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Communities and Technologies Workshop Proposals Due by Dec. 4
by Charles Steinfield 27 Nov '06

27 Nov '06

Greetings colleagues, Only a week remains before the deadline for submitting workshop proposals for the Communities and Technologies 2007 meeting. This biennial meeting serves as a forum for stimulating and disseminating research on the complex connections between communities – both physical and virtual – and information and communication technologies. We had an excellent response to the completed paper call, and the June 28-30 conference should be an excellent one. Here is some information from the C&T 2007 website about workshops at the C&T meeting: Workshops As with prior C&T meetings, we are planning to host a series of half- day and full day workshops on June 28, the first day of the conference. Workshops are organized around a theme proposed by individuals or groups of researchers and accepted by the program committee. The workshop proposers, with support by the conference co- organizers, run their workshop, including distribution of a call for participation and selection of participants in advance of the conference. Workshops will be held at the conference venue in suitably equipped meeting rooms. Proposals for workshops are due on December 4, 2006. Proposals should be built around specific themes relevant to the conference. Workshop proposals should be 4 pages in length, and should define the theme(s) of the workshop, the main activities and goals, the background and contact information of the organizer(s), the maximum number of participants in the workshop, the means of soliciting participants, and the method of selecting participants. Proposals should also include a brief summary of no more than 150 words suitable for describing the workshop in the conference program. with best regards, Charles Steinfield, Brian Pentland, Mark Ackerman, and Nosh Contractor Co-organizers, 3rd International Conference on Communities and Technologies http://ebusiness.tc.msu.edu/cct2007/

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Open Access in Germany
by Rubina Vock 27 Nov '06

27 Nov '06

***Apologies for cross-posting*** Please find attached an announcement concerning Open Access activities in Germany. DFG Project: A Nation-Wide Online Information Portal On Open Access Issues Since September 2006 the German Science Foundation [Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG] funds the implementation of a nation-wide online information portal on Open Access issues that is operated cooperatively by the Universities of Bielefeld, Goettingen, Constance and the Free University of Berlin, with support from DINI - German Initiative for Networked Information. The platform is intended to inform scientists, their professional societies, university administrations and the interested public comprehensively on objectives and use of Open Access, and support them with practical assistance on its implementation in practice. Open Access Publications are conceived as scientific publications that are worldwide freely available on the Internet. The Open Access Movement's objective is the better utilisation of this form of publication in order to maximise the diffusion and usage of scientific knowledge. As recent studies demonstrate [1], the reception of Open Access publications generally is already several times higher than that of traditional publications behind cost barriers. For individual authors as well as their institutions, this translates into a significantly better "visibility" within the international scientific community. The signing of the "Berlin Declaration on open access to scientific knowledge" [2] by numerous national and international science organisations and funding bodies and a growing number of Universities underlines the importance for Open Access for Science Policy in general. A DFG survey on author's experiences with Open Access [3] showed that Open Access publication opportunities are still underutilized, but found much willingness to actively further Open Access in Germany. Therefore the DFG, as a cosignatory of the "Berlin Declaration", like many other national funding organisations, strongly encourages all project investigators to publish in refereed Open Access journals or to make available digital copies of their work on Open Access servers. Until now Information on Open Access is largely produced in an uncoordinated way and is mostly scattered widely throughout the Internet, much of it is dependent upon the local personal commitment of individuals. This fact is largely responsible for the discrepancy between the growing international significance of Open Access on one hand and the comparatively small publicity and little practice with German scientists on the other hand. The new information portal sets out to counter this development in Germany. The offer addresses primarily scientific authors, university administrations and scholarly societies. Current deficits in information and use within the German Higher Education Landscape are sought to be removed by the concise presentation of relevant information on Open Access issues targeted to specific audiences. The information platform will also concentrate on concrete recommendations for action, know how and argumentation aids as well as the sharing of practical experience and all sort of information materials on Open Access. The four project partners all belong to the pioneers on the field of Open Access in Germany. After its completion in May 2007, the online platform will be open to all interested users and additional cooperation partners for exchange of information and experiences. DINI - the German Initiative for Networked Information, regards the new information platform as a chance to better promote the relevant open access activities of DINI. Platform development and operation are therefore supported by DINI. More information may be found on the website of the project http://www.openaccess-germany.de/ or via the coordinators: Dr. Norbert Lossau (Director, State and University Library Goettingen, Project Leader), norbert.lossau(a)sub.uni-goettingen.de Cordula Noetzelmann (Coordination Scientific Publishing, University of Bielefeld), cordula.noetzelmann(a)uni-bielefeld.de Dr. Katja Mruck (Coordination e-Publishing, Open Access, Center for Digital Systems (CeDiS) of the Free University of Berlin), katja.mruck(a)fu-berlin.de Karlheinz Pappenberger (Coordination Scientific Publishing, University of Constance), Karlheinz.Pappenberger(a)uni-konstanz.de [1] http://opcit.eprints.org/oacitation-biblio.html [2] http://oa.mpg.de/openaccess-berlin/signatories.html) [3] http://www.dfg.de/en/dfg_profile/facts_and_figures/statistical_reporting/op…

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censorship work arounds
by Barry Wellman 27 Nov '06

27 Nov '06

_____________________________________________________________________ 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 _____________________________________________________________________ November 27, 2006 Web Tool Said to Offer Way Past the Government Censor By CHRISTOPHER MASON TORONTO, Nov. 21 Deep in a basement lab at the University of Toronto a team of political scientists, software engineers and computer-hacking activists, or hactivists, have created the latest, and some say most advanced tool yet in allowing Internet users to circumvent government censorship of the Web. The program, called psiphon (pronounced SY-fon), will be released on Dec. 1 in response to growing Internet censorship that is pushing citizens in restrictive countries to pursue more elaborate and sophisticated programs to gain access to Western news sites, blogs and other censored material. The problem is growing exponentially, said Ronald Deibert, director of the University of Torontos Citizen Lab, which designed psiphon. What might have started as censorship of pornography and Western news organizations has expanded to include blogging sites, religious sites, health information sites and many others. Psiphon is downloaded by a person in an uncensored country (psiphon.civisec.org) turning that persons computer into an access point. Someone in a restricted-access country can then log into that computer through an encrypted connection and using it as a proxy, gain access to censored sites. The programs designers say there is no evidence on the users computer of having viewed censored material once they erase their Internet history after each use. The software is part of a broader effort to live up to the initial hopes human rights activists had that the Internet would provide unprecedented freedom of expression for those living in restrictive countries. Governments have militarized their censorship efforts to an incredible extent so were trying to reverse some of that and restore that promise that the Internet once had for unfettered access and communication, Dr. Deibert said. When it opened in 2000, the Citizen Lab, which is one of four institutions in the OpenNet Initiative (opennetinitiative.org) was actively monitoring a handful of countries, mainly China, Iran and Saudi Arabia, that censored the Internet. But citing increased filtering by governments, the lab now monitors more than 40 countries. The programs designers say existing anticensorship programs are too complicated for everyday computer users, leave evidence on the users computer and lack security in part because they have to be advertised publicly, making it easy for censors to detect and block access to them. Now you will have potentially thousands, even tens of thousands, of private proxies that are almost impossible for censors to follow one by one, said Qiang Xiao, director of the China Internet Project at the University of California, Berkeley. Instead of publicly advertising the required login and password information, psiphon is designed to be shared within trusted social circles of friends, family and co-workers. This feature is meant to keep the program away from censors but is also the largest drawback because it limits efforts to get the program to as many people as possible. The software is also designed to allow users to post on blogs and other Web sites like Wikipedia, which has been a problem for some other anticensorship programs. By requiring only login information and no installation, psiphon is intended for anyone with basic computer knowledge because psiphon functions much the same as any typical browser. So far its been tech solutions for tech people, said Dmitri Vitaliev, a human rights activist in Russia who has been testing psiphon in countries where the Internet is censored. We have not had very good tools so everyone has been eagerly awaiting psiphon. Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

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Blogging Issue Publication Announcement, CFP - Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture
by Tama Leaver 26 Nov '06

26 Nov '06

Blogging Issue Publication Announcement Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture Reconstruction is proud to announce the publication of its Vol. 6, No. 4 (2006) themed issue, "Theories/Practices of Blogging," which can be found at http://reconstruction.eserver.org. Featured in the issue: * Craig Saper, "Blogademia" * danah boyd, "A Blogger's Blog: Exploring the Definition of a Medium" * Tama Leaver, "Blogging Everyday Life" * Erica Johnson, "Democracy Defended: Polibloggers and the Political Press in America" * Carmel L. Vaisman, "Design and Play: Weblog Genres of Adolescent Girls in Israel" * David Sasaki, "Identity and Credibility in the Global Blogosphere" * Anna Notaro, "The Lo(n)g Revolution: The Blogosphere as an Alternative Public Sphere?" * Emerald Tina, "My Life in the Panopticon: Blogging From Iran" * Various Authors, "Webfestschrift for Wealth Bondage/The Happy Tutor" * Lilia Efimova, "Two papers, me in between" * Lauren Elkin, "Blogging and (Expatriate) Identity" * Various Bloggers, "Why I Blog" --- Call for Papers Reconstruction is now accepting submissions for the following upcoming theme issues: * Class, Culture and Public Intellectuals (deadline: December 1, 2006) * Visualization and Narrative (deadline: December 15, 2007) * Fieldwork and Interdisciplinary Research (no deadline set) For individual CFP requirements and guest editor contact information, please check our "Upcoming Issues" page at http://reconstruction.eserver.org/upcoming.shtml. Reconstruction is also accepting submissions for upcoming Open Issues. The next Open Issue is scheduled for publication in Fall 2007. Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture (ISSN: 1547-4348) is an innovative cultural studies journal dedicated to fostering an intellectual community composed of scholars and their audience, granting them all the ability to share thoughts and opinions on the most important and influential work in contemporary interdisciplinary studies. Reconstruction publishes one open issue and three themed issues quarterly--more or less in the third week of January, April, July, October. Submissions may be created from a variety of perspectives, including, but not limited to: geography, cultural studies, folklore, architecture, history, sociology, psychology, communications, music, political science, semiotics, theology, art history, queer theory, literature, criminology, urban planning, gender studies, graphic design, etc. Both theoretical and empirical approaches are welcomed. As a peer reviewed journal, submissions to Reconstruction are read in traditional double-blind fashion, critiqued, and subsequently either returned to the author for revision or accepted for publication. In the case of disputed articles, the readers unable to come to a consensus, the article will be read by an additional reader and then, again, decided upon for future publication. Articles accepted for publication are done so under the following conditions: 1) If the article has not appeared in English previously, the article will not appear in publication before its publication in Reconstruction. 2) The author of said article is responsible for any and all legal complaints made against the work, and is thus financially responsible for any legal actions. 3) Any subsequent publication of the article, in any form, must acknowledge its earlier publication in Reconstruction. The author is responsible for gaining permission to use any copyrighted images or other materials. In matters of citation, it is assumed that the proper MLA format will be followed. Other citation formats are acceptable in respect to the disciplinary concerns of the author. For further information, please consult our Submission Guidelines found at http://reconstruction.eserver.org/guidelines.shtml. Reconstruction is indexed in the MLA International Bibliography. All submissions and submission queries should be written care of submissions at reconstruction.ws. -- Dr Tama Leaver Associate Lecturer (Higher Education Development) Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (M400) University of Western Australia 35 Stirling Highway Crawley WA 6009 Australia Ph: (+61 8) 6488 1502 Fax: (+61 8) 6488 1156 www: http://www.catl.uwa.edu.au blog: http://ponderance.blogspot.com edublog: http://tama.edublogs.org

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Reconnecting with friends online
by Denise Bortree 26 Nov '06

26 Nov '06

I'm looking for literature on reconnecting with friends online. Specifically, I'm starting a project on the way the internet can be used to search for and re-establish relationships with friends from former life stages. An initial literature search has generated very little. If you have done work in this area or are familiar with studies that have looked at this, I hope you will share. Thanks in advance. Denise Bortree Grad Student University of Florida

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identity theft ads
by Shoshana Magnet 25 Nov '06

25 Nov '06

Hi all, I'm looking to track down a set of advertisements addressing the dangers of identity theft. The ads I'm thinking about featured a set of dramatic bodily switches. The bodies were supposed to be profoundly mismatched to the copy. I believe one had the body of a grandmother claiming to have bought some new technological device. The overall message was "beware identity theft." I'd appreciate any leads. Thanks so much. Shoshana Shoshana Magnet SSHRC Doctoral Candidate Institute of Communications Research University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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network neutrality video
by Jeremy Hunsinger 24 Nov '06

24 Nov '06

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTQ77Es5xL4 for those interested in the topic, a primarily u.s. perspective on the issue, but interesting nonetheless. jeremy hunsinger Assistant Professor Pratt Institute www.cddc.vt.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] identity theft ads
by T. Kennedy 24 Nov '06

24 Nov '06

Go to Youtube and search for identity theft. I just showed these in class last week :) Tracy Kennedy -----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces(a)listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Shoshana Magnet Sent: November 24, 2006 12:59 PM To: air-l(a)aoir.org Subject: [Air-l] identity theft ads Hi all, I'm looking to track down a set of advertisements addressing the dangers of identity theft. The ads I'm thinking about featured a set of dramatic bodily switches. The bodies were supposed to be profoundly mismatched to the copy. I believe one had the body of a grandmother claiming to have bought some new technological device. The overall message was "beware identity theft." I'd appreciate any leads. Thanks so much. Shoshana Shoshana Magnet SSHRC Doctoral Candidate Institute of Communications Research University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign _______________________________________________ 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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Children in the role as key information providers for research projects Lolichen P.J. / Child Rights Information Network (CRIN) , 2006
by Jeremy Hunsinger 24 Nov '06

24 Nov '06

Here is a paper some people might find useful, it just popped up in the blogosphere, so i'm reposting before I've read it. Children in the role as key information providers for research projects Lolichen P.J. / Child Rights Information Network (CRIN) , 2006 http://www.eldis.org/cf/search/disp/DocDisplay.cfm? Doc=DOC22730&Resource=f1 Jeremy Hunsinger School of Library and Information Science Pratt Institute () 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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New Masters of Digital Media Program
by T. Kennedy 23 Nov '06

23 Nov '06

Hello folks! Sorry for cross-posting if you've already seen this.... I just wanted to pass on some information about a new Master's program - one of the many hats I wear is that of a Virtual Research Consultant for the Centre for Digital Media at Great Northern Way Campus in Vancouver, British Columbia. On Saturday, November 25th, 2006 the Masters of Digital Media (MDM) program at the Great Northern Way Campus will host an Open House for prospective students from around the globe in the online metaverse 'Second Life', where a Virtual Centre for Digital Media building is currently under construction. This event will be held in conjunction with a Real Life Open House taking place simultaneously at Vancouver's Great Northern Way Campus. At both events, potential students will learn about an innovative graduate program in digital media planned to launch in September 2007. More information can be found online here: http://www.gnwc.ca/mdm/ http://www.mastersofdigitalmedia.blogspot.com http://www.flickr.com/photos/gnwc To view the building of the virtual CDM: http://www.gnwc.ca/mdm/cdm-machinima2.mov Here is the flyer with more information about this event. http://www.gnwc.ca/mdm/slopenhouse.pdf If you have a chance, it would be great if you could forward this email and flyer to anyone who might be interested in the program, and perhaps you can post the flyer in your department. Please feel free to email me with any questions you may have regarding the new program or the Open House. Many thanks Tracy Kennedy ******************************************** Second Life - TracyTrail Blazer Virtual Research Consultant Centre for Digital Media Great Northern Way Campus 555 Great Northern Way Vancouver, BC V5T 1E2 First Life - Tracy L. M. Kennedy PhD Candidate - Department of Sociology Graduate Fellow - Knowledge Media Design Institute www.kmdi.utoronto.ca/collaborative Research Coordinator - NetLab - Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 725 Spadina Ave. Toronto, ON M5S 2J4 www.netwomen.ca/Blog Research Director - Netwomen Consulting tkennedy(a)netwomen.ca ********************************************

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