- Air-L - lists.aoir.org

Re: [Air-L] Nancy Baym, Kate Crawford, Mary L. Gray to Join Microsoft Research
by Scott MacLeod 12 Jan '12

12 Jan '12

Congratulations, Nancy, Kate and Mary! Best regards, Scott Scott MacLeod Founder & President -- World University and School (like Wikipedia with MIT Open Course Ware) http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University P.O. Box 442, (86 Ridgecrest Road), Canyon, CA 94516 415 480 4577 worlduniversityandschool(a)gmail.com Skype: scottm100 Google + main, WUaS page: https://plus.google.com/108179352492243955816/ Please contribute, and invite friends to contribute, tax deductibly, via PayPal and credit card: http://scottmacleod.com/worlduniversityandschool.htm World University and School is a 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt educational organization. World University and School is sending you this because of your interest in free, online, higher education. If you don't want to receive these, please reply with 'remove' in the subject line. Thank you. On Thu 12/01/12 1:09 PM , Steve Jones sjones(a)uic.edu sent: > Hear hear! Looking forward to what this stellar collective will accomplish > in the future. > Steve > > On Jan 12, 2012, at 3:02 PM, Michael Zimmer wrote: > > > Congrats to all! > > > > -michael > > > > > > -- > > Michael Zimmer, PhD > > Assistant Professor, School of Information > Studies> Co-Director, Center for Information Policy > Research> University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee > > e: zimmerm(a)uwm.e > du> w: www.michaelzimmer.or > g> > > > > On Jan 12, 2012, at 12:21 PM, danah boyd > wrote:> > >> Many of you have asked me whether or not > Microsoft Research was truly intending to invest in social media / internet > studies. With this in mind, I have fantastically awesome news to share: > Nancy Baym, Kate Crawford, and Mary L. Gray are all joining Microsoft > Research. MSR will continue to invest in postdocs, PhD internships, and > visitors with the hope of supporting social scientists who are asking > critical socio-technical questions about the rise of new technologies. > >> > >> In short, I'm sooo soooo sooooooo excited. > <GRIN> w0000t!!!!>> > >> > >> My Blog Post: > >> > >> "Nancy Baym, Kate Crawford, Mary L. > Gray to Join Microsoft Research">> http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2012/01/12/nancy-baym > -kate-crawford-mary-l-gray-to-join-microsoft-research.html>> > >> ::bounce:: I am *ecstatic* to announce that > Nancy Baym, Kate Crawford, and Mary L. Gray are all joining Microsoft > Research New England in Cambridge, MA. See Jennifer Chayes' announcement: > http://blogs.technet.com/b/inside_microsoft_research/archive/20 > 12/01/12/microsoft-research-raises-the-bar-in-social-media-research.aspx>> > >> Three years ago (this week), I joined > Microsoft Research to help integrate social scientists and computer > scientists. I have known about and admired MSR since my undergraduate days > when I was studying computer science. From the perspective of a > researcher, it seemed like heaven-on-earth. As I slowly shifted > disciplines, I was saddened to think that I had moved myself away from MSR > so I was utterly delighted when, in 2008, I learned that Jennifer Chayes > wanted to start a lab that brought computer scientists and social > scientists together in new ways. I was even more ecstatic when she invited > me to help with this endeavor. Over the last three years, I've invited > numerous scholars to come to MSR as visitors, postdocs, and interns. In > particular, I've focused on bringing in social scientists from fields that > haven't commonly been in conversation with industrial researchers. This > loose network of folks have come to be known as the "Social Media > Collective." Much to my abs > > > > ol > >> ute pleasure, Nancy, Kate, and Mary are > going to come to MSR to join the Collective.>> > >> The Social Media Collective focuses on > research related to socio-technical issues, primarily from a social > scientific perspective. Most of us use qualitative research methods, but > there are also quantitative, computational, and experimental folks among > us. We primarily look at topics related to the rise of social media, but > we do so from a variety of different disciplinary lenses. Our work tends > to have implications for a wide array of audiences: scholarly, technical, > policy, business, and public. Nancy, Kate, and Mary are three of the > leading scholars in this arena and I'm ecstatic that they'll be coming to > MSR to advance this line of inquiry.>> > >> - Nancy Baym is a communication scholar, > currently at University of Kansas. She helped define the field of internet > studies with her work on personal connections, fandom, and online > communities. >> > >> - Kate Crawford is a media studies scholar, > currently at the University of New South Wales. She weaves together a > diverse set of interests to examine mobile media, intimacy, and listening, > with an eye towards public policy implications.>> > >> - Mary L. Gray is an anthropologist, > currently at Indiana University. Her work on rural queer youth has helped > complicate our understandings of marginalized populations' use of > technology.>> > >> Each of these phenomenal scholars has a long > history of helping us understand the relationship between technology and > society and I'm sooo soooo soooo excited that they're coming to MSR. As > all of you who know me know, I love MSR. I also love Nancy, Kate, and > Mary. So the combination makes me feel like a kid in a candy store. > >> > >> MSR is a truly special place: an > interdisciplinary home base for folks who are interested in studying issues > related to technology. I still remember the day that Nancy, Kate, and Mary > came back from talking to a group of computer scientists and mathematicians > about the very meaning of "communication." Needless to say, > social scientists don't use that term in the same way as mathematicians. > But instead of being horrified, these three were glowing because they ended > up diving deep into the kind of intense conversations that only scholars > relish. That's when I knew that MSR was the place for them. >> > >> Microsoft Research is so lucky that Nancy, > Kate, and Mary are coming to MSR. And I'm super lucky that I'm going to > have three more awesome colleagues. ::bounce:: >> > >> > >> ------ > >> > >> "taken out of context, i must seem so > strange" -- ani>> http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/>> http://www.danah.org/>> @zephoria > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > _______________________________________________>> The Air-L > @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/> > > > _______________________________________________> The Air-L > @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/> > > _______________________________________________ > The Air-L > @listserv.aoir.org mailing listis provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.orgSubscribe, 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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Fan Studies panel at AoIR 13?
by Paul Booth 12 Jan '12

12 Jan '12

Hello, I'm interested in putting together a Fan Studies panel for AoIR 13 about media fans and technology. Possible topics could include contemporary technology use, "nostalgia" fandom, contemporary fandom with traditional technology, etc. If interested, please email me off-list. Thanks! Paul -- Paul Booth, PhD Assistant Professor of Media and Cinema Studies and Communication Technology College of Communication DePaul University 14 E. Jackson Chicago, IL 60604

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CfP: SOCIAL TURN - SNAMAS @ AISB 2012 (Reminder & News about Invited Speakers & Travel Grants)
by Judith Simon 12 Jan '12

12 Jan '12

CALL FOR PAPERS Symposium on SOCIAL COMPUTING - SOCIAL COGNITION - SOCIAL NETWORKS AND MULTIAGENT SYSTEMS @ AISB/IACAP 2012 July 2nd – 3rd 2012 https://sites.google.com/site/socialturnsnamasaisbiacap2012/ The symposium is part of the AISB/IACAP World Congress 2012 in honour of Alan Turing, held on July 2nd to 6th, 2012. University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.http://events.cs.bham.ac.uk/turing12/ & http://www.aisb.org.uk/convention/aisb12/ The event is jointly organized by The Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour (AISB) [http://www.aisb.org.uk ] and The International Association for Computing and Philosophy (IACAP) [http://www.ia-cap.org ] ------------------------------- NEWS INVITED SPEAKERS Bernhard Rieder, Department of Media Studies, University of Amsterdam. Marek Sergot, Imperial College, London. GRANTS The European Network for Social Intelligence is offering a limited number of travel grants for PhD students and early stage researchers. Please indicate in your paper submission if you want to apply for the travel grants. Further information will be made available on the symposium website. ------------------------------- SYMPOSIUM CHAIRS Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic, Mälardalen University, Sweden. Antonino Rotolo, CIRSFID, U. di Bologna, Italy. Giovanni Sartor, EUI and CIRSFID, Italy. Judith Simon, University of Vienna, Austria and & Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany. Clara Smith, UNLP and UCALP, Argentina. -------------------------------- This 2012 symposium merges the symposium entitled Social Turn: Social Computing - Social Cognition - Social Intelligence; and the SNAMAS symposium, focused on Social Networks and Multi-Agent Systems, which have precursor symposia in Social Computing at IACAP and the SNAMAS in AISB conferences. ---------------------------------- TOPICS The field of social computing has two different foci: social and computational. There is the focus on socialness of social software or social web applications. Widespread examples of social software are blogs, wikis, social bookmarking services, instant messaging services, and social networking sites. Social computing often uses various types of crowdsourcing techniques for aggregation of input from numerous users (public at large). Tools such as prediction markets, social tagging, reputation and trust systems as well as recommender systems are based on collaborative filtering and thus a result of crowdsourcing. Another focus of social computing is on computational modeling of social behavior, among others through Multi-agent systems (MAS) and Social Networks (SN). MAS have an anchoring going beyond social sciences even when a sociological terminology is often used. There are several usages of MAS: to design distributed and/or hybrid systems; to develop philosophical theory; to understand concrete social facts, or to answer concrete social issues via modelling and simulation. MAS aim at modelling, among other things, cognitive or reactive agents who interact in dynamic environments where they possibly depend on each other to achieve their goals. The emphasis is nowadays on constructing complex computational systems composed by agents which are regulated by various types of norms, and behave like human social systems. Finally, Social networks (SN) are social structures made of nodes (which are, generally, individuals or organizations) that are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as values, visions, idea, financial exchange, friends, kinship, dislike, conflict, trade, web links, disease transmission, among many others. Social networks analysis plays a critical role in determining the way specific problems are solved, organizations are run, and the degree to which individuals succeed in achieving their goals. Social networks analysis has addressed also the dynamics issue, called dynamic networks analysis. This is an emergent scientific field that brings together traditional social network analysis, link analysis and multi-agent systems. The symposium addresses, but is not limited to, the following topics: - Conceptual issues such as Socialness (notions of the social used and/or enforced in social computing and research on social cognition or social intelligence) and Computational Models and mechanisms of social computing (information processing) as well as models and social mechanisms of cognition and intelligence. - Agency & Action in social computing systems: How can agency be understood and/or modeled in systems consisting of human and non-human agents? - Social Coordination & Norms: Emergence of norms (e.g. in Wikipedia) and compliance including their computational modeling in socio-technical systems. - Interaction & Communication in socio-technical systems and their computational models - Knowledge: the epistemological and ethical consequences of distributed knowledge creation in social computing and its computational models - Relations between the individual and the social: Forming of individual existence in relation to social computing (e.g. digital identity), including its computational modeling. - Agreement technologies. - Electronic Institutions. - Empirical and/or theoretical studies on a specific social or legal relationship (power, solidarity, legitimity, dependency...). - Empirical and/or theoretical studies on social relations' regulations. - Formalization of Normed Systems. - Logical frameworks for representing, describing and analysing agent's social or legal relationships. - Relations between the individual and the social: Forming of individual existence in relation to social computing (e.g. digital identity), including its info-computational modeling. - Responsibility, Accountability & Liability. What is epistemically and ethically responsible behavior with respect to social software and how can it be supported? What are the responsibilities of different human agents (e.g. software users, designers, researchers, etc)? - Rules and standards. - Social Networking Sites: philosophical implications of socialness in social networking sites (e.g., privacy, social structures, etc.). - Info-computational models of social networking sites. - The role of agents´ attributes in structuring social and legal relationships. - The role of specific social relationships in structuring groups and organizations. - Trust in social computing. Differences and similarities between notions of trust e.g. in multi-agent systems, social networking sites, recommender systems, etc. Differences and similarities between trust online and offline. How can trust be supported by a computational system itself? ------------------------------ IMPORTANT DATES Paper submission deadline: February 1, 2012. Notification of acceptance: March 1, 2012. Camera ready version deadline: March 30, 2012. Symposium: 2nd – 3rd July, 2012. --------------------------------- PAPER SUBMISSION Guidelines for paper submission are as follows: - The paper should be written in English. - The maximum length of a paper is 6 A4-sized pages in ECAI format (format download: http://www.aisb.org.uk/convention/aisb08/download.html) - The paper should be in PDF format. - Please choose one track between SOCIAL TURN and SNAMAS, and submit via the online paper submission system to the corresponding track at: https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=socialturnmasaisbiac ------------------------------------- PROGRAM COMMITTEE Doris Allhutter, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria. Frederic Amblard, IRIT, U. Toulouse, France. Giulia Andrighetto, ISTC-CNR, Italy. Carlos Areces, UN Córdoba, Argentina. Guido Boella, University of Torino, Italy. Pompeu Casanovas, UAB Institute of Law and Technology, Spain. Cristiano Castelfranchi, ISTC-CNR, Italy. Mark Coeckelbergh University of Twente, Netherlands Diego Compagna, University Duisburg-Essen, Germany. Rosaria Conte, ISTC-CNR, Italy. Charles Ess, Aarhus University, Danmark. Ricardo Guibourg, UBA, Argentina. Hamid Ekbia, Indiana University, Indiana Lars-Erik Janlert, Umeå University, Sweden Matthias Mailliard, Cemagref, France. Antonio A. Martino, U. Salvador, Argentina. Jeremy Pitt, Imperial College London, UK. Leon Van der Torre, U Louxembourg, Louxembourg. Serena Villata, University of Torino, Italy. Jutta Weber, University Paderborn, Germany. Christian Fuchs, Uppsala University, Sweden. --------------------------------------- POSTERS AND SYSTEM DEMONSTRATIONS There will be one session for system demonstrations, and one day poster exhibition. ---------------------------------------- PROCEEDINGS AND POST PROCEEDINGS There will be a separate proceedings for each symposium, produced before the Congress. Each delegate at the Congress will receive, on arrival, a memory stick containing the proceedings of all symposia. Selected papers of the Symposium, under a second review process, will be considered for a special issue of the AI & Law Journal, Springer http://www.springer.com/computer/ai/journal/10506; and for the open access TripleC journal http://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC . -------------------------------------- ABOUT THE CONGRESS The Congress serves both as the year's AISB Convention and the year's IACAP conference. The Congress has been inspired by a desire to honour Alan Turing, and by the broad and deep significance of Turing's work to AI, to the philosophical ramifications of computing, and to Philosophy and computing more generally. The Congress is one of the events forming the Alan Turing Year (http://www.mathcomp.leeds.ac.uk/turing2012/) The intent of the Congress is to stimulate a particularly rich interchange between AI and Philosophy on any areas of mutual interest, whether directly addressing Turing's own research output or not. The Congress will consist mainly of a number of collocated Symposia on specific research areas, interspersed with Congress-wide refreshment breaks, social events and invited Plenary Talks. All papers other than the invited Plenaries will be given within Symposia. This symposium is closely connected to UmoCoP, Symposium on Understanding and Modelling Collective Phenomena, which will be held on July 3rd-5th 2012. There will be a joint panel from both symposia on July 3rd. ---------------------- CONTACTS For further inquiries please contact any of the chairs: gordana.dodig-crnkovic(a)mdh.se, judith.simon(a)univie.ac.at (SOCIAL COMPUTING - SOCIAL COGNITION - SOCIAL NETWORKS) antonino.rotolo(a)unibo.it, giovanni.sartor(a)libero.it, csmith(a)info.unlp.edu.ar (MULTIAGENT SYSTEMS)

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Studies of graphics in e-mail signatures
by Peter Timusk 11 Jan '12

11 Jan '12

Does anyone know of studies of e-mail signatures that use graphics? I searched the list archive and didn't quite find a venn diagram intersection between graphic and e-mail signature. Peter Timusk B.Math statistics. BA legal studies Legal studies of the Information Age School work blog http://notebook.webpagex.org <http://notebook.webpagex.org/> Some papers www.webpagex.org <http://www.webpagex.org/>

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CFP: social media and research impact
by Jason Priem 11 Jan '12

11 Jan '12

Seems like this is especially pertinent now after the Eysenbach paper showing highly-tweeted papers predict highly-cited ones (http://www.jmir.org/2011/4/e123/) altmetrics: Tracking scholarly impact on the social Web A PLoS One collection Call for papers --------------- The huge increase in scientific output is presenting scholars with a deluge of data. There is growing concern that scholarly output may be swamping traditional mechanisms for both pre-publication filtering (e.g. peer review) and post-publication impact filtering (e.g. the Journal Impact Factor). Increasing scholarly use of Web 2.0 tools like CiteULike, Mendeley, Twitter, and blogs presents an opportunity to create new filters. Metrics based on a diverse set of social sources could yield broader, richer, and timelier assessments of current and potential scholarly impact. Realizing this, many authors have begun to call for investigation of these metrics under the banner of “altmetrics.” Specifically, altmetrics is the creation and study of new metrics based on the Social Web for analyzing and informing scholarship. Despite the growing speculation and early exploratory investigation into the value of altmetrics, there remains little concrete, objective research into the properties of these metrics: their validity, their potential value and flaws, and their relationship to established measures. Nor has there been any large umbrella to bring these multiple approaches together. Following on from a first successful workshop on altmetrics, this collection aims to provide a forum for the dissemination of innovative research on these metrics. We seek high quality submissions that advance the understanding of the efficacy of altmetrics, addressing research areas including: * Validated new metrics based on social media. * Tracking science communication on the Web. * Relation between traditional metrics and altmetrics including validation and correlation. * The relationship between peer review and altmetrics. * Evaluated tools for gathering, analyzing, or disseminating altmetrics. Papers will be reviewed on a rolling basis in-line with PLoS ONE standard practices. Please note that all submissions submitted before January 28th, 2012 will be considered for the launch of the collection (expected spring 2012); submissions after this date will still be considered for the collection, but may not appear in the collection at launch. Submission Guidelines --------------------- If you wish to submit your research to the Altmetrics: Tracking scholarly impact on the social Web Collection, please consider the following when preparing your manuscript: - All articles must adhere to the PLoS ONE submission guidelines. - Standard PLoS ONE policies and publication fees apply to all submissions. - Submission to PLoS ONE as part of the Altmetrics Collection does not guarantee publication. When you are ready to submit your manuscript to the collection, please log in to the PLoS ONE manuscript submission system and insert ‘Altmetrics’ in the relevant field to ensure the PLoS ONE staff are aware of your submission to the Collection. Once you have registered, you can follow the steps for manuscript submission. Please contact Lindsay King (lking(a)plos.org) if you would like further information about how to submit your research to the PLoS ONE Altmetrics Collection. Organizers ---------- Paul Groth, VU University Amsterdam Dario Taraborelli, Wikimedia Foundation Jason Priem, UNC-Chapel Hill About PLoS ONE -------------- PLoS ONE (eISSN-1932-6203) is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access, online publication. PLoS ONE welcomes reports on primary research from any scientific discipline. It provides: * Open-access – freely accessible online, authors retain copyright * Fast publication times * Peer review by expert, practicing researchers * Post-publication tools to indicate quality and impact * Community-based dialogue on articles * Worldwide media coverage * PLoS ONE is published by the Public Library of Science (PLoS), a nonprofit organization. -- Jason Priem UNC Royster Fellow School of Information and Library Science University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Connexions journal: Issue 1(1) CFP deadline extended + clarifications
by rosario durao 11 Jan '12

11 Jan '12

My apologies once again for the cross-postings _______________________________________ Dear Colleague, As the first issue of *connexions* journal will aggregate the points of view of practicing professionals, academics, and students to chart the map of the field, and we wish to collect many more contributions in order to get the broadest and most detailed view of the area, we are extending the deadline. The deadline to submit your manuscripts for the journal’s *1(1) issue* is now* January 31, 2012*. I would also like to clarify 3 points: - the length of the *final* position statements and literature reviews is *400-500 words* (this seems an ideal length to get a broad, yet detailed picture of the major trends and tendencies in the practice, teaching, and research of IPC and its context in the past, present and future), - please submit the final 400-500 word statements or reviews, not article abstracts, - when submitting a position paper, please explain any discipline- and work-specific terms, concepts and implicit references, in order to cater for the journal’s diverse audience. Thank you for considering writing a paper for the First Issue of *connexions•international professional communication journal | revista de comunicação profissional internacional*. I will be glad to answer your questions, Best, Rosário Durão Editor editor(a)connexionsjournal.org connexionsjournal.org ******************************* Rosário Durão URL: http://www.rosariodurao.net ******************************* "The public is the only critic whose opinion is worth anything at all." (Mark Twain) ********************************

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Re: [Air-L] consent forms for email exchanges
by Elizabeth Buchanan 11 Jan '12

11 Jan '12

Since you are in Canada, I'd recommend you look at Heather Kitchen's Research Ethics and the Internet: Negotiating the Tri-Council Policy Statement. The Privacy Commission has some different standards as well than we do in the US, so our consent process may not work exactly for your research. Best, Elizabeth Elizabeth Buchanan, Ph.D. Endowed Chair Director, Center for Applied Ethics University of WIsconsin-Stout buchanane(a)uwstout.edu Principal Investigator, Internet Research Ethics Commons internetresearchethics.org (NSF Project # 0924604) elizabeth(a)internetresearchethics.org

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Research Challenge
by Rhodes, Bryan 11 Jan '12

11 Jan '12

RTI's 2012 Research Challenge Have you ever had a great research hypothesis but lacked the data to test it? If so, The 2012 Research Challenge is a great opportunity for you to get those data. To participate, researchers or research teams can submit a set of up to 10 survey questions for an upcoming in-person survey of Chicagoans. The "winning" submission(s) will be included in the in-person survey, and the winning researcher or team will receive the response data to their questions along with demographic data, and the first rights to publish results of their survey findings. Participation is easy. In order to enter, all you need to do is send us: * Up to 10 survey questions, * A short synopsis of your research idea (2 pages or less), and * A short biography of yourself (200 words or less) Our judges will pick up to 12 winners, and those researchers will get to have their survey questions included in our study. This contest is open to individuals and small teams (five or fewer people). Teams may include anyone from senior scientists to working professionals to students. Organizations may not submit entries, but individuals or teams from organizations may. Only one entry is allowed per person or team, and a person may only be part of one team. For full contest rules and information on how to submit an entry, please visit http://www.rti.org/researchchallenge <http://www.rti.org/researchchallenge> . This opportunity is a research challenge conducted by RTI International. Bryan B. Rhodes Survey Post <https://blogs.rti.org/surveypost/> - RTI experts on the future of survey research RTI International Program on Digital Technology and Society Survey Research Division

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CFC: Call for Additional Chapters
by Aziz Douai 10 Jan '12

10 Jan '12

This post keeps bouncing back as undeliverable. I am submitting it once more. Colleagues, Please circulate widely, and apologies for cross-postings. *Call for Additional Chapters *New Media Influence on Social and Political Change in Africa To be published by IGI Global: http://bit.ly/wmefAx *Editors: *Anthony A. Olorunnisola and Aziz Douai *Proposals Submission Deadline:* January 25, 2012 *Full Chapters Due:* May 1, 2012 *Introduction* Editors seek few additional chapters to be included in our edited book entitled, New Media Influence on Social and Political Change in Africa. An earlier call for chapters under the tentative title, Media and Democratization: The African Experience, yielded a number of fascinating chapters. We are in need of additional chapters that would cover new media’s social and political impact, particularly in Francophone African countries, to supplement our continental coverage. Contributors who wish to analyze influences of new/digital media in other parts of Africa (Anglophone, Lusophone) are welcome to consult with the Editors about their submission prior to sending an abstract. *Objectives of the Book* This book volume includes chapters focused on social and political influences of old and new media in Africa. Contributing authors assess the successes and challenges achieved and faced by old and new media respectively with a shift in analytical orientation. Especially, chapters problematize the consistencies / inconsistencies between principles and institutions of western democracy vis-à-vis African political cultures and the role of old and new media in these processes. The “Arab Spring” and other recent events in Kenya, Mauritania, Nigeria, Niger, and in Zimbabwe among others raise important questions about old and new media’s contribution to democratic governance. The evolving volume shows that the implementation of democratic reforms in Africa’s political systems have had mixed outcomes and impacts on media freedoms. Its chapters should fill existent gap by focusing on how mass media and new communication tools are spawning digital cultures that contribute to the continent’s long and ongoing struggle for and with democracy. *Target Audience *This book should be valuable reference material for use by academics who are instructors and students (undergraduate and graduate) of media (old and new) and their influences on social and political change in Africa. Readers should spread across disciplines that include mass communications, media studies, journalism, political science, African Studies, sociology, information and communication sciences and information technology. The book also targets technocrats employed in the Civil Service of national governments and of inter-governmental organizations as well as members of the civil society engaged in social movement organizations worldwide. *Recommended Approach and Topics *Interested authors could approach their subject matter from historical and critical perspectives; by conducting meta-analyses of existing research; and/or by presenting new empirical studies (comparative or otherwise) that contribute to theory building. All theoretical, empirical, and methodology approaches are welcome. Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, the following: Conceptual and methodological challenges posed by attempts to understand new media in the culturally distinct (from the West; that is) African contexts; Conceptually- and theoretically-informed evaluations of the intersections between new media and citizen activism Case studies assessing new media role in social change in Africa; Assessments of how/whether new media empower African citizens vis-à-vis the state; Empirical evidence that contributes to theory-building or challenges established theories *Submission Procedures* Authors are invited to propose and later submit well-researched chapters that provide enriching insights into the subject matter. Chapter proposals, products of original works that have not appeared, nor are under consideration, in other venues are especially welcome. Authors should follow the American Psychological Association (APA) style manual and submit abstracts and chapters in MS Word. All submissions should be sent as email attachments to the Editors at axo8(a)psu.edu and aziz.douai(a)uoit.ca. Manuscripts of full chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind basis by an international corps of readers. *Important Dates *Abstract Submission deadline: January 25, 2012 Notification to Authors: February 1, 2012 Paper Submission deadline: May 1, 2012 Respondents to this extended call for competitive chapters should send an abstract of no more than 500 words and a short bio to the Editors’ email addresses by January 25, 2012. Authors of accepted abstracts will be notified by February 1, 2012 and asked to submit a full chapter of no more than 8,000 words by May 1, 2012. Inquiries and submissions can be forwarded electronically (Word document): Anthony A. Olorunnisola and Aziz Douai: axo8(a)psu.edu and aziz.douai(a)uoit.ca For more information, please visit IGI Website: http://bit.ly/wmefAx ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Aziz Douai, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Faculty of Social Science and Humanities University of Ontario Institute of Technology 55 Bond Street East Oshawa, ON L1G 0A5 Tel: 905.721.8668, ext. 3790 Fax: 905.721.3372 E-mail: aziz.douai(a)uoit.ca -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both." James Madison, 1822 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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consent form for email exchanges
by Elena Razlogova 10 Jan '12

10 Jan '12

Dear list members, What are the rules and practices on filling out consent forms for interviews that are done online or over email? Most of the interviews I'm doing for my research will be conducted in-person, with a standard consent form to sign. However, some of my interviewees may be more comfortable with an email exchange rather than a personal interview. In that case, instead of sending them the form to sign, scan, and email me back, I would like to include the consent form in the email together with my questions, for them to fill out and return by hitting reply, but without the signature. Is that an accepted practice? What are the rules on this? Thank you, Elena Elena Razlogova Concordia University, Montreal http://elenarazlogova.org

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