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

GPS/location tracking and families
by Asimina Vasalou 17 Sep '09

17 Sep '09

Hi all, I am beginning a new research project on location tracking within families. There are many news reports that warn against the possible privacy threats for children. However, in searching for usage statistics I am unable to find the actual uptake of this technology. Would anyone be aware of a source I might be missing? Thank you, Mina ------------------------------------ Mina Vasalou Research Officer, School of Management, University of Bath

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JOB: Lecturer/Senior Lecturer* for Games at The University of Technology, Sydney
by Yusuf Pisan 17 Sep '09

17 Sep '09

JOB: Lecturer/Senior Lecturer* for Games at The University of Technology, Sydney http://www.jobs.uts.edu.au/job/job_details.cfm?id=398945&from=direct Closing Date: 9 October 2009 [ Below information has a lot of my personal comments and observations, please make sure you read the key selection criteria from the above web page carefully when putting together your application ] This is a permanent position at the School of Software in the University of Technology, Sydney** UTS is based close to Central train station in Sydney and Sydney is the world's best city***. The School of Software undertakes pioneering teaching and research essential for Australia’s futures ranging from developing prototype games for education, training and social issues, to examining and understanding virtual worlds and how they can be used. The School is seeking to appoint a Lecturer/Senior Lecturer. You will join an active, vibrant and friendly School with a track record in cutting-edge research and teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The School has developed valuable research, built consulting and commercial links with leading organisations and industries in Australia and is connected to two major University Research Centres. The successful candidate will hold a PhD or equivalent in a relevant field as well as a strong background in computer games, interactive entertainment or 3D animation. The successful applicant/s will also be supervising higher degree research students as well as making a contribution to the teaching activities of the Faculty. Essential qualification: PhD in a related field. Since this position is in the Faculty of Engineering and IT (FEIT), people from technical fields would be preferred. Essential Knowledge: - Demonstrated knowledge in one or more of the school’s disciplines including computer games, interactive entertainment, animation and related industries. - Demonstrated knowledge of recent advances in one or more of the school’s disciplines - An appreciation of computing and software practice - Demonstrated depth of knowledge in innovation and in new modes of practice Relevant Research Groups: - Games Studio: http://games.it.uts.edu.au/ -- Yes, the web page needs updating, email me if you have questions - Human Centred Technology Design: http://www.research.uts.edu.au/strengths/hctd/overview.html - Interaction Design and Work Practice Laboratory: http://research.it.uts.edu.au/idwop/about.html - Creativity and Cognition Studios: http://research.it.uts.edu.au/creative Relevant Courses (Undergraduate and Postgraduate Degrees) - Bachelor of Science in Games Development: http://www.handbook.uts.edu.au/it/ug/index.html -- Small number of students (intentionally!), but the subjects that make up the course would be most relevant for people who are applying for this position - Graphics & Animation Submajor: http://www.handbook.uts.edu.au/directory/smj02066.html -- This is one of the specializations for students studying Bachelor of Science in Information Technology - Master of Animation: http://www.handbook.uts.edu.au/courses/c04212.html and http://www.dab.uts.edu.au/design/graduate-show/masters.html -- This is a cross-faculty course (Faculty of Design and Architecture and Built Environment, Faculty of Engineering and IT, and Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences) UTS has over 32,000 students and 2525 staff members (831 academic, 1163 support and 530 designated as research/support/academic staff). Additional facts can be found at http://www.uts.edu.au/about/vcw.html Some facts about Faculty of Engineering and IT (based on march 2008 figures) Total Faculty Budget: $40M Full time and fractional academic staff: 157.5 FTE (Full Time Equivalent) Part time casual academic staff: 40 FTE Support Staff: 107 FTE 2007 Undergraduate Students: 4146 2007 Postgraduate Students: 2258 Research Income: 6.6M The official job announcement is located at http://www.jobs.uts.edu.au/job/job_details.cfm?id=398945&from=direct Please contact Richard Raban Richard.Raban(a)uts.edu.au for official enquiries and me (yusuf.pisan(a)uts.edu.au) for unofficial enquiries about this position. (*)How does Lecturer/Senior Lecturer translate to the titles in USA? In USA, the usual titles are Assistant Professor is used for people that are pre-tenure, Associate Professor for people who have tenure and Professor for people who have been around, and contributed, for a long time. In Australia (and UK and some other countries), the titles are slightly different. The titles are not related to tenure since there is no tenure. The number of full-professors is much smaller than USA and there is often a quota on how many full-professors there can be at the university or faculty level. People who join university post-Phd are usually appointed as a lecturer. There are 6 steps in lecturer and you usually go up a step each year although occasionally it is possible to skip steps. Once you reach step-5 or step-6, you are expected to apply for the next position. Senior lecturer similarly has 6 steps which is followed by associate professor position. From associate professor to professor is only 4 steps, but is expected to take a longer time and is dependent on university levels quotas and such. The salary scales for UTS is available at http://www.hru.uts.edu.au/manual/2ea/academic/schedule1.html Faculties will occasionally have "salary loading" schemes to attract and keep exceptionally qualified academics. In most cases, all academics who are at Lecturer B step-2 across the university will get the same salary. Faculty of Engineering and IT (the faculty where this job is located) currently does not have a salary loading scheme. Going back to how titles translate. Lecturer is usually equivalent to Assistant Professor. Early years of Senior Lecturer correspond better to Assistant Professor while later stages correspond better to Associate Professor in USA. (**)What does "permanent position" mean? In USA, after 7 years, you get tenure which confirms that the university wants to keep you forever and provides a high degree of job security. In Australia (and UK and some other countries), there is no tenure. Instead, you are hired into a permanent position. You are on probation for the first 2-3 years and in 99% of the cases, you become "permanent staff" at the end of that period. While it is not called tenure, being permanent staff does provide the similar high degree of job security. Once you are permanent staff, you remain permanent staff and do not have any further probationary periods as you get promoted from lecturer to senior lecturer to associate professor to professor. (***) Sydney is the world's best city. This is more than my personal opinion, see http://www.cnn.com/2005/TRAVEL/07/12/australia.bestcity/index.html http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,23306132-2702,00.html http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE55G0RM20090617 http://www.theage.com.au/travel/travel-news/best-city-sydney-loses-out-to-m… http://www.askdeb.com/personal-finance/world/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Most_Livable_Cities Cheers, Yusuf -- A/Professor Yusuf Pisan Games Studio Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology University of Technology, Sydney http://staff.it.uts.edu.au/~ypisan/ http://games.it.uts.edu.au/ Skype: ypisan

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Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation
by William Dutton 16 Sep '09

16 Sep '09

The Oxford Internet Institute is opening a search for a Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation. The deadline for applications is 16 November 2009. All the criteria and further particulars on applying for this position are provided at: <http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/fp/wd148-099.shtml > My colleagues and I would greatly appreciate your help in bringing this opening to the attention of prospective candidates. We would welcome candidates from an array of disciplines, including law, economics, information studies, or any of the social or computer sciences. Regards, Bill Professor William H. Dutton, Director Oxford Internet Institute University of Oxford 1 St Giles', Oxford OX1 3JS UNITED KINGDOM Tel +44 (0)1865 287 212 or 210 Fax +44 (0)1865 287 211 Cell +44 (0)7773 814 291 Web: www.oii.ox.ac.uk

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Privacy enhancing technologies - user friendly design?
by Stephan Humer 16 Sep '09

16 Sep '09

Hi all. Does any of you know some interesting models that accentuate/visualize privacy enhancing technologies? What I´m looking for are ideas that visualize PETs e.g. in the form of a traffic light (Red = not a privacy enhancing technology, yellow = mediocre, green = privacy enhancing) or something like that. The modular principle of Creative Commons and their icons is what I have in mind when it comes to PET visualization. Are there some more ideas, strategies, thoughts? Thanks! Best Stephan -- Dr. Stephan G. Humer Research Director, Digital Class, University of the Arts Berlin Senior Fellow, University of Applied Sciences Potsdam For detailed contact information see www.humer.tel

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Family in the 21st century on TV
by Barry Wellman 16 Sep '09

16 Sep '09

Thanks to all the folks who took the time to send me comments, some widely inventive and some staying with the specs. I think Justin Reedy summed up the situation well -- see below -- and then my comment after him. Barry Wellman _______________________________________________________________________ S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC NetLab Director Department of Sociology 725 Spadina Avenue, Room 388 University of Toronto Toronto Canada M5S 2J4 twitter:barrywellman http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman fax:+1-416-978-3963 Updating history: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _______________________________________________________________________ From: Justin Reedy <jsreedy(a)gmail.com> To: wellman(a)chass.utoronto.ca Subject: Re: Air-L Digest, Vol 62, Issue 13 Hi Barry, I wonder if someone was suggesting the new incarnation of Beverly Hills 90210? That show is just called "90210" -- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1225901/ BW: I agree, but I can't find it on Canadian TV now. (Global network. Where are you. I would also suggest Friday Night Lights (a real pip of a show!), which features a husband who is a high school football coach, a wife who is a school counselor and administrator, and a daughter who is a student at the same school. I seem to recall them using cell phones to stay in touch, though more often that comes up after school hours, I think. Also, there is a plotline at one point involving one student's dad serving in Iraq, and trying to stay in touch with him via video chat. BW: Good idea. I'd also mention Gossip Girls, which has a few intact families. Hope this helps! -Justin Reedy Doctoral student University of Washington BW: As I've discussed with a few of you, the lack of family shows (with real kids on them, and not almost 20s) and the lack of intact families on major networks [I discount ABC Family because it is marginal and doesn't come to Canada anyway;-)], may reflect changing demographics to some extent. Yet H-W marriages with children are still quite prevalent. BW: What this exchange has led me to meditate on is that there may be a change in marketing that is linked to changes in TV use. Family shows of a while ago were aimed at more-or-less the entire family. But 92010 are not aimed at olde me (@66), children or anything more than 20-30 year olds. I wonder -- and would love evidence -- if TV watching has become more personal TV watching instead of family TV watching -- so shows are narrowcasting their demographics much more. This would be true if each sentient HHold member had their own TV, and if many folks were getting their TV fix thru downloads, podcasts, iPhones, etc. (I know I'm being quasi-redundant here). Anyway, that's my .02, and while I hope for evidence on the last point, I'll move on and keep writing up the rest of the Networked Family chapter. PS: As some have asked. I will not be at the AIR conference, alas. I'll be instead at the Mobile Communications conference at Rutgers at the same time, and also before that at the WIN (networked information) conference at NYU. More than enough traveling and not enough money for more. Thanks for listening. Barry

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looking for websites to study the culture of science and humanities
by Zhang Yiqiong 16 Sep '09

16 Sep '09

Dear all, My name is Yiqiong, a phd student from the Multimodal Analysis Lab at National University of Singapore. I have been on the mailing list for a while and benefit a lot from the resources and ideas in the email exchanges. Thanks! I am interested in exploring the culture of the two broad disciplines (science and humanities) with data from websites, say like to see how each community perceive themselves, publicize themselves and present themselves on the websites. I am wondering if any of you could recommend to me some websites you visit that deal with either of science or humanities, specially the latter one. (for example, for science, I found thesciencenetwork, the TED talk). I explored a bit on university departmental websites, but realized they are not much culturally shaped. Many thanks! Regards! Yiqiong PhD candidate Multimodal Analysis Lab Interactive & Digital Media Institute (IDMI) 9 Prince George's Park National University of Singapore Singapore 118408 http://www.multimodal-analysis-lab.org/ <http://www.multimodal-analysis-lab.org/>

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Re: [Air-L] Using brick-space measures- Online Education Beats the Classroom
by mhward 16 Sep '09

16 Sep '09

On 15/09/09 10:52 AM, "Steve Eskow" <steveeskow(a)gmail.com> wrote: <snip> > Bricks and clicks are not "in opposition" to each other. They are, however, > quite different instructional technologies, and in general the bricks have > been the master technology that organizes instruction. The lecture hall and > the classroom are not merely empty containers--they are, in Giddens' > term,"constitutive"--they shape what goes on in within them. "We shape our > buildings and then they shape us": the "lecture". the 50-minute-class, the > very form of the "curriculum" are shaped by the spaces of the campus. I don't think we're in disagreement here. What I'm saying is that the forms of the shapes can be increased and made more flexible by providing online material. We can increase the uses of the shapes that we have, and maybe add new ones. > It may turn out that adding clicks to bricks dilutes the instructional power o > f both, while adding the cost of clicks to the cost of bricks. The cost of bricks is already extremely high - at least where I work. But I think that the addition of clicks to the bricks can mean that you get better value from those bricks. Mary-Helen

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Journal Lists
by Jasmine Pues 15 Sep '09

15 Sep '09

Hello all, I was wondering what would be common journals in the field of Internet research? In particular, in the fields of online language use (for example, 'Netspeak') and perceptions thereof, which would fall under communications topics etc.? Thank you, Jasmine Pues

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FlowTV CFP: Sports Media
by Jacqueline Vickery 15 Sep '09

15 Sep '09

FlowTV Special Issue <http://flowtv.org/?p=4275> Sports Media: Tensions and TransitionsDeadline: Monday, Oct 5 Please distribute widely. As the NFL bans players from Tweeting on the sidelines and the NCAA bans fans' unofficial Facebook recruitment pages, it is clear that players, fans, leagues, and media institutions are struggling to maintain control in changing mediated sports environments. Yet it is not just new media that is both enchancing and threatening the relationship between athletic institutsions, media industries and fan communities. Major transitions have also occurred in traditional media like television and radio with the 30th anniversary of ESPN's Sportscenter, and online audio and video available for seemingly every major sport worldwide. Although sports and mass media have a well-established symbiotic relationship, media studies has been slow to embrace sport as a legitimate or significant object of study; this is a negligence that Flow seeks to remedy. Questions to consider might include: * How have fan experiences been transformed by transitions from radio to television, network to cable, and television to the internet? * How have the games, players, fans, and leagues been transformed by these media developments? * What of other technological developments such as screens in arenas, ballparks and stadiums? * What is the social significance of fans', players', coaches' and leagues' use of social media technologies such as Twitter, Facebook, iPhones, and blogging? * How do these all of these developments change the fan experience and notions of fandom? * How do these developments contribute to athletes' ability to construct and promote their own celebrity image? * Should players be given a voice via personal blogs or Twitter and what does it mean when leagues regulate and silence these voices? * What happens to traditional gatekeeping roles when fans become the experts and journalists are bypassed by amateur coverage and footage? * How have discourses and representations of gender, race, class, sexuality, and ethnicity progressed (or not) over the decades? * How do advertisers, journalists, and leagues reinforce rigid constructs and representations of "the athlete" and "the fan"? We encourage submissions that highlight and critically analyze contemporary or historical tensions between sports leagues, media industries, technological developments, fans, athletes, representations, and/or significant case studies. We welcome submissions which address any sport, American or International, professional and amateur from tennis and golf, to rugby and hockey, to college football and professional basketball. Flow <http://flowtv.org/> has a longstanding policy of encouraging non-jargony, highly readable pieces and ample incorporation of images and video. Please send submissions (attached as a Word doc) of between 1000-1500 words to Co-Coordinating Editors Alex Cho (alexcho47(a)gmail.com) and Jacqueline Vickery (jvickery183(a)gmail.com) no later than *Monday, October 5, 2009*. -- Jacqueline Vickery Senior Editor, FlowTV.org Doctoral Student University of Texas at Austin Department of Radio-Television-Film http://www.jvickery.com/

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Measuring Interactivity
by Retzinger, Katie L. 15 Sep '09

15 Sep '09

Hello-- I am a PhD student at Old Dominion University in Virginia, and I am getting ready to start working on my dissertation. I am planning on studying interactivity in online worlds--specifically Second Life. I was wondering if anyone that is doing research that looks at interactivity has found a method for measuring how interactive an experience in an online world is or is not interactive, or if you know of other sources/studies that have measured levels interactivity that would be useful as well. Thanks for your help-- Katie Retzinger

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