- Air-L - lists.aoir.org

Re: [Air-L] Conspiracy Culture
by Bertha Chin 12 Sep '08

12 Sep '08

There's also "Conspiracy Culture: From Kennedy to The X-Files" by Peter Knight. Bertha > Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2008 19:54:17 -0600 > From: CJ Pascoe <c.j.pascoe(a)coloradocollege.edu> > Subject: [Air-L] Conspiracy Groups > To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org > Message-ID: <60C91EB2-1C01-48DB-89B4-6AE56A57B3DF(a)coloradocollege.edu> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes > > I'm hoping that the combined wisdom of this list can point me in the > correct direction. One of my undergraduate students is writing her > senior thesis on American 9/11 conspiracy theory groups. I can help > her with a general sociological framing of these groups, but I'm not > sure where to direct her in terms of literature on new media and > conspiracy groups (apart from a good This American Life episode from > National Public Radio). Do any of you have suggestions for specific > articles/books on conspiracy theory groups and their use of new media? > > Thanks, > CJ > ___________________________________________ > C.J. Pascoe > Assistant Professor > Department of Sociology > Colorado College > > Phone: 719-389-6735 > Web: http://faculty1.coloradocollege.edu/~cpascoe > Dude Book: http://ucpress.edu/books/pages/10671.html > Digital Youth: http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu > > > > >

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ASIST> Schedule for 4th Annual Social Informatics Research Symposium
by H Rosenbaum 12 Sep '08

12 Sep '08

We are pleased to announce the schedule for "4th Annual SIG SI Social Informatics Research Symposium "People, information and technology: The social analysis of computing" Saturday, October 25, 2008, 8:30 AM-12:30 PM Hyatt Regency Columbus, Ohio This symposium precedes the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. Early registration ends on 9/12. We hope you will join us for a morning of outstanding papers and posters, join us for the networking lunch and and stay for the SIG-USE session to follow. The keynote address will be given by Dr. Mark Ackerman, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and School of Information University of Michigan [Note: because of the busy schedule we encourage you to arrive at the Symposium by 8:15!] 8:20: Welcome: Howard Rosenbaum and Kalpana Shankar, Indiana University - co-organizers 8:30 Eric Meyer, Oxford Internet Institute, UK The Role of e-Infrastructures in the Transformation of Research Practices and Outcomes 8:50 Theresa Dirndorfer Anderson, Creative Practices Group, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, University of Technology, Sydney, AUS Research in action: taking an articulation approach to examine the roles of information technologies and human interaction in academic practice 9:10 Frank Lambert School of Library and Information Science, Kent State University The social shaping of an online community information provider 9:30 Emilee Rader School of Information, University of Michigan Group Information Repositories as Social Systems 9:50 Ying Ding, SLIS, Indiana University Modeling Social Tagging: Upper Tag Ontology (UTO) 10:10 Break 10:20 Mike Tyworth, Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology and Steve Sawyer, IST, Syracuse University Social Informatics and the Social Analysis of Computing 10:40 Kristene Unsworth Information School, University of Washington Information use, sharing and surveillance: the role of the citizen- informer in the war on terror 11:00 Ken Fleischmann College of Information Studies, University of Maryland Social Analysis of Transparency in Virtual Worlds: Ethical Imperatives for Simulation Design 11:20 Inna Kouper, SLIS, Indiana University The composite model of critical discourse analysis: Examining mutual shaping of people, information, and technology through discourse 11:40 Steven Paling, SLIS, University of Wisconsin-Madison Toward a Theory of Technological Transformation in Artistic Genres 12:00 Keynote address: Mark Ackerman, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and School of Information University of Michigan 12:30 Networking lunch with SIG-USE Posters Kathryn Clodfelter SLIS, Indiana University Innovation, ICTs, and Inequality: The U. S. National Information Infrastructure (NII) and Community Networks Guillermo A. Oyarce, University of North Texas, Eduardo Aguado-López, Nelson Arteaga-Botello, Rosario Rogel-Salazar, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Méjico Using REDALYC and its human networks in Latin America, Spain and Portugal to understand the role of information in ICT adoption Jay Paraki, International Institute For Knowledge Management International Institute for Knowledge Management Maria Souden University of Michigan School of Information Information Work in the Chronic Illness Experience Mike Tyworth, Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology Social Shaping of Police Technology

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histories of African Internet? - call for chapter
by Gerard Goggin 12 Sep '08

12 Sep '08

Dear air-listers, Mark McLelland and I are finalizing contributors for a collection on 'Internet Histories', developed from our workshops on this topic: http://www.capstrans.edu.au/about/projects/internet-histories.html We would like to commission a chapter on the histories of the African Internet, and would welcome expressions of interest, or suggestions. Please just email Mark McLelland ( Mark McLelland <markmc(a)uow.edu.au>) or myself with details. Thanks and best wishes, Gerard Goggin \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Gerard Goggin Professor of Digital Communication & Deputy Director Journalism and Media Research Centre University of New South Wales Sydney 2052 NSW Australia http://jmrc.arts.unsw.edu.au/ e: g.goggin(a)unsw.edu.au w: +61 2 9385 8532 f: +61 2 9385 8528 m: +61 428 66 88 24

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PhD Scholarships with the Smart Services CRC - Brisbane, Australia
by Axel Bruns 12 Sep '08

12 Sep '08

G'day ! Now that the new Smart Services Cooperative Research Centre has been officially launched, we've begun to recruit for PhD students who'll be based with the Queensland University of Technology node of the CRC in Brisbane, Australia. This is an excellent opportunity to work with major Australian industry partners and key researchers in the Creative Industries and Business Faculties at QUT. If you're interested, get in touch now; if you know of anyone who may be interested, please spread the word! PhD Scholarships in Audience and Market Foresight with Smart Services CRC ========================================================================= The Smart Services CRC is a $120 million, commercially focused collaborative research initiative, developing innovation, foresight and productivity improvements for the services sector. Services are the largest sector of the economy representing approximately 80% of Australia's GDP and 85% of employment. Within the services industries Smart Services' initial programs will be customer-focused with outcomes translatable across the whole services sector. Initial research outcomes and demonstrators will principally be associated with the digital media, finance and government sectors. In order to achieve these goals, Smart Services CRC will be supporting research higher degree students at PhD and Masters level through scholarships, top-ups and in-kind support for research, travel, conferences etc. As a partner in Smart Services CRC, the Queensland University of Technology is offering scholarship packages for 2009. Research higher degree students with CRC scholarships will have access to the full range of resources offered by QUT (access to equipment and facilities, Grants-in-Aid, teaching opportunities etc.), as well as the opportunity to work with leading industry partners in the media, finance and government sectors on projects of direct real-world relevance through Smart Services CRC. The Audience and Market Foresight program is researching how audience and industry use of media is changing in the context of market and audience fragmentation, as well as underlying drivers such as user-created content, increasing use of social media, and the proliferation of mobile communications tools and devices. Led by the Creative Industries Faculty and the Faculty of Business, the Audience and Market Foresight program provides the opportunity to work collaboratively with industry partners such as Fairfax Digital and Sensis on aligning research activity with industry goals and strategies in the emergent digital media environment. The following topics are of interest to supervisors in the Audience and Market Foresight research project team: Professor Terry Flew (Creative Industries Faculty, QUT) 1. Audiences and markets for online and mobile media; 2. Digital futures for news media; 3. Mobile and digital media content production. Dr. Axel Bruns (Creative Industries Faculty, QUT) 1. Drivers and motivations for users to participate in social media Websites; 2. Future developments in online social media and social networking; 3. Business models for social media sites. Dr. Christy Collis (Creative Industries Faculty, QUT) 1. Emerging uses and users of locative mobile media; 2. Audiences and markets for online, mobile, and cross-platform media. Dr. Edwina Luck (School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations, Faculty of Business, QUT) 1. Future drivers of participation within virtual social media; 2. The role of 'electronic word-of-mouth' in product and service marketing; 3. Hyper-targeting and advertising within virtual social networks. Dr. Larry Neale (School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations, Faculty of Business, QUT) 1. Network and device convergence; 2. Future entertainment business models; 3. Delivering digital customer service. Smart Services CRC is a research and development partnership between 12 major industry players and six Australian universities, funded by the private sector and governments under the Australian Government's Cooperative Research Centre program. Its aim is the creation of research-enabled commercial outcomes for its partners. For more information on the Smart Services CRC, go to http://www.smartservicescrc.com.au/AboutUs.html. For more information on scholarships at QUT, go to http://www.rsc.qut.edu.au/studentsstaff/scholarships/. Information for prospective research students in the Faculty of Business can be found at http://www.bus.qut.edu.au/research/. Information for prospective research students in the Creative Industries Faculty can be found at http://www.creativeindustries.qut.edu.au/research/future-student/. -- Dr Axel Bruns http://snurb.info/ Senior Lecturer, Media & Communication a.bruns(a)qut.edu.au Creative Industries Faculty, Z1-515, CIP Skype: LexaSnurb Queensland University of Technology +61 7 3138 5548 Musk Ave, Kelvin Grove, Qld. 4059, Australia CRICOS No.: 00213J

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Collating and sharing blogging-related references
by David Brake 11 Sep '08

11 Sep '08

A two-part query: 1) I am re-visiting my literature review for my blogging-related PhD thesis/dissertation and I would like to make sure I have not missed anything important. I am particularly interested in qualitative approaches to blogging - especially interview-based work and in the study of personal/journal weblogs - sometimes dubbed lifelogs (as opposed to the study of weblogging for political, marketing or educational purposes). I will share what I have so far on the web and add to it whatever people send me off-list. Which brings me to the second question: 2) I would like to share what I have so far (192 references, in Endnote) and make it easy for future scholars to search and update it themselves, thus avoiding the fate of previous collections eg http://loisscheidt.com/linked/bibliographies/Weblog_and_Blog_Bibliography.p… (Last Updated November 22, 2005) http://kairosnews.org/blogbib (Last updated 30 Sept 2006) and http://www.blogresearch.com/ref.htm (last updated 2007?) I would like suggestions about how best to do this. I tried to do this using Citeulike http://www.citeulike.org/user/davidbrake/tag/weblogs but its importing from Endnote appears to leave something to be desired as you will see if you look through the entries that result. Still, if you are thinking of sending me something take a look at the Citeulike list first and see if you see it (or something like it). Something database driven with each record a taggable entry would seem ideal but as it stands now the best I can offer would be that I could export my Endnote database to date as text into a wiki page. Anyone with better ideas (or who has had more success in exporting to Citeulike)? The only solution I will not entertain is one that would require me to re-type all of my Endnote entries by hand into a series of forms in order to get them into an online database! --- David Brake, Doctoral Student in Media and Communications, London School of Economics & Political Science <http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/media@lse/study/mPhilPhDMediaAndCommunicat… > Also see http://davidbrake.org/ (home page), http://blog.org/ (personal weblog) and http://get.to/lseblog (academic groupblog) Please access the attached hyperlink for an important electronic communications disclaimer: http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/secretariat/legal/disclaimer.htm

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New AoIR website
by Alex Halavais 11 Sep '08

11 Sep '08

Fellow AoIR members (and non-members), If you've been by http://aoir.org recently, you may have noticed that we have a new website. We decided to scale down and simplify a bit, and are now running Wordpress rather than Drupal. I think you will find it both easy to navigate and easy on the eyes. You may notice there are still some small things that need tweaked, and these will be fixed soon. In some cases, these are noted or obvious, but If you see something awry, or have comments or ideas, please do not hesitate to contact help(a)aoir.org. One thing that is notably absent is a credits line, and so I will insert it here. Åsa Rosenberg, the graduate representative on the executive committee, designed and built the site pretty much single-handedly. Those among us who do design know how time consuming this can be, and I want to thank Åsa for her willingness to push forward on this long-awaited update to our site, and for making a contribution that benefits the Association and us all. Thanks, Åsa! Best, Alex Halavais -- -- // // This email is // [X] assumed public and may be blogged / forwarded. // [ ] assumed to be private, please ask before redistributing. // // Alexander C. Halavais, cyberflâneur // http://alex.halavais.net //

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another web-based research/citation manager
by jeremy hunsinger 11 Sep '08

11 Sep '08

http://www.mendeley.com/ looks fairly interesting. i've not signed up though yet....

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Conspiracy Groups
by CJ Pascoe 11 Sep '08

11 Sep '08

I'm hoping that the combined wisdom of this list can point me in the correct direction. One of my undergraduate students is writing her senior thesis on American 9/11 conspiracy theory groups. I can help her with a general sociological framing of these groups, but I'm not sure where to direct her in terms of literature on new media and conspiracy groups (apart from a good This American Life episode from National Public Radio). Do any of you have suggestions for specific articles/books on conspiracy theory groups and their use of new media? Thanks, CJ ___________________________________________ C.J. Pascoe Assistant Professor Department of Sociology Colorado College Phone: 719-389-6735 Web: http://faculty1.coloradocollege.edu/~cpascoe Dude Book: http://ucpress.edu/books/pages/10671.html Digital Youth: http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu

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World Day Against Software Patents (24 September): Call now open for signatures
by jeremy hunsinger 10 Sep '08

10 Sep '08

Begin forwarded message: > From: Fouad Bajwa <fouadbajwa(a)gmail.com> > Date: September 2, 2008 4:15:20 AM EDT > To: discuss(a)foss.mit.edu > Subject: [F/OSS-Discuss] World Day Against Software Patents (24 > September): Call now open for signatures > Reply-To: Dicusssion list for Free/Open Source Software researchers <discuss(a)FOSS.mit.edu > > > > World Day Against Software Patents (24 September): Call now open for > signatures (Benjamin Henrion) > > Please sign and spread: http://stopsoftwarepatents.org > > " > Considering the following: > > 1. The issue of software patents is a global one, and several > governments and patent offices around the world continue to grant > software & business method patents on a daily basis; they are pushing > for legal codification of the practice, such as currently in New > Zealand and India, and via the misappropriation of Free Trade > Agreement instruments; > > 2. Previous initiatives as the Noepatents.org petition (approx. > 400 000) at the EU level are outdated (notably on the issues of the > central EU patent court) and not open for signatures anymore. > > 3. Companies still view software patents as assets. They have > yet to understand that software patents should also be considered > liabilities, especially if they are in the hands of trolls. > > 4. Time is on our side as litigation gets spread wide: Markets > learn the hard way that you may not leave reform to patent > professionals. Patent litigation is becoming wide spread in key > markets such as the financial sector, and will be more wide spread in > the software sector in the forthcoming years due to the number of > applications pending; > > 5. The United States lacks a coalition of business and civil > society against software patents > > * The lobby gap makes Congress and Senate, the Court of Appeals > for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) and the Supreme Court > susceptible to lobbying from patent industries, holders and patent > professionals. American software creators have been intimidated by the > patent establishment and have failed to make themselves heard. > > * Companies affected by software patent litigation have been > lobbying for reform, but their advocacy for "quality" and "lower > damages" aims at symptoms rather than the roots of the problem. > > For these reasons, > > We declare the 24 September as the World Day Against Software > Patents, in commemoration of the European Parliament First Reading in > 2003 with amendments stopping the harmful patenting of software, > guaranteeing that software programmers and businesses can safely > benefit from the fruits of their work under copyright law. > > A Global Petition will be launched which asks to stop software > patents, with some localised versions of the petition for specific > regions, such as New Zealand, India, United States and Europe. The > public will be invited to comment on the draft between the 1st and the > 23rd September. > " > > -- > Benjamin Henrion <bhenrion at ffii.org> > FFII Brussels - +32-484-566109 - +32-2-4148403 > > -- > > Regards. > -------------------------- > Fouad Bajwa > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > Discuss(a)opensource.mit.edu > http://opensource.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/discuss

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Re: [Air-L] parasociality
by Jan Schmidt 10 Sep '08

10 Sep '08

Hi all, Rhiannon, thanks for the link (and the slang.. ;-)). Actually, I'm wondering if there is any work on parasociality in the context of Web 2.0/Social Web/[insert your chiffre here]. I think about this every now and then, for example when I noticed that the contestants of the recent "Big Brother" TV Show in Germany had their own profiles on the video platform sevenload.de. Other users could friend the people who were contained, monitored and broadcast in the Big Brother house, but who were naturally not allowed to react or interact with their fans. Instead, viewers used the profiles to fight about who was the meanest candidate, who was to be voted out, etc. The difference of "friends" and "fans" enscripted into Facebook code seems to be pointing into a similar direction, but I'm far from having it sorted it out. One very interesting analysis (though not particularly framed in terms of parasociality) I have noticed is the paper by David Beer (2008): Making friends with Jarvis Cocker: Music Culture in the Context of Web 2.0. In: Cultural Sociology, Vol. 2, Nr. 2, S. 222-241. Are there other works that use the idea of parasociality to frame some of the current trends in relating to 'media personalities'? Best, Jan > > Hi folks > > > > If you haven't seen this article from the NYTimes on the new "digital intimacy", check it out. Our own AoIR celeb, Danah Boyd, is quoted. :) > > > > My favourite quote comes from Laura Fitton though: > > ?I outsource my entire life,? she said. ?I can solve any problem on Twitter in six minutes.? Yikes! :0 > > > > Rhiannon -- Dr. Jan Schmidt Wissenschaftlicher Referent für digitale interaktive Medien und politische Kommunikation Hans-Bredow-Institut für Medienforschung Warburgstr. 8-10 D - 20354 Hamburg Phone: +49 40 450217 83 Fax: +49 40 450217 99 Mail: j.schmidt(a)hans-bredow-institut.de Web: http://www.hans-bredow-institut.de Blog: http://www.schmidtmitdete.de

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