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Bartle Test
by katie vizenor 20 Sep '11

20 Sep '11

Hi I am wondering if anyone has ever used the Bartle test? I see that the survey seems to be maintained at gamerdna. Is there a way to get a copy of this survey? I am interested in using it (or some modified version of it) to examine the make up of the disability community in Second Life. Has anyone ever used this to look at the difference between user content created worlds vs MMORPGs? How could I get a copy of the survey for use? Is this test even worthwhile? Thanks for any and all help. Katie Vizenor, MA, MLS Anthropology PhD Candidate, University at Buffalo Senior Researcher, American Foundation for the Blind

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Faculty position in Social Computing at UM School of Information
by Soo Young Rieh 19 Sep '11

19 Sep '11

Faculty Position in Social Computing Rank: Assistant Professor The University of Michigan's School of Information (SI) seeks a tenure-track assistant professor in the field of social computing. We define social computing as computing about social relations, computing in support of new forms of social interactions, and research focusing on the social relations enabled by computing. Its applications include: the analysis and design of online communities; social media and networking; user-contributed content; and new frontiers such as crowdsourcing, collective intelligence and new forms of virtual organizations. A successful candidate will be passionate about interdisciplinary work and could be trained in a social science (e.g., communication studies, economics, psychology or sociology), design sciences, computer science, or a natural science (as applied to social behavior). The crucial characteristic is that the candidate be focused on understanding patterns of human interactions using computational techniques, designing and evaluating technologies that enable new forms of interaction, or understanding the role of social media in society. SI faculty have been leaders in the development, application and analysis of many of the underlying techniques used in social computing technologies, including recommender and reputation systems, prediction markets, online communities, and systems for computer-supported cooperative work. For all SI positions, we favor candidates whose research interests complement our existing expertise in such areas as computer-supported cooperative work; digital archives and preservation; human-computer interaction; incentive-centered design and information economics; information seeking, sharing and use; Internet-scale data, network and text analysis; social computing and informatics. The mission of the School of Information is to create knowledge so people can use information and technology to build a better world, and to educate socially-engaged information professionals. A successful candidate will be committed to, and will directly contribute to our goal of being the best research and teaching institution in socially engaged information and computing. The School is home to a dynamic and vibrant research and teaching program, with 35 FTE faculty, over 50 doctoral students, and over 400 students in its professional program, the Master of Science in Information. The School is commencing a new master’s program, in Health Informatics, in fall 2012, offered jointly with the School of Public Health. In partnership with other units, we recently launched an undergraduate informatics major. Founded in 1817, the University of Michigan has a long and distinguished history as one of the first public universities in the nation. It is one of only two public institutions consistently ranked among the nation's top ten universities. The University has one of the largest health care complexes in the world and one of the best library systems in the United States. With more than $1 billion in research expenditures annually, the University has the second largest research expenditure among all universities in the nation. The University has an annual general fund budget of more than $1.4 billion and an endowment valued at more than $7.57 billion. Qualifications: * Ph.D. in a relevant area, such as psychology, economics, sociology, computer science, informatics, or other areas in the social or technical sciences * Demonstrated potential for successful teaching at the undergraduate and graduate level * Demonstrated potential for high scholarly impact * A strong commitment to teaching, interdisciplinary research, and cultural diversity Review of applications will begin November 1 and continue until the position is filled. For more information or to apply, please visit http://www.si.umich.edu/aboutsi/social-computing The University of Michigan is an equal opportunity/affirmative action educator and employer. ---------------------------------------------------------Soo Young Rieh Associate Professor University of Michigan School of Information http://rieh.people.si.umich.edu/

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HASTAC Scholar applications due - extensions granted
by Fiona Barnett 19 Sep '11

19 Sep '11

Sorry - my links were stripped out of the last email! ----------------------- Hi everyone, Don't forget - nominations for HASTAC Scholars are due *TODAY* - Monday, September 19. *I have received many emails asking for extensions. I'm happy to grant them for a few days if you contact me today!* The HASTAC Scholars program is comprised of ~200 graduate and undergraduate students who are engaged with innovative projects and research at the intersection of digital media & learning, 21st century education, the digital humanities, and technology in the arts, humanities and sciences. We blog, host forums, organize events and discuss new ideas, projects, experiments, and technologies that reconceive teaching, learning, research, writing and structuring knowledge. For more information and to see our discussion forums, please see the HASTAC Scholars website. Recent forums: - FEEL THE NOISE: Sound, Music and Technology http://hastac.org/forums/hastac-scholars-discussions/feel-noise - Openness in Academia http://hastac.org/forums/hastac-scholars-discussions/openness-academia - Race, Ethnicity and Diaspora in the Digital Age http://hastac.org/forums/hastac-scholars-discussions/race-ethnicity-and-dia… - Critical Code Studies and the companion forum with actual code critiques http://hastac.org/forums/hastac-scholars-discussions/critical-code-studies - Blogs and Beyond: Teaching with Technology and Curiosity http://hastac.org/forums/hastac-scholars-discussions/teaching-technologies - Grading 2.0: Evaluation in the Digital Age http://hastac.org/forums/hastac-scholars-discussions/grading-20-evaluation-… - Queer and Feminist New Media Spaces http://hastac.org/forums/hastac-scholars-discussions/queer-feminist-new-med… HASTAC Scholars are interested in questions such as: - What kinds of projects and ideas are included in the Digital Humanities, New Media Arts, or Science & Technology Studies? What do these kinds of projects make possible and how do they reimagine notions about culture, knowledge, aesthetics, science, the body or communication? - What might our research, technology design, and thinking look like if we took seriously the momentous opportunities and challenges for learning posed by our digital era? - How do we use technologies in our teaching & learning endeavors, not just to replace traditional media and assignments, but to fundamentally address different student approaches, needs, and possibilities afforded by new ways of thinking? - How do we work across and transform our different disciplines and fields? We have Scholars working in a huge array of projects: race and technology, equal access, architecture of digital spaces, digital historiography, queer and feminist theory, science studies, critical coding, education, nonprofit and government projects, biotechnology & medicine, media studies & more! As a Scholar you can participate in various ways: - Blog about your own work and research projects, questions, ideas - Host and comment in the energetic discussion forums - Report on activities at your local institution and department - Share insights from conferences and performances - Blog, tweet, podcast, or participate on the wiki - Network with other students, professors, artists, scholars and researchers, both online and in local meet-ups - Conduct interviews, book reviews, project reviews, etc. - Lots of new opportunities to connect using our new website - to be launched this summer! - Your idea here we are collaborative and rely on your ideas and feedback! Not sure why you should apply? Not sure if it's worth your time? Do you already blog, but want a larger community? Are you trying to figure out how to move forward with your dissertation, master's thesis or teaching? Are you new to your Ph.D. program, and not sure how you'll fit into a more traditional department? Some Stats on the HASTAC Scholars: - last year there were over 200 Scholars, from over 75 universities and 5 countries, including the US, Canada, Spain, Korea, England, Australia and New Zealand. - this will be the 4th annual HASTAC Scholars cohort - In the last two years, our forums have generated well over 1000 comments -- many of which are mini-essays! - not to mention hundreds of blog entries, comments and further conversations - 350,000 visitors to the ten HASTAC Scholars Forums since September of 2009 Results of the Scholars program. Many Scholars have reported good news such as: - generating conference panels from their participation in blogs and forums - being invited to speak at other workshops, conferences and classes - class readings generated from the forums and blogs - forums and conversations used to justify preliminary exam fields and the scope of a dissertation - being invited to collaborate with digital humanities projects, civic advocacy groups, public policy advisories, university technology consulting - involvement with Scholars was frequently identified as the tipping point in the job search - success on the #alt-ac job market (i.e. jobs at university centers, non-profits, museums, and other jobs outside of the tenure-track market) - benefited from creating a community beyond traditional departments - many Scholars have expressed excitement at finding other students like them! - useful practice of working through conference paper drafts as blogs - beneficial practice explaining their own research and interests to a wider audience - keeping up with interesting news, policies, academic trends, technology applications for both teaching & research - meeting other like-minded folks on their own campuses, and meeting good contacts on campus & in their local city This year is going to be amazing - with our new website, and lots of new & old Scholars, we're going to hit the ground running and have lots of smaller groups for specific topics. This program is ENTIRELY student-run and participant-driven, which means that if you have an idea, and we can make it happen, we will! The program's energy is entirely built around current HASTAC Scholar interests. What do you want this group to be? What do you want us to cover? Join us and make it happen! FIND THE HASTAC SCHOLARS APPLICATION HERE! http://hastac.org/news/apply-2011-2012-hastac-scholars-program Requirements for Nominators: Any faculty or staff member at a post-secondary institution may nominate an undergraduate or graduate student to be a HASTAC Scholar. Making such a nomination puts you in the official category of "mentor" and the Mentor will be responsible for the following: - Registering yourself as a user on this website - Agreeing to subsidize each HASTAC Scholar nominee with a $300 fellowship paid by the Mentor's institution. The payment process is entirely decentralized; the Mentor and the Scholar need to work out their own process. For participants outside the US, this $300 fellowship can be waived if necessary -- please email fiona.barnett(a)duke.edu for more information. - Check in with your HASTAC Scholar(s) throughout the year, suggest material/events to blog about or post on the HASTAC website, and help to promote your HASTAC Scholar within your institution. - We hope you will joins us too - you're invited to blog, comment in the forums, or participate in any other HASTAC activity. Requirements for HASTAC Scholars: - The HASTAC Scholar will fill out the application form - take note of all the required information before submitting - Blog before October 1, introducing yourself and your projects, interests & ideas! - Report on at least ONE local relevant event any conference, talk, art project, symposium, experiment or collaboration during the year - Introduce at least one other technology project to the greater HASTAC community this could be a new technology, a new coding language, a new use of technology in the non-profit sector, a new game for learning, an interesting new book, etc. Share your research or personal interests, and help other Scholars learn about a new idea or implementation! - Contribute to HASTAC Scholar Discussion Forums, either by hosting or commenting. These very lively discussions are part of the backbone of the HASTAC Scholars program. You will be invited to propose topics for forums and to help facilitate forums, and everyone is invited to join in the discussion. For previous forum examples, see the HASTAC Scholars site: www.hastac.org/scholars - Build community and conversation by commenting, tweeting, covering conferences, and helping organize local meet-ups. - Sharing relevant job info, fellowship opportunities, conference CFPs, and publishing opportunities. This community is only as strong as we make it! FAQs Q: Are previous Scholars eligible again? A: Yes! Previous Scholars ARE eligible to be re-nominated through this form. On the application form, the Scholar must mention their previous HASTAC involvement and how they have participated in previous years. Q: Does HASTAC administer the fellowships? Does HASTAC supply fellowships to the program? A: All fellowships are decentralized and provided by the Mentor, the department, or local institution. HASTAC does not process or arrange the payments; all financials are organized between the Scholar and Mentor. Q: I'm not from the US - can I still be nominated? How do fellowships work? A: Absolutely! We have Scholars from many countries, including Canada, UK, New Zealand, Germany & Spain and we welcome you! Were happy to discuss the fellowship process for international students please contact me at the email below. Q: I'm not a student - can I be a HASTAC Scholar? A: We are generally keeping the program limited to current students. However, if you have recently graduated and would like to be nominated, drop me a line and give me the details. Remember you can absolutely participate on the HASTAC website even if youre not an official Scholar! Q: My school isn't listed as a member organization, or none of my professors have been involved with HASTAC before. Can I still join? A: Absolutely! Some of our mentors and Scholars have been involved with HASTAC before, but many many folks are joining the community or nominating a Scholar for the first time. By nominating a Scholar, your instituiton will be linked as a HASTAC organization and you will both become members! Q: Can HASTAC find a Mentor or Nominator for me? I don't know anyone involved with HASTAC. A: So far everyone who has really tried to find a mentor at their institution has succeeded -- I'm sure we can find one for you too! Write to your department chair, dean of the graduate school, or other related programs that deal with technology, culture, learning, or new media. If you need some help with wording, drop me a note and we can draft an email for you to use. We really want you to join if you're motivated and we're happy to help find the support you need! Q: Can a Mentor nominate more than one Scholar? A: Yes! The only requirement is that the Mentor must still fund the $300 to each Scholar. We'd like to keep each Mentor to 4-5 Scholars, but email me if you'd like to nominate more than this. Nomination process Applications require the following information for both Scholar and Mentor: - Name - Title/Year (ex. Associate Professor/4th Year Graduate Student/Senior) - Program/Department - Institution - Preferred E-mail Address - Mailing Address - Telephone Number - Link to HASTAC User profiles - Scholar only - brief bio paragraph (no more than 250 words) that mentions research projects and interests (including dissertation if applicable) and their HASTAC-related interests and work. All nominations due on September 19, 2011 but please contact me if you need an extension. Please email me with any questions! Fiona Barnett Director, HASTAC Scholars http://www.hastac.org/scholars Ph.D. candidate Literature Program and Women's Studies Duke University fiona.barnett(a)duke.edu @HASTACScholars _______________________________________________ The Air-L(a)listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/

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HASTAC Scholars nominations - extensions granted!
by Fiona Barnett 19 Sep '11

19 Sep '11

Hi everyone, Don't forget - nominations for HASTAC Scholars are due *TODAY* - Monday, September 19. *I have received many emails asking for extensions. I'm happy to grant them for a few days if you contact me today!* The HASTAC Scholars program is comprised of ~200 graduate and undergraduate students who are engaged with innovative projects and research at the intersection of digital media & learning, 21st century education, the digital humanities, and technology in the arts, humanities and sciences. We blog, host forums, organize events and discuss new ideas, projects, experiments, and technologies that reconceive teaching, learning, research, writing and structuring knowledge. For more information and to see our discussion forums, please see the HASTAC Scholars website. Recent forums: - FEEL THE NOISE: Sound, Music and Technology - Openness in Academia - Race, Ethnicity and Diaspora in the Digital Age - Critical Code Studies and the companion forum with actual code critiques - Blogs and Beyond: Teaching with Technology and Curiosity - Grading 2.0: Evaluation in the Digital Age - Queer and Feminist New Media Spaces HASTAC Scholars are interested in questions such as: - What kinds of projects and ideas are included in the Digital Humanities, New Media Arts, or Science & Technology Studies? What do these kinds of projects make possible and how do they reimagine notions about culture, knowledge, aesthetics, science, the body or communication? - What might our research, technology design, and thinking look like if we took seriously the momentous opportunities and challenges for learning posed by our digital era? - How do we use technologies in our teaching & learning endeavors, not just to replace traditional media and assignments, but to fundamentally address different student approaches, needs, and possibilities afforded by new ways of thinking? - How do we work across and transform our different disciplines and fields? We have Scholars working in a huge array of projects: race and technology, equal access, architecture of digital spaces, digital historiography, queer and feminist theory, science studies, critical coding, education, nonprofit and government projects, biotechnology & medicine, media studies & more! As a Scholar you can participate in various ways: - Blog about your own work and research projects, questions, ideas - Host and comment in the energetic discussion forums - Report on activities at your local institution and department - Share insights from conferences and performances - Blog, tweet, podcast, or participate on the wiki - Network with other students, professors, artists, scholars and researchers, both online and in local meet-ups - Conduct interviews, book reviews, project reviews, etc. - Lots of new opportunities to connect using our new website - to be launched this summer! - Your idea here we are collaborative and rely on your ideas and feedback! Not sure why you should apply? Not sure if it's worth your time? Do you already blog, but want a larger community? Are you trying to figure out how to move forward with your dissertation, master's thesis or teaching? Are you new to your Ph.D. program, and not sure how you'll fit into a more traditional department? Some Stats on the HASTAC Scholars: - last year there were over 200 Scholars, from over 75 universities and 5 countries, including the US, Canada, Spain, Korea, England, Australia and New Zealand. - this will be the 4th annual HASTAC Scholars cohort - In the last two years, our forums have generated well over 1000 comments -- many of which are mini-essays! - not to mention hundreds of blog entries, comments and further conversations - 350,000 visitors to the ten HASTAC Scholars Forums since September of 2009 Results of the Scholars program. Many Scholars have reported good news such as: - generating conference panels from their participation in blogs and forums - being invited to speak at other workshops, conferences and classes - class readings generated from the forums and blogs - forums and conversations used to justify preliminary exam fields and the scope of a dissertation - being invited to collaborate with digital humanities projects, civic advocacy groups, public policy advisories, university technology consulting - involvement with Scholars was frequently identified as the tipping point in the job search - success on the #alt-ac job market (i.e. jobs at university centers, non-profits, museums, and other jobs outside of the tenure-track market) - benefited from creating a community beyond traditional departments - many Scholars have expressed excitement at finding other students like them! - useful practice of working through conference paper drafts as blogs - beneficial practice explaining their own research and interests to a wider audience - keeping up with interesting news, policies, academic trends, technology applications for both teaching & research - meeting other like-minded folks on their own campuses, and meeting good contacts on campus & in their local city This year is going to be amazing - with our new website, and lots of new & old Scholars, we're going to hit the ground running and have lots of smaller groups for specific topics. This program is ENTIRELY student-run and participant-driven, which means that if you have an idea, and we can make it happen, we will! The program's energy is entirely built around current HASTAC Scholar interests. What do you want this group to be? What do you want us to cover? Join us and make it happen! FIND THE HASTAC SCHOLARS APPLICATION HERE! Requirements for Nominators: Any faculty or staff member at a post-secondary institution may nominate an undergraduate or graduate student to be a HASTAC Scholar. Making such a nomination puts you in the official category of "mentor" and the Mentor will be responsible for the following: - Registering yourself as a user on this website - Agreeing to subsidize each HASTAC Scholar nominee with a $300 fellowship paid by the Mentor's institution. The payment process is entirely decentralized; the Mentor and the Scholar need to work out their own process. For participants outside the US, this $300 fellowship can be waived if necessary -- please email fiona.barnett(a)duke.edu for more information. - Check in with your HASTAC Scholar(s) throughout the year, suggest material/events to blog about or post on the HASTAC website, and help to promote your HASTAC Scholar within your institution. - We hope you will joins us too - you're invited to blog, comment in the forums, or participate in any other HASTAC activity. Requirements for HASTAC Scholars: - The HASTAC Scholar will fill out the application form - take note of all the required information before submitting - Blog before October 1, introducing yourself and your projects, interests & ideas! - Report on at least ONE local relevant event any conference, talk, art project, symposium, experiment or collaboration during the year - Introduce at least one other technology project to the greater HASTAC community this could be a new technology, a new coding language, a new use of technology in the non-profit sector, a new game for learning, an interesting new book, etc. Share your research or personal interests, and help other Scholars learn about a new idea or implementation! - Contribute to HASTAC Scholar Discussion Forums, either by hosting or commenting. These very lively discussions are part of the backbone of the HASTAC Scholars program. You will be invited to propose topics for forums and to help facilitate forums, and everyone is invited to join in the discussion. For previous forum examples, see the HASTAC Scholars site: www.hastac.org/scholars - Build community and conversation by commenting, tweeting, covering conferences, and helping organize local meet-ups. - Sharing relevant job info, fellowship opportunities, conference CFPs, and publishing opportunities. This community is only as strong as we make it! FAQs Q: Are previous Scholars eligible again? A: Yes! Previous Scholars ARE eligible to be re-nominated through this form. On the application form, the Scholar must mention their previous HASTAC involvement and how they have participated in previous years. Q: Does HASTAC administer the fellowships? Does HASTAC supply fellowships to the program? A: All fellowships are decentralized and provided by the Mentor, the department, or local institution. HASTAC does not process or arrange the payments; all financials are organized between the Scholar and Mentor. Q: I'm not from the US - can I still be nominated? How do fellowships work? A: Absolutely! We have Scholars from many countries, including Canada, UK, New Zealand, Germany & Spain and we welcome you! Were happy to discuss the fellowship process for international students please contact me at the email below. Q: I'm not a student - can I be a HASTAC Scholar? A: We are generally keeping the program limited to current students. However, if you have recently graduated and would like to be nominated, drop me a line and give me the details. Remember you can absolutely participate on the HASTAC website even if youre not an official Scholar! Q: My school isn't listed as a member organization, or none of my professors have been involved with HASTAC before. Can I still join? A: Absolutely! Some of our mentors and Scholars have been involved with HASTAC before, but many many folks are joining the community or nominating a Scholar for the first time. By nominating a Scholar, your instituiton will be linked as a HASTAC organization and you will both become members! Q: Can HASTAC find a Mentor or Nominator for me? I don't know anyone involved with HASTAC. A: So far everyone who has really tried to find a mentor at their institution has succeeded -- I'm sure we can find one for you too! Write to your department chair, dean of the graduate school, or other related programs that deal with technology, culture, learning, or new media. If you need some help with wording, drop me a note and we can draft an email for you to use. We really want you to join if you're motivated and we're happy to help find the support you need! Q: Can a Mentor nominate more than one Scholar? A: Yes! The only requirement is that the Mentor must still fund the $300 to each Scholar. We'd like to keep each Mentor to 4-5 Scholars, but email me if you'd like to nominate more than this. Nomination process Applications require the following information for both Scholar and Mentor: - Name - Title/Year (ex. Associate Professor/4th Year Graduate Student/Senior) - Program/Department - Institution - Preferred E-mail Address - Mailing Address - Telephone Number - Link to HASTAC User profiles - Scholar only - brief bio paragraph (no more than 250 words) that mentions research projects and interests (including dissertation if applicable) and their HASTAC-related interests and work. All nominations due on September 19, 2011 but please contact me if you need an extension. Please email me with any questions! Fiona Barnett Director, HASTAC Scholars http://www.hastac.org/scholars Ph.D. candidate Literature Program and Women's Studies Duke University fiona.barnett(a)duke.edu @HASTACScholars

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CFP Mobilities (Local and Mobile) conference 2012
by Adriana de Souza e Silva 19 Sep '11

19 Sep '11

***Apologies for cross-postings*** 3rd Mobilities conference 2012 Local and mobile: Linking mobilities, mobile communication and locative media Conference website and abstract submission: http://crdm.chass.ncsu.edu/mobilities/ From March 16-18 2012, the Communication, Rhetoric and Digital Media (CRDM) Program and the Mobile Gaming Research Lab at NC State University will be hosting the 3rd joint international conference of the Pan-American Mobilities Network and the Cosmobilities Network. Invited keynote speakers: · Paul Dourish (University of California, Irvine) · Rich Ling (IT University of Copenhagen) · Teri Rueb (University of Buffalo, SUNNY) Mobilities has become an important framework to understand and analyze contemporary social, spatial, economic and political practices. Being interdisciplinary in its nature, Mobilities focuses on the systematic movement of people, goods and information that “travel” around the world in rates much higher (or much slower) than before. As such, mobility studies challenge traditional scholarship that often ignores the social dimensions of mobility, overlooking how travel, movement, and communication and transportation networks help to constitute modern societies and communities. Mobility has always been critical for the creation of social networks and to the development of connections to places. In addition, Mobilities contributes to study of the technological, social and cultural developments in transportation, border control, mobile communication, “intelligent” infrastructure, surveillance. While mobility is an important framework to understand contemporary society, the pervasiveness of location-aware technology has made it possible to locate ourselves and be networked within patterns of mobility. As user generated maps and location-aware mobile devices become commonplace, we experience a shift in the way we connect to the internet and move through space. Networked interactions permeate our world. We no longer enter the internet--we carry it with us. We experience it while moving through physical spaces. Mobile phones, GPS receivers, and RFID tags are only a few examples of location-aware mobile technologies that mediate our interaction with networked spaces and influence how we move in these spaces. Increasingly, our physical location determines the types of information with which we interact, the way we move through physical spaces, and the people and things we find around us. These new kinds of networked interactions manifest in everyday social practices that are supported by the use of mobile and location-aware technologies, such as participation in location-based mobile games and social networks, use of location-based services, development of mobile annotation projects, and social mapping, just to name a few. The engagement with these practices has important implications for identity construction, our sense of privacy, our notions of place and space, civic and political participation, policy making, as well as cultural production and consumption in everyday life. We invite papers that address themes at the intersection of mobility and location, or related topics, such as: · Mobile communication and location awareness in everyday life practices; · New urban spatialities developed with mobile gaming and locative social media; · Privacy and surveillance issues as they relate to mobile and location-based social networks; · Identity and spatial construction through locative media art / embodied performance; · Civic engagement and political participation through mobile social media, new mapping practices and location-aware technologies; · Borders, surveillance, and securitization with ubiquitous and mobile technologies; · Aeromobilities, air travel, and aerial vision; · Alternative mobilities and slow movements; · Planning, policy and design for future mobilities and location-based services; · Tourism, imaginary travel, and virtual travel; · Transitions toward sustainable mobilities; · New methodologies for mobilities research. Disciplines represented at the conference may include (but are not exclusive to): Anthropology, Architecture and Design, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Communication, Criminology, Cultural Studies, Geography, Media and Visual Arts, Politics and International Relations, Public Policy, Sociology, Theater and Performance Studies, Tourism Research, Transport Research, and Urban Studies. Conference location: North Carolina State University, Raleigh (NC), USA Conference hotel: Brownstone Hotel (http://www.brownstonehotel.com/) Discounted rates will be available to registered participants. Important dates: Deadline for abstracts: 30 October 2011 (800 words, including references) Notification of acceptance: 15 December 2011 Registration deadline: 30 January 2012 Conference Dates: 16-18 March 2012 Please submit your abstracts through the conference website: http://crdm.chass.ncsu.edu/mobilities/ Organizing Committee: Adriana de Souza e Silva (NC State University, USA) Heather Horst (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia) Lee Humphreys (Cornell University, USA) Ole B. Jensen (Aalborg University, Denmark) Mimi Sheller (Drexel University, USA) Irina Shklovski (IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark) Phillip Vannini (Royal Roads University, Canada) For further information, contact: Adriana de Souza e Silva, Ph.D Associate Professor of Communication Interim Associate Director, Communication, Rhetoric, & Digital Media Ph.D program North Carolina State University http://www.souzaesilva.com adriana(a)souzaesilva.com ________________________ Adriana de Souza e Silva, Ph.D Associate Professor of Communication Interim Associate Director, Communication, Rhetoric, & Digital Media Ph.D program North Carolina State University http://www.souzaesilva.com

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tool for mapping outgoing links
by Anna Keshelashvili 19 Sep '11

19 Sep '11

Dear all, I'm looking for a tool that would analyze and visualize outgoing links from a random website (one that I have no administrator's access to). Any suggestions, any ideas, any tools you've used and liked or hated? thanks, a -- Ana Keshelashvili http://postsbyme.com http://socialblurbs.ge http://twitter.com/anano

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Re: [Air-L] Arab spring & social media evidence
by John Paul Laprise 18 Sep '11

18 Sep '11

The most compelling finding for me based on discussions with my students and people in the region is not found in the PITPI report. The most compelling and generalizable IMO finding relates to participator behavior, especially when connectivity is turned off. Heavy content participators who consume and produce content, are unwilling to accept state limitations on their ability to participate and in fact choose other means if blocked. When Egypt shut down it's Internet, participators did not simply stop participating. Having developed a participatory inclination through the frequent use of communication technology, they sought to continue their participation when that outlet was limited. In practice, this resulted in unexpected vectoring of information as activists disconnected from technology resorted to more traditional communication methods e.g. knocking on the door of their neighbor. Participatory neighbors activated their less participatory (and likely therefore less informed) neighbors leading to a broader public mobilization outside what might be expected out of technological (and possibly economic) channels. I'm still struggling with the language as my gut instinct is actually to characterize heavy participators as addicts who suffer withdrawal when the state limits access and who then seek out substitutes. The reason why I find this so compelling is that I suspect that this is likely true globally, not just in revolutionary situations. For some, online participation is so important that finding themselves with limited access they find a replacement for it. The Arab Spring provides evidence of the powerful societal effects that this behavior can have. Best regards, John Laprise Visiting Assistant Professor in the Communication Program Northwestern University in Qatar

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Submission Reminder CfP: Marx is Back - The Importance of Marxist Theory and Research for Critical Communication Studies Today
by Christian Fuchs 18 Sep '11

18 Sep '11

Marx is Back: The Importance of Marxist Theory and Research for Critical Communication Studies Today   Call for Papers for a Special Issue of tripleC Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society.  Edited by Christian Fuchs and Vincent Mosco   http://fuchs.uti.at/wp-content/uploads/CfP_Marx_tripleC.pdf For inquiries, please contact the two editors. In light of the global capitalist crisis, there is renewed interest in Karl Marxs works and in concepts like class, exploitation and surplus value. Slavoj iek argues that the antagonisms of contemporary capitalism in the context of the ecological crisis, the massive expansion of intellectual property, biogenetics, new forms of apartheid and growing world poverty show that we still need the Marxian notion of class. He concludes that there is an urgent need to renew Marxism and to defend its lost causes in order to render problematic capitalism as the only alternative (iek 2008, 6) and the new forms of a soft capitalism that promise, and in its rhetoric makes use of, ideals like participation, self-organization, and co-operation, without realizing them. iek (2010, chapter 3) argues that the global capitalistcrisis clearly demonstrates the need to return to the critique of political economy. Göran Therborn suggests that the new constellations of power and new possibilities of resistance in the 21st century require retaining the Marxian idea that human emancipation from exploitation, oppression, discrimination and the inevitable linkage between privilege and misery can only come from struggle by the exploited and disadvantaged themselves (Therborn 2008, 61). Eric Hobsbawm (2011, 12f) insists that for understanding the global dimension of contemporary capitalism, its contradictions and crises, and the persistence of socio-economic inequality, we must ask Marxs questions (13).    This special issue will publish articles that address the importance of Karl Marxs works for Critical Media and Communication Studies, what it means to ask Marxs questions in 21st century informational capitalism, how Marxian theory can be used for critically analyzing and transforming media and communication today, and what the implications of the revival of the interest in Marx are for the field of Media and Communication Studies.   Questions that can be explored in contributions include, but are not limited to:   * What is Marxist Media and Communication Studies? Why is it needed today? What are the main assumptions, legacies, tasks, methods and categories of Marxist Media and Communication Studies and how do they relate to Karl Marxs theory? What are the different types of Marxist Media/Communication Studies, how do they differ, what are their commonalities?  * What is the role of Karl Marxs theory in different fields, subfields and approaches of Media and Communication Studies? How have the role, status, and importance of Marxs theory for Media and Communication Studies evolved historically, especially since the 1960s? * In addition to his work as a theorist and activist, Marx was a practicing journalist throughout his career. What can we learn from his journalism about the practice of journalism today, about journalism theory, journalism education and alternative media? * What have been the structural conditions, limits and problems for conducting Marxian-inspired Media and Communication Research and for carrying out university teaching in the era of neoliberalism? What are actual or potential effects of the new capitalist crisis on these conditions?  * What is the relevance of Marxian thinking in an age of capitalist crisis for analyzing the role of media and communication in society?  * How can the Marxian notions of class, class struggle, surplus value, exploitation, commodity/commodification, alienation, globalization, labour, capitalism, militarism and war, ideology/ideology critique, fetishism, and communism best be used for analyzing, transforming and criticizing the role of media, knowledge production and communication in contemporary capitalism?  * How are media, communication, and information addressed in Marxs work? * What are commonalities and differences between contemporary approaches in the interpretation of Marxs analyses of media, communication, knowledge, knowledge labour and technology?  * What is the role of dialectical philosophy and dialectical analysis as epistemological and methodological tools for Marxian-inspired Media and Communication Studies?  * What were central assumptions of Marx about media, communication, information, knowledge production, culture and how can these insights be used today for the critical analysis of capitalism? * What is the relevance of Marxs work for an understanding of social media?  * Which of Marxs works can best be used today to theorize media and communication? Why and how?  * Terry Eagleton (2011) demonstrates that the 10 most common held prejudices against Marx are wrong. What prejudices against Marx can be found in Media and Communication Studies today? What have been the consequences of such prejudices? How can they best be contested? Are there continuities and/or discontinuities of prejudices against Marx in light of the new capitalist crisis?  All contributions shall genuinely deal with Karl Marxs original works and discuss their relevance for contemporary Critical Media/Communication Studies.  Eagleton Terry. 2011. Why Marx was right. London: Yale University Press. Hobsbawm, Eric. 2011. How to change the world. Marx and Marxism 1840-2011. London: Little, Brown. Therborn, Göran. 2008. From Marxism to post-Marxism? London: Verso. iek, Slavoj. 2008. In defense of lost causes. London: Verso. iek, Slavoj. 2010. Living in the end times. London: Verso.   Editors   Christian Fuchs is chair professor for Media and Communication Studies at Uppsala Universitys Department of Informatics and Media. He is editor of the journal tripleC Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society. His areas of interest are: Critical Theory, Social Theory, Media & Society, Critical Political Economy of Media/Communication, Critical Information Society Studies, Critical Internet Studies. He is author of the books Foundations of Critical Media and Information Studies (Routledge 2011) and Internet and Society: Social Theory in the Information Age (Routledge 2008, paperback 2011). He is co-editor of the collected volume The Internet and Surveillance. The Challenges of Web 2.0 and Social Media (Routledge 2011, together with Kees Boersma, Anders Albrechtslund, Marisol Sandoval). He is currently writing a book presenting a critical theory of social media. http://fuchs.uti.at    Vincent Mosco is professor emeritus of sociology at Queen's University and formerly Canada Research Chair in Communication and Society. Dr. Mosco is the author of numerous books on communication, technology, and society. His most recent include Getting the Message: Communications Workers and Global Value Chains (co-edited with Catherine McKercher and Ursula Huws, Merlin, 2010), The Political Economy of Communication, second edition (Sage, 2009), The Laboring of Communication: Will Knowledge Workers of the World Unite (co-authored with Catherine McKercher, Lexington Books, 2008), Knowledge Workers in the Information Society (co-edited with Catherine McKercher, Lexington Books, 2007), and The Digital Sublime: Myth, Power, and Cyberspace (MIT Press, 2004). He is currently writing a book on the relevance of Karl Marx for communication research today.   Publication Schedule and Submission   Structured Abstracts for potential contributions shall be submitted to both editors (christian.fuchs(a)im.uu.se, moscov(a)mac.com) per e-mail until September 30th, 2011 (submission deadline). The authors of accepted abstracts will be invited to write full papers that are due five months after the feedback from the editors. Full papers must then be submitted to tripleC. Please do not instantly submit full papers, but only structured abstracts to the editors. The abstracts should have a maximum of 1 200 words and should be structured by dealing separately with each of the following five dimensions:   1) Purpose and main questions of the paper  2) Description of the way taken for answering the posed questions  3) Relevance of the topic in relation to the CfP  4) Main expected outcomes and new insights of the paper  5) Contribution to the engagement with Marxs works and to Marxian-inspired Media and Communication Studies   Journal   tripleC (cognition, communication, co-operation): Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society, http://www.triple-c.se    Focus and Scope: Critical Media-/Information-/ Communication-/Internet-/Information Society-Studies  tripleC provides a forum to discuss the challenges humanity is facing today. It publishes contributions that focus on critical studies of media, information, communication, culture, digital media, social media and the Internet in the information society. The journals focus is especially on critical studies and it asks contributors to reflect about normative, political, ethical and critical implications of their research.   Indexing: Scopus, EBSCOHost Communication and Mass Media Complete, Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)   Open Access: tripleC is an open access journal that publishes articles online and does not charge authors or readers. It uses a Creative Commons license (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License) that allows reproduction of published articles for non-commercial purposes (without changes of the content and only with naming the author). Creative Commons publishing poses a viable alternative to commercial academic publishing that is dominated by big corporate publishing houses. -- Prof. Christian Fuchs Chair in Media and Communication Studies Department of Informatics and Media Uppsala University Kyrkogårdsgatan 10 Box 513 751 20 Uppsala Sweden christian.fuchs(a)im.uu.se Tel +46 (0) 18 471 1019 http://fuchs.uti.at http://www.im.uu.se NetPolitics Blog: http://fuchs.uti.at/blog Editor of tripleC: http://www.triple-c.se Book "Foundations of Critical Media and Information Studies" (Routledge 2011) Book "Internet and Society" (Paperback, Routledge 2010) -- - - - Christian Fuchs Unified Theory of Information Research Group christian.fuchs(a)uti.at http://www.uti.at Personal: http://fuchs.uti.at NetPolitics Blog: http://fuchs.uti.at/blog Editor of tripleC: http://www.triple-c.se Book "Foundations of Critical Media and Information Studies" (Routledge 2011) Book "Internet and Society" (Paperback, Routledge 2010) Chair in Media and Communication Studies Department of Informatics and Media Uppsala University Kyrkogårdsgatan 10 Box 513 751 20 Uppsala Sweden christian.fuchs(a)im.uu.se Tel +46 (0) 18 471 1019 http://fuchs.uti.at http://www.im.uu.se

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Re: [Air-L] Arab spring & social media evidence
by Murray Turoff 18 Sep '11

18 Sep '11

There is a very interesting problem here. The fundamental reasons might have little to do with the use of social media except as way of people being able to receive the information which in it self may explain the cause of these revolutions. I really think what is needed is a content analysis of Wikileaks. There was a news article i read which might have been in the NYTimes some time back which pointed out: A lot of material in the famous release of u.s. secret cables by various diplomats and officials confirmed in the mind of many Arabs, especially the young ones, the real extend of corruptions among the leaders and their accumulation of wealth as a result of their leadership positions. While this was felt it was never really proved in the minds of these people until they could read it online or in circulated copies of materials downloaded by others. I did think this was a cause that was worth considering for the Arab Spring. Given they already did not trust their regular news sources Wikileaks was considered a more trusted source. I would like to see a real content analysis of Wikileaks to compare to other explanations for the Arab Spring. -- -- *Distinguished Professor Emeritus Information Systems, NJIT homepage: http://is.njit.edu/turoff *

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CFP: Game Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice
by Judd Ruggill 17 Sep '11

17 Sep '11

Call for Papers: Game Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice Area 33rd Annual SW/TX PCA/ACA Conference February 8-11, 2012 Albuquerque, NM The Game Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice Area welcomes paper, panel, and other proposals on games (digital and otherwise) and their study and development. Possible topics include (but are in no way limited to): Alternative reality games Archiving and artifactual preservation Competitive/clan gaming Design and development Economic and industrial histories and studies Educational games and their pedagogies Foreign language games and culture Advertising (both in-game and out) Game art/game-based art Haptics and interface studies Localization Machinima MOGs, MMOGs, and other forms of online/networked gaming Performance Pornographic games Religion and games Representations of race and gender Representations of space and place The rhetoric of games and game systems Serious games Strategy games Table-top games and gaming Technological, aesthetic, economic, and ideological convergence Theories of play Wireless and mobile gaming For paper proposals: Please submit a 250 word abstract and biographical note about your connection to the topic to conference event management site at http://conference2012.swtxpca.org/. Make sure to select the Game Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice topic area. For panel and other proposals: Feel free to query first (jruggill(a)asu.edu) Panel and other proposals should also be submitted to the conference event management site and include the information requested for individual paper proposals, as well as a 100-word statement of the panel’s raison d’etre and any noteworthy organizational features. As always, proposals are welcome from any and all scholars (including graduate students, independent scholars, and tenured, tenure-track, and emeritus faculty) and practitioners (developers, artists, archivists, and so forth). Also, unusual formats, technologies, and the like are encouraged. The submission deadline is 12/1/2011. The Game Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice Area is international in scope and emphasizes diversity, an openness to innovative approaches and presentations, and the energetic practice of post-conference collaboration and publication. Judd Ruggill, Area Chair Game Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice jruggill(a)asu.edu http://www.swtxpca.org

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