January 2010 - Air-L - lists.aoir.org

40-minute interview on Wisconsin Public Radio about Twitter, New New Media, and Iran
by Paul Levinson 02 Aug '10

02 Aug '10

The interview was conducted at 7am this morning. You can listen to it anytime at http://clipcast.wpr.org:8080/ramgen/wpr/jca/jca090624b.rm PL

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Ranking Web of Universities: July 2009 edition
by Isidro F. Aguillo 22 Jul '10

22 Jul '10

The July edition of the Ranking Web of World Universities (http://www.webometrics.info) shows important news. Most of them are due to changes done to improve the academic impact of the open web contents and to reduce the geographical bias of search engines. As a result, the US universities still lead the Ranking (MIT with its huge Open Courseware is again the first, followed by Harvard, Stanford and Berkeley), but the digital gap with their European counterparts (Cambridge and Oxford are in the region’s top) has been reduced. Even more important, some of the developing countries institutions reach high ranks, especially in Latin America where the University of Sao Paulo (38th) and UNAM (44th) benefits from the increasingly interconnected Brazilian and Mexican academic webspaces. Several countries improves their performance including Taiwan and Saudi Arabia with strong web oriented strategies, Czech Republic (Charles), the leader for Eastern Europe, Spain (Complutense) and Portugal (Minho, Porto) with huge repositories and strong Open Access initiatives. Norway (NTNU, Oslo), Egypt could be also mentioned. On the other side, the underrated are headed by France, with a very fragmented system, Korea, whose student-oriented websites are frequently duplicated, New Zealand, India or Argentina. Africa is still monopolized by South African universities (Cape Town is the first, 405th), as well as Australian Universities are the best ranked for Oceania (Australian National University, 77th) Other well performing institutions include Cornell or Caltech in the USA, Tokyo (24th) Toronto (28th), Hong Kong (91st), or Peking (104th). On the contrary, in positions below expected we find Yale, Princeton, Saint Petersburg, Seoul and the Indian Institutes of Science or Technology. Check out also: Ranking Web of Research Centers http://research.webometrics.info/ Ranking Web of Repositories http://repositories.webometrics.info/ Ranking Web of Hospitals http://hospitals.webometrics.info/ Ranking Web of Business Schools http://business-schools.webometrics.info/ -- ************************************* Isidro F. Aguillo, HonPhD Cybermetrics Lab CCHS - CSIC Albasanz, 26-28, 3C1. 28037 Madrid. Spain Ph. 91-602 2890. Fax: 91-602 2971 isidro.aguillo @ cchs.csic.es www. webometrics.info *************************************

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Re: [Air-L] the case for critical commons
by jeremy hunsinger 30 Apr '10

30 Apr '10

no, i never fell into right reading trap, what i said is that there are other readings, some better than others, some doing more justice to the object being read than others. and you brought up memetics, i did not. On Jan 23, 2010, at 3:15 PM, Steve Eskow wrote: > Jeremy, you clearly believe that there is a "right emotional arc" and a "right" reading of a text, and that conceptual apparatus like the New Criticism and memetics and detournement can help you find that "right" reading. > > Am I reading you "right"? > > Steve > >

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IR.11 call for panelists: On the Philosophy of Facebook
by Michael Zimmer 13 Feb '10

13 Feb '10

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg has built his social networking empire on the belief that "information wants to be shared", a particular philosophy of information that directly impacts the values built into the design of Facebook, ranging from its user interface, privacy policies, terms of service, and method of governance. I am proposing a panel for IR.10 (Gothenburg, Sweden, Oct 21-23, 2010) titled "On the Philosophy of Facebook". This panel will explore the philosophy of Facebook and its broader implications for norms of privacy, identity, governance, sociability, and online life generally. Ideal papers will provide philosophical, conceptual, and/or critical insights into Facebook and social networking generally. If interested in joining this panel, please email me (zimmerm(a)uwm.edu) a 250-500 word abstract, and a brief biography, by February 13. Best, Michael Zimmer -- 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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Migrants and their use of Online Technology.
by EWB ICT4D Programs 02 Feb '10

02 Feb '10

Dear List Participants, This is a query to determine if you are aware of research studies that investigate the how's and why's of the migrant and / or diaspora usage of online technologies and social media (facebook, discussion lists, twitter, etc.,) ? Many thanks in advance, Sriram Reddy --- PhD Candidate, Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University

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QUT PhD scholarship in ubiquitous technology for sustainable food culture
by Marcus Foth 31 Jan '10

31 Jan '10

QUT PhD scholarship in ubiquitous technology for sustainable food culture The Institute for Creative Industries and Innovation (iCi) at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) invites applications from outstanding IT graduates around the globe for a three-year PhD scholarship. The successful applicant will commence their candidature at QUT in the 2010 academic year to be part of an international research project on designing ubiquitous technologies for sustainable food culture. Titled ‘Eat, Cook, Grow: Ubiquitous Technology for Sustainable Food Culture in the City,’ this is an ARC Linkage project jointly funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC), Intel People and Practices Lab, Queensland Health, Food Connect, City Food Growers, and James Street Cooking School. More information about the project is available at: http://www.urbaninformatics.net/blog/?page_id=670 The stipend is $27,222 per annum, tax exempt for three years (2010-2012). Applications close on Monday, 15 March 2010. Full job ad at: http://bit.ly/b61d8i -- 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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PBS Frontline: 'Digital Nation'
by Richard Forno 31 Jan '10

31 Jan '10

FYI. -rick http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/ COMING TUESDAY: DIGITAL NATION Airs Feb. 2nd, 9PM ET (check local listings) Two years ago, FRONTLINE producer Rachel Dretzin made a film called "Growing up Online" which looked at the ways technology is rapidly transforming childhood for the "digital natives" who've known only a world of 24/7 connectivity and media, Facebook and web cams. This week, Dretzin is back with a project that itself "grew up online," a FRONTLINE first that began with a pioneering effort on the web, and has involved the audience in the making of this Tuesday night's film the whole way through. It's called "Digital Nation," and it's a wide-ranging journey through life on the virtual frontier--from the super-wired students of M.I.T. to a classroom of the future in the South Bronx; from "World of Warcraft" gamers to the actual Air Force pilots who, by day, guide drone missiles to their targets in Afghanistan, then come home at night for dinner. Along with Douglas Rushkoff, a one-time evangelist for the digital revolution who's now having some second thoughts, Dretzin also sets out in search of real answers to hard questions about how this technology is changing our lives, and redefining the very nature of human experience. Do you think a Stanford scientist interviewed in this week's film would say you're a successful multitasker when you check e-mail, watch a movie, and write to your friends all at once? Want to visit some of the world's first "internet addiction" camps? Wonder what it's like to live, work, and socialize in a wholly virtual world? http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/

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**** reminder **** CFP: The Computational Turn
by David M. Berry 31 Jan '10

31 Jan '10

CFP: The Computational Turn http://www.thecomputationalturn.com/ SWANSEA UNIVERSITY 9TH MARCH 2010 Keynote: N. Katherine Hayles (Professor of Literature at Duke University). Keynote: Lev Manovich (Professor, Visual Arts Department, UCSD). The application of new computational techniques and visualisation technologies in the Arts & Humanities are resulting in new approaches and methodologies for the study of traditional and new corpuses of Arts and Humanities materials, sometimes called the Digital Humanities. This new 'computational turn' takes the methods and techniques from computer science to create new ways of distant and close readings of texts (e.g. Moretti). This one-day workshop aims to discuss the implications and applications of what Lev Manovich has called 'Cultural Analytics' and the question of finding patterns using algorthmic techniques. Some of the most startling approaches transform understandings of texts by use of network analysis (e.g. graph theory), database/XML encodings (which flatten structures), or merely provide new quantitative techniques for looking at various media forms, such as media and film, and (re)presenting them visually, aurally or haptically. Within this field there are important debates about the contrast between narrative against database techniques, pattern-matching versus hermeneutic reading, and the statistical paradigm (using a sample) versus the data mining paradigm. Additionally, new forms of collaboration within the Arts and Humanities are emerging which use team-based approaches as opposed to the traditional lone-scholar. This requires the ability to create and manage modular Arts and Humanities research teams through the organisational structures provided by technology and digital communications (e.g. Big Humanities), together with techniques for collaborating in an interdisciplinary way with other disciplines such as computer science (e.g. hard interdisciplinarity versus soft interdisciplinarity). Papers are encouraged in the following areas: - Distant versus Close Reading - Database Structure versus Argument - Data mining/Text mining/Patterns - Pattern as a new epistemological object - Hermeneutics and the Data Stream - Geospatial techniques - Big Humanities - Digital Humanities versus Traditional Humanities - Tool Building - Free Culture/Open Source Arts and Humanities - Collaboration, Assemblages and Alliances - Language and Code (software studies) - Information visualization in the Humanities - Philosophical and theoretical reflections on the computational turn + Participation Requirements + Workshop participants are requested to submit a position paper (approx. 2000-5000 words) about the computational turn in Arts and Humanities, philosophical/theoretical reflections on the computational turn, research focus or research questions related to computational approaches, proposals for academic practice with algorithmic/visualisation techniques, proposals for new research methods with regard to Arts and Humanities or specific case studies (if applicable) and findings to date. Position papers will be published in a workshop PDF and website for discussion and some of the participants will be invited to present their paper at the workshop. Deadline for Position papers: February 10, 2010 Submit papers to: http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=tct2010 Any questions about the workshop or attendance please email: d.m.berry(a)swansea.ac.uk Workshop funded by The Callaghan Centre for the Study of Conflict, Power, Empire, Swansea University. TheResearch Institute in the Arts and Humanities (RIAH) at Swansea University. + References + Clement, Tanya E. (2008) ‘A thing not beginning and not ending’: using digital tools to distant-read Gertrude Stein’s The Making of Americans. Literary and Linguistic Computing. 23.3 (2008): 361. Clement, Tanya, Steger, Sara, Unsworth, John, Uszkalo, Kirsten (2008) How Not to Read a Million Books. Retrieved 10/11/09 from http://www3.isrl.illinois.edu/~unsworth/hownot2read.html Council on Library and Information Resources and The National Endowment for the Humanities (2009) Working Together or Apart: Promoting the Next Generation of Digital Scholarship. Retrieved 10/11/09 from http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub145/pub145.pdf Hayles, N. Katherine (2009) RFID: Human Agency and Meaning in Information-Intensive Environments. Theory, Culture and Society 26.2/3 (2009): 1-24. Hayles, N. Katherine (2009) How We Think: The Transforming Power of Digital Technologies. Retrieved 10/11/09 from http://hdl.handle.net/1853/27680 Kittler, Fredrich (1997) Literature, Media, Information Systems. London: Routledge. Krakauer, David C. (2007) The Quest for Patterns in Meta-History. Santa Fe Institute Bulletin. Winter 2007. Retrieved 10/11/09 from http://www.intelros.ru/pdf/SFI_Bulletin/Quest.pdf Latour, Bruno (2007) Reassembling the Social. London: Oxford University Press. Manovich, Lev (2002) The Language of New Media. MIT Press. Manovich, Lev (2007) White paper: Cultural Analytics: Analysis and Visualizations of Large Cultural Data Sets, May 2007. Retrieved 10/11/09 from http://softwarestudies.com/cultural_analytics/cultural_analytics_2008.doc McLemee, Scott (2006) Literature to Infinity. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved 10/11/09 from http://www.insidehighered.com/views/mclemee/mclemee193 Moretti, Franco (2005) Graphs, Maps, Trees: Abstract Models for a Literary History. London: Verso. Robinson, Peter (2006) Electronic Textual Editing: The Canterbury Tales and other Medieval Texts. Electronic Textual Editing. Modern Language Association of America. Retrieved 10/11/09 from http://www.tei-c.org/About/Archive_new/ETE/Preview/robinson.xml Schreibman, Susan, Siemens, Ray & Unsworth, John (2007) A Companion to Digital Humanities. London: WileyBlackwell. Organised by Dr David M. Berry, Department of Political and Cultural Studies, Swansea University. d.m.berry(a)swansea.ac.uk --- Dr David M. Berry Department of Political and Cultural Studies School of Arts and Humanities Swansea University. Swansea SA2 8PP Wales, UK Tel: 01792 602633 Web: http://www.swansea.ac.uk/staff/academic/Arts/berryd/

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Mobenzi > Mobile-Phone-Based Empowerment
by gerrymck 31 Jan '10

31 Jan '10

Mobenzi is a software service that empowers people to earn money by completing simple tasks on their mobile phones. The Concept Mobenzi is a software service that empowers people to be rewarded for completing simple tasks on their mobile phones. These tasks involve certain types of problems that are difficult for a computer to solve without assistance from a real person – even someone without expert knowledge of the problem. We are seeking to uncover new applications for these ‘human intelligence tasks’ and build the systems to process them, so that we can create novel technology solutions and help thousands of poor people earn additional income. History Clyral is a software development company based just outside of Durban in South Africa. In 2006 we created Mobile Researcher to allow organisations to capture data in remote locations using standard mobile phones. We designed the software as a platform because we had many other application ideas that involved the completion of mobile forms. Pilot Project In 2009 we partnered with the Business Trust, through their Shared Growth Challenge Fund to extend the Mobile Researcher platform to cater for the completion of human intelligence tasks and to pilot the service with low income people in South Africa’s urban poverty nodes. Links To Source / How Mobenzi Works / News Coverage / Etc. Available At [ http://tinyurl.com/yeogj25 ] And/Or [ http://mobile-libraries.blogspot.com/2010/01/mobenzi-mobile-phone-based-emp…] /Gerry Gerry McKiernan Associate Professor Science and Technology Librarian Iowa State University Library Ames IA 50011 Follow Me On Twitter > http://twitter.com/GMcKBlogs >>> "The Future Is Mobile" >>>

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[JoCI] New Issue Published: Community Informatics and Indigenous Communities in Canada
by michael gurstein 31 Jan '10

31 Jan '10

The Journal of Community Informatics has just published its latest issue at http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej. We invite you to review the Table of Contents here and then visit our web site to review articles and items of interest. Thanks for the continuing interest in our work, Michael Gurstein, Ph.D. Editor in Chief: Journal of Community Informatics, Centre for Community Informatics Research, Development and Training, Vancouver CANADA Phone 604-602-0624 Fax 604-602-0624 gurstein(a)gmail.com The Journal of Community Informatics Special Issue: CI & Indigenous Communities in CanadaThe K-Net (Keewaytinook Okimakanak's Kuhkenah Network) Experience Table of Contents http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/issue/view/27 Editorial -------- The K-Net Experience: Thematic Introduction to the Special Issue Brian Beaton, Susan O'Donnell, Adam Fiser, Brian Walmark K-Net, Community Informatics and Service Delivery: An Evolving Paradigm Michael Gurstein Articles -------- MyKnet.org: How Northern Ontario's First Nation Communities Made Themselves At Home On The World Wide Web Philipp Budka, Brandi Bell, Adam Fiser How K-Net and Atlantic Canada's First Nation Help Desk are Using Videoconferencing for Community Development Mary Milliken, Susan O'Donnell, Elizabeth Gorman Out from the Edges: Multi-site Videoconferencing as a Public Sphere in First Nations Fenwick McKelvey, Susan O'Donnell Representation and Participation of First Nations Women in Online Videos Sonja Perley Implementation of Information and Communication Technology in Aboriginal Communities: A Social Capital Perspective Javier Mignone, Heather Henley Case Studies -------- Managing Changes in First Nations Health Care Needs: Is Telehealth the Answer? Josée Gabrielle Lavoie, Donna Williams Notes from the field -------- In Search of Community Champions: Researching the Outcomes of K-Nets Youth Information and Communications Technology Training Initiative Kristy Tomkinson A Community Informatics Model for e-Services in First Nations Communities: The K-Net Approach to Water Treatment in Northern Ontario Michael Gurstein, Brian Beaton, Kevin Sherlock Reports -------- Enabling and Accelerating First Nations Telehealth Development in Canada Valerie Gideon, Eugene Nicholas, John Rowlandson, Florence Woolner ON-LINE RESOURCES about Keewaytinook Okimakanak, the Kuhkenah Network (K-Net) and Associated Broadband Applications Brian Beaton ________________________________________________________________________ The Journal of Community Informatics http://www.ci-journal.net

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