March 2018 - Air-L - lists.aoir.org

Report: Survey of Research Needs of the Digital Rights Community
by Joly MacFie 22 Mar '18

22 Mar '18

[via ISOC] ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Understanding the Research Needs of the Internet Freedom Community: A New Report This report <https://globalnetpolicy.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4e737cdd4472a960…>, based on a 2017 survey of 79 organizations engaged in digital rights advocacy from around the world, seeks to provide clarity on how the community understands and utilizes research within current advocacy efforts and to identify the needs for future research and collaboration efforts. Through the survey, we asked organizations to consider their capacities for conducting research and using it within their campaigns, perceptions of current research being produced on internet policy issues, and thoughts on barriers to and opportunities for collaboration between research and advocacy organizations. The study seeks to address the following key questions: - Which research methods do organizations use the most in internal research? What capacities for research exist within organizations and via existing collaborations with research institutions? - What issue areas are perceived as the most researched and the least researched? - What kinds of aggregated datasets would be most useful for organizations’ advocacy? - Who are the perceived audiences for digital rights organizations’ research and advocacy? - What are current barriers to collaboration between research and advocacy organizations? - How can funding be directed to improve collaborations, increase research capacity, and produce research needed by and representative of the community? <https://globalnetpolicy.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4e737cdd4472a960…> Click here to read the full report! <https://globalnetpolicy.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4e737cdd4472a960…> For more information or feedback, please email lsh(a)asc.upenn.edu. We are interested in hearing more from the community about our findings and thoughts for future work in this area. Please also click here <https://globalnetpolicy.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4e737cdd4472a960…> for a newly published Field Guide for Researching ICT Companies by Nathalie Marechal and Sarah T. Roberts. This guide aims to provide insights and resources for civil society groups on researching the role of ICT companies in policy. <https://globalnetpolicy.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4e737cdd4472a960…> <https://globalnetpolicy.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4e737cdd4472a960…> <https://globalnetpolicy.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4e737cdd4472a960…> *Copyright © 2018 Internet Policy Observatory, All rights reserved.* Y *Our mailing address is:* Internet Policy Observatory 3901 Walnut St <https://maps.google.com/?q=3901+Walnut+St+Philadelphia+,++Pennsylvania+1910…> Philadelphia <https://maps.google.com/?q=3901+Walnut+St+Philadelphia+,++Pennsylvania+1910…>, Pennsylvania <https://maps.google.com/?q=3901+Walnut+St+Philadelphia+,++Pennsylvania+1910…> 19104 <https://maps.google.com/?q=3901+Walnut+St+Philadelphia+,++Pennsylvania+1910…> -- --------------------------------------------------------------- Joly MacFie 218 565 9365 Skype:punkcast -------------------------------------------------------------- -

1 0

Organizing Mini-Conference on AI and Politics
by Jose Marichal 21 Mar '18

21 Mar '18

Colleagues, If any of you are going to the Western Political Science Association next week, I'd like to meet with you about the prospect of putting together a mini-conference on AI/Data Science and Politics for the 2019 WPSA conference in San Diego. If you're not attending but might still be interested in helping me organize something or in participating, please let me know. Warmest regards, Jose Marichal California Lutheran University -- _______________________________________________________________________________________ josé marichal, ph.d. | professor and chair| political science department | california lutheran university 60 w. olsen road | #3800 | thousand oaks, ca 91360

1 0

WORKSHOPS 30th March - IFIP Computers in Entertainment (ICEC) || 18-20th Sept 2018 || DL: 7th May-Papers || Poznan, Poland
by Artur Lugmayr 21 Mar '18

21 Mar '18

========================================================================= ========================================================================= ========================================================================= 17th IFIP INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENTERTAINMENT COMPUTING (ICEC'18) co-located with IFIP World Computer Congress (WCC'18) “ explore . create . reflect . develop ” Bridging the gap between technology, HCI, business, design, and art in entertainment Date: 18-20 September, 2018 Venue: Poznan, Poland http://www.ifip-icec.org ========================================================================= HIGHLIGHTS: - breaking NEW ACTIVITIES@ICEC: art exhibition, ICEC award, new conference areas - NEW AREAS@ICEC media studies, human-computer-interaction, business & information systems - first DEADLINES approaching: 14th March 2018 - Workshops, 7th May 2018 - Papers - IFIP ICEC Entertainment Award ========================================================================= STAY IN TOUCH - Like us on Facebook to get news: https://www.facebook.com/EntertainmentComputing/ - Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/EntertainmentComputing/ - Subscribe to our Mailinglist on http://www.ifip-icec.org - Twitter: @IFIP_ICEC ========================================================================= ========================================================================= ========================================================================= The IFIP International Conference on Entertainment Computation is the longest lasting and prime scientific conference series in the area of Entertainment Computing. It brings together practitioners, researchers, artists, designers, and industry on the design, creation, development, use, application and evaluation of digital entertainment content and experience systems. The conference series is cross-disciplinary, and stretches over the domains of computer science, human-computer-interaction, content production, digital games, multimedia, media studies, art, and design. The conference series aims at presenting high quality scientific results spanning from theory to application, use-cases, experience, and demonstrations. We solicit papers, posters, and demonstrations, as well as we are looking for tutorial and workshop proposal. The conference theme for 2018 is “Explore . Create . Reflect . Develop”. All papers are published by Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Best full papers are recommended to publish in a special issue of the Elsevier Entertainment Computing Journal. IMPORTANT DATES: * March 30th, 2018: Workshops DEADLINE EXTENDED * May 7, 2018: Long and Short Papers (notification June, 5 2018) * May 20, 2018: Posters, Demos, Tutorials, Interactive Sessions (notification June 5, 2018) * June 19, 2018: Camera Ready Papers Due (all tracks) * July 1, 2018: Suggested Deadline for Workshop Papers * July 1, 2018: Art Exhibitions Entries * August 1, 2018: Doctoral Consortium Application SUBMISSION CATEGORIES: * Short (6pp) and long papers (12pp) * Posters (4pp + the actual poster in A0 as pdf) * Art, Demonstrations and Interactive Exhibits (4pp including description of the experience) * Industry track (1pp + modality /demonstration, justification of modality: demo/presentation) * Workshops and tutorials (4pp) * Doctoral consortium (4pp) SUBMISSION GUIDELINES AND CONTACT INFORMATION: All submission guidelines can be found on the conference website on http://www.ifip-icec.org. If you have any questions concerning the conference, please contact us under contact(a)ifip-icecc.org . CONFERENCE ORGANISERS: The conference is organized by the IFIP-TC14 - Artur Lugmayr, Curtin Univ., AUSTRALIA - General Chair - Kathrin Gerling, KU Leuven, BELGIUM - General Chair - Esteban Clua, Fluminese Federal Univ., BRAZIL - Program Chair - Licinio Roque, from Universidade de Coimbra, PORTUGAL - Program Chair - Rainer Malaka, Univ. of Bremen, GERMANY - IFIP TC 14 Chair TOPICS: We invite the submission of papers, posters, demos, tutorials and workshop proposals on the design, development, and study of broad forms of digital entertainment. Topics include but are not limited to: Emerging Topics in Entertainment Computing - Ubiquitous Computing and Interfaces in Entertainment - Immersive and Virtual Multimedia Experiences - Quality of Services (QoS), and Quality of Experience (QoE) - AI, Big Data, and Deep Learning in Entertainment - Content Production and Production Systems Digital Games and Interactive Entertainment - Game Design and Development - Interactive Narratives & Digital Storytelling - Entertainment Robots, Toys & Smart Gadgets Design, Human-Computer Interaction, and Analysis of Entertainment Systems - Experience Design & Analysis - Telemetry & Semi-Automated Analysis - Methodologies, Tools & Techniques for Entertainment - Human Factors & Performance of Entertainment Applications & Technology Interactive Art, Performance and Cultural Computing - Digital Art & Installations - Virtual/Augmented/Mixed Reality & Entertainment - Ubiquitous/Pervasive Entertainment - Sound, Music & Performance - TransMedia and Entertainment - Social Computing Entertainment Devices, Platforms & Systems - Digital Entertainment Hardware & Devices - Ambient Entertainment - Digital Broadcasting and Digital Cinema - Interactive Television and Broadcasting Theoretical Foundations and Ethical Issues - Emotions and Affective Interaction - Social / Cultural Impacts of Digital Entertainment - Issues of Public Relations & Advertising Through Entertainment Entertainment for Purpose & Persuasion - Serious & Learning Games - Games for Health & Well-Being - Games For Change & Social Impact Games - Exergaming - Advergames and Digital Marketing Computational Methodologies for Entertainment - Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning for Entertainment - Procedural Content Generation - Computer Graphics & Visual Effects - Big Data in Entertainment - Security & Privacy in Entertainment Media Studies, Communication, Business, and Information Systems - Information Technology in Media Industry - IT and the Economics of Media Business - Audience Measurement and Participation - Interplay between technology, content, and consumer choice - Adoption and diffusion of technology driven media products - New communication models through emerging new technologies

1 0

Funded PhD Studentships - Improving the Health of Our Online Civic Culture Centre for Doctoral Training
by Andrew Chadwick 21 Mar '18

21 Mar '18

Dear AoIR list, May I draw your attention to some PhD studentships here at Loughborough University? This is the first wave of positions and they’re part of a new interdisciplinary centre for doctoral training we’re setting up. If you know talented students who are seeking funding for their doctoral research I’d be grateful if you would alert them to this message. Also, do feel free to distribute it more widely. The description is below. More detail and information on how to apply here: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/crcc/doctoralresearch/civic-culture-cdt These positions are also formally advertised next week on jobs.ac.uk and findaphd.com Informal enquiries can be directed to me at a.chadwick(a)lboro.ac.uk and/or to the primary supervisor for the specific project applicants are considering. Many thanks. Andy - - - Improving the Health of Our Online Civic Culture: A New Centre for Doctoral Training at Loughborough University Established in 2018 with an award from Loughborough University’s Adventure Research Programme, the Online Civic Culture Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) applies cutting-edge concepts and methods from social science and information science to understand the role of social media in shaping our civic culture. Led by Professor Andrew Chadwick, it features a team of ten academic supervisors drawn from the disciplines of communication, information science, social psychology, and sociology. The CDT enables interdisciplinary teams of researchers and PhD students to work together on issues of misinformation, disinformation, and the rise of hate speech and incivility online. It develops evidence-based knowledge to mitigate the democratically-dysfunctional aspects of social media. At the same time, it identifies and promotes the positive civic engagement benefits of social media. http://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/crcc/doctoralresearch/civic-culture-cdt ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Professor Andrew Chadwick, Professor of Political Communication, Centre for Research in Communication and Culture, Loughborough University, Loughborough, Leicestershire, United Kingdom. (e) a.chadwick(a)lboro.ac.uk (w) www.lboro.ac.uk/research/crcc (w) www.andrewchadwick.com (t) www.twitter.com/andrew_chadwick

1 0

Estimating adsense revenue?
by Daniel Carter 20 Mar '18

20 Mar '18

Hi, Does anyone have experience estimating adsense (or other online advertising) revenue? Or know of a paper that does similar? I'm working on a project that centers on a specific blog, and I've built a good estimate of site traffic. I'm hoping to come up with an estimate of the advertising income from that traffic. Even a very, very rough estimate would be useful to me. Alternately, if anyone has contacts in online advertising that might be willing to weigh in briefly, that would be helpful as well. Thanks, Daniel Carter Assistant Professor of Digital Media School of Journalism and Mass Communication Texas State University

3 3

CFP International Symposium: Digital Participation and the Politics of Inclusion and Exclusion
by Sora Park 20 Mar '18

20 Mar '18

Dear colleagues The News & Media Research Centre and Institute for Governance & Policy Analysis are co-hosting a symposium on digital participation in Canberra, a few days before IPSA conference starts in Brisbane. Any questions welcome! *CFP International Symposium: Digital Participation and the Politics of Inclusion and Exclusion* Wednesday 18 July 2018 Ann Harding Centre, University of Canberra <http://www.canberra.edu.au/about-uc/faculties/arts-design/courses/communica…> Co-hosted by News & Media Research Centre <http://www.canberra.edu.au/research/faculty-research-centres/nmrc> and Institute for Governance & Policy Analysis <http://www.governanceinstitute.edu.au/> www.canberra.edu.au/nmrc/digital-participation Regards, Sora

1 0

Challenges of Social Media Data for Bibliometrics. Special Track at STI Conference 2018. Deadline April 1.
by Weller, Katrin 20 Mar '18

20 Mar '18

Dear colleagues, as part of the STI Conference 2018 (http://sti2018.cwts.nl) we will be organizing a special track on the "Challenges of Social Media Data for Bibliometrics" (#sti18challenge). This specialized track focuses on the ongoing challenges for using data from social media platforms and from third party aggregators as sources for research metrics and scientometric indicators. These challenges include but are not limited to: --> platform-based restrictions in accessing social media data and potential biases resulting from limited access (also: biases introduced by data aggregators) --> black boxes, hidden algorithms, and lack of information about collection processes and context affecting the use of social media data and data aggregators -->lack of understanding of user activities (e.g. motivations to retweet, like, share) and user groups in academic contexts -->incomplete data (e.g. due to missing DOIs or identifiers not tracked by aggregators) and noise (e.g.due to bot-activity) We invite the following types of submissions: a) original research studying the quality of social media data and data aggregators for measuring scholarly communication b) short (hands-on) introductions and best practices for using data from one or more specific social media platforms or aggregators. Please submit your work as short papers (max 3,000 words) until April 1, 2018. See http://sti2018.cwts.nl/submissions for templates, EasyChair access and additional submission information. Looking forward to your submissions Katrin Weller, Astrid Orth, Isabella Peters -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CONFERENCE INFORMATION -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 23rd Science and Technology Indicators Conference (STI 2018) September 12-14, 2018 Leiden, The Netherlands. Website: http://sti2018.cwts.nl -------------------------------------------------------------------------- IMPORTANT DATES -------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Deadline for submissions: April 1, 2018 - Notification of acceptance: June 15, 2018 - Early-bird registration: June 15 - July 15, 2018 - Conference: September 12 - 14, 2018 --- Dr. Katrin Weller GESIS Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences Dept. Computational Social Science Unter Sachsenhausen 6-8 D-50667 Köln Germany E-Mail: katrin.weller(a)gesis.org<mailto:katrin.weller@gesis.org> Twitter: @kwelle Web: http://katrinweller.net<http://katrinweller.net/>

1 0

Extended Deadline - CFP The Place I Call Research
by Jaime García Iglesias 20 Mar '18

20 Mar '18

*The Place I Call Research: Localizing Sociological Inquiry* *Call for Papers* *Deadline for submissions: April 16, 2018* Due to the impact of UCU strikes, we are extending the deadline for three weeks. Do not miss this opportunity to start building your CV in the most friendly of environments. This conference seeks to engage researchers across the social and medical sciences to discuss the role of place in their work. In particular, we are interested in exploring the ways in which methodologies are contextualized to tackle both new spaces and ‘old’ spaces in the flux of change, as well as the role of place and space within their subject areas. We are also attentive to the role of space and place within our works: the role of space in health and sickness. The conference will take place at the University of Manchester on 15 June 2018. It is an all-day event which will feature both academic papers and public events including a roundtable about sexual health outreach with community members, a public screening, and an exhibition. Attendance is free. We welcome submissions for 15 minute papers from doctoral and masters’ students and early-career researchers across multiple disciplines, especially sociology, nursing, public health, and counseling. Some of the conference’s key themes are: - addressing changing political and social contexts in our research - Spaces in in the body and bodies in space - new and old spaces: queer, postcolonial and online contexts across disciplines - Place ownership, homelessness and place-lessness and its impacts - how social, cultural, and community contexts affect our work; outreach - developing community-specific methodologies and research questions - how theories and knowledges are context-specific, as well as the potential for trans-contextual research - the existence and functioning of spaces of disease and healing - spaces of disability We encourage submissions that address these topics from varied quantitative and qualitative approaches. Abstract submissions should be between 150 and 300 words and include five keywords. Creative research methodologies are welcomed. Scholars are encouraged to reflect on local engagement in their papers. Deadline for submission is April 16, 2018. Website (and submission form): www.placemcr2018.wordpress.com. Inquiries should be directed at placemcr2018(a)manchester.ac.uk -- *Jaime Garcia-Iglesias* The University of Manchester Twitter <https://outlook.manchester.ac.uk/owa/redir.aspx?C=A_gZOKKCeUAotWHc_1i3ExusP…> ¦ Academia <https://outlook.manchester.ac.uk/owa/redir.aspx?C=Rgjwhvh-Nj7EqjH53AkxYFG26…> ¦ UoM <https://outlook.manchester.ac.uk/owa/redir.aspx?C=KcbFOtK5fr0gpIFVMAiLCtgC_…>

1 0

Reminder: Call for Abstracts -- Special Issue on Apps and Infrastructures
by Anne Helmond 20 Mar '18

20 Mar '18

Dear all, We invite submissions for a special issue of Computational Culture on "Apps and Infrastructures", edited by Carolin Gerlitz, Anne Helmond, David Nieborg, and Fernando van der Vlist. Please find the call for abstracts below. 750 word abstracts are due by April 1, 2018. More information is available at http://computationalculture.net/cfps-events/. Queries to the editors can be addressed at apps.infrastructures(a)gmail.com. Best regards, Carolin Gerlitz (University of Siegen) Anne Helmond (University of Amsterdam) David Nieborg (University of Toronto) Fernando van der Vlist (University of Siegen and University of Amsterdam) -- # CALL FOR ABSTRACTS # APPS AND INFRASTRUCTURES # A special issue of Computational Culture, a Journal of Software Studies # Edited by Carolin Gerlitz, Anne Helmond, David Nieborg, Fernando van der Vlist ## OUTLINE Apps have become an important new cultural, technical, and economic software form. Most of today’s apps are designed to run on smartphones and other mobile devices and provide functions previously possible with other software forms (Morris and Elkins, 2015). However, they represent new ways in which software artefacts are developed, tested, packaged, promoted, distributed, monitored, monetised, downloaded, integrated, updated, stored, accessed, archived, interpreted, and used. To foreground the relational and material dimensions of apps, research should not only account for them as discrete media objects, but needs to approach apps as part of their multiple infrastructures and environments including app stores, development platforms, advertising technologies, analytics tools, and cloud services, among others. App stores set the conditions for users and developers to distribute, browse, promote, monetise, rate, and download apps developed for Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android, or other mobile operating systems. Developers draw on a variety of both official and third-party developer tools, including developer pages and reference documentation, application programming interfaces (APIs), software development kits (SDKs), integrated development environments (IDEs), and dedicated programming languages. Such resources are commonly employed in order to build, test, and monitor apps whilst appropriating the features and constraints of particular platforms and devices, thereby participating in the re-interpretation and re-evaluation of platform features and data. Furthermore, apps may also utilise a device’s built-in sensors for continuous data collection of movements, practices, and environments whilst being wirelessly connected to the cloud or other infrastructures, without the user necessarily knowing exactly when, how, or where (Mackenzie, 2010). Approaching apps from an infrastructural perspective allows attending to the various socio-technical actors, layers, and inscriptions that inform app development, distribution, and usage in situated, distributed, and often dissimilar ways. Within such stacked intermediary infrastructures, platform logics of negotiation among heterogeneous stakeholders are multiplied and nested. This raises questions about the material and technological boundaries of apps and the subsequent need for methodologies to study apps’ socio-technical assemblages on multiple scales, attending to inbound and outbound data flows, governance and power, valuation, their political economy, and material semiotics. Previous research on apps -- initially emerging at the intersection of mobile studies and media studies -- considered mobile apps as a form of mobile or location-based media transforming and generating new forms of communication and sociality, places, and publics through the affordances and practices associated with mobile artefacts (Goggin and Hjorth, 2014). While these studies raised general questions about the boundaries of apps, attention was primarily directed to apps as compartmentalised software applications and their relations with affect, bodies, and locales (Farman 2012; Matviyenko et al., 2015; Morris and Elkins, 2015). A second strand of app research has moved beyond such a single app focus and directed primary attention to the materialities and infrastructures of apps by engaging with their data cultures, material connections, political economic underpinnings, and ecologies (Albury et al., 2017; Farman, 2015; Goldsmith in Goggin and Hjorth, 2014; Horst, 2013; Nieborg, 2017; Wilken, 2015). This special issue of Computational Culture welcomes proposals and projects from scholars and practitioners from across different disciplines interested in the advancement of app studies at the intersection of apps and infrastructures. Studies of mobile apps, platform native apps, and web browser apps or extensions are particularly encouraged. We specifically seek articles that bring together conceptual work with a technically and empirically grounded perspective, addressing the methodological challenges associated with the critical study of apps and their intricate relations to other software, platforms, and infrastructures. Contributors are encouraged to move beyond studies of single apps and their users in favor of approaches that explore apps as material artefacts alongside the infrastructures, political economy, and environments in which they are embedded and situationally enacted. We thus encourage interdisciplinary contributions that traverse boundaries between the fields of software studies, platform studies, cultural and media studies, science and technology studies, as well as political economy and data critique. ## TOPICS AND PROJECTS MIGHT INCLUDE * The relations between apps and their wider material and infrastructural environments, including app stores, development platforms and toolkits, analytics tools, advertising technologies, and cloud services. * The methodological and empirical challenges associated with the critical study of apps, including concerns about accessibility to mobile app backends and the limits of data retrieval through APIs or scraping methods as used in web research. * Studies of apps as articulations of technicity (e.g., how they are designed, built, maintained, and updated) and the data cultures they produce (e.g., what data do they collect or require). * Detailed empirical and critical studies exploring apps’ data cultures, usage tracking, technical dependencies and app permissions, sensor technologies, and wireless access points. * Inventive methods to conceptualise how apps are located or situated, given they are utilising a mobile device’s built-in sensors as well as accessing other resources from remote cloud infrastructures. * Studies of the political economy of apps (e.g., how apps are valued and monetized), the role of industry partnerships and third parties (e.g., how apps are re-interpreted or extended), and the politics of operability (e.g., how apps negotiate among stakeholders or interests). * Explorations of the techno-economic relations between the web and app ecosystems, including the dependencies of apps on web platforms and cloud services, as well as the regulations and limits of app development by device manufacturers and mobile operating systems like Android and iOS. * Explorations of the ways and mechanisms through which multiple apps are interconnected, forming collections, ecologies, and chains of apps in specific practices (e.g., task and content automation). * Media archaeologies exploring historical constellations of apps and their wider material and infrastructural environments and other historical approaches to app research. * Explorations of app stores as the primary environment or infrastructure for mobile apps, including contributions focusing on non-Western apps and app stores, apps’ update cultures, and their development cycles. * The ways in which different material and infrastructural environments, such as app stores, cater to distinct mobile operating systems, devices, and geographic regions. * Critical artistic interventions and research software tools that repurpose the affordances of apps, app stores and other native environments, and explore their data cultures. ## SCHEDULE 750 word abstracts should be emailed to apps.infrastructures(a)gmail.com by April 1, 2018. Any queries can be addressed to the editors at apps.infrastructures(a)gmail.com. Abstracts will be reviewed by the Computational Culture Editorial Board and the special issue editors. Authors of selected abstracts will be notified by May 1, 2018 and invited to submit full manuscripts by September 15, 2018. These manuscripts are subject to full blind peer review according to Computational Culture’s policies. The issue will be published in March 2019. Computational Culture is an online open-access peer-reviewed journal of interdisciplinary enquiry into the nature of cultural computational objects, practices, processes and structures. -- http://computationalculture.net/cfps-events/ --- Dr. Anne Helmond | Assistant Professor of New Media and Digital Culture University of Amsterdam | Turfdraagsterpad 9 | 1012 XT Amsterdam | The Netherlands http://www.uva.nl/profile/a.helmond | http://www.annehelmond.nl/ | @silvertje Highlighted publication: Helmond, Anne. 2015. “The Platformization of the Web: Making Web Data Platform Ready.” Social Media + Society 1 (2). doi:10.1177/2056305115603080.

1 0

CfP AAA2018 San Jose: Panel Digital Infrastructures
by Plets, G.F.J. (Gertjan) 20 Mar '18

20 Mar '18

Dear Colleagues, Please find our CfP for our session on digital infrastructures at the annual conference of the American Association of Anthropologists (San Jose 14-18 November 2018) below. Scholars from various disciplines are invited to submit an abstract! GJ Digital Infrastructures: Poetics, Politics and Personhood - AAA San Jose 14-18 November 2018 Lorraine Weekes (Stanford University) Gertjan Plets (Utrecht University) Government databases, digital archives, online voting systems, and e-portals enabling the submission of everything from insurance claims to income tax returns increasingly define mundane engagements between citizen-users and a suite of public and private institutions across social arenas. Because of efficiency and transparency digital technologies are seen as affording, reliance on digital infrastructures has become widely supported on the ground. At the same time, sociopolitical structures and assumptions encoded in many of these infrastructures—and the entanglements they produce—have received little attention. The tendency of infrastructure to remain invisible until something goes wrong is perhaps especially acute in digital and high-tech contexts where the scale, technological complexity, and physical diffusion encourages black boxing. By putting the politics and poetics of digital infrastructure into the limelight, this panel will consider the historical and ethnographic dimensions of digital infrastructures and how they produce individual subjectivities, mediate power relationships and further existing reifications of the social across the globe. By bringing the theoretical insights of the burgeoning anthropology of infrastructure and bureaucracy to bear on the digital networks and assemblages, the papers in this panel endeavor to make the materiality, social-embeddedness, and historical contingency of digital infrastructure visible. Please submit an abstract before April 2 or send enquiries to g.f.j.plets(a)uu.nl<mailto:g.f.j.plets@uu.nl> Dr. Gertjan Plets | Assistant Professor Cultural Heritage | Department of History and Art History | Utrecht University | Drift 6, 3512 BS Utrecht | https://uu.academia.edu/GertjanPlets

1 0