January 2026 - Air-L - lists.aoir.org

The Digital Democracy Score (DDS) launched: A Tool for Measuring Digital Democracy
by Christian Fuchs 28 Jan '26

28 Jan '26

The Digital Democracy Score (DDS) launched: A Tool for Measuring Digital Democracy The EU research project INNOVADE project has released a prototype of a new tool for measuring digital democracy: the Digital Democracy Score (DDS). The tool uses survey questions to calculate a series of digital democracy scores, visualises the results, and provides tailored recommendations. The DDS is designed as a support tool for anyone who uses or operates digital democracy technologies, from local to national and transnational contexts. Depending on the functionalities of the digital democracy initiative being assessed, the tool calculates various scores and combines them into an overall Digital Democracy Score (DDS) ranging from 0 (very low) to 100 (very high). The INNOVADE project will host two free online training workshops to introduce and explain the DDS: Tuesday, 24 February 2026, 10:00 CET - 11:00 CET Wednesday, 4 March 2026, 10:00 CET - 11:00 CET Registration is possible here: https://bit.ly/digds More information: https://innovade-democracy.eu/news/digital-democracy-score

1 0

Registrations Now Open! See Innovation in Action: Computational Methods Lab Showcase, February 16, 2026
by Aytalina Kulichkina 27 Jan '26

27 Jan '26

Dear AoIR Community, Registration is now open for the inaugural Computational Methods Labs Showcase of the ICA Computational Methods Division. Join us online on February 16, 2026, from 4:00–5:30 pm CET (10:00–11:30 am EST) to hear from: * Atlas Lab, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications * Computational Communication Science Lab, University of Vienna * Societal Analytics Lab, VU Amsterdam  Register here: https://forms.office.com/e/zHBkwUWNFw The ICA Computational Methods Division is committed to making computational methods accessible to scholars and students across diverse fields. Whether you're interested in exploring practical applications of computational methods for your research or considering establishing your own lab, this event offers valuable insights, firsthand experiences from established facilities, and an opportunity to connect with colleagues. Mark your calendars for February 16, 2026! We have assembled a fantastic lineup of speakers and look forward to welcoming as many of you as possible to this online event. Best regards, Lina on behalf of the organizers --- Dr. Aytalina Kulichkina (she/her) Research Associate (postdoc) Department of Communication University of Vienna Kolingasse 14-16, 1090 Wien T: +43-1-4277-49354 https://compcommlab.univie.ac.at/ https://bsky.app/profile/aytalina.bsky.social

1 0

CFP for Teaching Authentic Thinking in the Age of AI: Theory, Pedagogy, and Practice
by Trent M Kays 27 Jan '26

27 Jan '26

Colleagues. Please find attached a CFP for an edited collection on authentic thinking and AI. The abstract deadline is March 15. I am happy to answer questions and provide clarifications off list. Thank you for your time. tmk –– Trent M. Kays, PhD Pronouns: He/Him/His

1 1

[AoIR HQ] Membership Dues Increase 15 February 2026; Lock In Savings Now!
by AoIR Association Coordinator 27 Jan '26

27 Jan '26

Dear AoIR Community, As a growing organization, AoIR is dedicated to continuing to supporting its global membership community: hosting our annual conference in new locations; supporting students and early-career scholars through workshops and travel grants; expanding offerings throughout the year through in-person and virtual events; offering points of connection through our mailing list to researchers at all career stages doing cutting-edge internet research and sharing opportunities, and more. If you've benefited from AoIR – for example, through using this listserv – now is the time to become a member! Members get additional benefits, such as a free account on our Mastodon server, networking opportunities, new virtual talks and workshops, and, of course, discounted registration for the annual conference, with more in the works! The cost of running the Association has increased, while our dues have remained the same for many years. After conducting a study of peer organizations, AoIR’s Exec Committee has unanimously voted to increase member dues. Even after this change, AoIR's member dues are still well below those of comparable international associations. *Where do your dues go? *AoIR has welcomed two professional staff, provides robust conference travel support for graduate students, extends media services (including this long-running listserv and a new social media server aoir.social). And of course, we run our annual conference, annual Flashpoint events, and plan to expand our offerings with members-only virtual talks, lectures and workshops. Your dues help make this possible. *As of 15 February 2025,* the new annual member dues schedule is: - $65 for regular member - $40 for student member - $15 for all non-OECD members - $1500 for lifetime members – protected from any future raising of dues *(Re)Introducing Institutional Membership* Are you a member of a department, faculty or institute with many current or potential AoIR members? Save up to 20% with our institutional membership models, as follows: Tier 1: - 5 regular members - 10 student members - $600 (non-package price: $725) Tier 2: - 10 regular members - 20 student members - $1100 (non-package price: $1450) These package prices are available starting today. Need more memberships for your particular case? Please contact Emerson Johnston at ac(a)aoir.org for bespoke membership packages. *The rate increases for individual memberships will go into effect on February 15, 2026. *If you’ve been a listserv member for a long time but haven’t joined the org, consider doing so now. If you're renewing your membership, you can do so now at the older rate and save! And if you choose lifetime membership, you will never pay an annual fee again and will enjoy the member rate on conference and other events into the future. Join now and save! <https://members.aoir.org/> Best, Emerson *(she/her)* AoIR Communications and Membership Coordinator ac(a)aoir.org *Looking for Michelle? *After nine years, Michelle has officially stepped down from her position at AOIR. I'm Emerson, and I'll be stepping in to continue her work. As I'm sure anyone familiar with Michelle knows, I have big shoes to fill, and I appreciate your patience as I get up to speed!

1 0

Proposal for panel
by Antonino Sciotto 27 Jan '26

27 Jan '26

Hello, everyone! I am writing to gauge interest in creating a panel on Internet nostalgia, digital preservation, and the archiving of online histories from a political perspective. I would be interested in creating a panel where we could compare different perspectives focusing on the consultation of materials on obsolete media and the ways in which various social actors (groups, associations, museums) make these materials available, seeking to make the user experience as similar as possible to the original one, through software archiving and emulators. I am, of course, open to new proposals and to discussing them with anyone who is interested. If anyone is interested in participating or helping to organise this panel, please contact me at antonino.sciotto(a)uniupo.it.

1 0

Explore how Software Defined Radios expose & detect radio‑frequency vulnerabilities across 5G, autonomous systems & critical infrastructure
by Kitty Lo 27 Jan '26

27 Jan '26

Digital Trust and Security seminar: Dr Carolyn Swinney (Executive Fellow, University of Essex) Date & time: 18 March 26 – 1-3PM Location: Manchester, UK This talk explores how Software Defined Radios (SDRs) can reveal hidden vulnerabilities, disrupt insecure links, and provide early warning of suspicious Radio Frequency activity. You’ll see practical demonstrations using low‑cost, accessible tools, along with real examples from Global Navigation Satellite Systems to drone and keyless‑entry attacks. Join us to understand how SDRs, combined with modern analytics, can detect, classify, and help defend against emerging RF‑based threats. Free Registration: https://tinyurl.com/3vyp2r8j Kind regards, Kitty kitty.lo(a)manchester.ac.uk<mailto:kitty.lo@manchester.ac.uk> | Communications and Engagement Coordinator | Research Platforms Team - Digital Futures<http://www.digitalfutures.manchester.ac.uk/> | The University of Manchester | Pronouns (She/her) Christie Building | The University of Manchester | Oxford Road | M13 9PL Sign up to the Digital Futures newsletter here - https://tinyurl.com/digitalfuturesuom

1 0

Two UPenn Postdoctoral Openings for Information Ecosystem Studies
by Engler, Alex C. 27 Jan '26

27 Jan '26

Dear friends and colleagues — We have two Knight Postdoctoral Fellow openings to join our growing community of empirical researchers of the information ecosystem at UPenn! We would be sincerely grateful for your help in sharing these postings widely! The new postdoctoral posting is supervised by Poli Sci Prof Daniel Hopkins and Annenberg Prof Yphtach Lelkish, and is focused on the impact of emerging technologies and communication media on citizens’ political attitudes and behaviors. Apply by 2/13 - more details: https://infodem.upenn.edu/sas-postdoc/ We're also still accepting (rolling) applications for our Wharton Knight Postdoctoral Fellow with Professors Duncan Watts, Pinar Yildirim, and Dean Knox for scholars interested in media bias, censorship, and advertising: https://infodem.upenn.edu/wharton-postdoc/ Best, Alex Alex C. Engler Executive Director Penn Center on Media, Technology, and Democracy<https://infodem.upenn.edu/> The University of Pennsylvania Amy Gutmann Hall #506 acengler(a)upenn.edu<mailto:acengler@upenn.edu>

1 0

New open access book: Understanding China Through Digital Anthropology (UCL Press)
by Fox, Alison 27 Jan '26

27 Jan '26

*** We apologise for any cross-posting*** UCL Press is delighted to announce the publication of a new open access book that may be of interest to list Understanding China Through Digital Anthropology edited by Daniel Miller and Xinyuan Wang. Download it free: https://uclpress.co.uk/book/understanding-china-through-digital-anthropolog… ******************************************* Understanding China Through Digital Anthropology Edited by Daniel Miller and Xinyuan Wang Free download: https://uclpress.co.uk/book/understanding-china-through-digital-anthropolog… ******************************************* Understanding China Through Digital Anthropology questions our understanding of digital technologies by demonstrating fundamental differences in the meaning of both technology and the digital between China and the West. This follows from a longstanding historical divergence in the meaning of and attitude to the relationship between technology and humanity. The book also challenges our understanding of China through a series of case studies that range from the creation of algorithms, the normative basis of social media and the impact of digital communication on diverse fields including economic practices, gender, media, health and education. These further demonstrate the value of long-term ethnographic studies that situate people’s online activities in their everyday offline lives. These case studies are testimony to the continued heterogeneity of China in covering sophisticated urban IT professionals, Tibetan villagers and grassroots women struggling to make a living. All of this contributes to a new understanding of a contemporary China that has been transformed by the sheer scale and dynamism manifested in the deployment of digital technologies. The book also includes an extensive summary of work undertaken by scholars inside China on digital anthropology and previously only available in Chinese. Free download: https://uclpress.co.uk/book/understanding-china-through-digital-anthropolog… ---------------------- uclpress.co.uk | @uclpress

1 0

Today, Online Book Talk, Silicon Elsewhere: Nairobi, Global China and Techno-Capital
by Rafael Do Nascimento Grohmann 27 Jan '26

27 Jan '26

Hi there, Starting soon: today at 10am ET, we’re hosting an online book talk with Andrea Pollio on Silicon Elsewhere: Nairobi, Global China, and the Promise of Techno-Capitalism. Join us here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Wkm6eWTj2c Description Heralded as Africa's "Silicon Savannah"—a cradle of innovation—Nairobi has become a technology and innovation capital for Kenya and for the continent at large. With a national strategy that has prioritized digital technology for the last two decades, many Chinese digital champions, smaller startups, and investors have since chosen Nairobi as their African landing pad. Mapping the interface between Nairobi's innovation scene and China's digital presence there, Silicon Elsewhere tells a unique story of ingenuity and adaptation, failure and speculation, and hopefulness and pragmatism. Andrea Pollio's ethnography draws on interviews with cautious venture capitalists, renegade entrepreneurs, dedicated bureaucrats, and ambitious data scientists to explore the competing meanings of contemporary techno-capital. Moving between leafy coworking spaces and the temperature-controlled rooms of brand-new data centers, Pollio locates Nairobi among the experimental capitals, not peripheries, of technological change in the early twenty-first century best, Rafael -- dr. Rafael Grohmann Assistant Professor of Media Studies Department of Arts, Culture and Media<https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/acm/rafael-grohmann> Faculty of Information<https://ischool.utoronto.ca/profile/rafael-grohmann/> University of Toronto Leader, DigiLabour<https://digilabour.com.br/> Research Associate, University of Oxford<https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/people/profiles/rafael-grohmann/> Founding Editor, Platforms & Society<https://journals.sagepub.com/home/PNS> Principal Investigator, Worker-Owned Intersectional Platforms (WOIP)<https://digilabour.com.br/worker-owned-intersectional-platforms-woip/> Co-Lead, Creative Labour and Critical Futures (CLCF)<https://criticaldigitalmethods.ca/creative-labour-critical-futures/> Researcher, AI Policy Observatory for the World of Work<https://www.essex.ac.uk/research-projects/ai-policy-observatory-for-the-wor…> Senior Fellow, Massey College<https://www.masseycollege.ca/> Faculty Affiliate, Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society<https://srinstitute.utoronto.ca/> <https://srinstitute.utoronto.ca/>

1 0

CFP: CHI’26 Workshop CHIdeology: Disentangling the fragmented politics, values and imaginaries of Human-Computer Interaction through ideologies
by Jesse Haapoja 27 Jan '26

27 Jan '26

Dear colleague, Technology continually carries fragments of politics—design choices and values shaping outcomes. In these turbulent times, this workshop explores how broader ideologies—coherent worldviews underpinning political and technological systems—influence and connect work in HCI. We aim to foster explicit discussion of ideology’s role in shaping research agendas, values, and assumptions through a hands-on half-day workshop. We invite up to 20 scholars at any career stage to submit a 2–3 page position paper (ACM single-column or DIS2026 pictorial format) engaging with any of the following: - how they define or interpret “ideology”; - examples of ideology in HCI research or practice; - or political/methodological suggestions for making ideology visible. Deadline: 5 February 2026 AoE Nonverbal or pictorial contributions are welcome, as submissions will serve as materials for the workshop activities. Papers will be reviewed for relevance, originality, and potential to advance the conversation. Selection will balance diversity in background, seniority, geography, and perspective, if oversubscribed. Selected contributions will be published on arXiv with author’s consent. One author per submission must attend, either in person at the conference or during the pre-workshop online event. For more details and submission instructions, visit: *https://ideologies.digital <https://ideologies.digital/>* On behalf of my collaborators Felix A. Epp, Matti Nelimarkka, Pedro Ferreira, Os Keyes and Shaowen Bardzell, a warm welcome, Jesse Haapoja

1 0