February 2011 - Air-L - lists.aoir.org

The Meaning of Play
by Ren Reynolds 25 Feb '11

25 Feb '11

All, & with apologies to games scholars and twitter followers for cross posting & general apologies for shameless self promotion... I've been thinking about what play is for some time, I've now blogged these thoughts at a little length (3k+ words) over at TerraNova: http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2011/02/the-meaning-of-play.html As I note there, I did this for a general reason: existing definitions did not satisfy me; and for a specific reason: I'm looking at the governance of online play by researching the history of sports law and governance and needed a theory that explained what is going on when law does not intervene in contact sports, even when there is injury. So this is a very general definition which I hope is useful in any field where one is looking at what play is, I'm interested in comments to help de-bug it: Play is the recognised, negotiated, process of a purposeful shift in the dominant meaning; and contextual attribution of value, of acts. Games are normative forms of play. ludic-meaning - the meaning that has been shifted or attributed ludic-semiotics - the system of the signs product through play ludic-capital - the degree to which these ludic-meaning and semiotics are operational in a given context e.g. when set against institutional-capital. Magic circle - the term we use to denote the bounds of the context wherein the ludic-meaning of an act prevails over the co-existing non-ludic meaning (or lack thereof). Ren --8<-- web: www.renreynolds.com Think Tank: www.virtualpolicy.net blog: terranova.blogs.com -- Gamesnetwork, discussion list of Digital Games Research Association, www.digra.org Note: to unsubscribe, send "UNSUBSCRIBE GAMESNETWORK" to LISTSERV(a)UTA.FI from your subscribed email account. Web interface to subscribe and manage your subscription: https://listserv.uta.fi/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=GAMESNETWORK&A=1 . The list archive is available online at: https://listserv.uta.fi/archives/gamesnetwork.html

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Nominations for Program(me) Chair, IR13.0
by Alex Halavais 25 Feb '11

25 Feb '11

Members of the AoIR Community, I hope you are all as excited as I am about the conference in Seattle later this year. Lori Kendall has been doing a fantastic job of organizing this year's program, and she deserves our thanks for taking on this work. I have no doubt that her efforts will result in the best program yet. Casting our gaze a bit into the future, we still need to determine a program chair for the 2012 conference, to be held in Salford. The Executive Committee would be very interested in nominations (or self-nominations) by those involved with AoIR. If you have someone in mind who you think could follow in the footsteps of some great program chairs of the past, please send a quick note to Mia Consalvo (pres(a)aoir.org) or me (vp(a)aoir.org) Nominations will close March 10, after which the Executive Committee will extend an invitation to our chair for IR 13.0. Best, Alex Halavais

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FW: [CITASA] IIT Chicago job opening
by Nalini Kotamraju 25 Feb '11

25 Feb '11

------ Forwarded Message From: Christena Nippert-Eng <nippert(a)iit.edu> Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2011 22:13:33 +0000 (GMT) To: CITASA List <citasa(a)list.citasa.org> Subject: [CITASA] Chicago job opening Hi everyone, In case you didn't see this in the usual places, applications are still being accepted. And the Sociology and interdisciplinary Social Sciences B.S. degrees have been approved; we've begun recruiting students for them... Best wishes, Chris Chair, Department of Social Sciences, Illinois Institute of Technology Applications and nominations are invited for the position of Chair of the Department of Social Sciences at IIT. Successful candidates will have the opportunity to lead a small but growing interdisciplinary department. Prior leadership experience and familiarity with a technical university environment will be a plus. Demonstrated leadership skills should include consensus building, the support of well-balanced, successful faculty careers, and programmatic growth and oversight in a multidisciplinary environment. Candidates should be recognized scholars qualified for tenure at IIT. Area of specialization is open but preference will be given to those who have interests in the study of technology, science, and/or the urban environment, broadly defined. Applied policy work related to areas of expertise is desirable as well as a history of funded research. Competitive salary and start-up package. IIT is a mid-sized, private, PhD-granting university with an international student body. IIT is recognized for its research and education in engineering, science, architecture, law, design, computer science, psychology, and business, and the strategic plan of the university encourages collaborations across the colleges. (2006 Carnegie Classifications: Research University/High; Doc/STEM graduate instructional program.) At the undergraduate level, the department currently offers a well-established BS degree in political science, and additional BS degrees in sociology and interdisciplinary social sciences are currently under review. The department also offers a joint BS/JD with Chicago-Kent College of Law. A goal is to add a graduate program in policy, with special emphasis on science and technology and urban policy. The department¹s faculty has a range of interdisciplinary backgrounds and research interests. The department is located on the main campus, south of Chicago¹s downtown Loop area. Additional information about the university and the department can be found at http://www.iit.edu/csl/socs/ <http://www.iit.edu/csl/socs/> . Mail letter of interest, CV, and names and contact information of three references to Associate Dean John F. Zasadzinski, Search Committee Chair, College of Science and Letters, Illinois Institute of Technology, 10 W. 32nd Street E1-125, Chicago, IL 60616; email zasadzinski(a)agni.phys.iit.edu <mailto:zasadzinski@agni.phys.iit.edu> . Review of applications begins February 1, 2011 and continues until the position is filled. Illinois Institute of Technology is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. Christena Nippert-Eng, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Sociology www.islandsofprivacy.com http://www.iit.edu/csl/socs/faculty/nippert_christena.shtml Acting Chair, Department of Social Sciences, IIT Chair, American Sociological Association Section on Communication and Information Technologies 312-567-6812 (office) 312-567-6821 (fax) _______________________________________________ CITASA mailing list CITASA(a)list.citasa.org http://list.citasa.org/mailman/listinfo/citasa_list.citasa.org ------ End of Forwarded Message

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Free DiscoverText Webinars
by Stuart Shulman 25 Feb '11

25 Feb '11

*Two Upcoming DiscoverText Free Webinars* *---**---**---**---**---**---**---**---**---**---**---**---**---**---**---** ---**---**---**---**---**---**---**---**---**---**---**---**---**---**---** ---**---**---**---* *Fri, Feb 25, 2011 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EST (Today)* Registration Web Link: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/717865560 *Fri, Mar 11, 2011 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EST* Registration Web Link: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/993975441 *---**---**---**---**---**---**---**---**---**---**---**---**---**---**---** ---**---**---**---**---**---**---**---**---**---**---**---**---**---**---** ---**---**---**---* *Unlock the Power of Social Media: Learn to Use DiscoverText* This Webinar introduces new users to the powerful tools for archiving, searching and sorting text from social media via DiscoverText. This week we launched the "InfoExtractor" live feed option, which makes it easier to harvest comments off a range of social media, including YouTube. We also released v2 of the Facebook live feed interface, that lets you search public pages and preview the content before launching a scheduled feed capture. The wider opportunities for data-mining made possible with open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are significant. DiscoverText eases the collection, archiving and sorting of text via Twitter and the Facebook Graph APIs, or generic RSS feeds. Our systems make it possible to crowd source data analysis in novel ways, leveraging peer relationships and Web-verifiable credentials. Ingesting hundreds of thousands of items from social media, email and electronic document repositories is easier than ever. Advanced social search leveraging metadata, networks, credentials and filters will fundamentally change the way users interact with text data. I hope will join me today or in the future for the live demo with Q&A. ~Stu -- Stuart Shulman President & CEO Texifter, LLC <http://www.texifter.com/> Have you tried DiscoverText? http://discovertext.com *Featuring the Facebook Graph & Twitter APIs*

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CALL FOR PAPERS - The Future of the Social Web (FoSW'11)
by Rebecca Eynon 25 Feb '11

25 Feb '11

* * * CALL FOR PAPERS - The Future of the Social Web (FoSW'11) http://grupoweb.upf.edu/fosw2011/cfp.html In conjunction with the Intl. Conf. on Weblogs and Social Media (ICWSM 2011) July 21, 2011 -- Barcelona; Catalunya (Spain) TOPICS The aim of this workshop is to encourage discussion and sharing of ideas and highly innovative research results that focus on the future of the social web. We aim to promote interdisciplinary research and exchange of ideas in this area, between industry and academia, in different fields (e.g., computer science, mathematics, physics, psychology, sociology, cultural anthropology, etc.). In particular, we would like to discuss what the future of the web might be in light of the recent wave of social media technologies and services: there is little doubt that the web is being fundamentally transformed by social media, both in terms of how content is created and shared, and also in terms of how business and society are embracing social media. We solicit the following types of submissions: * Highly-innovative research contributions describing innovative results; e.g. new perspectives on social media mining, novel interaction paradigms, empirical studies showing emerging trends, metrics, etc. * Position papers discussing the future of the social web; e.g. future developments that might be extrapolated from current evidence; scenarios potentially having a strong positive or negative impact on users and society at large; impact of new social media mechanisms on the future of search, e-mail, and other "traditional" services; future research directions and areas of opportunity for innovation. Contributions are limited to 10 pages in ACM-SIG format, and should be submited through EasyChair: https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=fosw2011. IMPORTANT DATES * March 22, 2011:Workshop Paper Submission * April 8, 2011:Workshop Paper Acceptance Notification * July 21, 2011:ICWSM-11 Workshops Day ORGANIZERS * Ricardo Baeza-Yates - Yahoo! Research Barcelona * Carlos Castillo - Yahoo! Research Barcelona * Sandra Gonzalez-Bailon - University of Oxford (UK) * Alejandro (Alex) Jaimes - Yahoo! Research Barcelona

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Call for contributions, ESN-IAMCR special session "The University in Crisis: Tradition, innovation, and employment in Communications departments”
by Francesca Musiani 25 Feb '11

25 Feb '11

Please find below a call for contributions for a special session organized by the Emerging Scholars Network of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), of possible interest for both emerging and senior scholars. Best regards, Francesca Musiani ESN-IAMCR communications coordinator ----- International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) 2011 Theme: “Cities, Creativity, Connectivity” *CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO A ROUND TABLE ON* *"The University in Crisis* *”Tradition, innovation, and employment in Communications departments”* Organized by the Emerging Scholars Network * * Over the past few years, students and faculty in California, Puerto Rico, Quebec, Greece and England, and other regions where the government has customarily given strong support to higher education, have responded to massive fee increases with protests and strikes. In other countries universities and students have recently been at the center of social struggles, as have communications technologies. What does this mean for the nature of academic employment and research in Communications? And how does neoliberal policy affect academic research and practice in Communications, an interdisciplinary area of study incorporating both critical theory and research directly applicable to the business world? The Emerging Scholars Network of the IAMCR invites interested scholars and advocates to submit abstracts for around table on: “The University in Crisis: Tradition, innovation, and employment in Communications departments.” Present developments in academia in the Western world have followed a consistent trajectory of government disengagement, while institutions such as tenure and thesis-based PhDs are being questioned. Universities in the Global South are sometimes strongly supported by government and sometimes entirely private. We invite contributions that address one (or more) of the following themes: a) Historical traditions in universities and how Communications, as one of the newest disciplines in the humanities, has fit into these practices; regional differences in the nature of universities and changes affecting them; b) The role of Communications studies in studying, critiquing, alleviating or contributing to the negative effects of globalization; b) The effects of different funding sources on research and employment, as well as the role of corporations in universities and Communications departments; c) Case studies, personal ethnographies, and examples of new patterns of employment for emerging scholars; d) Possible solutions/attempts to reconcile such debates and address contemporary challenges: visionary proposals for preserving the value of higher education in a hostile political climate, the future of academic employment and the role of Communications in future universities. The Emerging Scholars Network welcomes proposals from both emerging and senior scholars. Interested contributors are invited to submit a proposal of no more than 500 words along with a *curriculum vitae*. **Submissions should include your name, affiliation, and email address, and should be sent by ------ to Holly Nazar (hollynazar(a)hotmail.com) with carbon copy to Stefania Milan (Stefania.Milan(a)eui.eu) The list of panelists will be announced by the end of April 2011. -- Francesca Musiani Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation (associé au CNRS, UMR7185) MINES ParisTech 60, Boulevard Saint Michel 75272 PARIS Cedex 06 France 33 (0)1 40 51 92 77 33 (0)6 45 31 90 53 francesca.musiani(a)mines-paristech.fr www.csi.mines-paristech.fr/Perso/Musiani/

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CFP 'Social Side of Gaming' Final Reminder
by Jeffrey Wimmer 24 Feb '11

24 Feb '11

************************************************************************** **** FINAL REMINDER: DEADLINE / CALL FOR ABSTRACTS ****** INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE "THE SOCIAL SIDE OF GAMING" ************* CFA ENDS THIS MONDAY 28 FEBRUARY ************* ************************************************************************** Dear all, this is the final reminder that the Call for Abstracts of the international conference "THE SOCIAL SIDE OF GAMING" (21-23 July) will end *** next MONDAY, 28 FEBRUARY ***. So please send in your abstract as soon as possible - there won't be an extension of the Call. For further information about the conference topics and the terms of submission please have a look at:https://sofoga.uni-hohenheim.de/85673.html We are also glad to announce the confirmed keynote speakers. They are RICHARD A. BARTLE (University Essex, UK, co-author of the world's first virtual world, MUD) MIA CONSALVO (MIT, Boston, USA, current President of the Association of Internet Researchers, author of "Cheating") MARK GRIFFITHS (Nottingham Trent University, UK, leading expert in research on digital games addiction) We are also planning a panel discussion with high class industry representatives and some other events that will be announced soon. For more information regarding the conference, please head over to our conference site at: https://sofoga.uni-hohenheim.de/conf2011.html We updated the website to answer some of your questions regarding the call, the conference fee, the publication/proceedings volume, accomodation, flight connections, travel grants etc. (s. also our mini-FAQ below). Please note that some people were experiencing difficulties registering via the registration form due to technical reasons. If you did register, but didn't receive a confirmation yet, please contact us directly via gamescon2011(a)uni-hohenheim.de . We hope to see you in July! With kind regards Jeffrey Wimmer (for the organization committee) ****** CONFERENCE FAQ ***** We also received several questions regarding the event. Here's a mini-FAQ - more answers can be found online at https://sofoga.uni-hohenheim.de/conf2011.html . * How much is the registration fee? There is a very moderate registration fee of EUR 50,- for speakers and participants with a 100 % position. The registration fee for researchers with a 50 % position is EUR 30,-. We try to keep the prices low so that everybody who wants to participate can participate. Science shouldn't be about money. * How much do I have to pay for a flight to Stuttgart? Is it difficult to get there? The international Airport of Stuttgart is just 10 minutes away from the University (via taxi). There are connections to all major European cities and even transatlantic connections. Furthermore, you can fly in via Frankfurt or Munich. There are some discount airlines flying to Stuttgart, including airberlin, germanwings and TUI (but also Lufthansa, SAS, British Airways, Delta etc.) - so return tickets to major European cities start around EUR 30,-. If you book early, then this might be your cheapest international conference ever! * I am a PhD student and don't have the money to travel to your place. However, I have a fascinating abstract and would love to visit the conference! Please consider sending in your abstract nonetheless. We will offer a limited number of travel suppurt grants for international PhD students and researchers on a 50 % position (or less). Preference is given to PhD students/researchers from developing/transitional countries with top abstracts. Please note that this option is subject to availability. The overall availability of funds is limited, so the actual grant size and number is depending on the number of applications and their quality. If you are a member of the named group and think about applying for a grant, please contact us directly via gamescon2011(a)uni-hohenheim.de . We can provide you with more information on a per case basis. * Will there be a proceedings volume? We plan to publish the best conference papers and some invited papers in an edited volume. It won't be your standard proceedings volume, but a coherent book on the social aspects of gaming, aiming at the worldwide book market. We are currently in talks with major international publishers about the details of the publication. ------------ Prof. Dr. Jeffrey Wimmer Assistant Professor Institute of Media and Communication Science Ernst Abbe Zentrum (EAZ) Ilmenau University of Technology Ehrenbergstr. 29 D-98693 Ilmenau, Germany Tel: +49-(0)3677 69 4642 Email: jeffrey.wimmer(a)tu-ilmenau.de http://www.tu-ilmenau.de/en/vwdg/team/jeffrey-wimmer/

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Re: [Air-L] Academic replacements for TwapperKeeper.com?
by Marco Toledo Bastos 24 Feb '11

24 Feb '11

Hi Deen, I've used both services and they are very good, but you're better off setting up a server and running a few apps on your own. I'm running a modified version of yTK through a MAMP server at the University of São Paulo (99.9% uptime). We've changed yourTwapperKeeper considerably. There are a few supplementary scripts that map users network after hashtag archiving. It takes a lot of requests to get it done, but it's been working fine. If you can get your IP address whitlistened, then you're good to map the network. For the time being I'd tell you to work on yTK until it does what you need. Let me know if you hear of any other way to work this out. []s Marco ___________________ Marco Toledo Bastos Postdoctoral Fellow FiloCom - ECA / USP (0055) 11 7102-4756 FAMe - UniFrankfurt (0049) 151-58768326 > Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2011 11:37:08 -0800 > From: Deen Freelon <dfreelon(a)u.washington.edu> > To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org > Subject: Re: [Air-L] Academic replacements for TwapperKeeper.com? > Message-ID: <4D6561E3.6040505(a)u.washington.edu> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed > > I would also be curious to know what others have been using or plan to > use for harvesting Twitter data. I've used both TwapperKeeper and > 140kit, and found that the latter is quite good for hashtag archiving, > but not as good at keyword archiving. Further, 140kit has a max scrape > time of one week, although that is manually renewable I believe. > Finally, both TK and 140kit can be quite slow and even unavailable at > times, and as we've just seen they may shut down at any time. > > All of this has made me quite wary of relying on externally managed > "clouds" for data collection. That is why I intend to set up my own > Twitter harvesting operation for use within my own department, as many > CS researchers do, and would encourage others with the necessary means > and knowledge to do the same. Much valuable data can be collected even > within the default API query limits, though I'll certainly ask Twitter > to put me on the whitelist. Running one's own archiving operation is > fairly cheap, and since you're only archiving your own data, you aren't > hamstrung by hundreds of other jobs running simultaneously. > > If there's any interest in learning how to set up small-scale Twitter > scrapes, let me know and I'll write something up when I have the time. > Best, ~DEEN

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CFP: altmetrics ‘11: Tracking scholarly impact on the social Web
by Jason Priem 24 Feb '11

24 Feb '11

Hi all, Feel free to redistribute, and to email me with any questions. -j ____________________________________________________________________ altmetrics11: Tracking scholarly impact on the social Web Koblenz (Germany), 14-15 June 2011 An ACM Web Science Conference 2011 Workshop [1] Keynote speaker: Mike Thelwall, University of Wolverhampton: "Evaluating online evidence of research impact" Call for papers: The increasing quantity and velocity of scientific output is presenting scholars with a deluge of data. There is growing concern that scholarly output may be swamping traditional mechanisms for both pre-publication filtering (e.g peer review) and post-publication impact filtering (e.g. the Journal Impact Factor). Increasing scholarly use of Web2.0 tools like CiteULike, Mendeley, Twitter, and blog-style article commenting presents an opportunity to create new filters. Metrics based on a diverse set of social sources could yield broader, richer, and more timely assessments of current and potential scholarly impact. Realizing this, many authors have begun to call for investigation of these “altmetrics” [2]. Despite the growing speculation and early exploratory investigation into the value of altmetrics, however, there remains little concrete research into the properties of these metrics: their validity, their potential value and flaws, and their relationship to established measures. Nor has there been any large umbrella to bring these multiple perspectives together. The altmetrics11 workshop aims to encourage both these. Submissions are invited from a variety of areas: * New metrics based on social media * Tracking science communication on the Web * Relation between traditional metrics and altmetrics * Peer-review and altmetrics * Tools for gathering, analyzing, disseminating altmetrics Important Dates: 2-page abstracts due March 31, 2011 Acceptance and abstract publication April 14, 2011 Open pre-workshop discussion April 14, 2011 – June 14, 2011Workshop at WebSci 11 June 14 – June 15, 2011 Discussion closed June 30, 2011 Invitations for post-workshop proceedings TBA Submissions: Prospective authors should submit 2-page extended abstracts (max. 1000 words, not including references). If necessary, the workshop organizers will select the most relevant, original, and significant abstracts for presentation. Experimental results will be given preference, followed by technical reports on working altmetrics tools and position papers. All selected submissions will be published online for open peer review and discussion. Authors are encouraged to participate in the discussions of their work. Based on the presentations and online discussion, selected authors may be asked to submit full papers for peer-reviewed proceedings. Location: The workshop is hosted by the ACM Web Science Conference 2011 (Koblenz, Germany). This interdisciplinary conference focuses on advances in studying the full range of social-technical relationships on the Web. Please visit the Web Science site for more information. Organizers: * Paul Groth – VU University Amsterdam, NL * Jason Priem – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA * Dario Taraborelli – Wikimedia Foundation, USA & University of Surrey, UK The organizers have an interdisciplinary background covering Sociology, Information and Library Science and Computer Science. [1] http://www.websci11.org [2] http://altmetrics.org/manifesto (includes bibliography) -- Jason Priem UNC Royster Fellow School of Information and Library Science University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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QuakeAid.co.nz
by Ehon Chan 24 Feb '11

24 Feb '11

Hi all especially those who are from New Zealand, We recently developed a social platform - www.floodaid.com.au - during the floods in Queensland, Australia to connect those who can help with those who need help. The platform connected (and is still connecting) thousands of victims with what they needed. In light of the recent earthquake in New Zealand, we created a similar platform, hoping that it would be useful for those affected by the earthquake in Christchurch - www.quakeaid.co.nz . The idea is simple - we just want to make all help and aid in times of disaster relevant, useful and timely. The media release: http://bit.ly/gFwiG4 Facebook: http://on.fb.me/hdflcf Twitter: http://twitter.com/QuakeAidNZ Please help us spread the words and if you know anyone in NZ who can drive the media side of it, do get in touch. Very much appreciated and I hope everyone is well - our thoughts are with you, New Zealand. Regards, Ehon Ehon Chan \\ m: +61 433 510 005 \\ w: www.ehonchan.com \\ skype: ehon.chan \\ twitter: @ehon <http://www.projectaustralia.org.au>

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