- Air-L - lists.aoir.org

on writing real good
by Barry Wellman 06 Jan '10

06 Jan '10

(have you ever noticed that US sportscasters have killed adverbs?) Thanks to Matthew and Jordan for taking my writing comments in good humor. And just to finish this little meme (sic) off, I had a revelation in the early 1980s about the need to write as clearly as possible. I took a course from the late Carolyn Mullins. There's a professional field called "Technical Writing" that emphasizes clear communication. I'm not going to go into the details, but my first pass on the subject is a paper on writing for the social sciences that's on my website under "Methods". My own feeling is that you can usually say what you want to in broadly understandable terms, but if you can't, then don't dumb it down. FWIW, I'm writing a Trade Book now (hopefully smart) with Lee Rainie (Pew Internet head), that I hope many of you will want to read -- when we eventually finish it for MIT Press. And FWIW2, my PhD was in Social Relations, a now-defunct program at Harvard that included Social Anthro, Social/Clinical Psych and Sociology. Fortunately, I didn't try to copy Talcott Parsons' writing style, but my mentor, Chuck Tilly. Happy New Year to all, Barry Wellman _______________________________________________________________________ S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC NetLab Director Department of Sociology 725 Spadina Avenue, Room 388 University of Toronto Toronto Canada M5S 2J4 twitter:barrywellman http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman fax:+1-416-978-3963 Updating history: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _______________________________________________________________________

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Morgan Stanley >The Mobile Internet Report
by gerrymck 06 Jan '10

06 Jan '10

Colleagues/ For those who still doubt that The Future is Mobile >>> /Gerry December 2009 Our global technology and telecom analysts set out to do a deep dive into the rapidly changing mobile Internet market. We wanted to create a data-rich, theme-based framework for thinking about how the market may develop. We intend to expand and edit the framework as the market evolves. A lot has changed since we published “The Internet Report” in 1995 on the web. We decided to create The Mobile Internet Report largely in PowerPoint and publish it on the web, expecting that bits and pieces of it will be cut / pasted / redistributed and debated / dismissed / lauded. Our goal is to get our thoughts and data into the conversation about what may be the biggest technology trend ever, one that may help make us all more informed in ways that are unique to the web circa 2009, and beyond. We present our thoughts in three ways: 1) “The Mobile Internet Report Setup”– a 92-slide presentation that excerpts highlights of the key themes from the report (This presentation is also available in Simplified Chinese) 2) “The Mobile Internet Report Key Themes” – a 659-slide presentation that drills down on thoughts covered in “The Mobile Internet Report” [Not Available > Wrong Link > 12-23-09] 3) “The Mobile Internet Report” – a 424 page report which explores 8 major themes in depth and includes the two aforementioned slide presentations + related overview text Also Available By Individual Themes > Overview / Mobile Internet Report Setup Key Theme 1: Wealth Creation / Destruction Material in New Computing Cycles Key Theme 2: Mobile Ramping Faster than Desktop Internet Did and Will Be Bigger Than Most Think Key Theme 3: Apple Leading in Mobile Innovation + Impact, for Now Key Theme 4: Game-Changing Communications / Commerce Platforms (Social Networking + Mobile) Emerging Very Rapidly Key Theme 5: Growth / Monetization Roadmaps from Japan + Desktop Internet Key Theme 6: Massive Data Growth Driving Carrier / Equipment Transitions Key Theme 7: Compelling Opportunities in Emerging Markets Key Theme 8: Regulators Can Help Advance / Slow Mobile Internet Evolution Our key takeaways are: Material wealth creation / destruction should surpass earlier computing cycles. The mobile Internet cycle, the 5th cycle in 50 years, is just starting. Winners in each cycle often create more market capitalization than in the last. New winners emerge, some incumbents survive – or thrive – while many past winners falter. The mobile Internet is ramping faster than desktop Internet did, and we believe more users may connect to the Internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs within 5 years. Five IP-based products / services are growing / converging and providing the underpinnings for dramatic growth in mobile Internet usage – 3G adoption + social networking + video + VoIP + impressive mobile devices. Apple + Facebook platforms serving to raise the bar for how users connect / communicate – their respective ramps in user and developer engagement may be unprecedented. Decade-plus Internet usage / monetization ramps for mobile Internet in Japan plus desktop Internet in developed markets provide roadmaps for global ramp and monetization. Massive mobile data growth is driving transitions for carriers and equipment providers. Emerging markets have material potential for mobile Internet user growth. Low pnetration of fixed-line telephone and already vibrant mobile value-added services mean that for many EM users and SMEs, the Internet will be mobile. Links to aformentioned sources available from [ http://tinyurl.com/yg8fvpq ] !!! Thanks To / Gary Price / ResourceShelf / For The HeadsUp !!! Regards, /Gerry Gerry McKiernan Associate Professor Science and Technology Librarian Iowa State University Library Ames IA 50011 Follow Me On Twitter > http://twitter.com/GMcKBlogs "The Truth ?, You Can't Handle The Truth !" > "It's All A Battle Of Ideas ... ."

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Need panelist for RSA in San Francisco
by alicetiara 06 Jan '10

06 Jan '10

Hi all, I had to drop out of a panel at RSA (http://www.rsaconference.com/index.htm) which is in San Francisco March 1-5. I am trying to find a substitute for myself, preferably an academic with a background in social networking and/or youth technology use. The panel is on "lifehacking" and the challenges it poses to corporate security. Namely: when 20somethings move into the workplace and are used to using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, torrents, and so forth for their daily routines, how do the workarounds that they implement threaten the org? How can the org deal with this? The ideal person would understand American youth technology use and/or social networking, social media, and privacy concerns. This is a technology industry conference aimed at security professionals. There is a possibility of travel funding for grad students. Please email me offlist if you'd be a good fit for this and I will introduce you to the panel organizers. thanks, Alice Marwick alicetiara(a)gmail.com

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Re: [Air-L] more fetishism
by Matthew Bernius 06 Jan '10

06 Jan '10

Barry Wellman wrote: I hope no one uses “self-glossing” except on their lips. One problem is that anthropology needs to move beyond is the unnecessary use of insy-poo language. Mea Culpa. Though to be fair, there are a number of (European) Sociologists who enjoy a good neologism, oops... I mean insy-poo language every now and then. I've been spending a bit too much time with them as of late. BTW, in general I totally agree that we should work to avoid over "academicizing" our writing (and I did have a feeling I was going to get some flack for "glossing"). In defense of glossing for a sec, at least on the linguistic anthro side, a lot of these terms have pretty specific meanings, and by glossing a gloss to gloss the gloss (sorry, I was feeling a bit Bourdieuian :-] ) in a paper, we're able to convey a complex concept in a single word (for those in the know). That said, if it's a paper for general consumption, then a different register/writing and language style is completely in order. - Matt ----------------------------- Matthew Bernius PhD Student, Cultural Anthropology, Cornell University ( http://www.arts.cornell.edu/anthro/) Co-Director, Open Publishing Lab @ the Rochester Institute of Technology ( http://opl.cias.rit.edu) mBernius(a)gMail.com http://www.waking-dream.com

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new collection - online pornography
by Attwood, Fiona 06 Jan '10

06 Jan '10

Dear Colleagues, You may be interested in this new collection: porn. com: Making Sense of Online Pornography Ed. Feona Attwood. Digital Formations/Peter Lang Pornography has often been central to debates about sex and about new media technologies as they emerge, and today debate is increasingly focused on online pornographies. This collection examines pornography’s signiﬁcance as a focus of definition, debate and myth, its development as a mainstream entertainment industry, and the emergence of a new economy of Porn 2.0 and of new types of porn labor and professionalism. It looks at porn style behind the scenes of straight hardcore, in gay, lesbian, and queer pornographies, in shock sites, and in amateur erotica. It investigates the rise of the online porn fan community, the sex blogger, the erotic rate-me site and the visual cultures of swingers. Treating these developments as part of a broader set of economic and cultural transformations, the book argues that new porn practices reveal much about contemporary and competing views of sex and the self, the real and the body, culture and commerce. Contents: Introduction: Porn Studies: From Social Problem to Cultural Practice Feona Attwood Part One: Porn Practices 1 Online Obscenity and Myths of Freedom: Dangerous Images, Child Porn, and Neoliberalism Stephen Maddison 2 Child Pornography: Classifications and Conceptualizations Adam Stapleton 3 Debbie Does Dallas Again and Again: Pornography, Technology, and Market Innovation David Slayden 4 Porn 2.0? Technology, Social Practice, and the New Online Porn Industry Sharif Mowlabocus 5 Younger, paler, decidedly less straight: The New Porn Professionals Feona Attwood Part Two: Porn Styles 6 Behind the Scenes of Straight Pleasure Sanna Härmä and Joakim Stolpe 7 Horrorporn/Pornhorror: The Problematic Communities and Contexts of Extreme Online Imagery Steven Jones 8 Good Amateurs: Erotica Writing and Notions of Quality Susanna Paasonen 9 Gay for Pay, Gay For(e)play: The Politics of Taxonomy and Authenticity in LGBTQ Online Porn Jennifer Moorman Part Three: Porn Cultures 10 Widening the Glory Hole: the Discourse of Online Porn Fandom Simon Lindgren 11 The New World Dream and the Female Itch: Sex Blogging and Lolita Costume Play in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and ChinaKatrien Jacobs 12 How Do I Rate?: Web Sites and Gendered Erotic Looking Glasses Dennis D. Waskul and Cheryl Radeloff 13 Beyond Key Parties and Wife Swapping: The Visual Culture of Online Swinging Alison Rooke and Monica Moreno Figueroa Conclusion: Toward the Study of Online Porn Cultures and Practices Feona Attwood Reviews: porn. com presents an outstanding contribution to the emerging field of online porn studies, examining the intersection of online sociability and erotic content, and providing important insights about both. Online fan cultures and a democratization of production have affected the porn industry as they have all sectors of the communication industry, but these new forms represent a diverse range of practices, values, and challenges that defy attempts at reductive description. The chapters of porn. com provide a tour of this new and rapidly changing erotic landscape, and a detailed analysis of the contexts in which these interactions take place. The collection should be of interest not only to those who are engaged in porn studies, but to anyone who wants to understand the broad range of contexts in which online interaction takes place. Alex Halavais, Quinnipiac University, Connecticut, US The internet has become the key site of contemporary debates around the effects of pornography on communities and individuals. Anxieties are widespread about the impact of online porn on the sexualities and attitudes of young people, and on the capacity of paedophiles to establish networks for sharing images. Feona Attwood's new edited collection is a timely addition to this debate, bringing together an impressive range of international scholars on porn studies to explore such themes as the production and consumption of online porn, the evolution of the industry and the content of sex blogging and amateur online erotica. This book will make a valuable contribution to an intensifying global debate. Brian McNair, University of Strathclyde, UK This anthology positions net porn at the throbbing centre of society. If you're ready for some uncensored scholarship on porn cultures in the digital age, this is the reader for you. Beyond good or evil, porn.com provides us with a broad overview of topics such as child pornography, the working conditions of porn professionals, Web 2.0 cultures, extreme imagery, image rating and insights into the online 'swinging' world. So let's praise the researchers and blast the moralists! Geert Lovink, Dutch-Australian media theorist and net critic.

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Re: [Air-L] Reputation and professional degrees
by Julian Hopkins 06 Jan '10

06 Jan '10

Also speaking as some who hopes to be an 'anthropologist' one day (though I've often wondered when I can call myself that), I would concur with Matthew. Also, for some reason, 'anthropologist' always seems to carry a certain cachet with it beyond the academic field. When I was working and looking for work in a commercial setting (sales, marketing, customer service), I found that saying that my first degree was in "Sociology and Anthropology" (which were both part of my degree) always got a more positive response than just saying "Sociology", which usually got a worried look, and occasionally a question about my political leanings :) I would usually follow up by saying that most marketing practice is based on sociological theory (e.g. how people can be influenced in certain ways), which sometimes helped. Regards, Julian ++++++++++ Blog: www.julianhopkins.net Twitter: @julianhopkins Skype: julhop IM: jfprhopkins(a)hotmail.com ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Tue, 5 Jan 2010 16:57:26 -0500 From: Matthew Bernius <mbernius(a)gmail.com> To: air-l(a)aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-L] Reputation and professional degrees Message-ID: <9693f9cc1001051357o39cefc0fm74a1fc05665d5cc3(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Liz <nwjerseyliz(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > But when I first started following people on Twitter, I did a bio search > for those who describe themselves as an anthropologist or sociologist and > was surprised how much these titles had been appropriated by people who, as > part of their job in marketing or media, try to make sense of why people act > as they do. "Technology anthropologist" is one title I've seen several times > by people working in social media. > Ingbert Floyd <ifloyd2(a)gmail.com> wrote: > It seems to me that the values of the academic anthropologists, whether or > not they have a degree, and the values of the people who are employed by > corporations, are at times radically different, and that is the source of > the tension, especially because the people on the corporate side who use the > label often make little effort to understand the academic use of the label. > Speaking as an anthropologist (or at least one in the midst of professionalization), what Ingbert writes is completely correct. It should be noted that this goes far beyond simply what is meant by "ethnography." What tends to tick anthropologists off is the reduction of anthropology to ethnography. <rant> In fact, what makes these self-glossed anthropologists often a bit problematic is their habit of reproducing (and dare I say fetishizing) the very ideas and tropes that anthropologists have spent the last few decades trying to move beyond. The danger of any self appointed "professional" is that while they have the "tools" (for example "ethnography", a form of study to which Anthropology cannot and should not claim exclusivity), these individuals often miss the context -- not just of the tools, but of the field itself. For the non-professional anthropologist that usually means using terms like "native" and (implied, if not specific) references to Malinowski and Mead. Apologies for the rant. Anthropology tends to be one of the more abused professions when it comes to people self glossing in the technical sphere. </rant> Ingbert, I'm really glad you singled out Dourish as a good example of how people can appropriate tools like ethnography in a nuanced and very open way. I'm a really big fan of his work. - Matt ----------------------------- Matthew Bernius PhD Student, Cultural Anthropology, Cornell University ( http://www.arts.cornell.edu/anthro/) Researcher At Large, Open Publishing Lab @ the Rochester Institute of Technology (http://opl.cias.rit.edu) mBernius(a)gMail.com http://www.waking-dream.com

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CSCW 2010 early registration ends 1/8
by Scott Counts 05 Jan '10

05 Jan '10

***** CSCW 2010 Early Registration ***** As a quick reminder, the early registration deadline for Computer Supported Cooperative Work 2010 is January 8 (this Friday). Registering early saves you $200 off the standard full registration price! You can register right now at https://www.regonline.com/63369_700944F. If you would like to book your hotel at the same time, visit http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/savrf?groupCode=acmacma&app=resvlink&… (discount code is "acmacma"), or phone +1 912 233-7722 (discount code is "CSCW") Finally, the full advance program is now available at http://www.cscw2010.org/program/. See you in Savannah, -- CSCW 2010 Conference Committee

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tropes, add 1
by Barry Wellman 05 Jan '10

05 Jan '10

I think I'm gonna do a paper called "Different Tropes for Different Folks" it's 20 years after my "Different Strokes ..." Just funnin' Barry Wellman _______________________________________________________________________ S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC NetLab Director Department of Sociology 725 Spadina Avenue, Room 388 University of Toronto Toronto Canada M5S 2J4 twitter:barrywellman http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman fax:+1-416-978-3963 Updating history: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _______________________________________________________________________

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more fetishism
by Barry Wellman 05 Jan '10

05 Jan '10

I hope no one uses "self-glossing" except on their lips. One problem is that anthropology needs to move beyond is the unnecessary use of insy-poo language. ;-) Head, the Society for the Abolition of Tropes and Self-Glosses Barry Wellman _______________________________________________________________________ S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC NetLab Director Department of Sociology 725 Spadina Avenue, Room 388 University of Toronto Toronto Canada M5S 2J4 twitter:barrywellman http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman fax:+1-416-978-3963 Updating history: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _______________________________________________________________________

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Internet Archaeologists Find Ruins of 'Friendster' Civilization
by Gavin Baker 05 Jan '10

05 Jan '10

I hadn't seen this on the list -- some chuckles from The Onion. http://www.theonion.com/content/video/internet_archaeologists_find -- Gavin Baker http://www.gavinbaker.com/ gavin(a)gavinbaker.com "Failure" is not the falling down, but the staying down. Mary Pickford

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