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consent for asynchronous qualitative email interviews with international participants
by C Cook or A McDonald 14 Apr '07

14 Apr '07

I am a PhD candidate and I am preparing for my ethics application to conduct interviews by email in the area of women's sexual health (ie 'sensitive' topic). From the literature there seem to be a variety of acceptable options with regard to consent, from tacit agreement inherent in the decision to participate through to a variety of procedures to obtain some form of consent documentation. As I am interviewing an international rather than local group of participants, obtaining a hard copy by post or fax is problematic in terms of reimbursement of participants and in terms of dissuading people from this extra step in participation. I would be very appreciative if anyone could update me on practices that are currently deemed acceptable. The main text I am working from in terms of ethics is Mann & Stewart 2000 'Internet communication and qualitative research: A handbook for researching online.' Kind regards, Catherine Cook

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Update on Communities and Technologies 2007 Invited Speakers
by Charles Steinfield 14 Apr '07

14 Apr '07

Dear Colleagues, The C&T 2007 Web Site (http://ebusiness.tc.msu.edu/cct2007) now features updated information on the invited speakers. On each of the three conference days from June 28-June 30, a keynote talk will highlight facets of the community and technology relationship of interest to both researchers and practitioners, including research tools, managing online communities, and theoretical issues related to community technology design. Speakers, titles, abstracts and short speaker biographical statements are provided below for your convenience. Early registration, featuring a $50 discount on fees, is open now. Further details and an online registration system are available on the site. For additional information, please contact conference organizers at cct2007(a)msu.edu. With best regards, Charles Steinfield, Brian Pentland, Mark Ackerman, and Noshir Contract C&T 2007 Conference Organizers http://ebusiness.tc.msu.edu/cct2007/ Communities and Technologies 2007 Invited Speakers Thursday, June 28, 5:30-6:30pm Invited Workshop/Keynote Marc Smith Microsoft Research, Community Technologies Group Illustrating Digital Traces: Visualizations of patterns generated by computer-mediated collective action systems Abstract: An explosion of collectively authored content is absorbing a growing slice of people's daily lives, from email, email lists and text messages to blogs, wikis, photos feeds, and tag collections. These systems leave behind rich archives containing patterns of interaction. In raw form, terabytes of messages or other units of interaction are nearly incomprehensible. Using data mining and visualization tools a range of insights and agendas for research are possible. In this workshop I will introduce a range of tools both from the Microsoft Research Community Technologies Group and related work that bring patterns and structured inherent in masses of artifacts of computationally mediated interactions. Students will receive a DVD with a sample dataset and a visualization browser (along with related materials). About Marc Smith: Marc Smith is a Senior Research Sociologist leading the Community Technologies Group at Microsoft Research in Redmond, WA. Marc's group focuses on computer-mediated collective action. He studies and designs enhancements for social cyberspaces. In particular he is interested in the emergence of social organizations like communities in online conversation and annotation environments. His goal is to identify the resources groups need in order to cooperate productively. He is co-editor of Communities in Cyberspace, with Peter Kollock, which explores identity, social order and control, community structures, dynamics, and collective action in cyberspace.He also developed software called Netscan that measures and maps social spaces in the Internet, starting with the Usenet. A related project called Project AURA allows users to associate conversations (and more) with physical objects using mobile wireless devices and web services. Marc was a graduate student in the UCLA Department of Sociology. More information is available at Marc's Microsoft Research Page. Friday, June 30, 9:20 - 10:20am Keynote Talk Rob Malda and Jeff Bates Slashdot The Life, Times and Tribulations of Slashdot Abstract: Join Rob Malda and Jeff Bates as they discuss the incubation of Slashdot and the emergence of user-driven content long before this whole Web 2.0 thing. Slashdot in the last ten years has seen the rise and fall of the .com Bubble, and the re-emergence of the Internet as well as being the forerunner of the social networking/ user generated content websites so popular today. Rob and Jeff will be talking about the history of Slashdot, its unique editorial and user systems and talking with the audience about the site is headed now.About Rob Malda, Jeff Bates and Slashdot (from http:// slashdot.org/about.shtml) "In the beginning there was no Slashdot. Bored and confused geeks would scribble 'First Post' in the sand. Grits were strictly for consumption and there wasn't a place to get nerd oriented news. Then in September of 97 Rob 'CmdrTaco' Malda changed all that. With the help of Jeff 'Hemos' Bates and others, Slashdot has stumbled forward with the simple mission to provide 'News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters'.""Today Slashdot is owned by OSTG, but it is still run by many of the same people as it was 'Back in the Day'. Today we serve millions of pages to hundreds of thousands of readers. But the goal is still the same." Wikipedia's entry about Slashdot notes that "Slashdot ... is a technology-related news website which features user-submitted and editor-evaluated current affairs news with a "nerdy" slant. It is known for the Internet forum-style comments section attached to each story; Slashdot was one of the first popular websites to include a commentary section in such a prominent manner." It further states that "Though the site antedates the modern concept of the weblog, Slashdot's architecture is commonly compared to that of modern blogs. Slashdot is notable in that its commenting system is much more robust than most blogs, with threading and user moderation having been introduced before these were commonplace in modern weblog packages." Saturday, June 30, 10:20 - 11:20am Keynote Talk Judith Donath MIT Media Lab, Social Media Group Agents and Faces: The Reliability of Online Signals Abstract: Much of what we want to know about other people is not directly observable: are you a nice person? do you really like the cake I baked? will you return this loan? Instead, we rely on signals, which are observable,though not always reliable, indicators of these qualities of interest. Signaling theory is an approach for analysiing the reliability of such cues. Understanding signals is particularly important when designing for online communication, for here almost everything is a signal; I cannot, for example directly observe your height but must instead rely on the signal of a photograph or self description. In this talk I will introduce signaling theory, then show how it can be used in both the analysis of existing communication technologies and the design of new ones. The focus will be on signals of social idenitity - what type of person are you and - of growing concern online - are you, in fact, a person? About Judith Donath: Judith Donath is an Associate Professor at the MIT Media Lab, where she directs the Sociable Media research group. Her work focuses on the social side of computing, synthesizing knowledge from fields such as graphic design, urban studies and cognitive science to build innovative interfaces for online communities and virtual identities. She is known internationally for pioneering research in social visualization, interface design, and computer mediated interaction. She created several of the early social applications for the web, including the first postcard service ("The Electric Postcard"), the first interactive juried art show ("Portraits in Cyberspace") and an early large-scale web event ("A Day in the Life of Cyberspace"). Her work has been exhibited at the Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston and in several New York galleries; she was the director of "Id/Entity", a collaborative exhibit of installations examining how science and technology are transforming portraiture. Her current research focuses on creating expressive visualizations of social interactions and on building experimental environments that mix real and virtual experiences. She has a book in progress about how we signal identity in both mediated and immediate situations. Professor Donath received her doctoral and master's degrees in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT, her bachelor's degree in History from Yale University, and has worked professionally as a designer and builder of educational software and experimental media.

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Position Announcement: Program Officer, Necessary Knowledge for a Democratic Public Sphere, SSRC
by Rik Panganiban 13 Apr '07

13 Apr '07

Program Officer Position Necessary Knowledge for a Democratic Public Sphere Program Social Science Research Council April 2007 The SSRC seeks a program officer to support the 'Necessary Knowledge for a Democratic Public Sphere' program and related work in the Public Spheres program area. The Necessary Knowledge program fosters collaboration between academic and advocacy communities on media and communications issues, ranging from media policy to media reform and media justice. It operates both domestically and internationally. The program officer will have responsibility for several aspects of the program, including administration of our two-tiered grants competition for research-advocacy collaboration. This work is supplemented by efforts to facilitate and coordinate collaboration in the field, ranging from managing working groups, to organizing conferences, to information brokering via online tools. The latter responsibilities vary widely, and are developed in dialogue with research and advocacy partners. Public representation and evaluation of the program is an important part of the program officer role. This program needs to speak in distinctive ways to academic, NGO and funder constituencies. Experience across these lines is highly desirable. Program officers also play an important part in project development at the SSRC, with responsibilities for project design, outreach, and fundraising. The ideal candidate will have substantive grounding in an area of domestic (US) media or communications policy, while also being a strong generalist in the field who can quickly learn new issues. Organizational and writing skills are crucial. Web skills, NGO experience, and international expertise are a plus. A complete or near-complete PhD in a relevant field or comparable research experience outside the academy is a requirement. This is not primarily a research position, although SSRC program staff are active researchers in their respective fields. It is a position of intellectual entrepreneurship, and offers a unique perspective on and capacity to effect change within the field. The new program officer will work with the program director and program assistant for the Necessary Knowledge program, as well as with partners engaged in other aspects of the work, such as activist outreach and grant monitoring. Program information can be found here: http://programs.ssrc.org/media . Interested applicants should send a letter describing their background and reasons for interest in this position, recent curriculum vitae, relevant writing samples and the names of at least three professional colleagues who can serve as references. Salary is negotiable and will be commensurate with relevant experience and qualifications. Applications may be submitted by e-mail to applications(a)ssrc.org . Please put 'Public Spheres position' in the subject line.

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Call for abstract - Transforming Audiences: Last call
by Jeremy Depauw 13 Apr '07

13 Apr '07

Sorry for crossposting: -- INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE: Call for papers -- ** ONE WEEK LEFT FOR SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACTS ** TRANSFORMING AUDIENCES Identity | Creativity | Everyday Life 6–7 September 2007, University of Westminster http://www.transformingaudiences.org.uk in association with the Audience and Reception Studies section of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA), and the Popular Communication Division of the International Communication Association (ICA). 'Audience' is now widely recognised as a concept in crisis. The traditional notion of families gathered around the television set has crumbled, to be replaced by much more complex models of dispersed and fragmented audiences, 'users', or 'participants', who may take the role of producer as well as audience, and who use traditional and new technologies in a mix of communication, consumption and creativity. At the same time, audiences survive. Today's diverse range of media forms continue to have audiences, and media theorists continue to produce important work about the connections between media and identities, everyday life, and responses to current and global affairs. Plenary speakers will include Sonia Livingstone and Joke Hermes. Confirmed speakers include Martin Barker, Göran Bolin, John Corner, Knut Lundby, Peter Lunt, and Maire Messenger Davies. Conference organisers: Caroline Dover, David Gauntlett, Annette Hill, and Roza Tsagarousianou (CAMRI, University of Westminster), with Geoffroy Patriarche, Chair, ECREA Audience and Reception Studies section, and Lynn Schofield Clark, Chair, ICA Popular Communication Division. CALL FOR PAPERS See full details at www.transformingaudiences.org.uk Deadline for proposals: 20 April 2007 -- Jeremy Depauw The Power of Knoweldge Sharing and Skills Synegism Journal de recherche: http://dev.ulb.ac.be/~jdepauw/dotclear/index.php

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17 July 2007: WIKI RESEARCH WORKSHOP
by Jeremy Hunsinger 13 Apr '07

13 Apr '07

17 July 2007: WIKI RESEARCH WORKSHOP CSCL2007 RUTGERS STATE UNIVERSITY, NEW JERSEY. WORKSHOP TITLE: EMERGING ISSUES IN WIKI RESEARCH: KNOWLEDGE ADVANCEMENT AND DESIGN Aims & Objectives: Wiki technology is increasingly explored as a means of supporting collaborative learning activities. The flexibility of wikis' open architecture, the social and democratic aspects of authoring shared spaces and texts, and the potential to expand functionalities through the design of metadata holds enormous appeal for schools, universities, museums, workplaces and virtual communities. The aim of this workshop is to identify emerging issues and perspectives in CSCL research that are central to the development and design of wiki technology as a platform for knowledge advancement. Topics Include: The workshop will draw on CSCL research to explore two interrelated themes: design and knowledge advancement. The knowledge advancement theme explores the educational use of wikis inside different kinds of institutions and knowledge domains. How do the open architecture and shared authorship features of wiki software challenge the structure of classroom cultures and established concepts of accountability in collaborative knowledge building? The design theme explores the balance and design of affordances and features such as prompts and reminders to support cognitive development and social interaction in wikis. Designs that afford spaces for teachers and other types of experts will also be in focus. Activities: Participants will be invited to contribute to a 'wiki on wiki research' in advance of the full-day workshop. Topics raised in the wiki will inform the planning of workshop activities. Speakers will briefly introduce and lead a series of moderated discussions to exchange ideas and debate these central issues. Redesign of the 'wiki research wiki' as a CSCL resource is planned as a topic. Contact person: Andreas Lund, InterMedia, University of Oslo andreas.lund(a)intermedia.uio.no jeremy hunsinger Information Ethics Fellow, Center for Information Policy Research, School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (www.cipr.uwm.edu) () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail /\ - against microsoft attachments http://www.aoir.org The Association of Internet Researchers http://www.stswiki.org/ stswiki http://cfp.learning-inquiry.info/ LI-the journal http://transdisciplinarystudies.tmttlt.com/ Transdisciplinary Studies:the book series

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Re: [Air-l] Internet -- Source or Medium?
by William Bain 12 Apr '07

12 Apr '07

James Whyte wrote: "The bigger story to be told is the infinite variety of socially determined uses. In effect the advances in the technology simply expands the spectrum of uses. This spectrum seems to be only bound by very human creativity. Cyberspace is the house; the Internet is the hammer. I have found no evidence that AOIR is about the hammer." If I may respectfully quibble: Would we want an association of atomic physics to be exclusively about spectroscopy? But I suppose really it comes down to the depth of the analysis and whether the definitions come from a dictionary or an encyclopedia. Best, Will --------------------------------- Sucker-punch spam with award-winning protection. Try the free Yahoo! Mail Beta.

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Re: [Air-l] Hyperlink Network Analysis (HNA)
by John Postill 12 Apr '07

12 Apr '07

Dear Alexander You may also want to have a look at Daniel Miller The Fame of Trinis: Websites as Traps Journal of Material Culture 2000 5: 5-24 Van den Bos, M. (2006), Hyperlinked Dutch-Iranian Cyberspace.International Sociology 21 (1): 83-99 Van den Bos (2006), M., Landmarks for Nowhereland: Scratching the Surface of Transnational Dutch-Iranian Hyperlink Networks, The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute Incorporating MAN (JRAI) . Best wishes John Dr John Postill Senior Lecturer in Media Sheffield Hallam University Sheffield S11 8UZ, UK j.postill(a)shu.ac.uk http://www.johnpostill.co.uk Coordinator, Media Anthropology Network European Association of Social Anthropologists http://www.media-anthropology.net

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Last Tag Show :: Web 2.0 performance
by Jose-Carlos Mariategui 12 Apr '07

12 Apr '07

Multiplace 2007 | network culture festival presents __Last Tag Show__ http://www.lostpostservice.net/lts On 14th of April watch http://www.lostpostservice.net/lts for a net performance Last Tag Show exploring the facade of Web 2.0. Name it social media hack or Web 2.0 circuit bending, but above all the show is going to= refer to global performance of users building and enhancing their own web= image setting thus a social mask and yielding a performance of it's kind.= Last Tag Show will start at 8am London time, 3am NY time, 9am Prague time= , 11am Moscow time and will run for 24 hrs. For time converter tool go to: http://www.worldtimeserver.com/time_converter.aspx?f=3DCZ http://www.lostpostservice.net/lts

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CFP: Surveillance and Inequality (deadline: July 15, 2007)
by Torin Monahan 12 Apr '07

12 Apr '07

[appologies for cross-posting] Surveillance & Society Call for Papers Special Issue on Surveillance and Inequality: Issue 5(4) (Guest editors: Torin Monahan and Jill A. Fisher) Publication date: December 2007 Deadline for submissions: 15 July 2007 Many domains of social life are being transfigured by new technologies of identification, monitoring, tracking, data analysis, and control. The lived experiences of people subjected to surveillance, however, can vary widely along lines of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, age, and nationality. This can be seen with the enforcement of different types of mobilities for different categories of people, whether at borders, on city streets, or on the Internet. It can also be observed with the increasingly invasive monitoring and discipline of those accessing public services, such as welfare, public education, or healthcare, especially in the U.S. It can be perceived in security-screening and police-profiling practices, which continue to rely upon racial markers of risk. Or inequality can be found in the uneven treatment of individuals by insurance providers, credit agencies, service centers, or other commercial entities. Regardless of the domain, new surveillance systems appear to amplify existing social inequalities and establish rationales for increased control of marginalized groups in societies. The journal Surveillance & Society is seeking papers that examine issues of surveillance and inequality. The editors are especially interested in research papers that address the differential effects of surveillance upon marginalized and privileged social groups. Whereas surveillance studies inquiry often begins with technology as a starting point for analysis, we welcome papers that start with descriptions of power relations in any social settings and then move to illustrate the role of surveillance technologies or practices in the regulation of those settings. We further encourage contributions that theorize the relationship of the political economy to surveillance and inequality, whether by attending to globalization processes, neoliberal policies, or military operations. Finally, we are also quite interested in papers that seek to demonstrate or theorize the empowering potential of surveillance systems to correct social inequalities. Possible papers could investigate the role of surveillance in: * The regulation of gender or status relations in places of employment. * Socio-spatial segregation in cities, suburbs, exurbs, or rural communities. * The restructuring or elimination of public programs and spaces (or citizen rights) by neoliberal policies which could include a focus on schools, welfare, healthcare, voting, etc. * Racial or ethnic profiling by police, security personnel, or immigration agents. * The enforcement of differential mobilities (along with inquiry into the relationship of mobilities to the life chances and well-being of travelers). * The automatic prioritizing of services, rights, and mobilities in software-sorted service domains. * The control of womens bodies, especially in regard to reproduction. * Monitoring of children or the elderly or the monitoring of those charged with taking care of them. * The militarization of borders and the corresponding dangers faced by undocumented immigrants, refugees, and others. Submissions should be sent electronically to Emily Smith, at smithea(a)post.queensu.ca by 15 July 2007 with a publication date of December 2007. We welcome full academic papers, opinion pieces, review pieces, poetry, artistic, and audio-visual submissions. Submissions will undergo a peer-review and revision process prior to publication. Submissions should be original work, neither previously published nor under consideration for publication elsewhere. All references to previous work by contributors should be masked in the text (e.g., Author, 2007). Please see: www.surveillance-and-society.org/call.htm for further submission guidelines. Torin Monahan Assistant Professor Arizona State University School of Justice & Social Inquiry torin.monahan(a)asu.edu | www.torinmonahan.com

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social network analysis
by Barry Wellman 11 Apr '07

11 Apr '07

Someone asked about Social Network Analysis, but gave a non-standard reference as a source. THE standard reference is Stanley Wasserman & Kathryn Faust, _Social Network Analysis (Cambridge U Press). For a non-technical intro, see my "Structural Analysis: From Method and Metaphor to ..." It's out of print (in Wellman & Berkowitz, _Social Structures: A Network Approach_), but scanned into my website. There's also a growing literature on web networks (so much more convenient when you don't have to deal with real people), with key works by Duncan Watts, Lada Adamic, Bernardo Huberman, Jon Kleinberg. I'll let the Actor-Network people speak for themselves. Barry Wellman _____________________________________________________________________ Barry Wellman S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology NetLab Director Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman for fun: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _____________________________________________________________________

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