- Air-L - lists.aoir.org

e-petitions UK - cont.
by Dominic Pinto 30 Nov '06

30 Nov '06

My last comments, x-posted to mysociety.org remain to be replied to ... And then I thought: ================== Dominic Pinto says: Just rather intrigued that there has been no reactions - maybe too busy coding - either to Air or to this. And my last post 2 days ago is awaiting moderation. Ding! I should petition Blur to do something about this! written on November 30th, 2006 ================= Mind, will anything 'serious' be noticed in the 'noise'? Do take a look at recent 'petitions' e.g. We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Bring back Dick Barton,Jock and Snowy and the music The Devils Gallop that went with it, and while you are at it bring back the Light program and the Home service. And from the Grauniad UK, which may or not be accurate http://politics.guardian.co.uk/backbencher/0,,513903,00.html SIGNERS OF THE TIMES More headaches for valiant Tom Steinberg at the MySociety/Downing Street pioneering e-petition service. "UK, US AND IRANIAN TERORIST GOVERNMENT MIN CONTROL AND ELECTROMAGNETIC TORTUREER," petitioned one visitor. This petition has been rejected because it isn't clear what the petition is asking signers to endorse," replied Tom, no doubt wearily. Still, at least the stuff that does get through is edifying. "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to keep Britain British ... Only English, Welsh and native languages to be spoken in schools and supported by local governments. No more multi lingual leaflets and interpreters. Live in UK speaka da English!!!" Nice. Meanwhile, a 14-year-old wants the PM to introduce an ID card because he "cant by films and games for 11 year olds and im fed up with getting asked for id i dont have eany." Do keep up, young man. Tony has every intention of giving you an ID card. "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Ban all online petitions, including this one," writes Darren. You know, Darren, the Backbencher might just endorse that one. Dominic Pinto BA MIEEE MCMI MRi FRSA http://www.ecademy.com/user/dominicpinto e-m: dominic.pinto(a)ieee.org M: +44 780 302-8268 Ph: +44 207 379-8341 In the U.S. M/Cell: +1 215 667-3001

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Call for Papers: Communication Technologies of Empowerment
by Francisco Seoane 29 Nov '06

29 Nov '06

Call for Papers ICS Postgraduate Conference Communication Technologies of Empowerment Leeds, United Kingdom - Friday, May 18, 2007 The Institute of Communications Studies (ICS) at the University of Leeds will be hosting a postgraduate conference for the presentation and discussion of research in communications performed by PhD students. Under the title Communication Technologies of Empowerment, this meeting seeks to bring together new scholars who are studying how the latest developments in communication are affecting our democracies by enabling new forms of political participation and citizen engagement. Whether you live in an established democratic system, a country in transition to democracy, or under an authoritarian government, new communication technologies are likely to have changed your political environment. The recent popular upheavals in Ukraine and Lebanon were in great part conducted through mobile phone messages. In Western Europe, the riots in the Parisian suburbs and the protests in Spain against the Aznar government regarding the authorship of the Madrid terrorist attacks would have been very different if the Internet and mobile phones had not become an integral part of our everyday lives. Meanwhile, traditional politics is trying to catch up with the digital age. Political parties are seeking to domesticate these new forms of horizontal communication, and so are governments, with potentially threatening consequences. Paradoxically, new technologies of communication can serve both to empower citizens and to survey and control them. A recent report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has shown that networked technologies can be effectively used by authoritarian governments to strengthen their repressive regimes. New forms of communication have become a key tool for global social movements. Whether their struggles are focused on questions of global justice, class, gender, race or the environment, activists have found in the decentralized and inexpensive nature of the Internet and mobile telephony the media they needed to organise themselves and make their actions public. Interestingly, these technologies are also being mastered by those actors who want to challenge the national and international orders through violent means. This reminds us that terrorism is in great part a communicative phenomenon, today more than ever before. If your research deals with questions such as the ones outlined above, or with issues related with the interplay of media, new technologies, citizenship, democracy and politics, we hope to hear from you. Please submit an abstract with a general description of your future research paper, indicating your topic, theoretical framework, research questions or hypotheses, method and expected results. The abstract should not exceed 500 words. If your proposal is accepted, we will ask you to provide a full paper. After your presentation, the paper will be published on the ICS website. Please, remember to include your full contact information: Name, e-mail and postal address, telephone number and academic affiliation for each author. Your paper presentation will be discussed and commented on by members of the academic staff from the Institute of Communications Studies who have expertise in your topic, method, or theoretical framework. This can be a golden opportunity for you to refine your thoughts, openly share your concerns, and receive constructive criticism from professors and fellow postgraduate students working in your area. It is also a great chance to start building or expanding your professional and academic network. Deadlines: - Deadline for proposals: January 31, 2007. - Deadline for full papers: April 30, 2007. Contact and electronic submission: - Qian (Sarah) Gong q.gong(a)leeds.ac.uk - Anna Zoellner csaz(a)leeds.ac.uk Conference website: http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~icsfsp/index.htm ------- Francisco Seoane Perez Provisional PhD student Institute of Communications Studies University of Leeds E-mai: icsfsp(a)leeds.ac.uk Webpage: http://ics.leeds.ac.uk/staff/f.perez ______________________________________________ LLama Gratis a cualquier PC del Mundo. Llamadas a fijos y móviles desde 1 céntimo por minuto. http://es.voice.yahoo.com

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CFP: The Internet and Politics in Pacific Asia
by Merlyna Lim 29 Nov '06

29 Nov '06

Call for papers for Panel on *The Internet and Politics in Pacific Asia* ICAS (International Convention of Asian Scholars), Kuala Lumpur, 2-5 August 2007. *Limited funding available* Organizer: Merlyna Lim (Merlyna.Lim(a)asu.edu) Arizona State University Sponsors: - Consortium of Science, Policy and Outcomes, Arizona State University - Globalization Research Center, University of Hawaii A decade after its emergence as a popular global medium, the Internet has interwoven with many contentious political issues while also inspiring alternative visions of political reform across the globe, including in Pacific (East and Southeast) Asia. Presenting cases from various countries in this world region, this panel attempts to disentangle the complex relationships between the Internet and politics through studies on how political actors at various level—individual, local, nation-state and global—have been able to use the Internet to assist in both controlling and liberating individuals, groups, and other would-be agents of (political) changes. This relationship between technology and political power is not only one of the central inquiries for researchers in the field of Internet studies, but also a critical question for the broader studies on media & politics and technology & politics. The study of the political dimensions of the Internet still tends to be overwhelmingly concentrated in and focused on the North American and Western European context and experiences. At the same time, existing work on the politics of the Internet in non-Western context is mostly framed by assumptions found in the Western cases and predominantly based on a technological-deterministic point of view. The non-deterministic and contextually anchored study of the political implications of the medium in non-Western context is still in infancy and there is much to be explored. Questions of power and governance lie at the heart of many of these inquiries. This panel explores these questions by relocating them in a non-Western context of Pacific Asia. Please contact Merlyna Lim (Merlyna.Lim(a)asu.edu) with cc to Asha Pandi (apandi(a)hawaii.edu) if you're interested in participating, with proposed abstract (200-300 words) and a brief CV by 8 December 2006. There will be a limited amount of funding for presenters who are based in Pacific Asia, especially those from developing countries. Those who are interested to be funded should submit a full CV along with abstract and a list of related publications (and one sample of writing, if available). For more information on ICAS 5, please view the conference website at http://www.icas5kl.com -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "A picture is worth a thousand words but it uses up a thousand times the memory" Merlyna Lim, Ph.D. Assistant Professor School of Justice and Social Inquiry & Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes Arizona State University ASU Box 874401 Tempe, AZ 85287-4401 http://www.merlyna.org Important: This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error, please delete it and notify the sender via return mail. You must not disclose the contents of this email/fax to any third party without the consent of the sender. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Media Policy and Globalization by Paula Chakravartty & Katharine Sarikakis
by geert lovink 29 Nov '06

29 Nov '06

http://www.eup.ed.ac.uk/edition_details.aspx?id=12091 Media Policy and Globalization Paula Chakravartty, Katharine Sarikakis Volumes in the Media Topics series critically examine the core subject areas within Media Studies. Each volume offers a critical overview as well as an original intervention into the subject. Volume topics include: media theory and practice, history, policy, ethics, politics, discourse, culture and audience. This volume takes a fresh look at media and communications policy and provides a comprehensive account of issues that are central to the study of the field. It moves beyond the 'specifics' of regulation, by examining policy areas that have proved to be of common concern for societies across different socio-economic realities. It also seeks to address profound gaps in the study of policy by demonstrating the centrality of historical, social and political context in debates that may appear solely technical or economistic. Media Policy and Globalization covers the institutional changes in the communications policy arena by examining the changing role of the state, technology and the market and the role of civil society. It discusses actual policy areas in broadcasting, telecommunications and the information society, and examines the often-overlooked normative dimensions of communications policy. Paula Chakravartty is Assistant Professor of Communication, University of Massachusetts Amherst. Katharine Sarikakis is Senior Lecturer in Communications Policy and Course Director MA in Communications Studies, University of Leeds. "The ideas and explanation in this book are a very welcome antidote to the dominant discourse of the virtues of the market, new technologies and competition. The proponents of technological determinism have for the past 10 years asserted that greater audiovisual delivery capacity will automatically deliver diversity and pluralism and have sought to roll back virtually all audiovisual regulation. The authors describe well the valid political, social, economic and particularly cultural questions which demand an answer if the public interest is to be served in communications policy and the regulation which should flow from it. The authors rightly underline that the screen, large or small, is central to our democratic, creative, cultural and social life and that policy makers should give greater space to the views of civil society and parliamentarians interested in advancing the public interest. Rare is the attention paid to the realities of the digital divide as played out across the globe which provides important information for campaigners for greater technological redistribution and cultural diversity worldwide." Carole Tongue, Visiting Professor, University of the Arts, London, Former MEP spokesperson on public service broadcasting "Media Policy and Globalization combines careful scholarship with a clear, accessible style that creatively integrates some of the best elements of critical theory. The book marks an important step in the development of media policy scholarship because it skilfully integrates political economic and cultural studies perspectives. It does an especially good job of placing research on state and gender theory into the centre of policy analysis." Vincent Mosco, Queen’s University, author of The Digital Sublime "Premised on the fact that there are different globalizations going on today, this comprehensive study successfully integrates structural and symbolic analyses of communications and media policy in the conflicted spaces of the nation-state, trans-nation, and sub-nation. Chakravartty & Sarikakis’s remarkably systematic approach to media policy, technology, content, and civil society formation, fills in crucial details left behind by grand theory, including progressive postcolonial theory of global communication. In doing so, the book re-energizes the hackneyed field of international media studies and transforms it." John Nguyet Erni, City University of Hong Kong -- Table of Contents PART I: Policy Contexts 1. Capitalism, Technology, Institutions and the study of Communications and Media Policy 2. Revisiting the History of Global Communication and Media Policy PART II: Policy Domains 3. Governing the Central Nervous System of the Global Economy: Global Telecommunication Policy 4. Governing the Backbone of Cultures: Broadcasting Policies PART III: Policy Paradigms 5. Policies for a New World or the Emperor’s New Clothes? The Information Society 6. Civil Society and Social Justice: The Limits and Possibilities of Global Governance Conclusions References

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Fwd: [Consult] ePetitions at No Ten, Bundestag, and elsewhere
by Matthias Trenel 28 Nov '06

28 Nov '06

Tom Steinberg aksked me to crosspost his response to AIR-L. -- Matthias ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Tom Steinberg <dowire(a)tomsteinberg.co.uk> Date: Nov 21, 2006 7:36 PM Subject: Re: [Consult] ePetitions at No Ten, Bundestag, and elsewhere To: consult(a)groups.dowire.org Hello Matthias, Thanks for moving this debate to this list. Unfortunately nobody seems to be around to approve my membership request to AIR-L so that I can put mySociety's side of this: clearly the inability to debate issues online in the way we want is today's hot topic! I suppose my overall reaction to reading the thread is that such a bright group of people seem to have missed something our ordinary users have understood in droves: the site is a beta and if you want features added you have to ask for them. I'm afraid that complaining about them on a list we don't even know about doesn't actually count as constructive. Our other more common garden users have realised they need to actually send us their feedback, and we've made a slew of changes in response: http://www.mysociety.org/2006/11/17/this-is-what-beta-means-the-first-48-ho… Now onto the issue itself - the lack of forums. Our design philosophy as an organisation has always been clear: pick a simple task that benefits the public and solve it as well as you possibly can before launching. Then as soon as it is out in the wild, respond to your users demands as fast as you can (within the constraints of your resources). In our case this meant building a massively load-capable petition signing system that had transparency engineered in from the start, and then changing it really fast in response to user requests. For everyone on this and the AIR-L list who would like to see forums, I have just one question: * Do you consider it possible to design deliberative discussion system on a site as sensitive as No10 which will generate debate sufficiently mature as to merit the sizeable public spending on moderation that would be required? If so, how? Personally, I'm sceptical that the No10 site can ever host good discussions, and running HearFromYourMP.com and TheyWorkForYou.com I think mySociety can claim to have some experience in this field. But I'm just one citizen, and if you are British it is your democractic system too: if you want forums you should ask for them and express your support for whatever hiring of civil servants or building of technology would be required. Lastly, please note that for those of you who think I'm ignoring the fact that there ARE discussion forums on other petition sites, please just absorb the following scale difference: * Total petitions submitted on and offline to Scottish Parliament in first 7 years : 964 * Total petitions submitted online to No10 site in first 6 days: 925 I look forward to your feedback on this issue very much. best, Tom Steinberg Director, mySociety.org Member profile for Tom Steinberg: http://groups.dowire.org/main/contacts/tomsteinberg ----------------------------------------- Group home for Online Consultations, Dialogues, and E-Participation: http://groups.dowire.org/main/groups/consult Replies go to members of Online Consultations, Dialogues, and E-Participation with all posts on this topic here: http://groups.dowire.org/topic/143437 For digest version or to leave Online Consultations, Dialogues, and E-Participation, email consult(a)groups.dowire.org with "digest on" or "unsubscribe" in the *subject*. Online Consultations, Dialogues, and E-Participation is hosted by Democracies Online - http://dowire.org.

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mLearning survey
by adelina moura 28 Nov '06

28 Nov '06

Hi everyone, I'm a portuguese teacher and I prepare my PhD thesis about Mobile Learning. I'm working with mobile phones. If anyone knows some survey or questionnaire about how students use their mobile phone or PDA, please tell me. Beste regards -- Adelina Moura "Nosce te ipsum" Research area: mLearning Tecnologias móveis www.adelinamouravitae.com.sapo.pt http://linade.podomatic.com

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On-line behaviour
by Karen Stepanyan 28 Nov '06

28 Nov '06

Hi Folks, We are currently teaching a group of students using a system with a functionality of typical contemporary social software. This mailing list should be the right place to ask whether you are familiar with studies of on-line behaviour. Is there someone/university interested/working in this area? I would highly appreciate if you could share any contacts/resources or your thoughts on it. Best, Karen Stepanyan, BCUC/Brunel University Doctoral Candidate

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Fwd: Online Behavior
by Dominic Pinto 28 Nov '06

28 Nov '06

I think this was meant for you/the list :-) --- Professor Amanda Spink <ah.spink(a)qut.edu.au> wrote: > From: Professor Amanda Spink <ah.spink(a)qut.edu.au> > Subject: Online Behavior > To: dominic.pinto(a)ieee.org > Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2006 16:04:46 +1000 (EST) > > Hi Karen: > > I'm an information scientist and have many > publications about online behavior, including the > book "New Directions in Cognitive Information > Retrieval" published recently by Springer. If you go > to my home page, you'll see a list of my pubs and > e-prints. > > Cheers, > Amanda > *************************************** > Amanda Spink > Professor of Information Technology > Faculty of Information Technology > Queensland University of Technology > Gardens Point Campus > 2 George St, GPO Box 2434 > Brisbane QLD 4000 Australia > http://www.fit.qut.edu.au > Tel: 61-7-3864-9583 Fax: 61-7-3864-2703 > Email: ah.spink(a)qut.edu.au > Homepage: http://sky.fit.qut.edu.au/~spinkah/ > Dominic Pinto BA MIEEE MCMI MRi FRSA http://www.ecademy.com/user/dominicpinto e-m: dominic.pinto(a)ieee.org M: +44 780 302-8268 Ph: +44 207 379-8341 In the U.S. M/Cell: +1 215 667-3001

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Re: [Air-l] On-line behaviour
by Ep1curas＠aol.com 27 Nov '06

27 Nov '06

'..generations move demographically' My grandfather didn't die..he moved demographically. I like that. :) As far as this debate goes, I think that professionals and academics can expect too much from 'normal' users, often without qualification. For most people, the Internet is not their main focus in work or in life. I was at a conference recently and got quite (inwardly) annoyed with some of the speakers, who recounted their attempts to educate students and workers about blogging. There are plenty of arguments to me made in favour of blogging in education, but what riled me was that these arguments were not really made. The 'problem' for the speaker was not on how to render blogging useful to educators and learners, but on how to funnel educators and learners towards blogging. To me that requires an awful lot of faith. Martin Calvert

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Sunbelt 2007 Social Network Conference: Call for Papers and Session Proposals
by Moses Boudourides 27 Nov '06

27 Nov '06

CALL FOR PAPERS AND SESSION PROPOSALS The International Network for Social Network Analysis (INSNA) welcomes proposals for individual papers and paper session organizers for the next Sunbelt social network conference, which will take place at the island of Corfu, May 1-6, 2007. The conference web site is <http://nicomedia.math.upatras.gr/conf/Sunbelt2007/>. The conference provides an interdisciplinary venue for sociologists, psychologists, social and behavioral scientists, economists, political scientists, scholars in social movements, environmental studies, communication studies, STS, management and organizational studies, mathematicians, computer scientists, anthropologists, ethnologists, and others to present current work in the area of social networks. Proponents are invited to submit their paper titles and abstracts at the web page <https://cgi.sfu.ca/~insna/confpapers/> (full papers are not requested) until January 30, 2007. The name of the intended session can be specified by proponents themselves. However only those sessions will be actualized which contain more than five accepted papers. The process of evaluation of submitted papers will be finalized in February 2007. Questions about the conference should be sent to Moses Boudourides (sunbelt.corfu.2007(a)gmail.com)

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