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

Re: [Air-L] Privacy Buzz + I love Alaska
by Seda Guerses 19 Feb '10

19 Feb '10

today i finally read through the privacy thread and am really appreciating it. what is really interesting in the discussion is the way that talking about privacy (individual or privacy as a public good) automatically opens up questions about property, labor and commodification of the public sphere. after spending the last few years asking the question how to deal with privacy in systems design, i have found that undoing this entanglement does injustice to what privacy has become in surveillance/information space(s). this type of disentanglement also has a negative effect on the type of privacy research in computer science but surely also in other fields like law and sociology. specifically, the focus of privacy research has been on confidentiality and anonymity. christian fuchs also mentions in his blog entry on the google buzz: "Therefore special privacy protection mechanisms are needed. All large collections of data pose the threat of being accessed by individuals who want to harm others" i am interpreting the "privacy protection mechanisms" to be legal protections as well as confidentiality and anonymity tools. although such solutions are very important and i would not want to spend a day without them, i have argued here (http://bit.ly/bpajqx) why in a surveillance society there are just as well situations in which confidentiality and anonymity can work against the individual or a community. david phillips has also written a lot about the importance of being able to negotiate the public and private divide with respect to queer politics. he opens up the discussion on what privacy can mean in a society which has integrated digital into everyday life, and how confidentiality and anonymity can be the means for negotiating the public private divide, but are not goals in themselves. a recent case in which anonymity itself can backfire is the documentary film "i love alaska" (http://www.minimovies.org/documentaires/view/ilovealaska ). a couple of dutch filmmakers produced this film based on the profile of an anonymous user selected from the aol search data released in 2006. the film is on the one hand very interesting: the filmmakers saw the queries of this anonymous user as her prose and used it to narrate their film (without her knowledge). one of the interesting developments of our digital times has been the possibility of "participatory surveillance" (Albrechtslund,2008) which the film confronts the viewer with. it is exciting, touching, frustrating and curious to experience these queries. at the same time, the film is aggrevating (despite its cold calm) as one sits through very personal queries, written in full sentence into the aol search engine. it is impossible not to question what it means for data to become anonymous* and hence to question what it means to do something with anonymous data, or what happens to digital discretion once data goes anonymous? the filmmakers also put one profile under the magnifying glass, void of time stamps, reducing the profiled person to couple of not so sunny queries a day, reframing the queeries as a representation of some very deep truth about the querying person. but, as even google's vincent cerf will admit, it is not that single "identifiable" profiles are at the center of corporate attention, but rather aggregation of "de- identified" surveilance data often used for various types of social sorting and efficient services. hence, the film once again derails the focus of privacy from one of a social problem to that of a personal/ individual problem. the profile selected for the film is also worthy of questioning with respect to gender, class, age, sexuality, obesity etc. current data protection and companies like facebook and google have reduced privacy to a solitary ritual of setting your privacy controls on miniscule subsets of the data they compile and process about indivduals, communities and networks. this way of framing the problem unfortunately also makes it difficult to have some of the discussions about public services, the commons, etc. when it comes to surveillance and privacy. i agree with zeynep: Our social commons have moved online; it does not make sense to tell people to avoid these services as they essential to participating fully in the life of the 21st century. yes, but the question is, how can we make the existing discussions as well about the commons, property and material matters, and not just about individual choices on privacy...any ideas? s. * legally and technically anonymous data is in a sense vogelfrei. in the middle ages people could be declared vogelfrei (free as a bird) meaning that person was free to do whatever she pleased, but at the same time others were also allowed to do whatever they wanted to her, as no more legal protection was offered to that person. today data protection in europe for example does not protect anonymous data. what anonymity means is another big matter related to identity which is fun to discuss and lots of maths, but maybe not tonight. Disclaimer: http://www.kuleuven.be/cwis/email_disclaimer.htm

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Re: [Air-L] Privacy Buzz
by William Bain 18 Feb '10

18 Feb '10

Hi - I followed this up just briefly on a critical basis by searchengining "google militarization" without the quotes and found a video of a 2006 talk by Noam Chomsky. He was addressing the militarization of science, but I think capaciously enough to relate to privacy/publicity in what's gone before. I did hesitate a bit before sending the reference to this Google video, but in the end, given what's come out in the discussion, thought it would be better to share. The technical part of the discussion in this thread, insofar as I'm able to follow it, seems to me very interesting, let me say. In any case, two penn'orth more. Best wishes, Bill William Bain PhD Student Area of Literary Theory Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona

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Re: [Air-L] WARC File viewer
by Steffen Schilke 18 Feb '10

18 Feb '10

thank you - but i would still think (and need) a full stand alone viewer (maybe java) so that i can view (and export content) without having to install a full wayback machine on a server kind regards live from my android mobile On Feb 18, 2010 2:06 PM, "Johan Oomen" <JOomen(a)beeldengeluid.nl> wrote: Good afternoon, Either use: the Java API for reading (w)arcs ( import org.archive.io.warc package -> WARCReader). With this API you should be able to read anything stored in WARC files. Or you can use the arcreader present in the heritrix install (heritrix-x.x.x/bin/arcreader) I also use boilerpipe to trim pages of unneccesary HTML content. Best wishes, Jaap Blom and Johan Oomen Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (working on the FP7 Living Web Archives project, LiWA) Op 18 feb 2010 om 01:22 heeft "Robert Ackland" <robert.ackland(a)anu.edu.au> het volgende geschreven:\ > These are some WARC-related tools I'm aware of. I doubt there is a viewer there, though. > > http...

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media environment / Internet as ecosystem
by Emiliano Treré 18 Feb '10

18 Feb '10

Hi everyone, In my PhD dissertation I'm focusing on the relations between social movements and the media, especially the Internet. I need some help in bibliography with regard to two topics: 1. the concept of media environment, mediascape, media ecology, etc. I'm considering the whole media repertoire of activists and not just focus on one specific medium. 2. the conceptualization of Internet not as a simple medium: I need some hints on papers, books and theories addressing the complexity of the Internet as an environment, an ecology that cannot be reduced to a unique technological block. Thanks a lot. Best, Emiliano Treré -- Emiliano Treré PhD candidate Doctoral Program in Multimedia Communication University of Udine, Italy

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Final Call for Papers (deadline extended) - CATaC'10
by Charles Ess 18 Feb '10

18 Feb '10

Dear AoIRists Please distribute the following final CFP for CATaC'10 as appropriate - many thanks! - charles ess IMV, Aarhus University == "Diffusion 2.0: computing, mobility, and the next generations" Submission deadline extended: 4 March 2010 Please see www.catacconference.org for further details regarding accommodation, venue, and more about visiting Vancouver. Please see the Submissions page http://blogs.ubc.ca/catac/submissions for dates, formatting requirements, and link to our OCS submissions site. Both short (3-5 pages) and long (10-15 pages) original papers are sought. VENUE: The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada DATES: 15-18 June 2010 CATaC 2010 will feature keynote addresses by Dr Linc Kesler (First Nations Studies, The University of British Columbia) and Dr John Willinsky (Stanford University School of Education). The biennial CATaC conference series provides a premier international forum for current research on how diverse cultural attitudes shape the implementation and use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). The conference series brings together scholars from around the globe who provide diverse perspectives, both in terms of the specific culture(s) they highlight in their presentations and discussions, and in terms of the discipline(s) through which they approach the conference theme. Original full papers (especially those which connect theoretical frameworks with specific examples of cultural values and practices) and short papers (e.g. describing current research projects and preliminary results) are invited. Topics of particular interest include but are not limited to: - Mobile technologies in developing countries - New layers of imaging and texting interactions fostering and/or threatening cultural diversity - Theoretical and practical approaches to analyzing „culture‰ - Impact of mobile technologies on privacy and surveillance Gender, sexuality and identity issues in social networks - Cultural diversity in e-learning and/or m-learning You may also purchase the conference proceedings from previous conferences by visiting the Proceedings page. We look forward to receiving your submissions and to welcoming you to Vancouver in 2010! Local Co-Chair: Leah Macfadyen (UBC) Local Co-Chair: Kenneth Reeder (UBC) Program Chair: Herbert Hrachovec (University of Vienna) Executive Committee: Lorna Heaton (Université de Montréal, Canada) Maja van der Velden (University of Oslo, Norway) Fay Sudweeks (Co-Chair, CATaC) Charles Ess (Co-Chair, CATaC)

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CfP DIGITAL GAME PLAY AS SOCIOTECHNICAL PRACTICE - EASST 2010
by Stefano De Paoli 18 Feb '10

18 Feb '10

**** REMINDER ***** Apologies for cross-postings. Please circulate it to interested colleagues and students. Thanks! ************************************************************************************************************* EASST Conference 2010, European Association for the Study of Science and Technology 'Practicing Science and Technology, Performing the Social,' University of Trento, Italy, 2-4 September 2010. Abstract submission deadline: 15 March 2010. http://events.unitn.it/en/easst010 ************************************************************************************************************** TRACK: DIGITAL GAME PLAY AS SOCIOTECHNICAL PRACTICE The Digital Game industry has become one of the fastest growing, innovative and globalised industries in advanced Western economies and Digital Games have become a key cultural artefact and leisure practice in contemporary societies. Developing out of the American military industrial and academic complex in the 1970s the study of Digital Games design and play is the study of a range of sociotechnical practices and the negotiations between a range of human and non-human actors operating within systems of rules. The complexity of these relationships brings forth a series of questions that can be investigated using Science and Technology Studies approaches. However, to date games studies, with few exceptions, have failed to adopt STS approaches and the STS community has largely ignored this area of study. This track seeks to develop the relationship between the game studies community and the STS community. Several research questions can be used to guide this: What STS theories can be used to understand Digital Games as sociotechnical phenomenon? Is the concept of practice and the practice-based approach useful to investigate Digital Games? Is there a relationship between power as inscribed and imposed by artefacts and the technical dimensions of Digital Games? What rules are inscribed into Digital Games technologies and what social worlds do these rules describe? What contribution can the study of Digital Games make to the STS discipline at large? And what contribution can an STS approach make to game studies? Can we foresee an after-method approach for Digital Games? We invite papers that tackle the sociotechnical dimensions of Digital Games and address some of the questions outlined above. Contributions might include (but are not restricted to): • Digital Games as material semiotic artefacts • Digital Games as sociotechnical assemblages • The mess of digital games • Innovation in game design as actor-networking and social shaping • Digital Game design and/or play as performance and practice • Disruptive sociotechnical users’ practices (e.g. hacking, modding) • The scripting of gendered gaming practices • Governance and regulation of gaming practices Abstracts of no more than 500 words should be sent by email (following website instructions: http://events.unitn.it/en/easst010/abstract-submission) by 2010 March 15th. Please include also a preliminary references list (up to 4). Contact for inquiries: stefano.depaoli(a)nuim.ie Convenors Aphra Kerr is a lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the National University of Ireland Maynooth. Her research focuses on the regulation, production and consumption of digital media and in particular of digital games; she established and runs the industry and community website. (www.gamedevelopers.ie) Helen W. Kennedy is Deputy Head in the Department of Culture, Media and Drama at the University of the West of England (UWE) in the UK. She has been researching and writing about games since 1993 and co-founded and chaired (from 2004 – 2009) the Play Research Group at UWE. Jennifer Jenson is Associate Professor of Pedagogy and Technology in the Faculty of Education at York University. Her research interests include gender and gameplay and the design and development of digital games for education. Stefano De Paoli is postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Sociology at the National University of Ireland Maynooth. Stefano has worked in STS since 2004 and recently his research interest has embraced Massive Multiplayer Online Games (http://www.nuim.ie/nirsa/people/postdocs/stefano_de_paoli.shtml)

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WARC File viewer
by Steffen Schilke 18 Feb '10

18 Feb '10

Dear *, could you kindly recommend me a viewer for WARC files (web page archiving). Kind regards .

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Call for Papers: Special Issue of IJIRE on "Best Ethical Practices in Online Communities"
by Michael Zimmer 18 Feb '10

18 Feb '10

The International Journal of Internet Research Ethics (IJIRE) http://ijire.net/ seeks papers from researchers describing best ethical practices in the investigation of online communities. This special issue, edited by Aleks Krotoski, aims to create a compendium of case studies and theoretical frameworks which future scholars will reference when designing their own analyses of populations and practices in social networking sites, weblogs, listservs, online games, video sharing sites, virtual worlds and other Web environments that demonstrate evidence of community processes. Topics of particular interest include: - Vulnerable populations (e.g., youth, medical contexts, extremism) - Outcomes of challenges to the online community due to research ethics decisions - Research design (e.g., how to factor in experimentation that involves research deception) - Methodological practices (e.g., data scraping, behavioural tracking, successful methodological combinations) - Working with commercial companies - Negotiating the online-offline identity (both research participants/subjects and investigator) - Implications of the community content/framework - Ecological validity: extrapolating the findings to other communities and non-Internet conclusions - International ethics considerations These are not exclusive topics, and other areas that outline best practices in the ethical analysis of online communities are welcomed. The special issue seeks to include submissions that introduce extensions to existing theories - including new frameworks for approaching the ethical issues that emerge in online communities and novel applications of existing offline ethics frameworks - and examples of best practice - including case studies of successful ethical solutions, both qualitative and quantitative research approaches, issues associated with international ethics practices, and changes to ethical approaches over the short- and the long-term. While all forms of scholarship and research are welcome, the special issue will feature theoretically and empirically grounded study in the social or behavioural sciences. Submission guidelines: The special issue is edited by Aleks Krotoski. Please contact the editor at akrotoski(a)yahoo.com to discuss your submissions. The editor welcomes contributions from new and established researchers. Submitted manuscripts will be subject to peer review. Papers of approximately 6,000 words are encouraged. Critical insight and strong ethical and theoretical foundations are expected. International Journal of Research Ethics submission guidelines and referencing styles will be followed [see http://ijire.net/submit.html] The guest editor will consider papers received by 18 April 2010. Fewer than 10 papers will be accepted. The special issue will be published in October 2010. Please send papers to akrotoski(a)yahoo.com, clearly indicating that your submission is for the special issue on ethics in online communities by using the subject heading: 'Submission: IJIRE Special Issue, Best Ethical Practices in Online Communities'.

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CFP: "Revise: The Art and Science of Contemporary Remix Culture" 2-3 December 2010
by Katie Freund 18 Feb '10

18 Feb '10

Call for Papers Revise: The Art and Science of Contemporary Remix Culture Dec 2-3, 2010 University of Wollongong <http://uow.edu.au/> , Wollongong, Australia In a media saturated environment, questions about authoriality and the ownership of cultural content have come to be increasingly urgent. A number of recent, high profile legal cases have highlighted the difficulties involved in adjudicating between different models of ownership and of cultural production. Furthermore, online environments render local, fannish, and 'amateur' forms of cultural production (frequently drawing on 'Big Content') increasingly visible - sometimes to the apparent detriment of these forms of vernacular creativity. Across audio, televisual, cinematic, textual, and other forms, proprietary models of cultural production face challenges in managing, controlling, and monetising content tailored for a mass audience. It is paradoxical that a measure of success for such content is the extent to which it is - often almost immediately - adapted and re-used by vernacular cultures. Conversely, interventions by fans and other niche cultural producers are often understood on the one hand to be forms of innovative appropriation and interventions in the flow of cultural goods, and on the other to be products of unpaid labour, raising the value of material that is already ubiquitous in an attention economy sense. This event aims to bring together researchers whose work investigates aspects of remixing, alongside practitioners working in remix cultures, for an interdisciplinary and collaborative conference. We are also soliciting curated art and video works in addition to presentations by remix practitioners and academic papers. Call for papers Abstracts of 200-250 words should be sent to revise2010(a)gmail.com <mailto:%20revise2010@gmail.com> by 15 April, 2010. Please include your full name (and/or artist/fan name), email address, and institutional affiliation (if applicable) along with the abstract. In addition to formal academic papers, we also welcome roundtable or panel discussion suggestions, and/or presentations by remix practitioners on their art or style. Curated artwork exhibits and live performance submissions are also welcomed. The following is a list of possible themes, but it by no means exhaustive. * Interrogating the boundaries of remix: when did remix 'start'? What of homage, pastiche, and the cover version? How are the boundaries between reference and appropriation established, and to what ends? * 'Reading' remixes: the semiotics of citation. * Literary allusion and remix in poetry: erasure and found poetry. * The artistic tradition of readymades. * Remix, originality, and creative process. * The ethics of appropriation. * Music remix: plunderphonics, DJ culture, hip-hop, electronic dance music sampling cultures and aesthetics. * Intertextuality and ekphrasis: elements of one medium surfacing in another. * Remix offline and on: from dancefloors to netlabels and YouTube; remix and the networked archive. * Remixing in time: repetition and variation of source material; remix and the reconstitution of the past. * Histories of remix. * Fanfiction, slash and textual innovation. * Video: fan vidding, trailer mashups, anime music videos, machinima. * Remix and 'the canon': from JXL's A Little Less Conversation to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. * Open source as remix. * Visual art - digital media remix art, appropriation, combining existing content * Practices of appropriation and engagement with copyright, fair use and other intellectual property doctrines. * The aesthetics and interactions of remix communities of practice. * Remix economics and anti-economics. * The role of industry in remix. For more information, please email revise2010(a)gmail.com <mailto:%20revise2010@gmail.com> or see http://revise2010.blogspot.com <http://revise2010.blogspot.com/> . Katharina Freund PhD Candidate University of Wollongong Email: kmf077(a)uow.edu.au Telephone: +61 (2) 4221 4048 Blog: http://fanthropology.blogspot.com <http://fanthropology.blogspot.com/> Twitter: katiedigc <http://www.twitter.com/katiedigc>

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New book on methods for conducting online behavioral research
by sam gosling 18 Feb '10

18 Feb '10

Hi All, Those of you who collect data via the Internet or are thinking of doing so might be interested in our recent edited book, "Advanced Methods for Conducting Online Behavioral Research," which was just published by the American Psychological Association. The book provides short practically oriented "how to" chapters authored by the field's top experts on each topic. Topics covered by the book include: * Overview of the major techniques of Web-based research * Design & formatting issues * Use of graphics, photographs, and dynamic media * Implementing drag & drop designs * Collecting data from social networking Websites and blogs * Observing behavior of online subjects * Automatic text analysis * Online ability testing * Web-based self-report personality scales * Online collection of informant reports * Online surveys * Conducting experiments on the Web * Incentives to increase participant response and completion * Security and data protection * Ethical issues More details can be found here: http://www.apa.org/pubs/books/4311014.aspx We hope you find it helpful. Sincerely, Sam Gosling & John Johnson Editors www.snoopology.com

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