- Air-L - lists.aoir.org

what is spam
by David Palfreyman 31 Oct '06

31 Oct '06

Our institution has recently started using Maia Mailguard, which is doing a fine job of recognizing large amounts of incoming spam messages. It also gives me the opportunity to see the rules which it is using to decide what is spam, and I've just noticed that one of the ten rules it used to classify an instance of the Nigerian advance fee fraud mail as spam was that the mail "Contains 'Dear (something)'". Interesting that it is so rare for an email to begin with "Dear..." that it is now considered a *suspect* beginning for a message. :-D

1 0

Fwd: Call for Reviewers
by Jeremy Hunsinger 30 Oct '06

30 Oct '06

Begin forwarded message: > From: James Brian Wagaman <wagaman(a)MAIL.H-NET.MSU.EDU> > Date: October 30, 2006 10:33:21 PM EST > To: H-PCAACA(a)H-NET.MSU.EDU > Subject: Call for Reviewers > Reply-To: wagaman(a)mail.h-net.msu.edu > > Call for Reviewers: New Media Studies Video, PLAYING THE NEWS > > > > We are seeking North America based scholars or professionals who will > write and submit a documentary film review either to an academic or > professional journal (print or online), an association newsletter or > website, or an e-mail listserv. > > > > Prospective reviewers should first contact the editor of an > appropriate > publication or other outlet to confirm that they will consider > publication of your film review. Once you have secured a review > assignment, you may then contact me off-list at gary(a)frif.com to > obtain > a preview copy of PLAYING THE NEWS. > > 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

1 0

Canada's Alternative Telecommunications Policy Forum - news release
by Graham Longford 30 Oct '06

30 Oct '06

Dear AOIR-listers, I want to bring your attention to an event that just took place in Ottawa, Canada, on October 19-21, 2006, the Alternative Telecommunications Policy Forum. The Forum brought together policy experts, academics, and representatives from over a dozen community and public interest organizations across Canada to discuss the implications of telecommunications policy reforms currently being considered by our federal government. On the recommendation of the 2005 Telecommunications Policy Review Panel, the federal government has directed the main telecommunications regulator in Canada (CRTC) to implement the Telecommunications Act in a manner that "maximizes market forces," and is considering abandoning legislative provisions that, among other things, protect consumers and support broadband deployment in rural and remote communities. Topics discussed at the forum included: community broadband and wireless networks; the risks of relying on market forces to promote network access and expansion; the reform of Canada's telecommunications regulatory system; designing government policies and programs to promote effective use of ICTs; and emerging threats to network neutrality. Featured Canadian speakers included: the Honourable Sheila Copps (former Minister of Canadian Heritage); Andrew Clement (University of Toronto); Pippa Lawson (Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic); Garth Graham (Telecommunities Canada) and Marc Raboy (McGill University). Other guest speakers included Sascha Meinrath (Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network) and Ben Scott (FreePress). The Forum was organized by Marita Moll (Telecommunities Canada) Leslie Shade (Concordia University) and, in a supporting role, myself. For anyone interested in learning more, detailed information about the Forum can be found at www.cracin.ca Information about the Telecommunications Policy Review Panel and its Final Report can be found at: www.telecomreview.ca Contents of the post-Forum news release are also pasted below. ************************************************************* Alternative Telecommunications Policy Forum News Release Oct 26, 2006 Proposed Telecom Policy Places Too Much Faith in Market Forces, Citizens¹ Forum Warns "We were looking at telecommunications policy through a social and community economic development lens rather than an industry lens,² according to Marita Moll and Leslie Shade, organizers of the Alternative Telecommunications Policy Forum held in Ottawa, October 19-21. The Forum brought together policy experts, academics, and representatives from over a dozen community and public interest organizations across Canada to discuss the implications of telecommunications policy reforms currently being considered by Industry Minister, Hon. Maxime Bernier. The proposed reforms, which include weakening consumer protection guarantees and eliminating regulations aimed at protecting Canada¹s cultural sovereignty in favour of maximizing market forces, were recommended last spring by the Liberal-appointed Telecommunications Policy Review Panel (TPRP). Participants in the Forum generally agreed that the TPRP Report places far too much faith in ³market forces² in an era when access to advanced telecommunications services has become essential to economic, social, and political participation. ³Canadian citizens, consumers, and communities will be poorly served if the Minister implements the Panel¹s recommendations without more public input,² insisted Dr. Michael Gurstein of CRACIN and Executive Director of the Centre for Community Informatics Research, Training and Development. "Relying exclusively on 'market forces' to guide telecommunications is a dangerous myth, and not well supported by the evidence available," noted Andrew Clement, Professor of Information Studies at the University of Toronto. "Direct government action is an imperative both to the provision of broadband services wherever Canadians live and to providing the means and the knowledge for Canadians to use those services effectively" said David Murdoch, Halifax Regional Community Access Program (CAP) Association Coordinator. ³Canada would do well to learn from the mistakes already made south of the border in the U.S., where we embraced aggressive deregulation sooner,² suggested Ben Scott, Policy Director for Free Press, a Washington, D.C. media policy think-tank. Scott went on to point out that, since 2001, the U.S. has fallen from 4th to 12th in OECD rankings for broadband penetration. The Forum also affirmed that telecommunications performs an essential role in the maintenance of Canadian sovereignty and identity and that this principle should be retained in any new version of the Telecommunications Act. The Industry Minister is also considering an overhaul of Section 7 of the Telecommunications Act, which articulates the objectives of telecom policy in Canada. "The proposed rewrite of section 7 of the Telecommunications Act would eliminate important policy goals such as reliable, high quality service and the protection of consumers from telecom-specific marketplace abuses. It would also remove key provisions including the requirement for just and reasonable rates and the rule against unjust discrimination. Without these goals and basic ground rules, we can expect lowest common denominator approaches to telecommunications service in Canada and widespread marketplace abuses. More than ever before, we need such principles in order to ensure that telecommunications in Canada continues to serve the public good as well as the private shareholders of dominant players," said Philippa Lawson of the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) Also considered at this meeting was the National ICT Strategy proposed in the TPRP Report. ³Such a strategy is important, but we would like to see a great deal more weight given to community input than has been proposed so far,² said Peter Frampton, of the Learning Enrichment Foundation, a social agency that offers programs and services to low income areas in the Greater Toronto Area. The group felt broadband access was key to economic and social development and therefore should be treated as an essential service. However, on the TPRP¹s proposed strategy to deliver broadband to remote and rural areas, known as U-CAN, the message was that the major benefactors of this subsidy would be the largest telephone companies rather than communities. ³The outlined financial obligations are simply too onerous for any other group to play² said Garth Graham of Telecommunities Canada, a group that supports Canadian community networks. "That leaves communities unable to pursue their own ideas and choices about connection and development." The Alternative Telecommunications Policy Forum was convened by the Canadian Research Alliance for Community Innovation and Networking (CRACIN), a SSHRC-funded research partnership established in 2003 to investigate the status and achievements of community-based information and communication technology (ICT) initiatives in Canada, and was financially supported by a SSHRC INE public outreach grant. More information about this Forum can be found at www.cracin.ca For further information please contact: Diane Dechief, CRACIN Administrator Tel: 416-978-4662 E-mail: cracin(a)fis.utoronto.ca -- Graham Longford, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Canadian Research Alliance for Community Innovation and Networking (CRACIN) Co-investigator, Community Wireless Infrastructure Research Project (CWIRP) Faculty of Information Studies University of Toronto 140 St. George St., Rm 310 Toronto, Ontario CANADA M5S 3G6 email: graham.longford(a)utoronto.ca +1 416-978-4662

2 1

CFP - Special Issue of ARTIFACT: The Interaction of Practice and Theory
by Charlie Breindahl 30 Oct '06

30 Oct '06

Call for Papers Special Issue of ARTIFACT: The Interaction of Practice and Theory. While theory and practice interact in design artifacts implicitly, this special issue of Artifact seeks to understand that interaction explicitly, by exploring collaborative articles between academics and professionals. We encourage submissions that include, but are not limited to the following themes. 1. Academic/professional reflections that compare perspectives on analysis versus making as it applies to a digital artifact. 2. Conversations in which academics and professionals ask and answer each other's questions concerning a particular design artifact. 3. Individuals who "have a foot in theory and one in practice" or who have experience moving from theory to practice, reflect on the opportunities and constraints in each. 4. Graduate students, professionals, and/or academics, who have collaborated on a student project, describe that process. Please follow Artifact's guidelines for authors http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/authors/saifauth.pdf. Submit manuscripts by DECEMBER 15, 2006 to <susan.hagan(a)alumni.cmu.edu>. Susan Hagan and Erik Stolterman

1 0

null hypothesis
by Sam Tilden 30 Oct '06

30 Oct '06

Most of the research in CMC seems to "assume" differences between CMC and other media such as telephone and letter-mail. I have been unable to find research that clearly delineates this difference. Can anyone help me here. Sam --------------------------------- Get your email and see which of your friends are online - Right on the new Yahoo.com

6 7

Limited time free access to Sage journals
by Matthew Allen 30 Oct '06

30 Oct '06

Dear all Some of you may be interested in a month's free access to Sage online journals. If so please use the information below, provided by Sage. ------ To register for your free trial today, simply click here <http://sage-news.msgfocus.com/c/1HB74VfKvyJ> . Alternatively, please email us <http://sage-news.msgfocus.com/c/1HBgSIl4si4> with the following details so that we are able to register you for the trial: First Name; Last Name; Department Institution/Organization Name; Country of Residence; Preferred Email Address; Your Profession; Name of Trial NB: Your free online access to these journals will finish on July 31st 2006. To continue to access these journals online in 2006, please encourage your institution to subscribe to the print and electronic versions using the library recommendation form <http://sage-news.msgfocus.com/c/1HBqGvqop1p> . Also of interest... Sign up for FREE online access to Volume One of new SAGE journals: Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal <http://sage-news.msgfocus.com/c/1HBAuivIlKK> - first issue July 2006 Discourse & Communication <http://sage-news.msgfocus.com/c/1HBKi5B2iu5> - first issue February 2007 Games and Culture: A Journal of Interactive Media <http://sage-news.msgfocus.com/c/1HBU5SGmfdq> - now published ------ We are currently finalising an expanded package of journal discounts for AoIR members to Sage journals which we will announce in August. Dr Matthew Allen Associate Professor in Internet Studies President Association of Internet Researchers Faculty of Media Society and Culture Curtin University of Technology CRICOS Provider Code 00301J http://smi.curtin.edu.au/NetStudies/allen.htm +61 8 92663511 (v) +61 8 92663166 (f)

2 4

CFP: Gamers in Society Seminar, April 17-18, 2007
by Olli Sotamaa 30 Oct '06

30 Oct '06

Hi, I thought some of you might find this interesting. Feel free to distribute the call as you see fit. bw, Olli Sotamaa MA, PhD Student Media Culture, University of Tampere --------- CFP: Gamers in Society Seminar Gamers in Society, Play in Culture The Third Annual Game Studies Seminar organised by the University of Tampere Game Research Lab April 17-18, 2007, Tampere, Finland The social aspects of digital gaming are gaining increasing attention by academics, game developers and media alike. Popular controversy on the supposedly detrimental effects of games are countered by growing attention to the social value and cultural significance that contemporary games present to their players. New research is probing the precise roles games and playing occupy in the lives of various groups and individuals, producing interesting data about the multiple domains of life within information technology saturated societies. Simultaneously this kind of socio-cultural studies of game players require novel approaches into existing theories and methodologies in human sciences, informed by dialogue within the emerging field of game studies. Gamers in Society seminar invites presentations on this multidisciplinary and dynamic field; the seminar is third in the annual series of game studies working seminars organised by the Games Research Lab in the University of Tampere. The list of possible presentation topics includes, but is not limited to: • ethnographic studies of particular groups of game players • studies about social networks or communities created around, or within games • research into the social roles and dynamics within such game communities • inquiries into the everyday uses and social significance of games • studies into issues related with status, value and social norms that govern the position of games and gamers within the wider context of contemporary society • demographic studies mapping the time, money or other investments into games by various parts of the population • studies discussing the concept of game culture, or applying cultural and social approach into game studies Due to the work-in-progress emphasis, we strongly encourage submitting late breaking results, working papers and/or submissions from graduate students. Early considerations from projects currently in progress are most welcome, as the purpose of the seminar is to have peer-to-peer discussions and thereby provide support in refining and improving research work in this area. After the seminar, a printed publication may be edited from the final versions of the selected papers of the seminar, or they might be published within an electronic repository such as the DiGRA digital library. However, all such publication plans are finally subject to discussions and agreement among the seminar participants. The papers to be presented will be chosen based on abstract review. Full papers are submitted prior the event to all participants, in order to facilitate discussion. The two-day event consists of themed sessions that aim to introduce current research projects and discuss ongoing work in social and cultural study of players. The seminar will be chaired by professor Frans Mäyrä (Hypermedia Laboratory, University of Tampere). Paper commentators include associate professor T.L. Taylor, the author of Play Between Worlds: Exploring Online Game Culture (The MIT Press, 2006). The seminar will be held in Tampere, Finland and will be free of charge; the number of participants will be restricted. Important Dates Abstract Deadline January 15th, 2007 Notification of Acceptance January 30, 2007 Full Paper March 31, 2007 Seminar April 17-18, 2007 Submission Guidelines Abstract submissions should range from 800 to 1.000 words + references. Abstracts should be send to info-gamestudies(a)uta.fi as plain text only (no attachments). Guidelines for submitting a full seminar paper will be provided with the notification of acceptance. As the seminar is intended as a relatively informal forum for discussion, no strict length restrictions apply for the full papers; the scope of the papers may vary from 3.000 to 8.000 words. If the selected works are published after the seminar, further guidelines will be provided in the editorial process. The presentations held at the seminar should also encourage discussion, instead of only repeating the information presented in the papers. Tentatively every paper will be presented for 10 minutes and discussed for 20 minutes. Contacts, seminar organising team Frans Mäyrä, tel. +358 50 336 7650 Olli Sotamaa Jaakko Stenros Annakaisa Kultima firstname.lastname(a)uta.fi http://gamelab.uta.fi/socialgamer-seminar/

1 0

Proceedings of ECAP 2005 - European Computing and Philosophy Conference 2005 published in tripleC (http://triplec.uti.at)
by Christian Fuchs 30 Oct '06

30 Oct '06

A special issue of tripleC (Cognition, Communication, Co-operation) that covers selected papers from ECAP 2005 - European Computing and Philosophy Conference 2005 has just been published. http://triplec.uti.at/articles.php For this issue Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic and Susan Stuart were the guest-editors. tripleC (http://triplec.uti.at) is a peer-reviewed open access online journal for the foundations of information science that covers issues from information science and information society research, it is published at the ICT&S Center of the University of Salzburg. You find the contents of this issue below. With Kind Regards, Christian Fuchs (Managing Editor of tripleC) _____________________________ Univ.Ass. Dr. Christian Fuchs ICT&S Center - Advanced Studies and Research in Information and Communication Technologies & Society http://www.icts.uni-salzburg.at University of Salzburg Sigmund Haffner Gasse 18 5020 Salzburg Austria christian.fuchs(a)sbg.ac.at Phone +43 662 8044 4823 Fax +43 662 6389 4800 Information-Society-Technology: http://cartoon.iguw.tuwien.ac.at/christian/ Managing Editor of tripleC - open access online journal for the foundations of information science: http://triplec.uti.at *tripleC, Issue Vol. 4, No. 2:* * *SPECIAL ISSUE OF TRIPLEC: Selected Papers From ECAP 2005 - European Computing and Philosophy Conference 2005 * Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic; Susan Stuart * *Inference Rules, Emergent Wholes and Supervenient 127-135* Ingvar Johansson * *Some Assumptions about Problem Solving Representation in Turing’s Model of Intelligence 136-142* Raymundo Morado and Francisco Hernández-Quiroz * *The Genesis of Representation 143-146* W A Cameron * *The April Fool Turing Test 147-166* Mark S. Dougherty, Sofi Hemgren Dougherty, Jerker Westin * *Approaching Artificial Intelligence for Games – the Turing Test revisited 167-171* Jenny Eriksson Lundström and Stefan Karlsson * *Available information — preparatory note for a theory of information space 172-177* Lars-Erik Janlert * *Memory versus logic: two models of organizing information and their influences on web retrieval strategies 178-186* Teresa Numerico * *Commonsense Spatial Reasoning: an Informational Perspective 187-194* Stefania Bandini, Gianluca Colombo, Alessandro Mosca and Matteo Palmonari * *Machinery, Intelligence and Our Intentionality. Grounds for Establishing Paradoxical Discourses. 195-201* C.T.A. Schmidt * *The Cognitive Management of E-Testimony 202-208* Saul Traiger * *Choosing between different AI approaches? The scientific benefits of the confrontation, and the new collaborative era between humans and machines 209-216* Jordi Vallverdú * *Error-correcting codes and genetics 217-229* Gérard Battail * *The Internet as a Moral Mediator. The Quest for Democracy 230-238* Emanuele Bardone and Lorenzo Magnani * *Autonomy and Morality in DRM and Anti-Circumvention Law 239-245* Dan L. Burk and Tarleton Gillespie * *Expected Influence of Ethics on Product Development Process 246-253* Stig Larsson * *Artificial Intelligence and Moral intelligence 254-264* Laura Pana * *Information Structure Representation And Extraction From A Corpus Of Patient Data, Using An Ontology 265-276* Christian Cote * *Symbolic Machine Learning: A Different Answer to the Problem of the Acquisition of Lexical Knowledge from Corpora 277-283* Pascale Sébillot * *A.L.I.C.E.: an ACE in Digitaland 284-292* Huma Shah * *Interpretations of Ontologies for Breast Cancer 293-303* Srinandan Dasmahapatra and Kieron O’Hara * *Overcoming the socio-technical divide: A long-term source of hope in feminist studies of computer science 303-315* Corinna Bath * *What does it mean to Know Computer Science? Perspectives from Gender Research 316-327* Christina Björkman and Lena Trojer * *Testing Reasoning Software. A Bayesian Way 328-332* Bertil Rolf

1 0

Updated list management policy
by Matthew Allen 30 Oct '06

30 Oct '06

Dear all The AoIR Executive has recently endorsed the following policy for management of the air-l list. Thanks to you all for your continued involvement and happy posting :) ---- AoIR air-l List Policy The air-l mailing list is maintained by the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) and available to scholars and other interested people in this field, whether or not they are members of AoIR. This email list has well over 1000 subscribers and provides an excellent environment in which to share information, discuss key research concerns and network with those sharing similar research and scholarly interests. TECHNICAL INFORMATION To subscribe or manage your existing subscription, as well as to view archives, visit http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org If already subscribed, to send email to the entire list, send it to air-l at listserv.aoir.org. A subscription management help file is available by emailing air-l-request at listserv.aoir.org. Type 'help' (no quotation marks) in the subject line or body of the message. To contact the list manager, send a message containing your question to air-l-owner at listserv.aoir.org. The size limit for air-l posts is 10 KB. Therefore, please do not send attachments to the list, try not to include entire digests or several lengthy earlier posts in your messages, and if possible, post in plain text rather than HTML. Messages larger than 10 KB are held for the list manager's approval and will be rejected with the request that they be edited or reformatted and re-sent. RULES AIR-L is an email list owned and operated by the Association of Internet Researchers and is managed for the Association by the AoIR Executive Committee. The Association reserves the right to remove subscribers and/or refuse subscription at any time without without warning or explanation. The Association would very much prefer not to exercise this right and will not need to if subscribers comply with the list rules. In subscribing to air-l and remaining subscribed to air-l, you are agreeing to adhere to these rules: Diverse opinions are welcome. The readership of air-l includes people from a wide variety of professional, disciplinary, methodological, and national traditions. List participants are expected to respect these differences. We ask that you maintain a tone of civility and use good judgment in your posts: disagreements are to be expected, but blatant rudeness, Personal attacks, lack of respect, and monopolization of air-l to further one's one agenda are not expected nor will they be tolerated. Anonymous subscriptions and posts are not allowed. In order to help maintain the list as a valuable resource for everyone, you must identify yourself by your real full name when you subscribe and when you post to air-l, and you should be prepared to verify your identity upon the executive committee's request, including by providing a c.v. or resume. This will normally occur upon subscription. You must reply to private email privately, and you may not forward personal email to air-l without the author's permission. ETIQUETTE Keep in mind that anything you send to air-l automatically goes to all subscribers - please keep posts on-topic for the list. Also remember when posting to the list that air-l is a public forum and that your words will be available to everyone subscribed to the list and placed in a public archive. Messages sent via email can easily be reproduced and circulated beyond their originally intended audience, and neither the list manager, the association's officers, nor the server1s host are responsible for consequences arising from list messages being re-distributed. DISCLAIMER Unless otherwise indicated, opinions expressed in messages on air-l are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent official AoIR policy. AoIR and its members bear no responsibility for the content of messages posted to air-l. This is an unmoderated list. ------------ Dr Matthew Allen Associate Professor in Internet Studies President Association of Internet Researchers Faculty of Media Society and Culture Curtin University of Technology CRICOS Provider Code 00301J http://smi.curtin.edu.au/NetStudies/allen.htm +61 8 92663511 (v) +61 8 92663166 (f)

1 0

CMC vs the other stuff
by Barry Wellman 29 Oct '06

29 Oct '06

Sam Tilden just wrote: "Most of the research in CMC seems to "assume" differences between CMC and other media such as telephone and letter-mail. I have been unable to find research that clearly delineates this difference. Can anyone help me here." Someone once wrote that whenever someone asks for something, Barry replies: "We did a paper on this." In reply to Sam's Q: Several papers, but mebbe not quite what he wants. 1. We have a bunch of papers in the past decade, showing differences in the frequency of CMC vs phone vs FTF use -- and who uses it. Go to my site, and see the National Geographic paper with Anabel Quan-Haase, the organizational analyses with Anabel Quan-Haase (surprised at how few on the AoIR list seem to study organizational use); the Netville stuff by Hampton and Wellman; the Pew "Strength of INternet Ties" by Boase, et al; the Connected Lives paper by Wellman & Hogan; the Networked Households paper by Kennedy and Wellman. 2. However, we don't have much (yet) on how it is used, and nothing on differences in content and cognition. 3. Sam also asks for letter-mail. Basically, it's only used by individuals for greeting cards and a rare perfumed love note. When we have data on it, it's at the bottom of the Y-axis. OTOH, those studying weak ties should take greeting cards seriously, even if they've gone back to postal, instead of e-greetings (Why?). As I recall, there was a paper in ASR or AJS about this. 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 _____________________________________________________________________

2 1