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Early career fellowships - Internet / media
by Matthew Allen 17 Jan '12

17 Jan '12

Dear all The Australian Research Council annually funds a number of early-career researcher fellowships through its DECRA scheme (http://www.arc.gov.au/ncgp/decra.htm ). While the process is highly competitive, strong applicants with a good track record of publication and a solid proposal can be successful in gaining these positions (normally for three years). Fellowships are located at an Australian university and the application will be submitted via that university. I am seeking well-qualified early career researchers, preferably with at least 2 years' experience post-PhD (and no more than 5 years), who wish to apply through the DECRA process for a fellowship to be taken up within the Department of Internet Studies, Curtin University. Please be aware that the process of application involves quite a bit of work and deadlines are tight. We will not support applicants who do not have strong publications records, nor from people whose PhD is not yet awarded (just being realistic ... it significantly limits your chances of success). There are two critical deadlines set by Curtin university: by 20 January you must submit a notification of interest to me (email me for a copy of the NoI form) by 24 February you must submit your full application (if approved to do so) to Curtin If you wish to apply, email me at your earliest convenience and complete the NoI I return by Friday this week. Professor Matthew Allen Head of Department, Internet Studies, Curtin University Life member, Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Fellow, Australian Learning and Teaching Council Visit me at: http://netcrit.net. Follow me @netcrit v: +61892663511 f: +61892663166 CRICOS Provider Code 00301J (WA), 02637B (NSW)

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Re: [Air-L] Are 'categories' the same as 'genres'?
by Julian Hopkins 17 Jan '12

17 Jan '12

I agree that genres are still relevant, and particularly in a commercial media context where they can be used to categorise potential audience demographics and therefore advertising potential. I have found the concept of genre to be useful in analysing the relevance of monetised personal blogs. Drawing from Lüders et al. I have approached genres as sociotechnical assemblages that specify and generalize communication, ensuring coordination of specific practices involving many people, and contributing to the reproduction of social institutions and sectors in society (Lüders et al. 2010: 950). Although it is true that any particular blog can have a variety of types of writing, they can usually be roughly identified with a particular genre. The usefulness of genre is that they reflect and constitute particular communicative patterns that stabilise particular social contexts. A personal blog aimed at a small group of family and friends uses language and pictures appropriate to maintaining relations amongst those people. When some personal blogs gained a large audience, the bloggers usually toned down some of the more intimate aspects in order to avoid offending family members and so on, and sought to blog about topics that kept the audience present (e.g. more blog posts about how to style one's hair). When they were given the opportunity to make money, the blog posts tended to become more impersonal and oriented around consumption, public events (product launches, parties), and so on. This led to a new genre, the 'lifestyle blog', that reproduces opportunities for localised advertising, marketing opportunities, and so on. New bloggers can see these different genres in operation, and are likely to choose to emulate one or the other, thus demonstrating the relevance of genre to ongoing blogging practices. Lüders, M., L. Prøitz & T. Rasmussen 2010. Emerging personal media genres. New Media & Society 12, 947 -963. All the best, Julian ++++++++++ Blog: www.julianhopkins.net Twitter: @julianhopkins Skype: julhop -----Original Message----- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:14:39 -0800 (PST) From: "Denise N. Rall" <denrall(a)yahoo.com> To: Matthew Allen <M.Allen(a)exchange.curtin.edu.au>, "Air-L(a)listserv.aoir.org" <Air-L(a)listserv.aoir.org> Cc: "ravindra.mohabeer(a)viu.ca" <ravindra.mohabeer(a)viu.ca> Subject: Re: [Air-L] Are 'categories' the same as 'genres'? Message-ID: <1326669279.63475.YahooMailNeo(a)web112719.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 As much as I can hardly disagree with a Professor, not to mention a life-time member of AoIR and a memorable past-President, my recent trip to the USA during which I (unfortunately) watched television, I have to say that in the 300 - 600 multi-channel media that tv has become, if anything,? genre is even more pronounced. There are sci-fi channels, sports channels, lifestyle channels, history channels, and one of my country friends leaves his set tuned to the Western Country Riding channel. There is little or no cross-flow. To change channels, one can stay in the genre (sports, etc.) or at the insistence of other family members, switch to another genre (such as a movie channel). While I agree totally that the word genre is perhaps outdated, it appears to drive selection into an increasing narrow version of reality - lifestyle vs. sports, etc. The biggest movie channels, such as HBO would have the opportunity to offer cross-cultural (sic) events such as new dramas, new comedy, and new mini-series that include more than one 'lifestyle' such as gangsters, chic flicks, history fiction (The Tudors) and so on. I am tempted to say the word 'lifestyle' while ridiculous, offers a chance to differentiate between the goth, the nerd, the gangbanger, the preppy, the hipster, the tragic romantic, and so on, might offer a clue to the next generations after X and Y (whatever they are called) as to what genre might mean. Genre indicates multiple things (among others) appropriate beginnings, tone, rhetoric, and endings. Category seems a weak way to cover that richness of terminology. ? Dr Denise N. Rall, Research Assistant, School of Health & Human Sciences Upcoming exhibit: "The Bride as Banquet" The Channon Gallery, The Channon, NSW? Denise N. Rall, Mobile +(61)(0)438 233344 Fax +(61)(0)2 6624 5380 http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/esm/staff/pages/drall/ ________________________________

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Fwd: [Asis-l] Book announcement: Automatic Identification of Genre in Web Pages (2011)
by natalya godbold 17 Jan '12

17 Jan '12

strangely topical. I assume more publicity will be good publicity for this new tome. -- Natalya Godbold PhD Candidate (Human Information Behaviour / Health Communication) Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences University of Technology, Sydney ¯`~.. ¸><((((º>¸. .~´¯`~.. ¸><((((º>¸. .~´¯`~.. ¸><((((º>¸. .><((((º>`~.¸¸.~´¯`~.¸.~´¯`~...¸><((((º> .,,.~´¯`~.. ¸><((((º>¸. .....,,.><((((º>`~.¸¸.~´¯`~.¸.~´¯`~...¸><((((º> .~´¯`~.. ¸><((((º>¸. .,,.~´¯`~.. ¸><((((º>¸. .~´¯`~.. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Marina Santini <marinamailinglists(a)gmail.com> Date: Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 5:24 PM Subject: [Asis-l] Book announcement: Automatic Identification of Genre in Web Pages (2011) To: asis-l(a)asis.org Cc: Marina Santini <marinaromestockholm(a)gmail.com> Automatic Identification of Genre in Web Pages: A new perspective [Paperback] Marina Santini (Author) Paperback: 332 pages Publisher: LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing (December 19, 2011) Language: English ISBN-10: 3847306871 ISBN-13: 978-3847306870 Genre is a complex but intuitively understood concept. Home pages, FAQs, blogs, etc. are examples of genres currently thriving on the web. Automatically identifying web genres would help us find documents that are more relevant to our information needs. The aim of the research described in this book is to develop automatic genre classification algorithms. There are several challenges, however, that affect the modelling of these algorithms. First, genres on the web are instantiated in web pages, which can be considered documents of a new type, much more unpredictable and individualised than documents on paper. Second, the web is unstable and fluid, undergoing a fast-paced evolution, so genre identification is influenced by phenomena such as the formation of novel genres, genre hybridism, individualisation, intra-genre and inter-genre variation. Finally, the automatically extractable genre-revealing features used up to now are not adequate to define existing and novel web genres. The author argues that automatic identification of genre in web pages needs more flexible genre classification schemes. The main body of the book describes experiments that support this claim. Link to the outline: http://www.forum.santini.se/2012/01/book-outline-automatic-identification-o… Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Automatic-Identification-Genre-Web-Pages/dp/384730687… -- Marina Santini http://www.forum.santini.se https://www.facebook.com/genresontheweb ________________________________________ Asis-l mailing list Asis-l(a)asis.org http://mail.asis.org/mailman/listinfo/asis-l

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Re: [Air-L] Are 'categories' the same as 'genres'?
by Mark Rosso 16 Jan '12

16 Jan '12

Some resources you could check out regarding web genres: Web Genre Wiki - http://www.webgenrewiki.org/index.php5/Main_Page The WebGenre Blog - http://www.forum.santini.se/ Genres on the Web - http://www.springer.com/computer/ai/book/978-90-481-9177-2 User-based identification of Web genres - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/asi.20798/abstract Mark Rosso, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Computer Information Systems School of Business North Carolina Central University 919-530-6386 On 12-Jan-2012, at 12:28 PM, air-l-request(a)listserv.aoir.org wrote: > Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:16:37 -0800 > From: "Ravindra N. Mohabeer" <mohabeerlists(a)gmail.com> > To: Air-L(a)listserv.aoir.org > Subject: [Air-L] Are 'categories' the same as 'genres'? > Message-ID: <A08C4F4B-D083-4883-AC40-6779C012FE5F(a)gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > > Hello, > > Forgive me if this has been covered previously but a thought occurred to me just now as I prepped for my night course (yuck!) called "Understanding Television." > > I wondered how students today make sense of the notion of 'genre' and then I thought, well since most of them don't watch TV over the air (or cable or satellite) and get TV shows online (a whole other issue as to whether or not that's the same as watching TV), it makes sense to think of it in digital terms. > > So then I got to thinking, how do genres get represented on the Internet - through database categories used for indexing? Through site producers file structures? Through tagging? If so, how do we deal with the semantic arbitrariness of tagging between individual users? > > Even if categories are what can be considered genres today, do the different types of content that appear on various manifestations of the Internet fall into the same categories as other 'traditional media'? What are the genres in the age of the Internet and are they same as they ever were or altogether new? > > In this case it's just a question out of curiosity. > > Ravi > --------------------------------------- > Ravindra N. Mohabeer, PhD > Media Studies > Vancouver Island University > Nanaimo, BC CANADA > ravindra.mohabeer(a)viu.ca > ---------------------------------------

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ipad, laptop, desktop
by Barry Wellman 16 Jan '12

16 Jan '12

Perhaps because I've been using one for 55 years, but I don't know why anyone would abandon a proper keyboard for a glass iKeyboard. Real keys seem more natural to me than glass keys or even handwriting (for churning out long prose. And using a clip-on keyboard with an iThing seems kludgy. Besides, the OS is awful, wonders of Siri besides. So when I am not using my desktop (just bought a 27" screen for better editing), I am using a laptop (my old Lenovo Thinkpad X60) and eagerly awaiting the advent of proper ultrabooks this summer. (Don't do Mac; netbooks underpowered). Just my .02. I ain't gonna argue with anybody, but curious to read others' thoughts on this list. Barry Wellman _______________________________________________________________________ S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC NetLab Director Department of Sociology 725 Spadina Avenue, Room 388 University of Toronto Toronto Canada M5S 2J4 twitter:barrywellman http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman fax:+1-416-978-3963 Updating history: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _______________________________________________________________________

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Follow up Apple workers standards and miserable factory conditions
by Peter Timusk 16 Jan '12

16 Jan '12

Thought I should share this news item given my statement yesterday. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/tech-news/apple-supply-chain- audit-finds-worker-conditions-not-up-to-standards/article2302022/ Apple supply chain audit finds worker conditions not up to standards Poornima Gupta San Francisco- Reuters Published Friday, Jan. 13, 2012 3:46PM EST Last updated Friday, Jan. 13, 2012 4:05PM EST Apple revealed its once closely guarded list of global suppliers on Friday, taking a dramatic and unprecedented step in response to harsh criticism that it was turning a blind eye to dismal working conditions at partner factories. The move, unusual in an industry that relies heavily on foreign component suppliers to drive margins but rarer still for an infamously secretive company, underscored some speculation that new Chief Executive Tim Cook has ushered in an era of greater transparency. Predecessor Steve Jobs, who died in October, kept an iron grip on the internal workings of the company he founded and made great. Peter Timusk at571(a)ncf.ca ptimusk(a)sympatico.ca web: www.crystalcomputing.net blogs www.cyborgcitizen.org

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Re: [Air-L] Are 'categories' the same as 'genres'?
by j berzowska 16 Jan '12

16 Jan '12

Ravi - As mentioned, there are different types of genres (document genres, literary genres, movie genres, etc.). While document genres in particular are seen to be shifting in digital form, we still have a fairly clear idea of the shared meaning they convey. Memos, FAQs and comment forms all bring with them some degree of structure and common understanding. Such genres are also thought to develop in part as a reaction to our understanding of their purpose. Movie genres evolve in much the same way. So, genres are thought of as fluid and culturally-based. They are also difficult to identify and track (You'll find several interesting perspectives in Genres on the Web, Vol. 42 in the Springer series on Text, Speech and Language Technology). Several disciplines study the organization and representation of information on the web, including knowledge organization, information retrieval and information architecture. They provide in-depth background on the ideas you are discussing, including practical concerns around how terms are assigned to objects, and the degree to which they help us find and understand things. Justyna ----- Justyna Berzowska SLAIS PhD student University of British Columbia > Date: Sun, 15 Jan 2012 10:44:59 -1000 > From: Kevin Crowston <crowston(a)syr.edu> > To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org > Subject: Re: [Air-L] Are 'categories' the same as 'genres'? > > My colleagues and I have done a fair amount of research on web genres. You can see our papers at http://genres.syr.edu/ and a google search will turn up a number more (e.g., mini-tracks in past years at the HICSS conference). > > We were interested in these genres because we though it could be useful for understanding how people used the web and for supporting better information access (e.g., searching for a review vs. a purchase page for a product). > > But our experience with empirical studies suggests that it's a hard to use genres systematically. First, pages rarely represent what genre they represent. Second, users of web pages seem to use genre information, but often can't name the genre of a page they're looking at, and if they can say, they can't say how they know. > > I think we might be using a different definition of genre though: we were drawing on rhetoric and looking for genres like box score, product review, news article, organizational home page, etc. I get the sense that your definition is broader: comedy, tragedy perhaps? > > > > On 12-Jan-2012, at 12:28 PM, air-l-request(a)listserv.aoir.org wrote: > >> Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:16:37 -0800 >> From: "Ravindra N. Mohabeer" <mohabeerlists(a)gmail.com> >> To: Air-L(a)listserv.aoir.org >> Subject: [Air-L] Are 'categories' the same as 'genres'? >> Message-ID: <A08C4F4B-D083-4883-AC40-6779C012FE5F(a)gmail.com> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii >> >> Hello, >> >> Forgive me if this has been covered previously but a thought occurred to me just now as I prepped for my night course (yuck!) called "Understanding Television." >> >> I wondered how students today make sense of the notion of 'genre' and then I thought, well since most of them don't watch TV over the air (or cable or satellite) and get TV shows online (a whole other issue as to whether or not that's the same as watching TV), it makes sense to think of it in digital terms. >> >> So then I got to thinking, how do genres get represented on the Internet - through database categories used for indexing? Through site producers file structures? Through tagging? If so, how do we deal with the semantic arbitrariness of tagging between individual users? >> >> Even if categories are what can be considered genres today, do the different types of content that appear on various manifestations of the Internet fall into the same categories as other 'traditional media'? What are the genres in the age of the Internet and are they same as they ever were or altogether new? >> >> In this case it's just a question out of curiosity. >> >> Ravi >> --------------------------------------- >> Ravindra N. Mohabeer, PhD >> Media Studies >> Vancouver Island University >> Nanaimo, BC CANADA >> ravindra.mohabeer(a)viu.ca >> --------------------------------------- > > > Kevin Crowston > Syracuse University Phone: +1 (315) 443-1676 > School of Information Studies Fax: +1 (815) 550-2155 > 348 Hinds Hall Web: http://crowston.syr.edu/ > Syracuse, NY 13244-4100 USA >

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Are 'categories' the same as 'genres'?
by Ravindra N. Mohabeer 15 Jan '12

15 Jan '12

Hello, Forgive me if this has been covered previously but a thought occurred to me just now as I prepped for my night course (yuck!) called "Understanding Television." I wondered how students today make sense of the notion of 'genre' and then I thought, well since most of them don't watch TV over the air (or cable or satellite) and get TV shows online (a whole other issue as to whether or not that's the same as watching TV), it makes sense to think of it in digital terms. So then I got to thinking, how do genres get represented on the Internet - through database categories used for indexing? Through site producers file structures? Through tagging? If so, how do we deal with the semantic arbitrariness of tagging between individual users? Even if categories are what can be considered genres today, do the different types of content that appear on various manifestations of the Internet fall into the same categories as other 'traditional media'? What are the genres in the age of the Internet and are they same as they ever were or altogether new? In this case it's just a question out of curiosity. Ravi --------------------------------------- Ravindra N. Mohabeer, PhD Media Studies Vancouver Island University Nanaimo, BC CANADA ravindra.mohabeer(a)viu.ca ---------------------------------------

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Call for Proposals – 12th DIVERSE conference. July 3rd - July 6th 2012. Leuven, Belgium
by Johan Oomen 15 Jan '12

15 Jan '12

**apologies for cross posting** Call for Proposals – 12th DIVERSE conference. July 3rd - July 6th 2012. Leuven, Belgium The DIVERSE Conference is an annual gathering of academics, teachers, technologists and students that engages participants in an ongoing dialogue on the effective uses of visual media in education. The event includes a large number of presentations, discussions and workshops on a range of topics related to the conference themes. Conference website: http://www.diverse2012.eu/ ** Call for Papers ** The Call for Papers is now open. We kindly invite you to submit papers about projects, ideas, experiences or research results related to one of the following conference themes: 1. Engaging Learning Materials How to make video a more engaging learning object: How and why are you working on the enrichment of video content? Are you working on the creation of open content? What are your experiences with the use of video in e-books? Which combinations of content work and which do not? 2. Innovative Learning Spaces Visual resources and the future of education and research. Where does media fit in the future classroom? Will we see a convergence between the online learning space and the on-campus location in the future? How will upcoming technologies (mobile, virtual, community support, html5, etc.) change educational practice? 3. Access and Digital Ability How can visual media support or help people with special needs? Which choices are helpful, which create a challenge? What is your experience with closed captioning, audio description, subtitles, etc. in relation to digital video (such as lecture capturing)? 4. Blended Learning This track looks at practices and examples of blended learning initiatives, which can demonstrate the balancing act between physical classroom experiences and online learning experiences. At its simplest, blended learning environments are a thoughtful alignment of physical classroom learning experiences with online learning experiences. On one end this alignment can be the integration of audiovisual materials to foster an extensive understanding of a particular concept related to the learning context. On the other end the alignment of physical classroom learning experiences with online learning experiences can be the implementation of streaming audiovisual content (for example web lectures) to replace one of the learning experiences. There is a considerable intuitive appeal to this approach and to the concept of integrating the strengths of real-life and virtual learning activities. 5. Projects & Cases Interesting projects or experiments that think about other issues related to the use of visual media in education. This topic bundles all experiences or ideas you have and want to share with the DIVERSE community. All paper proposals must be submitted via the online submission form (which will be available by January 15th, 2012) on the Diverse 2012 website: http://www.diverse2012.eu/ • Abstracts must be submitted by March 15th, 2012. • Abstracts should be no longer than 250 words. • All abstracts will be peer reviewed prior to acceptance after which you will be notified whether your abstract has been accepted or not • Accepted papers will be invited to extend their abstract into a full paper, considered for publication in the conference proceedings which will be published Spring 2013 • If you are unfamiliar with the themes, levels of technicality or academic register of DIVERSE, please review some of the abstracts for one of the previous DIVERSE Conferences in Haarlem

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consent form for email exchanges
by Janet Salmons, Ph.D. 15 Jan '12

15 Jan '12

Elena, I would suggest that the content of your consent agreement, as well as its content, need to be re-thought for online interviews using email. Remember, consent agreements communicate to participants what they can expect from you, the researcher, and should inspire their trust in the safety and credibility of the study. For one thing, I would think it important to assure your participants of the privacy of your exchanges given the ease of forwarding email. Also, depending on the kind of program you are using, the email exchange may be stored on someone else's server, in the cloud. So I would think you would want to specify some practices such as saving the email to your hard drive and deleting the message on the server. Additionally-- is it possible that other information about the participant might be evident from the email service, such as in a profile, signature, links. Might that participant have a Twitter/Facebook/site/blog linked to the email? Do you want the ability to use any of the data the participant may have posted? If so you may want to acknowledge it in the consent letter. I've created some materials about informed consent, as well as a Survey Monkey form a participant can fill out and return (you can use/adapt the questions if they fit your study). You can find them here: http://bit.ly/rHxVNn. I discuss consent and other ethical issues in depth in *Online Interviews in Real Time*, and one case uses email interviews in *Cases in Online Interview Research* (both from Sage.) I agree with Robert-- your IRB may have particular guidelines on email interviews. However, I have not encountered a case where IRBs allowed data to be collected from an interview without a separate consent letter, as he indicated. In some of these areas there are not standard procedures used everywhere and you have to decide. If you want to publish findings you may want to err on the more conservative side and obtain consent. As well, there are other rules about use of digital signatures-- in the US some states do not honor them. In that case you'll need to have a way to obtain an original signature. Finally, I have another question for you: if you have some exchanges that are in-person, synchronous and verbal, and some that are written and asynchronous, the data you collect will be quite different. How will you account for this difference in your research design, and in your analysis? Have you considered conducting the online interviews using videoconferencing or Skype, which would be more comparable to an in-person in that you can see the participant, the participant has to reply in the moment, you get the non-verbals in terms of emotion and timing, facial expressions etc. Hope this is helpful and all the best for a successful study. Janet Janet Salmons, PhD *Capella University School of Business and Technology and Vision2Lead, Inc. *Site- http://www.vision2lead.com Follow Twitter at #einterview Now available: Cases in Online Interview Research<http://www.sagepub.com/books/Book235442> PO Box 943 Boulder, CO 80306-0943 jsalmons(a)vision2lead.com > Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:11:19 -0500 > From: Elena Razlogova <elena.razlogova(a)gmail.com> > To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org > Subject: [Air-L] consent form for email exchanges > Message-ID: <D339760A-27D4-4315-9A70-71E063C8E88A(a)gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > > 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 > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 4 > Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:18:26 -0600 > From: "Peaslee, Robert" <robert.peaslee(a)ttu.edu> > To: Elena Razlogova <elena.razlogova(a)gmail.com>, > "air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org" <air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org> > Subject: Re: [Air-L] consent form for email exchanges > Message-ID: <CB31EA29.6B5F%robert.peaslee(a)ttu.edu> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > My guess is that there will be some variability on this based on the > predilections of your institutional review board. My practice up to now > has been your former option in order to keep the consent form separate > from the data. But lately my IRB has been eschewing consent forms > altogether for exempt research (research that poses no reasonable risk) in > order to further minimize the possibilities for identification of subjects. > > I'd check with your IRB coordinator and get some feedback there, since > you'll probably get a variety of answers here. > > Best, > Rob > > Robert Moses Peaslee, Ph.D. > > Assistant Professor, Dept of Electronic Media & Communication > College of Mass Communications > Texas Tech University > > robert.peaslee(a)ttu.edu > 806 742 6500, x283 > > >

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