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Seeking members for proposed ECREA temporary working group "Information Technologies and Social Networks"
by Jacob Groshek 11 Mar '11

11 Mar '11

Dear AoIR members, ECREA is now in the process of accepting proposals for temporary working groups that could become divisions of the organization in the future. My colleague, Dr. Payal Arora, and I have drafted such a proposal entitled "Information Technologies and Social Networks." We are currently seeking potential members that might be interested in joining this group. A working version of the mission statement for this proposed working group is pasted below. The Chair position has yet to be finalized but we have contacted a leading scholar in this area, and are very hopeful for a positive response. If you have interest in joining this potential group, please respond to this email before March 15. Inquiries can be sent to me or Payal. Thank you, Jacob Groshek and Payal Arora -- Dr. Jacob Groshek Research Chair, CTEC division / AEJMC Assistant Professor Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication Erasmus University Rotterdam Rotterdam, the Netherlands (+31)-010-408-8627 office (+31)-062-304-2346 mobile groshek(a)eshcc.eur.nl http://www.jgroshek.com MISSION STATEMENT ECREA Information Technologies and Social Networks Temporary Working Group CHAIR TBD VICE-CHAIR Payal Arora, Ph.D Department of Media and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam Website: http://payalarora.com/ VICE-CHAIR Jacob Groshek, Ph.D Department of Media and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam Website: http://www.jgroshek.com/ MISSION Contemporarily, social networks have become synonymous with online media spaces such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the like. There is considerable emphasis on the technical novelty of these spaces, placing secondary the human nature of such virtual domains. Thereby, the Information Technologies and Social Networks temporary working group of the ECREA defines its objective as being a forum to share and shape research on technologies and networks through an interdisciplinary, historical and comparative perspective. This section brings together the relatively nascent fields of social informatics, new media studies, and human geographies with the classic disciplines of anthropology, sociology, economics, psychology and political science. The emphasis is on empirical to theoretical work on social collectivity, connectivity, and creativity through and with technologically-mediated spaces. This group will primarily promote the European perspective and research on these issues in response to the current dominance of North American scholarship in this vital area. The intersection of information technology and social networks has gained considerable attention from the recent political uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East, highlighting the role of Twitter and Facebook in these struggles. Historically, patterns of innovations and application have emerged time and again, approached often through a utopian or dystopian lens. Now, euphoric visions of these online social networks have been argued as key tools in precipitating positive social effects of democratization and egalitarianism in society. Naysayers propagate an opposite perspective of these tools as having decimated age-old relationships and ties that are fundamental to stronger social ties. This section aims to move beyond these dichotomies and focuses on research within Europe that delves deeply into its complex socio-cultural and political dimensions and its rootedness historically and spatially. Special attention will be paid to the offline and online ties and the fluidities and constructions of relationships as they influence one another. Timely topics in Europe such as migration, citizenship, online activism, populism, virtualization of museums, distance education and more will be encouraged as they relate to social networks through a range of information technology tools and spaces. Specifically, we aim to do the following through this section: 1. To provide a forum for researchers to share and partner on research concerning information technologies and social networks 2. To develop a rich corpus of literature that is particularly European centric 3. To build an online and offline collaboration amongst practitioners and researchers through encouraging theory studies that can be significant for policy and practice 4. To eventually develop as an ECREA section of excellence and expertise within Europe on this subject 5. To liaise with other sections within the ECREA wherever possible. 7. To capitalize on online networks to gain visibility and participation across academic institutions as well as create a listserve to sustain these activities 8. To partner in constructing workshops that address specific strategies in understanding and using such networks to further practice in academic, governmental and corporate settings. 9. To develop and promote a high quality peer-reviewed journal to more formally contribute to the body of knowledge presented and discussed within the working group Overall, this section will serve as a critical starting ground for connecting with scholars within Europe on this topic of interest for joint conferences and publications of high quality.

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book announcement
by Charles Ess 10 Mar '11

10 Mar '11

Dear AoIR-ists, Mia Consalvo and I are *extremely* proud and pleased to announce the publication of the Handbook of Internet Studies from Wiley-Blackwell - first of all, because the volume features the impressive work of many AoIRists. The book is an introduction to the field and assessment of current research in Internet Studies, providing history and context as well as commentary and debate about where the field is heading and what key issues must be addressed in future work. The volume is comprehensive in scope, addressing the development of internet studies in areas including the history of the field, methods for interdisciplinary study, youth and teens online, politics, health communication, games and virtual worlds, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion, social networks, and much, much more. The list of contributors is even more impressive-- we have contributions from Maria Bakardijeva, Naomi Baron, Nancy Baym, Sandra Braman, Janne Bromseth, Niels Brügger, Klaus Bruhn Jensen, Elizabeth Buchanan, Heidi Campbell, Laurel Dyson, Lorna Heaton, Steve Jones, Lori Kendall, Sonia Livingstone, Marika Lüders, P. David Marshall, Susanna Paasonen, Jennifer Stromer-Galley, Jenny Sundén, TL Taylor, Barry Wellman, Deborah Wheeler, and Alexis Wichowski. For more information about the book, please check the Amazon page at: <http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Internet-Studies-Handbooks-Communication/dp/ 1405185880/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299561410&sr=1-1-fkmr0> We congratulate these scholars and researchers for what we find to be definitive contributions to internet studies as an emerging field. We also see the book as a distinctive and, we think, eloquent artifact of AoIR, as it documents and demonstrates the kinds of collaboration, critical dialogue, and collegial support fostered by AoIR as crucial conditions for the interdisciplinary and international work required for internet studies. We are very grateful indeed to our contributors and all who help make AoIR work in these ways for making this volume possible. Enjoy! - charles and Mia charles ess Institut for Informations- og Medievidenskab Helsingforsgade 14 8200 Århus N. Denmark mail: <imvce(a)hum.au.dk> tel: (+45) 8942 9250 Professor, Philosophy and Religion Drury University, Springfield, Missouri 65802 USA Exemplary persons seek harmony, not sameness. -- Analects 13.23

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Re: [Air-L] ***SPAM*** Re: book announcement
by Scott MacLeod 10 Mar '11

10 Mar '11

BODY { font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px; } Dear Sylvie, Alan and AoIR (sorry for the curious code at the top of this email - not sure why this occurs), In response to this thread, here's the WUaS Library Resources' wiki subject page at World University and School (WUaS) - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Library_Resources [1] . WUaS is like Wikipedia with MIT OCW. WUaS plans to facilitate linking all online libraries, especially academic ones, with significant web content (eventually in ALL languages). This may eventually articulate, for example, with the Digital Public Library of America (http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/newsroom/digital_public_library) [2] project, which friends at Harvard and elsewhere are focusing on developing. This doesn't provide access to copyrighted books at present, but the future of this is unclear. With skillful planning, collaboration, and all of us working together, an online, free, university library will emerge here, in the aggregate. World University and School focuses on great universities' open course ware for its academic content, listed here: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#University_course_listings, [3] for example. And the WUaS Subjects' page facilitates open, people-to-people teaching and learning, for example, here - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Subjects [4] - all the while developing an academic standard based on MIT OCW, Berkeley Webcast, Yale OYC, etc., eventually for free online degrees. See the FREE Harvard doctoral degree in education on the WUaS Courses' page, for example. World University and School as wiki hopes to open up university discourse, for all. Here's a Facebook group if you're interested in more information - http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=48753608141 [5] - and wish to collaborate. Best, Scott Scott MacLeod World University and School http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University http://scottmacleod.com [6] On Wed 09/03/11 7:29 AM , Alan Sondheim sondheim(a)panix.com sent: Or even make papers available for free; some of the cosmologists I read (an area I'm interested in) make their work, even their technical work that's been peer-reviewed, available on their websites. And of course with things like ITunesU and the initiatives from MIT, Stanford, Links: ------ [1] http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Library_Resources [2] http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/newsroom/digital_public_library) [3] http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#University_course_listings, [4] http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Subjects [5] http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=48753608141 [6] http://scottmacleod.com

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i have to share.... [aka: why we need to introduce fun talks to our conferences]
by danah boyd 10 Mar '11

10 Mar '11

At the Digital Media & Learning conference, we decided to host Ignite talks (5 minutes, slides auto-forward). One of our speakers failed to show up (which we later learned was because he was ill). Lacking a presenter and not wanting to redo our deck last-minute, we asked Alex Halavais to do Powerpoint Karaoke. In short, Alex was asked to jump on stage and give an impromptu talk to a set of slides that he had never seen before. While the entire talk wasn't captured on film, a decent amount of it was: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqmJoIS29F4 As we all know, Alex is a lovable huggable and HYSTERICAL person so I spent the entire five minutes crying with laughter. Now... why am I telling you this other than to embarrass Alex? Ignite talks were the highlight of the conference. And Alex's rendition of one topped all charts. People were excited and energized. Shaking up the speaking structure radically changed the tenor of the conference. I know many of you out there are planning conferences (including AOIR). Can I strongly encourage you to shake it up some? I mean, we're academics... we all love to give long drawn out talks that go 10 minutes over the allotted time. But constraints have value. And they add value. They force people to really bring energy to the table and think differently about how they present information. And Ignite talks get an audience super engaged, giving them a sampler of awesome research. And even when they don't like one talk, they just wait 5 minutes and have a new talk to munch on. If anyone wants to think about adding a new format to their conference, I'm happy to give a run-down of what we did at DML. But please, for the fun of all (and to contribute to my ongoing effort to turn Alex into a full-fledged improv comedian), can I encourage y'all to consider adding Ignite (or Powerpoint Karaoke) to the schedule? <grin> danah

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Re: [Air-L] book prices
by Jonathan Sterne, Dr. 10 Mar '11

10 Mar '11

Hi Everyone, I've been reading this discussion with interest. The future of publishing is an ongoing discussion in many fields. Lots of people are coming up with new models and alternative publishing arrangements. AoIR ought to consider at least officially endorsing some of the better electronic journals related to Internet Studies so that assistant profs can use that endorsement in their tenure dossiers. But ultimately, it will be organized people who change things. Publishers add value through paying for labor, and the main problem with open access for now is precisely that. Someone has to copyedit, lay out and proof materials as well as maintain the site. Once people figure out robust and sustainable funding models, this will be even more viable than it already is. Of course, for nonprofit university presses, income from journal publishing subsidizes book publishing, which in most cases is a big financial loss for the press. So those of you in book fields should be a little circumspect about celebrating the death of the journal. But Wiley and Blackwell are for-profit publishers. Their handbooks (and Oxford's) follow a business model. Publishers approach authors whom they believe to be leaders in a field (or who want to be and are up and coming) to edit the handbook. The editors are told that the handbook will be a way to bring a field forward, collect the latest and greatest scholarship and help define the field. Then, the editors generate lots of value for the press by bringing in friends and colleagues with the opportunity to be part of a field-defining conversation (or in some cases calling in favors). The collection is made, published, authors are paid a nominal fee and asked to sign away their rights with an incredibly restrictive author's agreement, and then the book is published. These publishers hope to sell to libraries first and then piece them out in electronic form for a period of years, which is probably one of the reasons for the ridiculous agreements contributors are asked to sign. This all works great for the publisher, but as of yet, the "field defining" part hasn't happened in a lot of places. the books need to be read to have their effect, and the fact that they are only available in DRMed online versions or in libraries means even in bookish fields, they appear to be having less impact than was promised. How do I know? I've been asked by publishers more than once to edit a collection like this (I declined) and have contributed to a few so I've seen both sides of it. Now, I'm not innocent here -- this discussion led me to go looking and I see Amazon is listing the hardback version of my forthcoming Sound Studies Reader at $125, but at least the softcover will be cheaper. And I'm actively working to change how I deal with this in new ventures (I wasn't as attentive to these things when Routledge and I negotiated several years ago--and I will raise the issue with them). I've written a lot about authors' rights on my blog -- see http://superbon.net/?p=1681 for example (and read Ted's article that I've linked to!) and would encourage people who care about these things to educate themselves, and make things like the contributor's contract a political issue -- which it already is. Obviously, those of us with tenure have to be the ones to do some of the heavy lifting. Best, --Jonathan -- http://sterneworks.org http://mcgill.ca/ahcs http://media.mcgill.ca

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Call for reviewers
by violah 10 Mar '11

10 Mar '11

As my edited book entitled "Virtual Community Participation and Motivation: Cross-Disciplinary Theories" got all the manuscripts. I got several chapters to be reviewed. I need about 10 reviewers who could contribute to the book by doing the review in one month. Each reviewer needs to review two chapters. The review deadline would be 10th April. Any one who are interested in reviewing two chapters for the book are welcome to contact me at the following two email address: Hongleili(a)gmail.com / H.Li(a)swansea.ac.uk. Please do not reply to this email directly because I normally use this email address to receive listserv messages. Here is the address for the details of the book. http://www.igi-global.com/authorseditors/authoreditorresources/callforbookc… Regards, Honglei -- Dr. Honglei Li -------------------------------------------------------- Lecturer in Information Systems School of Business and Economics Swansea University Singleton Park Swansea SA2 8PP Wales, UK Phone: +44 01792 295680 (O) +44 0787 2653330 (M) E-mail:HongleiLi@gmail.com; H.Li(a)swansea.ac.uk Homepage: http://www.swan.ac.uk/staff/academic/BusinessEconomics/lihonglei/http://swa…

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DiscoverText Webinar March 11 2:00 PM EST Scrape Facebook, Twitter & YouTube comments
by Stuart Shulman 10 Mar '11

10 Mar '11

Next DiscoverText Webinar Friday March 11 - 2:00 PM EST Scrape Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and more social media. Search, sort, classify, annotate, code, report and export. Free registration: http://bit.ly/e8D6vv Coming soon: A very nifty new feature for automated, trainable, customized sentiment classifiers - the projected launch date is April 1, 2011 (Side note: We have seen no change - yet - in our ability to make repeated fetches of up to 1500 Tweet items in a particular feed) -- Stuart Shulman President & CEO Texifter, LLC <http://www.texifter.com/> Have you tried DiscoverText? http://discovertext.com *Featuring the Facebook Graph & Twitter APIs*

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Re: [Air-L] UNSW library and ebooks (and why I request print)
by Margaret Borschke 10 Mar '11

10 Mar '11

On Wed, 9 Mar 2011, Steve Jones wrote: > > It would be interesting to know whether academic libraries are keen on purchasing e-books. Does anyone have any insight or data? They're certainly comfortable purchasing licenses to electronic versions of journals, but how about books? UNSW's current policy for new acquisitions is: "UNSW Library will purchase electronic versions of material in preference to print/hardcopy. UNSW Library will take the suitability of format for particular discipline areas into consideration." That said, researchers are given an option and I always request a print copy. (My ideal would be that the library purchase both.) Given the constantly changing state of licensing of ebooks, I am concerned (possibly paranoid) that licensing books rather than purchasing them might cost institutions more down the track. (See http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2011/03/08/f-vp-misener-ebooks.html) There are books I have ordered for the UNSW library that are the only library copy in all of Australia (which makes it available for inter-library lending, public browsing and 'off-screen' reading etc.) Journals are a different story.

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Re: [Air-L] book announcement (Steve Jones)
by Delia Dumitrica 09 Mar '11

09 Mar '11

I have also raised the same issue with the editors some time ago, and I do understand their arguments. But those arguments aside, the fact remains that the price of the book is prohibitive and only feeds into a system of privileged access to information/ knowledge. While living and studying in Canada has its advantages in terms of access to academic scholarship, what about all of the universities in the rest of the world whose ability to purchase access to digital databases is limited? I can't tell you how often I am asked to search and download academic articles for my colleagues working in other parts of the world, and then send them by email. But even if we put the issue of digital divides aside, there are also professional reasons for owning your own copy of a reference book or a handbook. Maybe the next generation of scholars, more used to reading on the computer screens or on other types of devices, won't face the same problem; but when it comes to critical thinking, I still find it extremely difficult to engage with a digital copy. Just to give a trivial example, my university's library kicks you out after 5 to 10 minutes of reading a digital book. Delia Dumitrica PhD Student & Sessional Instructor Department of Communication and Culture University of Calgary > ------------------------------ > > Message: 13 > Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2011 10:40:24 -0600 > From: Steve Jones <sjones(a)uic.edu> > To: Michael Gurstein <gurstein(a)gmail.com> > Cc: 'Air list' <air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org> > Subject: Re: [Air-L] book announcement > Message-ID: <05AAFDD2-0B87-4B45-A625-9C63B4B91DE8(a)uic.edu> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > > Some - not all - publishers do provide, among other things, copyediting, > layout and design, marketing, publicity, and in some cases (particularly > journals, but sometimes also handbooks and reference books) funds that > allow us to support students. > > It would be interesting to know whether academic libraries are keen on > purchasing e-books. Does anyone have any insight or data? They're > certainly comfortable purchasing licenses to electronic versions of > journals, but how about books? > > Thanks, > > Steve

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Sustaining Scholarly Publishing
by Kathleen Fitzpatrick 09 Mar '11

09 Mar '11

Hi, all. Given the discussion about publishing models taking place on the list, it seems a good moment to announce that MediaCommons is hosting an open discussion of the Association of American University Presses report, released on Monday, "Sustaining Scholarly Publishing: New Business Models for University Presses." This report examines the experiments currently underway in university press publishing and makes several key recommendations for the success of future innovation. Central to these recommendations is a call for greater collaboration and communication in these publishing processes. Thanks to the support of Monica McCormick, Program Officer for Digital Scholarly Publishing at NYU NYU, the AAUP task force has not only graciously agreed to but enthusiastically supported this discussion. The report is available at http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/mcpress/sustaining/. I hope you'll all come by and join in the discussion -- there's an awful lot to dig into in the report. I also hope you'll spread the word to your own social networks, to get their participation as well. We've got the opportunity not just to respond to the AAUP's thoughts about the future, but to do so in a form that might get them to consider more possibilities for future innovation -- not to mention a form in we'll be able to engage directly with them; the report authors will be involved in these discussions. I'll hope to see you in the comments! -- Kathleen Fitzpatrick | Professor of Media Studies | Pomona College Co-editor, MediaCommons | machines.pomona.edu | @kfitz

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