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REFerents: CFP for Neo-Situationist edited book
by David Kreps 11 Jan '11

11 Jan '11

Dear AoIRists, “Capitalism transforms life into the money necessary for living. One tends to do any particular thing towards an end other than that implied by the content of the activity.” Funding for academic activity that is tied to the needs of industry ties academic thought to the capitalist system. As John le Carre put it, once the Cold War against the failings of Communism had been won it was time to focus on the failings of capitalism, but such a project is impossible when “the wage system makes one foreign to what one does, to what one is, to other people.” Research Assessment in such an academic environment requires each academic, focussed on her/his c.v., to yoke their thought to the capitalist pragmatic, write what will get into print for the sake of being in print, bid for funds that are made available in the service of industry for the sake of having funds to justify one’s continued employment and progression in academic heirarchies. REFerents seeks to explore what academics might do in their spare time, so to speak, to showcase work divorced from the industrial referent, to provide an unassessed – but peer-reviewed - space for true exploration. REFerents will be a free bound book, published annually with discretionary funds. Authors are invited to break free from standard academic paper formats, to make their work visual as well as cerebral: Information is Beautiful. Documentation of disruptive events is especially welcomed. REFerents pays homage to Semiotexte and to the creative naivety of May 1968 and the radicalism of Seattle 1999. In the Society of the Surveilled, creating GPS psychogeographies with our mobile devices, the spectacle of hyperreality has us mesmerised: post-industrial capitalism as counter-revolutionary baroque inspires a geeked-up awe in our techno-commodity fetishism, dominating our lives with the exchange of pixels. REFerents invites playful outrage and Not-Safe-For-Work lampoon. David Kreps is a cultural theorist, and currently the Director of the Information Systems, Organisations and Society (ISOS) Research Centre at the University of Salford, a former Local Authority Arts Centre Director, and one-time 1980s Glastonbury hippy. Gordon Fletcher is Salford Business School’s Associate Head of Marketing and unashamedly flirts with the ‘creative industries’ but, after first hand experience with a collectively managed media outlet, knows that the feelings are only platonic. Marie Griffiths is a onetime Madchester raver, a technophile and digital society observer. Bruce Robinson lived through May 68 from the UK side of the Channel, going on two marches to the French embassy while it was happening. David, Gordon, Marie and Bruce are all active members of the ISOS research centre. Paul Sermon is Professor of Creative Technology, both academic, as Associate Head of School of Art & Design (Research) and practicing artist and pioneer of telematic artworks, having worked in the field for nearly 20 years. We welcome all subversive and radical contributions that combine the immediacy of contemporary communication with questioning of the assumptions of the information society. Abstracts for contributions to REFerents should be received by the editors by 28th February 2011, not limited to but including: • Documentation of happenings o Experimental theatre o Disruptive events • Write-ups about Academic presentations at conferences turned into performance art pieces • Situationism in an “Information Everything” era • Are we still within the Society of the Spectacle? • Spectacle : Hyperreality? • Self-critique of REF – academia succumbing to the Society of the Spectacle? • The Society of Surveilled • Location-based-services / GPS apps Happenings • DRIFTING and PSYCHOGEOGRAPHY on the internet Short pieces for a special section title “irREFerents” also welcomed. If any questions please don't hesitate to contact any of us offlist. Editors: David Kreps d.g.kreps(a)salford.ac.uk, Gordon Fletcher g.fletcher(a)salford.ac.uk, Marie Griffiths m.griffiths(a)salford.ac.uk, Bruce Robinson bruce(a)brucerob.eu ISOS, University of Salford Paul Sermon p.sermon(a)salford.ac.uk, Art & Design, University of Salford

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Soc Media researchers in Scandinavia
by Mathias Klang 11 Jan '11

11 Jan '11

Hi, I am working at the University of Borås and planning a networking workshop in Social Media. The idea is to gather researchers in Scandinavia who are actively researching this vague topic. Please send me a mail off list if you are interested. Mathias -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mathias Klang, LL.M., Ph.D. Universities of Göteborg& Borås Phone: +46 (0) 31 786 55 63 Mobile: +46 705 43 22 13 http://twitter.com/klang67 http://digital-rights.net http://techrisk.se http://creativecommons.se ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Seeking solutions to small text search mystery
by Craig Scott 11 Jan '11

11 Jan '11

Colleagues, a graduate student and I could use your help solving a mystery related to computerized text searching/coding of online documents. We are examining documents (all saved as .pdf files) using the advanced search tool in Adobe Reader. While that tool generally works fine, it does not seem to recognize certain fairly standard statistical/mathematical symbols (such as the p used in statistical significance testing and symbols such as <, >, or =) in numerous documents. This is true even when we directly cut and paste the symbol in question into the search tool (surprisingly, it still does not recognize that symbol in the document). The problem occurs only with certain sources (such as all articles from certain journals), even when the rest of the article is fully searchable. This is happening with very recent documents published after 2000 (we are not searching older ones). We suspect these symbols might be part of some equation editor or specially formatted text, but we don't know. Has anyone else encountered and solved a similar problem? Do you have any other suggestions on a search tool for .pdf documents that might be superior? We would also welcome any suggestions on other ways to save these documents and search them that would address this (I think we could do optical character recognition, but fear that may create other accuracy problems). Thanks for any suggestions/thoughts you have related to helping us solve this frustrating little mystery. Craig Craig R. Scott, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Communication & Director, Ph.D. Program School of Communication & Information Rutgers University 4 Huntington Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901 Voice: 732-932-7500 x8142; Fax: 732-932-3756 Office in 201 DeWitt (185 College Avenue) Web: <http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/directory/crscott/index.html> http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/directory/crscott/index.html <https://www.scils.rutgers.edu/directory/crscott/index.html> Linked in: <http://www.linkedin.com/pub/11/b83/241> http://www.linkedin.com/pub/11/b83/241

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Final reminder deadline Fri 14th Jan - Full Time PhD position on social media & privacy, Free University of Brussels
by Jo Pierson 11 Jan '11

11 Jan '11

Vacancy: Full Time PhD position, Free University of Brussels (ref. IBBT/SMIT/Privacy) The research centre IBBT-SMIT at the Free University of Brussels (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) offers a full time PhD position in the field of Social Sciences, more in particular of Media and Communication Studies. The vacancy is open for a research position of 4 years, in order to realize a PhD on the use of social media and social networks sites, the reconfiguration of privacy practices and the social and technological consequences thereof. The position starts in January 2011, and is supervised by Prof. Jo Pierson. Candidates are expected to show strong affinity with and interest in the domain of audience and user studies, social media technologies and media sociology, and are holder of a Masters degree in Social Sciences (Communication Studies, Sociology, ...). Applications are to be sent electronically as soon as possible (at the latest by 14th January 2011) to Hans De Canck (Hans.De.Canck(a)vub.ac.be) and Prof. Jo Pierson (jo.pierson(a)vub.ac.be ). When applying, a motivation and an elaborated vision on the theme under concern are expected to be included with the CV. Contact information: Hans De Canck IBBT-SMIT Free University of Brussels (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) Pleinlaan 9 B-1050 Brusssels E-mail: Hans.De.Canck(a)vub.ac.be Tel.: +32-(0)2-6291628 Prof. dr. J. Pierson Dept. of Media and Communication Studies Faculty of Arts and Philosophy Free University of Brussels (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) Pleinlaan 2 B-1050 Brusssels E-mail: jo.pierson(a)vub.ac.be Tel.: +32-(0)2-6292412 Description of research theme: We are witnessing the rapid growth of a new generation of participatory and collaborative network technologies that provide individuals with a platform for sophisticated online social interaction. Social networks today have hundreds of millions of users and are transforming our social and professional interactions and to some extent are shaping society itself. Gradually, society is discerning that this development not only brings strong beneﬁts to the social and economic fabric, but also introduces new risks related to privacy violations. At this stage, these issues are often perceived as isolated incidents that most organizations do not take accountability for. Yet, the implications of social networking environments for individual users, communities, organizations and society at large will become much more evident and most likely more substantial if necessary precautions are not taken. Especially alarming is the massive responsibility that individuals incur with respect to managing privacy and security risks arising from the information collected and shared about their everyday life on social networking sites. This phenomenon is has been coined as the responsibilisation of individuals. The main objective of the overall research project is to mitigate the responsibilisation of individuals who use or are aﬀected by social networking services by making the underlying social networking infrastructures and the organizations that run them more accountable. In order to achieve this objective ﬁrst an understanding of the target audience is required as well as forms of responsibilisation. This target audience includes users, communities and organizations in Flanders (Belgium). The plan is to develop solutions that facilitate better decision making with respect to the target groups’ privacy and security concerns, and that mitigate the risks, threats and concerns that currently are manifest in this domain. The PhD research position at IBBT-SMIT (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) is part of this larger four-year interdisciplinary research project on security and privacy in online social networks, involving different Belgian universities and one American university. More in particular the doctoral research has a twofold perspective. On the one hand it wants to understand the practices and needs of users with regard to privacy issues within social network sites, mainly based on the use of qualitative and ethnographic methods. On the other hand it will focus on the critical design variables and tools for social software. For the latter a translation needs to be made from the user research findings to possible guidelines and requirements for future media en technological solutions. Requirements: A Master degree in Social Sciences, (Communication Studies, Sociology, ...) Good knowledge of Dutch (and English) Strong affinity and/or interest in the domain of audience and user studies, social media technologies and media sociology Good knowledge of user research methods Good writing skills To be flexible and to be able to cope with deadlines Team player with strong social skills Research experience is a plus. We offer: An interesting PhD research position (4 years) in a stimulating work environment Enthusiastic and young co-workers and a pleasant environment Day to day support and project guidance based on high quality standards A place for personal involvement and input Flexible working hours Multiple social benefits Salary in accordance with the job market.

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Call for Papers: i-Society 2011!
by i-Society 2010 11 Jan '11

11 Jan '11

Apologies for cross-postings. Please send it to interested colleagues and students. Thanks! CALL FOR PAPERS ******************************************************************* International Conference on Information Society (i-Society 2011), Technically Co-Sponsored by IEEE UK/RI Computer Chapter 27-29 June, 2011, London, UK www.i-society.eu ******************************************************************* The International Conference on Information Society (i-Society 2011) is Technically Co-Sponsored by IEEE UK/RI Computer Chapter. The i-Society is a global knowledge-enriched collaborative effort that has its roots from both academia and industry. The conference covers a wide spectrum of topics that relate to information society, which includes technical and non-technical research areas. The mission of i-Society 2011 conference is to provide opportunities for collaboration of professionals and researchers to share existing and generate new knowledge in the field of information society. The conference encapsulates the concept of interdisciplinary science that studies the societal and technological dimensions of knowledge evolution in digital society. The i-Society bridges the gap between academia and industry with regards to research collaboration and awareness of current development in secure information management in the digital society. The topics in i-Society 2011 include but are not confined to the following areas: *New enabling technologies - Internet technologies - Wireless applications - Mobile Applications - Multimedia Applications - Protocols and Standards - Ubiquitous Computing - Virtual Reality - Human Computer Interaction - Geographic information systems - e-Manufacturing *Intelligent data management - Intelligent Agents - Intelligent Systems - Intelligent Organisations - Content Development - Data Mining - e-Publishing and Digital Libraries - Information Search and Retrieval - Knowledge Management - e-Intelligence - Knowledge networks *Secure Technologies - Internet security - Web services and performance - Secure transactions - Cryptography - Payment systems - Secure Protocols - e-Privacy - e-Trust - e-Risk - Cyber law - Forensics - Information assurance - Mobile social networks - Peer-to-peer social networks - Sensor networks and social sensing *e-Learning - Collaborative Learning - Curriculum Content Design and Development - Delivery Systems and Environments - Educational Systems Design - e-Learning Organisational Issues - Evaluation and Assessment - Virtual Learning Environments and Issues - Web-based Learning Communities - e-Learning Tools - e-Education *e-Society - Global Trends - Social Inclusion - Intellectual Property Rights - Social Infonomics - Computer-Mediated Communication - Social and Organisational Aspects - Globalisation and developmental IT - Social Software *e-Health - Data Security Issues - e-Health Policy and Practice - e-Healthcare Strategies and Provision - Medical Research Ethics - Patient Privacy and Confidentiality - e-Medicine *e-Governance - Democracy and the Citizen - e-Administration - Policy Issues - Virtual Communities *e-Business - Digital Economies - Knowledge economy - eProcurement - National and International Economies - e-Business Ontologies and Models - Digital Goods and Services - e-Commerce Application Fields - e-Commerce Economics - e-Commerce Services - Electronic Service Delivery - e-Marketing - Online Auctions and Technologies - Virtual Organisations - Teleworking - Applied e-Business - Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) *e-Art - Legal Issues - Patents - Enabling technologies and tools *e-Science - Natural sciences in digital society - Biometrics - Bioinformatics - Collaborative research *Industrial developments - Trends in learning - Applied research - Cutting-edge technologies * Research in progress - Ongoing research from undergraduates, graduates/postgraduates and professionals Important Dates: Paper Submission Date: March 31, 2011 Short Paper (Extended Abstract or Work in Progress): March 20, 2011 Notification of Paper Acceptance /Rejection: April 15, 2011 Notification of Short Paper (Extended Abstract or Work in Progress) Acceptance /Rejection: April 10, 2011 Camera Ready Paper and Short Paper Due: April 30, 2011 Participant(s) Registration (Open): January 1, 2011 Early Bird Attendee Registration Deadline (Authors only): February 1 to April 30, 2011 Late Bird Attendee Registration Deadline (Authors only): May 1 to June 1, 2011 Conference Dates: June 27-29, 2011 For more details, please visit www.i-society.eu

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Cf Papers, Posters, Tutorials, Demos, and Workshops :: Academic MindTrek 2011 :: Tampere, Finland :: first deadline: 31st March 2011
by artur.lugmayr＠tut.fi 10 Jan '11

10 Jan '11

======================================================================== Academic MindTrek 2011: Call for Papers, Posters, Tutorials, Demos, and Workshops 28th-30th September, 2011 Tampere, Finland http://www.mindtrek.org, http://www.mindtrek.org/2011/academic In cooperation with ACM, ACM SIGMM and ACM SIGCHI publications will be published in the ACM digital library and a selected set of high-level contributions will published as book chapters or in journals ======================================================================== Academic MindTrek 2011 Call for Papers, Demonstrations, Tutorials and Workshops We are pleased to invite you to the Academic MindTrek conference from 28th - 30th September 2011, which brings together a cross-disciplinary crowd of people to investigate current and emerging topics of media in the ubiquitous arena. Among the media to be discussed, will be business, social, technical and content-related topics. September 6th is the main Academic day, featuring the following themes: Social Media ?Get social!? Social media and Web 2.0 technologies are applied in ever diverse practices both in private and public communities. Totally new business models are emerging, traditional communication and expression modalities are challenged, and new practices are constructed in the collaborative, interactive media space. Ambient and Ubiquitous Media ?The medium is the message!? ? This conference track focuses on the definition of ambient and ubiquitous media with a cross-disciplinary viewpoint: ambient media between technology, art, and content. The focus of this track is on applications, theory, art-works, mixed reality concepts, the Web 3.0, and user experiences that make ubiquitous and ambient media tick. Digital Games The culture and business of digital games is becoming increasingly varied. The current trends range from novel interface innovations and digital distribution channels to social game dynamics and player-generated content. The games track is open for theoretical works, empirical case studies and constructive projects. Open Source The last decade has seen a significant increase in open source initiatives such as open source software, open standards, open content, open media, or even open source hardware. On the one hand, the open movement has created new kinds of opportunities such as new business models and development approaches. On the other hand, it has introduced new kinds of technical and non-technical challenges. Media Business, Media Production and Media Management Media business and media management face the challenges of the emergence of new forms of digital media. This theme focuses on business studies, policies, practices, and organizational structure of media firms. It discusses competition, patterns of media usage, advertising models, and how traditional media can cope with the challenges coming from digital media focusing on media business and media management issues. In addition, special academic sessions (e.g. tutorials, demonstrations, workshops, and multidisciplinary sessions) will be held parallel to the MindTrek business conference. Academic speakers and authors are warmly welcome to attend the business conference tracks as part of the academic conference fee during these days as well. The MindTrek Association hosts MindTrek as a yearly conference, where the Academic MindTrek conference has been a part of this unique set of events comprising competitions, world famous keynote speakers, plenary sessions, media festivals, and workshops since 1997. It is a meeting place where experts and thinkers present results from their latest work regarding the development of Internet, interactive media, and the information society. MindTrek brings together researchers and practitioners from diverse disciplines that are involved in the development of media in various fields, ranging from sociology and the economy, to technology. The organizing committee invites you to submit original high quality full papers, long or short, addressing the special theme and the topics, for presentation at the conference and inclusion in the proceedings. Academic MindTrek 2011 offers a wider spectrum of topic areas that previously, and we are looking forward for: - case-studies (successful, and especially unsuccessful ones) - oral presentation of fresh and innovative ideas - artistic installations and running system prototypes - user-experience studies and evaluations - technological novelties, evaluations, and solutions - scientific, business, or media oriented contributions - proposals for own workshops. Paper Proposals ======================================================================== All submissions will be peer-reviewed double blinded, therefore please remove any information that could give an indication of the authorship. The scientific part of the conference is organized in cooperation with ACM SIGMM, and ACM SIGCHI. Conference proceedings will be published in the ACM Digital Library. Selected high quality papers will be published in international journals, as book chapters, edited books, or via open access journals. There will also be a reward for the overall best paper from the academic conference. Workshop Proposals ======================================================================== Feel free to suggest workshops which are co-organized with MindTrek 2011. Workshop proposals should include the organizing committee, a 2 page description of the theme of the workshop, a short CV of organizers, duration, the proceedings publisher, and the schedule. Workshop organizers also have the possibility to add publications to the main conference proceedings. Tutorial Proposals ======================================================================== Tutorial proposals should include a 2-page description of the tutorial, intended audience, a short CV, timetable, required equipment, references, and a track record of previous tutorials. The target length of tutorials is 2-4 hours. Submission Deadlines ======================================================================== - 31st March 2011: deadline for workshop proposals - 22nd May 2011: deadline for long papers (6-8 pages), short papers (3-4 pages), posters (1-2 pages) and demonstrations (2-3 pages) - 1st July 2011: deadline for tutorial proposals - 20 July: camera ready papers and copyright forms Key-Dates - 15th April 2011: notification for workshops - 22nd June 2011: notification of acceptance/rejection for papers, posters, and demos - 15th July 2011: notification of tutorial proposals - 28th-30th Sept. 2011: MindTrek academic conference Suggested key-dates for workshop organizers - 1st July 2011: deadline for workshop papers - 20th July 2011: deadline for final papers Conference Themes ======================================================================== 1. Social Media - business models, service models, and policies - social media in innovation and business - intra- and interorganizational use of social media - questions related to identity, motivation and values - blogs, wikis, collaboration and social platform designs in practice - knowledge management and learning with social media - experience management with social media - crowdsourcing, user-created content and social networks - enterprise 2.0 and social computing in work organizations - evaluation and research methods of social media - social media and community design - benefits and limitations of social media applications 2. Ambient and Ubiquitous Media - between Technology, Services, and Users - applications and services utilizing ubiquitous and pervasive technology - ubicom in eLearning, leisure, storytelling, art works, advertising, and mixed reality contexts - next generation user interfaces, ergonomics, multimodality, and human-computer interaction - art works for smart public or indoor spaces, mobile phones, museums, or cultural applications - context awareness, sensor perception, context sensitive internet, and smart daily objects - personalization, multimodal interaction, smart user interfaces, and ergonomics - ambient human computer interaction, experience design, usability, and audience research - software, hardware, middleware, and technologies for pervasive and ubiquitous - theoretical methods and algorithms in ubiquitous and ambient systems - business models, service models, media economics, regulations, x-commerce, and policies - user positioning, location awareness - augmented reality in ubiquitous applications - device interoperability, remote user interfaces, inter-device connections 3. Digital Games - theoretical and analytical approaches on games and play - analysis of player experience - game design research - economy and business models in the game industry - innovation in and around games - digital distribution of games - online gaming - social and casual gaming - player-created content - pervasive and ubiquitous gaming - mobile and cross-media gaming - gamification, funware and playful designs 4. Open Source - forms of openness: open source software, open standards, open content, open media, open source hardware, and open access - establishment of an open source community - practices on developing open source systems - practices for maintaining a successful project - open source processes and techniques - differences on open source and closed source systems - using open source in commercial context - challenges of open source development - teaching open source in academia and industry 5. Media Business and Media Management - media policy, politics, practices, conception, and media regulation - organizational structures, practices, and strategies - production technology, processes, and optimization - business models, service models, public funding, and media economics - patterns of media use, engagement, and consumer experiences - advertising, media consumption, new audience models, and media user models - competition analysis, media governing, assessment, performance indicators - business and media management in new media genres: gaming, social media, Internet, digital cinema, iTV - traditional media business and management: broadcasting, publishing, journalism, and movie industry - innovative service designs, strategies, and ideas - teaching & training of media management and media business Paper Submission ======================================================================== - Please follow the style guidelines on http://www.acm.org/sigs/publications/proceedings- templates for formatting your position paper and final paper. - Note that since the papers will be published by the ACM digital library - all authors need to sign an ACM copyright form. (For further guidelines see: http://www.acm.org/pubs/copyright_form.html) - Submit papers here http://webhotel2.tut.fi/emmi/Conferences/2011mindtrek/ Organizing Committee ======================================================================== General Chair Artur Lugmayr, Tampere Univ. of Technology (TUT), FIN Programme Chairs Helj? Franssila, Tampere Univ. (UTA), FIN Christian Safran, Graz University of Technology, AUT Imed Hammouda, Tampere Univ. of Technology (TUT), FIN Theme chair: Social Media Hannu K?rkk?inen, Tampere Univ. of Technology (TUT), FIN Theme chair: Open Source Bj?rn Lundell, University of Sk?vde, SE Theme chair: Ambient Media Lasse Kaila, Tampere Univ. of Technology (TUT), FIN Theme chair: Media Business, Economics and Management Artur Lugmayr, Tampere Univ. of Technology (TUT), FIN Theme chair: Digital Games Janne Paavilainen, University of Tampere (UTA), FIN Demonstration Chair Daniela Soares Cruzes, Norwegian Univ. of Science and Technology, NOR Workshop Chair Niels Henrik Helms, Knowledge Lab, Univ. of Southern Denmark, DK Tutorial Chair Theresa Champel, Univ. of Lisbon, PT Local Arragement Chair and Conference Management Karen Thorburn, Hermia, FIN Steering Board Olli Sotamaa, University of Tampere (UTA), FIN Pertti N?r?nen, Tampere Univ. of Applied Sciences (TAMK), FIN Tentative Programme Committee (from MindTrek 2010 - to be confirmed) ======================================================================== Pradeep K. Atrey, The University of Winnipeg, CANADA Staffan Bj?rk, Chalmers University of Technology, SWEDEN Johanna Bragge, Helsinki School of Economics, FINLAND (Confirmed) Peter A Bruck, CEO and Chief of Research Studios Austria, AUSTRIA Irek Defee, Tampere University of Technology (TUT), FINLAND Nicole Ellison, Michigan State University, USA Hanna-Kaisa Ellonen, Lappeenranta University of Technology (Confirmed) Jussi Holopainen, Nokia, FINLAND Abdelmagid Salem Hammuda, Qatar University, QATAR Kaisa Henttonen, Lappeenranta University of Technology (Confirmed) Sal Humphreys, Queensland University of Technology, (QUT), AUSTRALIA Aki J?rvinen, IT University of Copenhagen, DENMARK Juha Kaario, NOKIA, FINLAND Jan Kallenbach, Helsinki University of Technology (HUT), FINLAND Jonas Kronlund, ELISA, FINLAND Kai Kuikkaniemi, HIIT - Helsinki Institute for Information Technology, FINLAND Cai Melakoski, TAMK University of Applied Sciences, FINLAND Maarit M?kinen, University of Tampere (UTA), FINLAND (confirmed) Frans M?yr?, University of Tampere (UTA), FINLAND Marko Nieminen, Helsinki University of Technology (HUT), FINLAND - (confirmed) Marianna Obrist, ICT & S Centre, University of Salzburg, AUSTRIA Hannu Paunonen, Metso Automation, FINLAND (confirmed) Matthias Rauterberg, Eindhoven University of Technology, NETHERLANDS Calin Rusu, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, ROMANIA Antti Salovaara, Helsinki Institute for Information Technology (HIIT), FINLAND Kirsi Silius, Tampere University of Technology (TUT), FINLAND Sanna Talja, University of Tampere (UTA), FINLAND (confirmed) Manfred Tscheligi, ICT & S Centre, University of Salzburg, AUSTRIA Kaisa V??n?nen-Vainio-Mattila, Tampere University of Technology (TUT), Finland Annika Waern, Swedish Institute of Computer Science, SWEDEN Karsten D.Wolf, University of Bremen, GERMANY Zhiwen Yu, Kyoto University, JAPAN Ioannis Stamelos, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, GREECE Jonas Gamalielsson, University of Sk?vde, SWEDEN Sulayman K. Sowe, UNU-MERIT, NETHERLANDS/UNITED NATIONS Tommi Mikkonen, Tampere University of Technology, FINLAND Jaco Geldenhuys, Stellenbosch University, SOUTH AFRICA Andrea Capiluppi, University of East London, UK Contact ======================================================================== Questions concerning academic content, papers, tutorials, workshops, scientific contributions: Email: academic.chairs (at) mindtrek.org General questions concerning payments, administration, copyright forms, local arrangements, and the venue: ======================================================================== Email: academic.info (at) mindtrek.org Submit papers here ======================================================================== http://webhotel2.tut.fi/emmi/Conferences/2011mindtrek/ Further Information ======================================================================== http://www.mindtrek.org Supported by: City of Tampere, Nokia Oyj, Ubiquitous Computing Cluster, Tampere University of Technology, Tampere University, TAMK University of Applied Sciences, Technology Centre Hermia, Neogames, Digibusiness cluster, Sombiz and COSS The Finnish Centre for Open Source Solutions, Ambient Media Association (AMEA).

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CfP: CT 2011 - SAME 2011 - Semantic Ambient Media Experience - Brisbane, Austrial - 29/06-02/07
by artur.lugmayr＠tut.fi 10 Jan '11

10 Jan '11

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Call for Position Papers SAME 2011 ? 4th International Workshop on Semantic Ambient Media Experience 29th June-2nd July 2011 in conjunction with the 5th International Conference on Communities and Technologies, Brisbane, Australia http://www.ambientmediaassociation.org/node/60, http://ct2011.urbaninformatics.net/ Creating the business value-creation, vision, media theories and technology for ambient media ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Call for Papers The medium is the message! And the message was transmitted via a single distinguishable media such as television, the Web, the radio, or books. In the age of ubiquitous and pervasive computation, where the information goes through a distributed interlinked network of devices, the question ?what is content in the age of ambient media?? becomes more and more of importance. Ambient media are embedded throughout the natural environment of the consumer ? in his home, in his car, in restaurants, and on his mobile device. Predominant example services are smart wallpapers in homes, location based services, RFID based entertainment services for children, or intelligent homes. The distribution of the medium throughout the natural environment implies a paradigm change of how to think about content. Until recently, content was identified as single entities to information ? a video stream, audio stream, TV broadcast. However, in the age of ambient media, the notion of content extends from the single entity thinking towards a plethora of sensor networks, smart devices, personalized services, media embedded in the natural environment of the user and even the World Wide Web. The user actively participates and co-designs media experience with his location and context based input. Initiatives as the smart Web considering location based tagging for web-pages underline this development. This multidisciplinary workshop aims at a series, and at the creation of a think-tank of creative thinkers coming from technology, art, human-computer interaction, and social sciences, that are interested in glimpsing the future of semantic ambient intelligent empowered media technology. Thus, the workshop aims to answer to the challenges how to select, compose, and generate ambient content; how to interpret content for the ambient presentation; how to re-use ambient content and learning experiences; what are the characteristics of ambient media, its content, and technology; and what are ambient media in terms of story-telling and art. And finally, how do ambient media create business and value? How can ambient media be integrated into business processes and strategies? In addition, Semantics plays a crucial role in the generation of ambient media content. It can be seen as the glue between the raw data and the ambient media. Therefore we are interested to see innovative ideas how data can be (semi-)automatically be interpreted and translated into media presentations. Workshop Challenges ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ? What is ?content? and how can it be presented in the age of ?ubiquitous? and ?pervasive?? ? How to select, compose and generate ambient content? ? How to interpret content for an ambient presentation? ? How to manage and re-use ambient content in specific application scenarios (e.g. e-learning)? ? What is interactivity between the single consumers and consumer groups in the ambient context? ? How can collaborative or audience participatory content be supported? ? How can sensor data be interpreted and intelligently mined? ? How can existing media such as TV, home entertainment, cinema extended by ambient media? ? How can ambient media be applied in business processes? ? How do ambient media create value and business? ? Business opportunities and strategic issues of ambient media? ? Which methods for experience design, prototyping, and business models exist? More information on the previous International Workshops on Semantic Ambient Media Experience: * 1st International Workshop on Semantic Ambient Media Experiences held in conjunction with ACM Multimedia 2008, http://portal.acm.org/toc.cfm?id=1461912&type=proceeding&coll=ACM&dl=ACM&CF… 753168&CFTOKEN=49706448 * 2nd International Workshop on Semantic Ambient Media Experiences held in conjunction with AmI-09, http://webhotel2.tut.fi/emmi/forum/node/55 * 3rd International Workshop on Semantic Ambient Media Experiences held in conjunction with AmI-10, http://www.ambientmediaassociation.org/node/56 Topics of Interest ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following (and related) topics are within the scope of this workshop and shall act as examples: * Supply chain management with ubiquitous computation * eCommerce & ubiquitous commerce * Business processes, value-creation, and opportunities of ambient media * Understanding of the semantics of ambient content and methods for adding intelligence to daily objects * The World Wide Web in the context of ambient media * Mobile and stationary sensor data collection and interpretation algorithms and techniques * Context awareness and collection and context aware composition/selection of ambient content * Creation and maintenance of meta-information including metadata and data management * Ambient and mobile social networks, user generated content, and co-creation of content and products * Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) * Characteristics of ambient media, its content, and technological platforms * Ambient content creation techniques, asset management, and programming ambient media * Algorithms and techniques for sensor data interpretation and semantic interpretation * Applications and services, including ambient games, art and leisure content in specific contexts * Ambient interactive storytelling, narrations, and interactive advertising * Personalization, user models, multimodal interaction, smart user interfaces, and universal access * Experience design, usability, audience research, ethnography, user studies, and interface design * Business models, marketing studies, media economics, and ?x?-commerce of semantic ambient media * Ambient interfaces (touch, gesture, haptics, biometrics) * Management of information, knowledge and sapience in the context of semantic ambient media * Methods for context awareness, sensor networks, and sensor data mining * Semantic data mining and text mining for pervasive media * Semantic models, semantic interpretation for ambient media presentation; * Personalization and methods for locative media The workshop aims at a series, and at the creation of a think-tank of creative thinkers coming from technology, art, human-computer interaction, and social sciences, that are interested in glimpsing the future of semantic ambient intelligent empowered media technology. We are aiming at multidisciplinary, highly future oriented submissions that help to develop the "ambient media form" for entertainment services, such as: * case-studies (successful, and especially unsuccessful ones) * oral presentation of fresh and innovative ideas * artistic installations and running system prototypes * user-experience studies and evaluations * technological novelties, evaluations, and solutions Target Audience ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The target audience are researchers and practitioners in the field of ubiquitous and pervasive computation and its related areas. These include pervasive computation, emotional computation, content creation, ubiquitous computation, human-computer-interaction and usability experts, mobile industry, service creators, etc. Workshop participants shall have previous experience in this or related fields to be able to contribute on a high scientific level. The workshop participants will actively contribute to the development of semantic ambient media, due to a different method of workshop organization. Participants shall participate rather than passively contribute. The participants shall discuss and actively elaborate the topic and we plan to kick-off an international web-based informal forum for ambient media, which shall increase the effect of this workshop tremendously. We strongly welcome multidisciplinary contributions coming from the media technology, business, artistic, and human experience side. Case studies (successful and especially unsuccessful), artistic installations, technologies, media studies, and user-experience evaluations are highly welcome, which are affecting the development of ambient media as new form of media. Especially visionary contributions shaping the future of ambient media are strongly welcome. Paper Submission ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Submissions are expected to be 2-4 pages position papers according the paper format of C&T available at http://www.sigchi.org/chipubform * Please submit your paper at our paper submission system: http://webhotel2.tut.fi/emmi/Conferences/2011same/openconf.php * Best contributions will be compiled to a special issue following up the workshop - we aim at Springer MTAP after reviewing the quality of contributions * Check also the Ambient Media Association (AMEA): www.ambientmediaassociation.org Important Dates ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * paper submission: 15th March 2011 * notification of acceptance: 1st April 2011 * final papers due: 15th April 2011 * workshop day: 29th June 2011 * special issue articles due: 30th August 2011 Workshop Chairs ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Artur Lugmayr, Tampere University of Technology (TUT) & lugYmedia Inc., FINLAND * Thomas Risse, L3S Research Center, GERMANY * Bjorn Stockleben, Univ. of Applied Sciences Magdeburg, GERMANY * Juha Kaario, Varaani Works Oy, FINLAND * Bogdan Pogorelc, Jozef Stefan Institute & Spica International d.o.o., SLOVENIA * Estefania Serral Asensio, Universidad Polit?cnica de Valencia, SPAIN Program Committee ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Heiko Schuldt, Uni Basel, SWITZERLAND * Pablo Caesar, Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica, THE NETHERLANDS * Zhiwen Yu, Northwestern Polytechnical University, CHINA * Richard Chbeir, Bourgogne University, FRANCE * Sofia Tsekeridou, Athens Information Technology, GREECE * Shu-Ching Chen, Florida International University, USA * Mark Billinghurst, Canterbury University, NEW ZEALAND * Carsten Magerkurth, SAP, GERMANY * Andreas Holzinger, Medical University Graz, AUSTRIA

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CFP: Papers due this Saturday, January 15 for JITP 2011 "The Future of Computational Social Science"
by Stuart Shulman 10 Jan '11

10 Jan '11

JITP 2011: The Future of Computational Social Science CALL FOR PAPERS May 16 & 17, 2011 at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA http://www.umass.edu/jitp/ The 3rd annual, two-day Journal of Information Technology & Politics (JITP) thematic conference will be in Seattle, Washington, coordinated by the Department of Political Science and the Center for American Politics and Public Policy (CAPPP) at the University of Washington. APPROACH Computational social science is an emergent field and source of new theoretical and methodological innovation for social science more broadly. Multidisciplinary teams of social and computer scientists are increasingly common in the lab and at workshops where cross-fertilization occurs in the areas of theory, data, methods, and tools. Peer-reviewed interdisciplinary work is becoming more common as the computational tools and techniques of computer science are being used by social scientists. Previously, large-scale computational processing was the purview of expensive, university-centric computing labs. Now, with the democratization of technology, universities and for-profit firms increasingly provide large amounts of inexpensive computing power to researchers and citizens alike. It is the potential of these new computational technologies and related Web-based platforms for research, politics, and governance that led to the creation of the Journal of Information Technology & Politics. Previous special issues on "Text Annotation for Political Science" 5(1), "Politics: Web 2.0" 6(3/4), "YouTube and the 2008 Election Cycle in the United States" 7(2/3), and "The Politics of Open Source" (in production) have focused the attention of researchers on the expansive new landscape of digital democracy as well as the architecture and tools that underpin it. In their 2009 Science article, David Lazer and colleagues highlighted some of the future challenges for scholars working in this area. "Computational social science could become the exclusive domain of private companies and government agencies. Alternatively, there might emerge a privileged set of academic researchers presiding over private data from which they produce papers that cannot be critiqued or replicated. Neither scenario will serve the long-term public interest of accumulating, verifying, and disseminating knowledge." Luckily, the phenomenon of computational social science is distributed so widely and found in such variety that these scenarios are unlikely. The trends towards openness and data and tool sharing are notable breakthroughs in a sphere where proprietary approaches dominate. Data, method, and tool transparency are increasingly watchwords for governments and researchers. With this background in mind, we invite a wide range of paper submissions on the future of computational social science. Submissions may include, but are not limited to: * Applications of information theory to social science research * Methodologies and tools for studying users and information on social media services * Projects featuring novel uses of computer assisted qualitative data analysis software * Large-scale empirical analysis and modeling * Web technologies and data mining * Interdisciplinary methodologies in collaborative research * Pedagogical issues in computational social science * Computer simulations in political science education and training * Concepts from social sciences enhanced by computation, such as social network analysis * Innovation in socio-technical network and infrastructure analysis PAPER SUBMISSIONS Authors are invited to prepare and submit to JITP a research paper, policy viewpoint, workbench note, or teaching innovation manuscript by January 15, 2011. Proposals for full panel presentations will also be accepted. Please contact the conference manager to discuss panels. Papers accepted for publication will be invited to revise and resubmit their articles for publication in a special issue, or double issue, of JITP. Authors should "establish membership" at the JITP website, http://www.jitp.net, to submit a paper. Follow the instructions for regular article submissions, being sure to indicate that the paper is for JITP2011 in the comments section. Papers will be put through an expedited, blind peer review process by the Program Committee, and authors will be notified about a decision by March 1, 2011. A small number of papers will be accepted for presentation at the conference. Other paper authors will be invited to present a poster during an evening reception. KEYNOTE SPEAKER JITP 2011 is pleased to welcome Jaime Teevan as the 2011 Keynote Speaker. Jaime is a researcher in the Context, Learning, and User Experience for Search (CLUES) Group at Microsoft Research. Her work explores how our digital past can help shape our future information interactions. Jaime was named a Technology Review (TR35) 2009 Young Innovator for her research on personalized search. She co-authored the first book on collaborative Web search, and is co-chair of the Web Search and Data Mining (WSDM) 2012 conference. BEST PAPER AND POSTER CASH PRIZES The author (or authors) of the best research paper will receive a cash prize. The creator (or creators) of the best poster/research presentation will also receive a cash prize. PROGRAM COMMITTEE Gil ad Ariely, Lauder School of Government Diplomacy and Strategy, Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya Paul M. Baker, Georgia Institute of Technology David M. Berry, Swansea University, UK. Chris Bronk, Rice University Jana Diesner, Carnegie Mellon University Muzammil M. Hussain, University of Washington Daniel Katz, Fellow, University of Michigan, Center for the Study of Complex Systems Jacob Groshek, Iowa State University Baden Hughes, University of Melbourne Andrea Kavanaugh, Virginia Tech Georgios Lappas, Technological Educational Institution of Western Macedonia, Greece Azi Lev-On, Ariel University Center Ignacio J. Martinez-Moyano, Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago Bruce Neubauer, Albany State University Andre Oboler, Monash University, Australia Justin Reedy, University of Washington Joseph W. Roberts, Roger Williams University Scott Robertson, University of Hawaii Derek Ruths, McGill University Chirag Shah, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey Mack Shelley, Iowa State University Stuart Shulman, University of Massachusetts Amherst, co-chair Anas Tawileh, Cardiff University, UK John Wilkerson, University of Washington, co-chair -- 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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CfP: Methodologies for Virtual Environments and Social Networks
by dddumitr＠ucalgary.ca 10 Jan '11

10 Jan '11

Call for Papers and Book Reviews: Methodological approaches to the study of virtual environments and online social networks The Graduate Journal of Social Science (GJSS) announces a Call for Papers and Book Reviews for a special issue dealing with methodological approaches to the study of virtual environments and online social networks. The journal encourages the submission of work by MSc/ MA/MS, MPhil, PhD students and junior academics from all geographic regions. All papers are submitted to a blind peer review process. The special issue is scheduled for December 2011. Papers: The proliferation of virtual worlds such as The Sims, Second Life, World of Warcraft and of online social networks such as blogs or social networking applications (Facebook, LinkedIn, Hi5) has been met with an enthusiastic interest from researchers across disciplines. Scholars in anthropology, communication and cultural studies, economics, education, psychology and sociology have become increasingly involved in the study of such environments, bringing along not only discipline-specific questions and theories, but also various methodological approaches. This special issue aims at mapping some of the methodological approaches to the study of virtual environments, and welcomes both theoretical and empirical analyses that address them. The interest here is in what methods graduate researchers choose to use, the problems they face in trying to use them and the ways in which these methods are being adapted in relation to these virtual sites of study. Graduate students doing empirical work on virtual worlds and online social networks from all disciplines are strongly encouraged to submit papers dealing with the processes of choosing, applying and critically evaluating their methods. While we expect contributions to vary according to the particular focus of investigation, questions such as the following may be relevant: What are the advantages and disadvantages of these methods? Are such methods developed specifically for the study of virtual worlds and/or online social networks, or are they adaptations of traditional research methods in social sciences? Are there specific disciplines, theories, or academic frameworks that offer more suitable insights regarding such methods- or can using them suggest limiting the scope of this new research environment? Authors are encouraged to submit papers addressing questions such as: - How to choose a suitable method for the study of virtual worlds and/ or online social networks? - Methods for exploring the social and cultural aspects of virtual worlds and/ or online social networks. - Methods for exploring the technical aspects of virtual worlds and/ or online social networks. - Criteria for evaluating research on virtual worlds and/ or online social networks. - Simulations as research methods: problems, recommendations, evaluation. - Methods for collaborative research in virtual environments and/ or online social networks. - Ethical issues. - Immersion: do we need to be users of virtual worlds/ online social networks to study them? All papers must be submitted electronically by March 15, 2011 to <dddumitr(a)ucalgary.ca>. Articles should be between 5,000 - 8,000 words in length (including footnotes but excluding references). Short essays (2,000 - 3,000 words) and book reviews on this topic are also welcome. All submissions must be anonymized and accompanied by the GJSS article submission form (which can be downloaded from the GJSS website). Please include an abstract, a short author bio and 3-5 keywords. For more information on the stylistic guidelines, please check the GJSS website at http://gjss.org. For any further inquiries and to submit an article, please contact Delia Dumitrica, special issue editor at <dddumitr(a)ucalgary.ca>. Book Reviews: We are also looking for reviews of books published between 2008-2010 dealing with methodological approaches to virtual worlds and online social networks. Ideally, reviewers have their own copy of the book. Book reviews should be between 1,000 - 1,5000 words and should not only describe the book, but also critically engage with the points raised. If you would like to propose a book review for this special issue, please contact Delia Dumitrica, special issue editor at <dddumitr(a)ucalgary.ca>.

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Call for papers- mlearn 2011, Beijing, China
by Yinjuan Shao 10 Jan '11

10 Jan '11

The 10th World Conference on Mobile and Contextual Learning Beijing, China 18 –21 October 2011 Full paper submissions – *5 May 2011* *N*otification of acceptance – 10 June 2011 Last date for early-bird registration – 26 July 2011 Full paper and/or slide show for Technology Showcases – 1 September 2011 Submission of full papers to special issues of JCAL and IJMBL – 30 November 2011 mLearn was the first conference on Mobile Learning and is widely recognised as the premiere international conference on learning with mobile technologies and learning across contexts. Each year, it attracts a great number of participants from more than 60 countries representing all continents, and acts as a forum for knowledge sharing and transfer across cultures.  The past mLearn conferences were held in the UK, Italy, Australia, South Africa, Canada, the USA, and Malta ( http://www.iamlearn.org/resources/) It is the first time that mLearn comes to East Asia. This tenth annual conference will be hosted by Beijing Normal University (http://www.bnu.edu.cn/eng/) in collaboration with IAMLearn – the International Association for Mobile Learning (http://www.iamlearn.org/) *CONFERENCE THEME: Mobile and Contextual Learning: Culture and Change** *** The conference aims to stimulate critical debate on and research into theories, approaches, and applications of mobile and contextual learning; to bring together researchers and practitioners from all over the world to share their knowledge, experience and research in the field of mobile learning; and to create dialogue and networking for knowledge sharing and transfer across the globe. The conference is now open for submission, and we welcome contributions from academic researchers, developers, professionals, practitioners, and educators from school education, higher education, industry, government, international organisations, etc. *Submissions are invited for:** ** * - Long papers (8 pages) - Short papers (3 pages) - Workshops (2 pages) - Posters (300 words) - Panels (500 words) - Industry showcase &presentation (1-2 page) - Doctoral Consortium (4 pages) The proceedings will also be published via the web for Full Open Access. Authors of accepted papers will have the opportunity to have their submissions considered for special issues of the SSCI-indexed Journal of Computer Assisted Learning (*JCAL*) and the International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning (*IJMBL*). More details are available at the conference websites http://www.mlearn .org/mlearn2011 or http://mlearn.bnu.edu.cn/ -- Dr. Yinjuan Shao NIE Nanyang Technological University Singapore

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