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Next Online Talk: Blake Hallinan & CJ Reynolds at Behind the Scenes: Conversations on Empirical Platform Governance Research
by Christian Katzenbach 17 Jan '25

17 Jan '25

Dear all, We're excited to announce our next instalment of our online talk series "Behind the Scenes: Conversations on Empirical Platform Governance Research", happening online this coming 28th of January 3-4pm CEST. For the occasion, we have Blake Hallinan & CJ Reynolds with a talk titled "Malcontents as method: How bad actors offer an alternative vision of good governance on social media“ https://platform-governance.org/online-talk-series/session-15-blake-hallina… Blake Hallinan (They/Them) is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Communication and Journalism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an affiliate of the ERC-funded DigitalValues project who researches participatory platform governance and CJ Reynolds (They/Them) is a PhD candidate in the Department of Communication and Journalism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem researching accountability and trust in state and platform contexts Please register at the event page: https://platform-governance.org/online-talk-series/session-15-blake-hallina… The series invites scholars in this field to share their experiences and views, fostering community exchange about how we can study platform governance in this challenging context. It is hosted by the Lab “Platform Governance, Media, and Technology” (PGMT) at the Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI), University of Bremen, and the Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen. Best, Paloma, Joao and Christian — Prof. Dr. Christian Katzenbach Professor of Media and Communication ZeMKI, University of Bremen | Lab Platform Governance, Media and Technology (PGMT) https://platform-governance.org/team/christian-katzenbach/ Recent Publications: – Special Issue: Automating Communication in the Digital Society, New Media & Society – Special Issue: Artificial Intelligence Controversies? Big Data & Society – Strong and Weak AI Narratives: an Analytical Framework. AI & Society – Imperfect Automation and the Human Fix, Human-Machine Communication – Imaginaries of AI, Critical AI Studies

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Call for abstracts: Infrastructuring AI. A view from the Global South
by Iginio Gagliardone 17 Jan '25

17 Jan '25

** Call for abstracts ** Infrastructuring AI. A view from the Global South / STS Italia Conference Milan, Italy, 11-13 June 2025. Panel organisers: Iginio Gagliardone, Wits University; Stefania Milan, University of Amsterdam Unprecedented efforts are underway to harness Artificial Intelligence (AI) “for good”. Unlike earlier initiatives using digital technologies to spur economic growth and improve service delivery, this new wave of digital innovation is fraught with ambivalence and complexity. While familiar narratives persist—portraying low-income countries as needing to “catch up”— new dynamics are surfacing. These include pushback against top-down innovation and fresh visions of the Global South’s role in digital transformation. These tensions— rooted both in lived experiences and conceptual innovations —reflect the evolving stakes of digital progress. Many individuals and groups have experienced first-hand the dramatic fading of the expectations digital tools will serve as “liberation technologies”. They have also long questioned the promises of benevolent connectedness or entrepreneurship made by large tech corporations, whose hypocrisy has been dramatically exposed by a steady stream of leaks— from former Facebook employee Francis Haugen to Uber executive Mark MacGann. Conceptually, innovative scholarship emerging at the intersection of Science and Technology Studies (STS), decolonial theory, and “computing in/from the South” is giving visibility both to legacies of colonial domination and to locally rooted forms of imagination and innovation. These reinvigorated efforts at decolonizing scholarship, as well as tech infrastructures and platforms, has begun offering new frameworks to interpret technological development. They challenge persistent stereotypes of low-income countries being condemned to uncritically replicate innovations from the Global North, while stressing new forms of agency in imagining distinct technological futures. With respect to AI, this means paying attention to “ground realities”, centering the understanding of AI in the experiences and standpoints of particular geographies and communities, and in their histories. To account for the complex interactions and the effects of these forces, this panel ask three orders of questions, accounting for infrastructure evolution, methods, and epistemological questions. First, this panel seeks to analyse applications of AI as they interface with pre-existing infrastructures, and thus need to relate to long term trajectories of innovation, as well to localised visions and materialities. For example, how do AI-powered surveillance interact with existing forms of control and policing? How electricity- and water-hungry data centres emerge in countries struggling to provide these basic services to their citizens? Do legacy infrastructures deployed by specific external actors (e.g. US or Chinese companies) make it more likely to acquire AI-powered solutions from the same sources? >From a methodological standpoint, we welcome studies that are able to critically interrogate processes of innovation, follow the multiple cycles through which power and technology interact, disclosing opportunities for some, but silently excluding others. Finally, from an epistemological perspective, we invite colleagues to explore how we can rethink the relation between AI and infrastructure from a Global South perspective. What theoretical building blocks can help to expand the rubric of STS for the Majority World? Here we seek to go beyond case studies to expand the theoretical toolbox of the discipline. For submission guidelines and panel details (panel no. 55) visit: https://stsitalia.org/call-for-abstracts/#theme Deadline for submissions: 3 February 2025

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CFP: Convergence Journal Special Issue - Utopian Media Studies
by Steve Jankowski 17 Jan '25

17 Jan '25

Utopian Media Studies: Research for collective forms of becoming otherwise Website: <https://textaural.com/utopianmediastudies/> PDF version < https://textaural.com/utopianmediastudies/CFP_UtopianMediaStudies_extended.… > Guest editors: Steve Jankowski (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands) Jakko Kemper (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands) Call for Papers Deadline for Abstract Submissions: March 1, 2025 Deadline for Full Papers: 15 August, 2025 Expected date of publication: March, 2025 There is growing sentiment within new media studies that the work of researchers must not only diagnose current issues around media, but also provide strategies for hope. As a recent issue of the journal Media Theory indicated, critique is not a silver bullet for the concerns of media, as it comes “with its own intellectual and political limitations” (Phelan et al 2024: 3). Nonetheless, critique remains a fundamental and necessary activity to articulate the matters of concern that are the roiling subtext of contemporary life: from surveillance capitalism to data colonisation, from labor exploitation to ecological disaster. Yet how do media studies researchers move with and beyond critique? To what degree is it possible for research to provide meaningful and hopeful perspectives that, at a minimum, enable just forms of coping with the contemporary plurality of crises and sow the seeds of thought and actions that lead to human and non-human flourishing? One answer can be found within the sub-branch of media archaeology that studies “imaginary media.” Over ten years ago, Eric Kluitenberg argued that while critique is necessary, media archaeologists must also learn “how to retain a certain utopian potential for the media” (2011: 55). This insight runs in line with Ernst Bloch’s belief that “philosophy will have conscience of tomorrow, commitment to the future, knowledge of hope, or it will have no more knowledge” (Greenaway 2024: 6). Luckily, it is not necessary to devise a completely new research program for media studies to have consciousness of tomorrow. This call for papers is dedicated to exploring the ways media studies scholars are doing utopian work when they critique, reconstitute and reimagine their research objects – and therefore serves to unite the disparate activities that are happening within the field today. One common approach has been to first deconstruct popular metaphors about new media and then reverse-engineer them. For instance, in the final chapter of Transcoding the Digital (2014), Marianne van den Boomen moves beyond a mere critique of prominent metaphors to discuss what it means to “hack” these metaphors in order to “organize and regulate digital space in different ways, thereby implicating different political orders” (2014: 192). Relatedly, we have seen a flurry of lexicons which stand as sets of ideas that encourage readers to approach media with fresh eyes. Examples of work in this vein are the Internet Policy Review’s “Glossary of decentralised technosocial systems” (Ferrari, 2021), Picard et al.’s Wastiary (2023), Thylstrup et al.’s Uncertain Archives (2021), Braidotti and Hlavajova’s _Posthuman Glossary_ (2018) and its followup More Posthuman Glossary (Braidotti et al. 2022). These works find good company with the recently released _Digital Media Metaphors_ (2024), in which Farkas and Maloney state that scholars often “uncritically adopt or produce metaphorical buzzwords with damaging consequences” (7). In contrast, _Digital Media Metaphors,_ like the other glossaries discussed here, re-emphasises “the need for ongoing collective and critical engagement with the metaphoric construction of our digitally mediated lives” (9). These efforts speak to the need to define, reclaim and mobilise the shifting terms that have been enlisted to imagine ourselves otherwise. There are still other efforts where critique is woven into creation. Here, fables, short stories, scenarios, and road maps work to either take current trajectories and push them to their extremes or create intellectual pathways that present alternate possible futures. Examples in this genre of scholarship have been Donna Haraway’s “The Camille Stories” in _Staying with the Trouble_ (2016), Mark Graham et al.’s _How to Run a City Like Amazon and other Fables_ (2019), Peter Frase’s _Four Futures_ (2016), James Muldoon’s _Platform Socialism_ (2022), and concluding chapters of works like Rosi Braidotti’s _The Posthuman_ (2013) and James Bridle’s _Ways of Being_ (2022) that offer critical speculations. Additionally, there has been an influx of journals dedicated to combining critique with creation, such as _The Journal of Media Art Study and Theory_ which began in 2020 as well as the final issue of _The Journal of Peer Production_ (Antoniadis and O’Neil 2022). In this context, we can also think of design projects like _Feral Atlas_ (Tsing et al. 2021) and the card game _The Oracle of Transfeminist Technologies_ (Varon 2023) that engage in playful and pedagogical practices of future-making. But producing utopian works within media studies is not limited to creative writing, making media art, or discussing grounded speculations about the future of media. It has also been observable in the designing of activist publics. Examples of this are found in the development of forums built to engage citizens with the ideas of data activism (Kazansky and Milan 2021), or manifestos concerning feminist data practice (Cifor et al. 2019), and public service media (Unterberger and Fuchs 2021). Similarly, there is the Amsterdam-based Critical Infrastructure Lab – with its pronounced focus on the co-development of research that moves from a “reactionary” approach to more “proactive” approaches that facilitate the emergence of new technological imaginaries (Ten Oever et al. 2024). In each of these cases, the purpose is to create localised social conditions in which citizens and academics can work together to bring about different visions of our media. Each of these types of research activities – dedicated to creating lexicons for new thought, producing literature and art, as well as designing publics – are as much indebted to critique as they are to creative efforts that establish a groundswell of hopeful activity. In this regard, these activities all speak to Steven Jackson’s suggestion that “it may be the patient nurturing and mutual transmission of hope, rather than the always disappointed search for revolutionary transformation or a historical agent, that forms the central task and challenge of critical scholarship today” (Jackson, 2024: 428). However, it is perhaps because of their heterogeneity that it has been difficult to see them as part of a cohesive and comprehensive way of doing media studies – a situation that was similarly identified in sociology’s latent method of utopia (Levitas 2013). As such, this special issue aims to gather together critiques and reconstitutions of media studies research that are utopian in their goals and practice. ## Special issue topics Submissions may include (but are not limited to) explorations of the following topics: – Media theorists, collectives, and projects that have contributed to media studies’ utopian tradition. – The utopian disciplinary visions of the political economy of communication, feminist media studies, new materialism, cybernetics, the environmental humanities, etc. – Media studies collectives/conferences/working groups dedicated to critiquing and reconstituting digitally mediated societies. – The genres of utopian media studies research such as the manifesto, participatory research with civil society, new media art and design, the speculative or fabulatory final chapter of monographs, policy recommendations reports. – The role of hope, optimism and utopian thinking in the study of technology. – The ways a utopian media studies can avoid the traditional perils, risks and exclusionary mechanisms associated with utopian thinking. – Reflections on how utopian and hopeful thinking can inform, shape and re-orient media studies methodologies. – Distinctions between the planetary and the local when it comes to media utopias. – The question of how utopian traditions can be more structurally integrated into media studies programs and curricula. ## Important dates 1. Abstract submission date: 1 March 2025 2. Acceptance/rejection feedback: 30 April 2025 3. Authors submit full papers: 15 August 2025 4. Peer reviews completed: 15 October 2025 5. Revised papers submitted: 15 December 2025 6. Final acceptance: 15 February 2026 ## Submission Guidelines Please submit an extended abstract of 500 words (including references) that includes the research question, argument, outlines the theoretical framework, and clearly explains the contribution to the special issue theme. The submission will also include the names, titles, and contact information for 2-3 suggested reviewers. We especially welcome submissions from researchers from the Global South. Please email abstracts to utopianmediastudies(a)gmail.com by 1 March 2025. Accepted abstracts must be original, unpublished works. These will undergo a blind peer-review process following the usual procedures for Convergence. Please take care to follow the submission guidelines of the journal. No payment from the authors will be required. If you have further questions, please contact the guest editors, Steve Jankowski (s.jankowski(a)uva.nl) and Jakko Kemper (j.kemper(a)uva.nl) We look forward to receiving your contributions. ## Editors Steve Jankowski is an Assistant Professor in New Media Histories at the department of Media Studies Department (University of Amsterdam) and the principal investigator of the Wikimedia Foundation-funded project, Slow Editing Towards Equity. He has published articles about Wikipedia in journals such as _Internet Histories_ and the _Journal of Peer Production_ and has published in the _De Guyter’s Handbook of Automated Futures_ (2024). He is interested in the intersections between digital culture, interface design, and the imaginaries of democracy and knowledge. Jakko Kemper is Assistant Professor in Digital Aesthetics and Platform Vernaculars at the department of Media Studies (University of Amsterdam). He is the author of the book _Frictionlessness_ (Bloomsbury, 2024), co-editor of the volume Imperfections (Bloomsbury, 2021), and has published work in, among other journals, _Theory, Culture & Society,_ _Media Theory,_ and _Information, Communication & Society._ Currently, his research focuses on the environmental implications of generative AI and on the representation of nature within digital cultures. ## References Antoniadis P and O’Neil M (2022) Editorial notes: Researching transition, transitioning research. *Journal of Peer Production*, 15, http://peerproduction.net/editsuite/issues/issue-15-transition/editorial-no… (accessed 11 November 2024). Boomen M van den (2014) *Transcoding the digital: How metaphors matter in new media.* Institute of Network Cultures. Braidotti R (2013) *The Posthuman.* Polity Press. Braidotti R and Hlavajova M (2018) *Posthuman Glossary.* Bloomsbury Academic. Braidotti R, Jones E and Klumbyte G (2022) *More Posthuman Glossary.* Bloomsbury Academic. Bridle J (2023) *Ways of Being.* Picador. Cifor M, Garcia P, Cowan, TL, Rault J, Sutherland T, Chan A, Rode J, Hoffmann AL, Salehi N, and Nakamura L (2019) *Feminist Data Manifest-No.* https://www.manifestno.com/ (accessed 11 November 2024). Farkas J and Maloney M (2024) *Digital Media Metaphors: A Critical Introduction.* Routledge. Ferrari V (2021) Introducing the glossary of decentralised technosocial systems. *Internet Policy Review,* 10(2). Frase P (2016) *Four futures: Visions of the World After Capitalism.* Verso. Fuchs C and Unterberger K (2021) *The Public Service Media and Public Service Internet Manifesto.* University of Westminster Press. Greenaway J (2024) *A Primer on Utopian Philosophy*. Zero Books. Haraway D (2016) *Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene.* Duke University Press. Jackson S (2023) “Ordinary hope.” In: Papadopoulos D, Puig de la Bellacasa M and Tacchetti M (eds) *Ecological Reparation.* Bristol University Press. Kazansky B and Milan S (2021) “Bodies not templates”’: Contesting dominant algorithmic imaginaries. *New Media & Society,* 23(2): 363–381. Kluitenberg E (2011) On the Archaeology of Imaginary Media. In: Huhtamo E and Parikka J (eds) *Media archaeology: Approaches, applications, and implications.* University of California Press, pp. 48–69. Levitas R (2013) *Utopia as Method: The Imaginary Reconstitution of Society.* Palgrave macmillan. Graham M, Kitchin R, Mattern S and Shaw J (2019) *How to Run a City Like Amazon and other Fables.* Meatspace Press. Muldoon J (2022) *Platform Socialism.* Pluto Press. Muliaee M and Mehrvarz M (2020) Mapping media studies: An introduction. *MAST,* 1(1): 2–7. Picard M, Brenchat-Aguilar A, Carroll T, Gilbert J and Miller N (2023) *Wastiary: A Bestiary of Waste.* UCL Press. Ten Oever N, Maxigas, Jansen F, Gorchakova N, Vorndran S, Kuznetsov D and Zhang E (2024) *Critical Infrastructure Lab.* https://www.criticalinfralab.net (accessed 11 November 2024). Tsing AL, Deger J, Saxena AK and Zhou F (2021) *Feral Atlas.* https://feralatlas.org (accessed 11 November 2024). Varon J (2023) On envisioning alternative transfeminist futures. In: Place A (ed) *Feminist Designer: On the Personal and the Political in Design.* MIT Press.

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ISOC Foundation announces 2025 Research Grantees
by Joly MacFie 17 Jan '25

17 Jan '25

https://www.isocfoundation.org/2025/01/meet-our-2024-research-grantees-shap… Our Research Grant Program <https://www.isocfoundation.org/grant-programme/research-grant-programme/> supports global initiatives that enhance our understanding of the Internet and its importance to everyone. We are thrilled to announce the 2024 cohort of grant partners who will conduct innovative studies addressing the Internet’s critical challenges while also contributing to its sustainability and inclusivity. This year’s *12 selected projects from six countries* will employ innovative approaches to addressing Internet-related challenges through the program’s core themes: a Trustworthy Internet, Decolonizing the Internet, Greening the Internet, and the Internet Economy. *Decolonizing the Internet* *University of California <https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/>, Berkeley* – USA – USD $316,919 Project: Supporting Languages in the Digital Age *Arizona State University <https://www.asu.edu/>* – USA – USD $460,000 Project: Internet for all Native Americans *Western Sydney University <https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/>* – Australia – USD $474,887 Project: Decolonising digital design: Towards safe and inclusive digital experiences for children and young people *Greening the Internet* *University of California <https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/>*, Berkeley – USA – USD $499,999 Project: Greening the Internet: Transforming Useful Research into Used Outcomes *German Informatics Society <https://yigf.gi.de/>* – Germany – USD $349,994 Project: Unlocking the Potential of Green Coding into Practice *Ellen Strickland* – New Zealand – USD $199,842 Project: Internet Infrastructure Climate Resilience Coalition: Action research in Aotearoa, New Zealand *TechSoup Global <https://www.techsoup.org/>in partnership with Tamara Kneese* – USA – USD $200,000 Project: Greening through collective action: Assessing the Internet’s environmental impacts with participatory methods *An Internet Economy* *TEDIC <https://www.tedic.org/>* – Paraguay – USD $345,000 Project: Ensuring fair work standards in the digital realm: A multi-faceted approach in South America *TechSoup Global <https://www.techsoup.org/> in partnership with PersonalData.IO <https://personaldata.io/en/home-en/>* – Switzerland – USD $495,000 Project: Decoding Algorithmic Management for Platform Workers’ Calculative Power *A Trustworthy Internet* *Internet Security Research Group <https://www.abetterinternet.org/>* – USA – USD $350,000 Project: Building Divvi Up, a System for Privacy-Preserving Metrics Collection *Georgia Institute of Technology <https://www.gatech.edu/>* – USA – USD $350,000 Project: Governing Identity Online: Nations and Technologists Defining Who’s Who? *Code for Science & Society <https://www.codeforsociety.org/> in partnership with **Distributed AI Research Institute* <https://www.dair-institute.org/>– USA – USD $500,000 Project: Community-Centered Sovereign Language Technologies for Online Knowledge Repositories To learn more about the Internet Society Foundation’s Research Grant Program <https://www.isocfoundation.org/grant-programme/research-grant-programme/> and stay updated on future opportunities, sign up for our newsletter <https://mailchi.mp/isocfoundation/signup?utm_source=social+media&utm_medium…> . -- -------------------------------------- Joly MacFie +12185659365 -------------------------------------- -

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Creative Labour and Critical Futures (CLCF) Website Launch
by Rafael Do Nascimento Grohmann 16 Jan '25

16 Jan '25

Hi there! We’re delighted to share some news from the Creative Labour and Critical Futures (CLCF) project: 📣 Website Launch CLCF is excited to announce the launch of its new website. Follow our work here<https://criticaldigitalmethods.ca/creative-labour-critical-futures/>! Explore our research, projects, and events focused on creative labour in the context of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The website is designed by Jermaine Williams, a University of Toronto graduate who has worked with several scholarly online projects. 💡 What is CLCF? Based in the Department of Arts, Culture, and Media at UTSCC) and co-led by M.E. Luka and Rafael Grohmann, the CLCF cluster is studying the potential for creative workers to generate transformative technological and social futures in Canada and internationally today. What, how, and why do we need a set of critical ethical approaches to digital research in the wake of challenges posed by AI – the latest in a series of technological transformations not just to the creative sector but to society itself? How can we imagine and design critical and creative futures for creative workers considering this latest AI context? ✨ Our Logo The CLCF logo was designed by the tech worker cooperative Alternativa Laboral Trans<https://altcooperativa.com/index.php/en/home-english/> (ALT), based in Argentina, formed and led by trans people. The CLCF hired this cooperative for their incredible talent and as a direct way to activate an ethical approach to digital tech design. This commitment is aligned with the campaign Hire a Coop<https://hireacoop.tech/en>, co-organized by the Argentine Federation of Tech Co-ops (FACTTIC<https://facttic.org.ar/>), with the aim of raising awareness among universities to hire cooperatives for tech services. -- dr. Rafael Grohmann Assistant Professor of Media Studies Department of Arts, Culture and Media<https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/acm/rafael-grohmann> Faculty of Information<https://ischool.utoronto.ca/profile/rafael-grohmann/> University of Toronto Leader, DigiLabour<https://digilabour.com.br/> Research Associate, University of Oxford<https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/people/profiles/rafael-grohmann/> Founding Editor, Platforms & Society<https://journals.sagepub.com/home/PNS> Principal Investigator, Worker-Owned Intersectional Platforms (WOIP)<https://digilabour.com.br/worker-owned-intersectional-platforms-woip/> Co-Lead, Creative Labour and Critical Futures (CLCF)<https://dhn.utoronto.ca/cdhi-members-launch-creative-labour-and-critical-fu…> 2024-2025 Faculty Fellow, Queer and Trans Research Lab, Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies, University of Toronto<https://sds.utoronto.ca/qtrl-cohort-2024-25/>

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WEBCAST JAN 16 – IPNSIG Academy: How to Benefit Today from Future Interplanetary Internet Infrastructure: Why and How to Join IPNSIG’s Project Working Group
by Joly MacFie 16 Jan '25

16 Jan '25

The combination of IoT with DTN has many possibilities. While the reindeer project which is the main focus today is the exemplar of terrestrial DTN, Samo Grasic will also mention efforts in other regions including Nepal. REAL TIME TEXT https://bit.ly/4gVpj1n On Thursday January 16, 2024, at 5pm-6pm EST (23:00-23:00 UTC) the Interplanetary Networking Special Interest Group (IPNSIG) presents an IPNSIG Academy Keynote 'How to Benefit Today from Future Interplanetary Internet Infrastructure: Why and How to Join … ISOC LIVE NOTICEBOARD <https://isoc.live> Read on blog <https://isoc.live/18744/> or Reader <https://public-api.wordpress.com/bar/?stat=groovemails-events&bin=wpcom_ema…> [image: isoc live] <http://isoc.live?action=user_content_redirect&uuid=eca52a97bb26c2f04af28961…>On *Thursday January 16, 2024*, at* 5pm-6pm EST* (23:00-23:00 UTC) the *Interplanetary Networking Special Interest Group <http://isoc.live?action=user_content_redirect&uuid=1750bc3e6d0f32c2f7e8ee18…>* (IPNSIG) presents an IPNSIG Academy Keynote '*How to Benefit Today from Future Interplanetary Internet Infrastructure: Why and How to Join IPNSIG's Project Working Group <http://isoc.live?action=user_content_redirect&uuid=285248968dc0ebadbe6a6366…>* '. How can the Interplanetary Internet help us solve terrestrial networking challenges today? This keynote explores the *Delay and Disruption Tolerant Networking <http://isoc.live?action=user_content_redirect&uuid=0d48f016205da9ec3d12c254…> *(DTN) architecture—originally designed to handle vast distances, disruptions, and celestial mechanics in space communications—and shows why its principles apply equally well here on Earth. *Samo Grasic <http://isoc.live?action=user_content_redirect&uuid=9ca8dfead321e33beab6e8e1…>* will dive into the key DTN characteristics that make it robust, reliable, and resilient, and examine concrete examples of DTN’s benefits for terrestrial use cases. Since 2016 Samo has been employed at Dálvvadis Economical Association, where he leads the design and development of the *Nomatrack LoRa-DTN platform <http://isoc.live?action=user_content_redirect&uuid=5368e7d21fda0937e03a678a…>*. This platform, specifically crafted for reindeer herding purposes in remote Arctic environments, has been widely deployed by the Dalvvadis association in the north of Sweden. *SPEAKER* *Samo Grasic* - Lead, IPNSIG Pilot Project Working Group *MODERATOR* *Mike Snell* - IPNSIG *LIVESTREAM https://youtu.be/XDDwvRO7IcA <http://isoc.live?action=user_content_redirect&uuid=1f7a4f9a787ec86c504500e6…>* *PARTICIPATE VIA ZOOM https://bit.ly/40A14QB <http://isoc.live?action=user_content_redirect&uuid=285248968dc0ebadbe6a6366…>* *REAL TIME TEXT https://bit.ly/4gVpj1n <http://isoc.live?action=user_content_redirect&uuid=6c8cf82650d3640ace837593…>* *TWITTER #IPNSIGacademy <http://isoc.live?action=user_content_redirect&uuid=bcc4ac0c08e5ba462a3bd0ca…> #DTN #IPNSIG @IPNSIG @Dalvvadis #LoRaDTN* *#IPNSIG MASTODON <http://isoc.live?action=user_content_redirect&uuid=3427830084e41236595311c3…> | BLUESKY <http://isoc.live?action=user_content_redirect&uuid=32404478e0295827146d95a8…> | INSTA <http://isoc.live?action=user_content_redirect&uuid=27d759b48f90748514b5c2c3…>* *SIMULCASTS* *https://twitter.com/ISOC_Live <http://isoc.live?action=user_content_redirect&uuid=0d206e5eb40b93552778950f…>* *https://www.twitch.tv/isoclive <http://isoc.live?action=user_content_redirect&uuid=b610be3f6a36153986b6eaff…>* *https://www.facebook.com/liveisoc/ <http://isoc.live?action=user_content_redirect&uuid=4c5d53f42a264dc590944cc9…>* (AI Captions) *https://www.facebook.com/ipnisoc/ <http://isoc.live?action=user_content_redirect&uuid=a0fc46975980d189da83f01c…> *(AI Captions) *ARCHIVE* *https://archive.org/details/ipnsigacademy24 <http://isoc.live?action=user_content_redirect&uuid=11dd3cbdc5d7a7a7be3e3682…> *(when available) *** ISOC.LIVE is a free webcasting support service for the Internet Society Community ISOC LIVE is currently unfunded - if you would like to become a monthly sponsor - contact support(a)isoc.live *** -- -------------------------------------- Joly MacFie +12185659365 -------------------------------------- -

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Call for 4S abstracts - Back to Black Marxism: Convening racial capitalism theories and STS
by Anoolia Gakhokidze 16 Jan '25

16 Jan '25

Dear colleagues, We are soliciting abstracts for panels at the upcoming 4S conference in Seattle. Here is the call in its entirety: Back to Black Marxism: Convening racial capitalism theories and STS It’s been more than 4 decades since the original publication of Cedric J. Robinson’s monumental work Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition in 1983. In it, Robinson challenges the framing often present in Western critical theory wherein capitalism is seen as a departure from feudalism. Instead, his theory of racial capitalism invites us to see capitalism as a configuration of world order that requires racialized forms of control and domination including imperialism, slavery, and genocide as a precondition. Previous discourse in STS has considered what new insights the field can gain from Black studies, critical race and ethnic studies, Marxist, and other critical approaches. We are interested in deepening existing engagements to attend to the ways STS can benefit from dialogue with theories of racial capitalism. The following questions are meant to offer a starting point: - How can STS approaches be expanded through an analytical lens that views capitalism as being co-constructed with race, racism, and racialism? - How can STS learn from insights of racial capitalism including but not limited to difference, racialized labor hierarchies and wage scales, racialized regimes of property? - What are, if any, the disciplinary limitations and knowledge politics in STS that potentially preclude it from meaningfully engaging with theories of racial capitalism? We welcome contributions from community researchers, academics, independent scholars, and others with similar commitments to interrogating and expanding ways of researching how science and technology are tied up with logics of capital, race and racialism, and empire. In this panel we seek to convene scholars and practitioners across a variety of disciplines and knowledge-making practices in a conversation on expanding the repertoire of approaches to studying science and technology. This conversation will be moderated by scholars who work across disciplines of geography, anthropology, feminist studies, and human-computer interaction. Anoolia Gakhokidze, University of Washington annygakhokidze(a)gmail.com Diego Martinez-Lugo, University of Washington diegoml(a)uw.edu Sucheta Ghoshal, University of Washington sghoshal(a)uw.edu (discussant) Erin McElroy, University of Washington erinmcel(a)uw.edu (discussant) This panel is intended to be in-person Thank you, -Anoolia

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DATA VIOLENCE//DATA SOLIDARITIES - 4S call for abstracts
by Linda Huber 16 Jan '25

16 Jan '25

Hello all! We wanted to draw your attention to our call for abstracts to the DATA VIOLENCE//DATA SOLIDARITIES workshop to be held at 4S in Seattle in the fall. We are specifically looking for scholarly, creative, and activist work exploring modes of resistance,forms of solidarity, and alternate data configurations in the face of environmental, colonial, political-economic and representational data violence. In addition to a panel featuring short presentations, the second half of this combined format panel will be a Data Solidarities Workshop. Using ideas introduced through the short presentations, we will engage in speculative co-design for a theory and praxis of data solidarities. This panel / abstract is meant to be a generative space, and we welcome questions / proposals / ideas. Please feel free to reach out to us directly - the full call for abstracts is pasted below. Deadline: January 31 Submission link: https://www.4sonline.org/accepted_open_panels_seattle.php Rebecca Smith, Assistant Professor, Lawrence Technological University Department of Architecture Linda Huber, PhD Candidate, University of Michigan School of Information Full call for abstracts: The emerging representational and environmental violence of generative AI can be understood as only the newest manifestation of decades of data violence. Scholars have shown how datafication reproduces and extends projects of surveillance / militarism (Suchman 2023); colonialism and capitalist extraction of value (Dyer-Witheford et al 2019; Mejias & Couldry 2019); white supremacy and gender essentialism (Scherman et al 2021, Benjamin 2019, Brown 2015). Data violence is enacted at a material-semiotic level, through binaristic modes of computation, abstraction, classification, and decontextualization (Jefferson 2020, Bering-Porter 2022) - and is enabled and amplified through violent legal regimes of private property, carcerality, and financialization. Many techniques and strategies for resistance to data violence are already emerging, including counter-mapping (Maharawal & McElroy 2017), critical visualization (D'Ignazio & Klein 2020), data solidarities and collectivities (Prainsack et al 2017), and speculative design (Dunne & Raby 2013, Kim & DiSalvo 2010). Through this combined format panel, we will continue developing conceptual and practical tools for interrupting data violence. We ask: - What might it look like to pursue ‘data solidarities’, rooted in a praxis of mutualism and interdependence? - How might data solidarities be enacted at the level of semiotics and structure, through new forms and models of data-as-representation? - How can we exploit the collectivized nature of data-value to interrupt current models of private property and ownership? What alternative kinds of claims or rights to data can we explore, rooted in collective responsibility and stewardship? - What tactics can help us to interrupt the political, economic and social infrastructures enabling data violence? We invite submissions from those engaging with these questions in scholarly, activist, and creative registers. This Combined Form Open Panel will be broken into two parts. The first component will feature short presentations which respond to, document, or critically examine enactments of data violence and / or data solidarities. The second component will be a Data Solidarities Workshop, using ideas introduced through the short presentations to engage in speculative co-design for collecting, generative, and developing a theory and praxis for data solidarities. Dyer-Whitheford, Nick, Kjosen, Atle Mikkola, and Steinhoff, James. Inhuman Power: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Capitalism. London: Pluto Press, 2019. Couldry, Nick ; Mejias, Ulises A. “Data Colonialism: Rethinking Big Data’s Relation to the Contemporary Subject.” Television & New Media. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications, 2019. doi:10.1177/1527476418796632. Scheuerman, Morgan Klaus; Pape, Madeleine; Hanna, Alex. “Auto-Essentialization: Gender in Automated Facial Analysis as Extended Colonial Project.” Big Data & Society. London, England: SAGE Publications, 2021. doi:10.1177/20539517211053712. Benjamin, Ruha. Race after Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code. Cambridge, UK; Medford, MA: Polity, 2019. Browne, Simone. Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness. Durham: Duke University Press, 2015. Jefferson, Brian Jordan. Digitize and Punish: Racial Criminalization in the Digital Age. Minneapolis, Minnesota ; London: University of Minnesota Press, 2020. Bering-Porter, David. “Data as Symbolic Form: Datafication and the Imaginary Media of W. E. B. Du Bois.” Critical Inquiry. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2022. doi:10.1086/717308. D'Ignazio, Catherine and Klein, Lauren F. Data Feminism. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2020. Maharawal, Manissa M. ; McElroy, Erin. “The Anti-Eviction Mapping Project: Counter Mapping and Oral History toward Bay Area Housing Justice.” Annals of the American Association of Geographers. Washington: Routledge, 2018. doi:10.1080/24694452.2017.1365583. Dunne, Anthony and Raby, Fiona. Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2013. Kim, Tanyoung, & DiSalvo, Carl. “Speculative Visualization: A New Rhetoric for Communicating Public Concerns” In Design Research Society International Conference of Design & Complexity. 2010. Prainsack, Barbara ; El-Sayed, Seliem ; Forgó, Nikolaus ; Szoszkiewicz, Łukasz ; Baumer, Philipp. “Data Solidarity: A Blueprint for Governing Health Futures.” The Lancet. Digital Health, 2022. doi:10.1016/S2589-7500(22)00189-3. -- *Linda Huber, she/her* *PhD Candidate, University of Michigan School of Information <https://www.si.umich.edu/about-umsi>* *+1 773 575 7783*

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GIG-ARTS 2025: Keynote Speakers. Submissions deadline 31 January 2025
by Mauro SANTANIELLO 16 Jan '25

16 Jan '25

Dear Colleagues, We are delighted to announce the keynote speakers for the Ninth GIG-ARTS Conference, taking place at the *University of Salerno on 26-27 May 2025*. *Frédérick Douzet*, a leading scholar on the geopolitics of cyberspace and *Paul Timmers*, renowned expert in cybersecurity and digital sovereignty, will deliver keynote addresses during the event. Detailed biographies for both speakers can be found at the end of this email. This is also a friendly reminder that the deadline to submit extended abstracts is *31 January 2025*. Submissions should be made via the conference portal: https://conftool2025.gig-arts.eu/. This edition's conference theme, *“The rise of digital sovereignty: ambiguities and challenges,”* invites thought-provoking discussions and research contributions. Participants are encouraged to submit abstracts of no more than 500 words, outlining their research question(s), theoretical framework, approach and methodology, and expected findings or empirical outcomes. All abstracts will be evaluated through a peer-review process. Additional information about the conference, including registration fees and logistics, is available at: https://gig-arts.eu/salerno-2025/. We warmly invite you to take part in this exciting event by submitting your research and engaging in the discussions. Should you have any questions, please feel free to reach out. Also, don’t hesitate to share this information with colleagues who may be interested in participating. *Keynote speakers biographies:* *Frédérick Douzet *is Professor of Geopolitics at the University of Paris 8, director of the French Institute of Geopolitics research team (IFG Lab) and director of the Center Geopolitics of the Datasphere (GEODE). She has been appointed senior member of the Institut Universitaire de France in 2022 and is the Principal Investigator of the ERC Advanced Grant project DATAROUTES. Frédérick Douzet has been a Commissioner of the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace (2017-2020) and a member of the French Defense Ethics Committee (2020-2023). In 2017, she was part of the drafting committee for the French Strategic Review of Defense and National Security. >From 2013 to 2018, she was the director of the Castex Chair of Cyberstrategy at the Institute of Higher National Defense Studies (IHEDN). In 2021, she was a member of the Bronner Commission on Disinformation appointed by President Emmanuel Macron. *Paul Timmers* is a research associate at the University of Oxford, Oxford Internet Institute, professor at the European University Cyprus, visiting professor at KU Leuven, President of the Supervisory Board Estonian eGovernance Academy, CEO of iivii and partner at WeltWert®. He was a board member of the Digital Enlightenment Forum and visiting professor at several universities and visiting fellow and research associate at the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford. Paul Timmers was Director at the European Commission where he was responsible for legislation and funding programmes for cybersecurity, e-ID, digital privacy, digital health, smart cities, e-government. At the EC he was also a cabinet member of European Commissioner Liikanen. He worked as manager of a software department in a large ICT company and co-founded an ICT start-up. He holds a physics PhD from Radboud University (Nijmegen, NL), MBA from Warwick University (UK), EU fellowship at UNC Chapel Hill (US), and cybersecurity qualification from Harvard. Best wishes, The Organizing Committee Prof. Mauro Santaniello (PhD) Associate Professor in Political Science ICPC <https://www.internetpolicyresearch.eu/> Director| GIG-ARTS <https://gig-arts.eu/> Coordinator| SWING <https://www.internetpolicyresearch.eu/swing-2025> Scientific Coordinator UNU-CRIS <https://cris.unu.edu/people> Associate Research Fellow | PRIN on Digital Sovereignty <https://www.internetpolicyresearch.eu/internet-and-communication-policy-cen…> Principal Investigator Latest publications <https://docenti.unisa.it/023694/ricerca/pubblicazioni>

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CFP: SEASON 2025: Inaugural Conference of the Search Engines and Society Network
by Rosie Graham 16 Jan '25

16 Jan '25

Dear Association of Internet Researchers, Inaugural Conference of the Search Engines and Society Network (SEASON 2025) On behalf of the Search Engines and Society Network (SEASON), we invite you to attend the inaugural conference of the network, to be held at HAW Hamburg, Germany, 24th – 25th September 2025. SEASON is an annual conference that explores the multifaceted role of search engines in today's culture and society. SEASON brings together researchers from different fields and fosters interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration to deepen our understanding of search engines as cultural, societal, and technical artefacts, as well as how they are used in various practices. After successful workshops in Lund (2021), Vienna (2022), Hamburg (2023) and Birmingham (2024), we feel it is time to broaden the research engagement into a conference series. We are pleased to announce the next edition of SEASON in Hamburg. This year, we aim to develop the conference to invite submissions for presentations, panels, posters, and experimental formats. Official Conference Webpage: https://easychair.org/cfp/SEASON2025 Conference theme We welcome submissions on topics such as: * Social and cultural aspects of relevance * Epistemic implications of search-engine use * Search engines and Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) * Search engines and disinformation * AI and changing patterns of search engine use * Search engine providers’ responsibility and accountability * Search engines as multi-sided platforms * History of web search and web search engines * Search engine bias and fair search * Ethical considerations related to search engines * Affect and emotional aspects of search engine use * Information literacy related to search engines * Search engines and specific groups (children, elderly,...) * Search engines and studies of ignorance and information avoidance * Search engines in everyday life and in social practices * Search engines in educational settings * Alternative approaches to concepts of indexing in search engines * Search engines and the role of data voids * Negotiations of search results (search engine optimization, paid search advertising) * Search engine comparisons (e.g., comparing results tailored to different locations, comparing results from different search engines) * Methods for search engine research * Data collection for search engine studies * Approaches to “opening the Black Box of search engine rankings” We welcome conceptual and empirical submissions from a broad range of disciplinary backgrounds, including the humanities, social sciences, and technical disciplines. We welcome approaches transgressing disciplinary boundaries and submissions from individuals from outside academia. Submissions discussing work in progress are welcome. We also encourage students to submit contributions. Submission categories Authors can submit their work in the following categories: * Papers: Papers should be submitted in the form of an extended abstract. The maximum length of extended paper abstracts is 1000 words (excluding references). * Interactive Sessions (for example, panels and workshops): should be designed for 60-90 minutes. The proposal should include the purpose, abstract and format and be a maximum of 1000 words (excluding references). * Posters: Posters should be submitted in the form of an abstract with a maximum of 500 words (excluding references). * Shorts: An opportunity to discuss ongoing research or present interventions (short informal presentations of less than 20 minutes): Proposals should be submitted in the form of abstracts (maximum 500 words, excluding references) that describe the topic of your presentation and include some information about its structure. Submission Guidelines * Papers should be submitted as a .PDF file. * Place the title of the paper in bold at the top of the first page only. On the next line, include the names of the author(s), along with their email addresses and affiliations. * References should follow the Harvard referencing style. * Please ensure the paper has been carefully proofread. Please submit your contribution at https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=season2025 Accepted contributions will be available for downloading for conference participants in advance of the conference. All accepted abstracts will be freely accessible to everyone after the conference. * Submission for all categories via EasyChair: 30th of April 2025 * Notification: 16th of June 2025 * Revised submissions: 15th of July 2025 * Registration: from June 2025 * Conference dates: 24-25 September 2025 Conference fee There will be a modest conference fee that covers dinner and refreshments. Keynote speakers To be announced. Programme committee * Rosie Graham, University of Birmingham, UK * Jutta Haider, SSLIS, University of Borås, Sweden * Dirk Lewandowski, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Germany * Astrid Mager, Institute of Technology Assessment Vienna (ITA), Austria * Renée Ridgway, Aarhus University, Denmark * Sebastian Schultheiß, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Germany * Olof Sundin, Lund University, Sweden * Kristofer Söderström, Lund University, Sweden Travel information The organisers recommend that participants travel by train. The event will take place at the Faculty of Design, Media and Information at Finkenau 35 in Hamburg. Contact Information We look forward to welcoming you to Hamburg in September. If you have any queries or questions, please contact programme chair Olof Sundin (olof.sundin(a)kultur.lu.se<mailto:olof.sundin@kultur.lu.se>), or one of the local chairs, Dirk Lewandowski (dirk.lewandowski(a)haw-hamburg.de<mailto:dirk.lewandowski@haw-hamburg.de>) and Sebastian Schultheiß (sebastian.schultheiss(a)haw-hamburg.de<mailto:sebastian.schultheiss@haw-hamburg.de>).

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