October 2012 - Air-L - lists.aoir.org

Final reminder - The politics of trolling and the Negative Space of The Internet - Fibreculture CFP
by Jason Wilson 05 Oct '12

05 Oct '12

Hi all, Apologies for cross posting. One last reminder on this CFP for the Fibreculture Journal. The politics of trolling and the Negative Space of The Internet http://fibreculturejournal.org/cfp-special-issue-for-the-fibreculture-journ… A great deal of thinking about the Internet and politics is still structured by a desire for deliberative democracy. From 1993 - when Howard Rheingold enunciated one of the Internet’s key founding myths - the virtual community - scholars have sought and found communities characterised by a mutuality of interests, a common purpose, a collaborative striving to renovate the democratic ideal, a tendency towards the “regulative idea” of the ideal speaking position, and an acknowledgement of the obligations of citizenship within the political association. For so long the Internet has continued to function, in Barbrook’s formulation, as a “redemptive technology”. Social media is just the latest in a long line of technologies which may, on a certain vision, rescue liberal democracy, with its decaying civic life and corrupt media, from itself. There is, proportionally, too little attention to the everyday conflicts that haunt all such communities. Some conflict is temporary, and can be accounted for in terms of long-standing democratic theory. But some conflict is persistent, intractable. Some of it is gratuitous, and deliberately disruptive. Online, those who bring it about are often subject to normative disapprobation. Sometimes people call them trolls. ”Troll”, as a term of moral opprobrium, indicates an online actor who is not interested in deliberation, but in derailing it. Trolling is not apt to be captured by network maps or visualisations of online publics, because these teachniques cannot discern which nodes in a conversational network are created in bad faith, or in a spirit of disruptive play. Trolls are not interested in redeeming democracy through deliberation, and they mock attempts to do so. Trolls respect no procedural rules, though they may be generative of them. Trolls are the constitutive outside of online communities of political discussion, they are the intolerable of the most tolerant communities. Trolls are usually someone else, defined from our own position and interests. When they are not, and we inhabit trolling, we discover that trolling requires know-how, close reading, experience, sometimes sympathy with those we would disrupt. What are the consequences to seeing trolling and other forms of affective behaviour as the norm, rather than the aberrant? The discourse of digital art has long since told this story, but the intellectual desire for open and constitutive democracy has overridden the 'actually existing democracy' of bullying, trolling, threats, inane memes and low signal-to-noise ratios. What would happen if we started to think of trolling as the central practice in online discourse? What if trolling is the Internet’s signature mode of discursive politics? What if we started to think about trolling as a practice which is generative rather than destructive? This special issue of fibreculture seeks a range of perspectives on trolling, online conflict and incivility. Twenty years on, it looks to interrogate the founding myth of virtual community with accounts of generative conflict, strategic incivility, and productive trolling. We seek papers on a range of topics not limited to - Trolling, activism and politics - The persistence and ubiquity of online conflict - Trolling as a business model: the mainstream media and clickbait - Gendered aspects of trolling and incivility - 4chan and trolling; activism and meme factories - Trolling and cyberbullying - Complaints about trolling and the “hatred of democracy” – are complaints about trolling really an attempt to re-gentrify political debate? - Cultures and rituals of trolling – troll culture and the celebration of lulz - Trolling and “cyber-bullying” - The Internet and agonistic politics - Trolling and counterpublics - The grammar of trolling - Trolling as the glitch in social network analysis and “big data” - Popular culture, trolls and the democratization of politics - Tabloid media, professionalization of trolling and the economics of opinion - Trolling as cyber-bullying, internet as masochistic survivalist playground - The pleasures of trolling - Trolling the trolls - The art and ‘new aesthetics’ of trolling - The gamification of trolling —– Please note that for this issue, initial submissions should be abstracts only abstract deadline: October 15, 2012 (via email, to Jason Wilson, email address below) article deadline: January 15, 2012 publication aimed for: April/May, 2013 all contributors and editors must read the guidelines at; http://fibreculturejournal.org/policy-and-style/ before working with the Fibreculture Journal email correspondence for this issue: Jason.Wilson(a)canberra.edu.au<mailto:Jason.Wilson@canberra.edu.au> Christian.mccrea(a)rmit.edu.au<mailto:Christian.mccrea@rmit.edu.au> Glen.fuller(a)canberra.edu.au<mailto:Glen.fuller@canberra.edu.au> —– The Fibreculture Journal (http://fibreculturejournal.org/) is a peer reviewed international journal, associated with Open Humanities Press (http://openhumanitiespress.org/) that explores critical and speculative interventions in the debate and discussions concerning information and communication technologies and their policy frameworks, network cultures and their informational logic, new media forms and their deployment, and the possibilities of socio-technical invention and sustainability.

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CFP: Shape of Diversity to Come: Global Community, Global Archipelago, or a New Civility?
by Payal Arora 05 Oct '12

05 Oct '12

[Sorry for cross-posting] Hi everyone, I'm co-organizing a conference (see below) that perhaps some of you may be interested in attending and speaking at. The Call for Papers is open (Deadline Oct 21). If I can help with any questions please let me know. Hope to see some of you at the conference early next year! cheers Payal Payal Arora http://www.payalarora.com Department of Media and Communication Faculty of History, Culture and Communication Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands The Shape of Diversity to Come: Global Community, Global Archipelago, or a New Civility? Date: 24 and 25 January 2013 Location: Erasmus University Rotterdam, Forumzaal (M-building, M3-15). Click here for the route. Admission fee: €100,= (conferencematerial, lunch included) Register: Click here (or scroll down) to use the form on this webpage. This conference is organised by Wouter de Been, Mireille Hildebrandt and Payal Arora. In case you have any questions, please send an email to Dr. Wouter de Been. Deadline extended to October 21st 2012. FOR A FULL DESPCRIPTION OF THE CONFERENCE THEME AND SUBTHEMES CONSULT THE CALL FOR PAPERS HERE. Keynote speakers * Julie Cohen is a Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center. She recently published Configuring the Networked Self: Law, Code and the Play of Everyday Practice (Yale University Press, 2012). * Chandran Kukathas is author of The Liberal Archipelago: A Theory of Diversity and Freedom (Oxford University Press 2003). Kukathas is currently chair of Political Theory at the London School of Economics. * Emmanuel Melissaris is Senior Lecturer in Law at the LSE Department of Law. He is the author of a recent work on legal pluralism and legal theory Ubiquitous Law: Legal Theory and the Space for Legal Pluralism (Ashgate, 2009). * Jos de Mul is professor in Philosophical Anthropology and its History and head of the section Philosophy of Man and Culture and Scientific Director of the research institute 'Philosophy of Information and Communication Technology' (FICT). Among his books areRomantic Desire in (Post)Modern Art and Philosophy (State University of New York Press, 1999), The Tragedy of Finitude (Yale University Press, 2004), and Cyberspace Odyssey (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010). * Saskia Sassen is Professor of Sociology at Columbia University. Recent books are Territory, Authority, Rights: >From Medieval to Global Assemblages ( Princeton University Press 2008), A Sociology of Globalization (W.W.Norton 2007), and the 4th fully updated edition ofCities in a World Economy (Sage 2011). Her books are translated into over twenty languages. She is currently working on When Territory Exits Existing Frameworks. About the conference The nation state, imagined as a formation encompassing a culturally unified people, is now straining under the challenges of globalization and the revolution in communication technology. This conference will consider the dynamic changes that are currently taking place with respect to cultural and religious diversity as a result of the explosion in communication technologies, address the conflicts they give rise to, and discuss the ramifications for both law and politics. Two views on the impact of communication and information technology dominate the scholarship: one in which communication leads to the emergence of a global community and an interconnected global culture; and a second in which it leads to an archipelago of communities that do not necessarily converge with the boundaries nation states, i.e. to a cultural Balkanization of the world across national borders. This conference will also address a third alternative. Instead of presenting the implications of the networked information and communication infrastructure in the opposing metaphors of a global community or a global archipelago, one can also argue for a normative understanding of what is at stake. Instead of endorsing either utopian notions of global community or dystopian fears of an Internet with walled gardens, one can vouch for an internet that allows for interconnectivity without accepting the increased personalization that leads to unprecedented surveillance and social sorting in both the private and the public sphere. We hope this conference will be a stimulating gathering of scholars from different disciplines and increase our understanding of the legal and political implications of globalization and communication technology for national and cultural identity.

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Positions in Copenhagen
by Stine Gotved 04 Oct '12

04 Oct '12

The IT University of Copenhagen invites applications for one or more positions as Assistant or Associate Professor in digital aesthetics, culture, media, communication, and interaction design starting spring 2013 or soon thereafter. Furthermore, the IT-University is in the process of strengthening research and teaching in the diverse area of innovation and information technology, and therefore invites applications for positions (as Assistant and Associate Professors) within this area starting spring 2013 or soon thereafter. Find the full descriptions at http://itu.dk/en/Om-IT-Universitetet/Stillinger

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Re: [Air-L] 35.000 free access texts on the Information Society
by Daiane Scaraboto 04 Oct '12

04 Oct '12

That is one amazing resource, thank you for sharing Bernardo. Best regards, Daiane Scaraboto Assistant Professor of Marketing Escuela de Administración Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile T:+56(2) 354 4340 Today's Topics: > > > 8. 35.000 free access texts on the Information Society > (Bernardo Sorj) > > > > -------- > > Message: 8 > Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2012 11:40:32 -0300 > From: "Bernardo Sorj" <besorj(a)attglobal.net> > To: "'aoir'" <air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org> > Subject: [Air-L] 35.000 free access texts on the Information Society > Message-ID: <00bb01cda175$0bc33340$234999c0$@net> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" > > Dear colleague, > > We are happy to inform you that we have reached the mark of 35.000 academic > texts in our free access virtual library on the Information Society > http://www.bvce.org/SociedadeInformacao.asp > The texts are in the following languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, > French, German, Italian and Catalan. > > Best regards, > > Bernardo Sorj > Director - Edelstein Center for Social Research > www.centroedelstein.org.br/English > > Dr. Bernardo Sorj > www.bernardosorj.org > www.centroedelstein.org.br > > > >

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position announcement - Temple University
by Jan Fernback 04 Oct '12

04 Oct '12

Position Announcement Department of Media Studies and Production Temple University Tenure Track position in *Media Institutions and Analysis* The Department of Media Studies and Production (MSP) at Temple University invites applications for a tenure track position at the Assistant level to begin in fall 2013. The department seeks a scholar whose work focuses onthe structures, practices and roles of media institutions, and who would be qualified to teach undergraduate and graduate courses in media institutions, research methods, media audiences and/or media campaigns . Candidates should hold a PhD, demonstrate evidence of excellence in teaching and have a promising record of scholarship. The department has approximately 800 majors who study media production; management of media institutions; and social and psychological functions, processes and effects of media. It offers a master's degree and contributes to an inter-departmental doctoral program in Mass Media and Communication. MSP is one of four departments in a large, diverse and dynamic School of Media & Communication. Temple University is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the fourth largest media and telecommunications market in the nation. The University community at large includes more than 35,000 students in the region and at several international campuses; the School of Media & Communication includes 3000 undergraduate and graduate students. For more information about the department, school, and Temple University, please visit http://smc.temple.edu/msp To apply, please mail a letter of application, curriculum vitae, and three letters of reference by December 6, 2012 to: Matthew Lombard, PhD Chair, Search Committee Dept. of Media Studies & Production Temple University 205 Annenberg Hall 2020 North 13th Street Philadelphia, PA 19122 Temple University is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer and educator where diversity is an essential source of vitality and strength. The University is committed to nondiscrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, religion, age and disability. -- Jan Fernback, PhD Associate Professor and Director, Graduate Program Dept of Media Studies & Production Temple University 2020 N. 13th Street Philadelphia, PA 19122 215.204.3041 fernback(a)temple.edu

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Re: [Air-L] Tools for Analysing Tumblr?
by Stephanie Betz 04 Oct '12

04 Oct '12

Thanks everyone for your responses - it looks like I'm going to need to learn Python to pull together what I want. Luckily that was something already on my to-do list. I am interested in notes as well as the content of the posts + tags - but I'll need to have a deeper think about how I could work this in. Cheers all, Steph. From: nicksmedulla(a)gmail.com [mailto:nicksmedulla@gmail.com] On Behalf Of Nick Johnson Sent: Wednesday, 3 October 2012 4:36 AM To: stephanie.betz(a)gmail.com Cc: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-L] Tools for Analysing Tumblr? Steph, I've been doing some work with Tumblr data analysis/visualization. I've also written some scripts in Python to pull data from the API, as well as doing some graph generation. I'd be happy to provide some advice in that regard if you need help creating tools. Scraping note data is a bit trickier, and there are some API license issues to watch out for. Depending on what kind of content you want to look at, this might not be an issue. Nick Johnson Graduate Program - Information Sciences & Technology University Park - Penn State www.nicksmedulla.com

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Literature Request: "Reposting Content on Social Media Sites"
by Alex Leavitt 04 Oct '12

04 Oct '12

Hi all! I'm beginning a project on social reposting in social media sites, but I'm having a (surprisingly) difficult time digging up relevant pieces of literature on the subject. If anyone has any leads, please do email me off-list, and I can compile the results afterward! Note: I'm not interested in social sharing (eg., 'I posted something I think other people should see on Facebook') but social re-sharing (eg., 'I clicked [Share] on a friend's Facebook post so others can see it too'). The best (only?) paper I could find is danah's older piece on Twitter retweet practices: http://www.danah.org/papers/TweetTweetRetweet.pdf Thanks for the help! Alex --- Alexander Leavitt PhD Student USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism http://alexleavitt.com Twitter: @alexleavitt

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ICA Preconference - 10 years on: looking forwards in mobile ICT research
by Charles Ess 03 Oct '12

03 Oct '12

(submitted on behalf of Rich Ling) 10 years on: looking forwards in mobile ICT research ICA Communications and Technology Division Mobile Communications 10th Anniversary Pre-Conference Workshop 16th and 17th June 2013 London School of Economics and Political Science Media and Communications Department Lead Organisers: Leslie Haddon (Senior Researcher LSE) Jane Vincent (Visiting Fellow University of Surrey Digital World Research) We are pleased to invite papers for the Mobile Communications ICA Pre-Conference Workshop. In celebration of its 10th Anniversary Year we also announce the introduction of an Award for the Best Paper. We look forward to receiving your submissions and to welcoming you in London in June 2013! Aims of the Pre-Conference Workshop This Workshop aims to understand more about the implications of the fast moving mobile world both on the social practices of the users of mobile ICTs as well as, and following the main ICA conference theme, on the ability of researchers to deliver reliable and effective research material. This 10th Mobile Communications ICA pre-conference provides a chance to take stock, reflect on and look forward to developments in research in this field over the forthcoming years. This will include discussing the general expectations and aspirations of an invited panel of experts and exploring the future research implications of contemporary studies to be reported at the conference. Workshop Topics Mobile communications are by no means new when we think in terms of walkie-talkies or car telephones but the hand held digital voice and data mobile communications that now populate our always on connected lives have only become omnipresent in the last five years. Ten years ago, when the first ICA Mobile Communications Pre-Conference Workshop was held, Twitter was unheard of, wifi virtually non-existent and mobile phone subscriptions a fifth of their present day numbers. Nowadays mobile ICTs are no longer merely mobile phones nor do they just involve communication between people. Instead mobile devices like smartphones, tablets or laptops use many convergent technologies (3G, 4G, Wifi, Television etc). How can this experience of, and exponential global growth in, mobile ICTs inform our ideas about the future? We anticipate many diverse topics which will be linked through the common thread of looking forwards in mobile communications perhaps also providing material that may help set a future research agenda. We welcome abstracts that relate to the following broad areas of mobile ICT research * Cultural differences * Gender * Children * Elderly * Mobile media * Migration * Social Media This range is in part designed to produce a broad overview, but other more specific areas will be considered. For example, contemporary studies are already identifying challenges in achieving consistency, reliability and quality of results in a fast moving world of Big Data, petabytes and change. New research has already highlighted the effects of people on the move around the globe migration within and between nations; as well as emotions, affect and sentiment with regard to using mobile devices. Best Paper Award An Award for the best paper will be given at this event; only full papers submitted by the entry date can be included for consideration for this award. Programme Outline Commencing 9am Sunday morning 16 June 2013 and concluding at 1pm 17th June, this one and a half day event will consist of expert panel presentations and reflections, and strands for the presentation of papers. There is an upper limit of 46 papers, and a limit of 70 delegates. Poster sessions may be an option if there is high demand. More details of programme and social events will be released as they are confirmed Venue and Cost The event is hosted by The London School of Economics and Political Science Media and Communications Department. The LSE is the world¹s leading social science institution for teaching and research, with an academic profile spanning a wide range of disciplines, from Economics, International Relations, Government and Law, to Sociology, Geography and the Environment and Accounting and Finance. Teaching and research are conducted through 18 departments and 26 research centres and institutes, with students drawn from more than 130 countries worldwide. Map link http://www2.lse.ac.uk/mapsAndDirections/howToGetToLSE.aspx <http://www2.lse.ac.uk/mapsAndDirections/howToGetToLSE.aspx> The cost will be £70 per person inclusive of lunch Sunday and coffee/tea Sunday and Monday morning. Paper Submission Process Contributions are invited from scholars from multiple disciplines studying mobile ICTs and at all stages of their career. In keeping with the pre-conference theme, those submitting abstracts should write something about the broader implications, issues, trends, future research, etc. that can be derived from the particular empirical study or the topic they focused upon. This will also help to seek further publication of any papers. Although the papers may well cover diverse topics this will ensure they have a common thread of implications for communications research. Abstracts 250 500 words to be sent to <j.vincent(a)surrey.ac.uk> Please include a 50 word max biography Abstract Deadline 16 November 2012 Confirmation of acceptance by 4 January 2012 Only Full Papers (max 8000 words) submitted by 31 March 2013 will be considered for the Best Paper Award. == And good luck! - charles Associate Professor in Media Studies Department of Media and Communication University of Oslo P.O. Box 1093 Blindern NO-0317 Oslo Norway Tel. +47 228 50404 email: charles.ess(a)media.uio.no Lifetime member, Association of Internet Researchers ³At vove er at miste fodfæstet for en stund, ikke at vove er at miste sig selv² [To dare is to lose your footing for an hour; not to dare is to lose yourself] - Kierkegaard

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Radarstation 2 - Call for Tracks
by wallace 03 Oct '12

03 Oct '12

Radarstation 2 â Call for tracks Fantomton is looking for musicians for a sound-project based on samples taken at the abandoned listening station at Teufelsberg Berlin. Link to the call: http://fantomton.de/experimente/radarstation-2-call-for-tracks/ *The Project* The abandoned listening station on the Teufelsberg Berlin has a magical atmosphere. The industrial area with its rusty metal surfaces, broken glass and the unique acoustic in the domes provide a rich repertoire of fascinating sounds which reflect the areaâs ambience. We could not resist the attraction of the place and visited it in 2009, equipped with microphones and recording devices. Subsequently the recordings were given to musicians in order to get different interpretations of the sound material. The goal was to translate the impressions of the place into music. The result is the release Radarstation: http://fantomton.de/releases/music/ft001-radarstation Due to great interest and a lot of positive reactions in the recent time, we once more would like to motivate artists to use our sound material to produce new exciting tracks. *How to contribute* The tracks should mainly consist of our samples and reflect the special atmosphere of the area, interpreted by the artists. The resulting works will be presented on our website and will be offered as âRadarstation 2â³ compilation for download. There is also the possibility of a CD release. The participating tracks should not be longer than 10 minutes and we would like to receive them in flac format. We will release the compilation under this creative commons license and need your approval [1]. Deadline is the 25. November 2012. *Recourses* You can find our samples in the Fantomon Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9fa44oynahx9bak/lQCZ7PSJdj Click Download -> As Zip As a further inspiration we recommend to go for a walk on Teufelsberg or take a look at the numerous pictures of the place. Conversion to flac: http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html *Send us your track* - Goto http://www.dropitto.me/fantomton - Use password: radarstation - Select your flac file and press upload Have fun listening to the samples and producing music. We are looking forward to hear your compositions and thank you in advance! The Fantomton Team [1] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/de/deed.en_US

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IR 13.0 birds of a feather sessions
by Feona Attwood 03 Oct '12

03 Oct '12

Birds of a Feather sessions provide an informal space during the conference where people can meet to talk about a topic that they are interested in. If you have ideas for topics and would like to get involved in organizing a session, please get in touch with Feona Attwood at attwood(a)aoir.org<mailto:attwood@aoir.org> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please note that Middlesex University's preferred way of receiving all correspondence is via email in line with our Environmental Policy. All incoming post to Middlesex University is opened and scanned by our digital document handler, CDS, and then emailed to the recipient. If you do not want your correspondence to Middlesex University processed in this way please email the recipient directly. Parcels, couriered items and recorded delivery items will not be opened or scanned by CDS. There are items which are "exceptions" which will be opened by CDS but will not be scanned a full list of these can be obtained by contacting the University.

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