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short deadline but wpsa looks good this year
by Jeremy hunsinger 12 Sep '13

12 Sep '13

*WESTERN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION 2014 ANNUAL MEETING April 17 – April 19, 2014 – Sheraton Seattle Hotel Seattle, Washington* http://wpsa.research.pdx.edu/meet/call.php* * The Western Political Science Association will host its 2014 annual meeting at the Sheraton Hotel in Seattle, Washington, from April 17 – 19, 2014. Please make plans to attend and encourage others to join us! The DEADLINE for submission of paper proposals/program participation forms will be September 16, 2013. The Program Chair for the 2014 meeting is Victoria Farrar-Myers, University of Texas, Arlington. Email: victoria(a)uta.edu *THE THEME FOR THE 2014 MEETING:* *THE POWER OF INFORMATION* In a world where ideas, thoughts, insights, and calls for actions can be transferred in a nano-second across the globe, the study of what drives this transference and the impact it has for people, institutions, governments, and the world community become even more important endeavors for social scientists to investigate. We must challenge old theories, look at diverse contexts, learn from comparative contexts and cases, and glean knowledge about what predictions or conclusions can be drawn about our political world as a result. Twenty-first century politics, more than any other, challenges us to make sense of and derive meaning from the cacophony of voices that fill the political space each day; regardless of borders, time, context, and status of relations. Already this century we have witnessed as information unleashed has led to awakenings across the world, from the Arab Spring; to the EU re-negotiations; to new coalitions built across age, race, class, gender and sexual orientation; to the continued dialogue over world-wide power; and the future metrics by which we measure such. It is within this world of information “chaos,” political scientists can be the deciphers of orders and patterns that help to make sense of not only the information, but the meaning of the events that unfold and how political actors can function and be relevant in an ever-changing reality. As we gather in area of our country with a long history of supporting information literacy (2013 marks the 145th anniversary of the formation of Seattle’s first library association and the 125th anniversary of the formation of the Ladies Library Association, whose efforts resulted in creating the Seattle Public Library) and some of the most successful businesses in the modern era of information technology (e.g., Microsoft, Amazon.com) we as social scientists need to not merely think in the Kuhnian sense of incrementalism and the creation of new paradigms, but rather in a manner that allows for cross-pollination of ideas and information among sub-fields, between disciplines, and between nations. We invite panels and paper proposals that explore the power of information in the political context, including how information is generated, communicated, and acted upon; the relation of information to other forms of political power; methodological innovations allowing us to measure the power of information; and teaching pedagogies that enable our students to become better consumers and producers of information. Please join us at the 2014 Western Political Science Association Annual Meeting in Seattle where information will flow like Starbucks and Seattle’s Best Coffee, and the ideas will rise like the Cascade and Olympic Mountains. * **Note:* All participants in the program are required to preregister for the meeting by early December. -- jeremy hunsinger Center for Digital Discourse and Culture Virginia Tech www.tmttlt.com () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail /\ - against microsoft attachments http://www.stswiki.org/ sts wiki http://transdisciplinarystudies.tmttlt.com/ Transdisciplinary Studies:the book series I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it. -Pablo Picasso

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What is feminist social media research? call for workshop participants
by Laura Portwood-Stacer 12 Sep '13

12 Sep '13

(Please forward widely! This CFP can be downloaded at: http://www.lauraportwoodstacer.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/feminist-soci… ) Workshop Series: Feminist Approaches to Social Media Research Call for participants Social media is a hot topic in academia, industry, and popular culture. A raft of scholarship and journalism has emerged in the past decade on the rise of social networking as a major site of communication and culture, and many of the communications and media studies academic job postings in recent years mention a desire for applicants who possess expertise in social media. Business of all stripes are looking to capitalize on consumers' interest in social media platforms and technologies. Policy makers too are concerned about the implications of social networking's dominance in the media landscape. Given all this, a scholarly conversation about what it might mean to take an explicitly feminist approach to social media research is ripe for the having. To that end the Commentary & Criticism section of *Feminist Media Studies*will organize a series of workshops on Feminist Approaches to Social Media Research at multiple upcoming media studies conferences (contingent on participant interest and conference acceptance). We plan to submit proposals to both ICA and Console-ing Passions. Other conferences may be added if there is enough interest. Questions up for discussion could include (but are not limited to): · How would existing social media research agendas shift if feminism were put at their center? · How might a feminist approach require a particular definition or redefinition of "social media"? · How can feminist approaches be integrated into industrial, journalistic, and policy research? · How can feminist media scholars interface with social media research taking place in the humanities, social science, and STEM fields? · How should intersectionality--especially with respect to race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, and ability--inform feminist research on social media? · How can we work against gender binarism and essentialism in social media research? · How can feminist theories of affective and reproductive labor help in our understanding of social media? We are currently seeking scholars of feminist media to participate in these discussions. We envision a core group at each workshop who will offer brief commentary or provocations and then facilitate discussion among workshop attendees. We aim for a diverse group of facilitators and attendees, including junior scholars, non-tenure-track faculty, and graduate students, as well as established voices in the field of feminist media studies. To express interest in participating as a workshop facilitator, please email Laura Portwood-Stacer at lportwoodstacer(a)gmail.com. Indicate your current position and affiliation, your specific research interest area(s), and which conferences (ICA and/or Console-ing Passions) you are planning to attend. Please feel free to suggest other appropriate conferences and indicate whether you would be willing to serve as facilitator (or possibly chair) at any of those. Responses received by September 15th will be considered for submission to Console-ing Passions; responses received by October 15th will be considered for submission to ICA. -- Laura Portwood-Stacer Visiting Assistant Professor Department of Media, Culture, and Communication New York University www.lauraportwoodstacer.com Lifestyle Politics and Radical Activism<http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/lifestyle-politics-and-radical-activism-978144…> Excerpts and downloads available at www.lauraportwoodstacer.com/publications/lpra

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Postdoc Researcher post - "Reading Digital Fiction" project
by Bell, Alice 12 Sep '13

12 Sep '13

Dear AoIR members, Please find details below of a job which may be of interest to members. JOB OPPORTUNITY: Postdoctoral Researcher (0.5 pro rata, 29 months) at Sheffield Hallam University, UK Sheffield Hallam University is looking to recruit a Postdoctoral Researcher to carry out research and administrative tasks on a 29-month, Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded, Reading Digital Fiction project. The project aims to increase public engagement with digital fiction and provide analyses of digital fiction works which are empirically substantiated with reader-response data. PI: Dr Alice Bell (Sheffield Hallam) Co-I: Prof Astrid Ensslin (Bangor) The advert can be viewed here: http://www.shu.ac.uk/jobs/vacancies/academic/ds30113.html Closing date 2nd October 2013

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New book on Internet mercenaries and viral marketing in Chinese social media
by meiwu＠umac.mo 12 Sep '13

12 Sep '13

Dear Air members: Just a bit of self-promotion. My new book entitled "Internet Mercenaries and Viral Marketing: The Case of Chinese Social Media" is out. For detailed information see the link: http://www.igi-global.com/newsroom/archive/china-resistant-bite-regarding-a… . Best wishes, WM Wu Mei, Ph.D. Associate Professor Deputy Head Department of Communication Faculty of Social Sciences & Humanities University of Macau Taipa, Macau Tel: (853) 83978994 (O) Fax: (853) 28838312 E-Mail: meiwu(a)umac.mo

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Re: [Air-L] The connection between "alienated labor" and "whether to name reviewers"
by Sam Lehman-wilzig 11 Sep '13

11 Sep '13

Hi all: I find interesting that no one seems to realize that the two seemingly "unrelated" topics we are discussing (see below) are actually the same issue! If there is performing "alienated labor" it is academic referees of articles, editors of journals, etc -- who are not compensated for their work! Why shouldn't an academic, COMMERCIAL journal (one that demands payment from subscribers -- institutional and individual), PAY article reviewers, the journal editors etc for their reviews? If they did that, then the reviewers would feel a lot more obligated to devote serious attention to their refereeing review. In my opinion, paying for article review (even if it's $100 or so per article) would solve most of the problems mentioned here regarding unprofessional (or no-show) reviewers -- and perhaps also sensitizing them a bit more to the whole issue of "alienated labor" in other spheres. Sam Prof. Sam Lehman-Wilzig Deputy Director School of Communication Bar-Ilan University 52900 Ramat Gan ISRAEL (office) +972-3-5317651 (office secretary) +972-3-5317060 (cell) +972-52-3410163 (fax) +972-9-9744441 Sam.Lehman-Wilzig(a)biu.ac.il<mailto:Sam.Lehman-Wilzig@biu.ac.il> website: www.ProfSLW.com On Sep 9, 2013, at 1:00 AM, air-l-request(a)listserv.aoir.org<mailto:air-l-request@listserv.aoir.org> wrote: Send Air-L mailing list submissions to air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org<mailto:air-l@listserv.aoir.org> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to air-l-request(a)listserv.aoir.org You can reach the person managing the list at air-l-owner(a)listserv.aoir.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Air-L digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Re: to name reviewers or not (Barry Wellman) 2. Compiled Reading list on Alienated Labor (Alan Bilansky) 3. Re: to name reviewers or not (Johann H?chtl)

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New job opening: The University of Utah
by Avery Holton 11 Sep '13

11 Sep '13

The University of Utah: Associate or Full Professor of Communication, Specialty: Interpersonal/Organizational-Health The Department of Communication at the University of Utah invites applications for a tenure-track, Associate or Full Professor of Interpersonal/Organizational Communication and Health Communication, effective July 1, 2014. The Department is committed to researching (empirically) organizational and interpersonal processes and their intersection with relationships, families, networks, organizations, the interplay of systems and structures, and conflict dynamics. Qualified candidates will have a strong program of research that explores interpersonal and/or organizational communication in health contexts. The ideal candidate’s scholarship will recognize the constitutive and formative nature of communication in relationships and will address significant social issues related to health. Candidates should have demonstrated the ability to support undergraduate and graduate curricula in organizational or interpersonal communication and health communication. Scholarship that complements the Department’s existing areas of emphasis is desirable but not a requirement. Qualified applicants will have a Ph.D. in communication or in a closely related discipline, evidence of sustained research productivity, grant activity or strong potential for obtaining grants, and a record of teaching excellence. Responsibilities will include researching and publishing, teaching at the graduate and undergraduate levels, supervising doctoral dissertations, and performing service at the departmental and university level.The University of Utah is a member of the Pac 12. The Department of Communication has a long and distinguished tradition of excellence in graduate education. Our nationally acclaimed graduate program is the driving force of our department. As an integrated communication department, we provide training across a range of areas, with particular strengths in the following areas: Media and Communication Technology; Communicating Science, Health, Environment, and Risk (CommSHER); Rhetoric; Critical/Cultural Studies; and Organizational/Interpersonal Communication. Formal review of applications will begin on October 15, 2013, and will continue until the position is filled. Applicants must submit a cover letter that highlights scholarly activities; a vita; and names of and contact information for three references. To apply click on the following link http://utah.peopleadmin.com/postings/26445. Questions about the position may be directed to Professor Mark Bergstrom, Search Committee Chair, at mark.bergstrom(a)utah.edu. Avery Holton Assistant Professor Department of Communication The University of Utah E: averyholton(a)gmail.com T: @averyholton

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Textbook on the information society theory
by joo-seong Hwang 11 Sep '13

11 Sep '13

Hi~, I will open an graduate course on "Network and Society". Through this course I would like to discuss about information society from those treaditional scholars as Baniel Bell and Fritz Matchl upto the latest ones who argued for information capitalism and congnitive capitalism. I will also introduce those scholars who give us deeper understanding as Manuel Castells, Jan van Dijk, and Frank Webster. I wonder if there is some textbook which can be usesd as a reference book in this class. I am looking for the one that can serve us with more balanced guideline between critical and positive approaches. Many thanks in advance. James *Joo Seong Hwang, Ph. D., Associate Professor *Graduate School of Public Policy and Information Technology Seoul National University of Science and Technology Changjo-Hall(Bd.No. 8), 232 Gongneung-ro, Nowon-gu, 139-743, Seoul, KOREA (Office) 82-2-970-6868, (Fax) 82-2-970-6868, (MP) 82-10-3777-4450 jshwang(a)seoultech.ac.kr, * http://english.seoultech.ac.kr/academics/progradu/policytech/*<http://english.seoultech.ac.kr/academics/progradu/policytech/>

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Fwd: First Decade Jubilee for International Journal for Web-based Communities
by Caroline Haythornthwaite 11 Sep '13

11 Sep '13

10 best articles from the 10 years of Int Journal of Web-Based Communities (listed chronologically). Modestly pointing out that one of my articles is in the list :) /Caroline Caroline Haythornthwaite Director and Professor SLAIS, The iSchool at UBC c.haythorn(a)ubc.ca http://haythorn.wordpress.com/ > Web-Based Communities for Social Innovation > > At its 10th Anniversary we look back how the “Community” scope has developed and how it might work out the coming decade. But first we would like to thank authors, reviewers and readers for their support and valuable contributions. To celebrate the 10th Anniversary 10 key-articles are selected and now open for further distribution through the link below. > > The term WBC (Web-Based Community) was coined after the term “Online Community” had settled in the early nineties when “Usenet”, “Muds”, “MOOs” and “Online Community College” evolved. Blogging and the early notion of virtual “presence” on the web triggered the idea that being a member of a web-based community is not essential; Someone’s “Sense of Community” is more decisive. Notions like trust, folklore, fandom and later the value of sharing and informal learning; they began to emerge and gradually took over the metaphor of dungeons and exotic arcades. The idea for this journal started when it became clear that the entire spectrum from face-to-face until mediated communication would be affected by web-based social participation. Like many “new” media, also web-based communities caused the euphoria that a substantial part of the f2f and broadcasting media would be supplanted. This idea has been refuted by many publications in this journal since 2004. Its main message is that just like the TV, the newspaper and the telephone, web based communities fulfill one of the many aspects of cooperation and togetherness. In order to zoom out and see the larger trend in interest for web-based communities I’ll go stepwise through the more dominant themes that evolved in the last 10 years. > > To celebrate the 10th Anniversary 10 key-articles are selected and now without costs available at http://www.inderscience.com/info/ingeneral/sample.php?jcode=ijwbc.These articles are : > > 1. 2004, in the inaugural issue the article “Designing and evaluating online communities: research speaks to emerging practice” Jenny Preece et al questioned: What makes online communities successful? And concluded that there are many indicators of success. Some are easily observed and measured, such as the number of people registered in the community, or the number who participate, or the number of messages posted, replied to or read over a certain period. They proposed “community-centered development”; an approach that relies heavily on iterative evaluation focusing on sociability rather than usability. Their article concludes that ethnography and heuristic evaluation are the main ingredients for evaluation WBCs; reconciling practical- and robust needs. > 2. 2005, in the article “The rationale of online learning communities” by Carlén & Jobring assert that online learning communities facilitate communication between people who share common interests and learn collaboratively using networked technologies. A similar conclusion to the prior one by Preece came out: Researchers and designers have to understand social practices in order to explore and develop technological tools for such collaboration and communication. > 3. 2006, in their article “SIOC: an approach to connect web-based communities” John Breslin et al take a rather stout stand as they claim that web-based communities are islands of people that not necessarily related in terms of the topics they share. They introduce how a “Semantically Interlinked Online Community” (SIOC) can enable efficient information dissemination across communities by creating an ontology that will model concepts identified in discussion methods. Data instances can be accessed from community sites using this ontology, enabling connections between local and remote concept instances, and allowing queries on, or transfer of, the data. By searching on one forum, the ontology and interface will allow users to find information on other forums that use a SIOC-based system architecture. At this point Breslin and his co-authors have anticipated to the next step of web-communities that not only offer the bridging of identity; also semantic validation of topics under collaborative will be related and transferrable seamlessly. > 4. 2007, in “Identifying communities in blogs: roles for social network analysis and survey instruments” Alvin Chin and Mark Chignell examine the problem of identifying, measuring and evaluating communities in blogs. Based upon McMillan and Chavis, 1986 they explore the link between WBC and “Sense of Community” and add the notion of “centrality measures” derived from social network analysis. They describe a method for identifying communities in blogs using both sense of community measurement and Social Network Analysis (SNA) and apply it on a blog on Canadian independent music. > 5. 2008, in “Learning relations and networks in web-based communities” Caroline Haythornthwaite regards the broader functions and actors around the learning process. Ultimately she formulates “learning is predicated on interaction between individuals, interactions that build into communities that share common knowledge and practice.” The remaining question is what types of relations are relevant in respect to learning partnerships and how established learning networks can be interconnected. > 6. 2009, in “Enhancing the understanding of genres of web-based communities: the role of the ecological cognition framework” Jonathan Bishop links our attention to the phenomenon of lurking and the genre of weblogs. Political blog and the mommy blog are compared with the significant differences that are found between them that make them solid sub genres. > 7. 2009, in “Supporting a virtual community of tutors in experience capitalizing” Élise Garrot warns us against the fact that students learn differently from decades before. But ICT also involves changes in teachers’ roles, which are not yet well defined particularly for online tutors. They present new ways for tutors to define their own ‘professional identity’, their functions and ‘good practices’. They aim at giving them the possibility to share knowledge and experiences and to refer to those in their day-to-day practice. > 8. 2010, in “Bridging and bonding in social network sites – investigating family-based capital” Petter Bae Brandtzæg et al explore the relationship between three distinct dimensions of social capital (bridging, peer-bonding and family-bonding capital) in social network sites (SNSs). They ask what kinds of social relations are sought by SNS users and whether the usage of new SNSs contributes to family bonding. They show that typically 25% of the Norwegian internet population communicates with family members once a week or more often, but peer bonding occurs even more frequently. They find that male users are significantly less interested in future family contacts in SNSs than females. The results of the study indicate that the majority of the respondents experience SNSs as a part of their daily communication routines, both to bridge new online contacts and to strengthen bonds with their existing offline ties. > 9. 2010, in “A cross-cultural analysis of Flickr users from Peru, Israel, Iran, Taiwan and the UK” by Amir Dotan et al describe differences as well as similarities regarding tagging patterns and use of language to annotate content between the five chosen national cultures. These insights could inform the future localization and internationalization of user-generated content driven sites like Flickr and You Tube. > 10. 2011, in “Twitter for crisis communication: lessons learned from Japan’s tsunami disaster” by Adam Acar et al how two weeks after the Great Tohoku earthquake followed by the devastating tsunami, they sent open-ended questionnaires to a randomly selected sample of Twitter users and found that people in directly-affected areas tend to tweet about their unsafe and uncertain situation while people in remote areas post messages to let their followers know that they are safe. Their analysis of the open-ended answers revealed that unreliable re-tweets (RTs) on Twitter was the biggest problem the users faced during the disaster. Some of the solutions offered by the respondents included introducing official hash tags, limiting the number of RTs for each hash tag and adding features that allow users to trace information by maintaining anonymity. > > In retrospect we can say that the first decade of the community metaphor has caused a long ripple in the various application sectors on how to envisage its essential benefits and pitfalls. Its first benefit is the awareness that through the high frequency and flexibility, gathering on the web should not stay behind in social and societal terms. “Sense of Community” became the ambition when it became clear that presence via the web was only a small part of one’s daily concern. Also it proved that intense life on the web was only realistic for a small part of the population. > > The next step after the growing ambition of web communities to manifest as real social gathering is to see if web communities can really help traditional sectors like care, education and industry to evolve quicker in their own agendas. “Catalyst” is the term to indicate this endogenic evolution where in fact no one has predictive power; the combination if ICT potentials work like noise; unfocussed opportunities that bring the traditional application fields out of balance. Good example is social media. While its fits connotation was photo-book (Facebook) and announcing one’s cv (LinkedIn) it offered enthusiast users to go beyond the planned scope and finally lifted its initial functionality finally up to the level of day-by-day or even minute-by-minute correspondence via chat and photo documentary. > > What is the best prediction for directions that application sectors will be stimulated under the influence of social media the coming time? > > 1. Education: Up to now, the fields of schooling and education regard social networking as distraction and digression. At the same time we see that social media have an enormous impact on young learners to extend their social skills and ambitions. The consolidation of learning progress traditionally works via certification. However we have recently seen that “communities of practice” have developed in professional fields, not only for synchronizing the last state of best practice; also for the cross fertilization of several fields of expertise where new situations demand solutions that have never emerged before. In other words: Social networks stimulate practitioners to develop new understanding rather than just pretend to transfer expertise between professionals. It is the question now if this paradigm will also enter the field of schooling and education? > 2. Medical and Care: Indeed, the first step towards a more integrated medical and well-being perspective is the dimension of “care”. Web-based presence and participation is vital for this transition; It needs the intersection of mural and family help. Social robots are going to help bridging these two worlds. Patient organizations, but also the more delicate mix of family concerns while patients in mental care hospitals is a field that still needs growing understanding how to make the best of two worlds all the time. Quite obvious, the peer consult among medical doctors during diagnosis and planning surgical interventions is a growing field. Finally, we face already the typical situation that patients orient in success-/pitfall reports that were recently reported on the web. One of the questions is too what extent the parameter of “sense of community” will help medical stakeholders to gain more trust and confidence. > 3. Justice and governance: Its main phenomenon is the community’s help in fact finding at the moment. Political revolts seem to benefit from social media. However, the same comfort of social media in tracing criminals can be used to trace political opponents by regimes. So the vital question is whether the emancipatory role of social media will continue. Legislation on privacy and the specific rights of governments to trace personal communication on the web. > > The key question might be how the cost/benefit ratio of web-based community metaphor may turn out the coming years. The benefit of the community envisioning has already show as it raised the criterion of social conformism (sense of community); Social participation on the web needs to be isomorphic to real face-to-face conditions to a certain extent. This notion has vitalized social reality on the web. The back site could be seen as the imbalance when social media reach very high numbers of visitors in the real-life conditions. In other words: the critical size of physical meetings may be hampered when social media and mass media are combined. Web-based communities need to develop a certain intuition on how to balance the power of crowd (sourcing) and the meetings in real spaces, more important than we thought on before. These are questions that were not overthought by the designers of Facebook, Twitter etc. > > In summary we can say that web-based communities have developed through the opportunism of media richness and the sensation of large-scale “meetings”. We may expect more conflicts to happen between the private and the public sector, the coming years. It is hard to imagine experiments that predict more precise effects than we can extrapolate from recent events like the Arabic “Spring”. > > Kind regards > > Piet Kommers > > (Editor of the International Journal of Web Based Communities) > > > > Margriet Simmerling > > (Technical Editor of the International Journal of Web Based Communities) > > > > Here you find > > 1. IJWBC LATEST PUBLICATION: > 2. IADIS CONFERENCE WEB BASED COMMUNITIES: > > H index: 18 > > > > University of Twente: Department of Media, Communication & Organisation > IADIS Conferences on WBC, Social Media and Human Beings > Int Journal of Web-Based Communities > Academia.edu > ResearchGate > Facebook > LinkedIn > Citations > > >

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New job opening: Researcher position at the Oxford Internet Institute
by Mark Graham 11 Sep '13

11 Sep '13

Dear colleagues, We are hiring a researcher at the Oxford Internet institute to focus on questions around connectivity and flows of information in value chains in Rwanda. The job description is below. Feel free to forward this to relevant people and lists, and please get in touch if you would like to discuss any aspect of the position. Best, Mark * * *Researcher* *OXFORD INTERNET INSTITUTE* *Grade 7: Salary £29,541 - £36,298 p.a.* * * The Oxford Internet Institute is the world’s leading centre for research into individual, collective and institutional behaviour on the internet. We are looking for a full-time Researcher to work with Dr Mark Graham on the ESRC-DFID funded project, The Promises of Fibre-Optic Broadband: A Pipeline for Economic Development in East Africa<http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/research/projects/eastafrica/>. Employing case-studies, interviews, surveys and textual analysis in Kenya and Rwanda, this project examines the expectations and stated potentials of broadband Internet and compares those expectations to on-the-ground effects that broadband connectivity is having in three economic sectors: tea production, tourism, and business process outsourcing. ** ** This is an exciting role in which the Researcher will conduct in-depth qualitative research on the topic of connectivity, value chains, information flow, and exclusion in Rwanda. The researcher will also contribute to the dissemination of this work through academic papers and project reports.**** ** ** Candidates should have experience of social science research in Development Studies, Geography, Sociology, Social Anthropology, Communications, or related disciplines and a strong record of training and practical experience in qualitative research methodology. Based primarily at the Oxford Internet Institute (with periods of fieldwork in Rwanda), this position is available from immediately for 10 months in the first instance, with the possibility of renewal thereafter, funding permitting. We will soon be starting a multi-year project focusing on knowledge economies in Sub-Saharan Africa. We would therefore also welcome applications from candidates who are keen to be part of a larger research programme in order to extend the position. Applications for this vacancy are to be made online. To apply for this role and for further details, including a job description, please click on the link below: https://www.recruit.ox.ac.uk/pls/hrisliverecruit/erq_jobspec_version_4.jobs… **** Only applications received before 12:00 midday on 27th September can be considered. Interviews for those short-listed are planned to take place on October 15th and 17th. ------------------------------------------ Dr Mark Graham Senior Research Fellow Director of Research Oxford Internet Institute University of Oxford Visiting Research Associate School of Geography and the Environment University of Oxford oii.ox.ac.uk/people/graham <http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/people/graham> | geospace.co.uk <http://www.geospace.co.uk> | wikichains.org<http://www.wikichains.org> | @geoplace <http://twitter.com/geoplace>

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AAG 2014 CFP: Future Directions in Geoweb Research alt.conference
by Jim T 11 Sep '13

11 Sep '13

Apologies for cross-posting, this may be of interest to some people on this list. *Future Directions in Geoweb Research: an alt.conference on Big Data, Theory, and Geography's Role* Call for Participants: Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting 8-12 April 2014 Tampa, FL USA Organizers (alphabetical by last name): Josef Eckert, University of Washington Andrew Shears, Mansfield University Jim Thatcher, Clark University Over the last two decades, widespread internet access integrated into daily life as a platform for information exchange, social networking, and commercial transactions. The expansive, rapidly changing data sets produced through these and other digital processes have come to be termed "Big Data." With an estimated 80% of these aggregated data sets containing spatial referent information, Geography as a discipline offers a "home field advantage" in the study of "Big Data" (Pozdnoukhov and Farmer 2012). The addition of "where" to information that records who is doing what, when, and with whom opens new avenues for knowledge and capital production (probably want a citation here). In the eyes of its boosters, the rapid aggregation and analysis of data destroys the need for social explanation as the numbers are able to "speak for themselves" (Anderson 2008). While Big Data and the Geoweb are oft heralded as a veritable gold mine for private industry and a tantalizing new source of data for social research, the rapid development of these technologies in the face of the often personal nature of the derived data is of concern. Studies of the geoweb call our attention to the ways in which user-generated data come into the world and are complicit in its unfolding. Scholars have voiced caution regarding the use of spatial big data, citing issues of accuracy (Liu et. al 2013), heterogenous data and sources, (Goodchild 2012), surveillance (Crampton 2013), shifting privacies (Elwood & Leczynszki 2011), capital investment (Wilson 2012), and urban experience (Thatcher 2013). In spite of this, urban planners (Torrens 2010), politicians (Morozov 2011), marketers (LeValle et al., 2011), and even national funding agencies (NSF 2012) are embracing the modeling of this data as a primary tool by which to understand society. This alt.conference will explore many of the broad implications of Big Data and the Geoweb and its study, including: - Big Data, the Geoweb, and the Critical GIS tradition - New methodologies for gathering and analyzing data - The epistemologies and ontologies of Big Data and the Geoweb - Big Data and the Geoweb as tools for education - Big Data and Geoweb for policy and spatial decision-making - Big Data and urban experience - Big Data and Geoweb as a tool for community planning - Amateur practitioners of Big Data analytics - Activist appropriation of Big Data platforms - Geographies of Big Data beyond GIS - Gendered Big Data - Big Data as Digital Humanities - Data mining vs. data exploration As well as other related topics. The alt.conference will feature a series of sessions of five-minute "lightning talks," each followed by panel and workshop sessions that link the themes discussed to theory and praxis. These sessions will run consecutively on the first day of the AAG conference, and will be capped by an evening networking gathering. Unlike the AAG"s traditional 15-minute papers, a lightning talk is an engaging five-minute presentation that quickly examines intensive subject matter by heavy use of simple but arresting graphics and visuals. The goal is to provide the audience with an entertaining way to absorb information on a number of topics. Traditionally, the presenter spends roughly a minute on each slide. Because these talks do not fit into the AAG"s traditional format, lightning talks do not preclude the presentation of a manuscript or poster elsewhere in the conference. In other words, a lightning talk does not preclude you from given a traditional talk elsewhere at the conference. Scholars interested in giving a lightning talk as part of the alt.conference are asked to submit an abstract or position paper of no longer than 500 words, plus any preliminary graphics, to ashears(a)mansfield.edu by Oc**tober 15, 2013. Submissions are particularly encouraged from scholars early in their career, from disadvantaged populations and from the developing world.

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