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information and knowledge - III
by Charles Ess 16 Oct '05

16 Oct '05

Finally, the discussion on HUMANIST focused on whether or not humanities folk's experiences with computing might have changed previous notions (such as those implied by T.S. Eliot) about knowledge, information, etc. I offered the following - I'm tempted to think that computing has changed people's perceptions - in the direction of what O'Leary and Brasher in their 1996 essay have identified as a form of Gnosticism: == One issue raised in computer-mediated communication that we find particularly troubling is the extent to which the new media reduce all discourse to information. This can result in a contemporary analogue of Gnosticism, the mystical quest for the knowledge that saves. Physicist Heinz Pagels puts the problem succinctly: <quote>Some intellectual prophets have declared the end of the age of knowledge and the beginning of the age of information. Information tends to drive out knowledge. Information is just signs and numbers, while knowledge has semantic value. What we want is knowledge, but what we often get is information. It is a sign of the times that many people cannot tell the difference between information and knowledge, not to mention wisdom, which even knowledge tends to drive out. (1988, 49) </quote> If our traditions cannot keep knowledge and wisdom alive, these distinctions will disappear as all is reduced to information. The cyborg's spiritual quest would become an endless search for the information that saves-a quest doomed to failure, an endless and eternally restless manipulation of signs and numbers that, like the search for the philosopher's stone, can never produce the gold or the semantic value that we seek. When the ambitious dream described by Richard Lanham in The Electronic Word is realized, and the whole record of human culture is digitized and available on computer databases connected to each other by a global web, our spiritual crisis will remain and even intensify, for we will be forced to confront the fact that no electronic alchemy can turn information into knowledge, or into the wisdom that will teach us how to live. == Pagels, Heinz. 1988. The Dreams of Reason. New York: Simon and Schuster. Cited in O'Leary and Brasher, The Unknown God of the Internet: Religious Communication from the Ancient Agora to the Virtual Forum, in Ess (ed.) Philosophical Perspectives on Computer-Mediated Communication (Albany, NY: SUNY Press), 262. As a last note - Bill McKibben's _The Age of Missing Information_ (1993) argues much the same point, primarily vis-à-vis TV, drawing on the work of phenomenologist / philosopher (and closet theologian) Albert Borgmann, McLuhan, and others, along with his own experience of watching several thousand hours of TV collected from a day's broadcasting of the nation's first cable system of 90+ channels in Fairfax, VA. Well worth the read, IMHO. cheers, - c. Charles Ess Distinguished Research Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies Drury University 900 N. Benton Ave. Voice: 417-873-7230 Springfield, MO 65802 USA FAX: 417-873-7435 Home page: http://www.drury.edu/ess/ess.html Co-chair, CATaC'06: http://www.catacconference.org Co-chair, ECAP'06: http://www.eu-cap.org Professor II, Globalization and Applied Ethics Programmes Norwegian University of Science and Technology NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway http://www.anvendtetikk.ntnu.no/pres/bridgingcultures.php Exemplary persons seek harmony, not sameness. -- Analects 13.23

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Re: [Air-l] New internet conference blog
by Michel J. Menou 16 Oct '05

16 Oct '05

May I remind that there is an International Calendar of Information Science conferences http://icisic.neasist.org that is open to all for listing information about conferences in this area, understood from a most comprehensive perspectiveof which Internet related topics are a natural part. This voluntary service is open to all and offers several output formats including RSS feed. Michel >Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2005 16:54:11 -0500 >From: Nancy Baym <nbaym(a)ku.edu> >Subject: [Air-l] New internet conference blog >To: air-l(a)aoir.org > > >This new IP and IT conference blog looks handy: > >http://madisonian.net/conferences/ > >Nancy > > > -- ================================================================= Dr. Michel J. Menou 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 49350 Les Rosiers sur Loire, France Email: Michel.Menou(a)wanadoo.fr Phone: +33 (0)2 41511043 http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ciber/peoplemenou.php ================================================================== -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.12.1/136 - Release Date: 15/10/2005

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Information/knowledge
by Stephen Coleman 16 Oct '05

16 Oct '05

The most comprehensive and stimulating volume on information/knowledge that I know is Information Space: A Framework for Learning in Organizations, Institutions and Cultures by Max Boisot, London: Routledge, 1995. I would also strongly recommend Looking for information: A survey of research on information seeking, needs, and behavior by Donald Case, New York: Academic Press/Elsevier Science, 2002. Stephen Coleman, Oxford Internet Institute can you -- or anyone else on the list -- point me to references on the distinction between information and knowledge? Clifford Tatum Doctoral Student Dept. of Communication University of Washington clifford(a)u.washington.edu

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Re: [Air-l] air-l Digest, Vol 15, Issue 12
by Stephanie Kent 16 Oct '05

16 Oct '05

I'm also interested as I'm making noises about starting an audioblog (why are they audioblogs sometimes and pods other times? is it purely the equipment or are they substantially different?) You see, I tend to learn by diving in knowing next to nothing... %-) steph http://www.reflexivity.us On Oct 15, 2005, at 3:02 PM, air-l-request(a)listserv.aoir.org wrote: > Message: 3 > Date: Sat, 15 Oct 2005 08:29:58 -0400 > From: Radhika Gajjala <radhika(a)cyberdiva.org> > Subject: Re: [Air-l] Podcasting > To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org > Message-ID: <a0611040dbf76a65e211c(a)[192.168.1.100]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" > > > Tracy - how did this go? > > (putting together my plans for next semester and would like links and > examples of how it was done- if anyone has anything of interest - do > feel free to submit to my teach blog comments - at > http://cyberdiva.typepad.com/teach) > > r > > >> Hello Folks! >> >> I am teaching a Cyberculture course this spring, and the next topic of >> discussion concerns Blogs - I will also be talking about >> videoblogging, >> mobblogging and postcasting. >> >> I am wondering if anyone can point to research about Podcasting - or >> using >> podcasting in the classroom? >> >> Having said that - is anyone interested in posting a podcast on their >> blog >> (perhaps a commentary about podcasting in the classroom) so that my >> students >> can visit it on Tuesday and listen to it? It would be great if >> someone (or >> more) could do this. It would be a great experience for my students. >> >> Please email me off list tkennedy(a)netwomen.ca >> >> Thanks so much! >> >> ******************************************** >> Tracy L. M. Kennedy >> PhD Candidate - >> Department of Sociology >> >> Graduate Fellow - >> Knowledge Media & Design Institute >> >> Research Associate - >> NetLab - Centre for Urban & Community Studies >> >> University of Toronto >> 725 Spadina Ave. >> Toronto, ON M5S 2J4 >> tkennedy(a)netwomen.ca >> www.netwomen.ca >> www.kmdi.utoronto.ca/collaborative >> ******************************************** >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> The Air-l-aoir.org(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/ > > > -- > Radhika Gajjala > Associate Professor > School of Communication Studies > Bowling Green State University > Bowling Green, OH 43403 > > http://personal.bgsu.edu/~radhik ; http://cyberdiva.typepad.com/teach/ > > http://www.cyberdiva.org > _________ > > or to glance at multiple blogs > > http://www.cyberdiva.org/cyberdivalive.html >

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Re: [Air-l] podcasting
by Jonathan Sterne 15 Oct '05

15 Oct '05

Have a look at: http://isis.duke.edu/events/podcasting/schedule.html There are streams of the sessions online, apparently. But I haven't tried them for myself. I attended and learned a lot. Best, --J -- Jonathan Sterne Department of Art History and Communication Studies McGill University http://sterneworks.org

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copying without acknowledgement
by Barry Wellman 15 Oct '05

15 Oct '05

Today, GoogleAlert told me that my name cropped up in: http://www.explore-biography.com/biographies/B/Barry_Wellman.html I went to the entry and found the following: "Barry Wellman is a professor in the department of Sociology at the University of Toronto. His areas of research is Urban Sociology, Internet and Social Structure, and Networks in organizations. He has been a professor of Sociology at the university of Toronto since the late 1960's after graduating from Harvard University. "Professor Wellman is known for his eccentric style of teaching and is author of many books and articles on Sociology and particularly the Sociology of the Internet. "He has an extensive website with many of his publications availalbe for reading: http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman/" Page Info (in Firefox) says it was written on July 1, 2003. Let's ignore the inaccuracies in this (mostly by omission) -- and I dispute "eccentric teaching". What gets me is that this entry is IDENTICAL to the entry on me in Wikipedia, including the mispelling of "availalbe" [sic]. Page info is no help, as it says June 6, 2005 but I first encountered the Wikipedia entry many months ago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Wellman I don't know who copied from whom first, but I don't see either of the entries acknowledging the other. Strikes me that plagiarism lurks here. Or, am I just an old fuddy-duddy who was taught (by Tom Lehrer) that the difference between plagiarism and research is a citation footnote. 2. On a totally other subject, I hope to see some of you in Milan at the Communities & Technologies conference. At least at the banquet and at our session on June 15th. Barry _____________________________________________________________________ Barry Wellman Professor of Sociology NetLab Director wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 To network is to live; to live is to network _____________________________________________________________________

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double congrats to Laura Robinson
by Barry Wellman 15 Oct '05

15 Oct '05

Double congratulations are due to Laura Robinson, Soc doc student @ UCLA, working with Peter Kollock. Not only did she just win AOIR's best student paper award, but she won this past August the best student paper award for the AmSocAssoc's Communication and Information Technologies section. Barry _____________________________________________________________________ Barry Wellman Professor of Sociology NetLab Director wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 To network is to live; to live is to network _____________________________________________________________________

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RE: [Air-l] Podcasting
by Heidelberg, Chris 15 Oct '05

15 Oct '05

Hello Folks! I am currently a PhD student researching the "Edutainment& Convergence: How entertainment techniques can be utilized in higher education?" I am conducting my research from the reverse notion of interviewing media professionals on the topic instead of educators. However, since this is qualitative research, I am interested in actually transforming my dissertation into a documentary and part blog which I have already started. I am interested in how I can tie in learning theory, simulation and gaming theory. I am really interested in interviewing a gaming producer or two. Since I am a television/film producer/director by trade I am a novice in higher education, so I am hoping not to upset to many people with my hybrid research methods of IM, email and actual interviews. I can use some advice. Chris A. Heidelberg III PhD student Department of Higher Education Morgan State University Motion Picture Producer/Director Social Security Adm. Baltimore, Md 410-965-8536 -----Original Message----- From: air-l-aoir.org-bounces(a)listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-aoir.org-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of T. Kennedy Sent: Friday, June 17, 2005 12:31 PM To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org Subject: [Air-l] Podcasting Hello Folks! I am teaching a Cyberculture course this spring, and the next topic of discussion concerns Blogs - I will also be talking about videoblogging, mobblogging and postcasting. I am wondering if anyone can point to research about Podcasting - or using podcasting in the classroom? Having said that - is anyone interested in posting a podcast on their blog (perhaps a commentary about podcasting in the classroom) so that my students can visit it on Tuesday and listen to it? It would be great if someone (or more) could do this. It would be a great experience for my students. Please email me off list tkennedy(a)netwomen.ca Thanks so much! ******************************************** Tracy L. M. Kennedy PhD Candidate - Department of Sociology Graduate Fellow - Knowledge Media & Design Institute Research Associate - NetLab - Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 725 Spadina Ave. Toronto, ON M5S 2J4 tkennedy(a)netwomen.ca www.netwomen.ca www.kmdi.utoronto.ca/collaborative ******************************************** _______________________________________________ The Air-l-aoir.org(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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CFP--Arresting the Flow: An Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference, April 14-15 2006 (fwd)
by Barry Wellman 15 Oct '05

15 Oct '05

fyi. go to the flow I always say. Barry _____________________________________________________________________ Barry Wellman Professor of Sociology NetLab Director wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 To network is to live; to live is to network _____________________________________________________________________ ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2005 16:33:09 -0500 From: Julia Ng <j-ng(a)northwestern.edu> To: gomobility(a)lists.Stanford.EDU Subject: CFP--Arresting the Flow: An Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference, April 14-15 2006 THE PROGRAM IN COMPARATIVE LITERARY STUDIES GRADUATE STUDENT CONFERENCE NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY <http://www.wcas.northwestern.edu/complit_arrestflow/>ARRESTING THE FLOW April 14-15, 2006 with keynote addresses by: Bernhard Siegert (Professor of History and Theory of Cultural Technologies, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar) Jules Law (Professor of English and Comparative Literary Studies, Northwestern University) and response from: Peter Fenves (Joan and Sarepta Harrison Professor of Literature, Northwestern University) call for papers: "Arresting the Flow", the first annual graduate conference organized by Northwestern University's Program in Comparative Literary Studies, seeks to provide a platform for the formulation of a cohesive understanding of flow. The terms flow, flux, and fluid are ubiquitous in the history of Western thought-and its polemics. From Heraclitus to Plotinus, Augustine to Leibniz and Kant, Hölderlin to Heidegger, Benjamin to Deleuze and Derrida, flow has been variously defined: "fluid" have been the borders between self and other, "fluctuating" the "influences" of the uncontrollable and uncreated on organized space and time, "flowing" the conditions-and metaphors-of exchange and transmission, knowledge and self-consciousness, circulation and infection. One thing, though, has remained constant: that flow incorporates a concern for the overflowing of certain limits of being and experience, whether those be placed between man and God, mind and body, self and world, neurotransmitter and memory, eye and screen, place and journey. And yet, "flow" seems to demand its own, conceptual arrest. Fields as diverse as psychoanalysis, film and media studies, philosophy, theatre, religion, the history of science, geography, urban studies, law, political science, economics, literary studies, architecture and art history, among others, continue to be marked by the effects of flow. themes: Papers are invited to address, but are not limited to, topics such as: The ebb and flow of thought Flow and interruption Flow at the source of permanence Flow as negativity Flow and the concepts of home and shelter Rivers and bends, streams and eddies Autoimmunity, law and politics Volition, flow, resistance Circulation(s) Currents Modeling flow and the impact on design "Flow" as a paradigm of social theory The metaphor of flow Rethinking "influence": local, national, global, cross-disciplinary Fluencies Temporal flow and perception Wandering, migration, and the production of space Liquid space Political states and states of flux "Uneven flow" and the transgression of borders "Total flow", streaming, and the subject of media Landscape, fluidity and viscosity Body fluids at the crossroads of the histories of medicine, religion, literature Fluidity of identity and concept: race/gender/ethnicity, genre/form/structure submission guidelines: The primary language of the conference is English. Presentations should last roughly 20 minutes. Please send an abstract of 250-300 words as a Word attachment to Julia Ng (j-ng(a)northwestern.edu) On a separate cover page please list the proposed title, author's name, affiliation, brief biographical statement focusing on academic work (approx. 100 words) and contact information. Please indicate if you will require technological support (overhead, slide projector, etc.). **Deadline for submissions is December 1, 2005. for more information: Please visit http://www.wcas.northwestern.edu/complit_arrestflow/ for continually updated information on the conference. organized by: Joel Morris, Julia Ng, Dan Nolan and Paul North -- Julia Ng Department of German Literature and Critical Thought Program in Comparative Literary Studies Northwestern University * 2-375 Kresge * 1880 Campus Drive * Evanston, IL 60208 USA ::: 847-467-7067 ::: j-ng(a)northwestern.edu

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New internet conference blog
by Nancy Baym 14 Oct '05

14 Oct '05

This new IP and IT conference blog looks handy: http://madisonian.net/conferences/ Nancy -- Nancy Baym http://www.ku.edu/home/nbaym Communication Studies, University of Kansas Bailey Hall, 1440 Jayhawk Blvd., Room 102, Lawrence, KS 66045-7574, USA Association of Internet Researchers: http://aoir.org

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