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

Re: Inside, Outside, Upside, Down - Privacy and Public
by Carmel L. Vaisman 07 May '10

07 May '10

Hi Alex, it is a fascinating subject, can't wait to have the paper! I pondered on the fact that mobile and silence communication (text) essentialy encourage privacy: interaction previously done by voice in a fixed location can be silence text through SMS and IM now. I don't know if you accept this as an example but people speaking on the phone at home or on the street are heard publicly and when they convey the same messages via IM or SMS it is quiet thus private. It allows children to keep secrets and lets gossip happen through SMS in the presence of other people etc. The mobility of mobile phone essentially increases privacy since you can walk away with it, and I know this idea of privacy was emphasized on early adaptors mobile phones advertising in China. Carmel Vaisman http://www.absolutecarmel.com Twitter @carmelva

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Call for Papers: ICITST-2010!
by g.akmayeva＠icitst.org 06 May '10

06 May '10

Apologies for cross-postings! Kindly email this Call for Papers to your colleagues, faculty members and postgraduate students. CALL FOR PAPERS ************************************************************ The 5th International Conference for Internet Technology and Secured Transactions (ICITST-2010), Technical Co-Sponsored by IEEE UK/RI Communications Chapter November 8–11, 2010, London, UK (www.icitst.org) ************************************************************ The ICITST is an international refereed conference dedicated to the advancement of the theory and practical implementation of secured Internet transactions and to fostering discussions on information technology evolution. The ICITST aims to provide a highly professional and comparative academic research forum that promotes collaborative excellence between academia and industry. The objectives of the ICITST are to bridge the knowledge gap between academia and industry, promote research esteem in secured Internet transactions and the importance of information technology evolution to secured transactions. The ICITST-2010 invites research papers that encompass conceptual analysis, design implementation and performance evaluation. All the accepted papers will appear in the proceedings published by IEEE and fully indexed by IEEE Xplore. All the ICITST papers are indexed by DBLP. The topics in ICITST-2010 include but are not confined to the following areas: * Application of agents * Application security * Blended Internet security methods * Biometrics * Boundary issues of Internet security * Broadband access technologies * Challenges of content authoring * Data mining security * E-society * Globalisation of information society * Government, and corporate Internet security policy * Internet architecture * Infonomics * IPSec quality of services * Patentability * Regulation, self-regulation, and co-regulation Web services * Secured database systems * Synchronising e-security * Software Architectures * Technology-enabled information * Trust, privacy, and data security * Wireless transactions * Context-Awareness and its Data mining for Ubi-com service * Human-Computer Interface and Interaction for Ubi-com * Smart Homes and its business model for Ubi-com service * Intelligent Multimedia Service and its Data management for Ubi-com * USN / RF-ID for Ubi-com service * Network security issues, protocols, data security in Ubi-com * Database protection for Ubi-com * Privacy Protection and Forensic in Ubi-com * Multimedia Security in Ubi-com * Quality of Service Issues * Authentication and Access control for data protection in Ubi-com * Information visualization * Web services * Service, Security and its Data management for U-commerce * New novel mechanism and Applications for Ubi-com * Information Management * Multimedia Information Systems * Information Retrieval * Natural Language Processing * Digital Libraries * Data and Information Quality Management * Data Grids, Data and Information Quality * Database Management * Web Databases * Temporal and Spatial Databases * Data Mining * Web Mining including Web Intelligence and Web 3.0 * E-Learning, eCommerce, e-Business and e-Government * Web Metrics and its applications * XML and other extensible languages * Semantic Web and Ontology * Human-Computer Interaction * Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems * Knowledge Management * Ubiquitous Systems * Peer to Peer Data Management * Interoperability * Mobile Data Management * Data Models for Production Systems and Services * Data Exchange issues and Supply Chain * Data Life Cycle in Products and Processes * Case Studies on Data Management, Monitoring and Analysis * Security and Access Control * Embedded Systems * Defence Systems * Information Content Security * Software Architecture * System design and verification * Mobile, Ad Hoc and Sensor Network Security * Distributed information systems IMPORTANT DATES Full Paper Submission Date: May 31, 2010 Extended Abstract (Work in Progress) Submission Date: April 01, 2010 Proposal for Workshops and Tutorials: April 30, 2010 Notification of Workshop and Tutorial Acceptance: March 15, 2010 Proposal for Industrial Presentation: April 30, 2010 Notification of Extended Abstract Acceptance/Rejection: May 15, 2010 Notification of Industrial Presentation Acceptance: May 15, 2010 Notification of Paper Acceptance/Rejection: June 30, 2010 Camera Ready Extended Abstract Due: July 31, 2010 Camera Ready Paper Due: July 31, 2010 Early Registration Deadline: January 01 to July 31, 2010 Late Registration Deadline: July 31 to November 08, 2010 Conference Dates: November 08-11, 2010 The ICITST also encourages organisations to submit their Job Fair Booth Reservations and/or Exhibit Proposals. If your organisation is interested, kindly submit a brief Proposal (not more than 1 side of A4 page) to jobfair(a)icitst.org For more details, please visit www.icitst.org

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Last call for the Program Committee for JITP 2011 in Seattle at UW
by Stuart Shulman 05 May '10

05 May '10

Last call for the Program Committee for JITP 2011 in Seattle at UW. Any takers? *JITP 2011: The Future of Computational Social Science* *(DRAFT) CALL FOR PAPERS* May 16 & 17, 2011 University of Washington Seattle, WA The 3rd annual, two-day *Journal of Information Technology & Politics* (* JITP*)* *thematic conference will be in Seattle, Washington, coordinated by the Department of Political Science and the Center for American Politics and Public Policy (CAPPP) at the University of Washington. * APPROACH* Computational social science is an emergent field and source of new theoretical and methodological innovation for social science more broadly. Multidisciplinary teams of social and computer scientists are increasingly common in the lab and at workshops where cross-fertilization occurs in the areas of theory, data, methods, and tools. Peer-reviewed interdisciplinary work is becoming more common, where the computational tools and techniques of computer science are being used by social scientists directly. Previously, large-scale computational processing was the purview of expensive university-centric computing labs. Now, with the democratization of technology, universities, non-profits, and for-profit firms increasingly provide large amounts of cheap computing power to researchers and citizens alike. It is the potential of these new computational technologies and related Web-based platforms for research, politics, and governance that led to the creation of the *Journal of Information Technology & Politics*. Previous special issues on "Text Annotation for Political Science" 5(1), "Politics: Web 2.0" 6(3/4), "YouTube and the 2008 Election Cycle in the United States" 7(2/3), and "The Politics of Open Source" (*in production*) have focused the attention of researchers on the expansive new landscape of digital democracy as well as the architecture and tools that underpin it. In their 2009 *Science* article, David Lazer and colleagues highlighted some of the future challenges for scholars working in this area. "Computational social science could become the exclusive domain of private companies and government agencies. Alternatively, there might emerge a privileged set of academic researchers presiding over private data from which they produce papers that cannot be critiqued or replicated. Neither scenario will serve the long-term public interest of accumulating, verifying, and disseminating knowledge." Luckily, the phenomenon of computational social science is distributed so widely and found in such variety that these scenarios are unlikely. The trends towards openness and data and tool sharing are notable breakthroughs in a sphere where proprietary approaches dominate. Data, method and tool transparency are watchwords for governments and researchers alike. With this background in mind, we invite a wide range of paper submissions on the future of computational social science. Submissions may include, but are not limited to: - Applications of Information theory to social science research - Methodologies and tools for studying users and information on social media services - Projects featuring novel uses of computer assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) - Empirical analysis and modeling - Web technologies and data mining - Interdisciplinary methodologies in collaborative research - Pedagogical issues in computational social science - Computer simulations in political science education and training - Concepts from social sciences enhanced by computation, such as social network analysis (SNA) - Innovation in socio-technical network and infrastructure analysis * * *PAPER SUBMISSIONS* Authors are invited to prepare and submit to *JITP* a research paper, policy viewpoint, workbench note, and teaching innovation manuscript by January 1, 2011. Proposals for full panel presentations will also be accepted. Please contact the conference manager to discuss panels. Papers accepted for publication will be invited to revise and resubmit their articles for publication in a special issue, or double issue, of *JITP*. Authors should "establish membership" at the JITP website, http://www.jitp.net, to submit a paper. Follow the instructions for regular article submissions, being sure to indicate that the paper is for JITP2011 in the comments section. Papers will be put through an expedited, blind peer review process by the Program Committee, and authors will be notified about a decision by March 1, 2011. A small number of papers will be accepted for presentation at the conference. Other paper authors will be invited to present a poster during the Friday evening reception. * BEST PAPER AND POSTER CASH PRIZES* The author (or authors) of the best research paper will receive a cash prize. The creator (or creators) of the best poster/research presentation will also receive a cash prize. * * *PROGRAM COMMITTEE* Gil ad Ariely, Lauder School of Government Diplomacy and Strategy, Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya David M. Berry, Swansea University, UK. Chris Bronk, Rice University Muzammil M. Hussain, University of Washington Daniel Katz, Fellow, University of Michigan, Center for the Study of Complex Systems Andrea Kavanaugh, Virginia Tech Georgios Lappas, Technological Educational Institution of Western Macedonia, Greece Azi Lev-On, Ariel University Center Ignacio J. Martinez-Moyano, Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago Bruce Neubauer, Albany State University Andre Oboler, Monash University, Australia Joseph W. Roberts, Roger Williams University Derek Ruths, McGill University Chirag Shah, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey Stuart Shulman, University of Massachusetts Amherst, co-chair Anas Tawileh, Cardiff University, UK John Wilkerson, University of Washington, co-chair -- Dr. Stuart W. Shulman Assistant Professor Department of Political Science University of Massachusetts Amherst 200 Hicks Way Amherst, MA 01003 http://people.umass.edu/stu/ stu(a)polsci.umass.edu 413-545-5375 Editor, Journal of Information Technology and Politics http://www.jitp.net Director, QDAP-UMass http://www.umass.edu/qdap/ Associate Director, National Center for Digital Government http://www.umass.edu/digitalcenter/

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Call for Hosts, IR 13.0 and IR 14.0
by Alexander Halavais 05 May '10

05 May '10

Request for Proposals The Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) invites proposals from individuals and institutions interested in serving as the host site for Internet Research 13.0, the AoIR annual conference for 2012, and for Internet Research 14.0, the AoIR annual conference for 2013. The AoIR Internet Research conferences are among the most important venues for bringing together current research and reflection from a wide range of disciplines and perspectives - with a marked accent on interdisciplinary approaches - on the multiple social and technological practices that depend upon and shape the Internet. The Internet Research conference has been held successfully in a number of cities across the world, including Lawrence, Kansas (2000); Minneapolis, Minnesota (2001); Maastricht, the Netherlands (2002); Toronto, Canada (2003); Brighton, U.K. (2004); Chicago, Illinois (2005); Brisbane, Australia (2006); Vancouver, Canada (2007); Copenhagen, Denmark (2008); and Milwaukee, Wisconsin (2009). The conference is to be held in Gothenburg, Sweden this year (2010) and Seattle, Washington next (2011). We ask interested colleagues to review the following general proposal requirements. Colleagues and institutions who would like to pursue developing a proposal are encouraged to contact Alex Halavais (alex at halavais.net) and/or Mia Consalvo (consalvo at mit.edu) to indicate your interest and raise any immediate questions, etc., that you may wish to discuss. We will also be happy to send you a far more detailed Conference Planning Guide for your review and use. We would ask that a proposal address the following elements: DATES. AoIR conferences typically take place in early-to-mid-October – but depending on local calendars and requirements, we can be somewhat flexible regarding conference timing (i.e., from late September to late October). The AoIR conference typically runs over four days, beginning with 1) an initial day for pre-conference workshops and possible excursions. 2) the program proper, which runs over 3 days. Each day has 6 programmed sessions which require space. Of the 6 each day, three are sessions for papers, panels and roundtables, which require 8 parallel rooms. The remaining three include times for keynote presentations, the AoIR general meeting, Birds of a Feather sessions, etc. (The IR 10.0 / 2009 Program may be downloaded for review: <http://ir10.aoir.org/wp-content/themes/aoir/files/IR10_Program.pdf>) LOCATION / TRAVEL / VENUE. AoIR members and conference participants are a diverse, international community: conference venues should be easily accessible from international travel hubs. Travel possibilities from international arrival points to accommodations (see below) and conference venue should be convenient and inexpensive. AoIR conferences typically attract 250-450 participants. Hence, there is need for one large auditorium that can comfortably hold ca. 300 people (or more), plus at least 6 smaller rooms for parallel sessions - as well as for requisite infrastructure (AV, wireless, computers and data projectors, etc.) These may be at a host University and/or in the area (e.g., conference centers, a hotel, etc.) for the conference itself. ECOLOGY / SUSTAINABILITY We encourage proposals that take into account the ecological impacts of conference arrangements (e.g., preferences for sustainable choices with regard to conference materials, catering arrangements, distances and travel possibilities, etc.) BUDGET - A rough estimate of local costs, using the outline provided in the Planning Guide sent out upon request. An economically viable conference will also require some level of local / regional / national sponsorships. Suggestions regarding e.g., possible grants, in-kind contributions, potential corporate sponsors, etc. would be helpful. ACCOMMODATIONS and related infrastructure. This should include information about a proposed conference hotel, whether or not it will serve as a conference venue (in Copenhagen, for example, we did not use a hotel as the venue) - as well as information about alternative possibilities, including modest to low-cost possibilities, so far as these are available. CATERING - coffee/tea breaks + conference banquet LOCAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: the Committee and its Chair are responsible for these and other important details (e.g., local registration process, accounting and documenting expenses and credits in the conference budget, etc.) and ensuring that "everything is in place" prior to and through the conference itself. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION - anything else that you think will enhance the conference experience. For example, host venues commonly organize one or more "getaways" that make local highlights easily accessible to conference participants. FOR OUR PART - AoIR will provide a great deal of assistance and direction, including registration and collection of conference fees through the AoIR website; recruiting a Program Chair who will take primary responsibility for soliciting papers and reviewers, oversee the reviewing and notification process, etc. (Organizationally, the Local Organizing Committee works withthe Program Chair and AoIR Vice-President and President, who serve as liaisons with the AoIR Executive Committee.) We clearly recognize that hosting an AoIR IR conference is no small task. But as previous conference organizers and local committees will tell you - it is also a highly rewarding experience! We will begin considering proposals on August 1, 2010. We look forward to receiving your inquiries and proposals. - Alex Halavais (alex at halavais.net) - Mia Consalvo (consalvo at mit.edu)

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Couch Award DEADLINE EXTENDED
by Mark D. Johns 04 May '10

04 May '10

Carl J. Couch Internet Research Award 2010 Sponsored by the Carl Couch Center for Social and Internet Research http://www.cccsir.org/ DEADLINE EXTENDED TO MAY 15, 2010 The Carl Couch Center issues an annual call for student-authored papers to be considered for Carl J. Couch Internet Research Award. The Couch Center welcomes both theoretical and empirical papers that (1) apply symbolic interactionist approaches to Internet studies, (2) demonstrate interactive relationships between social interaction and communication technologies as advocated by Couch, and/or (3) develop symbolic interactionist concepts in new directions. Papers will be evaluated based on the quality of (1) mastery of Symbolic Interactionist approaches and concepts and Couch's theses, (2) originality, (3) organization, (4) presentation, and (5) advancement of knowledge. Evaluation will be administered by a Review Committee of four: Mark D. Johns, Luther College, Decorah, Iowa Annette Markham, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee Lois Ann Scheidt, University of Indiana, Bloomington Dennis Waskul, Minnesota State University, Mankato Competition is open to graduate or undergraduate students of all disciplines. Works that are published or accepted for publication are not eligible for award consideration. Entries should not exceed 30 pages (approximately 7500 words) in length, including references and appendices. Limit of one entry per student per year. The top three papers will receive Couch Awards to be presented at the 2010 meeting of the Association of Internet Researchers (aoir.org) at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. The top paper will be awarded a certificate and a cash prize of $500 US, runner up will receive a certificate and a cash prize of $300 US, and a third paper will receive a certificate and a cash prize of $100 US. All three authors will be invited to present their work at a session of the AoIR conference, October 20-23, 2010 in Gothenburg. Those interested should send a copy of their paper, with a 100-word abstract, electronically to Mark D. Johns at mjohns at luther.edu Application deadline has been extended to May 15, 2010. Notification of award will be sent by June 15. Those with questions or comments about Couch Award application, please contact: Mark D. Johns Dept. of Communication Studies Luther College, Decorah, IA 52101 USA Tel: (563) 387-1347 E-mail: mjohns at luther.edu

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Final Call for Participation - Group '10
by David Gurzick 04 May '10

04 May '10

Final Call for Participation 2010 ACM Conference on Supporting Group Work (Group '10) 7-10 November, 2010 Sanibel Island, FL USA http://www.acm.org/conferences/group/conferences/group10/ Dates: ====================================================== 14 May, 2010: Papers and Notes due via submission site 14 May, 2010: Workshops and Panels due, sent directly to co-chairs 28 June, 2010: Notification of Workshops and Panels 28 June, 2010: Doctoral Colloquium materials due, sent directly to co-chairs 19 July, 2010: Notification of Papers and Notes results 30 July, 2010: Poster abstracts due, sent directly to co-chairs Submission Types: ====================================================== Papers ----------------------------------------------- Paper submissions are invited that report on original research or describe industrial experiences on any of the conference topics. Research papers should show the novel aspects of work they present, and their contribution to the development of systems for supporting groups, organizations or social networks. Industrial papers should describe technical or key business issues in applying group technology. Papers will be 10 pages in length. Notes ----------------------------------------------- The aim of the Notes category is to provide a forum to present unpublished work that does not fit into the traditional long paper format. Notes topics can present any research relevant to the conference theme. Notes may be smaller studies, novel pieces of technology, results from the replication or slight modification of a previously published study or other contributions that while original may not be as substantial as those found in a full length paper. Notes will be 4 pages in length and will be more concise and focused than long papers. Notes will be reviewed alongside long papers and expected to be of a similar quality of work despite being a slightly smaller contribution. Technical Systems Submissions for Papers/Notes ----------------------------------------------- This year will also feature a dedicated technical track running across all submission categories to highlight innovative systems development projects. This means that the papers will be managed by special technical track co-chairs. A technical paper may address correctness, performance, programming, and use of collaborative systems. If it proposes new features (for the programmer or end-user), then it need not provide a full evaluation of these features. Scenarios (use cases) illustrating novel features will be sufficient, though, of course, results of insightful pilot/lab/field studies of users/programmers will make the paper stronger, even if they are somewhat negative/inconclusive. The less complex/insightful the system, the more elaborate is the expected evaluation. A technical paper must present an implemented system, and describe enough details of the implementation to allow the readers to reproduce them. It may, of course, also include unimplemented designs/implications that address problems/limitations of the implemented system that is the subject of the paper. It should also include a clear description of the concepts/models embodied by the system. In addition, as with any research paper, it must include motivation, and survey of related work in enough detail to bring out the novelty of the contributions. Workshops ----------------------------------------------- Workshops provide an informal and focused environment for the information exchange and discussion of GROUP related topics. A workshop proposal is up to 4 pages in length and should contain a title, aim and objective, intended participants and workshop description. It should also specify the maximum number of participants, the planned duration (half-day/full-day) and the audio/visual equipment needed. We encourage diverse and experimental workshop formats, and we would be happy to discuss your innovative ideas in advance of the 14 May deadline. Workshops will take place on Sunday November 7th. We look forward to your new ideas about creating spaces for deep and collaborative discussions. Panels ----------------------------------------------- Panels provide an interactive forum for debating or exploring innovative and emerging themes in the Group related topics. The best panels assemble a diverse group of experts with differing points of view on the topic to frame the argument and incite audience participation. We encourage submissions featuring either the conventional debate format, or new and innovative approaches that explore diverse perspectives through non-debate processes -- especially formats that can increase audience participation. A panel proposal should contain a title, abstract, intended structure, list of invited panelists including a brief biographical sketch for each. Please submit a maximum of four pages, using the conference paper format. We look forward to your new and challenging ideas. Posters/Demos ----------------------------------------------- Posters and demos are an opportunity to present late-breaking and preliminary results, smaller results not suitable for a Paper or a Note submission, innovative ideas not yet validated through user studies, student research, and other research best presented in this open format. Posters and demos will be displayed at a special session in the conference when poster authors will be available to discuss their work. More information including the conference organizers and program committee can be found at: http://www.acm.org/conferences/group/conferences/group10/organization.html

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Submission Deadline Extension: mLife 2010
by Prof. I Kushchu 04 May '10

04 May '10

MOBILE LIFE CONFERENCES 2010 Brighton, UK, 26-28 July 2010 http://www.m4life.org conf(a)m4life.org ---------------------------------------------- RESEARCH PAPER SUBMISSION DEADLINE EXTENDED; 24th of May 2010 --------------------------------------------- -- The 5th European Conference on Mobile Government (The EURO mGOV 2010) -- The 3rd International Conference on Mobile Society (mSOCIETY 2010) -- The 2nd Int. Conference on Mobile Development (mDevelopement 2010) mLife Events form A Platform for Socially Responsible Organizations in Mobile Value Chain The mLife 2010 key plenary speakers: ------------------------------ -- Serge Ferre, NOKIA, Vice President Corporate and Head of EU Representation -- Jane Fountain, Professor of Political Science and Public Policy and Director, National Center for Digital Government (ncdg.org) Director, Science, Technology and Society Initiative (umass.edu/sts) -- Dorothy Gordon, Director-General, Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT -- William H. Dutton, Professor and Director of the Oxford Internet Institute, Professor of Internet Studies, University of Oxford, and Fellow of Balliol College -- ibrahim Kushchu, Associate Prof. and Founding Director, mGCI, UK -- Rain Rannu, Founder at Fortumo Ltd, Estonia -- Roland Traunmüller, Professor Emeritus, the Institute for Informatics in Business and Government at Linz University, Austria. Important dates are: ------------------- • Practice talk proposals : Ongoing until 31st of May 2010 • Research Paper Submission Deadline : 24th of May 2010 • Conference Dates : 26-28 July 2010 Conference web site (http://www.m4life.org) for updates, detailed information on submissions and participation on Also, looking forward to your contributions of proposals for panels, workshops, and demos ------- mLife Conferences http://www.m4life.org Mobile Government Consortium International, UK conf(a)m4life.org +44 1273 327876

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Symposium Announcement: The Future of Reading, RIT, June 9-12, 2010
by Amit Ray 04 May '10

04 May '10

The Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York, USA hosts The Future of Reading Symposium, June 9-12th, 2010. Featured speakers include Margaret Atwood, Chris Anderson (Editor in Chief of Wired), Robert Bringhurst (Poet and Scholar), Jane Friedman (Open Road Media) N. Katherine Hayles (Duke), Johanna Drucker (UCLA), and Jon Orwant (Google), amongst others. This three-day symposium at will be organized around a central question: How will reading change in the coming decade? Evolving technologies and habits of information exchange have profound effects on how societies (their thinkers, writers, scientists, and citizens) envision, create, articulate, distribute, absorb, remember, and assimilate content. Commercial competition and technical innovation, as well as the perpetual desire to create and share, are reshaping the information systems on which reading depends: the private act of writing, the interpretive act of typography, and the social act of publishing. The aim of this symposium is to foresee where and how new modes of reading will take us—socially, politically, economically and aesthetically—in the coming decade, and will feature provocative and challenging presentations by experts in writing systems, content creation, vision and cognition, typography, visual media, digital publishing and display technology. In addition, smaller interactive breakout sessions will allow participants to engage closely with other participants based on shared interests and themes. Symposium registration, including meals and banquet, is $295. Full program and registration details can be found on the symposium website: http://futureofreading.cias.rit.edu/2010/index.php Amit Ray, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of English Rochester Institute of Technology College of Liberal Arts, 06-2309 92 Lomb Memorial Drive Rochester, NY 14623 Phone: 585 475-2437 Fax: 585 475-7120 http://futureofreading.cias.rit.edu/ http://honors.rit.edu/amitraywiki/index.php/User:ProfRay http://del.icio.us/AmitoRIT aim: amito2309

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PhD studentship UK based: Social Life of Methods (including digital data)
by Tim Jordan 04 May '10

04 May '10

Please feel free to suggest this to any promising prospective students. Cheers Tim Postgraduate Research Students Project: The Social Life of Methods Faculty of Social Sciences, the Open University in Milton Keynes Start date: 1 October 2010 Ref RD/MB/05 Salary: £13,290 p.a. The Department of Sociology invites applications for a University-funded PhD studentship for three years commencing October 2010. The Social Life of Methods (SLOM) is an interdisciplinary programme of research based in the ESRC Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (CRESC). Using theoretical ideas from science and technology studies (STS), anthropology, political economy and cultural sociology, SLOM analyses research methods, not simply as benign ‘tools’, but as performative agents of the social and of different kinds of social and cultural change Applicants are particularly welcome from students who wish to pursue research in any of the following broadly-defined areas: Methods as Devices, Objects or Technologies Visual Methods Methodological Challenges of Digital Data Methods and Social Transformation/Change For informal enquiries contact Dr Mark Banks m.o.banks(a)open.ac.uk. More specific details about research in the Faculty and Department can be found on the Faculty’s website: http://www.open.ac.uk/socialsciences and the CRESC website; www.cresc.ac.uk. For detailed information and how to apply go to www3.open.ac.uk/employment and http://www.open.ac.uk/socialsciences/phd, or email socsci-phd-applications(a)open.ac.uk quoting the reference number RD/MB/05. Closing date: 5pm on 27th May 2010, interviews will be held in Milton Keynes in mid June 2010. Further particulars are available in large print, disk or audiotape (minicom 01908 654901). We promote diversity in employment and welcome applications from all sections of the community. -- The Open University is incorporated by Royal Charter (RC 000391), an exempt charity in England & Wales, and a charity registered in Scotland (SC 038302).

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Call for Chapter Proposals - Networked Sociability and Individualism: Technology for Personal and Professional Relationships
by francesca comunello 04 May '10

04 May '10

FYI thank you! Call For Chapter Proposals *Networked Sociability and Individualism: Technology for Personal and Professional Relationships * To be published by IGI Global: http://www.igi-global.com *Editor*: Francesca Comunello Sapienza Università di Roma, Italy *Call for Chapters: * Proposals Submission Deadline: May 30, 2010 Introduction The rise of individualism has been recently described in terms of “networked individualism” or “individualized networking” (following Wellman and Castells). Instead of being organized in groups, our lives are articulated around multiple networks, while our forms of sociability are getting growingly increasingly privatized. The new patterns of sociability seem to be built on multiple me-centred networks: each person "becomes a communication and information switchboard, between persons, networks, and institutions" (Wellman, 2004). Far from proposing an atomized vision of individuals, these Authors underline the growing degree of responsibility people experience in their everyday activity of relationship management. The concept that better describes the forms of sociability we are experiencing is, in my opinion, Castells’ networked sociability. Digital technology is not determining this process: it is rather enabling each person to build and manage their own social networks, both on- and offline. The recent popularity of Social Network Sites (SNS) such as My Space, Facebook, Linkedin, etc. shows that there is a growing interest in articulating, making visible, and managing personal or professional relationships through technology-enabled environments. The phenomenon addressed is wider than Social Network Sites, and includes the wide variety of ways in which people are linked to each other. Objective of the Book In the proposed publication we will focus on a variety of Social Media and Computer-Mediated Communication environments, in order to underline the ways in which people articulate their social relations and the related individualized identity performances. In this book's analysis, Social Network Sites will play a major but not exclusive role. For a better understanding of the identity performances and of the ties’ strength, this book will not only focus on SNS, but rather consider the wider context, including the variety of ways in which people are linked to each other (a context where old and new media collide, and where mediated and face to face social relations are growingly integrated). Nevertheless, SNS are powerful playgrounds, both for the user and for the researcher. From a sociological point of view, one of the main point of interest of Social Network Sites, let alone their constantly growing popularity among internet users worldwide, is that they represent powerful environments to observe publicly articulated self presentation and identity performances: SNS make such processes visible, trackable, and, therefore, easy to study. Far from constituting an alternative or “virtual” world, social media are embedded in everyday life: using Social Network Sites, people connect to each other in ways they perceive seamless to face-to-face relations. Nevertheless, the above mentioned “trackability” enables people’s awareness (we are now more consciously engaged in our personal network management). This book will analyze the increased consciousness, fully exploring the technology and impact of our social networks in the current social atmosphere. Target Audience Academics: Scholars, Researchers, Students (Media Studies, Internet Studies, Education, Sociology, Psychology, etc.) Educators (Primary and Secondary School) Policy makers Consulting firms, marketing and communication experts Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, the following: Networked individualism and networked sociability: theoretical perspectives; Social Network Sites: data on adoption and use (worldwide); Personal profiles and identity performances in digital networked media (including comparative and cross-platform approaches); New forms of sociability, on- and offline (including comparative and cross-platform approaches); Social Network Sites and New Media Literacy; Social Media and privacy concerns; People's different usage patterns (varying according to sex, age, individual attitudes, platforms, etc.); People's attitude towards specialized platforms; (business and recruiting platforms, social media sharing sites, UGC environments, etc.); Emerging trends. Submission Procedure Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before May 30, 2010, a 2-3 page chapter proposal clearly explaining the mission and concerns of his or her proposed chapter. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by June 30, 2010 about the status of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by October 30, 2010. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis. Contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers for this project. Publisher This book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.), publisher of the “Information Science Reference” (formerly Idea Group Reference), “Medical Information Science Reference” and “IGI Publishing” imprints. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit www.igi-global.com. This publication is anticipated to be released in 2011. * * *Important Dates* Proposal Submission Deadline: May 30, 2010 Proposal Acceptance Notifications: June 30, 2010 Full chapter Submission: September 30, 2010 Review Results to Authors: December 15, 2010 Revised Chapter Submission: January 30, 2011 Final Acceptance Notifications: February 15, 2011 Submission of Final Chapters: February 28, 2011 Final Deadline: March 30, 2011 Inquiries and submissions can be forwarded electronically (Word document): Dr. Francesca Comunello Department of Communication and Social Sciences University of Rome, La Sapienza Tel. +39 06 49918374 Mobile +39 333 9567857 email: francesca.comunello(a)uniroma1.it

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