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Re: [Air-l] Conferences in Asia this Spring
by Michel J. Menou 26 Jan '07

26 Jan '07

Jill You may want to check http://icisic.neasist.org The Quick calendar function provides a listing by region. Michel ===================================================================== Dr. Michel J. Menou Visiting Professor, SLAIS, University College London, U.K. Consultant in ICT policies and Knowledge & Information Management Adviser of Somos@Telecentros board http://www.tele-centros.org Member of the founding steering committee of Telecenters of the Americas Partnership http://www.tele-centers.net/ B.P. 15 F-49350 Les Rosiers sur Loire, France Email: micheljmenou [at] gmail[dot]com Michel[dot]Menou [at]wanadoo[dot]fr Phone: +33 (0)2 41511043 http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ciber/peoplemenou.php =====================================================================

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CFP: Surveillance and Communications
by Shoshana Magnet 26 Jan '07

26 Jan '07

Special Issue of The Communication Review: Surveillance and Communications Guest Editors: Kelly Gates and Shoshana Magnet We invite submissions for a special issue of The Communication Review on the contribution of communications research to the study of surveillance. The age of informatics has resulted in the proliferation of new technologies of surveillance. Surveillance remains one of the key means by which modern institutions interact with and govern their constituencies. This special issue of The Communication Review will examine the multiple connections between communications and surveillance. We hope to foster dialogue on the interconnections between communications theory and surveillance studies. Has communications theory helped to expand the study of surveillance through attention to the socio-cultural ramifications of surveillance practices? Can communications theory broaden the study of surveillance through its attention to the importance of surveillance technologies as information and communication technologies, as well as visual media and sound reproduction systems? The special issue will address such questions as: How do communicative practices, media technologies, and surveillance practices intersect? What insights does communications theory and research bring to the study of surveillance as a modern institutional practice? We are particularly interested in connections between surveillance studies and critical race and feminist theories, as well as theoretical investigations of the ways in which surveillance techniques are used to mark and classify bodies based on social inequalities. How are forms of discrimination coded into and perpetuated by surveillance strategies? We are also interested in the intensification of surveillance in the neo-liberal economy. How is the expansion of new surveillance technologies informed by the logic of privatization? How has "informationalized capitalism" encouraged the development of new practices and technologies of surveillance? How do particular surveillance strategies contribute to the conflation of consumption and citizenship? Topics might include, but are not limited to: The relationships between surveillance and communication theory The differential application of surveillance strategies based on social inequalities Surveillance technologies as markers of identity Surveillance and media interactivity Surveillance and the digitization of visual media Surveillance and copyright enforcement Market research surveillance and consumer citizenship Surveillance and reality television Surveillance forms and cinematic "practices of looking" Papers should be between 7500 and 8000 words long and must be received by May 1st, 2007. Please email them to: Andrea Press and Bruce Williams, Editors, The Communication Review, c/o Tanya Omeltchenko, Managing Editor, at to3y(a)virginia.edu

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Re: [Air-l] Question re Size of Data Set...
by Dr.Cameron Adams 26 Jan '07

26 Jan '07

Matthew, Caveat: these are suggestions from an anthropologist, follow at your own risk ;0) I think the answer to your question is really dependant on your focus. If the bulk of your work is on what has happened in the past, you will have to really dig into the 4000 pages as would a historian. It only amounts to about 20 books if each page averages to paper page length which I speculate don't. I would then use the questionnaire to test whether your findings seem to hold. In this case I'd use a closed answer survey type device (binary fixed-response, likert scale, etc.)If you are more interested in what they say about your question, you can be a bit easier on your archives and just look for themes and issues to put into a more open ended type of questionnaire and spend a lot of time analysing and interpreting that material. Of course, if you want to compare what they did to what they think about it (or think they do) you have to really hit both sources of data. Also, in terms of careerist motivation, collecting and at least categorising more data than you use in the dissertation is good because it gives you lots to publish from. Cameron Adams Research Associate Department of Anthropology University of Kent

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Call for Papers 4S session on Latin American Science
by Rick Duque 26 Jan '07

26 Jan '07

Call for Papers: 4S 2007, Montreal, October 11-13 Latin American Science and Ways of Knowing Organizers: Christina Holmes Ricardo Duque Abstracts should be sent by January 30th. Scientists in Latin America face a variety of challenges contributing to global scientific knowledge. Given that scientific ways of knowing are always enacted within particular contexts this group of papers asks how challenges to producing scientific knowledge are negotiated in Latin America? This includes such factors as the mediation of language politics, as some languages are scientifically more powerful than others, the maintenance of networks, and the communication channels through which both language and networks are managed in order to create scientific knowledge within Latin America. If you are interested in participating in this panel, please contact Christina Holmes at cpholmes(a)dal.ca Abstracts should be sent by January 30th. --- air-l-request(a)listserv.aoir.org wrote: > Send air-l mailing list submissions to > air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, > visit > > http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org > or, via email, send a message with subject or body > 'help' to > air-l-request(a)listserv.aoir.org > > You can reach the person managing the list at > air-l-owner(a)listserv.aoir.org > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it > is more specific > than "Re: Contents of air-l digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Question re Size of Data Set... (Matthew > Pearson) > 2. Re: Question re Size of Data Set... (Paul > Teusner) > 3. Conferences in Asia this spring? (Jill Walker) > 4. Re: Conferences in Asia this spring? (Dominic > Pinto) > 5. The CIA and Facebook (John McNutt) > 6. Re: The CIA and Facebook (Fred Stutzman) > 7. Re: Conferences in Asia this spring? (Beth > Kolko) > 8. Re: internet community breakups (Marcus Foth) > 9. Re: Conferences in Asia this spring? > (smork(a)itu.dk) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2007 15:31:44 -0800 > From: Matthew Pearson <mdpearson(a)wisc.edu> > Subject: [Air-l] Question re Size of Data Set... > To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org > Message-ID: > <3001D11C-8CB7-42FD-BECE-9F4EA3BE2A35(a)wisc.edu> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; > delsp=yes; format=flowed > > Hello All: > > This is my debut post to this excellent list after a > long time spent > reading lots of good stuff from others. > > I have a question re the size of my data set for my > dissertation > project: Is my data set too large, too small, or > just right? > > I'd very much appreciate any insight/ideas/feedback > anyone has about > this. My advisor and I aren't that sure about this > issue, and I > haven't been able to discern much about this issue > from a lot of the > studies I've read. > > I do realize my question is thus far meaningless > without knowing > anything about my project, so here's some more > information/background: > > I'm doing a close look at one message board > community--one devoted to > discussion of a particular college basketball team. > I've got all > sorts of things I'm interested in, but my central > research question > has to do with the ways that people teach each other > and learn from > one another the conventions for discourse in/on the > message board. > (I'm also interested in potential emerging genres of > writing, the > influence of sports fandom on online literacy > practices, and perhaps > even examining issues related to gender (which I > realize is a pretty > general thing to say, but I'll keep it at that for > now).) > > I've got two main sources of data: both (1) archived > threads/posts > from the message board, and (2) online > questionnaires that > participants/members filled out. My question > concerns source (1)-- > the archival data. > > I have tons of data archived. I used one of those > "site-sucker" > programs to grab all the discussions on the message > board over about > a 8 month period of time. Given that this message > board is a pretty > busy one and that I'm using a ground-theory approach > to the data > analysis, I chose to sample a smaller set of the > overall data. I > used an "event sampling" method and, with input from > posters on the > message board, chose 5 "big" events around which to > sample > discussion. I then also chose 5 other events that > occurred during > the months I archived discussion that were not > listed as "big" events > by anyone who offered their sense of the "big" > events. I didn't, > though, choose just those threads of discussion > related to those > "big" and non-big events, but rather used those as > anchoring moments > in time, and then sampled ALL discussion that > occurred on those > dates, and one day prior and one day later. This > resulted in such a > large data set that I ended up using only 3 "big" > events and 3 non- > big ones, and then sampling for those dates, and the > days immediately > around them. > > What I'm left with now is about 4000 individual > .html pages, some of > which have fairly detailed threads of discussion, > with sizable > individual posts, and also, of course, many of which > that have > cursory, short sentences that perhaps look more like > "chat." This is > a lot of stuff to wade through, yet it does > represent only 18 days of > life on this message board. Thus far I've been > going through the > data in separate "passes," looking for answers to > particular aspects > of my research question, and it's a daunting thing. > I know research > takes a lot of work and time, but I thought it wise > to get feedback > to see if I'm going overboard here. > > So does my sample sound reasonable? I'm well aware > that the way I > sample will directly impact the kinds of conclusions > can draw and > level of rigor folks see in my work. > > Any thoughts? Good sources re this kind of > methodology? I've got > Virtual Methods Ed. by Hine, among other sources, > and haven't seen > anything yet re sample size. Maybe I missed it > somehow? > > many thanks, > > Matthew Pearson > mdpearson(a)wisc.edu > PhD Candidate, University of Wisconsin Department of > English-- > Composition and Rhetoric; > Research Assistant, UC-Irvine Writing Project; > & Man on the Street > > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2007 10:47:53 +1100 > From: "Paul Teusner" <paul.teusner(a)rmit.edu.au> > Subject: Re: [Air-l] Question re Size of Data Set... > To: <air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org> > Message-ID: <001a01c74012$114cbfe0$6400a8c0@Paul> > Keywords: Study > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > Hey Matthew, > > I'm a PhD student too and I'm going through exactly > the same problem. > > For me the question isn't so much about the amount > of data but how are you > going to use it. How in depth is your analysis going > to === message truncated === ____________________________________________________________________________________ Get your own web address. Have a HUGE year through Yahoo! Small Business. http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/domains/?p=BESTDEAL

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answers re size of data set
by Barry Wellman 25 Jan '07

25 Jan '07

Sociology departments spend at least one semester course teaching resarch design, including size -- and quality, apporpriateness -- of data set. Wisconsin has a first rate soc dept. Anything less is as if I walked into an English dept and asked how to do lit crit in 30 minutes For other matters of appropraite size, consult your spam filter;-) 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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Information about online suicide pacts
by Christopher Helland 25 Jan '07

25 Jan '07

I'm wondering if anyone knows of any studies or ongoing research concerning online suicide pacts in Japan. The suicide rate in Japan is almost 20 times higher than their murder rate (one of the highest in the world)--and there appears to be "a frightening increase in the number of group suicides arranged over the Internet through chat rooms dedicated to discussing suicide." Any help researching this topic would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance, Chris Helland Christopher Helland, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Sociology of Religion Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology Dalhousie University 6135 University Avenue, Rm. 1128 Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada B3H 4P9 Tel: (902) 494-6757 Fax:(902) 494-2897 http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~chelland/index.html ____________________________________________________________________________________ Want to start your own business? Learn how on Yahoo! Small Business. http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/r-index

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Re: [Air-l] internet community breakups
by Marcus Foth 25 Jan '07

25 Jan '07

Hi Ellie in addition to what colleagues have posted already, I suggest the following articles: Andrews, D. C., Preece, J., & Turoff, M. (2001, Jan 3-6). A Conceptual Framework for Demographic Groups Resistant to Online Community Interaction. Paper presented at the 34th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Island of Maui, Hawaii. Butler, B. S. (2001). Membership Size, Communication Activity, and Sustainability. Information System Research, 12(4), 346-362. Maloney-Krichmar, D., Abras, C., & Preece, J. (2002, Jun 6-8). Revitalizing an Online Community. Paper presented at the International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS) – Social Implications of Information and Communication Technology, Raleigh, NC. Caleb has an interesting article on his website which talks about the purposeful breakup of an online community in order to re-establish it: Clark, C. J. (1999, Jan 12). Hot Tubbing an Online Community. Retrieved Jan 25, 2007, from http://www.plocktau.com/writing/hottub.html And chapter 11 in Derek's book is entitled "Killing Your Community": Powazek, D. M. (2002). Design for Community: The Art of Connecting Real People in Virtual Places. Indianapolis, IN: New Riders. This article may be of interest from a more general perspective: Selwyn, N. (2003). Apart from technology: understanding people’s non- use of information and communication technologies in everyday life. Technology in Society, 25(1), 99-116. In regards to your query about "definition and types of internet communities", Robert has written a section about "Taxonomy models for online communities" in: Plant, R. (2004). Online Communities. Technology in Society, 26(1), 51-65. hope this is useful, cheers, marcus -- Dr Marcus Foth Australian Postdoctoral Fellow Institute for Creative Industries and Innovation Queensland University of Technology (CRICOS No. 00213J) Creative Industries Precinct, Brisbane QLD 4059, Australia Phone +61 7 313 x88772 - Fax x88195 - Room Z6-511 m.foth(a)qut.edu.au - http://www.vrolik.de/ http://eprints.qut.edu.au/view/person/Foth,_Marcus.html

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Re: [Air-l] where did you go, out; what did you do, nothing (fwd)
by Barry Wellman 24 Jan '07

24 Jan '07

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2007 16:59:52 -0500 From: Barry Wellman <wellman(a)chass.utoronto.ca> To: danah boyd <aoir.z3z(a)danah.org> Cc: Paul DiPerna <pdiperna(a)blauexchange.org>, air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-l] where did you go, out; what did you do, nothing 1. I still maintain the cup half-full and half-empty position as a working hypothesis. While not being a quant chauvanist, I would like to know the %age of American teens and of their parent/s who are seriously stressed -- more than the typical teen stress of the past. 2. If this %age is large or small, danah's point makes sense: the Internet creates a visible venue for teens to exhibit such stress and find others to engage in dysfuncitonal activity. My generation just joined gangs: see The Wanderers (or read the book). 3. There are some stats that back danah's position that there structural conditions for teen dysfunctionality are greater than before. Rutgers sociologist was on CBC this AM maintaining that single parenting is up in a generation from 17% to 35% (it was pre-coffee: all summaries a bit vague). And certainly dual jobs are up compared to the 20th century, but not compared to the 3rd world or the agrarian 19th century. Everything old is new again! 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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Re: [Air-l] where did you go, out; what did you do, nothing
by Paul DiPerna 24 Jan '07

24 Jan '07

Today I found these links/sources (below), and maybe they will be informative. Teen wellness is an important topic, one that I do not know much about, so I thought I'd look for survey data. At first scan, I think these teen surveys address some of the things mentioned in this thread. However I haven't had the chance to read through carefully. All but one of the surveys report national samples. On teen ICT use and cyber-bullying (2006): http://attorneygeneral.utah.gov/PrRel/CyberBullies/Fight%20Crime%20Invest%2… "High Schoolers View the Future" (2005): http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/artsandliving/HighSchoolNational.pdf "National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse IX: Teen Dating Practices and Sexual Activity" (August 2004): http://www.casacolumbia.org/pdshopprov/files/august_2004_casa_teen_survey.p… Teen attitudes and perceptions in the Kansas City metro area (2004): http://www.pfc.org/PFC_KTS.pdf - Paul -------------- Paul DiPerna Blau Exchange http://www.blauexchange.org email: pdiperna(a)blauexchange.org Online ID: http://claimid.com/pdiperna -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: [Air-l] where did you go, out; what did you do, nothing From: danah boyd <aoir.z3z(a)danah.org> Date: Tue, January 23, 2007 4:02 pm To: Barry Wellman <wellman(a)chass.utoronto.ca> Cc: Paul DiPerna <pdiperna(a)blauexchange.org>, air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org Barry - I wish that i was talking about the exceptions but i've definitely seen problematic behavior across a variety of teens, far beyond the atypical. When i talk about self-destruction, i'm not talking about suicide. Amongst working class youth (primarily inner city and rural), it often comes out in the form of meth or alcohol abuse, sex for status or to get back at people, and in the some urban cases, gang communities providing the kinds of social stability that isn't present at home. In the wealthier communities, alcohol still persists (but meth dies off). Stress jumps through the roof (i've seen more kids with ulcers than i thought was possible). This is where you start getting eating disorders and cutting as mechanisms to gain control over one's life. I don't see that much potential suicide honestly. Amongst middle/upper class white kids who identify with emo culture, they talk about suicide, but no more than the goths did... they don't actually do it, just like with goths. I'm not doing quantitative work so i can't give you numbers but well over half of my subjects tell me something that just depresses me along these lines. The extreme behaviors are indeed extreme, but the spectrum is shifted too far into unhappy and dysfunctional land for me to be enjoying all of the time that i spend with teens. And i don't recruit for dysfunctional. Honestly, the atypical case in the hundreds of kids that i've talked to in the last four months across the US is a functional sane communicative relationship between parent and teen. That doesn't mean all kids are acting out of control. Some are terrified of their parents, some are terrified of not getting into college, some are quite religious (although a lot more attend church than are religious in the sense that they are not misbehaving because of it). But honestly, the lack of presence of parents across SES is just outright depressing. Single parents and dual-working parents are the primary issue. The wealthier fathers are just as absent as the working class shift work fathers (often because they work past 7PM in their white collar jobs and don't make it home to dinner). Parents are stressed and it shows through in the teens i talk with. (I should note that i'm not just seeing this amongst teens - i want to strangle half my colleagues in the tech industry who have young children, work on weekends, and don't go home until 8/9PM on weeknights and then wonder why their kids are acting strange and come to me for advice.) At a core, Barry and i do agree - most American teens do anything to avoid scrutiny but that doesn't mean that their choices don't terrify their parents. And it's this being terrified that results in lockdown that results in alienation and rebellion and cycle cycle cycle. .... As for studies... there are a bunch of us working on a large scale MacArthur Foundation Digital Youth Initiative. This will be qualitative studies of teens from tons of different angles. Personally, i will be formally interviewing over 200 teens from at least 6 different areas in the country (and i have informally talked to hundreds more from other regions). There are over 20 of us on one branch of that study and there are a number of other connected studies, including some quantitative work. I'm explicitly looking at technology use but i try to ground it by understanding what teens are doing more broadly. I would love to hear of other projects taking place. Obviously, there's PEW. And Larry Rosen has been surveying parent/teen relationships around tech and trust. danah On Jan 21, 2007, at 9:35 AM, Barry Wellman wrote: > My sense is that I was hypothesizing about the broad middle while > danah is > talking atypical cases. So both of us are right. Suicidal (or > attempted > suicidal) teens were big in my generation too. Hmn, should Romeo and > Juliet have gone to couples therapy? > > 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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Re: [Air-l] internet community breakups
by andrea baker 24 Jan '07

24 Jan '07

Ellie, (and anyone else with an interest): On a typology of online communities: Aside from the excellent article post by Ron Rice by Katz et al., I'd like to recommend a simple, short piece from me and a co-author, from the point of view of hosting and participating in various online communities: "Twelve Variables for Understanding Online Communities" http://www.mindjack.com/feature/12ocvar.html cheers, andee

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