There is so much to digest and reflect upon in Don Slater's detailed response
to my post about suburban internet practices and ethnographic research that
I'll just take up briefly his third point about the notion of 'practice',
namely:
>
> 3. Does the idea that suburbs have some similar properties (and
> therefore (?) comparable internet practices) in Kuala Lumpur and Toronto
> necessitate recourse to concepts of macro structure and global
> processes? Don't think so, in which case I'm not that bothered. I've
> probably got a very complicated process to unravel, and vast range of
> contingencies to track, so that I can see how these similar properties
> might arise from similar architectural and spatial arrangements,
> work/life relations, domestic arrangements (nuclear family?), class
> cultures, the practices of transnational corporations, and so on. And
> on, and on. Many of us have found the notion of 'practice' very useful
> in many of these studies as it posits an elementary unit of analysis
> that embraces so many features of a social setting without reducing them
> to structures.
>
I wholly agree with Don's practice-theoretical stance, which is the one I've
adopted in my own recent work (synthesised with field theory). There is no
need to resort to 'concepts of macro structure and global processes' to
account for the emergence of analogous internet-related practices in
geographically remote localities, in this particular case practices related to
residential activism in middle-class suburbs. Given roughly equivalent issues
on the ground (traffic, schools, crime, etc) suburban people in different
parts of the world will come up with similar (internet) practices to address
them - these local processes and the resulting practices are analogous but
independent from one another. Of course, from a comparative perspective the
contrasts are as interesting as the similarities.
I think of local residential politics as being an L-shaped Bourdieuan field of
practice, with the vertical axis (= subfield) representing the three tiers of
government (four in EU countries), and the horizontal axis representing the
non-governmental subfield of residential activism, a subfield increasingly
mediated by internet and mobile technologies. I hope this can be a way around
the macro-micro problem mentioned by Don. Internet-related practices sustain
this resilient L-shaped field: they may allow for more fluid and egalitarian
interactions among leading residents, but they do not alter the
vertical/hierarchical subfield of government.
John
Dr John Postill
Senior Lecturer in Media
Sheffield Hallam University
Sheffield S11 8UZ
United Kingdom
j.postill(a)shu.ac.uk
http://johnpostill.wordpress.com/
Tamara, I have also taken a stab at using ANT for describing digital
culture and what is "cool" and not cool -- look for my article in
Fibreculture: http://journal.fibreculture.org/issue8/issue8_andrews.html
As Jeremy mentioned, I found ANT was a little unwieldy for describing
zeitgeisty arguments, and it's definitely not so much a method; it's
better suited for understanding change over time in more concrete
scientific arguments. While Latour and others have critiqued the
original model he set up, I saw him speak this past weekend at
Columbia and it's interesting how much his ANT ideas still shape what
he's working on now :)
That said, I've also done some work on why MMO play "isn't cool,"
drawing on the yet-unpublished dissertation of a friend of mine,
Austin Grossman. Both of us drew on The Dialectic of the Enlightenment
to make the case. I covered this in my master's thesis -- let me know
if you'd like a look at it.
Gillian "Gus" Andrews
Doctoral student, Communications in Education
Teachers College, Columbia University
@ Meryl Krieger - I hesitated to name names, which lead to much of my generalization....but you're right...Indiana's various iterations of communication have their act together with new media. They're a good model to follow for comm programs looking to take up issues of new media.
db
---
Daren C. Brabham
Graduate Teaching Fellow
Department of Communication
University of Utah
255 S. Central Campus Dr., Rm. 2400
Salt Lake City, UT 84112
phone: (801) 633-4796
daren.brabham(a)utah.edu
www.darenbrabham.com <http://www.darenbrabham.com/>
A contact at Blizzard asked me to post this. It's not obvious from the
posting, but the position is of flexible rank/seniority, i.e. from an
advanced undergrad to a Ph.D.
http://www.blizzard.com/us/jobopp/o-data-analyst.html
--
Dmitri Williams
Assistant Professor
Annenberg School for Communication
dmitri.williams -theatsign- usc -dot- edu
Greetings,
The Synthetic Worlds Initiative (Edward Castronova's group) at Indiana
University is rolling out an in-world survey tool. Our first survey is on
demographics and the quality of life for virtual world residents. If you are
in SL, please stop by the SLURL below and take our survey.
Respondents will be paid L$ 250. We have been having some infrequent issues
with payment, so if you are not paid, please contact Synthetic Shan in-world
or email me off-list.
All you need to do to take a survey is click on the kiosk located on our
island: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Synthetic%20World/72/79/32
Then follow the instructions on the notecard.
Thanks for your willingness to help out a fellow educator/researcher.
Mark
--
Mark Bell
PhD student in Indiana University's Telecommunications program
SL: Typewriter Tackleberry
http://www.indiana.edu/~telecom/ <http://www.indiana.edu/%7Etelecom/>
http://swi.indiana.edu/http://blog.markwbell.com
"Communications tools don't get socially interesting until they get
technologically boring." - Clay Shirky
(My apologies, if you have received it more than once.)
CALL FOR CASES
Proposal Submission Deadline: March 15, 2009
Full Case Submission Deadline: June 15, 2009
Cases on Adoption, Diffusion and Evaluation of Global E-Governance Systems:
Impact at the Grass Roots
A book edited by Dr. Hakikur Rahman, ICMS, Bangladesh
To be published by IGI Global:
<http://www.igi-global.com/requests/details.asp?ID=598>http://www.igi-global.com/requests/details.asp?ID=598
This publication is part of the Advances in
Electronic Government Research (AEGR) Book Series
found at <http://www.igi-global.com/aegr>http://www.igi-global.com/aegr
Introduction
Generally, e-government refers to the use of new
ICTs by governments applied to the full range of
government functions. In a broad sense,
e-government is the use of information technology
to provide citizens and organizations with more
convenient access to government information and
services, and offer delivery of public services
to citizens, business partners, and others who
are working in the public sector. E-governance is
a network of organizations to incorporate
government, non-government, profit, nonprofit,
not-for-profit and private sector entities. In
e-governance there are no distinct boundaries.
The model for e-governance could be a one-stop
portal, where citizens have access to a variety of information and services.
Overall Objective of the Book
Most of the e-government systems at the early
stages are being built to exactly mimic the
age-old conventional systems, and virtually
computerize the traditional methods and
procedures. Electronic solutions are merely
implanted into government offices without looking
into the transformational aspects (mental,
organizational, physical, logical, cultural,
working style, etc.) and are not providing the
entire eco-system for long-term sustenance. This
book will accommodate cases related to theories,
issues and methodologies for designing,
implementing and operating successful
e-government systems. This book will cover a
variety of services and applications across the
globe that have been improving the overall
governance of nations and economies. This book
will be concise in synthesizing the theoretical
analysis, focus more to pragmatic
implementations, and emphasize on effective
e-government systems for better implementation at the grass roots.
Target Audience
Being a casebook on e-government, this book will
try to cover other aspects of the e-society, such
as e-learning, e-business, e-procurement,
e-commerce, e-payment, e-health, e-democracy,
e-voting, e-police, and other e-applications and
e-services. Therefore, this book will be useful
to development partners, policy makers,
government and non-government staffs, knowledge
managers, researchers, academics and individuals.
Recommended topics for case studies include, but
are not limited to, the following:
- Laws, jurisdictions, policy matters related to e-government
- Benchmarking of e-government system
- Designing of e-government systems
- Adoption of appropriate solutions and utilities
- Assessment of e-government policies and systems
- Comprehensive analysis of e-government implementations
- Performance and effectiveness measurement of e-government systems
- Incorporation of decision supports tools
- Learning and Knowledge development
- Economic empowerment, Social empowerment, and Sustainable development
- Recommendations on Benchmarking and its algorithms
Submission Procedure
Researchers and practitioners are invited to
submit on or before March 15, 2009, a 2-3 page
case proposal clearly explaining the mission and
concerns of his or her proposed case. Authors of
accepted proposals will be notified by March 31,
2009 about the status of their proposals and sent
case guidelines. Full cases are expected to be
submitted by June 15, 2009. All submitted cases
will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis.
Contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers for this project.
Publisher
This book is scheduled to be published by IGI
Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.), publisher of
the Information Science Reference (formerly
Idea Group Reference), Medical Information
Science Reference, and IGI Publishing
imprints. For additional information regarding
the publisher, please visit
<http://www.igi-pub.com>www.igi-global.com. This
publication is anticipated to be released in 2011.
Important Dates:
March 15, 2009: Proposal Submission Deadline
March 31, 2009: Notification of Acceptance
June 15, 2009: Full Case Submission
July 15, 2009: Review Result Returned
August 31, 2009: Final Case Submission
Editorial Advisory Board Members:
Derya Altunbas, Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Turkey
Ángela-Jo Medina, Financial Literacy Coalition of Central Texas, USA
D.C. Misra, eGov Researcher and Consultant, India
Ken Stevens, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada
Kam Hou Vat, University of Macau, Macau
Inquiries and Submissions can be forwarded electronically (Word document) to:
Dr. Hakikur Rahman
Institute of Computer Management & Science
Mirpur, Dhaka-1216, Bangladesh
Tel.: +880 2 803 4130 FAX: +880 2 901 4764 GSM: +351 960193872
Email: <mailto:email@hakik.org>email(a)hakik.org
Web: www.hakik.org
Tamara-
This sounds like a great project and, if I were your advisor, I would give you an immediate green light. I would be happy to have a conversation about this with you as I am moving along similar paths with respect to what I call "Blackberry Capitalism". Lets do purse the topic off-line. Perhaps I could be an outside reader for you as well.
Andrew Herman, Ph. D.
Associate Professor
Department of Communication Studies
Wilfrid Laurier University
Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3C5
CANADA
519 884-1970 x3693
>>> Tamara Paradis <tsparadis(a)gmail.com> 02/10/09 10:15 AM >>>
Hi all
I'm working on a graduate project that explores the controversies and
understandings of MMO gaming as valid leisure. I'm curious what is it about
MMO gaming that results in it being viewed as geeky, strange, "luser-ish",
etc. I've been struck by the ways in which MMO gamers themselves, as well as
everday non-gaming folks and mass media reportage (outside of financial
reports!) seem to accept that MMO gaming is somehow a type of strange and
suspect pursuit.
I've long been intrigued with the work of Bruno Latour and others from SST
and material culture studies who use an Actor-Network Theory (ANT) approach
to studying the world and its phenomenon. I am drawn to the ethos of ANT
which flattens the divide between researcher and the researched, and which
advocates jettisoning old notions of society and "the social", and the old
(artificial?) divides between micro/macro, structure/individual,
power/domination etc. in the interests of letting the actions tell the story
of the results. I'm equlally drawn but intimidated by the methods built into
ANT -- the mapping of actors and connections and associations.
I'm trying to convince a reluctant adviser that an ANT approach is a valid
way of studying my research question. Given the digital focus and the desire
to use ANT as ethos and method, as well as the ways in which ANT approaches
study and fieldwork, I'm having a rough go of it. I'm wondering if any of
you are using ANT or have used it in the past for qualitiative research
purposes (e.g. virtual ethnography; findings reporting; etc.). If you have
done so in the past, are in the midst of doing so now or are at least
intrigued by the possibilities, I'd be interested in talking with you
off-list.
Thanks.
Tamara Paradis
tparadis(a)connect.carleton.ca
tsparadis(a)gmail.com
Carleton University - Sociology & Anthropology
Ottawa, ON, Canada
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I think communication broadly (both mass comm. and speech comm.) is a natural home for new media/Internet studies, a discipline (that ought to be) focused on process and human exchange through various means. However, I think technological dinosaurs roam the halls of many journalism & mass comm. departments, professors who are experts in the areas of radio, television, and print but who for whatever reason have not kept up with new media technologies and refuse to do so, citing that area of study as "something other people do." I think most journalism & mass comm. folks appreciate the importance of new media, if only because they recognize that print is giving way to pixels and that it's hard to imagine the mass media operating without regard to the Internet these days. But appreciation for new media technology is not a substitute for knowing it and doing it, and the journalism & mass comm. departments that fail to get up to speed or hire tech-savvy folks will both crumble AND produce graduates who will enter the workforce unable to compete in a digital media world. The bigger threat that new media pose to journalism & mass comm. programs, of course, is that some mass comm. programs are hiring so-called Internet scholars who can't build basic Web pages themselves. It's like the TV critic who never watches TV or the social movement scholar who's never been on a non-profit board or volunteered before. These programs will continue to teach print newswriting and "new media and society" courses separately, for instance, rather than to integrate them into coherent convergence journalism curricula.
The speech comm. folks are worse off, I think. Some rhetoricians have taken to the Internet and video games, fascinated by these new "texts," but many have not. And the ongoing critique of rhetorical criticism is its tendency to stray from production, ownership, and audience reception in favor of a myopic view of the text itself, a myopia that does no service to the complex realities of the new media landscape. Organizational comm. folks generally have yet to embrace the fact that new media have fundamentally restructured the notion of the organization, the nature of labor, and other hallowed topics. Many org. comm. scholars are still stuck in the outmoded concept of The Organization, writing about new media (if at all) as some "thing out there" that organizations interact with. The innovation and the organizational behavior folks in business studies are way ahead of organizational comm. folks in terms of understanding new media. The interpersonal communication scholars are handling new media well, but they're still stuck in the rut of figuring out how face-to-face interpersonal theories are relevant to mediated interactions. Necessary work, but not thrilling to me personally :-)
Communication *ought* to be a great place for new media to flourish, and indeed some comm. programs around the world are doing great work in new media...but not enough of them are. In my opinion, it's the library/info. science folks and the art and architecture folks who are generally doing the most important work in new media studies. Even the business scholars are ahead of the curve. Communication has fought hard to become a "serious," recognized discipline, and it has developed a rigid disciplinary posture to prop up its ego. As such, it is quickly abandoning its eclectic, flexible, innovative beginnings...abandoning technologies and technological issues that are themselves eclectic, flexible, and innovative. (And, by the way, I definitely wouldn't go looking to Journal of Communication for thoughts on interdisciplinarity and innovation...actually I'd say the journals of ICA, NCA, and AEJMC are all on a different plane than Convergence, New Media & Society, ICS, and other journals).
This is only MY humble opinion of course, and I recognize I've painted the discipline in very broad strokes...but it's a topic I happened to have pondered myself lately as I navigate my research identity with the realities of my department. I'd love to hear others' thoughts.
db
---
Daren C. Brabham
Graduate Teaching Fellow
Department of Communication
University of Utah
255 S. Central Campus Dr., Rm. 2400
Salt Lake City, UT 84112
phone: (801) 633-4796
daren.brabham(a)utah.edu
www.darenbrabham.com <http://www.darenbrabham.com/>
I just created my account but where should I put my areas of expertise so proposals can be properly directed my way?
Andrew
Andrew Herman, Ph. D.
Associate Professor
Department of Communication Studies
Wilfrid Laurier University
Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3C5
CANADA
519 884-1970 x3693
>>> Susanna Paasonen <susanna.paasonen(a)helsinki.fi> 02/10/09 8:27 AM >>>
Dear all,
My warmest thanks to all of you who have enrolled as reviewers for the
IR 10.0 conference. As the submission deadline is drawing closer (next
Monday, to be exact), I would like to invite as many of you as possible
to consider taking up the task (by registering at
http://ocs.sfu.ca/aoir/index.php/ir/10/user/account) The broader pool
of reviewers we have, the better chances we have of ensuring expert
opinion on all papers. Given the fundamentally interdisciplinary nature
of aoir as a scholarly community, this is by no means a minor issue.
Your input is greatly appreciated.
with all best,
Susanna
Susanna Paasonen
Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies
Program Chair / IR 10.0
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II NATIONAL CONGRESS OF CKBG
EDUCATION, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
April 17-18 2009
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan (Italy)
Department of Psychology
via Nirone 15
http://www.ckbg.org/
Invited speakers:
Giuseppe Riva, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano
Roger Säljö, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Michael Cole, University of San Diego, California, in
collegamento video
SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM
The congress, which takes place every two years, is organized by the
Collaborative Knowledge
Building Group (CKBG), with the contribution of the "Università
Cattolica del Sacro Cuore" of
Milano.
The congress addresses researchers, educational experts and teachers
interested virtual
environments for education, with special respect to collaborative
learning and the technology that
supports it.
The main goal of the congress is to provide a space for discussion,
through which potential
connections between research, school and business can emerge.
The topic of the second congress is the application of innovative
practice in different use contexts:
education, youth culture, etc. "Education, Innovation and Technology"
are becoming more and
more relevant in modern societies. They foreground the dynamism of
culture and its progress across
the generations. This is true for both educational contexts, where
culture is transmitted to new
members of society, and in informal, workplace and academic contexts,
where culture becomes
practice and paves the way for innovative change to take place.
The EU Lifelong Learning Programme cites the need for lifelong learning
to contribute to the
development of the EU as an advanced knowledge society by developing
contents, services,
pedagogical solutions and practices supported by ICTs. Education,
innovation and technology are
crucial elements in making this programme effective. On the other hand,
they are also elements for
reflection, which enable us to better understand lifelong learning
processes.
We invite theoretical and empirical contributions on the following topics:
. Experiences of technological innovation
. Technology-enhanced innovation in educational and professional
contexts
. Design and experimentation around innovative technological
environments
. Innovative models of community
. Innovative aspects of e-learning, blended learning, m-learning
Domotics, Smart Phone and psycho-social aspects of innovation
in everyday life
. Wikis and electronic publishing
. Blogs and Social Networking
. Virtual reality and educational robotics
SCIENTIFIC AND ORGANISING COMMITTEE
Alessandro Antonietti, Università Cattolica di Milano
Stefano Cacciamani, Università della Valle d'Aosta
Donatella Cesareni, Università La Sapienza di Roma
Carlo Galimberti, Università Cattolica di Milano
Beatrice Ligorio, Università di Bari
Stefania Manca, ITD-CNR, Genova
Elvis Mazzoni, Università di Bologna
Paola Spadaro, Università di Bari
ORGANISING TEAM
Coordinamento Scientifico: Donatella Cesareni (Università La Sapienza di
Roma), Stefania Manca
(ITD-CNR, Genova)
Local Contact: Eleonora Brivio (Università Cattolica di Milano)
Programme and Organization: Paola Spadaro (Università di Bari)
Teachers Contact: Michelle Pieri (Università di Milano, Bicocca)
Business Contact: Antonio Massari (Consulente Aziendale); Francesco
Valotto (Edexon S.r.l.)
For further information please use this e-mail: ckbg.convegno(a)gmail.com
GUIDELINES FOR AUTHORS
One of the congress aims is to create synergies and links between
research, school and business.
Thus, there are three types of contributions accepted:
1) Theoretical or research:
This type of contribution can be submitted in the following formats:
- oral presentation with ppt, poster and symposium.
Contributors are invited to submit an abstract, max 2500 characters
(spaces included), with the
following paragraph structure: theoretical framework, objectives,
method, results (even partial).
The type of contribution (oral presentation, poster and symposium) must
be clearly stated. The
maximum duration for a symposium is 120 minutes and the proposal must
include:
. Title
. Proposer(s)
. Discussant
. Number of presentations (max 4), Title and author(s)
2) School experiences:
For this type of contribution the following formats are accepted: oral
presentation, oral presentation
with ppt or video, materials produced by the students, materials used by
the teacher, poster, other
(proposer must specify the type of material).
The abstracts, max 2500 characters (spaces included), must clearly
describe the experience,
providing objectives, participants, work plan, tools, results. The type
of presentation must be clearly
stated.
3) Business experiences:
For this type of contribution the following formats are accepted: oral
presentation, oral presentation
with ppt or video, multimedia materials produced or used in the
business, poster, other (proposer
must specify the type of material).
The abstracts, max 2500 characters (spaces included), must clearly
describe the experience,
providing objectives, participants, work plan, tools, results. The type
of presentation must be clearly
stated.
The deadline for all types of contributions is: February, 15th, 2009.
The abstracts can be submitted using the on-line form on the web site
http://www.ckbg.org
The abstracts will be evaluated by the Scientific Committee and the
authors will be informed about
the evaluation results by March, 10th, 2009.
PARTICIPATON FEES
CKBG training members: 30 euro
CKBG full members: 70 euro
CKBG non-members: 90 euro
Cattolica University students: Free
PhD students and students from other universities: 40 euro
School participants' group: 40 euro
Business participants' group: 40 euro
CKBG members must subscribe to the annual fee by March, 15th, 2009. For
further information
about how to subscribe or renew to CKBG please visit http://www.ckbg.org
IMPORTANT DEADLINES
Activity Deadline
Abstract submission 15 February
Abstract acceptance/rejection 10 March
Subscription to CKBG 15 March
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Luca Tateo
Project LEAD - Department of Education Sciences, University of Salerno
(Italy)
via Rufoli, 23 Ogliara I-84135 Salerno
mobile +39.392.5178418, +39.347.5423594
office +39.089.962106
ltateo(a)unisa.it, network.salerno(a)tiscali.it
Skype ID: luca.tateo
lucatateo.blog.tiscali.it
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
