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

CFP: Posthumanism and Media Studies
by J.J. Sylvia IV 22 Aug '23

22 Aug '23

Please see below for a call for a special issue that I'm co-editing, which may be of interest. I'm happy to answer questions! Call posted online: https://journals.tplondon.com/jp/announcement/view/65 *Theme and Scope:* The Journal of Posthumanism (Transnational Press) invites submissions for a special issue exploring the intersection of posthumanism and media studies. Posthumanism fosters a more inclusive and less hierarchical approach to our entanglements with both human and non-human elements. Posthuman theory, particularly as articulated by N. Katherine Hayles and Rosi Braidotti, has long been influential in media studies. However, it has often been applied without a systematic or thoroughly developed methodology. Ferrando (2020) argues: > > “posthuman ethics invites us to follow on three related layers. First of > all, as a post-humanism, it marks a shift: from universalism to > perspectivism, from multiculturalism to pluralism and diversity. As a > postanthropocentrism, it induces a change of strategy: from human agency > to agential networks, from technology to eco-technology. As a postdualism, > it requires an evolution of our awareness: from individuality to > relationality, from theory to praxis.” > > This Special Issue of the Journal of Posthumanism therefore asks, how does such posthuman perspectivism, pluralism, agentiality, eco-technology, relationality, and praxis, apply to the future of media and cultural studies? How might we understand the very concept of “future”? Media is exploding at an ever-increasing pace across digital platforms, working with, through, and against new technological advances such as AI. These developments are also occurring during a time of global shifts that include pandemics and climate change. In light of these changes, it is the ideal time to provoke more conversations between media and cultural studies through Posthumanism. Several approaches have been proposed that align media studies with or explicitly draw on posthuman concepts. In 2021, Posthumanism in Art and Science: A Reader was published, making the argument that “aesthetic production is a vital part of posthumanist thinking processes, which thereby grow ever more urgently relevant to social and ecological problem-solving.” (Aloi & McHugh, 2021, 2) Recent studies have developed posthuman approaches to rhetorical practice (Boyle, 2018) and explored how we might understand the combination of humans and technical media as synthetic subjects (Wiley & Elam, 2018). Elsewhere, Iliadis (2013) proposed that a shift away from a cybernetic understanding of communication as a process of pre-existing agents that transmit messages to one another could offer the possibility for the development of a new underlying informational ontology for communication and media studies, which would lend itself to new methods. Such ontologies and methods have been explored in relation to media studies through, for example, posthuman approaches to autoethnographies and subjectivities (Wilde, 2020; 2022). Monea and Packer (2016) have proposed a media genealogy approach that extends the type of work being done in media archaeology. Building on this genealogical approach, Sylvia (2019; 2021) has argued that posthuman ethics, ontology, and epistemology could be adopted in media studies through a more explicit embrace of affirmative approaches such as counter-actualization, modulation, and counter-memory. Elsewhere, exploring the tensions and potential contradictions between the history of cultural studies and posthumanism, Cord (2022) asks, “can or should Cultural Studies and the nonhuman turn really be brought into the contact zone?” There are therefore a variety of possible responses and resonances between posthumanism and media studies. We propose this special issue as an avenue to explore, extend, and develop a posthuman praxis for media studies. We invite researchers to explore themes related to these posthuman approaches. This might include, but is not limited to: * Pieces that build on or extend existing theory and methods in posthuman media and/or communication practices. * The role of AI in shaping posthuman futures and subjectivities. * Posthuman approaches for the study of games, television, social media, journalism, and rhetoric. * The exploration of posthuman ethics in media studies. * Application of posthuman paradigms such as counter-actualization, modulation, and countermemory in media case studies. * Posthuman conceptualizations of media’s role in processes of subjectivation. * How media intra-actions emphasise different modes of materialism and materialities. * Experimental approaches to media studies. * Post-anthropocentric or non-human media studies. * Ontologies of posthuman media. * Posthumanist entanglements of media and culture. * Onto-epistemological postdualisms that could/should be applied to media studies. We encourage submissions that draw broadly on the work of theorists such as N. Katherine Hayles, Rosi Braidotti, Karen Barad, Gilles Deleuze, and Michel Foucault, and that engage with the ethical, epistemological, and ontological aspects of posthumanism. We are particularly interested in papers that propose new methods of inquiry and analysis within media studies, and that engage with the potential of an affirmative posthuman turn within critical and cultural theory. *Guest Editors:* Dr. J.J. Sylvia IV, Associate Professor of Communications Media, Fitchburg State University Dr. Poppy Wilde, Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication, Birmingham City University *Submission Guidelines:* Submissions should adhere to the Journal of Posthumanism guidelines for authors, which can be found here: https://journals.tplondon.com/jp/about/submissions. Please submit your abstract (max. 500 words), including a tentative title, and a short author biography (max. 100 words) via email to jsylvia3(a)fitchburgstate.edu *and* poppy.wilde(a)bcu.ac.uk by September 30, 2023 , with the subject line “JoP - Posthumanism and Media Studies”. *Review Process:* All submitted abstracts will be initially reviewed by the guest editors to ensure relevance to the special issue theme. Authors of selected abstracts will be invited to submit full papers, which will then undergo a peer-review process in accordance with the journal’s standard review procedures. *Important Dates:* Abstract Submission Deadline: September 30, 2023 Notification of Abstract Acceptance: October 31, 2023 Full Paper for Peer Review (5,000-6,000 words, excluding footnotes and references) Deadline: March 10, 2024 Publication of the Special Issue: October, 2024 Please note: by submitting an abstract for this Special issue, you may also be asked to conduct peer review for an article within it (even if you are also accepted). If you would not like to be asked to conduct peer review, please indicate this in your email. Please feel free to circulate this call for proposals among your colleagues and networks. If you have any questions about this call or the proposed special issue, please feel welcome to contact us. All inquiries and submissions can be sent to: jsylvia3(a)fitchburgstate.edu *and* poppy.wilde(a)bcu.ac.uk. *References* Aloi, G., & McHugh, S. (eds) (2021). Posthumanism in art and science: A reader. Columbia University Press. Boyle, C. A. (2018). Rhetoric as a posthuman practice. The Ohio State University Press. Cord, F. (2022). Posthumanist cultural studies: Taking the nonhuman seriously. Open Cultural Studies , 6 (1), 25-37. https://doi.org/10.1515/culture-2020-0138 Ferrando, F. (2020). Posthuman feminist ethics: Unveiling ontological radical healing. In M. R. Thomsen and Jacob Wamberg The Bloomsbury handbook of posthumanism , (pp. 141-60). Bloomsbury Academic. Iliadis, A. (2013). Informational ontology: The meaning of Gilbert Simondon’s concept of individuation. Communication + 1, 2 (1). Article 5. https://doi.org/10.7275/R59884XW Monea, A., & Packer, J. (2016). Media genealogy and the politics of archaeology. International Journal of Communication, 10 , 3141–59. Sylvia IV, J.J. (2019). From archaeology to genealogy: Adding processes of subjectivation to artistic intervention. Communication +1, 7(2). Article 3. https://doi.org/10.7275/a3dm-3770 ———. (2021). Posthuman media studies. Journal of Posthumanism, 1 (2), 139-51. https://doi.org/10.33182/jp.v1i2.1360 Wilde, P. (2020). I, posthuman: A deliberately provocative title. International Review of Qualitative Research, 13 (3), 365–80. https://doi.org/10.1177/1940844720939853. ( https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?SSBYIt ) ———. (2022). Storytelling the multiple self: Posthuman autoethnography as critical praxis. In C. Blyth & T. K. Aslanian (Eds.), Children and the power of stories (pp. 1-16). Children: Global Posthumanist Perspectives and Materialist Theories. Springer Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9287-1_1. Wiley, S B. C., & Elam, J. (2018). Synthetic subjectivation: Technical media and the composition of posthuman subjects.” Subjectivity, 11 (3), 203–27. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41286-018-0055-0 -- J.J. Sylvia IV, Ph.D. (he/him/his) Associate Professor, Communications Media Coordinator, Digital Media Innovation major ( https://www.fitchburgstate.edu/academics/programs/digital-media-innovation-… ) Fitchburg State University Office: Conlon Hall 335 http://www.jjsylvia.com (978) 665-3418 Assistant Editor, Journal of Posthumanism ( https://journals.tplondon.com/jp/ )

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ADE for Games Communitities Speakers Series: Fall Events and Winter Recaps
by Gerald Voorhees 22 Aug '23

22 Aug '23

Dear colleagues, I'm happy to announce the lineup for the eight Fall 2023 lectures, workshops, and panels for the "Anti-racism, Decolonization, and EDI (ADE) for Games Communities" Speakers Series. We are, once again, looking forward to centering marginalized perspectives and ideas from Indigenous, Black, and otherwise racialized game scholars and practitioners. You can find the event descriptions and details on this webpage <https://uwaterloo.ca/games-institute/sites/ca.games-institute/files/uploads…> . We are also excited to launch a website for the speakers series <https://uwaterloo.ca/games-institute/ade-games-communities-workshop-and-spe…> where you will find summary write-ups of the eight Winter 2023 events, as well as recordings of these events. We hope that you can use these resources to help you bring the insights of the series into your classrooms, and we will be adding 10-15 minute video summaries in the coming months to further enable this. Write up and recordings of the Fall 2023 events will be added in due course. Please distribute widely. Best regards Gerald

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WEBCAST 22-24 AUG – African Peering and Interconnection Forum 2023 | Le Forum africain sur le peering et l’interconnexion 2023 (AfPIF)
by Joly MacFie 22 Aug '23

22 Aug '23

I say it every year, AfPIF is the single best event that ISOC is involved in. It's all about interconnection, cooperation, and building out connectivity. Je le dis chaque année, l'AfPIF est le meilleur événement auquel l'ISOC participe. Il s'agit d'interconnexion, de coopération et de développement de la connectivité. [image: isoc live] <https://isoc.live/16801%20>On *Tuesday-Thursday August 22-24 2023* the *African Peering and Interconnection Forum (AfPIF) 2023 <https://www.afpif.org/afpif2023/>* will convene in Accra, Ghana. An open and inclusive forum, AfPIF focuses on developing Internet interconnection and traffic exchange opportunities by bringing together key players – infrastructure providers, Internet service providers (ISPs), Internet Exchange Points (IXPs), content producers and providers, data center operators, policy-makers and regulators, to advance the peering ecosystem in Africa. AfPIF aims to promote the development of national and cross border interconnection and offers the African technical community a unique opportunity to showcase interconnection challenges and opportunities. *AGENDA https://www.afpif.org/afpif2023/agenda/ <https://www.afpif.org/afpif2023/agenda/>* *ENGLISH LIVESTREAM http://livestream.com/internetsociety/afpif2023 <http://livestream.com/internetsociety/afpif2023>* Du *mardi au jeudi 22 au 24 août 2023*, Le* Forum africain sur le peering et l’interconnexion (AfPIF) 2023 <https://www.afpif.org/fr/afpif-2023/>* se déroulera à Accra, au Ghana. Forum ouvert et inclusif, l’AfPIF se concentre sur le développement d’opportunités d’interconnexion et d’échange de trafic Internet en réunissant des acteurs clés – fournisseurs d’infrastructures, fournisseurs de services Internet (FAI), points d’échange Internet (IXP), producteurs et fournisseurs de contenu, opérateurs de centres de données, politiques-makers et régulateurs, pour faire progresser l’écosystème de peering en Afrique. AfPIF vise à promouvoir le développement de l’interconnexion nationale et transfrontalière et offre à la communauté technique africaine une occasion unique de présenter les défis et les opportunités de l’interconnexion. *ORDRE DU JOUR https://www.afpif.org/afpif2023/agenda/ <https://www.afpif.org/afpif2023/agenda/>* *LIVESTREAM FRANÇAIS http://livestream.com/internetsociety2/afpif2023 <http://livestream.com/internetsociety2/afpif2023>* *REAL TIME TEXT / TEXTE EN TEMPS RÉEL* *https://www.streamtext.net/player?event=CFI-ISOC-AfPIF <https://www.streamtext.net/player?event=CFI-ISOC-AfPIF> *(EN/FR) *TWITTER #AfPIF2023 <https://bit.ly/AfPIF2023> @AfPIF @ISOC_Africa @Mainoneservice @Af_IX #IPeerinAfrica* *SIMULCASTS* (captioned) *https://www.twitter.com/ISOC_Live/ <https://www.twitter.com/ISOC_Live/>* *https://www.twitch.tv/isoclive* <https://www.twitch.tv/isoclive> (EN ONLY) *https://www.facebook.com/liveisoc/ <https://www.facebook.com/liveisoc/>* *https://www.facebook.com/InternetSociety/ <https://www.facebook.com/InternetSociety/>* *https://www.facebook.com/ISOCAfrica/ <https://www.facebook.com/ISOCAfrica/>* *https://www.facebook.com/AfPIF/ <https://www.facebook.com/AfPIF/>* *ARCHIVE* *https://archive.org/details/afpif2023 <https://archive.org/details/afpif2023>* - -- -------------------------------------- Joly MacFie +12185659365 -------------------------------------- -

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ACM IMC 2023 -- Call for Travel Grant Applicants; Deadline: Friday September 1st, 2023 at 11:59PM AoE (UTC-12)
by Eirini Eleni Tsiropoulou 22 Aug '23

22 Aug '23

Call for Travel Grant Applicants We are proud to announce that IMC 2023 will support conference attendance by students with travel grants. Important Dates Please note that late applications will not be considered. Submission deadline Friday September 1st, 2023 at 11:59PM AoE (UTC-12) Notification of acceptance Monday September 11th, 2023 at 11:59PM AoE (UTC-12) Student Travel Grants The purpose of this program is to encourage graduate student participation at the conference by funding the travel cost for students who would otherwise be unable to attend. Eligibility: Applicants to this grant must be a student at the time of physically attending IMC 2023 to qualify. Selection criteria: The student statement/letter and advisor letter(s) weigh strongly in selecting students for an IMC travel grant. Generally, travel grants are awarded to PhD students pursuing research in areas of interest to IMC. We rarely consider master students and do not consider postdocs. Prioritization order: 1. Students from under-represented groups or institutions. Additionally, grants are spread across institutions, and the historical tendency is to not award more than one travel grant per institution. 2. Students who are authors of rejected IMC papers. 3. Students who have not received a prior IMC travel grant. 4. Students who are authors of accepted IMC posters. 5. Students in early stages of their Ph.D. studies without alternate means of support 6. Students who are co-authors of accepted papers and will not be speaking at the conference. The factors above represent our rough prioritization. We also take into account extenuating circumstances that are discussed in statements and letters. In addition to this, we prioritize equal representation and diversity. Funding level: The expectation is that a student travel grant will significantly offset air fare, shared hotel accommodation, and registration. It may not fully cover these expenses, however, since our desire is to maximize participation by students. Thus, we strongly encourage students to seek alternative top-up funding. Note, we are working with ACM towards waiving the registration fees for travel grant recipients. While that is in progress, we ask that applicants include the registration fee from 2022 as an approximate cost in their planning. Note for presenting student authors: We generally expect presenting authors to be sponsored by their institution, and will generally not consider student authors for travel grants. If, however, you would struggle to attend IMC without a travel grant because your institution cannot sponsor your travel, please have your advisor provide details in their letter. How to Apply Your application must include the following and must be based on the following template<https://docs.google.com/document/d/10ZGAfwzSwzsGrDnJ8ZxAfd8uJTgq1fS2hyvA4hZ…>: * A resume with complete contact information and correct email address. * A short personal statement (no more than 250 words) that includes the following: * information that the applicant feels is relevant to support their case, e.g., why the conference attendance is important to the applicant's research and career development. * estimated expenses for attending the conference (total, and breakdown by conference registration, travel, and lodging). * If you will be unable to attend IMC without a travel grant, please explain why this is the case. * A letter (max. 1 page) from your advisor (or a faculty contact if you do not have an advisor), which should: * Confirm the applicant's good standing in the institution; * Explain why the applicant would benefit from attending IMC as well as how they could contribute to the conference; and * Explain the current funding status and why the applicant is in need of the travel grant as well as commit to supplement the travel award (to cover remaining costs) to enable attendance. * Submit your application using the template<https://docs.google.com/document/d/10ZGAfwzSwzsGrDnJ8ZxAfd8uJTgq1fS2hyvA4hZ…> including your CV and Reference Letter as a single PDF file at https://imc2023-travel-grants.hotcrp.com<https://imc2023-travel-grants.hotcrp.com/>. Additional Information Please pay attention to the following details about the travel grant application and reimbursement process: * Tell us if you are a student at a US institution (so we can determine which travel grants budget to use). * There is no strict upper or lower bound for the travel grants, however, travel grants will typically be capped at $1500 USD. * Please provide complete contact information. We will need to have your current mailing address. Please take into account any address changes you may have near the time of the stipend deadline, for example due to school breaks. You will be notified via email, so make sure your email address is correct on your application. * In order to obtain reimbursement, you must provide IMC with your original receipts for airfare and hotel expenses. * We do expect you to prefer affordable accommodation over more expensive options. * Note to those awarded a travel grant: The reimbursement process can take in the order of several months so please be patient! * The decision on student travel grants is made by the IMC Student Travel Grant Committee; all decisions are final. * Grant applicants should ensure that they have the proper travel documents (i.e., a visa) to travel to and enter Canada, and to return to their home institution after the conference. Contacts Please contact the travel grant chairs for any question or comment: Gautam Akiwate<mailto:gakiwate@cs.stanford.edu> (Stanford University) Alberto Dainotti<mailto:dainotti@gatech.edu> (Georgia Tech). -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eirini Eleni Tsiropoulou, Associate Professor Computer Engineering Chair Director of Recruiting and Admissions Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM, 87131 Office: 326B Tel.: (505)-277-5501 Email: eirini(a)unm.edu<mailto:eirini@unm.edu> Website: PROTON Lab<http://ece-research.unm.edu/tsiropoulou/index.html> PROTON Lab's News: @Tsiropoulou_EE<https://twitter.com/Tsiropoulou_EE> "Those who know, do. Those that understand, teach." ~ Aristotle

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Gritty 5K at #AoIR2023
by Zimmer, Michael 21 Aug '23

21 Aug '23

To all #AoIRunners attending #AoIR2023 in Philadelphia: The Gritty 5K is Saturday Oct 21 at 8:30am. Start is about 30 minutes away from the conference hotel via the orange line. While the conference program isn’t live yet, I’m hoping some of us can fit this race into our weekend! https://runsignup.com/Race/PA/Philadelphia/Gritty5K ~ Michael -- Michael Zimmer, PhD Director, Center for Data, Ethics, and Society Associate Professor & Vice-Chair, Department of Computer Science Marquette University michael.zimmer(a)marquette.edu<mailto:michael.zimmer@marquette.edu> www.michaelzimmer.org<http://www.michaelzimmer.org/> :: www.zuckerbergfiles.org<http://www.zuckerbergfiles.org/> Schedule a meeting with me: https://calendly.com/michael-zimmer

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Call for Participation: Search Engine Research / RAT Community Meeting (8 September 2023, Hamburg, Germany)
by Lewandowski, Dirk 21 Aug '23

21 Aug '23

Are you using search engine data in your research – or are you interested in doing so? Join us for the first RAT community meeting, including talks, tutorials and a poster session! With the Result Assessment Tool (RAT) you can easily collect results from different search engines, let participants assess the results and analyse your findings. More information on RAT: https://searchstudies.org/research/rat/ Friday, 8 September 2023, 10 am - 6 pm Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Hamburg, Germany The full programme is now online! TECHNICAL TALKS - What is RAT and how can you use it? - The Query Sampler - The SEO Classifier SHOWCASES - The Rammstein Debate as Represented in Search Engines (Sebastian Sünkler and Sebastian Schultheiß, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Germany) - Greyzone Medicines and Black Hat SEO (Kristofer Söderström and Olof Sundin, Lund University, Sweden) - Mapping politics of exclusion on Google search (Ov Cristian Norocel, Lund University, Sweden) - How Candidates Use SEO in Political Elections (Kay Hinz, Argus Data Insights, Germany) TUTORIAL: How to RAT? A Hands-On Tutorial to Designing and Conducting Studies With RAT In the tutorials, small groups will explore the functionality of RAT and design their own studies. You will be introduced to creating a study, collecting data from search engines, and analysing the results. POSTER SESSION Have a first look at exciting add-ons to the RAT software that allow automatic analysis of search results. Furthermore, there will be posters presenting even more studies based on search results. Posters include: - Googling for diseases: Exploring source types, SEO measures, and information quality of health-related search results (Sebastian Schultheiß, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences) - Imprint crawler – a web crawler specialized in the automatic imprint extraction of websites under consideration of the German Legislation (Marius Messer, University of Duisburg-Essen) - Measuring the Readability of Web Documents (Mohamed Elnaggar, University of Duisburg-Essen) - Sentiment analysis for search result snippets (Nimesh Ghimire, University of Duisburg-Essen) - Comparison of Results Shown by Different Search Engines for Climate-Related Topics (Tuhina Kumar; University of Duisburg-Essen) - What does Google recommend when you want to compare insurance offerings? – A study investigating source distribution in Google's top search results (Sebastian Sünkler; Hamburg University of Applied Sciences) - EI-Logger Plug-In: Explicit and implicit Logger for elicitation of search engine user’s data (Hossam Al Mustafa; University of Duisburg-Essen) - A Comparison of Source Distribution and Result Overlap in Web Search Engines (Helena Häußler; Hamburg University of Applied Sciences) We hope you're able to join us! Registration is free! (Please note that this is an in-person event in Hamburg, Germany) https://www.eventbrite.de/e/rat-community-meeting-tickets-648095941407 -- Prof. Dr. Dirk Lewandowski Interim professor (computer science), University of Duisburg-Essen Professor (information research & information retrieval), Hamburg University of Applied Sciences T +49 40 428 75-3621 dirk.lewandowski(a)haw-hamburg.de HOCHSCHULE FÜR ANGEWANDTE WISSENSCHAFTEN HAMBURG Fakultät Design, Media und Information Department Information Finkenau 35 / 22081 Hamburg / Germany http://www.searchstudies.org/dirk

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fyi: Zoom claims right to use your sessions to train AI
by Richard Forno 21 Aug '23

21 Aug '23

Hi folks - As I posted to rickf(a)indieweb.social <mailto:rickf@indieweb.social> yesterday, for those who may be using Zoom for teaching, research, external collaborations and/or personal meetings, please note that their latest terms of service (7/27/23) sections 10.1 - 10.4 seems to give them the right to use the audio/video/shared content from your Zoom sessions to train AI models.[1] I'm not aware of any opt-out to this collection. This item began surfacing over the weekend so more coverage in the coming days is likely as the tech & privacy communities digest the potential legal, medical, educational, and IP ramifications of this practice. [1] https://explore.zoom.us/en/terms/ Just providing a heads-up for AoIRistas concerned with how their (potentially sensitive) data, voice, and/or likeness - or those of their friends, family, students, or collaborators - may be used by a third party. IIRC BlueSky claims something similar with content posted on that platform, but imo that's not as far-reaching or potentially invasive as this move by Zoom. <sigh> One wonders if there are any internet ethics folks employed & empowered @ these places anymore, but I'm not optimistic. :/ -- rick -- Dr. Richard Forno Principal Lecturer, CSEE Director, Graduate Cybersecurity Program Assistant Director, UMBC Center for Cybersecurity Affiliate Scholar, Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society

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two job openings in the UNESCO AI Ethics team
by duaa.ayounes＠gmail.com 20 Aug '23

20 Aug '23

Dear all, I am writing to let you know about two openings that we currently have in UNESCO as part of the AI Ethics team, As part of a European Commission funded project <https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/artificial-intelligence-partnership-betw een-unesco-and-eu-speed-implementation-ethical-rules> , we are currently hiring a Project Officer <https://careers.unesco.org/job/Paris-Project-Officer-%28Social-and-Human-Sc iences%29/776697402/?from=email&refid=8720119002&utm_source=J2WEmail&source= 2&eid=128402-202322140522-16589454502&locale=en_GB> and a Project Assistant <https://careers.unesco.org/job/Paris-Project-Assistant-%28Social-and-Human- Sciences%29/776698902/?from=email&refid=8720119002&utm_source=J2WEmail&sourc e=2&eid=128402-202322140522-16589454502&locale=en_GB> This is a very exciting project that will encompass several work streams, including supporting countries in creating and strengthening their national AI related laws and institutions, establishing an expert group that would support the work on the national level, and helping to organize an annual flagship event on the ethics of AI, Since the adoption of the UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI <https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000381137> we have been working diligently on a comprehensive implementation plan that would cover all AI stakeholders and ensure that we are indeed moving from principles to practice, and not remaining on a high level of generality, We have developed a Readiness Assessment Methodology <https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000385198> that is currently being deployed in more than 30 countries, and an Ethical Impact Assessment <https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000386276> piloted as a procurement tool, and we launched the Women for the Ethics of AI <https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/unesco-launches-women-4-ethical-ai-platf orm> platform, to strengthen female leadership in the field, all is that to say that a lot is happening and it is an exciting time to join UNESCO, While the job is advertised for 1 year, the project through which it's funded is for three years, so the likelihood of extension is certainly there, The deadline to apply is the 31st of August, and if you have questions or would like to discuss more please let me know, I am on holidays so I might be slow in responding, but will do my best to prioritize queries Many thanks and please feel free to forward this to other mailing lists Doaa Doaa ABU-ELYOUNES, PhD Program Specialist Ethics of AI Bioethics and Ethics of Science, SHS Sector, UNESCO 7 Place de Fontenoy, 75007 Paris, France Tel: +33 (0) 1 45 68 05 84 <https://www.linkedin.com/in/doaa-abu-elyounes-700205210/> LinkedIn | <https://twitter.com/DYounes6> Twitter

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John Monberg tribute/memorial session at AoIR in Philadelphia
by Holly Kruse 20 Aug '23

20 Aug '23

Hi all, Now that the conference program is live, I’d like to draw your attention to an informal session on the program that’s scheduled for Friday, October 20th at 5:00 p.m., after the panels for the day have ended. It’s a session for those of us who knew John Monberg and/or who knew his work, and who would like to spend a little time together remember him. John died in April. You can read the excellent tribute to John posted by the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures at Michigan State University, of which he was a member, at https://wrac.msu.edu/2023/07/14/wrac-mourns-the-loss-of-professor-john-monb… <https://enculturation.net/mapping_the_network>. For those of you who didn’t know John or weren’t familiar with his research, let me tell you a few things about him and why I wanted to schedule some kind of remembrance time for him at AoIR. John was an STS and communication scholar who, in his own words from his biography page (which is still up at the time of this writing) on the MSU website, "My work focuses on the new media resources and information infrastructures needed for community deliberation adequate to meet the challenges of globalization. Because these infrastructures are designed, my work pays special attention to the productive practices that mediate culture, technology, and public.” (See https://jmonberg.msu.domains/ <https://jmonberg.msu.domains/>). John was an EARLY and active participant in AoIR, having presented his research at eight AoIR conferences, starting in Minneapolis with the second annual conference . Many of you know him and his work through his AoIR presentations. Those of you who did get to know him, at least a little, know what a kind, generous, thoughtful, intellectually voracious (“curious” doesn’t quite cover it) person he was, always interested in the ideas of others and full of fascinating insights from his own research: including research from the earliest days of what was then primarily referred to as “computer-mediated communication” in the early-to-mid-1990s. I urge everyone to take a look at one of the more recent projects on which he worked in collaboration with his MSU colleague Dawn Opel – a project that drew on his personal experience and is titled "Mapping the Network of the Cancer Clinical Trial: A Toolkit for Health Equity Activism,” which is available for all to read at https://enculturation.net/mapping_the_network <https://enculturation.net/mapping_the_network>. I hope that any and all people interested in attending will do so. There is no registration fee or formal registration for this event. All you need to do to participate is show up. Because of friends and colleagues who want to be present but are unable to attend in person, I’ve recruited John’s longtime friend Laura Gurak to set up a Zoom option. I’m not sure whaat technology we’ll have available in the room to which we’ve been assigned, so the Zoom people may just end up as tiny heads on a laptop screen, but at least they will be there in some form. If you won’t be attending the conference and would like to participate in the session via Zoom, please contact Laura at gurakL(a)umn.edu <mailto:gurakL@umn.edu>. My dream is that we will have a big, informal get-together of friends, colleagues, fans, and family – John’s wife Terese and his brother will be there – where we can share our memories of John and his work. Both Terese and I have recruited and are still recruiting people to speak – again, informally – at the session so that we don’t end up with just a few people awkwardly sitting around trying to find more things to say. I know many of you out there were affected by John and his work, and if you are interested in attending and even saying a few words about John, please email me at holly.kruse(a)gmail.com <mailto:holly.kruse@gmail.com>. I may privately (again) reach out to some of you. I of course don’t need a full-fledged commitment now, but if you’d be interested in attending and willing to participate – we could just all sit down and chat informally about John, which I think would be great (I have stories… ;-)) – please let me know. Because the session is scheduled for 5:00 on Friday, we will be perfectly positioned to move from the session to drinks or dinner. Thanks for reading this, best wishes, and I’ll see you in Philadelphia! Holly ----- Holly Kruse, Ph.D. Professor Department of Communications Rogers State University 1701 W. Will Rogers Blvd. Claremore, Oklahoma 74017 holly.kruse(a)gmail.com or hkruse(a)rsu.edu

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Zoom and AI Training
by Janet Salmons 20 Aug '23

20 Aug '23

Gee, I wonder if they got some pushback on the idea of allowing AI training on Zoom sessions? The Zoom blog now says: <https://blog.zoom.us/category/company-news/> How Zoom's terms of service and practices apply to AI features (https://blog.zoom.us/zooms-term-service-ai/) August 7, 2023 It's important to us at Zoom to empower our customers with innovative and secure communication solutions. We've updated our terms of service<https://explore.zoom.us/en/terms/> (in section 10.4) to further confirm that we will not use audio, video, or chat customer content to train our artificial intelligence models without your consent. As part of our commitment to transparency and user control, we are providing clarity on our approach to two essential aspects of our services: Zoom's AI features and customer content sharing for product improvement purposes. Our goal is to enable Zoom account owners and administrators to have control over these features and decisions, and we're here to shed light on how we do that and how that affects certain customer groups. and We will not use customer content, including education records or protected health information, to train our artificial intelligence models without your consent. I wrote to double check this information, and if I hear anything back I will share it with you. I always record my Zoom meetings to my own hard drive - and that is what I suggest to anyone conducting research interviews, focus groups, etc. on any videoconference platform. Previously, Zoom verified to me that when you do so, no record of the meeting is saved to their servers. (I inadvertently tested this premise when I had a problem with saving a recording to my computer it was well and truly gone and unavailable.) On a related note, a NY Times article this weekend, "A.I.'s Inroads in Publishing Touch Off Fear, and Creativity" discussed this point: Writers have joined other artists, coders and content creators in suing A.I. companies, accusing them of using their work to train A.I. systems. The writers don't want their work used without permission. ...Many in publishing are taking action to protect their work. The Authors Guild recently organized a petition signed by thousands of writers demanding that companies seek their approval before using their work to train A.I. programs. Agencies representing illustrators have also revised their contracts to keep their work from being used to feed A.I. programs. Penguin Random House, the country's largest book publisher, said it considers the "unauthorized ingestion" of content to train A.I. models to be a copyright infringement. While fiction writers and academic writers have different issue, it is the "work used without permission" factor that seems most concerning. And of course work used without permission also means work used without paying the content creator - a big reason Hollywood is on strike right now. I'd like to explore these issues for academic writers of books and articles on Sage Methodspace (www.methodspace.com<http://www.methodspace.com>) as part of this year's Academic Writing Month in November. If you have ideas or resources to share, please contact me off-list. Warm regards, Janet Janet Salmons, PhD (She/her/hers) Research Community Manager, SAGE MethodSpace (www.methodspace.com<http://www.methodspace.com>) Boulder, Colorado USA jsalmons(a)vision2lead.com<mailto:jsalmons@vision2lead.com> Now available! Doing Qualitative Research Online, 2nd edition (https://bit.ly/2ZJ0G5f)

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