September 2017 - Air-L - lists.aoir.org

CfP: "Rethinking AI Neural Networks, Biopolitics and the New Artificial Intelligence"
by Ramón Reichert 22 Feb '18

22 Feb '18

Dear AoIR/AoIR-Grad list members, enclosed please find the second call for proposals for: "Rethinking AI Neural Networks, Biopolitics and the New Artificial Intelligence" Digital Culture & Society Abstract submission: 01 September, 2017 Ramón Reichert, Mathias Fuchs (eds.) Rethinking AI Neural Networks, Biopolitics and the New Artificial Intelligence Ramón Reichert, Mathias Fuchs (eds.) The meaning of AI has undergone drastic changes during the last 60 years of AI discourse(s). What we talk about when saying “AI” is not what it meant in 1958, when John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky and their colleagues started using the term. Take game design as an example: When the Unreal game engine introduced "AI" in 1999, they were mainly talking about pathfinding. For Epic Megagames, the producers of Unreal, an AI was just a bot or monster whose pathfinding capabilities had been programmed in a few lines of code to escape an enemy. This is not "intelligence" in the Minskyan understanding of the word (and even less what Alan Turing had in mind when he designed the Turing test). There are also attempts to differentiate between AI, classical AI and "Computational Intelligence" (Al-Jobouri 2017). The latter is labelled CI and is used to describe processes such as player affective modelling, co-evolution, automatically generated procedural environments, etc. Artificial intelligence research has been commonly conceptualised as an attempt to reduce the complexity of human thinking. (cf. Varela 1988: 359-75) The idea was to map the human brain onto a machine for symbol manipulation – the computer. (Minsky 1952; Simon 1996; Hayles 1999) Already in the early days of what we now call “AI research” McCulloch and Pitts commented on human intelligence and proposed in 1943 that the networking of neurons could be used for pattern recognition purposes (McCulloch/Pitts 1943). Trying to implement cerebral processes on digital computers was the method of choice for the pioneers of artificial intelligence research. The “New AI” is no longer concerned with the needs to observe the congruencies or limitations of being compatible with the biological nature of human intelligence: “Old AI crucially depended on the functionalist assumption that intelligent systems, brains or computers, carry out some Turing-equivalent serial symbol processing, and that the symbols processed are a representation of the field of action of that system.” (Pickering 1993, 126) The ecological approach of the New AI has its greatest impact by showing how it is possible “to learn to recognize objects and events without having any formal representation of them stored within the system.” (ibid, 127) The New Artificial Intelligence movement has abandoned the cognitivist perspective and now instead relies on the premise that intelligent behaviour should be analysed using synthetically produced equipment and control architectures (cf. Munakata 2008). Kate Crawford (Microsoft Research) has recently warned against the impact that current AI research might have, in a noteworthy lecture titled: AI and the Rise of Fascism. Crawford analysed the risks and potential of AI research and asked for a critical approach in regard to new forms of data-driven governmentality: “Just as we are reaching a crucial inflection point in the deployment of AI into everyday life, we are seeing the rise of white nationalism and right-wing authoritarianism in Europe, the US and beyond. How do we protect our communities – and particularly already vulnerable and marginalized groups – from the potential uses of these systems for surveillance, harassment, detainment or deportation?” (Crawford 2017) Following Crawford’s critical assessment, this issue of the Digital Culture & Society journal deals with the impact of AI in knowledge areas such as computational technology, social sciences, philosophy, game studies and the humanities in general. Subdisciplines of traditional computer sciences, in particular Artificial Intelligence, Neuroinformatics, Evolutionary Computation, Robotics and Computer Vision once more gain attention. Biological information processing is firmly embedded in commercial applications like the intelligent personal Google Assistant, Facebook’s facial recognition algorithm, Deep Face, Amazon’s device Alexa or Apple’s software feature Siri (a speech interpretation and recognition interface) to mention just a few. In 2016 Google, Facebook, Amazon, IBM and Microsoft founded what they call a Partnership on AI. (Hern 2016) This indicates a move from academic research institutions to company research clusters. We are in this context interested in receiving contributions on the aspects of the history of institutional and private research in AI. We would like to invite articles that observe the history of the notion of “artificial intelligence” and articles that point out how specific academic and commercial fields (e.g. game design, aviation industry, transport industry etc.) interpret and use the notion of AI. Against this background, the special issue Rethinking AI will explore and reflect the hype of neuroinformatics in AI discourses and the potential and limits of critique in the age of computational intelligence. (Johnston 2008; Hayles 2014, 199-210) We are inviting contributions that deal with the history, theory and the aesthetics of contemporary neuroscience and the recent trends of artificial intelligence. (cf. Halpern 2014, 62ff) Digital societies increasingly depend on smart learning environments that are technologically inscribed. We ask for the role and value of open processes in learning environments and we welcome contributions that acknowledge the regime of production as promoted by recent developments in AI. We particularly welcome contributions that are historical and comparative or critically reflective about the biological impact on social processes, individual behaviour and technical infrastructure in a post-digital and post-human environment? What are the social, cultural and ethical issues, when artificial neuronal networks take hold in digital cultures? What is the impact on digital culture and society, when multi-agent systems are equipped with license to act? Submissions might cover the following topics or extend beyond that: A historical perspective of object/pattern recognition/identification/detection and AI Artificial intelligence recognition algorithms Computer vision Deep learning Device ecology Digital education governance Epistemology of learning in artificial neural networks Evolutionary computation Fuzzy systems and neural networks Games and virtual worlds Genetic algorithms Human enhancement and transhumanism Media archaeology Philosophical Posthumanism Philosophy of robotics Prognostics and predictive modelling Science history of neural nets and deep learning Socio-cultural Posthumanism Deadlines and contact information - Expressions of interest/Initial abstracts (max. 300 words) and short biographical note (max. 100 words) are due on: September 04, 2017. - Authors will be notified by September 10, 2017, whether they are invited to submit a full paper. - Full papers are due on: November 20, 2017. - Notifications to authors of referee decisions: January 15, 2018. - Final versions due: March 01, 2018. - Please send your abstract and short biographical note to Ramón Reichert ramon.reichert(a)univie.ac.at and Mathias Fuchs mathias.fuchs(a)leuphana.de. About the Journal: Digital Culture & Society seeks contributions that display a clear, inspiring engagement with media theory and/or methodological issues. Emphasising the relevance of new practices and technology appropriation for theory as well as methodology debates, the journal also encourages empirical investigations. For more info please visit: http://digicults.org/callforpapers/cfp-rethinking-ai/ For more information, see the official journal website: http://digicults.org/callforpapers/cfp-rethinking-ai/ With best wishes, Ramón -- Ramón Reichert tfm | Department for Theatre, Film and Media Studies Vienna University Althanstraße 14 1090 Vienna E-Mail: ramon.reichert(a)univie.ac.at Twitter: Ramón Reichert Skype: ramon_reichert NEW: CfP „Rethinking AI: Neural Networks, Biopolitics and the New Artificial Intelligence”. Spring Issue of Digital Culture & Society. Abstract deadline: July 10, 2017, http://digicults.org/callforpapers/cfp-rethinking-ai/ Co-Editor Journal Digital Culture & Society: http://www.transcript-verlag.de/zeitschriften/digital-culture-und-society/ Head of the post-graduate master’s course Data Studies at the Danube University Krems: http://www.donau-uni.ac.at/en/studium/data-studies/index.php European Project Researcher "Visual/video literacies", Erasmus+: http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/projects/eplus-project-details-… Lectrice Département des sciences de la communication et des médias Université de Fribourg, Suisse, http://www.unifr.ch/dcm/?page=accueil Lecturer in Contextual Studies School of Humanities and Social Sciences, St. Gallen, Switzerland http://www.unisg.ch/de/universitaet/schools/humanities+and+social+sciences Expert evaluator on behalf of the European Commission: https://erc.europa.eu/ Reviewer on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research: https://www.bmbf.de/ Current publications: http://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-2592-9/big-data http://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-3665-9/selfies-selbstthematisier… Residential Address: Feuerbachstraße 4/11 A-1020 Vienna Tel.: +43 699 171 88 401

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Special issue on digital advertising
by McMillan, Sally J 22 Nov '17

22 Nov '17

Courtney Childers and I are co-editing a special issue of the Journal of Interactive Advertising on digital technologies and advertising change. The due date is 12/31/17. More details at: http://explore.tandfonline.com/cfp/bes/ujia-digital-technologies

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Suggestions for visual material for Internet Governance & HR teaching
by zalnieriute . 27 Oct '17

27 Oct '17

Dear All, I would like to ask for some advice on visual teaching materials. I am soon to teach ma research stream on 'Internet Governance & Human Rights' for final year JD students at Melbourne Law School. Since I was free to design the course and materials, I thought it would be nice to include some visuals - short videos, interviews, exciting prezis - anything else that would be stimulating and of importance to such course. Anything suggestions either generally on Internet Governance, or digital rights, or Internet & Democracy would be highly appreciated! Best wishes, Monika -- Kind regards, Dr. Monika Zalnieriute Post-Doctoral Fellow @ Melbourne Law School | The University of Melbourne I law.unimelb.edu.au I 185 Pelham St, Carlton VIC 3053, Australia I Visiting Fellow @ Center for Media, Data and Society I Central European University I cmds.ceu.edu I Representative @ Executive Committee I Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group I ICANN I icann.org I

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Definitions for Social Media Sites
by Hayes, Rebecca M 03 Oct '17

03 Oct '17

First of all I have found this group to be an amazing resource. So thank you. Second, I am a criminologist who researches social media, so I am still learning. That said, I am looking for a good and trusted academic resource for definitions for social media sites. It could be a book, or a website, but I am attempting to provide appropriate definitions for reddit, 4chan, YikYak, etc. What is a go-to source for that? Thank you in advance! Best, Becky Rebecca Hayes, Ph.D. Sociology, Anthropology & Social Work Central Michigan University

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Re: [Air-L] got a story about frustrations of research using old or archived software?
by sally＠sally.com 29 Sep '17

29 Sep '17

Hi Patricia, One of these happened just today: Adobe Premiere Pro software used to enable wav file to text translation. But they took it out. It is still possible to convert a wav to text in Premiere Pro using version 7.2 or less, but 7.2 or less requires an OS that will run 7.2, not 11. I run 11 on an updated Mac OS, thus, I cannot install the version, thus I cannot use the feature, thus I can no longer easily get a quick snapshot transcription, unless I "downgrade" my machine, which isn't possible due to OS issues with other software. The capability is available in an archived version, but circumstances requiring upgrades have made this not useful. Hope this helps, Sally Sally Applin, Ph.D. Samsung Research America Intelligence Innovation Lab (Contract until 13 Oct. 2017) .......... University of Kent, Canterbury, UK School of Anthropology and Conservation Centre for Social Anthropology and Computing .......... Associate Editor, IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine Member, IoT Council Board Member: The Edward H. and Rosamond B. Spicer Foundation .......... [1]http://www.sally.com [2]http://www.posr.org .......... Seeking a full-time position in company, start-up, research group, or university. My research examines human communication and co-adaptation to algorithms and automated processes. Find me at [3]sally(a)sally.com -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [Air-L] got a story about frustrations of research using old or archived software? From: Patricia Aufderheide <[4]pat.aufderheide(a)gmail.com> Date: Fri, September 29, 2017 3:12 pm To: "[5]air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org" <[6]air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org> I'm working with some great legal scholars on an analysis of problems in software preservation, and are finding great archivists, but they often can't tell us much about what researchers would like to do with software that's been archived if they could. We've heard from the archivists that generally researchers want to access content by using obsolete software, and we understand that sometimes you might be interested in studying versions or iterations of the content that might be stored on archived software (e.;g. a WordPerfect file on an author's laptop) but we're also thinking that people might want to have access to archived software for other kinds of research as well. We hypothesize that people might want to study the history of software, or to analyze activity on a gaming platform, or....gosh, we don't know. Have you had a project be frustrated because you couldn't go to a library or archive (virtually or physically) and get access to archived software? If so we'd love to hear about it in any way you'd like to tell us. Feel free to share the request. -- Patricia Aufderheide, University Professor, School of Communication Founder, Center for Media & Social Impact American University 4400 Massachusetts Av., NW American University, Washington, DC 20016-8017 McKinley Hall 323 @paufder @cmsimpact [7]cmsimpact.org [8]paufder(a)american.edu 202-885-2069 office <202-643-5356> 240-643-4805 mobile <202-643-5356> "The world we have received also belongs to those who follow us." --Pope Francis _______________________________________________ The [9]Air-L(a)listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers [10]http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: [11]http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: [12]http://www.aoir.org References 1. http://www.sally.com/ 2. http://www.posr.org/ 3. mailto:sally@sally.com 4. mailto:pat.aufderheide@gmail.com 5. mailto:air-l@listserv.aoir.org 6. mailto:air-l@listserv.aoir.org 7. http://cmsimpact.org/ 8. mailto:paufder@american.edu 9. mailto:Air-L@listserv.aoir.org 10. http://aoir.org/ 11. http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org 12. http://www.aoir.org/

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got a story about frustrations of research using old or archived software?
by Patricia Aufderheide 29 Sep '17

29 Sep '17

I'm working with some great legal scholars on an analysis of problems in software preservation, and are finding great archivists, but they often can't tell us much about what researchers would like to do with software that's been archived if they could. We've heard from the archivists that generally researchers want to access content by using obsolete software, and we understand that sometimes you might be interested in studying versions or iterations of the content that might be stored on archived software (e.;g. a WordPerfect file on an author's laptop) but we're also thinking that people might want to have access to archived software for other kinds of research as well. We hypothesize that people might want to study the history of software, or to analyze activity on a gaming platform, or....gosh, we don't know. Have you had a project be frustrated because you couldn't go to a library or archive (virtually or physically) and get access to archived software? If so we'd love to hear about it in any way you'd like to tell us. Feel free to share the request. -- Patricia Aufderheide, University Professor, School of Communication Founder, Center for Media & Social Impact American University 4400 Massachusetts Av., NW American University, Washington, DC 20016-8017 McKinley Hall 323 @paufder @cmsimpact cmsimpact.org paufder(a)american.edu 202-885-2069 office <202-643-5356> 240-643-4805 mobile <202-643-5356> "The world we have received also belongs to those who follow us." --Pope Francis

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experiences making large web archives datasets accessible for research?
by kalev leetaru 29 Sep '17

29 Sep '17

As the landscape of copyright and fair use continues to evolve and as more and more academic research relies on large datasets that are often, at least in part, compiled from open web crawling, especially emerging areas like neural network training datasets, its interesting to think about how the world's web archives might make more of their holdings available for academic research. In the US, for example, most university IRB's I've spoken with treat web-derived datasets as "exempt" regardless of the sensitivity of the questions being asked and some institutions that have additional pre-IRB data reviews appear to waive those in at least some cases when it comes to web data ( https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2017/09/16/ai-gaydar-and-how-the-…) and thus web crawled data is becoming especially popular. While technical limitations do surface as concerns, the most common issue I've heard from web archives regarding why they don't open their holdings more broadly to data mining access revolves around copyright law and their interpretations of fair use when it comes to academic data mining (and of course the landscape of copyright and "fair use" exceptions vary dramatically across the world). Thought many on this list would find of interest a piece I put out yesterday talking with Common Crawl and their approach to fair use and recommendations for web archives considering making their archives more accessible to data mining access: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2017/09/28/common-crawl-and-unloc… While obviously the notion of just what counts as "fair use" or its equivalent is highly contested and varies from country to country (if it exists at all in a form amenable to data mining), for a followon piece I'm doing, I'd love to hear from anyone on this list who has released similar large archives of web content for open research and the legal justifications you used and your experiences there and any adjustments you made to the collection that your counsel felt made the fair use argument stronger and whether you distributed just the raw HTML, whether you included imagery, etc, and whether you just posted a download link or whether you required a signed researcher agreement first, and whether you distributed the content to their machines or required it to be processed locally. There are obviously a tremendous number of opinion pieces out there and legal arguments and briefs provided by a myriad organizations for and against archives being able to box up large holdings of web pages and make them available for data mining, so I'm particularly interested in real-world examples of where groups have actually made large collections of web pages available to others for data mining and how they accomplished that and the considerations and concessions they made that they believe ensured their work complied with fair use or its equivalent in their country (rather than opinion pieces that just talk about how it can or can not and should or should not be done). Feel free to respond to me off list if you'd prefer. Thanks so much! Kalev

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CfP: [Extended Deadline] International Conference on Smart Learning Environments (ICSLE 2018)
by Elvira Popescu 29 Sep '17

29 Sep '17

[submission due date is extended to October 14, 2017] CALL FOR PAPERS International Conference on Smart Learning Environments (ICSLE 2018) March 18-20, 2018, Beijing, China http://iasle.net/icsle2018 * Main conference paper submission: October 14, 2017 (extended) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The International Conference on Smart Learning Environments (ICSLE 2018) aims to bring together researchers, practitioners, and policy makers to discuss issues related to the optimization of learning environments to enhance learning. The focus is on the interplay of pedagogy, technology and their fusion towards the advancement of smart learning environments. ~ Conference Outcomes: * Proceedings in Springer's Lecture Notes in Educational Technology series. * Extended versions of selected papers will be invited for Springer's Smart Learning Environments journal (Open access journal with no author processing charge) ~ Important dates: Main conference paper submission: October 14, 2017 (extended) Acceptance/Rejection notification: November 29, 2017 Camera ready papers: December 15, 2017 Author registration: December 15, 2017 ~ Submissions: * Full and Short Experience Reports * Full and Short Research Studies * Work-in-progress Papers * Reflection papers * Posters * Workshop proposals * Panel proposals ~ Honorary Chairs: Larry Johnson, EdFutures.org, USA Diana Laurillard, Institute of Education, United Kingdom Demetrios G. Sampson, Curtin University, Australia ~ General Chairs: Kinshuk, The University of North Texas, USA Nian-Shing Chen, National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan Mohamed Jemni, University of Tunis, Tunisia ~ Conference Chairs: Dong Qi, President, Beijing Normal University, China Neal Smatresk, President, University of North Texas, USA ~ Program Chairs: Maiga Chang, Athabasca University, Canada Elvira Popescu, University of Craiova, Romania ~ Local Chairs: Ronghuai Huang, Beijing Normal University, China J. Michael Spector, The University of North Texas, USA ~ Workshop/Panel Chairs: Vive Kumar, Athabasca University, Canada Ting-Wen Chang, Beijing Normal University, China ~ Publicity Chairs: Guang Chen, Beijing Normal University, China Michail Giannakos, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway Isabelle Guillot, Athabasca University, Canada ~ Technical Operations Chairs: Rébecca Guillot, Athabasca University, Canada Richard Tortorella, University of Eastern Finland, Finland Marc Denojean-Mairet, ByteForce Media, Canada Junfeng Yang, Hangzhou Normal University, China ~ Further details: http://iasle.net/icsle2018

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Global Media and China - the latest issue and CFP
by Xiao Han 29 Sep '17

29 Sep '17

Dear All, We are pleased to announce that our journal Global Media and China has just published its latest issue Volume 2, Issue 2 March 2017. And also we sincerely welcome your contribution to our journals. If you are interested and have the time, it is a great honour for us to receive your submission. Here is the submission portal:https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/gmac <https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/gmac>. For more information about Global Media and China, please go to http://journals.sagepub.com/home/gch <http://gch.sagepub.com/>, you can also find detailed submission guidelines there. You can freely read this inaugural issue at: http://journals.sagepub.com/toc/gch/current <http://journals.sagepub.com/toc/gch/current> Volume 2, Issue 2, March 2017 Interview Interview with Professor John Ellis John Ellis Original Articles Hero is back- The rising of Chinese audiences: The demonstration of SHI in popularizing of a Chinese animation Fei Jiang and Kuo Huang You are what you post in “circle of friends” of Wechat: Self-presentation and identity production from a personality perspective Chenglong Lin, Wei Fang and Jianbin Jin Comparing the use of space in selfies on Chinese Weibo and Twitter Jessica Roberts and Michael Koliska Casting an “Outsider” in the ritual centre: Two decades of performances of “Rural Migrants” in CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala Yan Yuan Science learning in early years: Effects of the Chinese television series Big Bird Looks at the World Yeh Hsueh, Zongkui Zhou, Guimin Su, June Lee and Katherine Kitzmann In focus Empire, Tianxia and Great Unity: A historical examination and future vision of China’s international communication Lei Zhang and Zhengrong Hu Dr HAN Xiao Research Assistant, Social Media Centre, Communication University of China (CUC) Commissioning Editor, Global Media and China gch.sagepub.com <http://gch.sagepub.com/>

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Jobs: Four tenured/tenure-track positions at Georgia Tech
by Lauren Klein 28 Sep '17

28 Sep '17

Dear Colleagues, My department, the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Tech, is hiring in four tenured/tenure track positions: Black media, poetry, games, and technical communication. Ads are as follows: https://www.lmc.gatech.edu/hiring-black-media <https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lmc.gatech.edu%2Fhiring-bl…> https://www.lmc.gatech.edu/hiring-bourne-chair <https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lmc.gatech.edu%2Fhiring-bo…> https://www.lmc.gatech.edu/hiring-dm-games <https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lmc.gatech.edu%2Fhiring-dm…> https://www.lmc.gatech.edu/hiring-tech-comm <https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lmc.gatech.edu%2Fhiring-te…> Please direct questions to the appropriate search committee. Best, Lauren — Lauren F. Klein, Ph.D. Assistant Professor School of Literature, Media, and Communication Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA 30332-0165 lauren.klein(a)lmc.gatech.edu <mailto:lauren.klein@lmc.gatech.edu>

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