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Crowdsourcing the latest social media research
by Finlayson, Amalie 18 Jul '11

18 Jul '11

Dear Air-L members I am just beginning a new research project looking at social media and the academy, and am hoping to crowdsource some of the latest journal papers/books/articles in this area in order to put together a current literature review. Below is the brief title abstract of the research proposal for the project. I am conducting my own searches of course too, but any leads or recommendations anyone could pass on would be most heartily appreciated! Conceptualising social media for theory and practice: The role of the academy in formulating contemporary media and communication social media curricula Social media is aligned with exponential technological growth (Wayt Gibbs, 1997) in communication technology, and is subject to such swift and unpredictable change, that there is currently a limited understanding of what the term ‘social media’ actually means (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Academic discourse around the theory and practice of social media, and specifically understanding how ‘social media’ is conceptualised, researched and taught within the academy, is also somewhat restricted. My research project intends to examine how the academy conceptualises and teaches social media in order to “train students to go out into the world with both general and specific skills [and] work with contemporary problems and render appropriate the discoveries and understanding that they generate” (Boulton & Lucas, 2008, p. 4). The study will focus on a delimited area, namely how Australian universities are currently conceptualising social media and utilising it as part of pedagogical best practice within media and communication schools. The first step in this research study, following on from my earlier research in the field, would involve an updated comprehensive literature review in this area in order to maintain theoretical currency in this rapidly developing field. The study would then extend to a triangulated methodological approach within the qualitative research paradigm, providing an analysis of a sample of current social media university subject syllabi offered in Australia. Semi-structured interviews with academics would serve to help understand how their theoretical underpinnings for social media inform the pedagogical models for this knowledge area. References Boulton, G., & Lucas, C. (2008). What are universities for? : League of European Research Universities. Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business Horizons, 53(1), 59-68. Wayt Gibbs, W. (1997). Gordon E Moore, Part 2. The Scientific American. Regards, Dr Amalie Finlayson Lecturer in Journalism School of Communication & Creative Industries Charles Sturt University Panorama Avenue, Bathurst NSW 2795 P: 02 6338 4446 E: afinlayson(a)csu.edu.au Charles Sturt University | ALBURY-WODONGA | BATHURST | CANBERRA | DUBBO | GOULBURN | ONTARIO | ORANGE | SYDNEY | WAGGA WAGGA | Give Generously - Support Young Australians You can help young Australians to go to University and succeed in their studies by giving generously to the Charles Sturt University Foundation. To find out more or to make a donation go to the Foundation web site http://www.csu.edu.au/special/foundation. Australian donations are tax deductible. LEGAL NOTICE This email (and any attachment) is confidential and is intended for the use of the addressee(s) only. If you are not the intended recipient of this email, you must not copy, distribute, take any action in reliance on it or disclose it to anyone. Any confidentiality is not waived or lost by reason of mistaken delivery. Email should be checked for viruses and defects before opening. Charles Sturt University (CSU) does not accept liability for viruses or any consequence which arise as a result of this email transmission. Email communications with CSU may be subject to automated email filtering, which could result in the delay or deletion of a legitimate email before it is read at CSU. The views expressed in this email are not necessarily those of CSU. Charles Sturt University in Australia http://www.csu.edu.au The Chancellery, Panorama Avenue, Bathurst NSW Australia 2795 ABN: 83 878 708 551; CRICOS Provider Numbers: 00005F (NSW), 01947G (VIC), 02960B (ACT) Charles Sturt University in Ontario http://www.charlessturt.ca 860 Harrington Court, Burlington Ontario Canada L7N 3N4 Registration: www.peqab.ca Consider the environment before printing this email.

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Call for Papers: The 6th International Conference for Internet Technology and Secured Transactions (ICITST-2011)!
by g.akmayeva＠icitst.org 18 Jul '11

18 Jul '11

Apologies for cross-postings! Kindly email this Call for Papers to your colleagues, faculty members and postgraduate students. CALL FOR PAPERS ************************************************************ The 6th International Conference for Internet Technology and Secured Transactions (ICITST-2011), Technical Co-Sponsored by IEEE UAE Computer Chapter December 11–14, 2011, Abu Dhabi, UAE (www.icitst.org) ************************************************************ The 6th International Conference for Internet Technology and Secured Transactions (ICITST-2011) is Technical Co-sponsored by IEEE UAE Computer Chapter. The ICITST is an international refereed conference dedicated to the advancement of the theory and practical implementation of secured Internet transactions and to fostering discussions on information technology evolution. The ICITST aims to provide a highly professional and comparative academic research forum that promotes collaborative excellence between academia and industry. The topics in ICITST-2011 include but are not confined to the following areas: Internet Application and Technology: * Internet Architecture * Internet of things * Broadband Access Technologies * Application Agents * Boundary Issues of Internet Security * Database Management * Data Models for Production Systems and Services * Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems * IPSec Quality of Service * Knowledge Management * Embedded Systems * Defence Systems Ubi/Cloud Computing: * Authentication and Access Control for Data Protection in Ubi/Cloud Computing * Context-Awareness and its Data Mining for UbiCom * Data Grids * Distributed Information Systems * Human-Computer Interface and Interaction for UbiCom * Ubiquitous Systems * USN/RFID Service * Smart Homes and its Business Model for UbiCom Service * Security and its Data Management for UbiCom * Peer to Peer Data Management * New Novel Mechanism and Application for Ubi/Cloud Computing Information Security: * Trust, Privacy and Data Security * Network Security Issues and Protocols * Security Challenges and Content Authoring * Cryptography * Secure Communications * Authentication Techniques * Chaos-based Data Security * MANET Security * Wireless Sensor Network Security * Organization Considerations in Security Policy Formulation and Implementations * Digital Forensics and Crimes * Biometrics * Cyber Security Multimedia and Web Services: * Intelligent Multimedia and its Data Management * Multimedia Information Systems * Multimedia Security * Web Databases * Web Metrics and its Applications * Web Mining including Web Intelligence and Web 3.0. * Web Services * XML and other extensible languages * Semantic Web and Ontology Infonomics and e-Technology: * Infonomics * Information Visualization * Information Management * Information Quality * Technology-Enabled Information * e-Learning * e-Commerce * e-Business * e-Government * e-Society * System Design and Security for e-Services * Synchronizing e-Security IMPORTANT DATES Full Paper Submission Date: August 26, 2011 Extended Abstract (Work in Progress) Submission Date: July 31, 2011 Proposal for Workshops and Tutorials: May 31, 2011 Notification of Workshop and Tutorial Acceptance: June 05, 2011 Proposal for Industrial Presentation: April 30, 2011 Notification of Extended Abstract Acceptance/Rejection: August 15, 2011 Notification of Industrial Presentation Acceptance: May 10, 2011 Notification of Paper Acceptance/Rejection: September 30, 2011 Camera Ready Extended Abstract Due: August 31, 2011 Camera Ready Paper Due: October 14, 2011 Early Registration Deadline (Authors only): May 01 to October 14, 2011 Late Registration Deadline (Authors only): October 14 to November 15, 2011 Participants Registration: May 01 to December 14, 2011 Conference Dates: December 11-14, 2011 For more details, please contact info(a)icitst.org

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McLuhan at 100
by Barry Wellman 16 Jul '11

16 Jul '11

There's a really insightful loong feature about Marshall McLuhan in today's Toronto Globe and Mail. Michael Valpy, "The return of Marshall McLuhan" http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/the-return-of-marshall-mcluhan… This is Marshall's 100th birthday year. Barry Wellman _______________________________________________________________________ S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC NetLab Director Department of Sociology 725 Spadina Avenue, Room 388 University of Toronto Toronto Canada M5S 2J4 twitter:barrywellman http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman fax:+1-416-978-3963 Updating history: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _______________________________________________________________________

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European Immersive Education Summit Call for Papers, Posters and Presentations
by Hasler Beatrice 16 Jul '11

16 Jul '11

***please distribute; with apologies for cross-postings*** CALL FOR PAPERS, POSTERS AND PRESENTATIONS 1st European Immersive Education Summit World's leading immersive learning experts and practitioners convene November 28-29 in Madrid, Spain http://europe.immersiveeducation.org/events/ied-europe-summit MADRID, SPAIN - July 14, 2011 - The Immersive Education Initiative today issued an open call for the first European Immersive Education Summit (iED Summit). Universidad Carlos III de Madrid will host the two-day iED Summit from 28th to 29th November 2011 in Madrid, Spain. The European Immersive Education Summit is organized by the newly formed European Chapter of the Immersive Education Initiative (iED Europe) and builds on the success of previous iED Summits. The European iED Summit call for papers, posters, and presentations is open to the global academic community and experts in immersion, virtual reality and mixed/augmented reality. Speakers at past iED Summits have included faculty, researchers, and administrators from The Grid Institute, Boston College, Harvard University (Harvard Graduate School of Education, Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, and Harvard Kennedy School of Government), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), MIT Media Lab, The Smithsonian Institution, Loyola Marymount University, Stanford University, United States Department of Education, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Federation of American Scientists (FAS), Duke University, Temple University, Southeast Kansas Education Service Center, Immersive Education High School, Cornell University, Amherst College, Kauffman Foundation, Boston Library Consortium, Montana State University, South Park Elementary School, Boston Media High School, Sun Microsystems, Turner Broadcasting, Open Wonderland Foundation, realXtend (Finland), The MOFET Institute (Israel), University of Aizu (Japan), Keio University (Japan), National University of Singapore, Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden), University of Essex (UK), Coventry University (UK), Giunti Labs (Italy) and European Learning Industry Group, Open University (UK), and more. About iED Summits and Topics of Interest iED Summits are official Immersive Education Initiative conferences organized specifically for educators, researchers, and administrators. iED Summits consist of presentations, panel discussions, break-out sessions and workshops that provide attendees with an in-depth overview of immersive learning platforms, technologies and cutting-edge research from around the world. iED Summits feature new and emerging virtual worlds, learning games, educational simulations, mixed/augmented reality, and related teachingtools, techniques, technologies, standards and best practices. The world's leading experts in virtual worlds, learning games, educational simulations, and mixed/augmented reality convene November 28-29 in Madrid, Spain, for the first annual European Immersive Education Summit. Topics of interest identified by the European iED Summit call for papers, posters and presentations include, but are not limited to, the following: . Blended/Hybrid learning . Personalized learning . Intelligent agents in learning . Edutainment & Game-Based Learning . Location-based and contextual learning . Immersive Educational technology markets & challenges . Virtual and mixed-reality for education . Educational software/hardware . Intelligent classroom . Virtual laboratories and tools . Pedagogy for the Internet Age . Innovations in the teaching laboratory . Student assessment in high-tech teaching environments . Cultural dimensions of educational technology . Educational technology innovations . Social/Collaborative learning . Smart educational environment . Teaching strategies to maximize benefits of emerging technology . Future research issues for Immersive Education Thousands of Members Worldwide The Immersive Education Initiative is a non-profit international collaboration of universities, colleges, research institutes, consortia and companies that are working together to define and develop open standards, best practices, platforms, and communities of support for virtual reality and game-based learning and training systems. Thousands of faculty, teachers, researchers, staff, administrators and students are members of the Immersive Education Initiative. About Immersive Education Immersive Education (ImmersiveEducation.org) combines interactive 3D graphics, commercial game and simulation technology, virtual reality, voice chat (Voice over IP/VoIP), Web cameras (webcams) and rich digital media with collaborative online course environments and classrooms. Immersive Education gives participants a sense of "being there" even when attending a class or training session in person isn't possible, practical, or desirable, which in turn provides educators and students with the ability to connect and communicate in a way that greatly enhances the learning experience. Unlike traditional computer-based learning systems, Immersive Education is designed to immerse and engage students in the same way that today's best video games grab and keep the attention of players. Immersive Education supports self-directed learning as well as collaborative group-based learning environments that can be delivered over the Internet or using fixed-media such as CD-ROM and DVD. Shorter mini-games and interactive lessons can be injected into larger bodies of course material to further heighten and enrich the Immersive Education experience. About the Media Grid The Media Grid is a public utility for digital media. Based on new and emerging distributed computational grid technologies, the Media Grid builds upon existing Internet and Web standards to create a unique network optimized for digital media delivery, storage, and processing. As an on-demand public computing utility, a range of software programs and Web sites can use the Media Grid for delivery and storage of rich media content, media processing, and computing power. The Media Grid is an open and extensible platform that enables a wide range of applications not possible with the traditional Internet alone, including: Massive Media on Demand (MMoD); Interactive digital cinema on demand; Immersive Education and distance learning; Truly immersive multiplayer games and Virtual Reality (VR); Hollywood movie and film rendering, special effects, and composition; Real-time rendering of high resolution graphics; Real-time visualization of complex weather patterns; Real-time protein modeling and drug design; Telepresence, telemedicine, and telesurgery; Vehicle and aircraft design and simulation; Visualization of scientific and medical data. The Grid Institute leads the design and development of the global Media Grid through the MediaGrid.org open standards organization in collaboration with industry, academia, and governments from around the world. To learn more about the Media Grid, Immersive Education or the Education Grid visit: MediaGrid.org, ImmersiveEducation.org and TheEducationGrid.org ________________________________________ Copyright Statement and Legal Notice. This email was sent to hbeatrice(a)idc.ac.il by news(a)mediagrid.org | Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribeT | Privacy Policy. Immersive Education Initiative | 1 Nassau Street | Boston | MA | 02111

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Selected Papers of Internet Research - Editorial Committee and ISSN
by Suely Fragoso 16 Jul '11

16 Jul '11

I am glad to announce that a group of esteemed colleagues have accepted to help me with the task of editing the Selected Papers of Internet Research (SPIR), to be launched this year. 2011 SPIR's Editorial Committee is composed of: Andrew Herman, Wilfrid Laurier University - Canada Axel Bruns, Queensland University of Technology - Australia Kate O’Riordan, University of Sussex - UK Jocelyn Williams, Unitec Institute of Technology - New Zealand and myself, Suely Fragoso, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul - Brazil, as Editor in Chief. The ISSN has also been confirmed: 2162-3317 Suely

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Deadline Extension - Selected Papers of Internet Research
by Suely Fragoso 16 Jul '11

16 Jul '11

Today was the final day for papers to be submitted for inclusion in the Selected Papers of Internet Research publication. As several authors have requested an extension, we have decided to move the deadline to *July 22*. If you have any questions, please contact me. Sincerely, Suely Fragoso Editor in Chief, SPIR

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Unlike Us: Understanding Social Media Monopolies and their Alternatives
by Geert Lovink 15 Jul '11

15 Jul '11

Unlike Us: Understanding Social Media Monopolies and their Alternatives Invitation to join the network (a series of events, reader, workshops, online debates, campaigns etc.) Concept: Geert Lovink (Institute of Network Cultures/HvA, Amsterdam) and Korinna Patelis (Cyprus University of Technology, Lemasol) Thanks to Marc Stumpel, Sabine Niederer, Vito Campanelli, Ned Rossiter, Michael Dieter, Oliver Leistert, Taina Bucher, Gabriella Coleman, Ulises Mejias, Anne Helmond, Lonneke van der Velden, Morgan Currie and Eric Kluitenberg for their input. Summary The aim of this proposal is to establish a research network of artists, designers, scholars, activists and programmers who work on 'alternatives in social media'. Through workshops, conferences, online dialogues and publications, Unlike Us intends to both analyze the economic and cultural aspects of dominant social media platforms and to propagate the further development and proliferation of alternative, decentralized social media software. If you want to join the Unlike Us network, start your own initiatives in this field or hook up what you have already been doing for ages, subcribe to the email list. Traffic will be modest. Soon there will be a special page/blog for the initative on the INC website. Also an independent social network will be installed shortly, using alternative software. More on that later! List info:http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/unlike-us_listcultures.org Background Whether or not we are in the midst of internet bubble 2.0, we can all agree that social media dominate internet and mobile use. The emergence of web-based user to user services, driven by an explosion of informal dialogues, continuous uploads and user generated content have greatly empowered the rise of participatory culture. At the same time, monopoly power, commercialization and commodification are also on the rise with just a handful of social media platforms dominating the social web. These two contradictory processes – both the facilitation of free exchanges and the commercial exploitation of social relationships – seem to lie at the heart of contemporary capitalism. On the one hand new media create and expand the social spaces through which we interact, play and even politicize ourselves; on the other hand they are literally owned by three or four companies that have phenomenal power to shape such interaction. Whereas the hegemonic Internet ideology promises open, decentralized systems, why do we, time and again, find ourselves locked into closed corporate environments? Why are individual users so easily charmed by these 'walled gardens'? Do we understand the long-term costs that society will pay for the ease of use and simple interfaces of their beloved 'free' services? The accelerated growth and scope of Facebook’s social space, for example, is unheard of. Facebook claims to have 700 million users, ranks in the top two or three first destination sites on the Web worldwide and is valued at 50 billion US dollars. Its users willingly deposit a myriad of snippets of their social life and relationships on a site that invests in an accelerated play of sharing and exchanging information. We all befriend, rank, recommend, create circles, upload photos, videos and update our status. A myriad of (mobile) applications orchestrate this offer of private moments in a virtual public, seamlessly embedding the online world in users’ everyday life. Yet despite its massive user base, the phenomena of online social networking remains fragile. Just think of the fate of the majority of social networking sites. Who has ever heard of Friendster? The death of Myspace has been looming on the horizon for quite some time. The disappearance of Twitter and Facebook – and Google, for that matter – is only a masterpiece of software away. This means that the protocological future is not stationary but allows space for us to carve out a variety of techno-political interventions. Unlike Us is developed in the spirit of RSS-inventor and uberblogger Dave Winer whose recent Blork project is presented as an alternative for ‘corporate blogging silos’. But instead of repeating the entrepreneurial-start-up-transforming-into-corporate-behemoth formula, isn't it time to reinvent the internet as a truly independent public infrastructure that can effectively defend itself against corporate domination and state control? Agenda Going beyond the culture of complaint about our ignorance and loss of privacy, the proposed network of artists, scholars, activists and media folks will ask fundamental and overarching questions about how to tackle these fast-emerging monopoly powers. Situated within the existing oligopoly of ownership and use, this inquiry will include the support of software alternatives and related artistic practices and the development of a common alternative vision of how the techno- social world might be mediated. Without falling into the romantic trap of some harmonious offline life, Unlike Us asks what sort of network architectures could be designed that contribute to ‘the common’, understood as a shared resource and system of collective production that supports new forms of social organizations (such as organized networks) without mining for data to sell. What aesthetic tactics could effectively end the expropriation of subjective and private dimensions that we experience daily in social networks? Why do we ignore networks that refuse the (hyper)growth model and instead seek to strengthen forms of free cooperation? Turning the tables, let's code and develop other 'network cultures' whose protocols are no longer related to the logic of 'weak ties'. What type of social relations do we want to foster and discover in the 21st century? Imagine dense, diverse networked exchanges between billions of people, outside corporate and state control. Imagine discourses returning subjectivities to their 'natural' status as open nodes based on dialogue and an ethics of free exchange. To a large degree social media research is still dominated by quantitative and social scientific endeavors. So far the focus has been on moral panics, privacy and security, identity theft, self- representation from Goffman to Foucault and graph-based network theory that focuses on influencers and (news) hubs. What is curiously missing from the discourse is a rigorous discussion of the political economy of these social media monopolies. There is also a substantial research gap in understanding the power relations between the social and the technical in what are essentially software systems and platforms. With this initiative, we want to shift focus away from the obsession with youth and usage to the economic, political, artistic and technical aspects of these online platforms. What we first need to acknowledge is social media's double nature. Dismissing social media as neutral platforms with no power is as implausible as considering social media the bad boys of capitalism. The beauty and depth of social media is that they call for a new understanding of classic dichotomies such as commercial/political, private/public, users/producers, artistic/ standardised, original/copy, democratising/ disempowering. Instead of taking these dichotomies as a point of departure, we want to scrutinise the social networking logic. Even if Twitter and Facebook implode overnight, the social networking logic of befriending, liking and ranking will further spread across all aspects of life. The proposed research agenda is at once a philosophical, epistemological and theoretical investigation of knowledge artifacts, cultural production and social relations and an empirical investigation of the specific phenomenon of monopoly social media. Methodologically we will use the lessons learned from theoretical research activities to inform practice-oriented research, and vice- versa. Unlike Us is a common initiative of the Institute of Network Cultures (Amsterdam University of Applied Science HvA) and the Cyprus University of Technology in Lemasol. An online network and a reader connected to a series of events initially in Amsterdam and Cyprus (early 2012) are already in planning. We would explicitly like to invite other partners to come on board who identify with the spirit of this proposal, to organize related conferences, festivals, workshops, temporary media labs and barcamps (where coders come together) with us. The reader (tentatively planned as number 8 in the Reader series published by the INC) will be produced mid-late 2012. The call for contributions to the network, the reader and the event series goes out in July 2011, followed by the publicity for the first events and other initiatives by possible new partners. Topics of Investigation The events, online platform, reader and other outlets may include the following topics inviting theoretical, empirical, practical and art- based contributions, though not every event or publication might deal with all issues. We anticipate the need for specialized workshops and barcamps. 1. Political Economy: Social Media Monopolies Social media culture is belied in American corporate capitalism, dominated by the logic of start-ups and venture capital, management buyouts, IPOs etc. Three to four companies literally own the Western social media landscape and capitalize on the content produced by millions of people around the world. One thing is evident about the market structure of social media: one-to-many is not giving way to many-to-many without first going through many-to-one. What power do these companies actually have? Is there any evidence that such ownership influences user-generated content? How does this ownership express itself structurally and in technical terms? What conflicts arise when a platform like Facebook is appropriated for public or political purposes, while access to the medium can easily be denied by the company? Facebook is worth billions, does that really mean something for the average user? How does data-mining work and what is its economy? What is the role of discourse (PR) in creating and sustaining an image of credibility and trustworthiness, and in which forms does it manifest to oppose that image? The bigger social media platforms form central nodes, such as image upload services and short ulr services. This ecology was once fairly open, with a variety of new Twitter-related services coming into being, but now Twitter takes up these services itself, favoring their own product through default settings; on top of that it is increasingly shutting down access to developers, which shrinks the ecology and makes it less diverse. 2. The Private in the Public The advent of social media has eroded privacy as we know it, giving rise to a culture of self-surveillance made up of myriad voluntary, everyday disclosures. New understandings of private and public are needed to address this phenomenon. What does owning all this user data actually mean? Why are people willing to give up their personal data, and that of others? How should software platforms be regulated? Is software like a movie to be given parental guidance? What does it mean that there are different levels of access to data, from partner info brokers and third-party developers to the users? Why is education in social media not in the curriculum of secondary schools? Can social media companies truly adopt a Social Network Users’ Bill of Rights? 3. Visiting the Belly of the Beast The exuberance and joy that defined the dotcom era is cliché by now. IT use is occurring across the board, and new labour conditions can be found everywhere. But this should not keep our eyes away from the power relations inside internet companies. What are the geopolitical lines of distribution that define the organization and outsourcing taking place in global IT companies these days? How is the industry structured and how does its economy work? Is there a broader connection to be made with the politics of land expropriation and peasant labour in countries like India, for instance, and how does this analytically converge with the experiences of social media users? How do monopolies deal with their employees’ use of the platforms? What can we learn from other market sectors and perspectives that (critically) reflect on, for example, techniques of sustainability or fair trade? 4. Artistic Responses to Social Media Artists are playing a crucial role in visualizing power relationships and disrupting subliminal daily routines of social media usage. Artistic practice provides an important analytical site in the context of the proposed research agenda, as artists are often first to deconstruct the familiar and to facilitate an alternative lens to understand and critique these media. Is there such a thing as a social 'web aesthetics'? It is one thing to criticize Twitter and Facebook for their primitive and bland interface designs. How can we imagine the social in different ways? And how can we design and implement new interfaces to provide more creative freedom to cater to our multiple identities? Also, what is the scope of interventions with social media, such as, for example, the ‘dislike button’ add-on for Facebook? And what practices are really needed? Isn’t it time, for example, for a Facebook ‘identity correction’? 5. Designing culture: representation and software Social media offer us the virtual worlds we use every day. From Facebook's 'like' button to blogs’ user interface, these tools empower and delimit our interactions. How do we theorize the plethora of social media features? Are they to be understood as mere technical functions, cultural texts, signifiers, affordances, or all these at once? In what ways do design and functionalities influence the content and expressions produced? And how can we map and critique this influence? What are the cultural assumptions embedded in the design of social media sites and what type of users or communities do they produce? To answer the question of structure and design, one route is to trace the genealogy of functionalities, to historicize them and look for discursive silences. How can we make sense of the constant changes occurring both on and beyond the interface? How can we theorize the production and configuration of an ever-increasing algorithmic and protocological culture more generally? 6. Software Matters: Sociotechnical and Algorithmic Cultures One of the important components of social media is software. For all the discourse on sociopolitical power relations governed by corporations such as Facebook and related platforms, one must not forget that social media platforms are thoroughly defined and powered by software. We need critical engagement with Facebook as software. That is, what is the role of software in reconfiguring contemporary social spaces? In what ways does code make a difference in how identities are formed and social relationships performed? How does the software function to interpellate users to its logic? What are the discourses surrounding software? One of the core features of Facebook for instance is its news feed, which is algorithmically driven and sorted in its default mode. The EdgeRank algorithm of the news feed governs the logic by which content becomes visible, acting as a modern gatekeeper and editorial voice. Given its 700 million users, it has become imperative to understand the power of EdgeRank and its cultural implications. Another important analytical site for investigation are the ‘application programming interfaces’ (APIs) that to a large extent made the phenomenal growth of social media platforms possible in the first place. How have APIs contributed to the business logic of social media? How can we theorize social media use from the perspective of the programmer? 6. Genealogies of Social Networking Sites Feedback in a closed system is a core characteristic of Facebook; even the most basic and important features, such as 'friending', traces back to early cybernetics' ideas of control. While the word itself became lost in various transitions, the ideas of cybernetics have remained stable in fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics and the biopolitical arena. Both communication and information theories shaped this discourse. How does Facebook relate to such an algorithmic shape of social life? What can Facebook teach us about the powers of systems theory? Would Norbert Wiener and Niklas Luhmann be friends on Facebook? 7. Is Research Doomed? The design of Facebook excludes the third person perspective, as the only way in is through ones own profile. What does this inbuilt ‘me- centricity’ imply for social media research? Does it require us to rethink the so-called objectivity of researchers and the detached view of current social research? Why is it that there are more than 200 papers about the way people use Facebook, but the site is ‘closed’ to true quantitative inquiry? Is the state of art in social media research exemplary of the 'quantitative turn' in new media research? Or is there a need to expand and rethink methods of inquiry in social media research? Going beyond the usual methodological approaches of the quantitative and qualitative, we seek to broaden the scope of investigating these media. How can we make sense of the political economy and the socio-technical elements, and with what means? Indeed, what are our toolkits for collective, transdisciplinary modes of knowledge and the politics of refusal? 8. Researching Unstable Ontologies Software destabilizes Facebook as a solid ontology. Software is always in becoming and so by nature ontogenetic. It grows and grows, living off of constant input. Logging on one never encounters the same content, as it changes on an algorithmic level and in terms of the platform itself. What does Facebook’s fluid nature imply for how we make sense of and study it? Facebook for instance willingly complicates research: 1. It is always personalized (see Eli Pariser). Even when creating ‘empty’ research accounts it never gives the same results compared to other people’s empty research accounts. 2. One must often be 'inside' social media to study it. Access from the outside is limited, which reinforces the first problem. 3. Outside access is ideally (for Facebook and Twitter) arranged through carefully regulated protocols of APIs and can easily be restricted. Next to social media as a problem for research, there is also the question of social research methods as intervention. 9. Making Sense of Data: Visualization and Critique Data representation is one of the most important battlefields nowadays. Indeed, global corporations build their visions of the world increasingly based on and structured around complex data flows. What is the role of data today and what are the appropriate ways in which to make sense of the burgeoning datasets? As data visualization is becoming a powerful buzzword and social research increasingly uses digital tools to make ‘beautiful’ graphs and visualizations, there is a need to take a step back and question the usefulness of current data visualization tools and to develop novel analytical frameworks through which to critically grasp these often simplified and nontransparent ways of representing data. Not only is it important to develop new interpretative and visual methods to engage with data flows, data itself needs to be questioned. We need to ask about data’s ontological and epistemological nature. What is it, who is the producer, for whom, where is it stored? In what ways do social media companies’ terms of service regulate data? Whether alternative social media or monopolistic platforms, how are our data-bodies exactly affected by changes in the software? 10. Pitfalls of Building Social Media Alternatives It is not only important to critique and question existing design and socio-political realities but also to engage with possible futures. The central aim of this project is therefore to contribute and support 'alternatives in social media'. What would the collective design of alternative protocols and interfaces look like? We should find some comfort in the small explosion of alternative options currently available, but also ask how usable these options are and how real is the danger of fragmentation. How have developers from different initiatives so far collaborated and what might we learn from their successes and failures? Understanding any early failures and successes of these attempts seems crucial. A related issue concerns funding difficulties faced by projects. Finally, in what ways does regionalism (United States, Europe, Asia) feed into the way people search for alternatives and use social media. 11. Showcasing Alternatives in Social Media The best way to criticize platform monopolies is to support alternative free and open source software that can be locally installed. There are currently a multitude of decentralized social networks in the making that aspire to facilitate users with greater power to define for themselves with whom share their data. Let us look into the wildly different initiatives from Crabgrass, Appleseed, Diaspora, NoseRub, BuddyCloud, Protonet, StatusNet, GNU Social, Lorea and OneSocialWeb to the distributed Twitter alternative Thimbl. In which settings are these initiative developed and what choices are made for their design? Let's hear from the Spanish activists who have recently made experiences with the n-1.cc platform developed by Lorea. What community does this platform enable? While traditional software focuses on the individual profile and its relation to the network and a public (share with friends, share with friends of friends, share with public), the Lorea software for instance asks you with whom to share an update, picture or video. It finegrains the idea of privacy and sharing settings at the content level, not the user’s profile. At the same time, it requires constant decision making, or else a high level of trust in the community you share your data with. And how do we experience the transition from, or interoperability with, other platforms? Is it useful to make a distinction between corporate competitors and grassroots initiatives? How can these beta alternatives best be supported, both economically and socially? Aren't we overstating the importance of software and isn't the availability of capital much bigger in determining the adoption of a platform? 12. Social Media Activism and the Critique of Liberation Technology While the tendency to label any emergent social movement as the latest 'Twitter revolution' has passed, a liberal discourse of 'liberation technology' (information and communication technologies that empower grassroots movements) continues to influence our ideas about networked participation. This discourse tends to obscure power relations and obstruct critical questioning about the capitalist institutions and superstructures in which these technologies operate. What are the assumptions behind this neo-liberal discourse? What role do ‘developed’ nations play when they promote and subsidize the development of technologies of circumvention and hacktivism for use in ‘underdeveloped’ states, while at the same time allowing social media companies at home to operate in increasingly deregulated environments and collaborating with them in the surveillance of citizens at home and abroad? What role do companies play in determining how their products are used by dissidents or governments abroad? How have their policies and Terms of Use changed as a result? 13. Social Media in the Middle East and Beyond The justified response to downplay the role of Facebook in early 2011 events in Tunisia and Egypt by putting social media in a larger perspective has not taken off the table the question of how to organize social mobilizations. Which specific software do the 'movements of squares' need? What happens to social movements when the internet and ICT networks are shut down? How does the interruption of internet services shift the nature of activism? How have repressive and democratic governments responded to the use of ‘liberation technologies’? How do these technologies change the relationship between the state and its citizens? How are governments using the same social media tools for surveillance and propaganda or highjacking Facebook identities, such as happened in Syria? What is Facebook’s own policy when deleting or censoring accounts of its users? How can technical infrastructures be supported which are not shutdown upon request? How much does our agency depend on communication technology nowadays? And whom do we exclude with every click? How can we envision 'organized networks' that are based on 'strong ties' yet open enough to grow quickly if the time is right? Which software platforms are best suited for the 'tactical camping' movements that occupy squares all over the world? 14. Data storage: social media and legal cultures Data that is voluntarily shared by social media users is not only used for commercial purposes, but is also of interest to governments. This data is stored on servers of companies that are bound to the specific legal culture and country. This material-legal complex is often overlooked. Fore instance, the servers of Facebook and Twitter are located in the US and therefore fall under the US jurisdiction. One famous example is the request for the Twitter accounts of several activists (Gonggrijp, Jónsdóttir, Applebaum) affiliated with Wikileaks projects by the US government. How do activists respond and how do alternative social media platforms deal with this issue? Contact details: Geert Lovink (geert(a)xs4all.nl) Korinna Patelis (korinna.patelis(a)cut.ac.cy / kpatelis(a)yahoo.com) Institute of Network Cultures CREATE-IT/Hogeschool van Amsterdam www.networkcultures.org

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AoIR Book Award
by Mia Consalvo 14 Jul '11

14 Jul '11

Hello all, It's my pleasure to announce that the winner of the first AoIR Book Award is Richard Harper for his book *Texture: Human Expression in the Age of Communications Overload *from MIT Press.You can read more about the work here: http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=12256 Richard has kindly agreed to give a keynote talk at IR 12 this October in Seattle based on his work. Please join me in congratulating him on this achievement. I'd also like to thank the members of the award committee, Steve Jones, Sonia Livingstone, and Peng Hwa Ang for their work in making the selection. all the best, Mia -- Mia Consalvo, AoIR President Visiting Associate Professor Comparative Media Studies Massachusetts Institute of Technology 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Building 14N-226 Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 USA consalvo(a)mit.edu 617.324.1868

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Diaspora invites researchers to conduct studies on social networking users
by Yosem Companys 14 Jul '11

14 Jul '11

Dear Colleagues, As you may know, Diaspora -- the free, open-source and distributed social network -- emerged from a need to provide a more privacy-aware alternative to Facebook. See: http://nymag.com/news/features/establishments/68512/ Diaspora expects to conduct research on its user community soon, and in the spirit of its open-source ethos, would like to invite members of the social network analysis and Internet research communities to participate. If you are interested in this opportunity, please contact me. Thanks, Yosem

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creating online spaces for data collection
by Bernard Bull 14 Jul '11

14 Jul '11

Greetings all! I am interested in your thoughts and experiences with studies that involve the creation of an online space that invites individuals to contribute on a select set of related subjects. I suppose that it could be thought of as a social survey. Individuals would be welcome to complete surveys, polls, share ideas in a discussion area, sign up to be interviewed, and/or perhaps even have the ability to share and upload video narratives / contributions. Given the social nature, it would be possible for individuals to build upon the ideas and contributions of others, not unlike what we see in a focus group. Contributing to the space would, I suspect, require that participants clearly know about and agree to participate in the study. Have you seen examples where something like this was implemented, effective, and ethical? I'm mostly just interested in your general reactions to the idea. It emerged as I have been grappling with ways to get rich data from a difficult group to identify. Regards, Bernard Dr. Bernard Bull Assistant Professor and Chair of the M.S. In Educational Design & Technology Director of the Instructional Design Center 262-751-4912 bernard.bull(a)cuw.edu

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