker widget > <http://askyourlawmaker.org/widget> is part of what I'm paid to do. > > That said, I thought that some of you would be interested in tracking > or studying this geeky yet populist approach to strengthening > participatory democracy. > > Capitol News Connection is a nonpartisan, nonprofit journalism > organization that is based in Washington, DC. Ask Your Lawmaker (AYL) > is one of their online initiatives; constituents from any district in > the U.S. can pose questions to their senators and representatives by > posting them to the web site, and then anyone who is interested in > legislation and policy can go to the site and vote for the questions > that he or she deems most crucial. The CNC reporters are conveniently > headquartered on Capitol Hill, and when a question garners enough > votes, they go out and ask the legislator(s) to which it is addressed. > The responses are recorded in broadcast-quality audio, and posted to > the web. They are also made available to local public radio stations, > which are often in need of quotes they can use back in the home > district when they report on national issues. > > Ask Your Lawmaker is now making a laudable move into Web 2.0 territory > by offering nonprofit advocacy groups and individual activists a free > widget that they can use on their own web sites or Facebook pages. > It's a way for advocates to voice their concerns, and to engage their > stakeholders in pressing legislators to address an issue, > > This widget is only the beginning. Capitol News Connection is working > on many more ideas for making national news coverage more > participatory and holding legislators more accountable to their > constituents. In a time when every community activist can also be a > citizen journalist, and RSS feeds are making it easy to syndicate news > selectively, Ask Your Lawmaker is poised to become a provider of > tailor-made news streams for any advocacy group. > > Best regards from Deborah > > P.S. This post to AIR-L is based on a blog article that I wrote. You > can see the article (and the AYL widget that I created for myself) at > <http://blog.deborah.elizabeth.finn.com/blog/_archives/2009/1/8/4050172.html> > > Deborah Elizabeth Finn > Cyber-Yenta > Boston, Massachusetts, USA > deborah_elizabeth_finn(a)post.harvard.edu > www.cyber-yenta.org > Skype: Deborah909 > Twitter: Deborah909 > LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/deborah909 > > "Nothing softeneth the Arrogance of our Nature > like a Mixture of some Frailties. It is by them > that we are best told, that we must not strike > too hard upon others....They pull our Rage by > the sleeve and whisper Gentleness to us in our > censures." > -George Savile (1633 - 1695) > > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > 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/ > > End of Air-L Digest, Vol 54, Issue 12 > ************************************* > -- Distinguished Professor Emeritus Information Systems, NJIT homepage: http://is.njit.edu/turoff

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Playful Experiences Seminar: CFP deadline closing soon!
by Olli Sotamaa 12 Jan '09

12 Jan '09

Dear all, I just wanted to remind you that you still have a few days to submit an abstract to the fifth annual game studies working paper seminar organised by the Games Research Lab in the University of Tampere, this time co-organised with Nokia Research Center. The exact abstract deadline for Playful Experiences Seminar is Thursday, January 15, 2009. Please consider submitting an abstract to the seminar! Best, Olli Olli Sotamaa // Senior Assistant Department of Information Studies and Interactive Media University of Tampere, Finland olli.sotamaa(a)uta.fi // www.uta.fi/~olli.sotamaa/ >> Call for Papers: Playful Experiences Seminar, Tampere 2.-3. April, 2009 >> >> * Update: the seminar commentators will be Aki Järvinen (ITU >> Copenhagen) and Oskar Juhlin (Interactive Institute). >> >> What does it involve to enter the state of play? How games and other >> playful phenomena stand out among other everyday experiences, and can >> playful experiences be designed? Is there a way we can learn to >> understand games better by looking at phenomena that are not games, >> but where playful behaviours are common? How are play and function >> intertwined in Facebook, iPhone, Habbo Hotel and the other topical >> interactive products and services? >> >> As, on the one hand, so-called gamer generations are spreading >> understanding of play and games literacy into society, and, on the >> other, digital information and communication technologies are having >> an impact on various use contexts and in different social processes, >> there will be increasing needs for understanding playfulness that is >> not restricted to games in the classic sense. Play as an attitude and >> mode of engagement is appearing in social Internet services, and also >> working life is becoming increasingly open towards playful and >> creative modes of thought and activity. >> >> ‘Playful Experiences’ seminar invites presentations from multiple >> points of view, promoting wider interdisciplinary dialogue around >> player studies and games research, and in related fields. The >> co-organisers, University of Tampere Games Research Lab and Nokia >> Research Center invite both theoretical as well as empirically based >> studies into ‘playfulness’. Particular fields of study include, but >> are not limited to: >> >> - theories and methods for understanding play experiences; >> - the social and cultural construction of play experiences; >> - the nature of playful phenomena and playful attitude; >> - the social character of games and playful experiences; >> - the role of technology for playful experiences, e.g. play in mobile >> user contexts; >> - user interface and usability issues related to playful interaction; >> - play experiences beyond games. >> >> The seminar is fifth in the annual series of game studies working >> paper seminars organised by the Games Research Lab in the University >> of Tampere, this time co-organised with Nokia Research Center. Due to >> the work-in-progress emphasis, we strongly encourage submitting late >> breaking results, working papers and/or submissions from graduate >> students. Early considerations from projects currently in progress >> are most welcome, as the purpose of the seminar is to have >> peer-to-peer discussions and thereby provide support in refining and >> improving research work in this area. After the seminar, separate >> consideration will be given to various options of publishing the >> seminar papers. >> >> The papers to be presented will be chosen based on extended abstract >> review. Full papers are distributed prior the event to all >> participants, in order to facilitate discussion. >> >> The two-day event consists of themed sessions that aim to introduce >> current research projects and discuss ongoing work in studies of >> games, play and their relation to surrounding phenomena. The seminar >> will be chaired by professor Frans Mäyrä (Hypermedia Laboratory, >> University of Tampere). There will be two invited paper commentators: >> assistant professor Aki Järvinen (ITU Copenhagen) and studio director >> Oskar Juhlin (Mobility Studio, Interactive Institute). >> >> The seminar will be held in Tampere, Finland and will be free of >> charge; the number of participants will be restricted. >> >> Important Dates >> >> - Abstract Deadline: January 15, 2009 >> - Notification of Acceptance: January 30, 2009 >> - Full Paper deadline: March 6, 2009 >> - Seminar dates: April 2-3, 2009 >> >> Submission Guidelines >> >> The extended abstract submissions should be between 500-1000 words >> (excluding references). Abstracts should be sent to >> <playfulexp{at}gmail.com> as plain text only (no attachments). >> Guidelines for submitting a full seminar paper will be provided with >> the notification of acceptance. >> >> Our aim is that everyone participating has been able to read >> materials submitted to the seminar, therefore the maximum length for >> a full paper is set to 6000 words (excluding references). Note also >> that the presentations held at the seminar should also encourage >> discussion, instead of only repeating the information presented in >> the papers. Tentatively, every paper will be presented for 10 minutes >> and discussed for 20 minutes. >> >> Seminar web site: http://playfulexperiences.wordpress.com/ >> >> Co-organised by: http://gamelab.uta.fi & http://research.nokia.com/ >> >> University of Tampere / Hypermedia Laboratory / Games Research Lab >> Nokia Research Center / Media Laboratory / Human Practices and Design >> >> > >

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WikiSym 2009 CfP
by Felipe Ortega 12 Jan '09

12 Jan '09

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 I apologize beforehand for possible cross-posting. Felipe. ======================================================== CALL FOR PAPERS ======================================================== W I K I S Y M 2 0 0 9 The International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration http://www.wikisym.org/ws2009/ October 25-27 in Orlando, Florida, USA In-cooperation with ACM SIGPLAN and ACM SIGWEB, co-located with ACM OOPSLA 2009, peer-reviewed and archived in the ACM Digital Library ======================================================== The International Symposium on Wikis (WikiSym) is the premier conference dedicated to wikis and related open collaboration systems and processes. WikiSym 2009 aims to explore and extend the thriving wiki community, bringing together researchers, practitioners, writers and scholars to gather, discuss and share knowledge and experience on all areas related to wikis and wiki philosophy, ranging from social to technical, and from theoretical to experience studies. The symposium combines a rigorously reviewed research paper track with plenty of space for experience reports, discussions of work in progress, demonstrations, tutorials, and lively informal last minute sessions in open space and WikiFest sessions. This year, WikiSym will be held in Orlando, Florida, USA---a city with a tropical climate, poolside fruity drinks, and world-class entertainment opportunities for adults and families. == IMPORTANT DATES == * March 27th: Submission deadline for research papers, experience reports, workshops, and panels * April 24th: Submission deadline for posters, demonstrations, WikiFest and Doctoral Symposium proposals * May 22nd: Notifications for all submission categories (workshops earlier) * October 25-27: WikiSym 2009! == TOPICS OF INTEREST == WikiSym welcomes submissions of research papers (long and short), experience reports, workshops, panels, posters, demonstrations, WikiFest and Doctoral Symposium proposals. Given the interdisciplinary nature of wiki and related systems, WikiSym invites contributions in a wide range of fields: * computer science and technology * human-computer interaction * communications and media studies * education * information and library science * history, political science, geography * linguistics, discourse analysis, language studies * business, marketing, law * natural sciences, medicine Topics of special interest to the symposium include, but are not limited to: * social software for collaboration and work group processes * wiki user experiences, usability, and discourse analysis * reputation systems, quality assurance processes * scalability---social and technical * wiki technologies and implementations * translation and multilingual wiki content * educational applications * wiki for non-textual media (images, video, audio) * content dynamics and wiki evolution * wiki journalism * wiki archiving and versioning * wiki administration: dealing with abuse and resolving conflict * wiki and the semantic web, knowledge management, tacit knowledge * wiki for small audiences (departmental and family wikis) * legal issues (copyright, licensing) * visualization of wiki structure * wiki fiction == RESEARCH PAPERS == Research papers present integrative reviews or original reports of substantive new work: theoretical, empirical, or in the development or deployment of novel systems. We encourage emphasizing lessons learned and providing a clear concise message to the audience about the relevance of the work. The paper must place your work in context within the field, citing related work and indicating clearly what aspects of the work are new. Research papers will be reviewed by the Program Committee to meet rigorous academic standards of publication. They should be written in English and must not exceed 10 pages (for full papers) or 4 pages (for short papers). Papers will be reviewed both with respect to conceptual quality and clarity of presentation. Authors of accepted papers are expected to attend the conference in order to present the paper. Accepted submissions will be published in the WikiSym proceedings and archived in the ACM Digital Library. Submitted papers should use the ACM SIG Proceedings Format, see: http://www.acm.org/sigs/pubs/proceed/template.html == EXPERIENCE REPORTS == Experience reports are an integral part of the conference program. These reports provides a large group of peers the opportunity to learn from a project's experience; they explore how concepts that sound good on paper (and at conferences!) work on real projects. They are a valuable means of communicating experiences, especially at the "bleeding edge". Many attendees want to find out what it is like to start a company wiki, use a wiki in classroom education, or build a political campaign around a wiki. Experience reports present experience and reflections, together with supporting evidence for any claims made. And they particularly include reports that discuss both benefits and drawbacks of the approaches used. Reports may focus on a particular aspect of technology usage and practice, or describe broad project experiences. Some reports focus on people, process or related challenges. == WORKSHOPS == Workshops provide an opportunity for researchers and practitioners to discuss and learn about topics that require extended engagement such as new systems, research methods, standards and formats. A workshop should require participants to engage with each other for at least half a day. For shorter sessions, please consider WikiSym's open space format. A workshop proposal should consist of approximately two pages describing what you intend to do and how your session will meet the criteria described above. It should include a concise abstract, proposed time frame (half-day, full-day) and one-paragraph biographies of all people relevant to the submission. Workshop proposals will be reviewed and selected for their interest to the community. Each workshop will be allocated a half-day or a full-day and a room. == PANELS == Panels provide an interactive forum for bringing together people with interesting points of view to discuss compelling wiki issues. Panels involve participation from both the panelists and audience members in a lively discussion. Proposals for panels should consist of approximately two pages describing what you intend to do and how your session will meet the criteria described above. It should include a concise abstract and one-paragraph biographies of all people relevant to the submission. A panel submission will be reviewed and selected for their interest to the community. Each panel will be given a 90-minute time slot. == POSTERS == Poster presentations enable researchers to present late-breaking results, significant work in progress, or work that is best communicated in conversation. WikiSym's lively poster sessions let conference attendees exchange ideas one-on-one with authors, and let authors discuss their work in detail with those attendees most deeply interested in the topic. Poster proposals may describe original research, engineering, or experience reports. Submissions should consist of two page extended abstract outlining the content of the poster. Successful applicants will be invited display a poster, 1x2m in size, at a special plenary session of the Symposium. == DEMONSTRATIONS == Wikis are intended to be used, and no format is better suited for demonstrating the utility of new wiki research and technology than showing and using it. If you would like to demonstrate new features or products, this is the place! Demonstrations give presenters an opportunity to show running systems and gather feedback. Demo submissions will be reviewed based on their relevance to the community. A submission should be one page in length, with a title, and a short description of the demo. The description should include what you plan to demo, what you hope to get out of demoing, and how the audience will benefit. A short note of any special technical requirements may be included. == WIKI FEST == WikiFest is a conference session devoted to helping you start and grow a successful wiki in your organization. Proposals should showcase a wiki adoption strategy or example, with emphasis on how others can apply your strategy to their own wiki. Topics to be covered: * Tools---Choose the right wiki software for your needs * Adoption---How to run a pilot, establish a core group of users, and grow usage. * Uses---How does your team use a wiki? How has it helped your productivity? * Obstacles---What are they, and how can you avoid or fix them? == DOCTORAL SYMPOSIUM == The Doctoral Symposium is an interactive forum for doctoral students to receive present and discuss their doctoral work. Students who are at least one year away from dissertation completion are invited to submit to the Doctoral Symposium. Students beginning their research are especially invited to attend. To submit a proposal send a 2-3 pages description of your dissertation research, including: * A description of your work * The goals---what contributions will your research generate? * The approach---what is being performed to achieve the goals? How will results be validated? Additionally, your adviser must send a brief statement of your dissertation progress to date and a statement of recommendation to the Doctoral Symposium chair. == HOW TO SUBMIT == Please submit your papers or proposals in PDF format through our submission system at the WikiSym website (available in early 2009). * http://www.wikisym.org/ws2009 All accepted submissions will be published in the proceedings and archived in the ACM Digital Library. Submitted work of all categories should use the ACM SIG Proceedings Format, see: http://www.acm.org/sigs/pubs/proceed/template.html Questions regarding submissions may be directed at the respective chair using the following email addresses: * Research papers: papers(a)wikisym.org * Experience reports: reports(a)wikisym.org * Panels: panels(a)wikisym.org * Workshops: workshops(a)wikisym.org * Demonstrations: demos(a)wikisym.org * Posters: posters(a)wikisym.org * WikiFest: wikifest(a)wikisym.org * Doctoral Symposium: docsym(a)wikisym.org General questions should be directed at chair(a)wikisym.org. == SYMPOSIUM COMMITTEE == * Dirk Riehle, SAP Labs LLC, USA, Symposium Chair * Amy Bruckman, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, Program Chair * Ademar Aguiar, FEUP, Universidade do Porto, Portugal, Sponsorships Chair * Luca de Alfaro, University of California at Santa Cruz, USA, Doctoral Symposium Chair * Claus Atzenbeck, Aalborg University Esbjerg, Denmark, Posters Chair * Phoebe Ayers, University of California at Davis, Wikimedia Liason * Robert Biddle, Carleton University, Experience Reports Chair * Martin Cleaver, Blended Perspectives, Canada, Publicity Co-Chair * Ward Cunningham, AboutUs.org and Cunningham & Cunningham, USA, Honorary Member * Alain Desilets, National Research Council of Canada, Canada, Tutorials Chair * Ted Ernst, AboutUs.org, USA, Open Space Facilitator * Camille Goksever, Chevron Corp., and Me So Wise, WikiWalk Organizer * Marc Laporte, TikiWiki CMS/Groupware, Webmaster * Stewart Mader, Future Changes, WikiFest Chair * James Noble, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, Honorary Member * Felipe Ortega, Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain, Publicity Co-Chair * Sebastien Paquet, Universite du Quebec a Montreal, Canada, Panels Chair * Pattarawan Prasarnphanich, Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration, Thailand, Demonstrations Chair * Christian Wagner, City University of Hong Kong, China, Workshops Chair == PROGRAM COMMITTEE == * Ademar Aguiar, FEUP, Universidade do Porto, Portugal * Luca de Alfaro, University of California at Santa Cruz, USA * Panagiota Alevizou, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK * Mark Bernstein, Eastgate Systems, USA * Robert Biddle, Carleton University, Canada * Amy Bruckman, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA * Thomas N. Burg, BlogTalk, Socialware, MindMeister, Austria * Ed H. Chi, PARC, USA * Ulrike Cress, Knowledge Media Research Center, Tuebingen, Germany * Kevin Crowston, Syracuse University, USA * Chris Dent, Peermore Limited, UK * Alain Desilets, National Research Council of Canada, Canada * Andrea Forte, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA * Frank Fuchs-Kittowski, Fraunhofer ISST, Germany * Andreea D. Gorbatai, Harvard Business School, Harvard University, USA * Susan C. Herring, Indiana University, USA * Brian Ingerson, Socialtext, USA * Benjamin Mako-Hill, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA * Aniket Kittur, Carnegie Mellon University, USA * Marc Laporte, TikiWiki CMS/Groupware, Canada * Sky Marsen, Macquarie University, Australia * David W. McDonald, University of Washington, USA * Paulo Merson, Software Engineering Institute, USA * David Millard, University of Southampton, UK * Stuart Moulthrop, University of Baltimore, USA * Pattarawan Prasarnphanich, Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration, Thailand * Joseph Reagle, New York University, USA * Camille Roth, CNRS, France * Frank Shipman, Texas A&M University, USA * Dario Taraborelli, University of Surrey, UK * Fernanda B. Viegas, IBM Research, USA - -- José Felipe Ortega Soto | Ph.D. Candidate / Researcher Tel: (+34)-914 888 105 | Fax: (+34)-916 647 494 | GSyC/Libresoft - U. Rey Juan Carlos jfelipe _at_ gsyc.escet.urjc.es | Edif. Departamental II - Office 106 http://libresoft.urjc.es/ | c/Tulipán s/n 28933 Móstoles (Madrid) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iEYEARECAAYFAklqtEUACgkQe8GFfoqY1ueUdACfZeVpEWmyR29QMuN1xWYviA05 +eAAoIftIV+4um8XnaR1JAtIMJS0dOBl =p4z1 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Just launched: The "Ask Your Lawmaker" widget
by Deborah Elizabeth Finn 11 Jan '09

11 Jan '09

Dear AIR Colleagues, Before I start bubbling over with enthusiasm, I need to make a full disclosure: I serve as a paid consultant to Capitol News Connection (CNC). Urging people to use the Ask Your Lawmaker widget <http://askyourlawmaker.org/widget> is part of what I'm paid to do. That said, I thought that some of you would be interested in tracking or studying this geeky yet populist approach to strengthening participatory democracy. Capitol News Connection is a nonpartisan, nonprofit journalism organization that is based in Washington, DC. Ask Your Lawmaker (AYL) is one of their online initiatives; constituents from any district in the U.S. can pose questions to their senators and representatives by posting them to the web site, and then anyone who is interested in legislation and policy can go to the site and vote for the questions that he or she deems most crucial. The CNC reporters are conveniently headquartered on Capitol Hill, and when a question garners enough votes, they go out and ask the legislator(s) to which it is addressed. The responses are recorded in broadcast-quality audio, and posted to the web. They are also made available to local public radio stations, which are often in need of quotes they can use back in the home district when they report on national issues. Ask Your Lawmaker is now making a laudable move into Web 2.0 territory by offering nonprofit advocacy groups and individual activists a free widget that they can use on their own web sites or Facebook pages. It's a way for advocates to voice their concerns, and to engage their stakeholders in pressing legislators to address an issue, This widget is only the beginning. Capitol News Connection is working on many more ideas for making national news coverage more participatory and holding legislators more accountable to their constituents. In a time when every community activist can also be a citizen journalist, and RSS feeds are making it easy to syndicate news selectively, Ask Your Lawmaker is poised to become a provider of tailor-made news streams for any advocacy group. Best regards from Deborah P.S. This post to AIR-L is based on a blog article that I wrote. You can see the article (and the AYL widget that I created for myself) at <http://blog.deborah.elizabeth.finn.com/blog/_archives/2009/1/8/4050172.html> Deborah Elizabeth Finn Cyber-Yenta Boston, Massachusetts, USA deborah_elizabeth_finn(a)post.harvard.edu www.cyber-yenta.org Skype: Deborah909 Twitter: Deborah909 LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/deborah909 "Nothing softeneth the Arrogance of our Nature like a Mixture of some Frailties. It is by them that we are best told, that we must not strike too hard upon others....They pull our Rage by the sleeve and whisper Gentleness to us in our censures." -George Savile (1633 - 1695)

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Paper: (Under)mining Privacy in Social Networks
by Richard Forno 10 Jan '09

10 Jan '09

Interesting paper and food for thought. -rick (c/o Slashdot entry) (Under)mining Privacy in Social Networks Monica Chew Dirk Balfanz Ben Laurie Google Inc. Paper PDF: http://w2spconf.com/2008/papers/s3p2.pdf Article: http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2009/01/what-your-socia…

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comments on Chat as a technically mediated social system
by Murray Turoff 09 Jan '09

09 Jan '09

The problem with chat is that it will change faster than we will be able to evolve theories for it. Those using party-line telephones had audio chat groups made up of the people connected through the party-line. Teletype operators had protocols to form instant chat groups using Morse code. Any early time sharing computer that allowed the operator to type on to a users terminal had the software features that usually allowed a simple chat capability. We had it on EMARSI on the UNIVAC 1108 in 1971 and it was called party-line and appeared as part of a larger system in a conference paper in the 1972 proceedings of the International Conference on Computer Communications. We could set the number of lines allowed in that early version. Today multi-line chat is on skype and gmail by not returning the carriage so even the one line chat is out of date. In 1973 there was also a multi-person chat on Plato the large Computer Assisted Instruction System at the University of Illinois. Chat to those of us evolving the technology was more of an obvious thing, easy to do, that we did not write much about it. In 1973 the people at arpa did not wnat to release the data on message use of the arpa net because it was the biggest application and that was not what they had designed arpa net for. They were afraid it might negatively affect congressional appropriations Why use a very expensive computer network for communications when there was 10 cent telephone calls. That was one reason I wrote the paper below which show that 5-9 people groups could commuicate more for less money using things like computerized conferencing rather than phone calls. That same cost benefit calculation was repeated in chapter 14 of the network nation. Many chats now allow you to save the proceedings, which means the addition of a persistent memory (writing on stone rather than sand) that makes a significant change in the way it is used especially to accomplish true collaborative tasks like making a joint decision. Chat will not be like current capabilities in the next decade as the next big step will be shared blackboards where anyone can type or draw anywhere on the board or add an audio icon that contains a short audio recording so the concept of chat will be text, drawing, handwriting, and voice in one system. Users will evolve methods to use it by imposing structures or communication protocols on the process. In fact it will be quite common to paste audio in word documents to explain figures using audio which will translate to common use in all sorts of electronic documents. This creates problems for theories dealing with a transient technology. Adaptive structurization is one theory that has a lot of merit here. That is a description of what social systems do to a technology in order to make real use of it. reference: Turoff, Murray, (1972), Party-Line and Discussion: Computerized Conferencing Systems, Proceedings of the First International Conference on Computers and Communications, October, IEEE. Washington DC > Message: 6 > Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 15:33:40 +0100 > From: Jesper T?kke <ses(a)post10.tele.dk> > Subject: [Air-L] Chat as a technically mediated social system > To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org > Message-ID: <20090109143339.DMCU28218.fep50.mail.dk(a)post.tele.dk> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > Happy New Year! > > I have published a paper in the series of papers from the Centre for > Internet Research here in Denmark. You can go direct to it following this > link: http://www.cfi.au.dk/publikationer/cfi/011_taekke > > Abstract > This paper provides an analysis of chat as a technical media for > communication. > > This is realized using the strategy for analyzing that I have called > Media > > Sociography (T?kke 2006). The Media Sociography is a synthesis of Medium > > Theory and the Systems Theoretical Sociology of Niklas Luhmann. The aim > of > > the paper is to describe social reproduction under the constraints of > chat, but > > also to show that Media Sociography can provide a unified theoretical > framework > > for CMC-studies. The paper is also indented to provide an introduction to > > the Media Sociography for an English speaking public. > > Keywords: Chat, Medium Theory, Systems Theoretical Sociology, Computer > > Mediated Communication, Media Sociography. > > Best Regards > > Jesper > > > cand.mag, ph.d. Jesper Taekke > Dep. for Information- and Media Studies > Aarhus University, Denmark > http://home16.inet.tele.dk/jesper_t/ -- Distinguished Professor Emeritus Information Systems, NJIT homepage: http://is.njit.edu/turoff

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CFP: MIT's Media in Transition - Conference
by Michael Zimmer 09 Jan '09

09 Jan '09

[Of interest to many, I'm sure... -mz] Media in Transition 6: stone and papyrus, storage and transmission International Conference April 24-26, 2009 Massachusetts Institute of Technology CALL FOR PAPERS In his seminal essay "The Bias of Communication" Harold Innis distinguishes between time-based and space-based media. Time-based media such as stone or clay, Innis agues, can be seen as durable, while space-based media such as paper or papyrus can be understood as portable, more fragile than stone but more powerful because capable of transmission, diffusion, connections across space. Speculating on this distinction, Innis develops an account of civilization grounded in the ways in which media forms shape trade, religion, government, economic and social structures, and the arts. Our current era of prolonged and profound transition is surely as media-driven as the historical cultures Innis describes. His division between the durable and the portable is perhaps problematic in the age of the computer, but similar tensions define our contemporary situation. Digital communications have increased exponentially the speed with which information circulates. Moore's Law continues to hold, and with it a doubling of memory capacity every two years; we are poised to reach transmission speeds of 100 terabits per second, or something akin to transmitting the entire printed contents of the Library of Congress in under five seconds. Such developments are simultaneously exhilarating and terrifying. They profoundly challenge efforts to maintain access to the vast printed and audio-visual inheritance of analog culture as well as efforts to understand and preserve the immense, enlarging universe of text, image and sound available in cyberspace. What are the implications of these trends for historians who seek to understand the place of media in our own culture? What challenges confront librarians and archivists who must supervise the migration of print culture to digital formats and who must also find ways to preserve and catalogue the vast and increasing range of words and images generated by new technologies? How are shifts in distribution and circulation affecting the stories we tell, the art we produce, the social structures and policies we construct? What are the implications of this tension between storage and transmission for education, for individual and national identities, for notions of what is public and what is private? We invite papers from scholars, journalists, media creators, teachers, writers and visual artists on these broad themes. Potential topics might include: The digital archive The future of libraries and museums The past and future of the book Mobile media Historical systems of communication Media in the developing world Social networks Mapping media flows Approaches to media history Education and the changing media environment New forms of storytelling and expression Location-based entertainment Hyperlocal media and civic engagement New modes of circulation and distribution The transformation of television -- from broadcast to download Cosmopolitanism backlashes against media change Virtual worlds and digital tourism The continuity principle: what endures or resists digital transformation? The fate of reading Submissions Abstracts of no more than 500 words or full papers should be sent to Brad Seawell at seawell(a)mit.edu no later than Friday, Jan. 9, 2009. We will evaluate abstracts and full papers on a rolling basis and early submission is highly encouraged. All submissions should be sent as attachments in a Word format. Submitted material will be subject to editing by conference organizers. Email is preferred, but submissions can be mailed to: Brad Seawell MIT 14N-430 77 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139 Please include a biographical statement of no more than 100 words. If your paper is accepted, this statement will be used on the conference Web site. Please monitor the conference Web site at http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/mit6 for registration information, travel information and conference updates. Abstracts will be accepted on a rolling basis until Jan. 9, 2009. The full text of your paper must be submitted no later than Friday, April 17. Conference papers will be posted to the conference Web site and made available to all conferees. -- Michael Zimmer, PhD Assistant Professor, School of Information Studies Associate, Center for Information Policy Research University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee e: zimmerm(a)uwm.edu w: www.michaelzimmer.org

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Re: [Air-L] American Youth's Differential Use of New Media
by Mary L. Gray 09 Jan '09

09 Jan '09

Hi folks, Tina: I agree with sentiments of the other posts: 1) there's not much out there and 2) as Caitlin Fisher noted, other than the Pew study, one of the better compilations of work out there is the "Digital Youth Research Project" funded by the MacArthur Foundation...here's the link: http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu/report I'd also recommend looking at Sonia Livingstone's work in the the UK as a counterpoint (to get a sense of the differences between work in the U.S. and elsewhere). David Buckingham's collection "Youth, Identity, and Digital Media" (MIT Press, 2007) is another broader take on the questions you might find yourself asking. Crispin Thurlow is editing a special collection of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication addressing youth's differential uses of new media. You might email him to ask if the volume's publication date has been scheduled. JCMC came out with a really interesting special issue on SNS (not youth-specific) that's also a great collection to examine for more background (here's the intro article): boyd, d. m., & Ellison, N. B. (2007). Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), article 11. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html And a bit of shameless self-promotion (drums rolls a'rolling): my book "Out in the Country: Youth, Media, and Queer Visibility in Rural America" (NYU Press, 2009) will be out this August. It's a veritable trifecta of differential use: how lesbian, gay, bi, trans, and questioning young people use new media to craft a sense of visibility in rural, working poor communities in the U.S. Specifically, it looks at how the politics of gay visibility (expectations to be out and the naturalization of the coming out process) interplay with class, race, sexuality, gender, and space to shape young people's new media use. I use ethnography to examine how young people engage new media to collectively rework the boundaries of visibility and queer authenticity vis-a-vis their families, schools, communities, and online networks (hopefully troubling what we take for granted about the boundaries between online and offline experiences and where we expect to find queer identity work along the way). You've picked a great area of research, Tina. I hope you add to the growing body of work particularly concerned with the lives of youth under 18. Th research on this demographic is particularly thin and in need of a critical eye. All the best, Mary On Jan 8, 2009, at 6:00 PM, air-l-request(a)listserv.aoir.org wrote: > Message: 2 > Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 09:17:56 -0800 > From: "Tina Matuchniak @UCI" <tmatuchn(a)uci.edu> > Subject: [Air-L] American Youth's Differential Use of New Media > To: "AIR Listserve" <air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org> > Message-ID: <D68ECA477F944ACF8713C3B1968C9629@tinalaptop> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > > Hello, > > I am a graduate student at the University of California, Irvine, > currently working on a project about use of new media (SNS, games, > video production, etc.) amongst youth. > > I was wondering if someone could point me to any studies on American > youth's differential use (by gender, race, SES etc.) of new media. > > Thank you for your time, > > Tina Matuchniak > Graduate Student > Department of Education > University of California, Irvine > >

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The Communication Review Call for Papers on CMC
by Tatiana Omeltchenko 09 Jan '09

09 Jan '09

The Communication Review, a quarterly publication by Taylor&Francis, invites papers that address the workings, development and transformation of computer-mediated communication specifically focusing on: - Production and consumption of meanings in online or online-offline communication processes, - Political-economic, technological, and institutional dynamics of CMC. We encourage papers that employ critical theoretical and empirical approaches, sociological and anthropological analysis, cultural studies and feminist research. We also welcome non-traditionally constructed articles which critically examine and review current sub-fields of and controversies pertinent to computer-mediated communication. Please direct your papers or queries to Tatiana Omeltchenko, Managing Editor, at to3y(a)virginia.edu For more information about the journal and submission guidelines, please see the journal's website at http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/10714421.html Andrea Press and Bruce Williams, Editors in Chief -- The Communication Review A Quarterly Publication by Taylor&Francis University of Virginia 401 Cabell Hall, PO Box 400866 Charlottesville, VA 22904-4866 Phone: 434-243-4330 Fax: 434-243-8869 http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t713456253~db=all

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