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JRuby -- what an awful name
by Barry Wellman 23 Nov '08

23 Nov '08

Today is the 45th anniversary of the assassination of President JFK. As you may recall, Lee Harvey Oswald supposedly shot JFK, and Jack Ruby shot LHO 2 days later. I'd find the name JRuby loathsome on any day, but yesterday I came across a programming language with that name. "JRuby is an 100% pure-Java implementation of the Ruby programming language." http://jruby.codehaus.org/ The Codehaus Foundation is an open-source group. I do suppose that those who did this knew the connotations. Ah, coder youth. But didn't somebody tell them? I still grieve 45 years later, but now I have hope. Barry Wellman _______________________________________________________________________ S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC NetLab Director Department of Sociology University of Toronto 725 Spadina Avenue, Room 388 Toronto Canada M5S 2J4 http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman fax:+1-416-978-3963 Updating history: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _______________________________________________________________________

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MP3 Now Available for ACS Presentation "Swiss Army Information Tools"
by McKiernan, Gerard [LIB] 22 Nov '08

22 Nov '08

Colleagues/ I am pleased to inform you that the MP3 for a presentation I gave at the American Chemical Society (ACS) Spring 2008 meeting in New Orleans (April 6 2008) - "Online Social Networks: Swiss Army Information Tools" - is now available. The original posting about the presentation as well as the associated PPT (with links) (and now the MP3) are located at [ http://tinyurl.com/2g6xmh ] While much has happened in The World of Social Networks since this presentation, I believe/hope many will find the MPG of value . The symposium at which the presentation was given - Transformation of Library Services in the Digital Age - was co-sponsored by the ACS Division of Chemical Information (CHINF) and the ACS Division of Chemical Education (CHED). Enjoy! /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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CFP: Openness and Higher Ed
by Gavin Baker 21 Nov '08

21 Nov '08

(apologies for cross-posting) http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/663 Call for Papers - Openness and the Future of Higher Education This Call for Papers is for a theme issue of the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning <www.irrodl.org> entitled: Openness and the Future of Higher Education. The projected publication date is October 2009. The Guest Editors are Dr. David Wiley and John Hilton. The aim of this Special Issue is to further our understanding of the manner in which the open source, open access, and open education movements are now and will impact higher education organizations, learners, and other stakeholders in the future. Our intent is to stimulate critical debate, encourage collection and analyses of relevant data, and add to the theoretical foundations used in policy and planning discussions related to openness within institutions of higher education. Special consideration will be given to articles that present analyses and interpretations of empirical data, but rigorous theoretical submissions will also be considered. All submissions will be peer reviewed. Those submissions accepted for publication will be published under Creative Commons license in www.irrodl.org. DEADLINES: * Submission Proposals: January 15, 2009 * Notification of Acceptance: February 15 * Papers Due: May 1 * Peer Reviews Returned: June 30 * Finalized Papers Due: August 1 * Publication Date: October 15 SUBMISSION PROPOSALS Individual or multiple authors must first submit an abstract-length proposal of approximately 500-750 words to IRRODL's Managing Editor at irrodl(a)athabascau.ca. Those who have had their abstracts accepted will be formally invited by the Guest Editors to submit a full-length paper of approximately 5000 words. For IRRODL's submission guidelines, visit: http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/about/submissions All full-length papers submitted to IRRODL will be subject to multiple blind peer review. All blind peer reviews will be shared with the authors. While influenced by the outcome of the blind peer reviews, the Guest Editors reserve the right to make final publication decisions. TOPICS MAY INCLUDE: * Critical perspectives on open education * Effect of openness on access to educational opportunity * Evaluation of open educational resources and services * Issues of affordability and openness * Issues of quality and localization of open educational resources * Openness and accreditation * Openness and future course management systems / personal learning environments * Open models for awarding credit or degrees * Open / peer tutoring and advising models * Open source, open access, or open education policy in higher education * Open teaching / massively open online courses ("MOOC") * Open textbooks * Social implications of open education * Structures and patterns of reuse of open educational resources * Sustainable models of creating and sharing open educational resources * Unique impact of openness on institutions in developing countries -- Gavin Baker http://www.gavinbaker.com/ gavin(a)gavinbaker.com As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously. Benjamin Franklin

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New Dates for "YouTube and the 2008 Election Cycle in the United States" Workshop: April 16-17, 2009 (Amherst, Massachusetts)
by Stuart Shulman 21 Nov '08

21 Nov '08

We have settled on a new set of dates for the YouTube workshop: April 16 & 17, 2009. http://www.umass.edu/polsci/youtube/ This both removes the conflict with the Midwest Political Science Association meeting and allows us to get into better meeting rooms. So, I hope this is good news for all. If you are interested in this topic, please join our conference Crowdvine to stay in the loop: http://youtube08election.crowdvine.com/ ~Stu -- Dr. Stuart W. Shulman Assistant Professor Department of Political Science University of Massachusetts Amherst http://people.umass.edu/stu/ stu(a)polsci.umass.edu Editor, Journal of Information Technology & Politics http://www.jitp.net Director, QDAP-UMass http://people.umass.edu/stu/QDAP-UMass/ Associate Director, National Center for Digital Government http://www.umass.edu/digitalcenter/

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AoIR NCA meetup
by Steve Jones 21 Nov '08

21 Nov '08

The AoIR meetup at the NCA convention will take place on Saturday, Nov. 22, at 4pm at the Brickyard Coffee Shop, 675 W G St, San Diego (on G Street just east of Kettner Blvd.). I'm looking forward to seeing as many of you as can make it there, Sj

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CfP: H2PTM / Paris
by Bernhard Rieder 20 Nov '08

20 Nov '08

Call for Papers /// H2PTM'09 - Hypertext & Hypermedia Products, Tools and Methods /// Retrospective and Perspective 1989 - 2009 September 30, October 1 & 2 2009 / Université Paris 8 http://paragraphe.univ-paris8.fr/h2ptm09/ Laboratoire PARAGRAPHE, Université de Paris VIII Laboratoire des Sciences de la Communication, Université de Valenciennes et du Hainaut Cambrésis Laboratoire Culture et Communication, Université d’Avignon Laboratoire CREM (Centre de Recherche sur les Médiations, Pôle « Pixel »), Université Paul Verlaine-Metz Co-organize the 10th annual edition of the H2PTM: Hypertext, Hypermedia conference. /// PRESENTATION The H2PTM conference celebrates its 20 years and 9 previous editions. The first in 1988 at Paris 8 University and the 9th in 2007 in Hammamet, Tunisia. The 10th edition will bring it back to its roots at Paris 8. The upcoming conference will address advancements and research in the field of hypertext and hypermedia over the last 20 years and discuss perspectives for the years to come. H2PTM’09 will take up some of the classical topics that have accompanied the conference in the past and continue to stimulate our interest. Attentive to current developments the conference will, however, open up in several directions. Hypermedia tools are after all primarily tools of creation and it is along this line that new applications and creative practices define the digital universe. The conference will therefore pay special attention to matters of design for hypermedia, both amateur and professional. Designing, building, understanding and criticizing web applications built around popular notions such as RSS, syndication and aggregation, mashups, geolocalisation, the semantic Web and blogging will be a particular focus, as well as considerations of use and social impact. The continuous evolution of 3D online, animation and interactivity make it necessary to reflect on video games as networked hypermedia. The question of sharing and exchange lurks at the heart of networked practices. H2PTM’09 will therefore discuss the question of (multimedia) content online, how it is being created, distributed, stored and organized. This obviously includes the question of collaborative production of content, both for professional workgroups and loosely organized audiences on the Web. The 10th edition will also give occasion to evaluate the evolution of both the theory and practice of hypertext and hypermedia and their implications for the development of emergent tools and uses (e-learning, accessibility, social networks, non-linear video, etc.). In an effort to bridge the rift between the “two cultures” and to foster interdisciplinary exchange H2PTM addresses creators and researchers from technical fields as well as scholars from the social sciences and the humanities. /// ORGANIZATION H2PTM'09 will include two types of sessions : - The scientific conference - An interactive exhibition and workshop demonstrations for artistic works, applications and experimental systems The conference will allow researchers, professionals and publishers to evaluate the state of the art in hypertext and hypermedia theory and practice as well as to discuss future perspectives. The conference proceedings will be published with Hermès Lavoisier publishing, Paris and London. /// CONFERENCE Official languages are English and French. We call for contributions in the following topic areas (list is non-exhaustive): Theoretical perspectives - Formal hypertext models - Hypermedia system architecture - Indexation - Interfaces - Immersive systems - Image processing - Uses, appropriation, and subversive practices - Automatic cartographies - Automatic generation of hypertext links - Navigation and search for hypertext - Online collaboration (content creation,design, tools, critique) Quality, satisfaction and information richness - Usability and ergonomics for hypermedia - Design experiences - Project management and development methods - Quality and satisfaction on the Web - Semantic web applications - Norms and Standards New forms of creation, new languages - Cognitive processes and hypermedia - Authoring environments - Interactive screenwriting - Resources and forms of collaborative writing and creation, collective representation - Analysis of creative processes - Formalization of creative processes - Creative protocols, acts and gestures - Intentionality and interactive communication - Artificial intelligence, hypermedia and artistic creativity Advanced uses of hypermedia - ICT and e-learning - Online videogames as hypermedia - Mobile applications (games, geographic information systems, mobile Web) - Web design - Hypermedia and handicap - Technologies, hypermedia and cultural heritage - Social and cultural expectations, effects and conflicts - Hypermedia and artistic practices - 3D online - Information search and retrieval - Social networks and communities IMPORTANT DATES March 15 2009: full paper deadline May 15 2009: notification of acceptance June 20 2009: camera-ready papers July 31 2009: at least one of the authors has to be registered for the conference SUBMISSION GUIDELINES March 15 2009: Authors submit their papers online at the following URL: http://paragraphe.univ-paris8.fr/h2ptm09 Three types of papers will be taken into consideration: − Long papers: no longer than 4100 words, the complete paper should not exceed 10 pages in Times 12 points − Short papers: no longer than 1600 words, the complete paper should not exceed 4 pages in Times 12 points − Poster proposals: no longer than 540 words, the complete text should not exceed 2 pages in Times 12 points Every proposition will be examined by at least two peer reviewers who will judge its relevance, scientific validity, originality as well as the general clarity and presentation. May 15 2009: A notification of acceptance or refusal is sent to all authors, as well as at least two sets of peer comments. Accepted authors will be informed of all technical details for publication. These technical specifications need to be followed as closely as possible in order to facilitate the preparation for the conference proceedings. A paper being accepted implies that at least one of the authors should be present for the conference. June 20 2009: Camera-ready papers must be sent to the program comity, using the final publication guidelines and style sheets. This date is quite important, really, to get the proceedings published in time for the conference. July 31 2009: Articles that do not have at least a single author registered for the conference will be removed from the conference as well as the proceedings. /// EXHIBITION AND WORKSHOPS Contributions for the exhibition and the workshops can be presented either as public demonstrations with comment or as exhibits. Accepted languages are English and French. IMPORTANT DATES June 8 2009: Deadline for exhibition and workshop proposals July 8 2009: Notification of acceptance Sept. 1 2009: The final exhibits or demonstrations should be submitted /// PRESIDENTS OF H2PTM'09 Imad SALEH, Université de Paris 8 Sylvie LELEU-MERVIEL, Université de Valenciennes Yves JEANNERET, Université d’Avignon Luc MASSOU, Université Paul Verlaine-Metz /// PROGAMME AND ORGANIZATION COMMITTEE Nasreddine BOUHAI Université Paris 8 Pierre MORELLI, Université Paul Verlaine-Metz Michel LABOUR, Université de Valenciennes Bernhard RIEDER, Université Paris 8 /// CORDINATION EXHIBITION AND WORKSHOPS Martine BOUR, Université Paris 8 (France) /// SCIENTIFIC COMITTEE H2PTM’09 Ghislaine AZEMARD, Université Paris 8 (France) Jean-Pierre BALPE, Université Paris 8 (France) Claude BALTZ, Université Paris 8 (France) Belhassen BADDREDINE Université 7 Novembre, Islain (Tunisia) Didier BALTAZART, CREM & Université Reims Champagne-Ardenne (France) Ali BEN CHERIF, Université Paris 8 (France) Mark BERNSTEIN, Eastgate Systems Inc (USA) Serge BOUCHARDON, Université de Compiègne (France) Philippe BOOTZ, Université Paris 8 (France) Hafida BOULEKBACHE, Université de Valenciennes Eric BRANGIER, Université Paul Verlaine - Metz (France) Eric BRUILLARD, IUFM-CRETEIL (France) Jean CLEMENT, Université Paris 8 (France) Tristan CAZENAVE, Université Paris Dauphine (France) François DENIEUL, Laboratoire "Espaces Intelligents" (France) Giovanni DE PAOLI, Université de Montréal (Canada) Jacques DUCLOY, INIST (France) Aude DUFRESNE, Université de Montréal (Canada) Christian JACQUEMIN, CNRS-LIMSI Orsay (France) Catherine KELLNER, Université Paul Verlaine-Metz (France) Christophe KOLSKI, Université de Valenciennes (France) Jean-Marc LABAT, Université Paris 6 (France) Pierre LEVY, Université d’Ottowa (Canada) Abderrazek MKADMI, Université de la Manouba (Tunisia) Jocelyne NANARD, Université de Montpellier - LIRMM (France) Marc NANARD, Université de Montpellier - LIRMM (France) Stéphane NATKIN, CNAM (France) Sophie PENE, Université Paris Descartes (France) Vincent QUINT, INRIA Rhône-Alpes (France) Pierre RABARDEL, Université Paris 8 (France) Jean-Hugues RÉTY, Université de Paris 8 Everardo REYES, Université de Monterrey (Mexico) Estrella ROJAS, Université d’ARTOIS (France) Ioan ROXAN, Université Franche-Comté (France) Brigitte SIMONNOT, Université Paul Verlaine-Metz (France) Emmanuel SANDER, Université Paris 8 (France) Mohammed SIDIR, Université d’Amiens Basel SOLAIMAN, ENST- Bretagne (France) Chantal SOULLE-DUPY, Université Toulouse 1 (France) André TRICOT, CNRS, EPHE & Université de Toulouse-le-Mirail Saïd TAZI, LAAS-CNRS (France) Brigitte TROUSSE, INRIA (France) Philippe USEILLE, Université de Valenciennes Genviève VIDAL, Université Paris 13 (France) Gilles VENTURINI, Ecole Polytechnique de l'Université de Tours (France) Roberto WILLRICH, Université Fédérale de Santa Catarina (Bresil) Khaldoun ZREIK, Université Paris 8 (France) ///LOCAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE Hakim HACHOUR, Université Paris 8 (France) Rachel KAMGA, Université Paris 8 (France) /// CONTACT Université Paris 8 / Laboratoire PARAGRAPHE Département Hypermédia / H2PTM'09 2 rue de la liberté 93526 SAINT-DENIS CEDEX Tél. : (33) + (0)1 49 40 67 58 ou (33) + (0)1 49 40 64 25 Fax : (33) + (0)1 49 40 67 83 H2ptm09(a)univ-paris8.fr

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Call For Papers -- CIRC7
by Lokman Tsui 20 Nov '08

20 Nov '08

Hi all, Please find below the CFP for the 7th Chinese Internet Research Conference. Best, Lokman Tsui -- Doctoral Candidate, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania Student Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University http://www.lokman.org ------------------------------------------------------------------- Call for Papers for the 7th Chinese Internet Research Conference The Chinese Internet and Civil Society: Civic Engagement, Deliberation and Culture Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania Sylvie, Wednesday May 27 and Thursday May 28, 2009 By the end of June 2008, China had reached 253 million Internet users, surpassing the United States and becoming the country with the largest number of netizens. The theme of the 7th Chinese Internet Research Conference, "The Chinese Internet and Civil Society: Civic Engagement, Deliberation and Culture," is designed to bring together scholars and professionals to examine the Chinese Internet from socioeconomic, political and cultural perspectives and explore uncharted areas in innovative ways. While much of the research so far has focused on the political implications of the Internet in China, we have yet to understand the changes the Internet is fostering in civil society, the intersection between the market and the state, and the Internet's cultural implications for identity formation, emergent cultural phenomena and social networking. Topics of the conference include but are not limited to the following: 1. Civil society and its obstacles: What is the role of the internet in the emergent civil society of China? Is there an online public sphere and what does it look like? How does the internet shape the interplay between the private, public and state sectors? What are some of the negative aspects of Chinese online social networking, e.g. what role does the internet play in enabling terrorism, extreme nationalism, or violence in China? 2. The Internet and youth: How do young people use the Internet and are there generational differences in Internet use? What cultures/subcultures emerge over the Internet? How are civic cultures formed through online cultural practices such as peer production, gaming, and social networking in spaces such as Facebook, YouTube, and Myspace? What new cultures emerge in virtual worlds such as Secondlife and Hipihi, the blogosphere and other online spaces? 3. The Internet, national crisis and media events: What is the role of the Internet in managing national crisis, for example, by organizing, coordinating and advancing volunteerism, donations and social support in cases such as the Sichuan Earthquake? What is the role of the Internet in managing the national image and advancing cultural understanding? What is the role of the Internet in media events such as the Beijing Olympics? 4. Entertainment, deliberation/opinion-formation and popular culture: How have the boundaries between news and entertainment changed and what effect does it have on deliberation and opinion formation? What is the role of entertainment in Internet use? To what extent are people addressed as consumers rather than citizens online? How are concepts such as "fun" and "play" applied in Internet use? 5. Chinese minorities, China Proper, Greater China or "Cultural China": How do Chinese minorities use the Internet? How are they represented over the Internet? How is the Internet used in other Chinese-language speaking areas, including Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore? How do Chinese diasporas use the Internet? Is global Chineseness, if it exists, fostered through the Internet? 6. Research methodology: What are the appropriate methodologies to study the Chinese Internet and civil society in particular? What comparative models can explore the overlap and differences between the Chinese Internet and the global Internet? The conference is organized and hosted by the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania. It is the first time that the conference will be held on the East Coast of the United States, which provides new opportunities to link scholars from China and the rest of the world. Paper Submission: We welcome proposals of quantitative, qualitative and critical studies from all disciplines. English proposal are preferred, but Chinese proposals will also be carefully considered. Invited papers will build upon the conference theme or address other significant issues regarding Internet development, use, and impacts in China and the Chinese-speaking world. A proposal of approximately 1000 words is due by Jan. 15, 2009. Submissions should be sent to Dr. Hongmei Li and Sylvie Beauvais at penncirc2009(a)asc.upenn.edu. Accepted papers will be announced on February 15, 2009. Completed papers should be submitted by April 24, 2009. Competitive scholarship: A limited amount of travel funding will be available for promising young scholars, especially for those travelling from Asia. To indicate interest in the travel scholarship, please attach your CV when you send your abstract. Paper Award: Following a tradition of this conference, graduate students may submit papers for the Annual Best Graduate Student Paper Award. Cash prizes will be given to the winner or winners. To qualify, submissions need to be full conference papers written in English authored by or coauthored among graduate students. Deadline for submission is April 24, 2009. Conference cooperating institutions include: The Journalism and Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong, the School of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Intellectual Property Law Center at Drake University Law School, the Institute for Pacific Asia at Texas A & M University, the Singapore Internet Research Center (SIRC) at Nanyang Technological University, the School of Journalism and Communication at Peking University, and the Center for US-China Relations at Tsinghua University. Paste conferences were held at the University of Hong Kong, Texas A & M University, Nanyang Technological University, Michigan State University, the University of California at Berkeley, and the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. Lodging Participants are responsible for paying for their hotel. You are encouraged to reserve a room at the Club Quarters of Philadelphia: www.clubquarters.com, 1628 Chestnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19103, (215) 282-5000. When making a reservation, please specify that you are reserving as a guest of the University of Pennsylvania. Other hotels include the Sheraton University City (http://www.philadelphiasheraton.com/) and the Inn at Penn (http://www.theinnatpenn.com/) . Registration There is no fee to register for the conference. The conference is open to the public. If you would like to attend the conference, please register by emailing your name, institutional affiliation and title, and email address. Visa Support Letters The organizers will provide visa support letters upon request. Please email your request to PennCirc2009(a)asc.upenn.edu in an email entitled "VISA SUPPORT" specifying your name as it appears in your passport, your dates of travel, the address of the embassy to which you will be submitting a visa request, and any other information you would like us to include in the letter. We will email you a PDF of the support letter. Travel The Annenberg School, which is part of the University of Pennsylvania, is located at 3620 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA. The Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) is a 20 minute taxi ride from either the university campus or downtown Philadelphia. Public rail transportation is also available from the airport. You can also fly to Newark International Airport (EWR) and take a one-hour train to Philadelphia. Annenberg School for Communication Founded in 1959 through the generosity and vision of diplomat and philanthropist Walter Annenberg, the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania is devoted to furthering our understanding of the role of communication in public life through research, education and service. Annenberg offers students a firm grounding in a wide range of approaches to the study of communication and its methods, drawn from both the humanities and the social sciences. It is an intellectual crossroads built on nearly 50 years of interdisciplinary dialogue. Annenberg's doctoral program prepares students to make professional contributions to communication scholarship, research, and policy. Center for Global Communication Studies at the Annenberg School for Communication The Center for Global Communication Studies (CGCS) is a leader in international education, research, and training in comparative media law and policy. It affords students, academics, lawyers, regulators, civil society representatives and others working in the media sector the opportunity to evaluate critically and discuss comparative, global and international communications issues. CGCS draws on various disciplines (law, political science, and international relations among others) to explore public policy issues and the way media and globalization intersect with the changing nature of states.

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Suicide, on web cam
by Pearse Stokes 20 Nov '08

20 Nov '08

Hi, I'm not sure if people have been following the Abraham Briggs situation online. He may have committed suicide, or attempted to commit suicide while on justin.tv, or conducted an elaborate hoax. Lets hope its the later. In the mean time, I have written an article about it and perspectives of internet social research. I hope you find it interesting and provide feed back (tear it to shreds, it deserves it and obviously I want it). Thanks - PJG http://cyberanthropology.wordpress.com/2008/11/20/sets-and-overdose-suicide…

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Report by the Digital Youth Project released
by danah boyd 20 Nov '08

20 Nov '08

We are happy to announce the online release of the findings from our three-year Digital Youth project (http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu ). All of the researchers who have worked on this project will be writing up individual publications, but this report represents a synthesis of the findings across the 22 different case studies. It has been over three years in the making, and is the result of a truly collaborative effort with 28 researchers and research collaborators. This project is part of the MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning initiative. http://digitallearning.macfound.org. You can find all the details in the documents linked below, and a summary of our report below. Two-page summary of report: http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu/files/report/digitalyouth-TwoPageS… White paper: http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu/files/report/digitalyouth-WhitePap… Full report: http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu/report Press release and video: http://digitallearning.macfound.org/ethnography New York Times coverage: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/us/20internet.html We will be celebrating the release of our report at a reception at the American Anthropological Association meetings in San Francisco. Please join us on Saturday November 22, at 6:30-8:00pm, San Francisco Hilton & Towers, Golden Gate Ballroom. -------- RESEARCH SUMMARY Over three years, Mizuko Ito and her 28-person research team interviewed over 800 youth and young adults and conducted over 5000 hours of online observations as part of the most extensive U.S. study of youth media use to date. They found that social network sites, online games, video-sharing sites, and gadgets such as iPods and mobile phones are now fixtures of youth culture. The research finds today's youth may be coming of age and struggling for autonomy and identity amid new worlds for communication, friendship, play, and self-expression. Many adults worry that children are wasting time online, texting, or playing video games. The researchers explain why youth find these activities compelling and important. The digital world is creating new opportunities for youth to grapple with social norms, explore interests, develop technical skills, and experiment with new forms of self-expression. These activities have captured teens' attention because they provide avenues for extending social worlds, self-directed learning, and independence. MAJOR FINDINGS - Youth use online media to extend friendships and interests. - Most youth use online networks to extend the friendships that they navigate in the familiar contexts of school, religious organizations, sports, and other local activities. They can be always "on," in constant contact with their friends through private communications like instant messaging or mobile phones, as well as in public ways through social network sitessuch as MySpace and Facebook. With these "friendship-driven" practices, youth are almost always associating with people they already know in their offline lives. The majority of youth use new media to "hang out" and extend existing friendships in these ways. A smaller number of youth also use the online world to explore interests and find information that goes beyond what they have access to at school or in their local community. Online groups enable youth to connect to peers who share specialized and niche interests of various kinds, whether that is online gaming, creative writing, video editing, or other artistic endeavors. In these interest-driven networks, youth may find new peers outside the boundaries of their local community. They can also find opportunities to publicize and distribute their work to online audiences, and to gain new forms of visibility and reputation. - Youth engage in peer-based, self-directed learning online. - In both friendship-driven and interest-driven online activity, youth create and navigate new forms of expression and rules for social behavior. By exploring new interests, tinkering, and "messing around" with new forms of media, they acquire various forms of technical and media literacy. Through trial and error, youth add new media skills to their repertoire, such as how to create a video or game, or customize their MySpace page. Teens then share their creations and receive feedback from others online. By its immediacy and breadth of information, the digital world lowers barriers to self-directed learning. Some youth "geek out" and dive into a topic or talent. Contrary to popular images, geeking out is highly social and engaged, although usually not driven primarily by local friendships. Youth turn instead to specialized knowledge groups of both teens and adults from around the country or world, with the goal of improving their craft and gaining reputation among expert peers. While adults participate, they are not automatically the resident experts by virtue of their age. Geeking out in many respects erases the traditional markers of status and authority. New media allow for a degree of freedom and autonomy for youth that is less apparent in a classroom setting. Youth respect one another's authority online, and they are often more motivated to learn from peers than from adults. Their efforts are also largely self-directed, and the outcome emerges through exploration, in contrast to classroom learning that is oriented by set, predefined goals. IMPLICATIONS New media forms have altered how youth socialize and learn, and raise a new set of issues that educators, parents, and policymakers should consider. -Adults should facilitate young people's engagement with digital media. Contrary to adult perceptions, while hanging out online, youth are picking up basic social and technical skills they need to fully participate in contemporary society. Erecting barriers to participation deprives teens of access to these forms of learning. Participation in the digital age means more than being able to access serious online information and culture. Youth could benefit from educators being more open to forms of experimentation and social exploration that are generally not characteristic of educational institutions. Because of the diversity of digital media, it is problematic to develop a standardized set of benchmarks against which to measure young people's technical and new media literacy. Friendship-driven and interest-driven online participation have very different kinds of social connotations. For example, whereas friendship-driven activities centers upon peer culture, adult participation is more welcomed in the latter more "geeky" forms of learning. In addition, the content, behavior, and skills that youth value are highly variable depending on what kinds of social groups they associate with. In interest-driven participation, adults have an important role to play. Youth using new media often learn from their peers, not teachers or adults. Yet adults can still have tremendous influence in setting learning goals, particularly on the interest-driven side where adult hobbyists function as role models and more experienced peers. To stay relevant in the 21st century, education institutions need to keep pace with the rapid changes introduced by digital media. Youths' participation in this networked world suggests new ways of thinking about the role of education. What, the authors ask, would it mean to really exploit the potential of the learning opportunities available through online resources and networks? What would it mean to reach beyond traditional education and civic institutions and enlist the help of others in young people's learning? Rather than assuming that education is primarily about preparing for jobs and careers, they question what it would mean to think of it as a process guiding youths' participation in public life more generally. - - - - - - - - d a n a h ( d o t ) o r g - - - - - - - - "i was just a girl in a room full of women licking stamps and laughing i remember the feeling of community brewing of democracy happening" (Ani DiFranco, Paradigm) musings :: http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts - - - - - - - - d a n a h ( d o t ) o r g - - - - - - - - "i was just a girl in a room full of women licking stamps and laughing i remember the feeling of community brewing of democracy happening" (Ani DiFranco, Paradigm) musings :: http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts

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Call for Papers: STS Across Borders Graduate Student Conference
by jeremy hunsinger 20 Nov '08

20 Nov '08

Call for Papers: STS Across Borders Graduate Student Conference March 20-22, 2009 | Blacksburg, Virginia Keynote Speakers: Banu Subramaniam, University of Massachusetts Amherst and Fa-ti Fan, SUNY Binghamton Abstract submissions: Please send an abstract (minimum 250 words, maximum of 400 words) dealing with the issues mentioned below and/or related issues to Bob Darrow (dar...(a)vt.edu) or Cora Olson (cow...(a)vt.edu) in DOC or RTF format. If you do not plan to present in person, please indicate this in your abstract. The deadline for submissions is December 5, 2008. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by January 9. Since the emergence of EuroAmerican STS, the field has gone to great lengths to mitigate the pitfalls endemic to knowledge production, in part through the principle of reflexivity. If the field's focus on the relationships between wider sociopolitical and historical contexts and the production / appropriation / translation of technoscientific knowledge has been a point of reinvention, then it might be time for a reinvention of STS by making the production of STS knowledge itself an object of study. In this sense, we hope to explore questions of a critical STS of STS that stays true to the principle of reflexivity, and further decenters, rehistoricizes, and pluralizes what has been taken to be "STS" by asking, "What does STS look like across and within Borders?" This conference builds on the concept of "border crossings" by conceptualizing borders not just as geopolitical boundaries, and thus seeks to understand what STS practice, intervention, methodology, and thinking look like across and within a multiplicity of borders. We intend this conference to help foster a transborder space for STS practitioners / theorists/ interventionists. We believe STS scholars and practitioners worldwide would benefit from a plurality of STS approaches. We ask participants to explore such 'border crossings' as: · STS across geopolitical borders — such as Daiwie Fu's position paper "How Far Can East Asian STS Go?" in EASTS. Fu asks "whether a distinctive historical experience and thus probably a shared East Asian STS theoretical perspective" is "indeed different from simply applying Western STS perspectives to East Asian 'area studies.' [Then] we indeed would expect distinctive East Asian STS theories, not to mention distinctive STS stories, case studies, and histories." · STS across academic and activist/interventionist borders, exploring STS work with/in NGOs, social entrepreneurship organizations, theatre and community groups, and other 'non-academic' spaces. · STS across new intra-academic disciplinary borders such as STS and Postcolonial Studies, STS and Feminists Studies, STS and Environmental Studies, STS and Art, STS and Peace Studies, and other fields In the spirit of reflexivity, we ask participants to keep in mind such questions as: · What epistemological and institutional changes need to be made in our current practices to facilitate exchanges across borders? · What is at stake in the move to further diversify STS across borders? · What does it mean to "enroll" previously absent "actors" into STS? · How do we recognize the importance of constructing and maintaining borders in relation to power? And how does an STS with a tendency to deterritorialize grapple with these historical 'border politics'? · How do we avoid the pitfalls of essentializing identities? · How do we theorize the tensions between STS as universal and STS as multiplicities? Acknowledging that the usual conference settings contribute to the power differentials of STS across borders, we invite participants to partake in the integration of innovative modes of exchange including: sessions in the virtual world of Second Life, submission of pre- recorded video presentations, and other alternate modes mixed with traditional conference modes of presentation. While we recognize that these approaches do not solve the multiple asymmetries that exist, we hope that they serve as a beginning for extending the possibilities of STS across borders.

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