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CFP Reminder: Edited Collection on First Person Shooters
by Voorhees, Gerald 03 Nov '10

03 Nov '10

CFP Reminder: Edited Collection on First Person Shooters: "Guns, Grenades and Grunts: First Person Shooter Games" Known for their graphical extravagance and social recognition, first-person shooters have long held a highly visible position among digital games. This edited collection, provisionally titled, "Guns, Grenades, and Grunts: First-Person Shooter Games" is designed for a broad academic audience and will feature essays that either examine specific games or consider the genre as a whole. We invite scholars and critics to contribute to this edited collection of essays exploring the theory and criticism of FPS games. The collection will publish essays on FPS games that engage the theory and criticism of console, computer and hand-held FPS games. Contributions from all academic disciplines and geographic regions are invited. The collection and series aim to advance theory and criticism by bringing different voices and perspectives into conversation. However, critical inquiry is preferred. All contributions must be the original work of the author and cannot be published elsewhere, unless author retains copyrights. For co-authored essays, all authors must agree to submission of work. For consideration, please send an abstract to gamestudies.books(a)gmail.com by November 15, 2011. Abstracts should be 500 words and must outline a theoretically grounded approach to a specific game or set of games. Completed essays must be 7000 words (including notes and references) and Continuum uses Chicago Manual of Style for references. Reprints will be considered on a case by case basis. Provisional Timeline: Abstracts will be accepted until November 15, 2010 Abstracts will be evaluated and requests for manuscripts will be issued by January 1, 2011 Completed manuscript will be required by April 1, 2011 Revisions must be completed by July 15, 2011 This collection will be the second title in a series ofanthologies, Approaches to Digital Game Studies, published by Continuum. Each book in the series will be organized around a thematic or functional genre of game. Although digital game genres and the criteria for defining such genres are contested and dynamic categories, exploring the promises and pitfalls of genre is precisely one of the goals the series hopes to accomplish. Additionally, the series will bring the insights of a variety of scholarly disciplines to bear on the analysis of digital games in order to better understand the nature of this medium, its role in reshaping civic life and its impact on the production, circulation and contestation of global and local cultures. Potential chapter contributions will be vetted by the series Review Board and invited manuscripts will be reviewed by the series Editors and approved by the Review Board. Series Review Board: Mia Conslavo, University of Ohio James Paul Gee, Arizona State University Helen Kennedy, University of the West of England Frans Mayra, University of Tampere Toby Miller, University of California, Riverside Torill Elvira Mortensen, IT University Copenhagen Lisa Nakamura, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Gareth Schott, University of Waikato Mark JP Wolf, Concordia University Wisconsin Series Editors: Gerald Voorhees, High Point University Joshua Call, Grand View University Katie Whitlock, California State University, Chico Queries and questions may also be sent to gamestudies.books(a)gmail.com. Gerald Voorhees, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Games and Interactive Media Nido R. Qubein School of Communication Drawer 33 High Point University High Point, NC 27262-3598 Tel: 336.841.9174 Office: Qubein 356 www.communication.highpoint.edu/ Co-Chair, Game Studies Area Popular Culture Association National Conference http://www.pcaaca.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ At High Point University, every student receives an extraordinary education in an inspiring environment with caring people.

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Fwd: Important Information about Google Buzz Class Action Settlement
by Jeremy hunsinger 02 Nov '10

02 Nov '10

Thoughts? note that my account was insulated from Buzz, so really the email below was sort of moot for me. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Google Buzz <noreply-buzz-classaction(a)google.com> Date: Tue, Nov 2, 2010 at 3:30 PM Subject: Important Information about Google Buzz Class Action Settlement To: jeremy(a)tmttlt.com Google rarely contacts Gmail users via email, but we are making an exception to let you know that we've reached a settlement in a lawsuit regarding Google Buzz (http://buzz.google.com) a service we launched within Gmail in February of this year. Shortly after its launch, we heard from a number of people who were concerned about privacy. In addition, we were sued by a group of Buzz users and recently reached a settlement in this case. The settlement acknowledges that we quickly changed the service to address users' concerns. In addition, Google has committed $8.5 million to an independent fund, most of which will support organizations promoting privacy education and policy on the web. We will also do more to educate people about privacy controls specific to Buzz. The more people know about privacy online, the better their online experience will be. Just to be clear, this is not a settlement in which people who use Gmail can file to receive compensation. Everyone in the U.S. who uses Gmail is included in the settlement, unless you personally decide to opt out before December 6, 2010. The Court will consider final approval of the agreement on January 31, 2011. This email is a summary of the settlement, and more detailed information and instructions approved by the court, including instructions about how to opt out, object, or comment, are available at http://www.BuzzClassAction.com. -------------------------------------------------------------------- This mandatory announcement was sent to all Gmail users in the United States as part of a legal settlement and was authorized by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Google Inc. | 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway | Mountain View, CA 94043 -- jeremy hunsinger Center for Digital Discourse and Culture Virginia Tech www.tmttlt.com () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail /\ - against microsoft attachments http://www.stswiki.org/ sts wiki http://transdisciplinarystudies.tmttlt.com/ Transdisciplinary Studies:the book series I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it. -Pablo Picasso

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interesting .... verrryyy interesting ....
by Charles Ess 02 Nov '10

02 Nov '10

(fans of Rowen and Martin's Laugh-In - if there are any left out there - will get the (ironic) reference ... ) <http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=status-update-im-so-glamor ous> I'll be eager to see what critical comments the AoIR community will be able to generate in response to this one - thanks in advance, 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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"Pathways to Cosmopolitanism" Funded PhD Studentship - starting January 2011
by Adi Kuntsman 02 Nov '10

02 Nov '10

"Pathways to Cosmopolitanism" Funded PhD Studentship - starting January 2011 The "Pathways to Cosmopolitanism" research initiative welcomes proposals from outstanding candidates to participate in a research programme that examines the ways in which people, cultures, and places become cosmopolitan. Student doctoral preparation will be based at the University of Manchester but research or write-up will be co-supervised by faculty at the National University of Singapore. The deadline for applications is Friday 12 November 2010. Interviews will be held week commencing 6 December. Full details are available here http://www.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/ricc/projects/Pathwaystocosmopol…

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Twitter plug in for Wordpress?
by Catherine Middleton 02 Nov '10

02 Nov '10

I'm hoping someone out there in Air-L land might have some insights on a good Twitter plug-in for use with Wordpress. I want to include my Twitter stream on my Wordpress site. The plug-in I'm using right now doesn't work most of the time, returning a Twitter API error message. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks, catherine catherine.middleton(a)ryerson.ca

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Announcement: Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling, and Prediction Conference (SBP10)
by Sun-Ki Chai 01 Nov '10

01 Nov '10

I apologize for the very short notice, but the 2010 Conference on Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling, & Prediction (SBP10) <http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/conferences/sbp2011/>, the largest interdisciplinary conference devoted to computational modeling of social phenomena (478 registered attendees last year), will be held March 28-31 on the campus of the University of Maryland, near Washington D.C. Short (maximum 8 pages) paper and poster submissions should be submitted by November 6. Accepted papers will be published in an edited proceedings volume <http://www.springer.com/computer/general+issues/book/978-3-642-12078-7> by Springer/Verlag. A travel fund will be available to help those whose papers are accepted but do not have other resources to attend. As in past years, highlights will include technical tutorials, presentations by program managers from a wide range of funding agencies, and social science/computer science "matchmaking" roundtables. Please see attached announcement for more detailed info. Thanks, Sun-Ki -- *Sun-Ki Chai*, Associate Professor ??? (???) *Email:* sunki(a)hawaii.edu <mailto:sunki@hawaii.edu> *Web:* www2.hawaii.edu/~sunki/ <http://www2.hawaii.edu/%7Esunki/> Office +1 808 956-7234 Message +1 808 956-7693 Fax +1 808 956-3707 Cell +1 808 741-4843 Department of Sociology 2424 Maile Way, Saunders Hall 237 University of Hawai`i Honolulu HI 96822 USA

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CFP: Console-ing Passions - International Conference on Television, Video, Audio, New Media and Feminism
by Jodie George 01 Nov '10

01 Nov '10

To Whom It May Concern, Please find below a Call for Papers for Console-ing Passions, an International Conference on Television, Video, Audio, New Media and Feminism which I'm hoping can be distributed to the Association of Internet Researchers network. Please disregard this email if you've already distributed the CFP, I'd sent it but wasn't sure whether the email was received due to systems problems at my end. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Kind regards, Jodie Dr Jodie George | Lecturer/Tutor School of Communication, International Studies and Languages Division of EASS | University of South Australia email: jodie.george(a)unisa.edu.au Console-ing Passions: International Conference on Television, Video, Audio, New Media and Feminism 21-23 July 2011, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia Console-ing Passions 2011 is co-hosted by the Flinders University, the University of Adelaide, and the University of South Australia. CALL FOR PAPERS Console-ing Passions, the leading international scholarly network for feminist research in screen cultures, will hold its 2011 conference in Adelaide, South Australia, 21-23 July. Organisers are now seeking proposals for individual papers and pre-constituted panels. Proposals are due November 30, 2010 and may be submitted to http://www.flinders.edu.au/console-ing-passions. Paper proposals must include the paper title, the author's contact details and a 300-word abstract. Panel proposals must include the panel title, names and contact details of all participants and chair and a summary statement of no more than 1500 words to include the abstract for each paper and a panel concept statement. Panels may have a maximum of three papers each. Please find a list of possible streams for the conference below; these are suggestions, not limits. We strongly encourage contributions from across the Asia Pacific with an emphasis on regional issues, activities and trends. Possible streams: * National Screen Cultures and Feminism(s) * Women in Media Production * Children's Media and Gender * Women, User Generated Content and New Media Economies * Digital Games * Archival Research * Women, Sport, Broadcasting * Media Education * Indigenous Women and Media * Media, Mobility and Scale We also welcome a Curator for Screenings and Videotech. For more information about the conference and keynote speakers, please visit: http://www.flinders.edu.au/console-ing-passions. Kind regards, Jodie 　 Dr Jodie George | Lecturer/Tutor School of Communication, International Studies and Languages Division of EASS | University of South Australia email: jodie.george(a)unisa.edu.au

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CFP Special Issue with Ethics and Information Technology on "Friendship Online"
by Lois Scheidt 01 Nov '10

01 Nov '10

From: News service for APPE members (appe(a)indiana.edu) [mailto: APPE_NEWS(a)LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU] On Behalf Of Assoc for Practical & Prof Ethics Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2010 04:30 PM To: APPE_NEWS(a)LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU Subject: Call for Papers (distributed by APPE News) Call for Papers for a Special Issue with Ethics and Information Technology on "Friendship Online" The online world increasingly provides the setting within which many of us pursue our work lives, our hobbies and interests, and even our more intimate lives, such as our friendships and loves. Opportunities to express oneself and form relationships with others have been enormously increased by the online world. But what sorts of identities and relationships are really possible? And as we live more online how might this come to affect how we understand ourselves and our relations with others? Communication online has provided worlds of self-expression and interaction that seem distinctive in a number of ways. We are, for example, often anonymous online. But even if not anonymous we nevertheless can typically express ourselves and relate to others with little or nil social transaction costs. We can enter and exit communities or relationships without much of the effort or costs usually attached in our traditional worlds and we have unprecedented global opportunities to do so. We are also able to present ourselves and interact with others with unusually high levels of choice and control compared to our self-presentations and interactions in non-virtual worlds. Moreover, focusing on how we can present ourselves to others has itself been taken to new levels online - many, for example, labour over how they present themselves on their personal websites and some of these approximate works of art. In this special edition we focus on the case of friendship and its apparent flourishing online. People are forming friendships solely online, many claim to have several hundred friends online and increasingly existing friendships are being sustained online. How, if at all, might some features of online communication and its use affect the sort of friendships we can form and maintain? What, if anything, might we learn about the nature and value of close friendship by analysing how they are currently enabled online? We are interested in papers on the general topic area of friendship in an increasingly online world. The scope of the topic is quite broad, implicating fundamental questions about identity and how we may come to understand ourselves in relation to others online, and about the nature and value of friendship and communication online. Accordingly, our call for papers is quite open within these areas. Submissions will be double-blind refereed for relevance to the theme as well as academic rigor and originality. High quality articles not deemed to be sufficiently relevant to the special issue may be considered for publication in a subsequent non-themed issue of Ethics and Information Technology. Closing date for submissions: January 7, 2011 To submit your paper, please use the online submission system, to be found at www.editorialmanager.com/etin Please contact the special guest editor for more information, Dean Cocking, d.cocking(a)adfa.edu.au Or the managing editor, Noëmi Manders-Huits N.L.J.L.Manders-Huits(a)tudelft.nl Ethics and Information Technology (ETIN) is the major journal in the field of moral and political reflection on Information Technology. Its aim is to advance the dialogue between moral philosophy and the field of information technology in a broad sense, and to foster and promote reflection and analysis concerning the ethical, social and political questions associated with the adoption, use, and development of IT. -- Lois Ann Scheidt Doctoral Candidate - School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University, Bloomington IN USA Webpage: http://www.loisscheidt.com CV: http://www.loisscheidt.com/cv.html Blog: http://www.professional-lurker.com

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open access repository software
by Christine Prefontaine 01 Nov '10

01 Nov '10

I've been also looking at open access repository software. Found some comparisons. Delicious tags: http://www.delicious.com/cprefontaine/repository Early (now outdated!) thinking: http://facilitatingchange.org/2010/10/create-an-open-access-repository/ I will be testing out Dspace. Please let me know what you find! Christine

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REMINDER: DML2011 CFP DEADLINE: NOVEMBER 5, 2010
by danah boyd 01 Nov '10

01 Nov '10

(The deadline for the DML conference has been extended to November 5. If you're interested in digital media & learning, please join us at DML!) CALL FOR PROPOSALS ** PLEASE CIRCULATE ** Digital Media and Learning Conference 2011: http://dmlcentral.net/conference2011 DML Conference Submission System: http://fastapps.hri.uci.edu/ Deadline for Conference Submissions: November 5, 2010, 6pm PST Conference dates: March 3 -5, 2011 Location: Hilton Long Beach, Long Beach, California DESIGNING LEARNING FUTURES In the twenty-first century a profound shift is underway. Digital media are central in almost every aspect of daily life, most notably in how we learn, communicate, reflect, (co-) produce, consume, create identities, share knowledge, and understand political issues. Corresponding with this increasing accessibility of digital and networked tools, we see new forms of public and private collectives which serve as seedbeds for user-driven innovation, the prevalence of many-to-many distribution models and the large-scale online aggregation of information and culture. This increased access to information, knowledge, and platforms has prompted new learning ecologies that possess the potential to support the kinds of situated, learner-driven, socially inflected, participatory learning opportunities we know are possible today. Alongside transforming how we create, access, and use knowledge, these changes raise a series of socio-technical concerns regarding the tools, technologies, and policies that underpin digital media practices and their related learning opportunities. These issues operate on both macro and micro levels. They range from processes and protocols shaping the flow and tracking of data in social network sites like Facebook or MySpace to reward and reputation systems in multiplayer online games, collaborative DIY communities like Instructable.com or deviantART, as well as to emergent problematic practices like sexting and cyberbullying. These are, in short, concerns that give shape to both formal and informal learning ecologies and learning experiences. Developing an understanding of the impact of digital media experiences on learning, civic engagement, and professional and ethical development requires that we consider the implications of the design frameworks, institutional configurations, social practices, and research methodologies at play in our connected world. As Bruno Latour notes, “New innovation will be absolutely necessary if we are to adequately represent the conflicting natures of all the things that are to be designed.” Understanding the role of innovation in light of past and present digital media practices is thus central to imagining and designing learning futures. To this end, the conference will focus upon themes of understanding the types of processes, methods, collaborations, and institutional models required for innovation. We are also concerned with gaining insight into the roles contradicting stakeholders (disciplines, institutions, economies, etc.) may play. This includes designers of social network sites, games, or mobile applications and learning environments such as afterschool programs, schools and other sites of learning. It also includes social scientists studying youth engagement in interest or friendship-driven communities, those involved in developing profiles of participants in intergenerational learning environments, practitioners looking to help integrate technology into learning environments, researchers studying the intersection of learning and socio-technical practices, and policy makers seeking to shape the future of connected learning, to name but a few possible participant profiles. From these diverse perspectives, we seek to address the following questions: What are the central concerns shaping learning within peer-based, participatory, open ecologies? What are the new collectives (including hybrid public institutional models) that are emerging in today's open learning ecologies? How is learning happening in user-innovation communities? How does remix, mentorship, sharing, and exchange occur? How do issues such as cyberbullying, problematic content, and privacy shape participation in these ecologies? How is diversity shaping learning constituencies? What forms of identities become possible? What are the relationships between different stakeholders, such as learner-centered partnerships and collaborations between teachers, administrators, students, institutions, policy makers, researchers, and designers? What are the design-driven pedagogies and learning models we should explore? What is the role of embedded assessment in understanding learning? How do we understand flow and engagement? What is the knowledge base required of designers, researchers, and practitioners working on peer-based, participatory, open learning ecologies today? What is missing? What new forms of knowledge need to be developed? What existing frameworks need to be rethought? What core socio-technical practices are shaping (or have the potential to shape) the future of learning? What practices may be impeding innovation or getting in the way of learning? How can and should knowledge about practices shape policy, design, and implementation of innovations? We seek to support collective inquiry into the infrastructures and practices key to digital media and learning, whether research practices, learning protocols, assessment schemes, game design, or the creation of participatory undertakings. This conversation welcomes those engaged in developing a critical understanding of the design and broader socio-technical concerns shaping learning futures, as well as in other well articulated issues key to comprehending the impact and possibilities of digital media for learning. All participants are encouraged to reflect on the implications of their work for social practice—to consider the impact of their own practice or research findings on how things are currently done or could be done differently. ABOUT THE WORKSHOP AND PANEL PROPOSALS We welcome workshops and panels along four themes: Youth, Digital Media and Empowerment; Emerging Platforms and Policies; New Collectives and Digital Media and Participatory Learning. The themes have been conceptualized by key members of the conference committee. All proposed panels and workshops will be collectively evaluated by the conference committee. Youth, Digital Media, and Empowerment This strand focuses specifically on young people’s participation in the digital media world. Youth participatory practices are influenced by a variety of social and contextual factors including distinct youth-driven interests and learning ecologies, adult mentoring, institutional infrastructures, creative partnerships, and cultural diversity. We are especially interested in panels, papers, and workshops that explore how new media technologies are leveraged to promote youth health and well-being, youth media production, and dynamic expressions of civic engagement. Moreover, what kinds of institutional infrastructures lead to programs and interventions that empower young voices, fortify social and knowledge networks, and develop the digital media skills and competencies that invigorate young critical citizens? Also, how are creative partnerships, programmatic initiatives, and the widespread diffusion of social and mobile media platforms challenging the “participation gap?” How are socially stigmatized and marginal youth populations embracing social media to build networks for personal enrichment, communal empowerment, and social change? Finally, workshops and panels that discuss the art and science of interdisciplinary collaboration, design innovation, and programming offer the opportunity for vibrant discussion, planning and intervention. Emerging Platforms and Policies The rise of Web2.0 has introduced numerous platforms into everyday life, from social network sites like MySpace and Facebook to media-sharing services like YouTube and uStream to blogging and microblogging tools like Tumblr and Twitter. These platforms have been leveraged by people of all ages to build community, share ideas, collaborate, and hang out. While many of these platforms were designed to enable “user-generated content,” there are often conflicts between what designers intend and what participants actually do on each site. In short, these platforms were not designed for the kinds of learning that often transpires on these sites. The goal of this track is to explore the tensions between the design of emerging platforms and the practices that unfold on them, with specific attention given to the policy challenges that emerge. How does the technology respond practice and how do users repurpose technology? Who gets to set the community norms and how are these norms negotiated? How are values— like privacy, safety, and transparency—embedded in the technology and how does this shape socio-technical practices? What happens when conflicts emerge between the users and the creators? How does the tension between technical design and personal practices configure these spaces? New Collectives The last 10 years have seen the rise of organizations and institutions that mash-up mission, market and mass participation. Organizations like Wikipedia, Mozilla and Creative Commons have shown that this hybrid model can shift whole industries—increasing how knowledge is shared and spread, promoting the wide adoption of web standards, making legally-backed knowledge sharing easy and widespread. Many have proclaimed that these new collectives can also transform education and learning for the better. The track will explore the ways that innovators in the learning world might tap into the power of these hybrid organizational models. We’ll ask questions like: What makes new collectives tick? Where are they getting traction in the world of learning? Where are they getting stuck? Can they challenge traditional approaches to accreditation, assessment and content creation in education? Or even shift the terrain of learning and education as a whole? Digital Media and Learning We welcome submissions that address ongoing or innovative directions in research and practice relating to digital media and learning. WORKSHOP PROPOSALS AND FORMATS This year we will be accepting proposals in three formats: panels, workshops and short talks. Panels bring together in discussion four participants representing a range of ideas and projects. Panels are scheduled for 90 minutes and should include a mix of individuals working in areas of research, theory, and practice. Workshops provide an opportunity for hands-on exploration and/or problem solving. They can be organized around a core challenge that participants come together to work on or around a tool, platform, or concept. Workshops are scheduled for 120 minutes and should be highly participatory. Finally, we welcome short, 5 minute talks where presenters speak for five minutes on their work, research or a subject relevant to the conference theme and/or subthemes. We will not be soliciting full papers. To organize a panel or workshop, please feel free to use our DML2011 Discussion Forum on wikidot. The DML2011 Conference proposal system will open on October 18, 2010 and full proposals will be due on November 1, 2010. To propose a panel, participants will be required to register with Fastapps http://fastapps.hri.uci.edu/, our submission system at the Digital Media and Learning Research Hub. We encourage participants to submit proposals when their application materials are complete. Panel and Workshop proposal abstracts should cover the theme, format (e.g. discussion, interactive, presentations), how the session addresses the theme of the conference and/or subtheme in up to 400 words. Short talk abstracts should cover the theme, format (e.g. discussion, interactive, presentations), how the talk addresses the theme of the conference and/or subtheme in up to 250 words. List of participants, affiliations, emails and titles of talks/presentations (if applicable) should also be included. Each individual will be limited to participation on no more than two panels at the conference. Participants will be expected to fund their own travel and accommodation. Student Volunteers Wanted: The DML Conference Committee is looking for student volunteers to assist with the 2011 Annual Conference in Long Beach, CA from March 3-5, 2010. Duties include assisting with registration, providing information to conference participants and troubleshooting technical problems along with other administrative tasks. Student volunteers will work scheduled shifts lasting 4 to 5 hours each day during the conference. The Committee will waive registration fees and provide accommodations for student volunteers. Applicants are to submit a letter of interest no longer than 500 words that also addresses their qualifications for the position. Experience with computing platforms and audio/visual equipment is not required but valued. Email letters of interest to Kimberly Austin kaustin <at> uchicago <dot> edu no later than November 6, 2010. We will notify selected volunteers by Dec. 12.

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