- Air-L - lists.aoir.org

CFP Convergence special issue: Mobility in Latin America
by Adriana de Souza e Silva 02 Aug '12

02 Aug '12

Call For Papers Convergence: The international journal of research into new media technologies SPECIAL ISSUE CALL FOR PAPERS Mobility and mobile media in Latin America Edited by: Adriana de Souza e Silva (North Carolina State University) Isabel Froes (IT University of Copenhagen) Important dates: Papers must be sent in English by September 10th, 2012. We strongly encourage prospective authors to send papers as soon as possible. · All papers (7000/11000 words) will undergo a double blind-review process; · Submissions may be in the form of empirical research studies or theory-building papers; · For formatting guidelines, please see: http://www.uk.sagepub.com/msg/conv.htm#HOWTOSUBMITYOURMANUSCRIPT · Papers must also include: o Name and a brief biography of the author(s) (50 word) in a separate sheet, o 150-word abstract, and o Up to 10 keywords. Proposals and inquiries should be sent electronically to Isabel Froes (icgf(a)itu.dk) Early submissions are greatly appreciated! By the second decade of the 21st century, mobile phones have reached saturation levels in many countries in the world, surpassing the number of landlines and personal computers. Although initial scholarly interest on the social use of mobile phones focused on Europe, Asia, and the United States, the impact of mobile phone on the developing world (or Global South) is increasingly evident and perhaps much more profound. For many, the mobile device is the first phone, the first internet connection, the first TV set, and the first global positioning system. Among developing nations, Latin America is a key area for studying the social dimension of mobile technologies. According to ITU statistics, the Americas had a total of 989 million mobile subscriptions as per 2011. However, numbers alone reveal little if not analyzed within a broader social, cultural, and economic framework. The focus on a homogeneous large-scale market leads to overly sanguine perspectives that often obscure how socioeconomic diversity causes and reflects mobile phone use. Latin American countries have astounding income gaps among different sectors of the population, which influence and are influenced by technology development and use. For example, the use of high-end services such as mobile banking, and location-based services like Foursquare and Yelp is an intrinsic part of the daily mobile practices of the high-income population in Brazil. Conversely, the lower-income population in the country is familiar with the diretão—a mobile phone that allows users to make clandestine calls to anywhere in the world with the use of an illegal sim card. Brazil has also been at the forefront of an experimental and innovative approach towards new technologies, forecasted in cultural events that focus on art, music and film festivals dedicated to new and creative uses of mobile technologies, such as the Mobilefest and Arte.mov. This socio-economic and cultural diversity is also characteristic of other Latin American countries. Despite this cultural and socio-economic diversity, and the relevance of its marketing, the social use and development of mobile phones in Latin America is largely under theorized and poorly studied. With the goal of contributing to bridge this gap, this special edition invites essays that critically investigate the inter-relations among mobile technologies, culture, and social development in Latin American countries. Submitted manuscripts are encouraged (but not limited) to focus on: (1) History of mobile phones in Latin America. Essays are encouraged to explore the development of mobile phones in Latin American countries, comparing them to the landline infrastructure and internet growth within the socio-economic and political framework. Authors may explore the development and use of new mobile services, such as the mobile internet, text messaging, mobile apps, etc. (2) Social uses and appropriation of mobile phones. We welcome essays as empirical or theoretical studies dealing with the use and appropriation of technology by low-income communities. Of special interest are essays that explore how mobile and wireless technologies reconfigure the life of community dwellers and how people find new and unexpected uses for existing technologies. (3) Mobile art and games. We invite essays that investigate mobile phones as artistic and gaming interfaces, including essays that explore uses of hybrid reality, location-aware and pervasive activities in educational contexts, media arts, and gaming. (4) Location-based services. Submitted essays should investigate the uses and development of location-based services in Latin America, such as mobile annotation, location-based social networks, and mobile mapping. About the editors: Adriana de Souza e Silva is Associate Professor at the Department of Communication at North Carolina State University (NCSU), affiliated faculty at the Digital Games Research Center, and Interim Associate Director of the Communication, Rhetoric and Digital Media (CRDM) program at NCSU.Dr. de Souza e Silva's research focuses on how mobile and locative interfaces shape people's interactions with public spaces and create new forms of sociability. She teaches classes on mobile technologies, location-based games and internet studies. Dr. de Souza e Silva is the co-editor (with Daniel M. Sutko) of Digital Cityscapes—Merging digital and urban playspaces (Peter Lang, 2009), the co-author (with Eric Gordon) of the book Net-Locality: Why location matters in a networked world (Blackwell, 2011), and the co-author (with Jordan Frith) of Mobile interfaces in public spaces: Control, privacy, and urban sociability (Routledge, 2012). Isabel Fróes has received her Masters degree from the Interactive Telecommunications Programme at New York University (NYU) and a Bachelor’s degree in psychology from Pontifícia Universidade Católica, Rio de Janeiro, PUC-RJ in Brazil. She is a lecturer and assistant researcher at the IT University of Copenhagen (Denmark), where she works both as a practitioner and scholar in the fields of communication, mobility, art and design. With a focus towards valuable interactions between people and technology, her research analyzes the future implications and current uses of digital media. In her courses she taps into the value of interactive elements in every arena and explores how they could affect the ways new concepts and activities are developed in distinct fields. She has presented some of these thoughts at various events such as the AAM conference (2009), and the IXDA South America (2010). She has taught various courses at Danish institutions such as IT University of Copenhagen, University of Copenhagen and Kolding School of Design as well as Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Querétaro in Mexico. Proposals and inquiries should be sent electronically to Isabel Froes (icgf(a)itu.dk) ______________________________ Adriana de Souza e Silva, PhD Associate Professor of Communication NC State University http://www.souzaesilva.com Mobile Interfaces in Public Spaces http://amzn.to/LBhRmL

1 0

Fifth International Conference on Internet Technologies & Applications - Call for Papers
by Steffen Schilke 01 Aug '12

01 Aug '12

Dear all, Fifth International Conference on Internet Technologies & Applications - Call for Papers Tuesday 10 - Friday 13 September 2013 Wrexham, North Wales, UK http://www.ita13.org/ The scope of the ITA conference series is wide and covers all aspects of present and future Internet activity ranging from technical hardware and software solutions to creative applications and the wider social issues arising from them. Papers are invited on any of the topics below or related fields and should be submitted, via the submission page of the conference website. Final, camera-ready papers must conform to the author guidelines and must not exceed eight pages in length (full papers). Alternatively, research work-in-progress may be submitted as posters of a maximum of two pages in thesame format. Posters will also be published in the conference proceedings but will be presented at the conference in display form only and not through oral presentation. A PDF Call for Papers is also available download download<http://www.ita13.org/assets/assets/ITA13-cfp.pdf> Submission deadline: Friday 1st February 2013 Topics of Interest Accessibility/Assisted Living AI/Expert systems Art with Science Creative entrepreneurs Creative expressions Creative technologies Cultural ecologies Cultural environments Cultural sustainability Data-mining Digital art Digital modelling Distributed systems e-Business/e-Commerce e-Learning/e-Society Environmental applications Ethical, social, legal issues Filtering HCI Health Informatics Health Technologies High-performance computing Integration Internet applications Internet languages Internet technologies Music and audio Network algorithms Network architectures Network management Network optimisation Network performance Protocols and standards Routing Security Semantics Services Storage Systems failure Traffic Ubiquitous computing Visualisation Web hardware/software Wireless networks Advice These topics, however, are only intended as an illustrative guide. Please contact the conference chair or programme chair for additional guidance. All accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings.

1 0

International Journal of Internet Science 7(1)
by Ulf-Dietrich Reips 01 Aug '12

01 Aug '12

Dear colleague: We are happy to announce the newest issue (Vol. 7, Issue 1) of the International Journal of Internet Science at http://ijis.net. It includes, apart from an editorial, four research articles and a supplement. The editorial contains a discussion of research with "Big Data", developments with the journal, a summary of the issue, and a citation analysis that arrives at a 2011 minimum journal impact estimate of 2.625 (ISI) and 3.625 (Google Scholar). We are confident the new issue will meet a lot of interest and have substantial impact on the field. Watch the citation rate grow at http://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=OCYy1o4AAAAJ You can help: Please spread the word, link the site, write to the press, mention in presentations and interviews, share and "like" the journal in social networks, blog and tweet about it! The current issue: Chris Snijders, Uwe Matzat, Ulf-Dietrich Reips: 'Big Data': Big Gaps of Knowledge in the Field of Internet Science (Editorial) Nic Newman, William H. Dutton, Grant Blank: Social Media in the Changing Ecology of News: The Fourth and Fifth Estates in Britain Linda Kaye, Jo Bryce: Putting the "Fun Factor" into Gaming: The Influence of Social Contexts on Experiences of Playing Videogames Christopher R. Wolfe, Christopher R. Fisher, Valerie F. Reyna, Xiangen Hu: Improving Internal Consistency in Conditional Probability Estimation with an Intelligent Tutoring System and Web-Based Tutorials Alison Attrill: Sharing Only Parts of Me: Selective Categorical Self-Disclosure Across Internet Arenas Webdatanet: A Network on Web-based Data Collection, Methodological Challenges, Solutions and Implementation (Supplement) Please find the issue at http://www.ijis.net/ijis7_1/ijis7_1_index.html Kind regards, Ulf-Dietrich Reips / Uwe Matzat Editors, International Journal of Internet Science http://ijis.net Scope The International Journal of Internet Science is an interdisciplinary, peer reviewed journal for the publication of research articles about empirical findings, methodology, and theory in the field of Internet Science. It provides an outlet for articles on the Internet as a medium of research and its implications for individuals, social groups, organizations, and society. Typical articles report empirical results gathered to test and advance theories in the social and behavioral sciences. Submission of manuscripts Manuscripts that are to be published in the International Journal of Internet Science (IJIS) need to be original research contributions. They have to be formatted according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA Style Guide, 6th edition, 2nd print). Please visit http://ijis.net and click on "Submit Article" for the online submission of manuscripts. Editors Ulf-Dietrich Reips (University of Deusto and IKERBASKQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, Spain), Uwe Matzat (Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands) Editorial Board Michael Birnbaum (California State University at Fullerton, USA), Tom Buchanan (Westminster University, UK), Don Dillman (Washington State University, USA), Anja Göritz (University of Freiburg, Germany), Adam Joinson (University of Bristol, UK), John Krantz (Hanover College, USA), Han Woo Park (Yeungnam University, South Korea), Chris Snijders (Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands), Barry Wellman (University of Toronto, Canada).

1 0

CFP- Special Issue for the Fibreculture Journal: The Politics of Trolling and the Negative Space of the Internet
by Jason Wilson 01 Aug '12

01 Aug '12

Hi AoIR, Somewhat related to recent discussions on the list, please find below a call for papers for a special issue of the Fibreculture Journal, which has been in development for a while, but which we're now accepting submissions for. Apologies for any cross-posting. CFP- Special Issue for the Fibreculture Journal: The Politics of Trolling and the Negative Space of the Internet Edited By Jason Wilson, Christian McCrea and Glen Fuller A great deal of thinking about the Internet and politics is still structured by a desire for deliberative democracy. From 1993 – when Howard Rheingold enunciated one of the Internet’s key founding myths – the virtual community – scholars have sought and found communities characterised by a mutuality of interests, a common purpose, a collaborative striving to renovate the democratic ideal, a tendency towards the “regulative idea” of the ideal speaking position, and an acknowledgement of the obligations of citizenship within the political association. For so long the Internet has continued to function, in Barbrook’s formulation, as a “redemptive technology”. Social media is just the latest in a long line of technologies which may, on a certain vision, rescue liberal democracy, with its decaying civic life and corrupt media, from itself. There is, proportionally, too little attention to the everyday conflicts that haunt all such communities. Some conflict is temporary, and can be accounted for in terms of long-standing democratic theory. But some conflict is persistent, intractable. Some of it is gratuitous, and deliberately disruptive. Online, those who bring it about are often subject to normative disapprobation. Sometimes people call them trolls. “Troll”, as a term of moral opprobrium, indicates an online actor who is not interested in deliberation, but in derailing it. Trolling is not apt to be captured by network maps or visualisations of online publics, because these teachniques cannot discern which nodes in a conversational network are created in bad faith, or in a spirit of disruptive play. Trolls are not interested in redeeming democracy through deliberation, and they mock attempts to do so. Trolls respect no procedural rules, though they may be generative of them. Trolls are the constitutive outside of online communities of political discussion, they are the intolerable of the most tolerant communities. Trolls are usually someone else, defined from our own position and interests. When they are not, and we inhabit trolling, we discover that trolling requires know-how, close reading, experience, sometimes sympathy with those we would disrupt. What are the consequences to seeing trolling and other forms of affective behaviour as the norm, rather than the aberrant? The discourse of digital art has long since told this story, but the intellectual desire for open and constitutive democracy has overridden the ‘actually existing democracy’ of bullying, trolling, threats, inane memes and low signal-to-noise ratios. What would happen if we started to think of trolling as the central practice in online discourse? What if trolling is the Internet’s signature mode of discursive politics? What if we started to think about trolling as a practice which is generative rather than destructive? This special issue of fibreculture seeks a range of perspectives on trolling, online conflict and incivility. Twenty years on, it looks to interrogate the founding myth of virtual community with accounts of generative conflict, strategic incivility, and productive trolling. We seek papers on a range of topics not limited to: Trolling, activism and politics The persistence and ubiquity of online conflict Trolling as a business model: the mainstream media and clickbait Gendered aspects of trolling and incivility 4chan and trolling; activism and meme factories Trolling and cyberbullying Complaints about trolling and the “hatred of democracy” – are complaints about trolling really an attempt to re-gentrify political debate? Cultures and rituals of trolling – troll culture and the celebration of lulz Trolling and “cyber-bullying” The Internet and agonistic politics Trolling and counterpublics The grammar of trolling Trolling as the glitch in social network analysis and “big data” Popular culture, trolls and the democratization of politics Tabloid media, professionalization of trolling and the economics of opinion Trolling as cyber-bullying, internet as masochistic survivalist playground The pleasures of trolling Trolling the trolls The art and ‘new aesthetics’ of trolling The gamification of trolling —– Please note that for this issue, initial submissions should be abstracts only abstract deadline: October 15, 2012 (via email, to Jason Wilson, email address below) article deadline: January 15, 2012 publication aimed for: April/May, 2013 all contributors and editors must read the guidelines at; http://fibreculturejournal.org/policy-and-style/ before working with the Fibreculture Journal email correspondence for this issue: Jason.Wilson(a)canberra.edu.au Christian.mccrea(a)rmit.edu.au Glen.fuller(a)canberra.edu.au —– The Fibreculture Journal (http://fibreculturejournal.org/) is a peer reviewed international journal, associated with Open Humanities Press (http://openhumanitiespress.org/) that explores critical and speculative interventions in the debate and discussions concerning information and communication technologies and their policy frameworks, network cultures and their informational logic, new media forms and their deployment, and the possibilities of socio-technical invention and sustainability.

1 0

Slate article on TPP secrecy
by Dave Levine 31 Jul '12

31 Jul '12

Thought you might be interested in my Slate article on the extreme secrecy surrounding the Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations: http://mobile.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2012/07/trans_paci…. Thanks, Best, Dave Sent from my iPhone. All typos are Apple's fault.

1 0

Key issues in digital libraries: Grey Literature and Information Ethics Workshop - Oxford, 6 September 2012
by InfoEthics UK 31 Jul '12

31 Jul '12

With apologies for cross-posting Grey Literature and Information Ethics: Key Shared Concerns The first in this series is a workshop organized by InfoEthics UK in collaboration with GreyNet International and will be held in Oxford, England on 6 September 2012. Grey literature and information ethics are two fundamental aspects of LIS professional practice in the digital information economy - yet both are still poorly understood and often marginalized. Ignoring the critical role of ethical decision-making puts your organization at risk. Key areas of shared concern include: ● peer review ● digital preservation ● privacy ● standardization ● validation and ● equitable pricing. These and other topics will be addressed in a Workshop presented by leading practitioners in their field on 6 September 2012 at St Hilda’s College, Oxford Register now at: http://www.greynet.org/greyforumseries.html The Workshop is designed for information professionals in all sectors who are involved in the management of information resources. Outline program: ・ Ethical decision-making ・ Perspectives from the Grey Literature community ・ Case studies ・ Shared concerns ・ Drafting a consensus ・ Review and Action Plan This Workshop will equip you with the key skills needed to identify and resolve ethical dilemmas in the workplace. All delegates take away a personalized Action Plan and Workbook. Contact for further details: InfoEthics UK +44 (0) 7985 968-512 GreyNet International Grey Literature Network Service Javastraat 194-HS 1095 CP Amsterdam Netherlands T/F +31-(0)20 331 2420 Email: info(a)greynet.org Url: http://www.greynet.org "GreyNet is dedicated to Research, Publication, Open Access, and Education in the field of Grey Literature"

1 0

IR 13.0 Pre-conference workshop: The Internet, Mobile Media, and Journalism: Technologies of News in the 21st Century
by Attwood, Feona 31 Jul '12

31 Jul '12

Announcing our second pre-conference workshop led by Holly Kruse and Sabryna Cornish The Internet, Mobile Media, and Journalism: Technologies of News in the 21st Century Over the past several years, journalism has undergone profound changes as people seeking information increasingly turned to the internet and mobile apps for news and commentary. Some traditional news outlets, like the New York Times and the Times of London, have instituted paywalls to recoup lost sales revenue. Others, like the Christian Science Monitor, stopped publishing print editions altogether and now exist only online. Many journalists working in print media lost their jobs, while reporting done by “citizen journalists” using platforms like blogs, YouTube, and Twitter, became increasingly central to the dissemination of news. A recent poll of prominent U.S. journalists who work for traditional national news media conducted by the Atlantic and the National Journal found that a majority of these journalists believe that journalism has been hurt more than helped by Internet. Is this in fact the case? What is the state of reporting in the digital age, an age in which, for instance, bloggers writing from embattled neighborhoods in Syria give information that is picked up by mainstream news outlets whose reporters can’t reach these locations? Or, conversely, what is the state of reporting when bloggers from less “newsworthy” locations, like inner city neighborhoods, write about experiences that don’t fit traditional news narratives but now have an opportunity to at least try to broadcast their stories via the web? Questions that participants in this pre-conference seminar might address in their papers and papers-in-progress include: * How have traditional news media responded to new media – for instance, by offering news on a “third screen” or entering into ventures with new media companies – and how effective have these forays been? * What constitutes a citizen journalist, and what effects are citizen journalists having as sources of information for the public and for more established media outlets? How has the internet affected reporting and its practices? * What is the role of the online news audience in the creation and dissemination of news when compared to the audience of print news? * What effect have the internet and mobile media had on reporting on breaking news and on crisis communication? * How has in-depth investigative reporting been affected by the emergence of the internet and mobile media as crucial sources of news? * What opportunities has the internet afforded writers, including those in marginalized social and economic groups, that they wouldn’t have had in traditional media? * How have print and broadcast media covered the development of digital news media? * Has the content of news changed as digital and mobile media as sources of news grown more popular? * Who are the gatekeepers in the new news environment, and what role do online gatekeepers play? * What are the social and cultural implications – locally, regionally, nationally, and globally – for the declining popularity of print news media and the growth of digital news media? Participants in this pre-conference seminar are invited to investigate these questions and interrogate mainstream understandings of the nature of digital and print news sources and their audiences, and the relations between and among them. This pre-conference will be a half-day seminar and workshop in which each participant will present his/her current research on a relevant topic, and each presentation will be followed by discussion. If you are interested in participating, please submit a working paper or paper proposal of approximately 200-500 words to Holly Kruse at hkruse(a)rsu.edu by August 13th. Submissions will be reviewed, and those accepted to the seminar will be notified by August 27th.

1 0

Wikimedia Award paper submission: deadline extension
by Rémi Bachelet 31 Jul '12

31 Jul '12

(apologies for cross-posting) The deadline for Wikimedia Award paper submission is extended to the 7th of August If you consider a paper has been particularly important in the field of free knowledge/Wikipedia studies please submit it now! http://goo.gl/FYvFb We already have 22 submitted papers: - - 1.2 Wikipedia: A Key Tool for Global Public Health Promotion<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikimedia_France_Research_Award/pap…> - 1.3 Semantic Wikipedia<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikimedia_France_Research_Award/pap…> - 1.4 DBpedia: A Nucleus for a Web of Open Data<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikimedia_France_Research_Award/pap…> - 1.5 Wikipedia as Participatory Journalism: Reliable Sources?<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikimedia_France_Research_Award/pap…> - 1.6 Governance in Social Media: A case study of the Wikipedia promotion process<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikimedia_France_Research_Award/pap…> - 1.7 He says, she says: conflict and coordination in Wikipedia<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikimedia_France_Research_Award/pap…> - 1.8 Creating, destroying, and restoring value in Wikipedia<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikimedia_France_Research_Award/pap…> - 1.9 Readers are not free-riders: Reading as a form of participation on Wikipedia<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikimedia_France_Research_Award/pap…> - 1.10 Foucault@wiki: First steps towards a conceptual framework for the analysis of wiki discourses<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikimedia_France_Research_Award/pap…> - 1.11 Community, consensus, coercion, control: CS*W or how policy mediates mass participation<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikimedia_France_Research_Award/pap…> - 1.12 Don't look now, but we've created a bureaucracy: The nature and roles of policies and rules in Wikipedia<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikimedia_France_Research_Award/pap…> - 1.13 Talk Before You Type: Coordination in Wikipedia<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikimedia_France_Research_Award/pap…> - 1.14 Us vs. Them: Understanding Social Dynamics in Wikipedia with Revert Graph Visualizations<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikimedia_France_Research_Award/pap…> - 1.15 Computing semantic relatedness using Wikipedia-based explicit semantic analysis<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikimedia_France_Research_Award/pap…> - 1.16 Measuring wikipedia<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikimedia_France_Research_Award/pap…> - 1.17 Large-scale named entity disambiguation based on Wikipedia data<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikimedia_France_Research_Award/pap…> - 1.18 A Content-Driven Reputation System for the Wikipedia<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikimedia_France_Research_Award/pap…> - 1.19 Harnessing the wisdom of crowds in wikipedia: quality through coordination<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikimedia_France_Research_Award/pap…> - 1.20 Viable wikis: struggle for life in the wikisphere<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikimedia_France_Research_Award/pap…> - 1.21 Can history be open source? Wikipedia and the future of the past<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikimedia_France_Research_Award/pap…> - 1.22 Extracting Lexical Semantic Knowledge from Wikipedia and Wiktionary<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikimedia_France_Research_Award/pap…> - 1.23 Becoming Wikipedian: transformation of participation in a collaborative online encyclopedia.<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikimedia_France_Research_Award/pap….> 2012/7/25 Rémi Bachelet <remi.bachelet(a)ec-lille.fr> > (apologies for cross-posting) > > Hi all, > > > Wikimédia France, a non-profit organization supporting Wikimedia projects > in France, is launching an international research prize to reward the most > influential research work on Wikimedia projects and free knowledge projects > in general. > > What is quite new about this award is that everyone can participate: > > 1. by ranking nominated papers to elect the winner (ranking is shared > with the award jury). > 2. by submitting important articles in this field of research for the > Award. > > Regarding the latter, we are now in the process of proposing papers and > we'd appreciate if some of you can lend a hand. If you consider a paper > has been particularly important in the field of free knowledge/Wikipedia > studies and must be taken into account, do not hesitate to submit it now! > > Please use this form: > http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikimedia_France_Research_Award/pap…. > Deadline for paper suggestion is August 1st. > > > After that, the next phase is shortlisting nominated papers. The Wikimedia > Award Jury will study all proposed papers to submit 5 papers to the final > vote in September. The announcement of the winner is planned in November. > > Please find all details here: > http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikimedia_France_Research_Award > > > If you have any questions, please use the project talk page: > http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research_talk:Wikimedia_France_Research_Award > > Thanks! >

1 0

Extended Deadline - The Critical Power of Free Software
by Maurizio 31 Jul '12

31 Jul '12

Dear all, we received a good number of requests to postpone the deadline for abstract submission to the Journal of Peer Production <http://peerproduction.net/>special issue titled "The Critical Power of Free Software<http://peerproduction.net/the-critical-power-of-free-software-from-intellec…>" and we decided to agree, due to the coincidence with the vacation period. Therefore, the abstract submission new deadline is August 31st. Below you will find more details on the special issue, and the updated important dates. Apologies for cross-posting Maurizio --- The Critical Power of Free Software: from Intellectual Property to Epistemologies? *Edited by: Maurizio Teli and Vincenzo D’Andrea * >From the perspective of social organization, Free Software can be conceived as a form of critique by adaptability and modifiability, as pointed out by anthropologist Christopher Kelty [Two Bits, 2008], standing outside institutionalized forms of power and providing working alternatives as critical tools. Starting from this kind of understanding, Free Software has been interpreted as a form of critique toward consolidated and contemporary capitalistic forms, such as the extension of Intellectual Property over any kind of common pool resources, or the forms of organization of labour of distributed developers. Nevertheless, the increasing adoption of Free Software by multi-national corporations points to increasing domestication of free software practices by contemporary global capitalism and to the expansion of hierarchical forms of social organization. This is particularly apparent in the form of the Open Source dialect, through the extensive overlapping of open source discourse with capitalistic discourses, such as that on legitimate hybrid business models, combining open source and proprietary licensing. Such perspective requires that the critical power of Free Software be brought under scrutiny, moving from the undermining of the discourses of Intellectual Property, organization of work or hierarchy, to the understanding of the epistemological implications for computer science and software engineering. From this point of view, arguments that see the epistemology of computing as the locus of production and reproduction of long-standing inequalities in power relationships, are suggesting new areas of enquiry. Is Free Software a form of critique of the epistemological basis of computing? Is it possible to connect its critique of Intellectual Property and organizational forms to the critique of software development premises as a professional and research practice? Those are the questions this special issue is trying to answer. To promote an interdisciplinary debate, we encourage submissions of theoretical and empirical papers authored both by social scientists, in a broad sense, and by computer scientists (joint papers are most welcome). We expect the authors to envision the potential for Free Software of being a form of cultural, practical, and material critique. *Call: 500-word abstract* *Important Dates: * New Date - August 31st, 2012: Abstract Submission (max 500 words) New Date - September 15th, 2012: Abstract Evaluation and Communication December 15th, 2012: Full Paper Submission February 15th, 2012: First Review Completion May 15th, 2013: Final Submission June 2013: Signalling and Publication *Submissions: * Through contact form <http://peerproduction.net/contact/> or straight to the editors, via email at maurizio(a)ahref.eu and vincenzo.dandrea(a)unitn.it The Journal of Peer Production (JoPP) is a new open access, online journal that focuses on the implications of peer production for social change.

1 0

MA/MSc in Creating Social Media at Goldsmiths University, London
by Nishant Shah 31 Jul '12

31 Jul '12

I've been thinking a lot about what cross computing interdisciplinary courses around social media could be like, when I came across this recommended by a friend. I was quite pleasantly surprised at how fantastic it sounds - almost makes me want to go back to school and be a student again, to be able to have this as an option. I thought this might be of interest to many on this list. Here is the Call for Applications. Apologies if you have already looked at it. *What does social media look like in the future? What will you create? *At Goldsmiths, University of London, we offer an MA/MSc in Creating Social Media <http://www.gold.ac.uk/pg/ma-creating-social-media/> that provides students with practical and critical skills to shape the future of social media. The MA/MSc is a collaborative theory/practice programme across the Centre for Cultural Studies <http://www.gold.ac.uk/cultural-studies/> and the Department of Computing <http://www.gold.ac.uk/computing/>. Based on global examples, we explore the technological and intellectual questions that have risen to prominence with the social web. We critique existing approaches and tools, and plan, develop, hack and implement new applications and campaigns. We not only analyse: we create. New social media platforms, at their best, develop new online forms of connecting, relating, sharing and organising. Effective and innovative social media creation, therefore, involves deep theoretical and practical knowledge of both software development and social processes. Participants in the MA/MSc will become proficient in · Computing skills in software development for new social media platforms, mashups, apps, and tools. This includes both coding and data skills, and a hacker approach (students with non technical background are brought up to speed with a specially developed bootcamp) · Theories of social processes and methods to research them. Adapting social media to a variety of technological contexts and to the needs of specific communities. Creating social media interventions that address social processes in new ways. · Surfacing the assumptions and limitations embedded in software. Critically assessing contemporary discourses about social media and social change. Building software tools that enable different forms of social practice, and launching them successfully. The course draws together students from all around the globe, and from a wide spectrum, some with a technical background, and others whose main focus has been communications, culture, society or politics. We accept applicants until August 31 – but best apply as soon as possible. Start: Sep 2012 (for those without technical background) or Oct 2012 (with) Apply by: August 30 2012 latest Duration: 1 Year full-time or 2 years part-time Final Degree: MA or MSc (depends on focus of the thesis) Website: http://www.gold.ac.uk/pg/ma-creating-social-media/ Contact: g.bachmann(a)gold.ac.uk -- Nishant Shah Director (Research), Centre for Internet and Society,( www.cis-india.org ) Asia Awards Fellow, 2008-09 # 00-91-9740074884 http://www.facebook.com/nishant.shah http://cis-india.academia.edu/NishantShah

1 0