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Re: [Air-L] Digital Divide
by Javier Pinzón 19 Jun '09

19 Jun '09

> Can anyone suggest an article or book with data that is as current as > possible on the digital divide? Hi Peter: In the book "Word Matters - Multicultural perspectives on information societies" there is a chapter on "Digital Divide" (May 2006) by Kemly Camacho. Find it here: http://vecam.org/article549.html I underline the following: "to talk about the digital divide and the strategies to face it, one should start out from the society we dream to be and not from the technology." Good luck, Javier -- http://funredes.org/javier

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Invitational Masters Student Institute (IMSI) application deadline June 29
by Jennifer Gibbs 18 Jun '09

18 Jun '09

Rutgers University is again hosting the Invitational Masters Student Institute (IMSI) in October. Masters students in areas of health communication, organizational communication, interpersonal communication, language and social interaction, persuasion, new media and technology, & media studies (including policy, cultural studies and politics) who are considering going on for Ph.D. study are encouraged to apply. IMSI 2009 will provide participants with travel grants up to $250 to get to the institute and will pay for most meals, hotel, and conference materials. Applications and faculty nominations can be submitted online at: http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/ci/imsi/ DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS: JUNE 29TH Jennifer Gibbs, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of Communication Rutgers University 4 Huntington Street New Brunswick, NJ 08901 Tel: 732-932-7500 x8136 Fax: 732-932-6916 http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~jgibbs

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Duke U Library Digital Collections iPhone App
by McKiernan, Gerard [LIB] 18 Jun '09

18 Jun '09

Colleagues/ A Major/Major Development ! /Gerry >>Treasures Move From Library Shelves to the iPhone With New DukeMobile Applications New applications offer a range of university materials, services Durham, NC -- Scholars and students who once had to travel to museums or libraries to view collections of historic images can now do so by clicking on their mobile device instead. With the launch of DukeMobile 1.1, the Duke University Libraries now offers the most comprehensive university digital image collection specifically formatted for an iPhone or iTouch device. It includes thousands of photos and other artifacts that range from early beer advertisements to materials on San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury scene in the 1960s. Although a growing number of scholarly institutions offer images and other material online, Duke is the first to offer collections that take advantage of the iPhone's design, navigation and other features. Duke University Libraries offers mobile users digital materials from 20 collections -- about 32,000 images overall -- covering women's history, early American sheet music, Duke history and other topics. The libraries will add new collections regularly as they become available. "Making these collections available for the iPhone and similar devices is important not only to extend access to Duke's collections, but also as a milestone in the evolution of academic libraries from traditional print repositories to institutions that embrace new technology for sharing their rich resources with broader audiences," said university librarian Deborah Jakubs. "Duke believes in putting its knowledge in service to society, and we are making a major commitment to reach well beyond our campus by placing our collections literally into people's hands." << Access to The Full Press Release, Blog Entry, An Impressive YouTube Demo, and The App Are Available From [ http://tinyurl.com/n9nue7 ] BTW-1: IF You Or Your Library or Institution/Organization Have Developed A Mobile App (Or Two / Three / Four /Etc) To Access Your Local OPAC, Collections, Services, Etc., I'd Appreciate Learning About It / These; Please Note As A Comment On The Blog Entry [I Am Aware of Merideth Farkas's Most Excellent 'M-Libraries' Section in Her Library Success Wiki] BTW-2: Thanks To Sean Aery / Web Designer / Digital Projects Department / Duke University Libraries For The HeadsUp ! Thanks! /Gerry Gerry McKiernan Associate Professor Science and Technology Librarian Iowa State University Library Ames IA 50011 gerrymck(a)iastate.edu There is Nothing More Powerful Than An Idea Whose Time Has Come / Victor Hugo [ http://www.blogger.com/profile/09093368136660604490 ] Iowa: Where the Tall Corn Flows and the (North)West Wind Blows [ http://alternativeenergyblogs.blogspot.com/ ]

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Internet research ethics - global perspectives
by Charles Ess 18 Jun '09

18 Jun '09

Dear AoIRists, Recently, Elizabeth Buchanan (chair of the AoIR ethics working group and one of our co-hosts/organizers for Internet Research 10.0 [!!] / AoIR 2009 in Milwaukee) and I had the privilege and pleasure of offering a workshop on Internet Research Ethics at the University of Washington, Seattle (21. May, 2009), followed by a research seminar at the UW Information School (22. May 2009 - funded by NSF SES grant 0646591). Our topics in the latter were the internet and changes in (conceptions of) Human Subjects and in internet research ethics. In response to a most spot-on question from Lori Miller, Director of the UW GenOM Project, regarding the possible role of virtue ethics, I tried to show some very large connections between internet research methodologies (ranging between the qualitative and the quantitative) (preferred/commonly used) ethical frameworks (virtue ethics - deontologies - utilitarianism) (i.e., in evaluating the ethical dimensions of such research) underlying assumptions/conceptions of the self (more community/relational - [modern] atomistic) underlying notions of and attitudes towards privacy, and, finally, "Eastern" and "Western" conceptions of self/community in order to argue that we may be seeing an emerging, "...shared sense of ethical norms, values, practices, etc. that will constitute a pluralistic and global information ethics, including internet research ethics as one particular component (Ess 2006, 2007). That is, as we converge towards more relational senses of self, this sense of self will bring in its train an increased emphasis on the sorts of virtue ethics appropriate to such selves." (A very long answer to a very simple question - but that's what one gets for asking a philosopher, I suppose ...) In all events, our hosts included Karine Barzilai-Nahon and Bob Mason, who kindly requested a written version of the lecture, which I happily provided. Karine, in turn, has posted the written version on her (otherwise most impressive!) website at <http://ekarine.org/2009/06/ethicshs/> I'm very grateful to Karine and her colleagues for their interest in making this material available to a larger audience in this way - and would welcome any comments, suggestions, criticisms, recommendations for additional resources, etc. that AoIR-ists may have time and opportunity to provide. Again, many thanks to Karine and all of our hosts at UW-Seattle - cheers, - c.

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Impact of translation of social software
by Daniel Jung 18 Jun '09

18 Jun '09

Hi I would need literature (in English, German, French, Scandinavian, Spanish) for a personal project: The internationalization/localization/translation of internet sites and their functions (communities) must use some form of common ground (greatest common divisor) for the cultural background of their participants. For example, if Facebook makes you choose "yes|maybe|no" as a predefined answer to a party invitation, and collects the answers in statistics, it implies (on behalf of the users who invite) that all invited users have the same notion of "maybe", and the same inclination to choose one option above the other, while this may differ across cultures, even if there are seemingly 1:1-translations of the words "yes|maybe|no". There may be cultures whose languages don't handle the choices exactly as intended, English does, and there may be differences in wide spread English speaking population, e.g., Indian and American) I want to look at what this kind of globalization does to the users and their culture, and the other way round: how different cultures (i.e., the programmers' knowledge about them) may impact the development of social software. Any help in finding suitable literature (and other input) is highly appreciated. Thanks - Daniel

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finding appropriate literature
by Daniel Jung 18 Jun '09

18 Jun '09

Hi all I need help in finding appropriate literature (German or English). I have been teaching a course in "power structures on the internet" (digital culture, beginner's level), and promised the students help in finding literature for their assignments (which they could choose freely). There are two projects were I would still need to find something to give them. 1. Theoretical philosophy. The student wants to write about ontology in online communities. 2. The impact of becoming an administrator/moderator/gamemaster (online forums/games) on IRL behavior: The connection between (possibly anonymous) being powerful online and having a (possibly different) personality offline. Thanks a lot! - Daniel

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Liquid Book - The Post-Corporate University
by Gary Hall 17 Jun '09

17 Jun '09

(Apologies for cross-posting) The Post-Corporate University We would like to bring to your attention an online experiment that is currently taking place titled The Post-Corporate University. Edited and curated by Davin Heckman, it is the second volume in Culture Machine’s Liquid Books series. The volume is available now online and is open for discussion, contributions and open collaboration. Please visit: http://liquidbooks.pbworks.com/The+Post-Corporate+University The Post-Corporate University starts from an assumption that the University is in crisis and that this crisis has been caused by the social and economic characteristics of neoliberalism. Asking the question, Is Another University Possible?, it provides space for multiple answers and interventions. Please visit the site, read Davin Heckman’s chapter, 'Neoliberal Arts and the 21st Century University', and contribute to the discussions, the bibliography and the book. About the Liquid Books Series Culture Machine’s online ‘liquid books’ – to which everyone is invited to contribute – are written and developed in an open, cooperative, decentralised, multi-user-generated fashion: not just by their initial ‘authors’, ‘editors’, ‘creators’ or ‘curators’, but by a multiplicity of collaborators distributed around the world. They are freely available for anyone, anywhere, to read, reproduce and distribute. Once they have requested access, users are also able to rewrite, add to, edit, annotate, tag, remix, reformat, reinvent and reuse them, or even produce alternative parallel versions of them. In fact, they are expressly invited and encouraged to do so, as the project relies on such an intervention. It is hoped that the Liquid Books project will raise a number of important questions for ideas of authorship, attribution, publication, citation, accreditation, fair use, quality control, peer review, copyright, intellectual property, content creation and cultural studies. For instance, with its open editing and free content, the project decentres the author and editor functions, making everyone potential authors/editors. It also addresses an issue raised recently by Geert Lovink: why are wikis not utilised more to create, develop and change theory and theoretical concepts, instead of theory continuing to be considered as the ‘terrain of the sole author who contemplates the world, preferably offline, surrounded by a pile of books, a fountain pen, and a notebook’? At the same time, in ‘What Is an Author?’, Michel Foucault warns that any attempt to avoid using the concept of the author to close and fix the meaning of the text risks having a limit and a unity imposed on it in a different way: by means of the concept of the ‘work’. To what extent does users’ ability to rewrite, remix, reversion and reinvent this liquid ‘book’ then render untenable any attempt to impose a limit and a unity on it as a ‘work’? And what are the political, ethical and social consequences of such ‘liquidity’ for ideas that depend on the concept of the ‘work’ for their effectivity: those concerning attribution, citation, copyright, intellectual property, academic success, promotion, tenure, and so on? To find out more, please go to the first Liquid Book, New Cultural Studies: The Liquid Theory Reader: http://liquidbooks.pbwiki.com/New+Cultural+Studies:+The+Liquid+Theory+Reader For a quick and easy-to-read guide on how to collaborate on the writing, editing and curating of a Liquid Book, please visit: http://liquidbooks.pbwiki.com/How-to-Contribute-to-a-Liquid-Book Clare Birchall and Gary Hall -- Gary Hall Professor of Media and Performing Arts School of Art and Design, Coventry University Co-editor of Culture Machine http://www.culturemachine.net Co-founder of the Open Humanities Press http://www.openhumanitiespress.org My website http://www.garyhall.info Latest book: Digitize This Book!: The Politics of New Media, or Why We Need Open Access Now http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/H/hall_digitize.html

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NodeXL Workshop and Pointers
by Derek Hansen 17 Jun '09

17 Jun '09

Colleagues, Marc Smith (Telligent Systems) and I (Derek Hansen, University of Maryland) will be running a workshop on NodeXL as part of the Communities and Technologies conference next week in University Park, PA. We have room for additional participants. If anyone is interested, please email me (shakmatt(a)gmail.com) or Marc (marc.smith(a)telligent.com) Even if you aren't attending, I wanted to point out that we've been working on a NodeXL tutorial that I'd be willing to share with others, particularly those who are planning on teaching social network analysis. The tutorial covers the basics of NodeXL using sample datasets and briefly describes some of the key social network concepts. It takes about 4-5 hours to complete with students following along. Please email me offline if you are interested (shakmatt(a)umd.edu) I've used NodeXL in my Master's level online communities course and found it was much more approachable than other SNA tools and gave them a new way of thinking about community structure. See details for the June 24 event below: Title: NodeXL: Social Network Analysis and Visualization tools for Social Media Date/Time: Wednesday, June 24, 8:30am through early afternoon Place: Penn State University, University Park, PA (see http://cct2009.ist.psu.edu/index.cfm) Organizers: Marc Smith, Chief Social Scientist, Telligent Systems - (Marc.Smith(a)telligent.com) Derek Hansen, Assistant Professor, iSchool, University of Maryland - (dlhansen(a)umd.edu) NodeXL is an add-in for Office 2007 that provides social network diagram and analysis tools in the context of a spreadsheet. Adding the directed graph chart type to Excel opens up many possibilities for easily manipulating networks and controlling their display properties. In this tutorial the steps needed to install and operate NodeXL for Office 2007 are reviewed. The NodeXL add-in provides directed graph charting features within Excel, allowing users to create node-link diagrams with control over each node and edge color, size, transparency and shape. Since NodeXL builds within Excel, all of the controls and programmatic features of Office are available. Additional features of NodeXL generate social networks from social media data sources like personal e-mail (drawing data from the Windows Desktop Search engine) and the Twitter social network micro-blogging system. Arbitrary edge lists (anything that can be pasted into Excel) can be visualized and analyzed in NodeXL. This session will provide a walk through the basic operation of NodeXL. Attendees are encouraged to bring an edge list of interest. Sample data sets will be provided. To download the NodeXL Add-in and slides, go to: http://www.codeplex.com/NodeXL. Derek Hansen Assistant Professor, Maryland's iSchool Director, CASCI (http://casci.umd.edu)

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CPF 2.0: Utopic Dreams and Apocalyptic Fantasies: Playing In Virtual Realms
by Andras Lukacs 17 Jun '09

17 Jun '09

2nd CALL FOR CHAPTERS Proposals Submission Deadline: 6/30/2009 Full Chapters Due: 9/15/2009 Utopic Dreams and Apocalyptic Fantasies: Playing In Virtual Realms (Lexington Press) A book edited by Talmadge Wright, David Embrick and Andras Lukacs, Loyola University Chicago Introduction While many books and scholarly articles are emerging on the new area of game studies and the application of computer games to learning, therapeutic, military and entertainment environments, few have attempted to contextualize the importance of virtual play within the broader social, cultural and political environment that raises the question of the significance of both work and play in the modern world. The expanding role of new forms of electronic entertainment, specifically, digital games, in shaping the relationship between people and altering the practice of everyday life, has called into question traditional notions of play and work. In addition, it has also exposed generational fault lines and increased the number of venues for both youth and adults to engage in self-expression. In the virtual realms of the new playgrounds, both utopic dreams and apocalyptic fantasies can be explored and discusses by their participants. Objective of the Book This edited volume is designed to address questions prompted by the expansion of new digital media and, specifically, questions of how to research virtual play, what changes need to be made in the social sciences to advance out understanding of the role such games play in contemporary life, our fears and anxieties around new media, and how new media is changing the nature of what it means to work and play. This volume is directed towards researchers and students in the emerging area of Game Studies, New Media Studies, Sociology, Anthropology, and Psychology. Our hope is to draw attention to the need for a more comprehensive social and cultural understanding of both the role and the significance of virtual realms in contemporary life. Sub areas the book will address include: the theory of modern play, the business of virtual play, methodology, social-psychological implications of digital play, social inequalities and virtual play and fandom. Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, the following: • The Nature of Modern Play and Technology - Defining Modern Play (the theory of play, leisure beyond Huzinga) • Researching Virtual Play (methodological considerations) • Game Fans Speak Out (empirical game audience and fan studies) Submission Procedure Interested researchers are invited to submit on or before June 30, 2009, a 250-500 word chapter proposal clearly explaining the mission, methodology and concerns of the proposed chapter. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by July 15, 2009 about the status of their proposal and chapter guidelines. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by September 15, 2009. The book is scheduled to be published by Lexington Press (a division of Rowman & Littlefield) during the 2nd half of 2010. For additional information about the publisher, please visit http://www.lexingtonbooks.com/ Inquiries and submissions can be forwarded electronically (Word document) or by mail to: Andras Lukacs Loyola University Chicago Department of Sociology Damen Hall 955C 1032 W. Sheridan Road Chicago, IL 60626 Email: alukacs(a)luc.edu

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Conferences?
by Alecea Standlee 16 Jun '09

16 Jun '09

Hey all, I am working on a paper with a professor here in Syracuse that discusses the role of ebook technologies in shaping the social impact and uses of information in the digital age. My prof is particularly interested in conference presentations. I know that this years AoIR conference deadline has passed. Any others that might be a good fit, that you all might know of> Alecea Standlee Syracuse University Department of Sociology

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