- Air-L - lists.aoir.org

Re: [Air-L] With Friends Like Facebook ....
by Vidar Falkenberg 18 Jan '08

18 Jan '08

Den 18.01.2008 kl. 00:43:53 skrev <air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org>: > There is also the utility - at least on rare occasion - of people > discovering and forestalling Bad Things - e.g., a school shooting - by > poking around on FB and MS profiles ... Hi Charles, I enjoy (and feel slightly uncomfortable with) the current air-list discusssion on Facebook. I don't know if this was the example you referred to, but last week a possible school tragedy in Norway was announced on YouTube: http://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/2008/01/14/523729.html Of course, we can't know if it would have happened, but as they say in the article - they didn't believe that at that small school in Finland either: http://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/2007/11/07/517492.html I hope you are OK and don't miss 'rugbrød' too much. /Vidar

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nice list of datasets
by Jeremy Hunsinger 17 Jan '08

17 Jan '08

http://www.datawrangling.com/some-datasets-available-on-the-web.html jeremy hunsinger Information Ethics Fellow, Center for Information Policy Research, School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (www.cipr.uwm.edu ) wiki.tmttlt.com www.tmttlt.com () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail /\ - against microsoft attachments http://www.stswiki.org/ sts wiki http://cfp.learning-inquiry.info/ Learning Inquiry-the journal http://transdisciplinarystudies.tmttlt.com/ Transdisciplinary Studies:the book series

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Re: [Air-L] What is web culture?
by Jose Abdelnour-Nocera 17 Jan '08

17 Jan '08

Hofstede's work has often been misused as a way to understand culture in the context of CMC and online behaviour. His national culture dimensions are too broad and high level to understand the complexity of 'web culture'. There are many different levels at which cultural reproduction, transformation and construction occur on the web, especially in on-line communities. These are some of many papers about online communities and CMC that show how Hofstede's dimensions fail to explain accurately on line / cmc behaviour based on the nationality of users. In all of them, authors tend to provide only conjectures about why certain behaviour did not correspond to that 'prescribed' by a particular national culture dimension. CALHOUN, K. J., TENG, J. T. C. & CHEON, M. J. (2002) Impact of national culture on information technology usage behaviour: an exploratory study of decision making in Korea and the USA. Behaviour & Information Technology, 21, 293 - 302. EL-SHINAWY, M. & VINZE, A. S. (1997) Technology, culture and persuasiveness: a study of choice-shifts in group settings. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 473-496. In my earlier life I did an attempt to make sense of cultural construction in IRC communities from a qualitative social psychology perspective Here it is http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2002.tb001 46.x I am aware this only addresses one aspect of web culture...but I thought it might help. Cheers, José Dr. José Abdelnour Nocera Senior Lecturer Institute for Information Technology Thames Valley University Room TC371 St Mary's Road, Ealing - London W5 5RF Tel [work] +44(0)2082800251 / [home] +44(0)1908648376 Fax +44 (0)7006015408 http://itcentre.tvu.ac.uk/~jabdelno/ -----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces(a)listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Callahan, Ewa S. Prof. Sent: 17 January 2008 00:49 To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-L] What is web culture? Hi all, Culture is a concept, so we can describe it the same way we describe cultures in general (in terms of values and artifacts) although it is rather like describing human (or world) culture. The Web in itself presents a variety of different spaces, each of them with its own set of characteristics. Is bloggers culture the same as Facebook culture? There is probably some overlap, but number of people will embrace one, but not the other. As someone pointed out, Web is an artifact, although we can still talk about the culture of Internet users, who are similar to other cultural groups that are identified on the bases of the activities they do (a specific music culture, soccer culture etc) rather than national/ethnic upbringing. Additionally, if we consider web an artifact, than we have to keep in mind that its content is created by people of different cultural (national/ethnic) backgrounds that will be reflected in the web content and interaction. Someone mentioned once to me that the Web user culture can be described in the terms of Hofstede's cultural dimensions (low power, high individualism, masculine, etc.) but I have never found an actual citation to that research. If anybody seen a study discussing web culture from this perspective, please let me know. Best, Ewa Callahan Assistant Professor of Communications Quinnipiac university -----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces(a)listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Hall, Richard H. Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 1:14 PM To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org Subject: [Air-L] What is web culture? 1) How would you define web culture? 2) How is it unique, in comparison to other cultures? 3) What are some good/classic resources on the web describing and defining web culture? ... Thanks ... Richard -- Richard H. Hall Professor and Program Director, Information Science and Technology Missouri S&T http://mst.edu/~rhall _______________________________________________ The Air-L(a)listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/ _______________________________________________ The Air-L(a)listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/

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Call for papers: Special issue of JCMC
by David M Silver 17 Jan '08

17 Jan '08

Call for papers: Special issue of JCMC for more info: http://faculty.washington.edu/thurlow/jcmc.html JOURNAL OF COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION SPECIAL ISSUE ON Young People, Mediated Discourse and Communication Technologies CALL FOR PAPERS Guest Editor: Crispin Thurlow University of Washington IMPORTANT DATES Abstracts due: July 1, 2008 Full papers due: November 1, 2008 Publication: April 2009 ISSUE FOCUS After cybersex and e-commerce, perhaps the most widely discussed CMC-related issue is so called 'cyberkids' and the 'net generation'. Almost on a daily basis there are stories in the media addressing adult concerns about young people's involvement with new communication technologies like instant messaging, text messaging and social networking sites. These popular representations are often speculative, anecdotal and exaggerated. Young people are typically caught in a no-win situation: on the one hand, they are depicted as being somehow naturally predisposed and automatically 'wired' to new technologies; on the other hand, they are viewed as being enslaved to technology, as either arch-consumers or tragic victims. CMC and new media scholars know well that generalizations about technologically-mediated communicative practices are inherently problematic, conflating as they do important differences in the affordances and constraints of different technologies. By the same token, the homogenizing rhetoric of 'net generation' and 'cyberkids' conceals the diversity of young people's lives and their experiences with communication technology. Most popular discourse also overlooks those disadvantaged young people who cannot simply take the internet and more recent technologies for granted. This special issue of JCMC seeks to answer a simple question: what are young people really doing with new communication technology? Papers are sought which examine children and teenager's mediated discourse - in other words, their actual language and communication practices. Papers should therefore be empirically grounded, situated and contextual (e.g. user- and use-specific). By no means exhaustive, papers might address the following types of research questions: * how are young people reworking standard linguistic forms and practices? * how do young people themselves talk about new technology and/or its role in their lives? * how are new technologies seen to be supporting young people’s interpersonal needs? * how are young people using technologies for artistic, political and other creative purposes? * how are new communication technologies connecting different groups of young people? Papers reporting findings from diverse and under-represented social backgrounds are especially welcome. GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSION Potential authors should submit a preliminary proposal of 500 to 750 words by June 1, 2008 to the guest editor Crispin Thurlow (thurlow @ u.washington.edu - please put "JCMC Special Issue" in the subject line). Proposals should include the central research question, the theoretical and/or empirical basis for the paper and preliminary findings, interpretations or insights. Those interested in submitting a proposal are also encouraged to contact the guest editor with their questions and ideas. Authors whose proposals are accepted will be invited (by August 1, 2008) to submit for review a full paper of roughly 7,000-10,000 words by September 1, 2008. The JCMC is an interdisciplinary journal and so authors should plan for papers that will be accessible to non-specialists and try to make their paper relevant to this audience. Anticipated publication date for the issue is April 2009. Final submissions should be emailed to the guest editor, Crispin Thurlow at thurlow @ u.washington.edu. Again, please put "JCMC Special Issue" in the subject line. The usual JCMC manuscript guidelines should be followed. NOTE ABOUT "YOUNG PEOPLE" There is no shortage of scholarly research on college-age people - a convenient and often captive audience! As a consequence, it sometimes feels as if we know more about this period of the lifespan than we do about any others (Thurlow, 2005). In an attempt to redress this imbalance and to give voice to a major new-media constituency, this special issue will give priority to papers which make the experiences of children and teenagers a central focus - in other words, young people under the age of twenty (to use an otherwise arbitary cut-off point). Papers which focus on young, colleage-age adults are encouraged to situate their data/analysis with reference to the broader lifespan. david silver http://silverinsf.blogspot.com

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What is web culture?
by Hall, Richard H. 17 Jan '08

17 Jan '08

1) How would you define web culture? 2) How is it unique, in comparison to other cultures? 3) What are some good/classic resources on the web describing and defining web culture? ... Thanks ... Richard -- Richard H. Hall Professor and Program Director, Information Science and Technology Missouri S&T http://mst.edu/~rhall

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CFP (deadline extension): Workshop on Social Aspects of the Web (SAW 2008)
by Dominik Flejter 17 Jan '08

17 Jan '08

=========================================================================== CALL FOR PAPERS =========================================================================== 2nd Workshop on Social Aspects of the Web (SAW 2008) in conjunction with 11th International Conference on Business Information Systems (BIS 2008) Innsbruck, Austria May 5, 6 or 7, 2008 http://bis.kie.ae.poznan.pl/11th_bis/wscfp.php?ws=saw2008 =========================================================================== Deadline for submissions: February 3, 2008 =========================================================================== In recent years, the Web has moved from a simple one-way communication channel extending traditional media, to a complex "peer-to-peer" communication space with a blurred author/audience distinction and new ways to create, share and use knowledge in a social way. This change of paradigm is currently profoundly transforming most areas of our life: our interactions with other people, our relationships, ways of gathering information, ways of developing social norms, opinions, attitudes and even legal aspects as well as ways of working and doing business. It also raises a strong need for theoretical, empirical and applied studies related to how people may interact on the Web, how they actually do so and what new possibilities and challenges are emerging in the social, business and technology dimensions. The goal of this workshop is to bring researchers and practitioners together to explore the issues and challenges related to social aspects of the Web. We want to facilitate discussion on topics including theoretical, empirical and applied studies related to: TOPICS OF INTEREST * Users in the social Web * User identity/identities on the Web * Activity patterns * Privacy / intimacy in the social Web * Psychological aspects of acting in the social Web * Analysis and reduction of the socio-technical gap in social software * Communities on the Web * User roles, leadership and interactions * Conflicts and their resolution * Social norms and their enforcement * Trust and reputation in communities * Relations of on-line and off-line communities * Social discourse and decision-taking on the Web * Large-scale social Web mining and empirical studies * Social network analysis * Associations mining from social network * Large-scale behaviour patterns and anomalies' mining * Moods' / opinions' / social problems' analysis * Experts finding on the social Web * Mining formal semantics from social sources * Methodologies of Web-based social macro and micro studies * Social Web and business * Social Web as a source of business information * Social Web as a business communication channel * Business models for social software and services * Specific types of social software on the Web (bookmarking, social networks etc.) * Use cases and best practices * Applications of Web-based social software * Social software architectures * Social software on the Semantic Web * Strategies for bootstrapping social software systems and bypassing the critical mass problem * Social software in information processing and retrieval * Social software in collaborative maintenance of content and data SUBMISSION * Long papers: max. 5000 words * Work-in-progress rep.: max. 2500 words * Position papers: max. 2500 words * Demo papers: max. 2500 words Papers must be submitted in PDF format according to Springer LNBIP template available from http://www.springer.com/east/home/computer/lncs?SGWID=5-164-7-487211-0. Submission system is available on-line at http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=SAW2008. The proceedings will be published jointly with proceedings of other BIS workshops as a book or CD with ISBN number, and on-line at CEUR WS.org workshop proceedings publication service (open content). Extended version of selected papers submitted to the workshop will be published as special issue of International Journal on WWW/Internet (http://www.iadis.org/ijwi/, ISSN: 1645-7641). WORKSHOP FORMAT All authors of accepted papers as well as other participants will be asked to read accepted papers abstracts before the workshop (papers will be available on-line in advance) to facilitate discussion. The workshop will consist in two parts: first (more formal) devoted to presentation and discussion of accepted papers and second (less formal) devoted to discussion of several issues related to present and future of the social Web. Workshop participants will be also invited to take part in the BIS conference and other BIS workshops (including workshops on Advances in Accessing the Deep Web (ADW 2008) and on E-Learning for Business Needs). IMPORTANT DATES * February 3, 2008 - submission deadline for papers (extended) * March 19, 2008 - notification of acceptance/rejection (new date) * April 6, 2008 - submission of final papers (new date) * May 5, 6 or 7, 2008 - the workshop ORGANIZERS * Poznan University of Economics, Department of Information Systems (http://kie.ae.poznan.pl/) CHAIRS * Dominik Flejter * Tomasz Kaczmarek * Marek Kowalkiewicz PROGRAM COMMITTEE * Krisztian Balog, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands * Simone Braun, FZI Karlsruhe, Germany * John Breslin, DERI, NUI Galway, Ireland * Tanguy Coenen, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium * Jon Dron, Athabasca University, Canada * Davide Eynard, Politecnico di Milano, Italy * Andrew T. Fiore, University of California, Berkeley, the USA * Dominik Flejter, Poznan University of Economics, Poland * Tomasz Kaczmarek, Poznan University of Economics, Poland * Marek Kowalkiewicz, SAP Research Brisbane, Australia * Sebastian Kruk, DERI, NUI Galway, Ireland * Marcin Paprzycki, Polish Academy of Science, Poland * Katharina Siorpaes, STI, University of Innsbruck, Austria * Marcin Sydow, Polish-Japanese Institute of Information Technology, Poland * Jie Tang, Tshingua University, China * Celine van Damme, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium * Valentin Zacharias, FZI Karlsruhe, Germany ===========================================================================

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Digital Culture and Communication CFP
by Kathleen O'Riordan 17 Jan '08

17 Jan '08

DIGITAL CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION (DCC) SECTION - CALL FOR PANELS AND PAPERS European Communication Research and Education Association - ECREA 2nd ECREA CONFERENCE, Barcelona, 25-28 November 2008 Hosted by Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) http:// www.ecrea2008barcelona.org PROPOSAL SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 15th February 2008 The 'Digital Culture and Communication' section invites everyone who works on these issues, within the broad theme of ECREA's 2nd international conference, 'Communication policies and culture in Europe' to submit proposals. The section 'Digital Culture and Communication' aims to further exchange and develop research at the European level in the field of digital media and informational culture as this is broadly defined. We welcome work that crosses disciplines and that operates at the boundaries of what might generally be allowed to constitute media/ communication systems. The section actively seeks both empirical and theoretical/critical work. Digital media technologies allow us to rethink existing media and communication theories and approaches (as well as research methods). They also force us to redefine traditional boundaries and to explore new forms of interaction. We therefore encourage work based on interdisciplinary approaches that address the broad theme of the conference call, and the section's interests. We welcome proposals which reflect both theoretical and methodological challenges in digital culture and communication research as well as those exploring new boundaries within the field. For further information about the section please visit our (relative stable) blog at: www.digitalcultureandcommunication.blogspot.com/ or email Maren Hartmann: hartmann(a)udk-berlin.de and/or Caroline Bassett: C.Bassett(a)sussex.ac.uk, Kate ORiordan: K.ORiordan(a)sussex.ac.uk This invitation is for proposals of pre-organized panels, posters, and individual papers from established academics, young scholars, practitioners and postgraduate research students. Individual paper proposals, individual poster proposals and panel proposals can be submitted at the official conference website: www.ecrea2008barcelona.org PAPER PROPOSALS: http://www.ecrea2008barcelona.org/eng/callfor_pa.asp POSTER PROPOSALS: http://www.ecrea2008barcelona.org/eng/callfor_po.asp PANEL PROPOSALS: http://www.ecrea2008barcelona.org/eng/callfor_pn.asp Notifications of acceptance will be sent out in mid-April 2008, Paper-presenters and panellists will be asked to confirm their intention to attend by registering before October 24, 2008. Please note that, as a policy, ECREA Candidates can submit "one proposal as first author, and more as co-author (second, ...), chair or respondent of a panel - but a participant will be allowed only one paper presentation. The length of the individual abstracts is preferably 400 and maximum 500 words. A panel proposal combines a panel abstract with the individual abstracts, of each 400-500 words. Participants will indicate their preference for a specific section (where they want to present their paper / poster / panel)". __________ Dr Kate O'Riordan Department of Media and Film EDB University of Sussex Falmer Brighton UK BN1 9RG Tel: 00 44 (0) 1273 876730 http://www.sussex.ac.uk/mediastudies/profile30746.html

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anthropology is not a science?
by Andrew Calabrese 16 Jan '08

16 Jan '08

Apologies for the two previous blank messages. For some reason, when I converted text from HTML to plain, it disappeared after I hit "send." At least that's how it appeared on my screen after sending (and seeing the blank postings). Anyway, here's what I sent: ************** It seems like this topic has been made relevant to this list, or least I'm enjoying reading about it. Although I'm not an anthropologist, it's clear that a growing number of anthropologists are contributing to the body of research knowledge about the Internet. Moreover, scholars from a variety of fields (anthropology, sociology, psychology, communication) have been pushing the boundaries of ethnographic methods by studying Internet use. I'm guessing that anthropologists and ethnographers from other fields would have a lot of interest in this topic, given its implications for research about such things as the impact of the Internet on immigration patterns, the Internet's role in the maintenance of disaporic communities, how religious and ethnic identities are sustained through the uses of the Internet, and much more. As for the disagreement at hand, about whether anthropology is a "science," I'm skeptical that there is a compelling argument for why it is not, but it's an interesting topic for respectful disagreement in any case. The assertion that anthropology is "not a science" (whatever that means) probably doesn't sit well with many anthropologists who study Internet use, or with other Internet researchers who employ methods that originated in anthropology, as well as with others on the list who'd simply like to be enlightened as to what the standards are that are used to judge whether their research is scientific. Many philosophers of science characterize scientific theories as highly formalized arguments, and the purpose of scientific inquiry as efforts not to prove that such arguments are right, but rather to systematically demonstrate weaknesses and limitations in claims to the contrary. Based on that presumption of the purpose of science, I think it would be easy enough to show that such contributions are made by anthropologists all the time. As to the fact that the objects and conditions of analysis that anthropologists choose to study are often not replicable and may not lend themselves easily to the statistical measurement of regularities and explained variance, this does not disqualify anthropology as "science," unless we are prepared to say the same about the work of many astronomers, geologists and other natural scientists. Andrew Calabrese School of Journalism and Mass Communication University of Colorado http://spot.colorado.edu/~calabres/ -----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces(a)listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Barry Saunders Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2008 7:10 AM To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-L] Religious Dimension of Sustainable Development indeed. i'm not quite sure how the original post relates to this list, for that matter. /nipped -- Barry Saunders ---- http://investigativeblog.net http://gatewatching.org http://youdecide2007.org ---- PhD Candidate // researcher http://creativeindustries.qut.edu.au http://eprints.qut.edu.au/view/person/Saunders,_Barry.html ph: 07 3138 0155 skype: barry_saunders CRICOS No. 00213J ________________________________________ From: air-l-bounces(a)listserv.aoir.org [air-l-bounces(a)listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Alexis Turner [subbies(a)redheadedstepchild.org] Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2008 12:05 AM To: AIR-L Subject: Re: [Air-L] Religious Dimension of Sustainable Development While no doubt a fascinating topic of conversation, I am not able to see that this directly relates to Internet research and would like to politely suggest we nip this conversation in the bud immediately. There are more appropriate forums. -Alexis

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Re: [Air-L] What is web culture?
by Julian Hopkins 16 Jan '08

16 Jan '08

Actually, I don't think there really is such a thing as 'web culture'; anything done online is intricately connected to the actor's offline cultural context, and therefore to postulate a separate 'internet culture' is mistaken, IMO. However, viewing online behaviour as subcultural has its merits, and there are perhaps clusters of behavioural patterns that make sense to analytically separate. I'm still thinking through this issue a lot, so I don't have any firm ideas I'm afraid, but I can suggest a couple of resources. Castells, Manuel. The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. * Chapter 2 is called "The Culture of the Internet", and he does a good job tracing various practices, and says the following: - Definition of culture: "a set of values and beliefs informing behavior... collective construction that transcends individual preferences" (36-7) - "Internet culture... four-layer structure: the techno-meritocratic culture, the hacker culture, the virtual communitarian culture, and the entrepreneurial culture" (37) Postill, John. "Localising the Internet: Beyond Communities and Networks." Sheffield: Sheffield Hallam University, UK, 2007. 20/9/2007 <http://jpostill.nomadit.co.uk/articles/postill_localising_net.pdf>. * He argues for the use of the concept of field to understand internet specific behaviour, which is useful I find. The Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication (http://jcmc.indiana.edu/) is also a good place to go to, if you haven't already. Hope that's some help. Julian ++++++++++ Blog: www.julianhopkins.net Skype: julhop IM: jfprhopkins(a)hotmail.com ------------------------------ Message: 5 Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2008 12:13:43 -0600 From: "Hall, Richard H." <rhall(a)mst.edu> Subject: [Air-L] What is web culture? To: <air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org> Message-ID: <C3B253F7.18810%rhall(a)mst.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" 1) How would you define web culture? 2) How is it unique, in comparison to other cultures? 3) What are some good/classic resources on the web describing and defining web culture? ... Thanks ... Richard -- Richard H. Hall Professor and Program Director, Information Science and Technology Missouri S&T http://mst.edu/~rhall

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Facebook for Library Outreach : Don't Be Left In The Dust ...
by Gerry Mckiernan 16 Jan '08

16 Jan '08

***APOLOGIES FOR RECEIPT OF DUPLICATE POSTINGS*** Colleagues/ I have discovered A Most Interesting Post That Has Sent Thrills Up My Spine [:-) [University of Michigan Survey] / Posted December 15, 2007 / userslib.com QUESTION: If you could contact a librarian via Facebook or MySpace for help with your research, would you? If not, why? Data/Analysis A total of 23% of respondents stated that *yes* or *maybe* they would be interested in contacting a librarian via these two social networking sites. Undergrads had a slightly higher than average percentage of 34%. Nearly half of the total respondents stated they would not be interested, but for various reasons - the biggest reason being that they feel the current methods (in-person, email, IM) are more than sufficient. 14% said no because they felt it was inappropriate or that Facebook/MySpace is a social tool, not a research tool. Links / Graphics / And More at [ http://onlinesocialnetworks.blogspot.com/2008/01/data-students-facebook-lib… ] Thanks to Suzanne Chapman, interface and user testing specialist for the University of Michigan Library*s Digital Library Production Service, and Team !!! /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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