October 2019 - Air-L - lists.aoir.org

Call for (ICA) panelists: dead and dying platforms
by Muira McCammon 21 Oct '19

21 Oct '19

Hi, all, I'm organizing and proposing a panel submission to ICA 2020 in Australia for the Communication History division on the topic of "dead and dying platforms" with a special focus on the ethical, technological, and theoretical challenges that come with studying them. This panel aims to grapple with some of the following questions: What are dead and dying platforms? What are their futures, their pasts? What forces and factors kill a platform, and what actors and architectures help bring a platform back to life? What might a political economy of dead and dying platforms look like? What laws, economic forces, and social trends might we consider in the historical analysis of platforms that have survived? What narratives and counter-narratives of dead platforms have surfaced, and how can we tease out commonalities between them? Where does data on dead platforms go? What role do web archives play in helping us remember and forget dead platforms and their users? What memory narratives do users invoke, as they reflect on the affordances of former platform? What can we learn from comparative analyses <https://twitter.com/castrojade/status/821428461747085312> of platform death? What does platform death provoke online and offline? And, what is gained/lost by framing a platform's end as a "death" ? What does it mean to "update" a platform? What memory narratives have developed around platforms' (former) affordances? What emotions surround a platform's life and death? Has platform death prompted certain kinds of resistance? Our interpretation of this term ("platform death") is broad. Maybe you've been sitting on a paper on Vine <https://www.theverge.com/2016/10/28/13456208/why-vine-died-twitter-shutdown>, Backpage <https://slate.com/technology/2019/02/backpage-sex-workers-fosta-sesta-switt…>, FireEagle <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Eagle>, Google Reader <https://www.cnet.com/news/google-reader-is-done-here-are-five-alternatives/>, StumbleUpon <https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/24/17389230/stumbleupon-shut-down-internet-…>, AIM <https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/15/aim-is-officially-dead/>, or Rdio <https://www.theverge.com/2015/11/17/9750890/rdio-shutdown-pandora> and are looking for a home for it? Maybe you're obsessed with a platform that was designed millions of miles away from Silicon Valley that lived a short life or is currently on the verge of death? Maybe you have been searching for an opportunity to dig into web archives from years and years ago? Maybe, like me, you missed out and weren't able to go to The Web That Was? Maybe you think "platform death" is a total sham term and want to tear it apart? If so, please do consider joining us and drop me an email with any questions. Panelists would need to submit an abstract of 150 words to me by October 31st at the very latest, and I'm happy to provide more info via email re: who else is on the docket and what we're hoping to achieve in Australia. Thank you, Muira McCammon -- *Muira McCammon* *Annenberg School for Communication * *@muira_mccammon <https://twitter.com/muira_mccammon>* Recently out: "After DeepNude, ideas for more conscientious coverage of synthetic media <https://www.cjr.org/watchdog/deepnude-ai-synthetic-media-ethics.php> <https://www.cjr.org/watchdog/deepnude-ai-synthetic-media-ethics.php>" in *Columbia Journalism Review *

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Public Seminars in London: Interfacing Data (23 Oct); 'Digital Subjects' (14th Nov); Algorithmic Politics (18th Dec)
by Gray, Jonathan 21 Oct '19

21 Oct '19

In case of interest for those in/around London, here are the public seminars organised by the Department of Digital Humanities at King’s College London this semester. These are public events so please feel free to forward details to friends, colleagues and anyone else you think might be interested in joining - all are welcome! Details and abstracts copied below. Jonathan ## Public Seminar: Interfacing Data: Dashboards as Media Formats ## With Nate Tkacz (Warwick) and Caroline Bassett (Cambridge) ## When? Wed, 23 October 2019, 5-7pm ## Where? Safra Lecture Theatre, King's Building, Strand Campus, King's College London ## Register: https://dashboards-data.eventbrite.co.uk<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdashboard…> ## Public Seminar: Who are we online? On the ‘Digital Subject’ and online personhood ## With Patrick ffrench (KCL), Olga Goriunova (Royal Holloway) and Scott Wark (Warwick) ## When? Thu 14th November 2019, 6-8pm ## Where? Anatomy Lecture Theatre (King's Building K6.29), King's College London, Strand Campus, Strand, London, WC2R 2LS ## Register: https://digital-subjects.eventbrite.co.uk<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdigital-s…> ## Public Seminar: Algorithmic Politics: Analyzing Strategies of Disruption and Mainstreaming in the Canadian Alt-Right ## With Greg Elmer (Ryerson University) and Ganaele Langlois (York University) ## When? Wednesday 18 December 2019, 5-7pm ## Where? Safra Lecture Theatre, King's Building, Strand Campus, King's College London, London, WC2R 2LS ## Register: https://algorithmic-politics.eventbrite.co.uk<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Falgorithm…> *** ## Public Seminar: Interfacing Data: Dashboards as Media Formats ## With Nate Tkacz (Warwick) and Caroline Bassett (Cambridge) ## When? Wed, 23 October 2019, 5-7pm ## Where? Safra Lecture Theatre, King's Building, Strand Campus, King's College London ## Register: https://dashboards-data.eventbrite.co.uk<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdashboard…> Join us for a discussion on dashboards, interfaces, formats and data politics with Nate Tkacz (Warwick) and Caroline Bassett (Cambridge). This event will feature a talk by Nate Tkacz (University of Warwick) titled "On data and formatting: Or, how to think about dashboards", a talk from Caroline Bassett (University of Cambridge) titled "Driversity: What the Dashboard promises?", followed by discussion. This event is part of an ongoing seminar series on "critical inquiry with and about the digital" hosted by the Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.kcl.a…>. If you tweet about the event you can use the #kingsdh<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.c…> hashtag or mention @kingsdh<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.c…>. If you'd like to get notifications of future events you can sign up to this mailing list<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmailman.k…>. On data and formatting: Or, how to think about dashboards Nate Tkacz (University of Warwick) Abstract: Data are tricky stuff. They can be the content of a medium, or a medium in their own right. They can be configured in any number of ways -- through numbers, code, colour, line, even sound -- while still retaining their status as data. There is a sense that data are ontologically fluid. In this presentation, I reflect on how I have approached data through the notion of the format and formatting. I present the format as a way to deal with some of the challenges of understanding data's mediations. I use the format of the dashboard as the basis of the inquiry. Dr Nathaniel Tkacz is a Reader in Digital Media and Culture at The University of Warwick and currently visiting researcher at the Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fblogs.kcl…>. His work investigates the political, cultural and methodological dimensions of digital media. This has led to studies of political openness in online communities, practices of ‘mass collaboration’, experimental economic platforms, software forking, trolling, apps, banking and payment services, interfaces, user experience design, digital public services, and environmental situation rooms, among other things. With Geert Lovink, he co-founded the Critical Point of View network for Wikipedia research as well as the MoneyLab research network, and he recently joined the App Studies Initiative. Tkacz is author or editor of a number of books, including Wikipedia and the Politics of Openness (University of Chicago Press, 2015). He is currently working on a book on dashboard interfaces. Driversity: What the Dashboard promises? Caroline Bassett (University of Cambridge) Dr Caroline Bassett is Professor in Digital Humanities at the University of Cambridge where she is currently leading Cambridge Digital Humanities. She was formerly Professor of Media and Communications at the University of Sussex, as well as Director of the Sussex Humanities Lab. Her research is centred on investigating and critically analysing the relationship between communication technologies, cultures and societies. Professor Bassett’s extensive publications include work on digital transformation, mobile and pervasive media, gender and technology, medium theory, digital humanities, science fiction, imagination and innovation, and sound and silence. Her current research is exploring anti-computing. Her latest book ‘Furious: Technological Feminism and Digital Futures’, co-authored with Sarah Kember and Kate O’Riordan, will be out this Autumn. *** ## Public Seminar: Who are we online? On the ‘Digital Subject’ and online personhood ## With Patrick ffrench (KCL), Olga Goriunova (Royal Holloway) and Scott Wark (Warwick) ## When? Thu 14th November 2019, 6-8pm ## Where? Anatomy Lecture Theatre (King's Building K6.29), King's College London, Strand Campus, Strand, London, WC2R 2LS ## Register: https://digital-subjects.eventbrite.co.uk<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdigital-s…> When accessing online services, our subjectivity becomes a mediated construct. A panel with Patrick ffrench, Olga Goriunova and Scott Wark About this Event What exactly is happening to our subjectivity when it moves online? While we have come to value the rights of a subject regarding its data and understand that the storage of personal data needs to be regulated, a more philosophical understanding of the digital subject’ had long been lacking. Recent publications by Olga Goriunova (Royal Holloway) introducing the concept of a ‘digital subject’ now close this gap. Taking up the question of online personhood, this panel will start with exploring some of the theoretical underpinnings of the concept of 'the subject' and the 'person' (Patrick ffrench, KCL) to turn from there to ‘the Digital Subject’ (Olga Goriunova, Royal Holloway), and further on to the subject of personalising techniques (Scott Wark, Warwick). What happens to the idea of personhood, when digital hybridity is the de facto mode of contemporary existence? In what way is Goriunova’s ‘digital subject', which comes into being when going online, linked to us? Or, as she suggests, it is instead marked by a profound disconnection? Patrick ffrench is Professor of French at King's College London. His research focuses on 20th-century French thought, literature and film, and more specifically on critical theory. He is the author of The Time of Theory: A History of Tel Quel (OUP, 1996): The Cut: Reading Bataille's Story of the Eye (British Academy 2000), After Bataille: Sacrifice, Exposure, Community (Legenda 2007); Thinking Cinema with Proust (Legenda 2018), Roland Barthes and Film: Myth, Eroticism, Poetics (Bloomsbury, 2019). Olga Goriunova is Reader and Director of Research at the Department of Media Arts, Royal Holloway University of London. Her concept of ‘the digital subject’ is explored in the articles ‘The Digital Subjects: Persons as Data as People',<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fjournals.…> in Theory, Culture and Society (2019) and a special issue she edited, which includes her article ‘Face Abstraction! Biometric Identities and Authentic Subjectivities in the Truth Practices of Data’,<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdoi.org%2…> Subjectivity 12(1), 2019 Scott Wark is a Research Fellow for the Wellcome-funded project, ’People Like You: Contemporary Figures of Personalisation’. He is based at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies at the University of Warwick. He researches online culture, amongst other things. Chaired by Mercedes Bunz, Senior Lecturer in the Digital Humanities, King’s College London. ** Olga Goriunova, "The Digital Subjects: Persons as Data as People"<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fjournals.…> in Theory, Culture and Society (2019) *** ## Public Seminar: Algorithmic Politics: Analyzing Strategies of Disruption and Mainstreaming in the Canadian Alt-Right ## With Greg Elmer (Ryerson University) and Ganaele Langlois (York University) ## When? Wednesday 18 December 2019, 5-7pm ## Where? Safra Lecture Theatre, King's Building, Strand Campus, King's College London, London, WC2R 2LS ## Register: https://algorithmic-politics.eventbrite.co.uk<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Falgorithm…> A seminar on Algorithmic Politics with Greg Elmer (Ryerson University) and Ganaele Langlois (York University). Algorithmic Politics: Analyzing Strategies of Disruption and Mainstreaming in the Canadian Alt-Right This panel focuses on the rise of “fringe” internet platforms and actors and their impact on political discourse. Focusing on the 2019 Canadian Federal Election campaign, which is dominated in large part by the rise of far-right anti-immigrant populist discourse and protests online and off, we examine the insinuation of fringe platforms into mainstream political discourse via more established social media platforms and news properties. Greg Elmer will present on how political memes, language, and shared political objects (videos, photos, images, graphics, posts, etc) originate from fringe platforms such as 4-Chan and circulate to disrupt and shape the political discourse, imaginaries and landscape. Ganaele Langlois will present on how a new qualitative digital method – the research persona – enables tracking the affective triggers through which one can identify with specific types of misinformation and disinformation objects and end up being profiled and curated as a alt-right member. Greg Elmer is Bell Media Research Chair and Director of the Catalyst Research Hub at Ryerson University. Greg is a digital media scholar and documentary film maker. His next film investigates the plight of 'no media' communities in S.Africa, the Netherlands and Russia. And his next book will trace the history of financialization in 'new' media companies. Ganaele Langlois is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies as York University. Her work focuses on digital methods and critical theory to examine questions of power and subjectivity through digital media platforms and infrastructures. She is the author of Meaning in the Age of Social Media (Palgrave, 2014). These events are part of an ongoing seminar series on "critical inquiry with and about the digital" hosted by the Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.kcl.a…>. If you tweet about the event you can use the #kingsdh hashtag or mention @kingsdh. If you'd like to get notifications of future events you can sign up to this mailing list<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmailman.k…>. -- Jonathan Gray | jonathangray.org<http://jonathangray.org/> | @jwyg<http://twitter.com/jwyg> Lecturer in Critical Infrastructure Studies Department of Digital Humanities King’s College London Recent publications and projects: * Gray, J. (2019). Data Witnessing: Attending to Injustice with Data in Amnesty International’s Decoders Project<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2019.1573915>. Information, Communication & Society. * Gray, J. & Bounegru, L. (eds.) (forthcoming) The Data Journalism Handbook: Towards a Critical Data Practice<http://bit.ly/ddjbook-aup-toc-preview>. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. * Gray, J., Gerlitz, C., & Bounegru, L. (2018) Data Infrastructure Literacy<https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951718786316>. Big Data & Society. * Gray, J. (2018). Three Aspects of Data Worlds<http://krisis.eu/three-aspects-of-data-worlds>. Krisis: Journal for Contemporary Philosophy. * Bounegru, L., Gray, J., Venturini, T., & Mauri, M. (2018). A Field Guide to “Fake News” and Other Information Disorders<http://fakenews.publicdatalab.org/>. Amsterdam: Public Data Lab.

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CFP: Media representations and narratives of masculinities across Europe
by Inês Amaral 21 Oct '19

21 Oct '19

*Call for papers: Media representations and narratives of masculinities across Europe* The journal Social Studies is announcing a call for papers for a monothematic issue with a working title Media representations and narratives of masculinities across Europe. The editors of the issue are Inês Amaral and Sofia José Santos (University of Coimbra). This special issue aims to bring together critical analysis focusing on media representations, discourses, narratives and counter-narratives of what it means to be and behave “like a man” in today’s Europe. It wishes to contribute to a comprehensive reflection on the stereotypes that underlie discourses in the mass media and in the online media, and on how cultural productions co-opt, confront, criticize, renegotiate and seek to promote gender alternatives that challenge gender inequality. This special issue welcomes theoretical and empirical articles that use qualitative, quantitative or mixed methodologies and focus on media representations and narratives of men and masculinities, their relation to policy and legislation, counter-narratives to the stereotyped representations of gender roles, the relation between feminism and masculinities and the fallout of the MeToo movement, social media activism, digital literacy, critical media literacy and other related topics. Papers focusing on research methods with which to address these issues are also welcome. Abstracts should be sent to the journal address (socstud(a)fss.muni.cz) and to the editors (ines.amaral(a)uc.pt and sjs(a)ces.uc.pt) More detailed information is available on request. The deadline for abstract submission is 1st November 2019, full papers are expected by 1st March 2020. About the journal Social studies/Sociální studia (print ISSN 1214-813X, online ISSN 1803-6104) is a fully open-access journal, indexed in SCOPUS and ERIH PLUS. The journal is published since 2004 at the Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, both electronically and in print. Starting in 2015, the journal accepts English-language thematic issues and contributions. Website: https://journals.muni.cz/socialni_studia -- Inês Amaral Professora Associada | Associate Professor Diretora do 1.º Ciclo de Estudos em Jornalismo e Comunicação | Director of the Undergraduate Program Studies in Journalism and Communication Universidade de Coimbra • Faculdade de Letras | University of Coimbra • Faculty of Arts and Humanities Largo da Porta Férrea | 3004-530 • Coimbra • Portugal Tel. | Phone: +351 239 410 090 E-mail: ines.amaral(a)uc.pt www.uc.pt | www.uc.pt/fluc

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What is Information? Call for Proposals
by Janet Wasko 21 Oct '19

21 Oct '19

WHAT IS INFORMATION?• University of Oregon Portland • April 30–May 2, 2020 • whatis.uoregon.edu<http://whatis.uoregon.edu> What is Information? (2020) will investigate conceptualizations and implementations of information via material, representational, and hybrid frames. The conference-experience will consider information and its transformational æffects—from documents to data; from facts and fictions to pattern recognition; from physical information to differential equations; and from volatility, uncertainty, and ambiguity to collective intelligence and wisdom. The tenth annual What is…? examines tapestries, temperaments, and topologies of information lenses and practices—including—social and technical, mathematical and semantic, physical and biological, economic and political, cultural and environmental information. Thus, information can be understood as physical (e.g. fingerprints and tree rings), for instruction (e.g. algorithms and recipes), and about epistemic systems (e.g. maps and encyclopedias). Next year’s gathering expands on What is Technology? (2019), which explored technology as tools, processes, and moral knowledge, as well as problem-solving and intelligent inquiry. Scholars, government and community officials, industry professionals, scientists, artists, students, filmmakers, grassroots community organizations, and the public are invited to collaborate. We welcome submissions for papers, panels, roundtables and installations. Presentations / panels / installations may include the following topics (as well as others): • What is information? Are data and information synonymous? Is information material/concrete, symbolic/abstract, or both? What distinguishes information from knowledge and wisdom? • Is information freedom? What is meta-data? What are information systems, flows, and gaps? • What approaches or lenses are used to study information? How do they relate to emerging disciplines? • What are information science and information art? What are relationships between STE(A)M and ICT? • How are the natural sciences and information sciences continuing to converge (e.g. bioinformatics)? • Is information at the core of music, architecture, design, craft, and/or science and technology studies? • Is biology itself information or only a representation? What are data science, machine learning and visualization? How are informatics enhancing medicine and the environment via regenerative systems? • What is the philosophy of information? What are information literacy, ethics, education, & aesthetics? • What are networks? What are relationships between information, technology/media, and message? • What are information ecologies, information environments, and how do/can they facilitate public good? • What is political economy of information? How do information & socio-cultural factors æffect each other? • What are current approaches to the study of information professions, audiences, and psychology? • How does information highlight gender, race, indigenous, and/or global environmental concerns? • How can contemplation, empathy, kindness, and/or responsibility be studied via information? • What are patterns of digital divides? What comes after post-truth (e.g. cyber-physical)? • What are data-mining and threat detection or privacy in the cyber-defense/cyber-security age? • Can apps, games, and immersive media help us to adapt to the ever-changing information landscape? • What laws/regulations/policies are appropriate for information? How are information & value(s) related? Conference Organizers: Janet Wasko and Jeremy Swartz (University of Oregon) Send 150-word abstracts for papers, panels, installations, and exhibits by DECEMBER 20, 2019, to: Janet Wasko • jwasko(a)uoregon.edu<mailto:jwasko@uoregon.edu> • University of Oregon • Eugene, Oregon • 97403-1275 • USA

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Datapoiesis Fall School in Ivrea, Italy
by xDxD.vs.xDxD 21 Oct '19

21 Oct '19

Dear friends and colleagues, please excuse me for any crosspostings, we're getting ready for a very important thing for us: the Datapoiesis Fall School in November 25-30 2019 at the ex Olivetti factories in Ivrea, Italy. http://bit.ly/DatapoiesisFallSchool "Datapoiesis" is a neologism: it points in the direction of the fact that data (and the computation needed to process it) can bring into existence "things" that did not exist before. Probably the only way in which we can gather understandings about the planet's complex phenomena (climate change, migrations, markets, energy, health...) is through enormous amounts of data. But these data are, most of the time, very far from us, living in the separation of data centers, in the spectacularization of dataviz, or at the center of the seriously extractive processes performed by the current data industry. Datapoiesis explores the possibility to transform these dynamics. In Datapoietic processes, we use art and design to create objects and artworks which are the embodiment of science/tech/art collaborations aimed at using data to approach complex phenomena. These objects are totemic, meaning that they are designed to be places around which people can gather for discussion, collaboration, solidarity and participatory action, describing neo-rituals for public space, homes, schools, offices, hospitals etc, in which data and computation become the occasion for augmented, performative sensibility to the world's complex issues, individually and as communities, organizations, institutions. The first object explicitly created to trigger the Datapoiesis phenomenon, named "Obiettivo", deals with the conditions of extreme poverty and uses data from the UN, World Bank, OECD. It also questions all of these data sources, and the strategic, ideological and geopolitical implications of the ways in which these data are collected, interpreted and represented. For example, among the data-rituals which we promote around the artwork, is the possibility to create other copies of it, in which poverty is measured in different ways, or regarding different territories, etc, to enable forms of understandings and awareness that are highly enhanced. After being presented in May 2019, Obiettivo was acquired by the contemporary art collection of the Farnesina, Italy's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, as an example of "diplomacy through art". In the Datapoiesis Fall School, we will bring these concepts to Ivrea, inside Olivetti's ex-factories. Olivetti is Italy's best historically known example of the ways in which business can co-exist together with a positive social and community impact. Furthermore, Olivetti had really interesting strategic intersections with art and design, focused towards these goals. Currently, a series of entrepreneurs are restoring Olivetti's ex-factories to explore the forms in which contemporary businesses can welcome these social and community impacts within their strategies. The first project which will inhabit these factories is Datapoiesis, promoting a new model for the data and computation industry which is not extractive, but, rather, aimed at creating rich relational ecosystems which are able to promote and support people's and communities' rights, freedoms and well being. During the Datapoiesis Fall School, people will come together from a variety of different disciplines to understand what form could be assumed by an organization that "does Datapoiesis for a living". What is its legal form? What is its business/sustainability model? What materials, forms of energy, technologies does it use? What is its process? What kind of products/services/experiences does it produce? What approaches does it use to preserve people's rights and freedoms in relation to data, AI biases, data and AI opacity ..., and to enable people and communities to decide how their data is used? We will also design Obiettivo's next step: the first line of datapoietic objects, which will form a permanent exhibit in the spaces of Olivetti's factories. The people who will participate to the Fall School will also be the first in line, if they want, to be taken into consideration for joining the Datapoiesis organization, which will form in the beginning of 2020. The Fall School is free: you only need to come to Ivrea and pay for your accomodation and food. Feel free to contact me or the team for any further information. http://bit.ly/DatapoiesisFallSchool Thank you very much Best wishes Salvatore Iaconesi

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Christian Fuchs - new book: Nationalism on the Internet: Critical Theory and Ideology in the Age of Social Media and Fake News
by Christian Fuchs 21 Oct '19

21 Oct '19

Christian Fuchs. 2020. Nationalism on the Internet: Critical Theory and Ideology in the Age of Social Media and Fake News. New York: Routledge. http://fuchs.uti.at/books/nationalism-on-the-internet/ (including reading sample/introduction) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y25je5XtUcQ In this timely book, critical theorist Christian Fuchs asks: What is nationalism and what is the role of social media in the communication of nationalist ideology? Advancing an applied Marxist theory of nationalism, Fuchs explores nationalist discourse in the world of contemporary digital capitalism that is shaped by social media, big data, fake news, targeted advertising, bots, algorithmic politics, and a high-speed online attention economy. The book develops a critical theory of nationalism that is grounded in the works of Karl Marx, Rosa Luxemburg, and Eric J. Hobsbawm.

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New Book: China, Africa, and the Future of the Internet
by Iginio Gagliardone 21 Oct '19

21 Oct '19

New Book: *China, Africa, and the Future of the Internet* By: Iginio Gagliardone https://www.zedbooks.net/shop/book/china-africa-and-the-future-of-the-inter… China is transforming Africa's information space. It is assisting African broadcasters with extensive loans, training and exchange programmes and has set up its own media operations on the continent in the form of CCTV/CGTN Africa. In the telecommunications sector, China is helping African governments to expand access to the internet and mobile phones, with rapid and large-scale success. While Western countries have ambiguously linked the need to fight security threats with restrictions of the information space, China has been vocal in asserting the need to control communication to ensure stability and development. Featuring a wealth of interviews with a variety of actors – from Chinese and African journalists in Chinese media to Chinese workers for major telecommunication companies – this highly original book demonstrates how China is both contributing to the 'Africa rising' narrative while exploiting the weaknesses of Western approaches to Africa, which remain trapped between an emphasis on stability and service delivery, on the one hand, and the desire to advocate human rights and freedom of expression on the other. Arguing no state can be understood without attention to its information structure, the book provides the first assessment of China’s new model for the media strategies of developing states, and the consequences of policing Africa’s information space for geopolitics, security and citizenship. ————————— 'Impressive and rigorous, *China, Africa and the Future of the Internet* respects different schools of thought regarding the internet and development, whilst providing a critique that is schooled and convincing. Gagliardone takes an issue of great importance and brings fresh and penetrating analysis to it.' Monroe E. Price, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania 'A very original, rigorous and well-cited contribution to the wider field of China-Africa studies and the current global conversation on internet governance. China, Africa and the Future of the Internet provides a useful counter-perspective to the dominant discourse around internet governance which tends to focus on the global north, excluding the notable developments in internet governance taking place in the global south.' Cobus van Staden, Co-host of the China in Africa Podcast —————————— ZED Publishers is offering this book at a *discounted price* until 24th October 2019 It can be purchased in paperback, epub, and Kindle versions at half of the price (£ 9.50) https://www.zedbooks.net/shop/book/china-africa-and-the-future-of-the-inter…

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[CFP] 2020 SMSociety Conference in Chicago (July 22-24): Promises and Perils of Social Media For Diversity
by Anatoliy Gruzd 18 Oct '19

18 Oct '19

CFP: International Conference on Social Media and Society (#SMSociety)2020 Theme – “Diverse Voices: Promises and Perils of Social Media For Diversity” Join us on July 22–24, 2020 for the 11th annual International Conference on Social Media and Society (#SMSociety) <https://socialmediaandsociety.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b32270f9582…>. The conference is an interdisciplinary gathering of leading social media researchers, practitioners, and analysts from around the world. The 2020 conference is hosted by the College of Communication <https://socialmediaandsociety.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b32270f9582…> , Studio Chi <https://socialmediaandsociety.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b32270f9582…> and the College of Computing and Digital Media <https://socialmediaandsociety.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b32270f9582…> at DePaul University <https://socialmediaandsociety.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b32270f9582…> in Chicago, USA. Until a decade and a half ago, large media companies and governments lorded over an oligopoly controlling the means for communicating with the masses. That oligopoly was (temporarily?) broken by the introduction of social media with its revolutionary promise to democratize civil discourse and civil society. It has offered diverse groups the opportunity to connect to one another and form communities of practice that ultimately can serve to strengthen their voice. However, in recent years, we have also discovered that connecting the world via social media leads to new challenges. When so many diverse voices are brought together on a massive scale, conflict is common. Interpretation of this conflict is itself diverse: do we see a rise of incivility or freedom from moral policing? Extremism or idealism? Distrust or critique? The very same digital tools that amplify voices of the marginalized can also be used to silence diverse voices online through online harassment, doxing, trolling, and other measures. In this context, the *International Conference on Social Media & Society* <https://socialmediaandsociety.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b32270f9582…> invites scholarly and original submissions that explore key questions and central issues related (but not limited) to the 2020 theme of “*Diverse Voices: Promises and Perils of Social Media For Diversity**.*” We welcome research from a wide range of methodological perspectives employing established quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods as well as innovative approaches that cross disciplinary boundaries and expand our understanding of the current and future trends in social media research, especially research that seeks to explore questions such as: - Can human society handle the connection of diverse and divergent (often conflicting) voices on social media? Is empowering every voice via social media a net good? - Under what conditions can social media build bridges across difference? When does social media reinforce division? - What social media affordances are good or bad in terms of supporting diversity, including but not limited to: race, class, gender, sexual, cultural, political and linguistic diversity? - What is the role of government regulation? Should social media be limited to activities that help to build strong societies? - Is it naive to think that giving everyone a voice will result in increased democracy? - And what is the role of social media in all of these? And how can social media platforms be used to empower marginalized voices? - Can AI and other automated tools help social media consumers and producers to overcome these challenges and provide online spaces for engagement with diverse voices? If so, how? *IMPORTANT DATES* - *Full papers** (6-10 pages) Due: *Jan. 27, 2020* - *WIP papers* (1000-word extended abstract) Due: *Jan. 27, 2020* - *Panels, Workshops, & Posters* Due: *Mar. 16, 2020* *Full papers presented at the Conference will be published in the conference proceedings by *ACM International Conference Proceeding Series* (ICPS) <https://socialmediaandsociety.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b32270f9582…> and will be available in the ACM Digital Library. *SUBMISSION DETAILS*: https://socialmediaandsociety.org/submit/ <https://socialmediaandsociety.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b32270f9582…> *ABOUT THE CONFERENCE* The International Conference on Social Media & Society <https://socialmediaandsociety.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b32270f9582…> (#SMsociety) is an annual gathering of leading social media researchers from around the world. It is the premier venue for sharing and discovering new peer-reviewed interdisciplinary research on how social media affects society. Organized by the Social Media Lab <https://socialmediaandsociety.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b32270f9582…> at Ted Rogers School of Management <https://socialmediaandsociety.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b32270f9582…> at Ryerson University <https://socialmediaandsociety.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b32270f9582…>, #SMSociety provides participants with opportunities to exchange ideas, present original research, learn about recent and ongoing studies, and network with peers. The conference’s intensive three-day program features hands-on workshops, full papers, work-in-progress papers, panels, and posters. The wide-ranging topics in social media showcase research from scholars working in many fields including Communication, Computer Science, Education, Journalism, Information Science, Management, Political Science, Psychology and Sociology. *TOPICS OF INTEREST (Not Exhaustive)* SOCIAL MEDIA IMPACT ON SOCIETY - Privacy - Trust & credibility - Political mobilization & engagement - Extremism & terrorism - Dis/Mis/Mal-information, aka…”Fake news” - Politics of hate and oppression - Health and well-being SOCIAL MEDIA & BUSINESS - Brand communities - Influencers and consumer engagement - Consumer behavior & social media marketing - Public & customer relations - Cybervetting and HR SOCIAL MEDIA & PUBLIC SECTOR - Government regulations of social media - Government social media management - Adoption, use, strategies and policies - Citizens’ engagement - Citizens’ privacy & security concerns - Public opinions on environmental issues SOCIAL MEDIA & ACADEMIA - Alternative metrics - Learning analytics - Teaching with social media - University branding - Knowledge Translation/management ONLINE/OFFLINE COMMUNITIES - Online community detection - Influential user detection - Identity and anonymity - Case studies THEORIES & METHODS - Qualitative approaches - Quantitative approaches - Mixed methods - Opinion mining & sentiment analysis - Social network analysis - Theoretical models BIG & SMALL DATA - Value of small data - Data mining and analytics - Sampling issues - Visualization - Scalability issues - Ethics - Data Access/Scraping - Data Biases *ORGANIZING COMMITTEE* - Anatoliy Gruzd, Ryerson University, Canada – Conference Chair - Philip Mai, Ryerson University, Canada – Conference Chair - Raquel Recuero, Universidade Federal de Pelotas (UFPel), Brazil – Full Paper Chair - Ángel Hernández-García, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain – Full Paper Chair - Chei Sian Lee, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore – WIP Chair - James Cook, University of Maine at Augusta, USA – WIP Chair - Jaigris Hodson, Royal Roads University, Canada – Poster Chair *HOST COMMITTEE at DePaul University* - Bree McEwan, Communication Studies, Communication & Technology - Jill Hopke, Journalism - Hamed Qahri Saremi, Management Information Systems - Juan Mundel, Advertising - Paul Booth, Digital Communication & Media Arts - Enid Montague, Human Computer Interaction - Samantha Close, Digital Communication & Media Arts - Nur Uysal, Public Relations

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DCOSS 2020 - 16th International Conference on Distributed Computing in Sensor Systems - deadline January 18, 2020 - Los Angeles
by Eirini Eleni Tsiropoulou 18 Oct '19

18 Oct '19

============================================================= The 16th Annual International Conference on Distributed Computing in Sensor Systems (DCOSS 2020) Los Angeles, California, USA May 25 - 27, 2020 www.dcoss.org ============================================================= DCOSS 2020 is the 16th International Conference on Distributed Computing in Sensor Systems to be hosted in Los Angeles, California, USA, in June 25-27, 2020. In the last few years, we have witnessed a significant growth in the use of IoT and distributed sensor systems in a number of application areas, ranging from smart transport, energy and buildings, to factory automation, smart healthcare and environmental monitoring. In order for smart sensor systems to truly become useful and pervasive, we need to address a number of research challenges, including the tight integration of sensing and machine intelligence, reliable and efficient networking, interoperability and scalability, the need for dependable autonomy, interaction with humans, and important aspects of security, privacy and trust. DCOSS focuses on issues arising in the entire IoT and networked sensor systems stack: covering aspects of high-level abstractions, models and languages, novel algorithms and applications, system design approaches and architectures, as well as tools for simulated and real deployments. Potential authors are invited to submit original unpublished manuscripts that demonstrate recent advances in both theoretical and experimental research. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following: - Edge and fog computing: distributed computing models from sensor to cloud - Energy harvesting models and optimization - Machine intelligence in distributed sensor systems and real time analytics - Communication and networking primitives and protocols - Autonomy: closing the loop between sensing and actuation - Task allocation, reprogramming, and reconfiguration - Robustness, resilience and dependability - Security and privacy issues - Approaches, tools, and experience of deployment and operation - Performance analysis: complexity, correctness, scalability - Mobile and human-centered sensing - Interoperability, heterogeneity and scalability - Crowd sensing and social sensing techniques, applications, and systems - Complex systems comprising wearable, robotic and/or fixed sensor systems - Novel and compelling applications - IoT systems for emerging and developing economies - Green and environmentally-friendly IoT Authors are invited to submit original unpublished manuscripts that demonstrate current research on distributed sensor systems related to DCOSS topics of interest. Please use the US letter size (8.5 X 11 in) standard IEEE conference LaTeX format or Microsoft Word template available on the link below: http://www.ieee.org/conferences_events/conferences/publishing/templates.html All submissions should be written in English and submitted as a full or work-in-progress paper. Full papers should have a maximum of eight (8) printed pages including figures and references. Full papers are expected to describe fully developed ideas with a thorough evaluation. Work-in-progress papers should have a maximum of four (4) printed pages including figures and references. Work-in-progress papers are expected to describe new and interesting ideas that have not yet reached full maturity. Note that DCOSS does not follow the double-blind review policy. The names and affiliations of all the authors must be present in the submitted manuscript. Please visit DCOSS website at www.dcoss.org for more information Main Organizers General Chair: Sotiris Nikoletseas (University of Patras and CTI, Greece) Technical Program Committee Chairs: Omprakash Gnawali (University of Houston, USA) Jie Gao (Stony Brook University, USA) Thiemo Voigt (Uppsala University and RISE, Sweden) ******** Collocated Events ******** DCOSS 2020 will collocate with several thematic Workshops and Special Sessions on emerging topics and technologies. The event will also feature a poster and demo session Important Dates: Abstract Registration Deadline: January 11th, 2020 Paper Submission Deadline: January 18th, 2020 Acceptance Notification: March 8th, 2020 Camera Ready Deadline: March 29th, 2020 Early Registration Deadline: April 15th, 2020 Conference Dates: May 25-27, 2020

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virtual reading group with Lilly Irani - next Friday - 1-2 EST
by Ilana Gershon 18 Oct '19

18 Oct '19

Dear Colleagues, In a week, CaMP anthropology will be hosting a virtual reading group meeting with Lilly Irani. We will be discussing her new book /Chasing Innovation: Making Entrepreneurial Citizens in India./ / / The meeting will be 1-2 pm EST on Friday, October 25th and can be reached by clicking on this Zoom link: https://iu.zoom.us/j/600280670 **** * * An interview with Lilly can be found here: https://campanthropology.org/2019/05/15/lilly-irani-chasing-innovation/ <https://campanthropology.org/2019/03/04/eitan-wilf-creativity-on-demand/> We are reading chapter 4, which can be found here: <https://www.dropbox.com/s/u6hwwufn6qk1hlc/Wilf%20-creativity%20on%20demand.…> https://www.dropbox.com/s/gq37ia1clbjpjtn/irani.chasing.innovation.ch.4.pdf… <https://www.dropbox.com/s/gq37ia1clbjpjtn/irani.chasing.innovation.ch.4.pdf…> <https://iu.zoom.us/j/600280670> Looking forward to seeing you all virtually, Ilana The press blurb for the book: Can entrepreneurs develop a nation, serve the poor, and pursue creative freedom, all while generating economic value? In /Chasing Innovation/, Lilly Irani shows the contradictions that arise as designers, engineers, and businesspeople frame development and governance as opportunities to innovate. Irani documents the rise of "entrepreneurial citizenship" in India over the past seventy years, demonstrating how a global ethos of development through design has come to shape state policy, economic investment, and the middle class in one of the world’s fastest-growing nations. Drawing on her own professional experience as a Silicon Valley designer and nearly a decade of fieldwork following a Delhi design studio, Irani vividly chronicles the practices and mindsets that hold up professional design as the answer to the challenges of a country of more than one billion people, most of whom are poor. While discussions of entrepreneurial citizenship promise that Indian children can grow up to lead a nation aspiring to uplift the poor, in reality, social, economic, and political structures constrain whose enterprise, which hopes, and which needs can be seen as worthy of investment. In the process, Irani warns, powerful investors, philanthropies, and companies exploit citizens' social relations, empathy, and political hope in the quest to generate economic value. Irani argues that the move to recast social change as innovation, with innovators as heroes, frames others*—*craftspeople, workers, and activists*—*as of lower value, or even dangers to entrepreneurial forms of development. With meticulous historical context and compelling stories, /Chasing Innovation/ lays bare how long-standing power hierarchies such as class, caste, language, and colonialism continue to shape opportunity in a world where good ideas supposedly rule all.

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