July 2023 - Air-L - lists.aoir.org

Sharing Generative Media Lab Project Proposal
by Hamlet Lopez 26 Jul '23

26 Jul '23

Dear colleagues, I wanted to share a project proposal I have drafted for establishing a Media Lab focused on empowering cultural and creative industries in the Global South with generative AI capabilities. While I do not currently have the means to implement this lab myself, I hope this proposal document may serve as a useful starting point or source of ideas for anyone interested in establishing similar initiatives oriented towards empowering local creative communities with generative AI. The proposal covers key aspects like objectives, methodology, timeline, estimated budget in euros, etc. It is available here: https://www.datoeneltejado.com/generative_artificial_intelligence_media_lab I openly share this proposal under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication license so you are welcome to reuse or adapt any portion that may be helpful in your own projects. Although this is just a conceptual document, I'm happy to provide any additional context or answer questions to the best of my ability. My goal is to contribute ideas and momentum towards seeing more accessible medialabs emerge across the Global South to explore generative AI. If this proposal helps inspire or inform real projects in any way, I would consider that a valuable outcome. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any feedback or thoughts on the proposal. I'm eager to see where others may take these ideas! Best wishes, Hamlet -- Dr.C. Hamlet López García Investigador Instituto Cubano de Investigación Cultural "Juan Marinello" Profesor Universidad de la Habana

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Workshop on Generative AI Models
by ijwa dline.info 26 Jul '23

26 Jul '23

First Workshop on "Next-Generation Models for Generative AI" (In conjunction with the Third International Conference on Digital Data Processing 2023) University of Bedfordshire, Luton. UK. November 27-29, 2023 https://socio.org.uk/ddp/workshop (IEEE CPS will publish the proceedings, and papers should follow the IEEE template) AI models use billions of parameters to detect and retrieve text and images. The currently available LL models are experimented with for their efficiency, and at the same time, newer models are being developed. There are many challenges associated with generative AI. The pre-training volume and efficiency are a focus. To leverage the training set with comprehensiveness and accuracy, billions of parameters are injected into the LLM. Current GPTs face criticism, and governments issue a caution to their use. For example, Zhuang Rongwen, China’s cyberspace chief, raises concerns over the power of generative AI and pledges to make it ‘controllable'. The agenda for the future Generative AI is not clear. Improved generative tools should be capable of characterising extremist narratives in corpora to reveal different contexts, which may lead to building semantic-rich content for end-users. Testing the current models and their results may contribute to future research. Considering these issues, we framed a workshop to address the theme, Next Generation Models. The workshop themes include but are not limited to the following. Text, Image, Code, Video, 3D models Domain-specific models Compositional generative models Foundation models Energy-based models Deep equilibrium models Impact of Generative AI on Teaching and Learning Knowledge and Semantic Issues in Generative AI Future LLM AI Ethical Issues AI and NLP Embedding in AI Reinforcement learning Data Support and Datasets in AI Standards and Benchmarks Workshop Chairs Gloria Tengyue Li North China University of Technology Beijing China Simon Fong University of Macau Macau Hathairat Ketmaneechairat King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok, Thailand Important Dates Full Paper Submission: September 10, 2023 Notification of Acceptance/Rejection: October 10, 2023 Registration Due: November 10, 2023 Camera Ready Due: November 10, 2023 Workshops/Tutorials/Demos: November 28, 2023 Main conference: November 27-29, 2023 Post-conference proceedings: December 20, 2023 Paper Submission: http://socio.org.uk/ddp/paper-submission/ Contact: stm(a)socio.org.uk

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AI Regulation & Responsible Innovation Roundtable, 28th September (Technology, Internet, & Policy Group)
by McLoughlin, Liam 25 Jul '23

25 Jul '23

Dear Friends, I would like to invite you all to the Technology, Internet, & Policy Group’s roundtable on AI Regulation & Responsible Innovation. Date: Thursday 28th September 2023, 3:00 – 4:30pm (GMT+1) Time Zone Converter <https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html?iso=20230928T140000&p…> Location: Online Registration link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ai-regulation-responsible-innovation-roundta…<https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ai-regulation-responsible-innovation-roundta…> The roundtable brings together an international panel of experts to discuss comparative AI governance, & regulation across the EU, UK and US. The roundtable will discuss the impact of recent regulation and innovations of AI in the space, with talking points including: data use, cross-border regulation, jurisdiction, sovereignty, and the competing pressures of regulation and innovation. Speakers: * Helena Quinn – Principal Policy Adviser for AI & Data Science at the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK data protection regulator. Helena was a principal author of the ICO’s guidance, ‘Explaining decisions made with AI’. * Jack Stilgoe -Professor in science and technology studies at University College London (UCL), where he researches the governance of emerging technologies. He is principal investigator of the ESRC Driverless Futures project (2019-2021), and author of ‘Who’s Driving Innovation?’ (2020, Palgrave). * Giovanni De Gregorio - PLMJ Chair in Law and Technology at Católica Global School of Law and Católica Lisbon School of Law. Giovanni is the author of the monograph ‘Digital Constitutionalism in Europe: Reframing Rights and Powers in the Algorithmic Society’ (Cambridge University Press 2022). * Kai Zenner – Head of Office and Digital Policy Adviser for MEP Axel Voss in the European Parliament. Kai Zenner is a digital enthusiast focusing on Artificial Intelligence, data and the EU’s digital transition. * (Discussant) Giulia Gentile – LSE Law School Fellow. Giulia Gentile is Fellow in Law at the LSE Law School. About TIP The Technology, Internet, & Policy Specialist Group (TIP) is a group of academics, practitioners, campaigners, journalists, and others with an interest in technology and the internet. The group seeks to promote academic engagement in policy debates and discourse which may impact policy, in particular by facilitating the exchange of ideas between academia and practitioners from various fields. Membership is free, and The Group is based at the Political Studies Association. Website: https://www.psa.ac.uk/specialist-groups/technology-internet-and-policy-tip Twitter (or is it now X? Who knows): https://twitter.com/psa_TIP Dr Liam McLoughlin (he/him) Lecturer in Communication & Media University of Liverpool, Department of Communication and Media Twitter: @Leelum<http://www.twitter.com/leelum> Website: https://Leelum.com<https://leelum.com/> Technology, Internet, & Policy Specialist Group Co-convenor @PSA_TIP<https://twitter.com/psa_TIP> Website: https://www.psa.ac.uk/specialist-groups/technology-internet-and-policy-tip Latest software publication: McLoughlin & Ezeh (2022). Cactool: An easy way to collaboratively code social media posts for manual content and discourse analysis (BETA). Available via GitHub.<https://github.com/cactool/cactool>

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Call for Proposals to host AoIR Flashpoint Symposiums in 2024
by Michelle, Association of Internet Researchers 25 Jul '23

25 Jul '23

To supplement our annual October conference, the Association of Internet Researchers is seeking proposals for a one-day AoIR Flashpoint Symposium to take place before the end of August 2024. As the 2024 AoIR conference takes place in Sheffield, UK, only proposals for locations outside of Europe will be considered. An AoIR Flashpoint Symposium is a small event that provides an opportunity to deepen or foster conversations about internet research among regions, groups, and/or thematic research areas that have thus far been underrepresented in the Association of Internet Researchers and its conferences. The Association is making available one grant of up to US$8,000 for the purpose of supporting a one-day symposium that will contribute to the life and mission of AoIR and feed into its annual conference. Each symposium will be a standalone event to take place in a region of the world that differs from that of the 2024 annual conference (Sheffield, UK). Preference will be given to regions and locations where an AoIR conference has not yet been held, but where at least one active AoIR member, who will be on the Flashpoint Symposium planning committee, resides. We also require that the symposium makes a contribution to the main 2024 AoIR conference in some way (e.g., a panel, pre-conference workshop, or another format that presents key contributions and outcomes from the symposium). In addition to local participants, all AoIR members are invited to attend the Flashpoint Symposium. Deadline for the submission of this proposal is 1 September 2023, with a decision returned by the end of October 2023. Proposers are invited to engage in conversation with the AoIR symposium committee. Proposals should: - Be no more than 1-2 pages in length. - Outline a distinct issue or theme to be addressed by the symposium, and demonstrate how this theme has not been sufficiently addressed by AoIR conferences to date. - Include a proposed date (between 1 April and 31 August) and schedule for the one-day event, and identify potential keynote speakers (keeping in mind AoIR’s commitment to diversity and inclusivity). Note: the proposal should ideally not suggest parallel sessions but rather envision a day of consecutive sessions (i.e. a single stream only). - Include a brief description of the leadership team’s history with AoIR and their plans for future involvement. - Demonstrate how this Flashpoint Symposium will connect with AoIR more broadly. - Include a preliminary budget that demonstrates in-kind support and/or sponsorship from the host institution(s) and creates a preliminary plan for cost items. Please note that AoIR funding is not to be allocated for the funding of participant travel costs, staff costs in support of the symposium’s organization, or indirect costs (such costs must be borne by local sponsorship), but may include keynote honoraria, travel of keynote speakers, meals, venue or labor costs. - Indicate how regional and transnational graduate students will be encouraged to participate. - Include a discussion of projected outcomes from this symposium and its potential for ongoing benefit to AoIR more broadly (e.g., AoIR conference panel, special issue, etc.). A selection of organizers and delegates should make a firm commitment to present key contributions and outcomes from the Flashpoint Symposium at the year’s annual conference. AoIR’s commitment to the symposium will include: - Support for promotion and administration through our various channels and platforms (e.g. via organization social media accounts and email lists), as well as limited AoIR administrative support. - Up to $US8,000 disbursed in the form of reimbursements and invoices to cover costs related to organizing of the symposium. - Mentorship from members of AoIR Executive Committee related to the organization of the symposium and subsequent deliverables/outcomes. - Allocation of one session slot (panel, roundtable, fishbowl, experimental session, or pre-conference workshop) on the annual AoIR conference program to the symposium organizers. This session is invited and will be planned jointly by the symposium organizers, the AoIR Executive Committee, and the AoIR Conference organizers in order to present the symposium’s major themes and outcomes. It must involve several participants selected from among the organizers, keynote speakers, and/or other participants of the symposium in order to allow the symposium conversation to continue at the main annual conference. - An additional $US2,000 in travel awards to help bring a panel of Flashpoint participants to the AoIR conference in Philadelphia. (This cannot be reallocated for any other purpose.) Proposals will be ranked in relation to their ability to: - Advance AoIR’s goal of diversification of membership and the expansion of geographical presence at the annual AoIR conference. - Address a theme, topic, or issue not yet prominent in AoIR’s annual conferences. - Articulate a clear outcome that will foster conversation in the future. - Demonstrate a commitment to encouraging graduate student participation, particularly from those in the host region. - Demonstrate capacity for carrying out the symposium in a manner that contributes to the benefit of AoIR and the individual organizer(s). - Demonstrate a commitment to present outcomes at the annual AoIR conference. This listing does not imply any ranking in the importance of these requirements.) AoIR will accept one symposium proposal for 2024. Submit your proposals to symposia @ aoir.org by 1 September, 2023.

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Real-Time Intelligent Systems 2023
by ijwa dline.info 25 Jul '23

25 Jul '23

CALL FOR PAPERS Fifth International Conference on Real-Time Intelligent Systems (RTIS 2023) October 09-11, 2023 University of Bedfordshire, Luton. UK (Hybrid mode- Physical/Virtual) www.socio.org.uk/rtis Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems by Springer https://www.springer.com/series/15179 Earlier conferences took place in Taipei, Taiwan (2018); Casablanca, Morocco (2017); Beijing, China (2016). The 5th RTIS will take place at the University of Bedfordshire, UK. Over the last few years, real-time intelligent computing has radically transformed the human lifestyle. Research on real-time intelligent systems is multi-disciplinary, exploiting concepts from diverse areas such as big data processing, computational intelligence, location-based services, recommendation systems, and multimedia processing. In today’s highly dynamic environment, analysing data in real-time is a must to understand how systems process data, reason the outputs, and anticipate trends in intelligent computing. To this end, this conference will serve as a platform to manifest the ongoing research in the field. Thus, RTIS welcomes theoretically grounded, methodologically sound papers that address aspects related to topics, such as: Artificial Intelligence Techniques Artificial Intelligence and Data mining Streaming data, streaming engines Trace-based intelligent real-time services Adaptive vision algorithms Location-based services Intelligent Robotic Systems Collaborative Intelligence Processing Intelligent Databases Data capture in real-time Data quality and cleansing Intelligent Data Analysis Intelligent Database Systems Big Data systems and applications for high-velocity data Intelligent Information Systems Privacy and Security in Intelligence Software Engineering Solutions Intelligent Soft Computing Real-time multiprocessor systems Internet of Things Architectures for Intelligence Real-time distributed coding Smart services and platforms Real-time modelling user information needs Wireless Communication Real-time intelligent communication Real-time intelligent network solutions Mobile Smart Systems Broadband Intelligence Cloud Computing and Intelligence Collaborative Intelligence Analysis in domains such as energy, sensors, Expert Systems Smart Life Systems Decision support systems in real time Multi-agent Intelligent Systems Multilingual information access Recommendation systems Real-time intelligent, alert systems Real-time remote access systems Intelligent Transportation Systems Critical Real-Time Applications Hybrid Intelligent Systems Real-time noise removal systems Event-driven analytics Intelligent Fuzzy Systems Machine translation in real time OLAP for real-time decision support Crowdsourcing and crowd intelligence Submission, proceedings Papers must be submitted online through OpenConf (https://www.socio.org.uk/rtis/paper-submission/) Author instructions and LaTex2e (preferred) and Word macro files are available on the submission page. Submitted papers should be within 14 pages (long papers) and eight pages (short ones), including figures, tables, and references. Authors of accepted papers are required to transfer their copyrights. For a paper to appear in the proceedings, at least one of the authors MUST register for the conference by the camera-ready submission deadline with full registration. Springer will publish The proceedings in Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems. Extended versions of the conference papers will be considered for publication in the below journals. Journal of Computational Methods in Sciences and Engineering (JCMSE) Future Internet https://www.mdpi.com/journal/futureinternet Data https://www.mdpi.com/journal/data (For Data and Future Internet, the discounted APC is applicable, which is 50%) Journal of Digital Information Management Journal of Intelligent Computing Venue The venue is the University of Bedfordshire, UK. Plenary speakers Professor Eric Atwell, Professor of Artificial Intelligence for Language School of Computing, University of LEEDS, UK Professor Wang Department of Electrical and Software Engineering University of Calgary, Canada Karthick Prasad Gunasekaran Amazon Web Services, USA Important Dates Full Paper Submission: August 05, 2023 Notification of Acceptance/Rejection: August 31, 2023 Early-bird Registration: September 20, 2023 Late Registration: September 30, 2023 Camera Ready Due: October 15, 2023 Workshops/Tutorials/Demos: October 08, 2023 Main conference: October 09-11, 2023 Post-conference proceedings: November 15, 2023 General Chairs Ricardo Rodriguez-Jorge, Jan Evangelista Purkyně University , Czech Republic Martín LÓPEZ-NORES, University of Vigo, Spain Program Chairs Yao-Liang Chung, National Taiwan Ocean University, Taiwan Pit Pichappan, Digital Information Research Labs, India Workshop/Special Issues Chair Ezendu Ariwa, University of Warwick, UK www.socio.org.uk/rtis Contact: stm(a)socio.org.uk

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CSCW Workshop CfP: A Toolbox of Feminist Wonder – Theories and methods that can make a difference
by Karin Hansson 24 Jul '23

24 Jul '23

The call for paper is now open for “A Toolbox of Feminist Wonder – Theories and methods that can make a difference”, a hybrid workshop at CSCW 2023 (https://cscw.acm.org/2023/) October 15 in Minneapolis, MN, USA. This one-day hybrid workshop builds on previous feminist CSCW workshops to explore feminist theoretical and methodological approaches in HCI. Since its inception over a decade ago, feminist HCI has progressed from the margins to mainstream HCI. While feminist approaches have grown in popularity and become mainstream, it is getting more difficult to distinguish the feminist emancipatory core from other attempts of developing and improving society in various ways. In this workshop, we therefore want to revisit our feminist roots, where theory is a liberatory and creative practice, motivated by affect, curiosity, and wonder. The goal of this workshop is to; 1) create an inventory of feminist theories and concepts that have had an impact on our work as designers, educators, researchers, and activists; 2) develop a feminist toolbox for the CSCW community to strengthen our feminist literacy. Call for paper: To participate, submit a 2-4 pages position paper where you suggest one or more feminist theories and methods that have been useful in your previous research. Describe the theory/method and explain how you have used them. As this is a hybrid workshop, notify if you intend to participate online or offline. Use the templates found here: https://authors.acm.org/proceedings/production-information/taps-production-… E-mail your submission to: atoolboxofwonder(a)gmail.com<mailto:atoolboxofwonder@gmail.com> · First round submission deadline: August 18, 2023 (decision notification: August 25) · Second round submission deadline: September 22, 2023 (decision notification: September 28) Information: https://blogg.sh.se/a-toolbox-of-feminist-wonder/ For more information contact Karin Hansson (Karin.hansson(a)sh.se<mailto:Karin.hansson@sh.se>) or Adrian Petterson (a.petterson(a)mail.utoronto.ca<mailto:a.petterson@mail.utoronto.ca>)

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Sonia Livingstone on the CaMP blog
by Ilana Gershon 24 Jul '23

24 Jul '23

Dear Colleagues, Today on the CaMP blog, Ashley McDermott interviews Sonia Livingstone about her co-authored book, Parenting for a Digital Future. https://campanthropology.org/ Best, Ilana Press blurb: In the decades it takes to bring up a child, parents face challenges that are both helped and hindered by the fact that they are living through a period of unprecedented digital innovation. In Parenting for a Digital Future, Sonia Livingstone and Alicia Blum-Ross draw on extensive and diverse qualitative and quantitative research with a range of parents in the UK to reveal how digital technologies characterize parenting in late modernity, as parents determine how to forge new territory with little precedent or support. They chart how parents often enact authority and values through digital technologies since "screen time," games, and social media have become both ways of being together and of setting boundaries. Parenting for a Digital Future moves beyond the panicky headlines to offer a deeply researched exploration of what it means to parent in a period of significant social and technological change.

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Job opportunity - Research Associate on the Everyday Misinformation Project (Part-time from September 2023 until February 2024)
by Cristian Vaccari 24 Jul '23

24 Jul '23

Dear colleagues, We are recruiting a Research Associate to assist us in the final phase of the Everyday Misinformation Project (https://everyday-mis.info/) Information on the post is available below and at https://vacancies.lboro.ac.uk/tlive_webrecruitment/wrd/run/ETREC107GF.open?… . Please feel free to share this information with anyone whom you think may be interested. *Postdoctoral Research Associate (Everyday Misinformation Project)* *Part-time (0.6 FTE/ 22 hours per week) and fixed term from 18th September 2023 until 29th February 2024* The Online Civic Culture Centre (O3C) at Loughborough University is seeking to appoint an enthusiastic and highly motivated postdoctoral researcher to work with Professor Andrew Chadwick and Professor Cristian Vaccari on the Leverhulme-funded *Everyday Misinformation Project* ( http://everyday-mis.info) This is a part-time (0.6 FTE) postdoctoral research role that runs until February 29, 2024. The vacancy arises due to the appointment of current PDRA, Dr Brendan Lawson, to a Lectureship. The researcher’s main responsibilities will be to contribute to project management; gather, organize, and analyze quantitative and some qualitative data; arrange events and meetings relating to research online and/or in person; and contribute actively to the writing and sharing of the research findings in high quality academic publications and public reports and at conferences and workshops. Quantitative skills, including experience of multivariate analysis of longitudinal survey data using regression with lagged variables, autoregression, and similar techniques, are essential. Experience of using either SPSS, or STATA or R is essential. Familiarity with NVivo for qualitative analysis is desirable but not essential. In addition to working with the team, the appointee will have the opportunity to lead on publications based on their own analyses of survey data gathered by the project. The successful applicant will be an experienced researcher with PhD-level social science training in either communication and media, journalism studies, political science, sociology, social psychology, or a cognate discipline or interdisciplinary field, such as behavioural science. They will have substantial knowledge of research on misinformation, be a team player, have excellent written and spoken English, presentational, and time management skills, be highly technologically literate, and be committed to the development of original social science theory and concepts. An awarded PhD *at time of application* is an essential criterion. This is not a remote working position, but requests to work away from campus will be considered in light of the University’s Dynamic Working policies. The researcher will primarily work with Professor Andrew Chadwick (Principal Investigator) and Professor Cristian Vaccari (Co-Investigator). They will also collaborate with the project’s full-time postdoctoral researcher Dr Natalie-Anne Hall. In the latest UK Research Excellence Framework (2021), Communication and Media at Loughborough was ranked 5th in the UK and submitted 40 researchers. Overall, 65% of its research was assessed as “world leading”—the highest possible rating of 4 stars. Its research environment and research impact were both awarded the maximum possible rating of 100% 4-star quality. The department is ranked top in the Complete University Guide, and third in both the Times/Sunday Times Good University Guide and the Guardian guide. Full job description, person specification are available at https://vacancies.lboro.ac.uk/jobdesc/REQ230880.PDF *Informal queries * Professor Andrew Chadwick, director, Online Civic Culture Centre (O3C), Communication and Media, Loughborough University: a.chadwick(a)lboro.ac.uk *Application closing date*: 11th August 2023. Late applications will not be considered. *Visa Sponsorship: * For candidates who would require sponsorship to work in the UK to achieve sufficient points under the Points Based Immigration System, it is likely that you will either need to: - Have completed a PhD in a subject relevant to the job. OR - Qualify as a “new entrant”. For more information on this please see paragraphs SW 12.1 - SW 12.7 of the Immigration Rules Appendix Skilled Worker <https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-appendix-sk…>, available at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-appendix-sk… All the best, Cristian Vaccari, he/him/his ************************* Professor of Political Communication, Loughborough University <http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/socialsciences/staff/cristian-vaccari/> Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Press/Politics <http://hij.sagepub.com/> ************************* New book: Outside the Bubble: <https://global.oup.com/academic/product/outside-the-bubble-9780190858483?la…>Social Media and Political Participation in Western Democracies <https://global.oup.com/academic/product/outside-the-bubble-9780190858483?la…> New project: Everyday Sharing of Misinformation on Private <https://everyday-mis.info/>Social Media <https://everyday-mis.info/> ************************* Personal website: https://cristianvaccari.com/ Google Scholar profile <https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=3_TethEAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao> Mastodon: @cvaccari@mastodon.social <https://mastodon.social/@cvaccari> Twitter: @prof_vaccari <https://twitter.com/prof_vaccari>

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Launch of Platform Governance Archive (PGA) v2 with new data set, access options, website and data paper**
by Christian Katzenbach 24 Jul '23

24 Jul '23

Dear colleagues, I am happy and proud to announce that our team at my PGMT lab in Bremen, in collaboration with Open Terms Archive and the Alexander von Humboldt Institut for Internet and Society (HIIG), has relaunched the Platform Governance Archive as PGA v2, now constituting a complete resource for researchers, journalists and interested people for exploring and comparing platform policies of major platforms, partly going back to founding years in the mid 2000s. We are now offering new datasets, complete access and bulk download options, a new website and a data paper to document the data. https://www.platformgovernancearchive.org/ Below you find the full announcement. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions or ideas. Please note, that we will organise a workshop later this year to bring together people working with platform policies and content moderation guidelines. Looking forward, Christian — Prof. Dr. Christian Katzenbach Professor of Media and Communication Head of Lab „Platform Governance Media, and Technology“ Director of MA program „Digital Media and Society" Centre for Media, Communication & Information Research (ZeMKI), University of Bremen www.uni-bremen.de/zemki https://platform-governance.org <https://platform-governance.org/> Associated Researcher Alexander von Humboldt Institut for Internet and Society (HIIG) www.hiig.de Launch of the Platform Governance Archive (PGA) v2 with new data set, access options, website and data paper The Lab Platform Governance, Media and Technology (PGMT) at the ZeMKI, Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research, and the Alexander von Humboldt Institut for Internet and Society (HIIG) launch this week an updated version of its pioneering open-access repository of platform policies, the Platform Governance Archive (PGA). The extensive update includes the launch of a new website, which enables easier data access, the publication of a data paper, which gives a holistic overview of building the PGA, and the release of an updated dataset, which widens the scope of the PGA to cover more platforms and policies. The power of social media platforms has been a focal point of critical discussion and research – long before Musk took over Twitter. Platforms corporate policies are a key measure of the way platforms govern and order public discourse as they articulate which kind of content and conduct is allowed and prohibited on their services. These rulebooks are the subject of the Platform Governance Archive (PGA), an open-access repository of platform policies which aims to enable collaborative research on/critical engagement with how and when and why platforms are changing their rules founded by the Alexander von Humboldt Institut for Internet and Society (HIIG) and now hosted at the University of Bremen. The need for the systematic study of platform policies When first launched in April 2021, the PGA emerged out of the need to systematically study the historical evolution of platform policies and due to the lack of coherently collected data in this area, which did not rely on the platforms’ own corporate archives. The resulting PGA v1 dataset <https://www.platformgovernancearchive.org/data/dataset-pga-v1-historical-da…>contains all historical versions of the Terms of Service, Community Guidelines and Privacy Policies by Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram (with the exception of YouTube’s Community Guidelines) from the time when they were first introduced through late 2021. New download option and data paper The dataset was built through a combination of automated and manual approaches of data collection and data cleaning which are explained in detail in our newly published data paper <https://doi.org/10.26092/elib/2331>. The paper also lays out the conceptual set up of the PGA and gives a detailed overview of the specificities of the included policies as well as some of the general trends and patterns which run through the historical evolution of the PGA v1 corpus. As part of the new PGA website <https://www.platformgovernancearchive.org/>, the dataset is now available as a direct download <https://github.com/PlatformGovernanceArchive/pga-corpus/releases/>. Overall, the corpus of the PGA v1 contains 153 policy documents with a total of 6,036 pages, which are provided in PDF, HTML and Markdown formats. The downloadable archive furthermore contains additional material and tools that were used in the data collection process. Collaboration with Open Terms Archive: New dataset includes more platforms and policies With the relaunch of PGA, we are also publishing a new dataset <https://www.platformgovernancearchive.org/data/dataset-pga-v2-ongoing-colle…> which widens the scope of the PGA to cover 18 platforms and currently 79 policies. The dataset is generated in collaboration with Open Terms Archive <https://opentermsarchive.org/> (OTA), an open source initiative which is dedicated to increase the transparency and democratic oversight of digital services. The timeline of the PGA v2 dataset goes back to April 2022 and is automatically updated on a daily basis to enable the continuous tracking of changes in the selected policies. Whenever a change is made to one of the tracked policies, the system stores a snapshot to a Github repository where the change can be examined by ways of a change visualisation. The dataset can also be downloaded as a bulk download as an archive of Markdown files. Funding for the PGA has been provided by the hosting institutions as well as by different partners and funding schemes such as the EU Horizon 2020 project reCreating Europe <https://www.recreating.eu/>, Wikimedia Deutschland and the Data Science Center (DSC) at the University of Bremen. Future directions In the future, the PGMT Lab will continue developing the PGA by merging the historical dataset with the ongoing data collection into an integrated dataset. The roadmap also includes the addition of more platforms and more language versions. The PGA has been used for a growing body of research on platform policies <https://www.platformgovernancearchive.org/research/> and enables researchers, journalists and the public to answer questions on the historical evolution of platform policies.

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CFP: “Streaming Diversity?" Journal of Convergence special issue
by Maura Edmond 24 Jul '23

24 Jul '23

*Call For Papers: “Streaming Diversity? On and off-screen diversity in an era of automated media culture” * Abstracts due 22 Sept 2023 Special Issue of *Convergence: The International Journal of Research Into New Media Technologies* Guest editors: Dr Maura Edmond, Dr Olivia Khoo, Dr Claire Perkins and Dr Verity Trott, from @Gender&MediaLab <https://twitter.com/gendermedialab> in the School of Media, Film and Journalism at Monash University, Australia. Deadline for abstracts: *22 September 2023* | Expected publication date: August 2024 The unprecedented growth of video-on-demand streaming platforms has brought both new optimism and new complications to concerns around screen ‘diversity’. Without the limitations of linear television, streaming services have far greater capacity for producing and distributing more diverse screen content. Many of the streaming platforms have made high profile public commitments to diversity, such as Netflix’s ‘Inclusion Report’, introducing new policies and commissioning processes intended to support culturally diverse representation and content production. Large global SVODs and smaller region-specific and genre-specific platforms have also launched original series and commissioned content that has been widely marketed as and celebrated for its diverse representations. Together, this has created a popular impression that streaming platforms are improving diversity in terms of both representation and practical opportunities for screen creatives. This special issue of Convergence will critically explore the impacts of video streaming platforms on different dimensions of ‘diversity’. Existing studies on diversity in the screen sector have consistently demonstrated long standing and entrenched inequality regimes affecting women and non-dominant groups, but there remains limited research on how this plays out at the streaming services specifically. Research on SVOD-related impacts have focused instead on understanding how major global companies like Netflix have interacted with existing local screen industries and production ecosystems, affected global distribution and content flows, and created overall regulatory imbalances. We are calling for papers that will examine the impacts of video streaming platforms that extend our understanding of diversity in an era of automated, on-demand video. In keeping with the themes of this issue, we welcome proposals looking at streaming services and experiences outside US contexts. Questions of interest include, but are not limited to: - How is diversity represented and made discoverable via platform features such as the image tiles and categories used in catalogues? - How do recommendation systems understand and operationalise ‘diversity’? - What values and messages about diversity are being communicated by the content commissioned by streaming services? - What are we to make of existing policies and practices intended to support diversity, equity and inclusion at the streaming platforms? - What policy options are there for regulating ‘diversity’? - How do audiences, users and communities engage with streaming platforms to discover, view or value ‘diverse’ content? Please submit a 500-word abstract & 100 word bio by 22 September 2023 to: streamingdiversity(a)gmail.com Authors of accepted abstracts will be notified by 20 October 2023. Full articles will be due 01 March 2024 No payment from the authors will be required Dr Maura Edmond Senior Lecturer School of Media, Film and Journalism Building B, Room B4.31 Monash University Caulfield East VIC 3145 Australia t: +61 3 990 34119 e: maura.edmond(a)monash.edu

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