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Fwd: IETF 85 in Atlanta, GA (USA)- Guest Day Pass Information (November 6, 2012)
by gene loeb 01 Oct '12

01 Oct '12

This is very useful information to a broad spectrum of internet users. Gene ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Internet Society (ISOC) <membership(a)isoc.org> Date: Mon, Oct 1, 2012 at 5:20 AM Subject: IETF 85 in Atlanta,GA (USA)- Guest Day Pass Information (November 6, 2012) To: geneloeb(a)gmail.com ** [image: ISOC Logo] Dear Dr. Gene Loeb, Join the Internet's Leading Engineers in Atlanta, GA, USA ! Experience first hand the Internet standards process and meet the world's leading Internet engineers, developers and researchers. We expect 1,200 attendees from more than 40 countries. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) will convene Novemeber 4 - 9, 2012 for IETF 85 at the Hilton Atlanta and you are invited! The IETF is the premiere international open-standards community and is responsible for many of the Internet's most important standards, including TCP/IP, e-mail, instant messaging, VoIP, 3G and IPv6. Its work is concerned with the evolution of the Internet's architecture and its smooth operation. To learn more see: <*https://www.ietf.org/newcomers.html*<https://www.ietf.org/newcomers.html> > The IETF is unique from other standards groups in that it is a volunteer organization, lead by individuals, not governments or corporations. The IETF's processes are open to all and decisions are made on the basis of "rough consensus and running code." If you are doing research in networking or communications, this is one event you don't want to miss. The IETF meets three times a year face-to-face to progress its work of Internet Standards development for the betterment of the Internet and people worldwide. Tuesday, November 6, 2012 is IETF 85 Guest Day when students, instructors and members of the Internet Society can receive a complimentary one-day Guest Pass to the IETF 85 Meeting. Guests shall check in at the Registration Table for their name tags. Guests have an opportunity to attend some of the 30 plus Working Group sessions being held that day. The Agenda will be available here - <* https://datatracker.ietf.org/meeting/85/agenda.html*<https://datatracker.ietf.org/meeting/85/agenda.html> > Note: You may also attend Newcomer Training that is scheduled for Sunday, November 4th at 1:00 PM at the Hilton Atlanta. See: <* https://www.ietf.org/meeting/85/tutorials.html*<https://www.ietf.org/meeting/85/tutorials.html> > Interested local ISOC members, Students and Instructors must: 1. Register online at <*http://www.ietf.org/meeting/85/index.html*<http://www.ietf.org/meeting/85/index.html>> but not pay. 2. Send an email to iad at *ietf.org* <http://ietf.org/>, subject: Guest Pass, indicating an ISOC member, student or instructor, provide Registration ID and request a one-day Guest Pass. 3. Pick up a Guest Pass on Tuesday. The IETF welcomes your interest in its work and looks forward to the day when you will participate in this volunteer endeavor. ****** -- With Sincerest Best Wishes , Gene Gene Loeb, Ph.D.

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Help locating an article...Donald Lewis Shaw "The Rise and Fall of American Mass Media"
by Richard Smith 01 Oct '12

01 Oct '12

Does anyone have a copy of this article? We can find lots of references to people using it (e.g., via google scholar), but no one seems to actually have the original. Donald Lewis Shaw "The Rise and Fall of American Mass Media: Roles of Technology and Leadership" April, 1991 "Roy W. Howard Lecture" Indiana University… -- Richard Smith, Director, Masters of Digital Media Centre for Digital Media, 685 Great Northern Way, Vancouver, CANADA Phone: 778 370 1012 http://mdm.gnwc.ca Twitter: @smith

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Tools for Analysing Tumblr?
by Stephanie Betz 01 Oct '12

01 Oct '12

Hi everyone, I'm looking at doing a project that analyses posts on Tumblr. Unfortunately, however, the tools available through the Tumblr website aren't particularly useful for analysing large amounts of posts. Does anyone know of any third-party applications that may be useful for exploring Tumblr's tags and posts? Thanks, Steph.

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ICA Pre-conference: Conditions of Mediation - 17 June 2013 at Birkbeck, University of London
by Tim Markham 01 Oct '12

01 Oct '12

** With apologies for cross-posting ** Conditions of Mediation: Phenomenological Approaches to Media, Technology and Communication 2013 International Communication Association (ICA) Preconference Philosophy, Theory and Critique Division 17 June 2013, Birkbeck, University of London Organizers: Dr Scott Rodgers (s.rodgers(a)bbk.ac.uk <mailto:s.rodgers@bbk.ac.uk> ) and Dr Tim Markham (t.markham(a)bbk.ac.uk <mailto:t.markham@bbk.ac.uk> ) Confirmed keynote speakers: Dr David Berry, Professor Nick Couldry, Professor Graham Harman, Professor Lisa Parks, Professor Paddy Scannell. Conference Outline: Media theory seems to have reached a moment in which it is effectively orthodox to presume we must pay attention first and foremost to the intricacies of everyday experience. Ethnographic audience studies, for example, have attacked assumptions that there is a discrete relationship between media content and audiences, arguing that media forms, content and technologies have indeterminate and multifaceted significance within the daily rhythms and spaces of their everyday lives. Studies of digital and networked media, meanwhile, have put into question the very notion of 'audiences' as the starting point for understanding mediated experience. For some, accounting for the intricacies of everyday mediated experience has implied asking people what they actually do with media. But for others this is not enough: instead, the question is what constitutes the conditions of media experience in the first place. How do political configurations of discourses and inherited dispositions prefigure mediated action? How do material arrangements themselves constitute environments for mediated experience? How might we account for nonhuman agency, for example the ways in which software objects interact not only with human perceptions but also each other? Such questions point to a renewed confidence in explaining not just how but also why media, technology and communication are experienced as they are - all the while resisting a reversion to functionalism. These interests in the very conditions of mediation suggest, if sometimes only implicitly, an emerging interest in a phenomenology of media. Indeed, phenomenology - broadly the structuring of perception - has seemingly obvious relevance for recent academic interests in media experience. Yet its use or invocation in media studies has been scattered. While this might simply reflect the considerable diversity of phenomenological philosophies and their applications, there have also been concerted efforts recently to rethink phenomenology across the social sciences and humanities. Paired with recent interests in mediated experience, the time seems apt to reassess what it might mean to theorize media phenomenologically. Conditions of Mediation seeks to bring together scholars from a very wide range of perspectives - such as media history, media archaeology, audience studies, political theory, metaphysics, software studies, science and technology studies, digital aesthetics, cultural geography and urban studies - to reflect explicitly on the phenomenological groundings of their work on media. The phenomenological thinking to which participants might connect will be broad-based, ranging from core thinkers such as Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty and Sartre to those with looser affiliations to phenomenology per se, for example Arendt, Bergson, Bourdieu, Deleuze, Garfinkel, Ingold, Latour, Whitehead and Harman. In short, the overall aim is that this preconference goes beyond a mere congregation of media phenomenologists. Instead, it will encourage critical reflection on what various readings of phenomenology might offer media and technology studies that other approaches cannot. Conversely, it will also welcome reflections on the limits of phenomenological approaches in philosophical, theoretical, political and empirical terms. Format: The pre-conference will feature two plenaries of keynote speakers, as well as four-to-six panels of paper presentations selected from submissions of abstracts. Paper submission process: Please send an abstract (max 200 words) of your paper to both Scott Rodgers (s.rodgers(a)bbk.ac.uk <mailto:s.rodgers@bbk.ac.uk> ) and Tim Markham (t.markham(a)bbk.ac.uk <mailto:t.markham@bbk.ac.uk> ) by 20 November 2012. Authors will be informed regarding acceptance/rejection for the preconference no later than December 20, 2012. Venue: The preconference will be hosted at Birkbeck, University of London WC1E 7HX. Based in Bloomsbury, the intellectual heart of London and home to several of the University of London's constituent colleges, the Birkbeck campus is just three tube stops away from the Hilton London Metropole (the ICA conference hotel). The event will be held in the Clore Management Centre, which offers an excellent lecture theatre, rooms for parallel streams and break-out discussions as well as space for catering and informal networking. For further information: http://conditionsofmediation.wordpress.com <http://conditionsofmediation.wordpress.com> (conference website) -- Dr Tim Markham Reader in Journalism and Media Head of Department, Media and Cultural Studies Programme Director, MA/PGCert Journalism, BA Media and Business Applications Director of Graduate Research, Media and Cultural Studies Assistant Dean for Recruitment and Retention, School of Arts Birkbeck, University of London 43 Gordon Square London WC1H 0PD tel: (020) 3073 8380 t.markham(a)bbk.ac.uk <mailto:t.markham@bbk.ac.uk> http://www.bbk.ac.uk/culture/our-staff/tim_markham <http://www.bbk.ac.uk/culture/our-staff/tim_markham>

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2nd CFP AAG 2013: Tools and Tales of Social Spatial Network Analysis (deadline extended)
by Joe Eckert 01 Oct '12

01 Oct '12

Apologies for cross posting.... Call for Papers: Tools and Tales of Social and Spatial Network Analysis Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting 9-13 April 2013 Los Angeles, CA Organizers: Joe Eckert, Department of Geography, University of Washington Monica Stephens, Department of Geography, Humboldt State University Networks are a long-standing staple of spatial analysts. Social network analysis (SNA), on the other hand, is underexplored in geography while gaining notoriety in other disciplines of social science (e.g., sociology, information studies, epidemiology, organizational studies). One way in which these networks form is through digital interactions between users of social media platforms. Drawing from work from internet geographers (Zook, Graham, etc...), we know that these interactions are in turn informed and created within contexts of physical space. We seek scholars that are using spatially grounded qualitative and quantitative network analysis to ask, "how do we bring social network analysis methods and theory into conversation with geographic theory and spatial analysis?" Work undertaken by analysts using geographic information systems (GIS) and social network analysis (SNA) are parallel in many ways, including shared analytical techniques and vocabulary. However, while both seek explanations for the relationships among entities; geographers seek spatial context, whereas social network analysts seek a social context. We feel that these two modes of analysis richly complement one another, and geographers might be well served by examining the ways in which networks of place interact with digitally enabled social networks. We seek papers that meet this broad theme, but offer the following questions to consider: - In what ways are digitally enabled networks created via the spaces in which platform users physically inhabit? - How are digital enabled networks both implicitly and explicitly spatial? Do the digital traces of our lives left as user-generated content speak to the ways in which we experience and create space? -Which SNA tools are useful for spatial analysis, which spatial tools are useful for SNA? - How can theoretical work on network theory be brought to bear on empirical practices of social network analysis? - How might social network analysis further nuance different conceptualizations of network theory? - How can geographers methodologically examine bipartite (2-mode) spaces? How can we understand this in GIS? - How can GIS or geographic analysis begin to examine triadic structures in social data? - Is GIS or other geospatial analysis complicit in the construction of social network space? Could it be? Should it be? We welcome studies that explore any of these issues, or any that more broadly address themes of social network analysis, network theory, and the urban networks that comprise the digital. Please send your 250 word abstract to the organizers, Monica ( Monica.Stephens(a)humboldt.edu) and Joe (jeckert1(a)uw.edu) by October 12, 2012. We will inform authors with successful submissions on October 17, 2012. This session will be part of #GEO/CODE 2013: Geoweb, Big Data and Society organized by the New Mappings Collaboratory ( http://newmaps.as.uky.edu/geocode-2013-geoweb-big-data-and-society-call-cal… ).

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Media, Culture and Modernism (and the rise of the Internet)
by Massimo Ragnedda 01 Oct '12

01 Oct '12

Dear AoIR colleagues I am looking for inspiration for a course on Media, Culture and Modernism offered in the framework of a BA (Hons), Media, Culture and Society. I'm thinking about creating a course that relates, in some way, modern culture, global capitalism, the technological change and the rising of the Network Society. The goal would be to relate the founding fathers – Durkheim, Marx, Weber, Simmel, etc… - of classical sociology, to the rise of Internet. I appreciate any help regarding good websites, sources or textbooks containing case studies. Is anyone teaching something similar who wants to get in touch to exchange ideas? Kind regards Massimo -- Massimo Ragnedda mragnedda.wordpress.com http://notizie.tiscali.it/opinioni/Ragnedda/184/ skype: massimo.ragnedda http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/sd/academic/sass/about/media/staff/ragnedda/?v… uniss.academia.edu/MassimoRagnedda Twitter: @massimoragnedda

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looking for Sensor (human or tech.) dataset repository
by Babiga Birregah 01 Oct '12

01 Oct '12

Hi everyone, I am working on spatio-temporal graphs approaches. Can someone give some advice about where to find some good sensors (human or technological) dataset on which I can check my models? These datasets must have time and location footprints. Please contact me. thanks -- BIRREGAH Babiga, Phd Enseignant-Chercheur/ Assistant professor ICD UMR-CNRS 6279 STMR Sciences et Technologies pour la Maîtrise des Risques Joint Research Unit in Sciences and Technologies for Risk Management Department of Operational Research, Applied Statistics and Simulation UTT - ROSAS - CREIDD, H107 12 Rue Marie Curie CS 42060 10004 TROYES CEDEX Tél. 0325715869 QR: http://goo.gl/Et0A4

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Re: [Air-L] additional suggestions for Twitter aggregating & analytic tools
by Sean Goggins 01 Oct '12

01 Oct '12

My team at Drexel operates a twitter data collection system, Called Twitter Zombie, which is published at the 2012 ACM Group Conference ( http://www.groupinformatics.org/sites/default/files/TwitterZombieGroup.pdf ). If you have Twitter search phrases, accounts or hashtags you would like to collect without setting up infrastructure on your own, we can do that for you. We ask you to attribute your data collection to our system, but do not enforce this. The data is yours. Our current work is focusing on collaboration among social media researchers at the data collection stage, so you would also be helping us to identify these opportunities. Our work is being presented at upcoming conferences, including AOIR. Kris Unsworth and Ann-Sofie Axellson will be presenting one of our studies on "Social Media and Technologies of Control" at the upcoming AoIR conference. We also have a systematic set of analysis methodological approaches for Twitter and other social media data that we are planning to share at workshops at upcoming conferences. Thanks! Sean P. Goggins, PhD Assistant Professor Drexel University http://www.groupinformatics.org On 10/1/12 9:06 AM, "Maurice Vergeer" <m.vergeer(a)maw.ru.nl> wrote: >correct. There was Twapperkeeper which has become Hootsuite. This is >YourTwapperkeeper, the open source version (see >http://mappingonlinepublics.net/2011/06/21/switching-from-twapperkeeper-to >-y >ourtwapperkeeper/ >) > >best regards >Maurice > >On Mon, Oct 1, 2012 at 2:45 PM, Siapera, Eugenia (Dr.) < >es107(a)leicester.ac.uk> wrote: > >> Great thread and very useful for some of us - however, I am slightly >> confused re Twapperkeeper - I was under the impression that it got sold >>to >> Hootsuite and is no longer available to download-use? >> >> ________________________________________ >> From: air-l-bounces(a)listserv.aoir.org [air-l-bounces(a)listserv.aoir.org] >> On Behalf Of Maurice Vergeer [m.vergeer(a)maw.ru.nl] >> Sent: 30 September 2012 21:59 >> To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org >> Cc: eciszek(a)uoregon.edu; a.bruns(a)qut.edu.au >> Subject: Re: [Air-L] additional suggestions for Twitter aggregating & >> analytic tools >> >> Axel Bruns beat me to it. Yes, I would advise YourTwapperkeeper for data >> collection as well. I've been using it for a while and am very pleased >>with >> it. Things are indeed very well described in the First Monday >>manuscript: >> >> >http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewArti >cle/39 >37/3193 >> >> As for handling the data, I prefer to use SPSS. Yes, a statistical tool. >> But I use it primarily to handle the data. Also I use SPSS to match >> external data to the Twitter data. The data Twitter provides are of >>course >> somewhat limited. However if one taps into external data sets one is >>able >> to enrich Twitter data for more advanced analyses. >> >> Also, SPSS has recently incorporated many text handling features to >>create >> new variables based on text strings. It thus also allows for creating >>your >> own metrics because - as Axel Bruns states - Twitter's metrices are >>biased. >> See my blogpost: >> >>http://blog.mauricevergeer.nl/2011/04/18/bias-in-twitter-api-measurements >>/ >> >> As for Big Data analysis: without going for the Big Data, the number of >> observations already increases rapidly anyhow. See my presentation held >>at >> WAPOR Amsterdam: >> >> >>http://www.slideshare.net/maver/candidates-communication-patterns-on-twit >>ter >> . >> SPSS can easily handle large amounts of data. >> As for large networks, I would recommend Pajek: >> http://mrvar.fdv.uni-lj.si/pajek/. They even released another version >> Pajek >> XXL for very very large networks. >> >> Finally I know R the statstical / programming software also has a >>Twitter >> package (http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/twitteR/index.html) >>Have >> tried it once, but because I am noy (yet) an R-expert haven't used it >>since >> then. The advantage of using it in R would be that one cold stay within >>a >> single software environment. R also has text ( >> http://gking.harvard.edu/readme) and several network analytical >>packages. >> >> HTH >> Maurice >> >> >> . >> >> >> >> >> ___________________________________________________________________ >> Maurice Vergeer >> To contact me, see http://mauricevergeer.nl/node/5 >> To see my publications, see http://mauricevergeer.nl/node/1 >> ___________________________________________________________________ >> _______________________________________________ >> The Air-L(a)listserv.aoir.org mailing list >> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org >> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: >> http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org >> >> Join the Association of Internet Researchers: >> http://www.aoir.org/ > > > > >-- >___________________________________________________________________ >Maurice Vergeer >To contact me, see http://mauricevergeer.nl/node/5 >To see my publications, see http://mauricevergeer.nl/node/1 >___________________________________________________________________ >_______________________________________________ >The Air-L(a)listserv.aoir.org mailing list >is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org >Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: >http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org > >Join the Association of Internet Researchers: >http://www.aoir.org/ >

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Re: [Air-L] additional suggestions for Twitter aggregating & analytic tools
by Maurice Vergeer 01 Oct '12

01 Oct '12

correct. There was Twapperkeeper which has become Hootsuite. This is YourTwapperkeeper, the open source version (see http://mappingonlinepublics.net/2011/06/21/switching-from-twapperkeeper-to-… ) best regards Maurice On Mon, Oct 1, 2012 at 2:45 PM, Siapera, Eugenia (Dr.) < es107(a)leicester.ac.uk> wrote: > Great thread and very useful for some of us - however, I am slightly > confused re Twapperkeeper - I was under the impression that it got sold to > Hootsuite and is no longer available to download-use? > > ________________________________________ > From: air-l-bounces(a)listserv.aoir.org [air-l-bounces(a)listserv.aoir.org] > On Behalf Of Maurice Vergeer [m.vergeer(a)maw.ru.nl] > Sent: 30 September 2012 21:59 > To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org > Cc: eciszek(a)uoregon.edu; a.bruns(a)qut.edu.au > Subject: Re: [Air-L] additional suggestions for Twitter aggregating & > analytic tools > > Axel Bruns beat me to it. Yes, I would advise YourTwapperkeeper for data > collection as well. I've been using it for a while and am very pleased with > it. Things are indeed very well described in the First Monday manuscript: > > http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewArtic… > > As for handling the data, I prefer to use SPSS. Yes, a statistical tool. > But I use it primarily to handle the data. Also I use SPSS to match > external data to the Twitter data. The data Twitter provides are of course > somewhat limited. However if one taps into external data sets one is able > to enrich Twitter data for more advanced analyses. > > Also, SPSS has recently incorporated many text handling features to create > new variables based on text strings. It thus also allows for creating your > own metrics because - as Axel Bruns states - Twitter's metrices are biased. > See my blogpost: > http://blog.mauricevergeer.nl/2011/04/18/bias-in-twitter-api-measurements/ > > As for Big Data analysis: without going for the Big Data, the number of > observations already increases rapidly anyhow. See my presentation held at > WAPOR Amsterdam: > > http://www.slideshare.net/maver/candidates-communication-patterns-on-twitter > . > SPSS can easily handle large amounts of data. > As for large networks, I would recommend Pajek: > http://mrvar.fdv.uni-lj.si/pajek/. They even released another version > Pajek > XXL for very very large networks. > > Finally I know R the statstical / programming software also has a Twitter > package (http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/twitteR/index.html) Have > tried it once, but because I am noy (yet) an R-expert haven't used it since > then. The advantage of using it in R would be that one cold stay within a > single software environment. R also has text ( > http://gking.harvard.edu/readme) and several network analytical packages. > > HTH > Maurice > > > . > > > > > ___________________________________________________________________ > Maurice Vergeer > To contact me, see http://mauricevergeer.nl/node/5 > To see my publications, see http://mauricevergeer.nl/node/1 > ___________________________________________________________________ > _______________________________________________ > The Air-L(a)listserv.aoir.org mailing list > is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org > Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: > http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org > > Join the Association of Internet Researchers: > http://www.aoir.org/ -- ___________________________________________________________________ Maurice Vergeer To contact me, see http://mauricevergeer.nl/node/5 To see my publications, see http://mauricevergeer.nl/node/1 ___________________________________________________________________

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New Issue of CyberOrient: The Net Worth of the Arab Spring
by Vit Sisler 01 Oct '12

01 Oct '12

Dear colleagues, a new issue of the CyberOrient journal (http://www.cyberorient.net/) is now available online. It aims for critical and evidence-based evaluation of the use of social media in the Arab Spring, the coverage of the Arab Spring in cyberspace and beyond, and the remediation and appropriation between social media and traditional media outlets, including satellite TVs and the press. Vol. 6, Iss. 1, 2011 Editorial The Net Worth of the Arab Spring Ines Braune http://www.cyberorient.net/article.do?articleId=7760 When I was asked to be the guest editor of the current issue of CyberOrient, I realized this is a welcome opportunity to arrange and re-sort some aspects, points, and arguments about the role of the media during the Arab Spring. In the course of the events late in 2010 and early in 2011, I felt enthusiastic and overwhelmed - not primarily as a scholar with a background in Middle Eastern and media studies, but as someone who was part of the peaceful German revolution in 1989 as a young teenager. Upon reflection, I took up the role of a media researcher considering how the use of media shaped these events. Though much has already been said and written about the media and Arab Spring, it would be worthwhile after a bit more than a year to reflect and reevaluate the relationship between the media and revolutions. Due to my involvement in this edition, and after numerous discussions with colleagues, and students in my media seminar in the summer term, I frequently came across the following three points: the significance of mediatization processes, the online-offline dichotomy, and various kinds of amnesia. Articles Political Activism 2.0: Comparing the Role of Social Media in Egypt’s “Facebook Revolution” and Iran’s “Twitter Uprising” Mohammed El-Nawawy and Sahar Khamis http://www.cyberorient.net/article.do?articleId=7439 Social media, particularly blogging, Facebook and Twitter, have played a key role in instigating, accelerating and even organizing some of the uprisings and revolutions that have been taking place all over the Middle East. This role has been effective in galvanizing the youth and empowering them in their fights against repressive regimes and their plight for more freedom and independence. This study looks into the social media role in the so-called “Facebook revolution”, which took place in Egypt in January 2011 and the so-called “Twitter uprising”, which took place in Iran in June 2009. The Egyptian revolution did succeed in toppling the regime, while the Iranian uprising failed. Why did the calls for political change that started in the virtual world lead to actual change in the real world in Egypt but not in Iran? This study addresses this question by providing a critical analysis of the available literature and interviews with online activists in Egypt and Iran. The authors used the SPIN model (Segmentation, polycentrism, integration and networking) as a theoretical framework and concluded that the model helped social media succeed in Egypt, but not in Iran. Al Jazeera’s Framing of Social Media During the Arab Spring Heidi A. Campbell and Diana Hawk http://www.cyberorient.net/article.do?articleId=7758 This study investigates how Al Jazeera framed social media in relation to the revolutions and protests of the “Arab Spring” within its broadcast media coverage. A content analysis of Arabic language broadcasts appearing from January 25th through February 18th 2011, covering the protests in Tahrir Square, was conducted using the Broadcast Monitoring System (BMS) and Arab Spring Archive. Through this analysis we see a number of common narratives being used by Al Jazeera to frame social media and make claims about the influence they had on the protests and related social movements. By noting the frequency of social communications technologies referenced, ways in which these technologies were characterized and interpreting supporting themes with which they were identified helps illuminate the assumptions promoted by Al Jazeera regarding the role and impact of social communications technology on these events. Remixing the Spring!: Connective leadership and read-write practices in the 2011 Arab uprisings Donatella Della Ratta and Augusto Valeriani http://www.cyberorient.net/article.do?articleId=7763 This article discusses the connections between the unfolding of the 2011 Arab uprisings and the “culture of the net”. Being far from overestimating the role that Internet has played in the uprisings, we propose to look at it not as an ensemble of tools, applications and technologies; but as a specific set of values, behaviors, skills and strategies that define the cultural dimension of the web. The article shows how linking, sharing and remixing have been among the core cultural practices behind the social movements that were successful in confronting Egypt and Tunisia`s regimes. We also discuss how, despite the fact that the Syrian uprising has not achieved its political goal, yet it shares a similar cultural framework based on participation, peer-production, remix practices. Beyond the Soapbox: Facebook and the Public Sphere in Egypt Anton Root http://www.cyberorient.net/article.do?articleId=7751 The question of the internet as a forum for political debate is continuously contested. My research grows out of such scholarship but focuses specifically on Facebook as a virtual public sphere in Egypt. Based on an analysis of a note posted by Wael Ghonim during the January 25 uprising on the Facebook group ‘We are all Khaled Said,’ I discuss the structural and technological benefits of the platform, as well as user behavior and interaction with one another. Using Jürgen Habermas’ The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere and Yochai Benkler’s The Wealth of Networks as the theoretical groundwork for my study, I make observations about the internet’s ability to allow considered opinion, not just to record popular sentiment. I argue that while Facebook’s structure has both drawbacks and advantages for promoting discussion, the new medium's biggest limitation in helping to produce a virtual public sphere is user inexperience with the platform. Comments Egyptian uprising: Redefining Egyptian political community and reclaiming the public space Mervat Youssef and Anup Kumar http://www.cyberorient.net/article.do?articleId=7766 The purpose of this paper is to understand and explain the emergence of a public sphere and the articulation of a new Egyptian identity. We argue that the Egyptian revolution, catalyzed by the social media, was possible because the young men and women succeeded in reclaiming the public space from the apparatuses of the post-colonial state. There was a contest between the protesters and the regime over the meaning of Egyptian identity and what it means to be an Egyptian. The protesters were able to redefine the Egyptian public sphere and redraw its contour. Through a semiotic and discourse analysis of the repertoires of protest, the symbols, the slogans and the images at Tahrir Square and on social media sites, we hope to show how the youth-led massive social mobilization redefined and reconstructed the civil society and the Egyptian national political community (identity). Reviews The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Information Technology and Political Islam Jon W. Anderson http://www.cyberorient.net/article.do?articleId=7753 Howard's book The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy focuses on the relation between ITCs and civil society and democracy in the Muslim world. It assembled a database of indicators (for Internet availability, access, policy, ownership, structures and uses) cross-referenced to common standard measures of democratization and development for 75 countries with substantial Muslim populations. The Arab Revolution: The Lessons from the Democratic Uprising Marek Cejka http://www.cyberorient.net/article.do?articleId=7747 Filiu's book The Arab Revolution: The Lessons from the Democratic Uprising provides an overview of the context of the indirect circumstances of the Arab Spring and also takes into account the related sociological and psychological factors, which makes the book more interdisciplinary. It focuses on events in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya but also covers other parts of the MENA region. The CyberOrient journal is published by the Middle East Section of the American Anthropological Association in collaboration with the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague. Follow us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CyberOrient Twitter: https://twitter.com/CyberOrient Feel free to forward or post this email online. All the best, -- Vit Sisler, Ph.D. Charles University in Prague Faculty of Arts & Philosophy Institute of Information Science and Librarianship New Media Studies http://uisk.jinonice.cuni.cz/sisler/

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