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

OZCHI 2009: program online, early bird extended until Fri 16 Oct
by Marcus Foth 09 Oct '09

09 Oct '09

OZCHI 2009 – Design: Open 24 | 7 21st Annual Conference of the Australian Computer-Human Interaction Special Interest Group (CHISIG) of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society of Australia (HFESA) 23 – 27 November 2009, The University of Melbourne, Australia http://www.ozchi.org/ NEWS Early bird registration deadline extended to Fri 16 Oct 2009. Register now: http://www.ozchi.org/mediawiki/index.php/REGISTER The draft program is now available online. Check out the list of accepted peer reviewed long and short papers: http://www.ozchi.org/mediawiki/index.php/PROGRAM Consider attending one of the pre-conference workshops and tutorials. In most cases you can still attend (without submitting and presenting a paper). Contact the organisers and tick the appropriate box on your registration form. http://www.ozchi.org/mediawiki/index.php/WORKSHOPS Thu 26 Nov is OZCHI Industry Day. Details of the program to be released shortly. http://www.ozchi.org/mediawiki/index.php/INDUSTRY KEYNOTES http://www.ozchi.org/mediawiki/index.php/KEYNOTES Wed 25 Nov - Bill Moggridge, Co-founder of IDEO.com Thu 26 Nov (OZCHI Industry Day) - Patrick Hofmann, Head of User Experience, Google Australia Fri 27 Nov - Yvonne Rogers, Director, Pervasive Interaction Lab, Open University, UK 24 HOUR DESIGN CHALLENGE This year OZCHI will be preceded by a student design challenge in two rounds organised as two 24 hour events. The first round took place online on 12 Sep 2009. The second round will be held at OZCHI on 24 Nov 2009. In both rounds teams of 2-5 students are invited to develop a solution for a state-of-the-art research problem acquiring interaction design and HCI skills. Top entries will be awarded a travel scholarship for the conference (round 1) and prizes sponsored by our industry partners (round 2). For more information visit http://www.ozchi.org/24 Martin Tomitsch, Andrew Vande Moere, The University of Sydney & Jeremy Yuille, RMIT/ACID Student Design Challenge Chairs sdc(a)ozchi.org WORKSHOPS AND TUTORIALS Mon 23 Nov 2009 User Requirements Gathering (tutorial) OZeWAI Inclusive Information Society (2 day workshop - day 1 of 2) OZCHI Doctoral Consortium Tue 24 Nov 2009 OZCHI 24 Hour Student Design Challenge Web Accessibility (tutorial) Experimental Design for HCI (tutorial) Hungry 24/7? HCI Design for Sustainable Food Culture (workshop) Street Computing (workshop) Designing for Healthy Living (workshop) Smart Healthcare Applications (workshop) OZeWAI Inclusive Information Society (2 day workshop - day 2 of 2) Please refer to the individual workshop and tutorial pages for further details: http://www.ozchi.org/mediawiki/index.php/WORKSHOPS Lian Loke & Toni Robertson, UTS Workshops, Tutorials and Panels Chairs workshops(a)ozchi.org CONFERENCE THEME The 2009 conference theme is Design: Open 24/7. Accessibility, inclusivity and dissolving boundaries are core to the Open 24/7 theme for the design of human interaction with and through digital technologies. The integration of digital technologies into our everyday life allows for a seamless transitioning between open and closed, work and leisure, public and private. Open implies participation and collaboration across traditional borders between individuals, organisations and disciplines. OZCHI 2009 provides a forum to discuss all aspects of openness, open borders, open participation, open source and open architecture. Theme-related submissions may address these topics: .. Open always-on real-time ubiquitous and pervasive designs .. Open design and universality versus situatedness, contextualisation and personalisation .. Open source for design – design for open source .. Open mind – new ideas, concepts and approaches from outside HCI .. Beyond open – never closed: design for escapism CONFERENCE TOPICS Submissions in all areas of HCI are encouraged. In addition, we particularly invite authors to address any of the following topics: Augmented Reality | Context and Location Awareness | Education and HCI | Health Care and HCI | Innovative Design Methodologies | Smart Service Delivery | Sustainability | Universal Usability and Accessibility | Urban Informatics | Tangible User Interfaces | Visualisation Techniques | Working across Cultures SPONSORS & SUPPORTERS http://www.ozchi.org/mediawiki/index.php/OZCHI_SPONSORS Thank you: The Hiser Group | ARC HCSNet | Design Victoria | Stamford Interactive | National ICT Australia | Smart Services CRC | CSIRO | Apogee | The University of Melbourne | Australian Information Industry Association | Australian Interactive Media Industry Association See you in Melbourne! Marcus Foth, QUT Conference Chair chair(a)ozchi.org http://www.ozchi.org/mediawiki/index.php/REGISTER -- Assoc. Prof. Marcus Foth Principal Research Fellow Institute for Creative Industries and Innovation Queensland University of Technology (CRICOS No. 00213J) Victoria Park Rd, Brisbane QLD 4059, Australia Phone +61 7 313 x88772 - Fax x88238 - Office K506, KG m.foth(a)qut.edu.au - http://www.urbaninformatics.net/

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Call for papers, Internet Culture, Popular Culture Association conference March 31-April 3
by Montana Miller 08 Oct '09

08 Oct '09

Call for Papers Internet Culture Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association National Conference St. Louis, Missouri March 31-April 3, 2010 The Internet Culture Area of the Popular Culture Association is soliciting proposals for panels and individual papers that explore aspects of communication, creativity, identity, and behavior as they emerge in the popular culture of the Internet. Individuals and groups express their values and identities through discussion, artwork, music, video, and endless forms of exchange on the Internet. Online interaction and display is an increasingly familiar and influential feature of popular culture. In what ways is our global society connecting and changing, as innovation and tradition find a new medium for expression an increasingly networked everyday life? Papers on a wide range of topics will be accepted. Submit a 200-250 word proposal to: Montana Miller Department of Popular Culture Bowling Green State University Bowling Green, OH 43403 montanm(a)bgsu.edu Deadline for Submissions: December 15, 2009 Note: Submissions on topics that deal with concepts of "Fair (Ab)use" should be submitted to the themed area of Communication and Digital Culture, Area Chair Mark Nunes, mnunes(a)spsu.edu

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Amount users of virtual worlds
by CarrieLynn D. Reinhard 08 Oct '09

08 Oct '09

Does anyone know offhand or where to find the latest numbers on the amount of users for various virtual worlds -- from World of Warcraft to Second Life to Habbo and so forth. I'm trying to find numbers that would allow me to compare users of Facebook apps to virtual worlds. CarrieLynn D. Reinhard, PhD Virtual Worlds Research http://worlds.ruc.dk/ Roskilde University Department of Communication, Business, and Information Technologies Building 43.3 Kommunikationsvej 1 DK-4000 Roskilde mbl: + 2280 5128 "If we understand that everyone is connected to everyone else in some way or another, it makes it hard to hurt any single one person, for who knows if we might unwittingly hurt someone we love." - CDR 9/20/02

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Genres on the internet
by MARZIO VENEMAN 08 Oct '09

08 Oct '09

Dear subscribers Air-L, . With reference to the WebGenreWiki, the wiki dedicated to Automatic web Genre Identification , I take pleasure informing you as follows: < http://www.webgenrewiki.org/index.php5/Main_Page> < http://www.webgenrewiki.org/index.php5/Main_Page> * Definition - Definition and characterization of genre and web genre. * Genre Classes - Discussion about genre classes. * Genre Classes - Discussion about genre classes. * Genre Classes - Discussion about genre classes. * Genre Classes - Discussion about genre classes. * Naming conventions - Discussion about names for genre classes. * Annotation - Principles of genre annotation in document collections * Evaluation - To be populated * Automatic classification - Issues in automatic classification of pages collected from the Web . I trust this information is sufficient for your purposes, in case you require any additional details, please do not hesitate to contact the undersigned. . Yours sincerely, Cordiali Saluti . . . Marzio Veneman The Netherlands Click here to visit my professional profile and connect! <http://www.linkedin-ech3.com/in/rythmomachy> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Rythmomachy> . . This email message may contain privilliged information and is solely intended for the recipient(s) mentioned above. To ensure that you continue receiving our emails, please add <max.rythmos(a)yahoo.com> to your address book or safe list. . . . ________________________________ . ________________________________ ________________________________

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How to get access to industry reports for academic research purposes?
by carlos barreneche 08 Oct '09

08 Oct '09

Hi all, I'm Carlos Barreneche, a doctoral student at University of Westminster doing research on geotagging (assigning geographical identification to media). I'm looking particularly at the articulation of geotagged content within informational, cultural and commercial dynamics. So far I've struggled with finding specific literature on the subject, nevertheless, I just found a couple of recently published industry reports that would be key for my project. However, I haven’t been able to get access to them neither through my University nor the British Library. If any of you have access to industry reports, or know how can I get them without having to pay thousands of dollars, I would really appreciate any help (also literature suggestions). These are the reports: 'Geotagging- the Next Killer Wireless Application' (Visiongain, 2008), and 'Mobile Geotagging 2009-2014' (Visiongain, 2009). Please feel free to email me off-list to w1079437(a)my.westminster.ac.uk Best, Carlos

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48% of Aoirs
by Monica Murero 08 Oct '09

08 Oct '09

Congratulations to the new exec and a hearth-felt thank you to 48% of AoIRs who voted (for me ;-) during the recent elections ! I will not be able to be with you in Milwaukee, unfortunately - less than happy family news keep me in Europe - but I am ... kind of following ir10 from twitter http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23IR10 I have worked with great people to put together IR10 - Hope you enjoy the conference! Thank you ;-) Yours, Monica Murero

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Milwaukee: Ale House: Wednesday the 7th!! BEER!!
by hviz0002＠umn.edu 07 Oct '09

07 Oct '09

Be there from 7-10 pm! We have reserved the downstairs bar area for conference-goers! It is six blocks from the conference hotel - 223 N Water Street. You will pay on your own, and it will be cash only (please do not forget to include tax and gratuity!) - beer and food and the full bar will be available! www.ale-house.com (downtown location) This message was endorsed by Jeremy Hunsinger. See you there! Our capacity is like 100 - so hopefully I won't see more than 100 of you there. Erin Hvizdak

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Africa > Mobile Phone > Powerful Instrument Of Learning
by McKiernan, Gerard [LIB] 07 Oct '09

07 Oct '09

Colleagues/ With the ongoing reorganization / revamping /reconfiguration of state extension services, I am interested in past / present / planned mobile extension/information services in the US. I am also interested in mobile extension / information services in other regions of the world as well /Gerry NY Times / October 6 2009 / In Rural Africa, a Fertile Market for Mobile Phones / SARAH ARNQUIST BUSHENYI, Uganda - Laban Rutagumirwa charges his mobile phone with a car battery because his dirt-floor home deep in the remote, banana-covered hills of western Uganda does not have electricity. When the battery dies, Mr. Rutagumirwa, a 50-year-old farmer, walks just over four miles to charge it so he can maintain his position as communication hub and banana-disease tracker for his rural neighbors.In an area where electricity is scarce and Internet connections virtually nonexistent, the mobile phone has revolutionized scientists' ability to track this crop disease and communicate the latest scientific advances to remote farmers. With his phone, Mr. Rutagumirwa collects digital photos, establishes global positioning system coordinates and stores completed 50-question surveys from nearby farmers with sick plants. He sends this data, wirelessly and instantly, to scientists in the Ugandan capital, Kampala. / [snip] The penetration of the mobile phone is far greater than that of the Internet in Africa, especially in rural areas, making it the most accessible communication tool, said Jon Gossier, founder and president of Appfrica, a technology company with headquarters in Uganda./ [snip] "I don't think the development being done now for mobile phones is going to stop," Mr. Gossier said, "but I think we'll see a whole new generation of applications coming out of Africa, including mobile applications that utilize the Web." Tracking banana disease and educating farmers on how to protect their plantations is among several mobile phone applications being piloted in Uganda by the Grameen Foundation, a nongovernmental agency that aims to reduce poverty through microfinancing and new technology. Grameen partnered with Uganda's largest mobile network operator, MTN, to create AppLab Uganda, an initiative to explore ways to use mobile technologies to improve people's lives, said the program director, Eric Cantor. / [snip] Building applications for agriculture seemed logical in a country that is predominately rural and reliant on small farms, he said. Mr. Rutagumirwa is among several leaders in rural communities who were trained by Grameen to survey and educate neighboring farmers about the proper methods to contain banana disease.[snip]/[snip] David Bangirana, another village leader trained by Grameen, said he saw potential in using networks of community leaders armed with mobile phones like himself to educate and collect data in remote villages on topics beyond banana disease. Mr. Bangirana, 60, a former teacher and village chief, wears a bright yellow T-shirt with the words "Ask Me" across the chest. His community now comes to him with questions about farming practices and health issues, and he can quickly find most answers using Google text messaging and an operator service. He said he sometimes took his phone to village primary schools to show the children the limitlessness of the information available to them. "The use of the mobile phone," Mr. Bangirana said, "has empowered the community to know what they never knew and ask any question concerning their surroundings." Links to Full Article and Related Reports Available At [ http://tinyurl.com/yaazsgt ] /Gerry Gerry McKiernan Associate Professor Science and Technology Librarian Iowa State University Library Ames IA 50011 gerrymck(a)iastate.edu There Are No Answers, Only Solutions / Olde Irish Saying The Future Is Already Here, It's Just Not Evenly Distributed Attributed To William Gibson, SciFi Author / Coined 'Cyberspace

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Research Assistantship Position
by Jennifer Stromer-Galley 07 Oct '09

07 Oct '09

The Department of Communication at the University at Albany, SUNY seeks applications for an immediate Research Assistantship to begin in Spring 2010, offered through its doctoral program. Applicants must be accepted to the Ph.D. program to qualify for this position. The research assistantship entails work on a federally funded research project directed by Professor Jennifer Stromer-Galley that aims to predict real world characteristics of players in virtual worlds, such as World of Warcraft and Second Life. The research assistant would work 20 hours per week on the following kinds of duties: assist in recruiting research participants, providing technical support, monitoring player interactions, conducting literature searches, and data collection and data analysis. The RA should have a strong GPA, high GRE scores, a passion for research, and ideally an interest or knowledge in interpersonal interaction and/or computer-mediated communication. Compensation includes a stipend (including summer support) and up to 9 credits of in-state tuition per semester. The graduate student would be joining the newly established doctoral program in communication in the department. For more information please see http://www.albany.edu/communication/grad-doc-studies.htm. Faculty in the department specialize in political, health, organizational, interpersonal/intercultural, and computer-mediated communication. If interested or would like further information about the research assistantship, please email Dr. Stromer-Galley at jstromer(a)albany.edu.

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Fwd: [cultstud-l] CFP Reminder: The Archive and Everyday Life
by jeremy hunsinger 07 Oct '09

07 Oct '09

Begin forwarded message: > From: jennifer pybus <jrpybus(a)gmail.com> > Date: October 6, 2009 9:22:45 PM CDT > To: Cultural Studies <cultstud-l(a)lists.comm.umn.edu> > Subject: [cultstud-l] CFP Reminder: The Archive and Everyday Life > Reply-To: Cultural Studies <cultstud-l(a)lists.comm.umn.edu> > > Proposals due 15 October 2009 to tayconf(a)mcmaster.ca > > Call for Proposals: > > “The Archive and Everyday Life” Conference > May 7-8, 2010 > McMaster University > > Confirmed Keynotes: Ann Cvetkovich (An Archive of Feelings: Trauma, > Sexuality, and Lesbian Public Cultures), Angela Grauerholz (At Work > and > Play: A Web Experimentation), Ben Highmore (The Everyday Life Reader; > Everyday Life and Cultural Theory), Michael O’Driscoll (The Event of > the > Archive) > > This conference will bring together academics, advocates, artists, > and other > cultural workers to examine the intersecting fields of archive and > everyday > life theory. From Simmel through Mass Observation to contemporary > Cultural > Studies theorists, the objective of everyday life theory has been, > as Ben > Highmore writes, to “rescue the everyday from conventional habits of > the > mind…to attempt to register the everyday in all its complexities and > contradictions.” Archive theory provides a means to explore these > structures > by “making the unfamiliar familiar,” hence opening the possibility of > generating “new forms of critical practice.” The question of a > politics of > the archive is critical to the burgeoning field of archive theory. > How do we > begin to theorize the archive as a political apparatus? Can its > effective > democratization be measured by the participation of those who engage > with > both its constitution and its interpretation? > > “Archive” is understood to cover a range of objects, from a museum’s > collection to a personal photograph album, from a repository of a > writer’s > papers in a library to an artist’s installation of found objects. > Regardless > of its content, the archive works to contain, organize, represent, > render > intelligible, and produce narratives. The archive has often worked to > legitimate the rule of those in power and to produce a historical > narrative > that presents class structure and power relations as both common- > sense and > inevitable. This function of the archive as a machine that produces > History—telling us what is significant, valued, and worth > preserving, and > what isn’t—is enabled through an understanding of the archive as > neutral and > objective (and too banal and boring to be political!). The archive > has long > occupied a privileged space in affirmative culture, and as a result, > the > archive has been revered from afar and aestheticized, but not > understood as > a potential object of critical practice. > > Can a dialogue between archive theory and everyday life theory work > to “take > revenge” on the archive (Cvetkovich)? If the archive works to produce > historical narratives, can we seize the archive and its attendant > collective > consciousness as a tool for resistance in countering dominant > History with > resistant narratives? While the archive has worked to preserve a > transcendental, “affirmative” form of culture, bringing everyday > life theory > into conversation with archive theory opens up the possibility of > directing > critical attention to both the wonders and drudgeries of the everyday. > Archiving the everyday—revealing class structures and oppression on > the > basis of race and gender, rendering working and living conditions > under > global capitalism visible, audible, and intelligible—redirects us > from our > busyness and distractedness, and focuses our attention on that which > has not > been understood to be deserving of archiving. The archive provides > the time > and space to think through a collection of objects organized around > particular set of interests. If the archive could grant us a space > in which > to examine everyday life, rather than sweeping it under the carpet > as a > trivial banality, we could begin to understand our conditions and > develop > the desire to change them. > > How can we envision the archive as a site of ethics and/or politics? > Does > the archive simply represent a place to amass memory, or can it, > following > Benjamin, represent a site to make visible a history of the present, > thus > amassing fragments of the everyday, which can in turn be used to > uproot the > authority of the past to question the present? In short, what > happens when > we move beyond the archive as merely a collection and begin to > theorize it > as a site of constant renewal and struggle within which the past and > present > can come together? Furthermore, how then does the archive as an > everyday > practice allow us to understand or change our perception of > temporality, > memory, and this historical moment? > > Areas of inquiry for submissions may include, but are not limited > to, the > following topics and questions: > > • The archive both includes and excludes; it works to preserve while > simultaneously doing violence. Are the acts of selection, collection, > ordering, systematizing, and cataloguing inherently violent? > • The question of digitization: the internet as digital archive and > the > digitization of the physical archive. Digitizing the archive renders > collections invisible and distant, yet increasingly searchable and > quantifiable. Does the digitization of the archive reveal new ways > of seeing > persistent power structures? Or does it hide them? > • National and colonial archiving: questions of power and national > identity. > > • The utopian, radical potential of the archive as well as its > dystopian > possibilities. > • Indigenous modes of archiving. > • Visibility and pedagogy: while the archive often works to hide, > conceal, > and store away, it can also reveal and display that which otherwise > remains > invisible. Do barriers to access restrict this emancipatory function > of the > archive? > • Questions of collective memory and nostalgia (for Benjamin, a > retreat to a > place of comfort through nostalgia is not a political act). > • The archive as revisionist history. > • The archive as a form of surveillance. > • The role of reflexivity with respect to the manner in which the > archive is > constructed/produced/curated. > • Function of the narrative form for the archive: how does the way > in which > the archive reveals its own constructedness unravel the concept of the > archive as “historical truth”? > • The future of the archive: preservation and collection look > forwards as > well as into the past. How should we understand the hermeneutic > function of > the archive and the struggle over its interpretation? > • The relationship between the archive and the archivist/archon. > • Mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion in the archive: who speaks > and who > is spoken for? > • The affective relationship between the archive and the body. > > Following the conference, we intend to publish an edited collection of > essays based on the papers presented at the conference to facilitate > the > circulation of ideas in this exciting field of inquiry. > > > “The Archive and Everyday Life” Conference will take place 7-8 May, > 2010, > sponsored by the Department of English and Cultural Studies at > McMaster > University in Hamilton, Ontario (John Douglas Taylor Fund). The > conference > format will be diverse, including paper presentations, panels, round- > table > exchanges, artistic performances, and exhibitions. We encourage > individual > and collaborative paper and panel proposals from across the > disciplines and > from artists and community members. > > Paper Submissions should include (1) contact information; (2) a > 300-500 word > abstract; and (3) a one page curriculum vitae or a brief bio. > > Panel Proposals should include (1) a cover sheet with contact > information > for chair and each panelist; (2) a one-page rationale explaining the > relevance of the panel to the theme of the conference; (3) a 300 word > abstract for each proposed paper; and (4) a one page curriculum > vitae for > each presenter. > > Please submit individual paper proposals or full panel proposals via > e-mail > attachment by October 15, 2009 to tayconf(a)mcmaster.ca with the > subject line > “Archive.” Attachments should be in .doc or .rtf formats. > Submissions should > be one document (i.e. include all required information in one attached > document). > > Conference organizing committee: > Mary O’Connor, Jennifer Pybus, and Sarah Blacker > > http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~english/taylor_10/index.html<http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/%7Eenglish/taylor_10/index.html > > > > _______________________________________________ > CULTSTUD-L mailing list: CULTSTUD-L(a)lists.comm.umn.edu > http://lists.comm.umn.edu/mailman/listinfo/cultstud-l

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