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QUT Vice-Chancellor's Research Fellowship in Intellectual Property
by Jean Burgess 09 Jun '15

09 Jun '15

QUT Vice-Chancellor's Research Fellowship in Intellectual Property $86,657 to $102,916 pa (Level B); $106,160 to $122,424 pa (Level C) Fixed-term, full-time for three years; $20,000 Research Support Grant in 1st year Open to Australian and International applicants. Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are encouraged to apply. Closing date: 29 June 2015, 11:30 PM (AEST) QUT is offering up to 20 Vice-Chancellor's Research Fellowships for leading postdoctoral researchers at Level B and C on a three year fixed-term basis. These prestigious fellowships are available in a number of selected target areas, including Intellectual Property. The Digital Media Research Centre (DMRC) at QUT is particularly keen to support applications from scholars interested in working with us on issues related to the regulation of digital media and the digital economy. Applicants need not have a legal background. We call for strong applicants, and welcome expressions of interest. The DMRC conducts world-leading research that helps society understand and adapt to the social, cultural and economic transformations associated with digital media technologies. One of the Centre’s key research priorities is a program on 'Economies, policies and regulation’. In this program we are developing an interdisciplinary framework for understanding and critically engaging with the digital creative economy. We focus on the interaction between socio-technical innovations and legal, regulatory, educational and policy environments. The Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellowship Scheme has been established to promote and grow research capacity at QUT through the appointment of high calibre research staff in identified areas. The key objectives of the scheme are to: .. build capacity in targeted areas of research strength .. attract and develop talented staff who will underpin the future research aspirations of the University .. increase collaboration with quality national and international research partners .. produce high quality outputs that deliver impact to the community .. increase the university’s competitiveness in externally funded fellowship schemes In addition to salary, Fellows will also be entitled to a one-off Research Support Grant of $20,000 in the first year of appointment. Further details and how to apply:https://goo.gl/qPU0ly About the QUT DMRC:https://www.qut.edu.au/research/dmrc Inquiries can be sent to: Dr Nicolas Suzor Senior Lecturer, QUT School of Law Chief Investigator, QUT Digital Media Research Centre n.suzor(a)qut.edu.au

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CfP: Hypertext Workshop on Social Media Archiving - deadline approaching
by Heravi, Bahareh 08 Jun '15

08 Jun '15

International Workshop on Social Media Archiving (#SMArchiving2015) Northern Cyprus – 1 September 2015 At the 26th ACM Hypertext and Social Media Conference. http://www.socialmediaarchiving.net<http://www.socialmediaarchiving.net/> Important Dates Paper submission: 12 June 2015 Notification to authors: 10 July 2015 Camera-ready: 17 July 2015 Workshop date: 1 September 2015 ====================================================== The exponential growth of social media as a central communication practice has changed the information landscape. Social media is agile when it comes to breaking news, and expansive in its ability to document social events from a wider variety of voices than traditional media. From a news media perspective, social media has been adopted as a significant source by professional journalists, and conversely, citizens are able to use social media as a form of direct reportage. Broadly, social media content now forms a significant part of the digital content generated every day, and provides a platform for voices that would not reach the broader public through traditional journalistic media alone. In this emerging environment, citizen microblogs and other user generated content constitute an important part of history and popular memory, in particular when attempting to capture significant events and the varied perspectives that accompany these events. The flow of citizen generated reporting through social media is ephemeral and disordered; it quickly becomes inaccessible if not captured and stored in an organised fashion. This is in contrast to traditional journalism, which has well-developed archival practices, enabling researchers to reuse and rediscover content. If social media is not preserved, or if it is preserved without careful attention to subsequent access and discoverability, there is a risk of losing the diversity this rich social narrative contributes to traditional news media, and more broadly, to our socio-cultural record. Therefore, this new landscape calls for technologies and methodologies to: 1) Rapidly and efficiently capture, filter and verify content in a way that generates immediate value for journalistic and research purposes; 2) Properly annotate and archive this information for longer-term preservation; 3) Provide access to archived social media for scholarly research, and for reuse in the news life-cycle (e.g. for contextualisation, investigative reporting or comprehensive storytelling.) This workshop addresses a variety of research questions from both theoretical and pragmatic perspectives. For example, what technologies can we use for filtering, aggregating and contextualising social media content? How can we assess the veracity of social media content and sources? What moral, legal, and ethical issues arise in social media archiving? What are the methodological considerations in organising and interpreting the social media ‘record’ of an event? What data models should be employed for archiving and preservation, and how should metadata be structured? What does this record contribute to our larger understanding of communication and media? How can rigorous archiving and preservation of social media help researchers and journalists in their work on social movements, citizen engagement, political events, and network formation? Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: - Social media archiving and annotation - Metadata for social media archiving - The role of user generated content in the news production life-cycle - Citizen Journalism and the Archive - Veracity, trust and provenance of social media sources and content - Event and topic detection and clustering - Social network and community analysis - Semantic Web and Linked Data technologies for archival, discovery and enrichment of social media content - Story curation, contextualisation and recommendation - Ethical challenges in archiving and broadcasting social media content Co-Chairs Bahareh Heravi<mailto:bahareh.heravi@insight-centre.org>, Insight @NUI Galway, Ireland - @Bahareh360<https://twitter.com/Bahareh360> Natalie Harrower<mailto:n.harrower@ria.ie>, Digital Repository of Ireland, Ireland - @NatalieHarrower<https://twitter.com/natalieharrower> Stefan Decker<mailto:Stefan.Decker@insight-centre.org>, Insight @NUI Galway, Ireland - @StefanjDecker<https://twitter.com/stefanjdecker> Submissions We welcome full papers on original research that present novel ideas, and we also encourage the submission of short papers on research in progress, which present the early stages of cutting-edge research and development. Position papers on new work and industry papers are also welcome. The Workshop Proceedings will be published in the ACM Hypertext Extended Proceedings that will be published open-access at CEUR-WS. Papers submitted should be at most 6 pages long for full research papers and 4 pages long for short papers (position and research in progress papers). Papers must be formatted according to the official ACM SIG Proceedings Template. Papers must be submitted in PDF format electronically via EasyChair<https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=smarchiving2015> by 12th June 2015 at 23:59 Hawaiian Standard time. At least one author must be registered order secure publication in the Conference Proceedings. Programme Committee Jefferson Bailey, Internet Archive, USA Jessica Bushey, University of British Columbia, Canada Niels Brügger, Aarhus University, Denmark Cosmin Cabulea, Deutsche Welle, Germany Kathryn Cassidy, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland Sandra Collins, Digital Repository of Ireland, Ireland Helen Hockx-Yu, British Library, UK Amin Mantrach, Y! Labs, Spain Jarred McGinnis, Logomachy, UK Edward Summers, University of Maryland, USA ------------------------------------------------------------ Dr. Bahareh R. Heravi Group Leader, Digital Humanities and Journalism, Insight @NUI Galway Adjunct Lecturer & Programme Board Member of Journalism Studies National University of Ireland, Galway Tel: +353 91 495727<tel:%2B353%2091%20495727> Web: http://bahareh.net/ @Bahareh360 ------------------------------------------------------------

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International Symposim "The Secret Life of Objects: Media Ecologies"
by Ricardo Oliveira 08 Jun '15

08 Jun '15

Dear friends, bellow is the web address for the International Symposium "The Secret Life of Objects: Media Ecologies" that will take place in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in August, 2015 (3rd, 5th and 6th). We hope to have an English version of the site very soon (and with more information). This one is in Portuguese, but you can at least check the list of participants. Cheers, Erick Felinto. https://vidadosobjetos.wordpress.com/ Abstract: There are strong indications that a significant transformation is underway in the so-called “Human Sciences” (Geisteswissenschaften, sciences humaines, Humanities). After a period of intense crisis and uncertainty, in which the Human Sciences have frequently sought to mirror or approach the Natural and Physical Sciences, the first decades of the twenty-first century have seen a broad renewal of disciplines, approaches and methodologies. By questioning its traditional foundations, the Human Sciences are reinventing themselves through a broad reconfiguration of its borders and even of the notion of the “human” that has served as its cornerstone. One of the areas where the wealth of this new scenario is most clearly displayed is that of media studies. Spurred by the impact of new digital technologies, media studies cleverly learned to appropriate the epistemological principles and major theoretical issues that have come to characterize the contemporary cultural scene. The objective of the Seminar "The Secret Life of Objects: Media Ecologies" is to sketch a systematization of this scenario from a transdisciplinary perspective, but with a decisive focus on media theory, aesthetics, and cultural studies. The main topic structuring the Seminar represents an emerging field that cuts across different disciplines in the Humanities, from Sociology to Philosophy, but acquires special meaning in the context of new media studies. The underlying assumption is that we need to radically rethink the notion of epistemic agency in a context where the action and impact of objects, media and technological materialities have become increasingly important. In this context, it is incumbent upon us to explore new (and possibly less harmful) forms of relationship between human agents, nature, and technology. Thus, it is not only necessary to investigate the place of human actors in a world enriched by the life of polymorphic objects, but also to highlight the issues that the strong humanities tradition of hermeneutics has often obscured. What new models of historical research of techniques and culture are emerging within the current epistemological paradigms? In what ways is the material dimension of experience combined with the intangible dimensions of culture? In what sense does the category of the human reconfigure itself in light of our new relations with objects and nonhuman entities? How important is the legacy of the genealogy and archeology of knowledge (Nietzsche, Foucault) to a perspectivization of the impacts of "new" digital culture? Most importantly, by focusing on the idea of “media ecologies”, we also hope to tackle issues that have become pressing in the last years, such as ecological and climatological disaster (including the disposability of the toxic materials used in our electronic gadgets), the ongoing integration between media devices and urban spaces, the development of new research techniques devoted to the analysis of our media environments and the complex new forms of interrelation between culture and nature. By means of interdisciplinary panels, in which philosophers, anthropologists, artists and scientists will discuss with experts in media studies, we intend to address these issues in order to elaborate a preliminary cartography of an epistemological territory still in its early stages of exploration.

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Final Call for Submissions - Amsterdam Conference on Global Cultures of Contestation (15 & 16 October 2015)
by Thomas Poell 08 Jun '15

08 Jun '15

CFP - Global Cultures of Contestation University of Amsterdam, October 15 & 16, 2015 >From the popular uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa in early 2011, via the Spanish indignados, the Occupy movement and the Gezi Park protests, to the Umbrella movement in Hong Kong and the New University/Rethink UvA in Amsterdam, over the past years different parts of the world have seen major forms of popular contestation. http://acgs.uva.nl/news-and-events/news/item/call-for-papers-global-culture… Keynote Speakers: Paul Gilroy (King's College London) Zeynep Tufekci (TBC) (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) Thomas Poell & Robin Celikates (University of Amsterdam) Abstract Submission Deadline: 15 June 2015 This conference—organised by the Amsterdam Centre for Globalisation Studies—examines this global wave of protest, characterised by the occupation of squares, streets and buildings—a diversity of tactics prominently involving online communication and emerging new political imaginaries. Particularly striking is that these protests have not been initiated or directed by traditional social movement organisations, but appear to be spontaneous political movements ‘from below.' Yet, while these instances of popular contestation have been celebrated for their mobilisations, their creativity and their innovative use of social media, their long-term efficacy has been called into question. So far, this debate has primarily focused on the political and social consequences of the protests. For this conference, we would like to invite scholars from around the globe to expand the debate by critically reflecting on the cultural dimensions of contemporary forms of popular contestation. We are especially interested in research that examines emerging global cultures of contestation from one of the following perspectives (following the four research programs at the ACGS; see here): - Reflecting on questions of 'mobility': how the protests challenge and transform cultural boundaries, as well as established understandings of security, belonging and home? And what form of mobility is implied in the global spread of these protests? - How are issues of 'sustainability' addressed? In what ways are the precarity of labor, ecological degradation and the preservation of objects of cultural and historical value put on the agenda? And to what extent are the protests themselves sustainable as effective forms of contestation? - What are the 'aesthetics' of contemporary protest movements? In this context, we welcome explorations of the global circulation and proliferation of new imaginaries (including their linguistic, visual and acoustic manifestations), as well as of how these new imaginaries challenge and/or reproduce dominant cultural regimes. - What are the 'connective' platforms that facilitate and structure today’s protest communication and mobilisation? How do these platforms not only enable contestation, but also shape its focus and dynamics? Please submit an abstract (200-300 words) and short bio (max. 100 words) by 1 June 2015 to (E: acgs-fgw(a)uva.nl) In your abstract, indicate for which of the four streams—mobility, sustainability, aesthetics or connectivity—you would like to be considered. Notice of acceptance will be given by 1 July 2015. For any inquiries, please contact Amani Maihoub (E: a.maihoub(a)uva.nl)

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AoIR Executive Committee Election Results
by Kendall, Lori 08 Jun '15

08 Jun '15

Folks, I am excited to announce the results of our recent election for the AoIR Executive Committee. But first, some thank yous and some information about the election. I would like to thank everyone who helped set up and run the election, especially Anna Lauren Hoffmann, our Association Coordinator. I also thank our election monitors, Dylan Wittkower and Jan Fernback, who, in accordance with the terms of our Bylaws, oversaw the election process and certified the results. And of course thanks to everyone who ran for office, and everyone who voted! We had more candidates and more voters than ever. We received 169 ballots, fully one-third of our membership. We had one unusual result, a tie for the third open seat. As the Bylaws make no provision for how to proceed in such a case, the AoIR Board of Directors met to discuss this. We have decided that the Executive Committee benefits from a wide range of voices and that the best way to honor the intent of the membership as expressed through their votes was to add a fourth open seat to this 2015-2017 Executive Committee. The new Executive Committee will officially take office in October at the Association General Meeting. We hope you'll join us in Phoenix to meet with them and provide your input regarding the future direction of the Association. And with that, here is your 2015-2017 Executive Committee! President (elected as Vice President in the 2013 Election): Jenny Stromer-Galley Vice President (becomes President in two years): Axel Bruns Immediate Past President (elected as Vice President in the 2011 Election): Lori Kendall Secretary: Annette Markham Treasurer: Kelly Quinn Graduate Student Representative: Jenny Ungbha Korn Open Seats: André Brock, Jang Hyun Kim, Adrienne Massanari, Susanna Paasonen Thanks again to everyone who participated in the election. Lori Kendall President, AoIR

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CFP for First Monday special issue: “A Decade of Web 2.0: Reflections, Critical Perspectives, and Beyond”
by Michael T Zimmer 08 Jun '15

08 Jun '15

Call for Papers: Special Issue of First Monday (June 2016) “A Decade of Web 2.0: Reflections, Critical Perspectives, and Beyond” Special Editors: Michael Zimmer and Anna L. Hoffmann 2015 marks 10 years since the publication of “What Is Web 2.0?” [1], Tim O’Reilly’s influential declaration of Web 2.0’s practical and conceptual underpinnings. In the intervening years, the popularity of Web 2.0 as a descriptive term has waxed and waned. At the same time, however, the platforms, principles, and ideologies that ushered in the Web 2.0 Era have only grown in their relevance: concerns over labor and social production have persisted in, for example, critical discussions of personal data ownership or the “sharing economy;” questions of exploitation and dominance are increasingly pressing in the face of the power and reach exhibited by companies like Google, Facebook, or Twitter; as knowledge platforms like Wikipedia have flourished, so have concerns over diminished critical-thinking skills and the monopolization of knowledge; and, finally, critical attention to the (often tenuous) relationship between democracy and participatory platforms remains vital to understanding the power of social media tools for facilitating social and political protest at the same time as it enables new opportunities for surveillance and political repression. In addition, while social networking sites and tools have provided unparalleled opportunities to connect, communicate, and share, they’ve also given rise to problems of identity management, cyberbullying, revenge porn, and (sometimes cruel) practices of trolling. Under various guises, Web 2.0 has retained an ability to expand social, political, and economic opportunity while at the same time fostering resistance and controversy in its reach and ideological commitments. In 2008, First Monday published a special issue on “Critical Perspectives on Web 2.0” [2] bringing together a diverse group of scholars to “expose, explore and explain the ideological meanings and the social, political, and ethical implications of Web 2.0”. These contributions addressed issues of labor, privacy, exploitation, and broader conceptual and practical implications of participatory platforms and social production online. In light of Web 2.0’s continued relevance and impact, we are pleased to edit a new special issue of First Monday – A Decade of Web 2.0: Reflections, Critical Perspectives, and Beyond – that aims to update and extend previous critical assessments of online social and participatory platforms and practices. We seek submissions from a broad array of disciplines and perspectives representing a diverse collection topics, including, but not limited to: • identity and pseudonymity • algorithms and the filter bubble • exercise of power and protest • social media and democracy • privacy and data flows • memes and virality • labor and exploitation • commodification and corporatization • content production and appropriation • cyberbullying and online harassment • law and regulatory interventions • social data and research ethics In addition, we especially encourage submissions that examine the above (or other) issues as they intersect with issues of race, gender, sexuality, disability, or socioeconomic status. Timeline: • Extended Abstracts Due: September 1, 2015 • Feedback from Editors: October 1, 2015 • Full Submissions Due: February 1, 2016 • Peer Review Feedback: April 1, 2016 • Final Submissions Due: May 15, 2016 • Issue Appears: June 2016 Logistics: Authors are requested to submit an extended abstract of 400-500 words to DecadeOfWeb20(a)gmail.com for review by the editors. Selected authors will be invited to submit a full paper for the special issue, which will then undergo formal external peer-review. Final submissions must follow the Author Guidelines [3] for First Monday. Editors: • Dr. Michael Zimmer, School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee • Dr. Anna Lauren Hoffmann, School of Information, University of California, Berkeley References: [1] http://www.oreilly.com/pub/a/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html [2] http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/issue/view/263 [3] http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/about/submissions#authorGuidelines -- Michael Zimmer, PhD Associate Professor, School of Information Studies Director, Center for Information Policy Research University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee e: zimmerm(a)uwm.edu w: www.michaelzimmer.org

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Locative Social Media: Place in the Digital Age
by Leighton Evans 08 Jun '15

08 Jun '15

Dear list members, The following book has just been published by Palgrave Macmillan, and may be of interest to those working on new media, digital media, social media and locative or spatial media. Please email me if you would like any queries or would like further information. *Locative Social Media: **Place in the Digital Age* Palgrave Macmillan, London (2015) *Leighton Evans* /Locative Social Media/offers a critical analysis of the effect of using locative social media on the perceptions and phenomenal experience of lived in spaces and places. It includes a comprehensive overview of the historical development of traditional mapping and global positioning technology to smartphone-based application services that incorporate social networking features as a series of modes of understanding place. Drawing on users accounts of the location-based social network Foursquare, a digital post-phenomenology of place is developed to explain how place is mediated in the digital age. This draws upon both the phenomenology of Martin Heidegger and post-phenomenology to encompass the materiality and computationality of the smartphone. The functioning and surfacing of place by the device and application, along with the orientation of the user, allows for a particular experiencing of place when using locative social media termed attunement, in contrast to an instrumentalist conception of place. *Reviews* "Locative Social Media is a fine book that is theoretically sophisticated and empirically grounded. In it, Leighton Evans develops a rigorous post-phenomenology of location-based social media, and explores how mood or orientation, embodied practices involving mobile technology use, and the data-infused environment, are all 'co-constitutive of place'." - *Rowan Wilken, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Health, Arts and Design,****Swinburne University of Technology, Australia* "In this book, Leighton Evans accomplishes something very ambitious: a deep theoretical reflection on the phenomenology of place experience as it occurs in the context of physical/digital interactions, interwoven with a thorough empirical account of situated use of location-based social networks. Evans' study of Foursquare users details complex place-related agencies in the age of what he calls a 'computationally infused world', including gathering, mapping, bridging, broadcasting, reputation management and building social capital. His findings resonate with and holistically consolidate the state of the art of interdisciplinary investigations of locative social media. The most impressive achievement in this book, however, is how the empirical evidence builds the basis for an exciting conceptual revisitation of the phenomenology of place; Evans proposes an original 'digital post-phenomenology of place' that connects key aspects of situated socio-technical systems: from embodied practices, to new and emergent mappings, occurrences and representations enabled by code and by locative infrastructures." - *Luigina Ciolfi, Reader in Communication in the Cultural Communication and Computing Research Institute, Sheffield Hallam University, UK*** "Transporting Heidegger from the Black Forest to the urban Foursquare-world, Leighton Evans discusses the persistently collective nature of space and place in digital culture. This important study opens different ways how location based social networks function to frame space for us but also how users participate in this process of defining belonging. Evans' book addresses algorithmic situations as digital post-phenomenology of place; the book is a valuable research text for scholars and students in media, sociology and cultural studies of technology." - *Jussi Parikka, Professor of Technological Culture and Aesthetics, Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, UK* For more information, please visit: http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/locative-social-media-/?K=9781137456106 Many thanks, Leighton -- Dr Leighton Evans Postdoctoral Researcher Programmable City Project National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis (NIRSA) Maynooth University Maynooth Co. Kildare Republic of Ireland Tel: 353-1-708-6187 leighton.evans(a)nuim.ie www.nuim.ie/ProgCity @ProgCity

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CFP Journal of Peer Production: Work and peer production
by Mathieu.O'Neil 08 Jun '15

08 Jun '15

<apologies if you receive this message more than twice> CFP Journal of Peer Production: Work and peer production Editors: Phoebe Moore (Middlesex University London), Mathieu O’Neil (University of Canberra), Stefano Zacchiroli (University Paris Diderot) The rise in the usage and delivery capacity of the Internet in the 1990s has led to the development of massively distributed online projects where self-governing volunteers collaboratively produce public goods. Notable examples include Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) projects such as Debian and GNOME, as well as the Wikipedia encyclopedia. These distributed practices have been characterised as peer production, crowdsourcing, mass customization, social production, co-configurative work, playbour, user-generated content, wikinomics, open innovation, participatory culture, produsage, and the wisdom of the crowd, amongst other terms. In peer production, labour is communal and outputs are orientated towards the further expansion of the commons, an ecology of production that aims to defy and resist the hierarchies and rules of ownership that drive productive models within capitalism (Moore, 2011); while the commons, recursively, are the chief resource in this mode of production (Söderberg & O’Neil, 2014). Peer projects are ‘ethical’ as participation is primarily motivated by self-fulfillment and validated by a community of peers, rather than by earning wages. Their governance is ‘modular’, understood in a design sense (decomposable blocks sharing a common interface), but also in political-economy terms: participants oppose restricted ownership and control by individually socializing their works into commons. Conflicting interpretations of their societal impact have been articulated (O’Neil, 2015). Skeptics view the abjuration of exclusive property rights over the goods they produce as irrelevant, and ethical-modular projects as increasing worker exploitation: participants’ passionate labour occurs at the expense of less fortunate others, who do not have the disposable income, cultural capital, or family support to engage in unpaid labour (Moore & Taylor, 2009; Huws, 2013). In contrast, reformists, often hailing from a management perspective, suggest that the co-optation of communal labour by firms will improve business practices and society (Arvidsson, 2008; Demil et al., 2015). Finally activists celebrate the abjuration of exclusive property rights, and present ethical-modular projects as key actors in a historical process leading to the supersession of capitalism and hierarchy (Kostakis & Bauwens, 2014). This last perspective raises a central challenge, which is the avoidance of purely utopian thinking. In other words, how can commons-based peer production reach deeply into daily life? How can ‘already existing non-capitalist economic processes’ be strengthened, ‘new non-capitalist enterprises’ be built, and ‘communal subjects’ be established (Gibson-Graham, 2003: 157)? An increasingly large free public goods and services sector could well cohabit in a plural economy with employment in cooperatives, paid independent work, and the wage-earning of the commercial sector. However analysis of peer production typically eschews mundane considerations such as living wages, benefits, job security, working conditions, work-induced medical conditions, and debates on labour organization. How can peer production operate as a sustainable practice enabling people to live, if labour and work issues are not formally addressed? To advance this agenda, the tenth issue of the Journal of Peer Production, titled Peer Production and Work, calls for papers in two linked areas: *Peer production in a paid work society* Nowadays firms attempt to monetize crowdsourced labour. The paradigmatic example is Amazon’s Mechanical Turk labourers (popularly known as ‘Turkers’, ‘cloud workers’ or ‘click workers’) who accomplish micro-tasks such as tagging and labeling images, transcribing audio or video recordings, and categorizing products. This extreme modularization of work results in their status being that of independent contractors rather than employees with rights, necessitating novel means of protection and redress (Irani & Silberman, 2013). The so-called 'sharing economy' also uses peer production methods, such as the self-selection of modular and granular tasks, to extract ever-more value from the labour of volunteer ‘prosumers’ (Frayssé & O’Neil, 2015). Capitalist firms are also increasingly engaging with ethical-modular organizations, in some cases paying wages to participants. Such labour is thus both ‘alienated’, or sold, and ‘communal’, as workers freely cooperate to produce commons. Do traditional categories such as exploitation and alienation still apply? Topics may include, but are not limited to: - Peer production and the global political economy - Peer production and the rise of precarious work - Peer workers and possibilities for worker organisation - Does the autonomy of peer workers cause conflict in firms, and how is it resolved? - What strategies do firms adopt to co-opt peer production (e.g., ‘hackhathons’)? - Do tensions around property rights emerge? - Subjectivity in peer production - Peer production and intellectual property, coded work *Paid work in peer production projects* How does paid labour affect ethical P2P projects? Mansell and Berdou (2010) argue that firms supporting the work of programmers who contribute to volunteer projects, to the commons, will not affect the ‘cooperative spirit’ of projects; nor can this support prevent the results of labour from being socialized into commons. Is this always the case? Topics may include, but are not limited to: - How do peer projects deal with the presence of paid or waged labour? - Is this topic discussed within peer production projects? In what way? - What benefits do paid or waged workers enjoy in peer projects? - How does paid labour affect peer production projects? *Timeline* 300-500 word-abstract due: 30 July 2015 Notification to authors: 30 August 2015 Submission of full paper: 31 December 2015 Reviews to authors: 15 February 2016 Revised papers: 30 April 2016 Signals due: 30 May 2016 Issue release: June/July 2016 *Submission guidelines* Submission abstracts of 300-500 words are due by July 30, 2015 and should be sent to <work(a)peerproduction.net>. All peer reviewed papers will be reviewed according to Journal of Peer Production guidelines. See http://peerproduction.net/peer-review/process/ Full papers and materials are due by December 31, 2015 for review. Peer reviewed papers should be around 8,000 words; personal testimonies or ‘tales of toil’ in the Processed World tradition should be up to 4,000 words. *References* Arvidsson, A. (2008). The ethical economy of consumer coproduction. Journal of Macromarketing, 8, 326-338. Demil, B., Lecoq. X. & Warnier, E. (2015). The capabilities of bazaar governance: Investigating the advantage of business models based on open communities. Journal of Organizational Change Management, in press. Frayssé, O. & O’Neil, M. (2015) Digital labour and prosumer capitalism: The US matrix. Basingstoke: Palgrave, in press. Gibson-Graham, J.K. (2003). Enabling ethical economies: Cooperativism and class. Critical Sociology, 29, 123-164. Huws, U. (2013). The underpinnings of class in the digital age: Living, labour and value. Socialist Register, 50, 80-107. Irani, L. & Silberman, M. (2013). Turkopticon: Interrupting worker invisibility in Amazon Mechanical Turk. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Kostakis, V. & Bauwens, M. (2014) Network society and future scenarios for a collaborative economy. Basingstoke: Palgrave. Mansell, R. & Berdou, E. (2010). Political economy, the internet and FL/OSS development. In Hunsinger, J., Allen, M. & Klastrup, L. (Eds.) International handbook of Internet research (pp. 341-362). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Springer. Moore, P. (2011). Subjectivity in the ecologies of P2P Production. The Journal of Fibreculture FCJ-119. Online. Moore, P. & Taylor, P. A. (2009). Exploitation of the self in community-based software production: Workers’ freedoms or firm foundations? Capital & Class, 99-117. O’Neil, M. (2015). Labour out of control: The political economy of capitalist and ethical organizations. Organization Studies, 1-21. Söderberg, J. & O’Neil, M. (2014). 'Introduction'. Book of Peer Production (pp. 2-3). Göteborg: NSU Press. ******************************************

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Selfie Citizenship “pocket book”: Call for Contributions / deadline 1st July 2015
by Adi Kuntsman 08 Jun '15

08 Jun '15

Selfie Citizenship “pocket book”: Call for Contributions Deadline for abstract submissions: 1st July 2015 Following the highly successful “Selfie Citizenship” workshop, held in Manchester in April 2015, contributions are invited to the Selfie Citizenship “pocket book” edited for Palgrave Pivot (a new initiative by Palgrave Macmillan for fast dissemination of fully peer-reviewed research on current matters). We invite conceptual, empirical or creative interventions, of 3-5,000 words maximum, that contribute to the intellectual and political conversation around the notion of selfie citizenship, at the intersection of politics, visual culture, social and digital media, and cultural and social studies of citizenship. Background In the recent years we have become accustomed to photographs of individuals with hand-written banners, as well as to various selfie memes and hashtag actions, spread on social media as actions of protest and political or social statements. Their circulation is global, and their iconography is often deceivingly similar, yet their motivations, causes and context vary – some stand against police abuse or military occupation, others call for clearer cities or smaller classrooms, yet others promote a charity cause or a social awareness, and there are those that incite violence or call for a war. While some perform citizenship as a form of nationalism, other mobilise notions of global citizenship, and yet others operate in contexts where citizenship is absent, in question or violently denied. Such mobilisation of the selfie genre – understood broadly as self-portraits in viral digital circulation –challenges the prevalent popular view of selfies as narcissistic, inherently a-political and even anti-social. Yet selfie citizenship -- as a political, affective, visual and networked phenomenon, as a performance and a social and aesthetic practice-- still remains to be theorised, both as a framework for different understanding of selfies, and as a way to think differently about citizenship in the social media age. Possible topics include, but are not limited to • “Acts of citizenship” (Isin 2008) and selfie performativity • Selfies and affective citizenship • Selfie citizenship and “impossible subjects” • Selfie actions across borders and contexts • Biopolitics, necropolitics and selfie protest • Visibility/invisibility regimes and selfie citizenship • Selfie citizenship and surveillance • Selfies and the limits of digital citizenship • Selfie citizenship and consumerism • Selfie citizenship and digital labour • Selfies and “hashtag solidarity” (Mottahedeh 2015) • Selfie citizenship and algorithms • Selfie citizenship and biometric governance Submission guidelines Please submit a 300 word abstract, together with a short bio for each author, to Dr Adi Kuntsman a.kuntsman(a)mmu.ac.uk , by 1st of July 2015. Timeline Abstract and bio submission 1 July 2015 Successful contributors notified 15 July 2015 Full chapters submitted and sent to peer review 1 October 2015 Revised chapter submission 31 January 2016 Publication June 2016 --- Dr. Adi Kuntsman | Department of Languages, Information and Communications | Manchester Metropolitan UniversityOffice: Geoffrey Manton 437 | Tel: ++44-(0)-161-2476165 |https://sites.google.com/site/adikuntsman/ | @Dr_Ku Summer term office hours: by appointment a.kuntsman[(a)]mmu.ac.uk Out now:Digital Militarism: Israel's Occupation in theSocial Media Age (with Rebecca L. Stein, Stanford U Press)

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Call for Submissions - Game Studies Area: 2016 PCA/ACA National Confe rence.
by Matthew Wy. 07 Jun '15

07 Jun '15

Game Studies Area: 2016 PCA/ACA National Conference. The Game Studies area of the National Popular Culture Association and the American Culture Association Conference invites proposals for papers and panels on games and game studies for the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association National Conference to be held Monday, March 21 through Friday, March 25, 2016 at the Sheraton in Seattle, WA. The database for proposal submissions opens July 1. Below, please find: I. Topics of Interest II. Submission Process III. Information about the Conference IV. Contact Information ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I. Topics of Interest The organizers seek proposals and papers covering all aspects of gaming, gaming culture and game studies. Proposals can address any game medium (computer, social, console, tabletop, etc) and all theoretical and methodological approaches are welcome. Possible topics include but are not limited to: -- new game mediums and platforms (Facebook, iPhone/iPad/iPod, etc) -- representation or performance of race, class, gender and sexuality in games -- gaming culture, game specific cultures, and multicultural and cross-cultural issues -- game development, design, authorship and other industry issues -- game advertising, reviews, packaging, promotion, integrated marketing and other commercial concerns -- political and legal entailments such as regulation, censorship, intellectual property -- ludology, textual criticism, media ecology, narratology, etc as paradigms for games studies -- player generated content in MUDs and MMORPGs, Mods, maps and machinima -- game genres, platforms, consoles, console wars and connections to other media -- serious games for education, business, healthcare, (military) training, etc -- space and place in games, play spaces, virtual/physical communities, mobile gaming and localization -- digital literacy, discourse practices, social norms and norming, the politics of play -- public discourse/controversy over violence, militarism, sex, criminality, racism, etc in games -- game pedagogy and classroom practices, gamification, learning as play II. Submission Process The Game Studies area of the National Popular Culture Association and the American Culture Association Conference, which began as the Video Games Studies area in 2003, has the most enduring footprint of any North American academic organization that give serious attention to the social and cultural impact of games and gaming. The area continues to grow and offers two avenues for scholars to participate and present their work. A. Paper Proposals For individual paper proposal submissions, please submit a 250-word (maximum) abstract by October 1, 2015. Submissions must be made online at http://ncp.pcaaca.org. Detailed instructions for using the online submission system can be found at http://www.pcaaca.org/conference/instructions.php. B. Panel Proposals For panel submissions, please submit a 250-word (maximum) panel abstract, as well as 100-word abstracts for each individual presentation, by October 1, 2015. Panel proposals must be emailed to digitalgames.pcaaca(a)gmail.com. Be sure to include the proposed title of the panel, the organizer’s name, affiliation, mailing address, and email, as well as this information for all panelists. Panel submissions may take the form of debates, dialogs, roundtable discussions, thematic panels, (or other format,) and should be designed to last approximately eighty minutes. III. Information about the Conference A. So that there will be ample time for discussion, each individual paper presentation should be designed to last approximately twelve to fifteen minutes (there will typically be four presentations per session with time for Q&A). B. Technology for use during presentations may be limited. More information about the conference can be found at http://www.pcaaca.org/ C. Presenters will be required to join either the Popular Culture Association or the American Culture Association prior to attending the conference, as well as pay a registration fee for the conference. Information about these fees can be found at http://www.pcaaca.org/conference/membership_registration.php. D. Awards and Travel Grants are offered, on a competitive basis, by the National Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association 1. Travel Grants The Michael Schoenecke Travel Grant for Graduate Students to the National Conference. For application requirements, please visit http://www.pcaaca.org/grant/schoenecke.php The Peter Rollins Travel Grant for Early-Career Faculty. For application requirements, please visit http://www.pcaaca.org/grant/rollins.php The Madonna Marsden International Travel Grant for Individuals presenting at the National Conference. For application requirements, please visit http://www.pcaaca.org/grant/marsden.php 2. Graduate Student Awards William E. Brigman Award for the Outstanding Graduate Student Paper presented at the National Conference in a specific year. Applications go to Brigman Award, c/o Gary Hoppenstand, Journal of Popular Culture, 4C Morrill Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824 . Please send three hard copies of the paper (without author's name), as well as a copy on disc and photocopy of your student identification card. Those concerned for their privacy may obscure the Social Security number should it appear on the card. Please also include a copy of the acceptance letter/email from the PCA area chair who accepted the paper for presentation in the national conference. Papers should address popular culture and be accepted for a PCA panel. Submissions must be received by January 7th of the year the conference is held. The winning paper must be presented at the upcoming PCA/ACA meeting in the year it is accepted. Should the winning paper not be presented in person, the award will be forfeited. The winning author is invited to submit the essay to The Journal of Popular Culture and work with the editor toward its publication. This award is selected by a panel chosen by the editor of the journal. The winner receives a $500 travel award to attend the national conference in the year the paper is selected. William M. Jones Award for the Outstanding Graduate Student Paper presented at the National Conference in a specific year. Entries are submitted to Amy Dudley, Editorial Assistant, William M. Jones Graduate Student Paper Award Selection Committee, the Journal of American Culture, Virginia Wesleyan College, 1584 Wesleyan Drive, Norfolk, VA 23502. Papers must be submitted by January 7th of the year the conference is held. Three copies of the paper, as well as a photocopy of the applicant's student identification card must be submitted. Papers should address American culture. The winning paper must be presented at the PCA/ACA conference. The winner receives a $500 travel award to attend the national conference in the year the paper is selected. Should the winning paper not be presented in person, the award will be forfeited. The winning author should also submit the essay to the Journal of American Culture and work with the editor toward its publication. This award is selected by a panel chosen by the editor of the journal. IV. Contact Information Questions and concerns can be sent to digitalgames.pcaaca(a)gmail.com, or may be directed to one of the area chairs listed below. Matthew Wysocki, Department of Communication, Flagler College mwysocki(a)flagler.edu Nicholas Mizer, nicholas.j.mizer(a)gmail.com

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