- Air-L - lists.aoir.org

a little off topic; but help is needed
by Ed Lamoureux 05 Mar '05

05 Mar '05

I'm sorry that this isn't directly on list/topic . . . but I suspect that someone on the list might know this one. Our computer tech has a question about some "old" linguistic anthropology work. I don't have a good guess on this, let alone an answer. thanks for helping if you can. He asks: I remember something about a story where someone was making recordings of a primitive tribe. The tribe didn't understand why anyone would want a recording of a song because they were always creating new songs. The person making the recordings left a tape or record player with the tribe. When they revisited the tribe sometime later, they found they were still singing the songs that had been recorded and had very few new songs. Any idea what book that was in? Edward Lee Lamoureux, Ph. D. Director, Multimedia Program and New Media Center Associate Professor, Speech Communication 1501 W. Bradley Bradley University Peoria IL 61625 309-677-2378 http://hilltop.bradley.edu/~ell http://gcc.bradley.edu/mm/

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RE: [Air-l] counting google hits
by Van-Couvering,EJ (pgr) 05 Mar '05

05 Mar '05

Thomas: While it is true that Google doesn't edit contents, from my research, I think it is safe to say there is a lot underneath this "efficient indexing" of websites. Each search engine provider (of which there are 3-4 major ones - Google, yahoo, Microsoft, and AskJeeves) is striving not only to produce the most efficient index of results but the most "relevant" index of results. This is a tricky issue - is a neo-Nazi site the most relevant hit for the search "Jew"? Or, more commonly, when someone searches for "apple" do they mean the fruit or the computer? It also means, as any search engine optimiser will tell you, that there is a lot of very active blacklisting of sites which are perceived to be fraudulent. Therefore I think that a concentrated search market is likely to be a bad thing: we may want choice in what kind of results we think are relevant. Certainly those who live outside the major advertising markets are finding that their versions of the internet are not particularly well-searched, as commerce drives the indexing efforts of all the major engines. Elizabeth Van Couvering PhD student London School of Economics, Department of Media & Communications http://personal.lse.ac.uk/vancouve/ >From Thomas Koenig: But Google does not edit the contents (safe for a few webpaes on Google itself produces), but just indexes them quite efficiently. It provides thus the infrastructure to effiently access all sorts of news sites. I know of no goverment or open-surce project, which does it more "balanced".

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Re: History of Google
by Jay Hauben 05 Mar '05

05 Mar '05

Hi, An important piece of the history of Google is contained in the paper by Larry Page and Sergey Brinn, The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine, at http://www-db.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html In that paper Page and Brinn explain the original motivation for the development of the Google search engine as an alternative to the dominant commercialization of search engine research . They wrote there: "1.3.2 Academic Search Engine Research Aside from tremendous growth, the Web has also become increasingly commercial over time. In 1993, 1.5% of web servers were on .com domains. This number grew to over 60% in 1997. At the same time, search engines have migrated from the academic domain to the commercial. Up until now most search engine development has gone on at companies with little publication of technical details. This causes search engine technology to remain largely a black art and to be advertising oriented (see Appendix A). With Google, we have a strong goal to push more development and understanding into the academic realm. Another important design goal was to build systems that reasonable numbers of people can actually use. Usage was important to us because we think some of the most interesting research will involve leveraging the vast amount of usage data that is available from modern web systems. For example, there are many tens of millions of searches performed every day. However, it is very difficult to get this data, mainly because it is considered commercially valuable. Our final design goal was to build an architecture that can support novel research activities on large-scale web data. To support novel research uses, Google stores all of the actual documents it crawls in compressed form. One of our main goals in designing Google was to set up an environment where other researchers can come in quickly, process large chunks of the web, and produce interesting results that would have been very difficult to produce otherwise. In the short time the system has been up, there have already been several papers using databases generated by Google, and many others are underway. Another goal we have is to set up a Spacelab-like environment where researchers or even students can propose and do interesting experiments on our large-scale web data." ---------------------------- This original academic purpose for Google was turned into a commercial purpose under the urging of the NSF. Hope this bit of history helps. Take care. Jay

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RE: [Air-l] Business history of Google?
by Van-Couvering,EJ (pgr) 05 Mar '05

05 Mar '05

Hi Steve, My PhD research is about search engines. To my knowledge, there is not yet an in-depth history of Google or the industry as a whole (next chapter), but here are some references you may find helpful: http://battellemedia.com/- John Battelle, former editor of Wired Magazine, is writing a book and blogs his research to date. He isn't talking so much about the business structure, but there are lots of Google anecdotes. Also, I wrote a paper that covers the industrial dynamics of the industry, still waiting for word back from the journal I submitted to, but here's the draft I presented at the IAMCR last year (and also in modified form at AoIR): http://personal.lse.ac.uk/vancouve/research.htm (under the 'conferences' section). This talks about who the major players are, what their revenue streams are, how advertising on search differs from other media advertising and how it is the same, and whether the current level of search provision serves the public good. The analysis is derived primarily from financial statements supplemented by interviews I've done with search engine engineers, search engine optimisers, and search distributors. I have loads of other references if you want to follow up other aspects. Regards, Elizabeth -----Original Message----- From: Steve Jones [mailto:sjones@uic.edu] Sent: 04 March 2005 19:05 To: air-l Subject: [Air-l] Business history of Google? Does anyone know of any histories of Google that focus on its business and the economics of search/search engines? Thank you in advance, Sj _______________________________________________ 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://aoir.org/airjoin.html

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Post-doc & RA positions in social network research
by Caroline Haythornthwaite 05 Mar '05

05 Mar '05

Positions at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Please send questions to contacts listed below in message. ------------------------------------------ > > Post-Doctoral Research Positions & Graduate Research Assistants in > Social Network Research > > > > The Science of Networks in Communities (SONIC) Research Group at the > National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) and the Department of > Speech Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign > invite applications for two post-doctoral research positions and five > graduate research assistantships to work on a large multi-university, > multi-national, multi-year effort funded in part by the US National Science > Foundation to understand the emergence of networks. In addition to advancing > the science of networks, a central goal of the effort is to develop > "Cyberservices" to map, nurture, and leverage large scale social networks > within distributed communities utilizing the next generation > "Cyberinfrastructure" as envisioned by the US National Science Foundation. > > > > Qualifications > > For the post-doctoral and graduate research appointments, we invite US and > international applicants from a wide variety of disciplines with interest > and expertise in one or more of the following areas: > > > > * Development and testing of social network theories > * Modeling of networks: mathematical, statistical, computational > * Visualization of networks > * Data-mining algorithms to detect networks > > > > Compensation > > The post-doctoral research appointments will carry an annual stipend > commensurate with qualifications and experience but no less than $50,000, in > addition to standard benefits provided to employees of the University of > Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. > > > > The graduate research assistants will be enrolled in the graduate program in > the Department of Speech Communication and will receive stipends in > accordance with University and Department guidelines. > > > > Application Procedures > > Applicants for the post-doctoral research appointments must submit via hard > copy or email the following: 1) a curriculum vitae, including a list of > publications and prior research experience if applicable; 2) a 2-page > statement of research interest and experiences highlighting qualifications > and interest, and 3) names, affiliations, and contact information for three > references. > > > > Please send application materials as well as any inquiries to Professor > Noshir Contractor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 244 Lincoln > Hall, 702 S. Wright Street, Urbana IL 61801, Email: nosh(a)uiuc.edu > > > > Applicants for the graduate research assistantships must meet all the > criteria for admission to the graduate (Master's or Doctoral) program of the > Department of Speech Communication. Please send application materials as > well as inquiries to Professor Dale Brashers, 244 Lincoln Hall, 702 South > Wright Street, Urbana, IL 61801; (217) 333-2683; E-mail: dbrasher(a)uiuc.edu > > > > Review of applications will begin on March 15th 2005 and will continue until > the positions are filled. > > > <http://www.uiuc.edu/> >

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Fwd: [Asis-l] Fwd: [gcnp] [EN] Conference : A Development View on Information Commons
by jeremy hunsinger 05 Mar '05

05 Mar '05

Begin forwarded message: > From: "Michel J. Menou" <Michel.Menou(a)wanadoo.fr> > Date: March 5, 2005 9:33:07 AM EST > To: ASIS-L <ASIS-L(a)asis.org>, communityinformatics > <communityinformatics(a)vancouvercommunity.net>, sigifp-l > <sigifp-l(a)asis.org>, sigiii-l <sigiii-l(a)asis.org> > Cc: Infosoc4all Infosoc4all <infosoc4all(a)yahoogroups.com>, LEAP IMPACT > discussion list <impact(a)lyris.bellanet.org>, Civic intelligence > <psp-civic-intelligence(a)lists.cpsr.org>, egov4dev > <egov4dev(a)yahoogroups.com> > Subject: [Asis-l] Fwd: [gcnp] [EN] Conference : A Development View on > Information Commons > Reply-To: "Michel J. Menou" <Michel.Menou(a)wanadoo.fr> > > Sorry for multiple postings. > Thank you for disseminating this annoucement. > Regards, > > Michel J. Menou > > > > This is a forwarded message > From: Valerie Peugeot <vpeugeot(a)vecam.org> > To: GCNP <gcnp(a)globalcn.tc.ca> > Date: Wednesday, March 2, 2005, 1:16:11 PM > Subject: [gcnp] [EN] Conference : A Development View on Information > Commons > > ===8<==============Original message text=============== > ----------------------------------------- > A Development View on Information Commons > and Intellectual Property. > ----------------------------------------- > > Public conference > Friday, April 1st : 9.00 18.30 > ENST, 46 rue Barrault, 75013 Paris - France > > Information and registration: > http://www.vecam.org > > - Introduction > - Program of the conference > - Organisation > > 1 - introduction > ---------------------- > > Information and communication technologies enable a quick and rather > cheap circulation of knowledge, cultures and emotions. > How can we build a global right of intellectual property that would use > this capacity so as to favor access to knowledge to all (individuals, > people, countries) ? > Developing Southern countries need the exchange of knowledge. Now, the > new international laws regarding intellectual property, on the > contrary, > aim at reinforcing the domination of Northern countries and the > merchandising of knowledge and culture. (TRIPS at the WTO, reform of > the > WIPO, Convention on cultural diversity at the UNESCO...). > > Thankfully, opposition is very strong and many social movements are > rising everywhere in the world to point out injustices related to the > enlargement of intellectual property in all domains. Especially to > offer > concrete alternatives such as free software, free access to science, > Creatives Commons license, generic drugs, exchanges of knowledge > > Culture and knowledge are not to be treated like any merchandise. > People > and individuals lives as well as education and democracy are at stake. > > We offer you a day of thought and debates through workshops on health, > agriculture, industrial technologies and culture issues. > - How can development and solidarity actors build information commons > at > the world scale? > - How will new social and political practices enable knowledge to > circulate and fully serve equality in the world? > - How to reconstruct the balance of intellectual property between > interests of the whole of society in the access of knowledge and > financing of creation and innovation? > > Coming from various places in the world, key actors of this new > movement > for free access to knowledge will be present during this public > conference. > > > 2 - Program > -------------- > > Conference opens: 9.00 a.m. > > 4 Successive workshops: > - Health and intellectual property: conducted by Florent Latrive. > Speakers: Bernard Pécoul, Philippe Pignarre, Benjamin Coriat and Gaëlle > Krikorian. > > - Agriculture, traditional knowledge, biopiracy and intellectual > property: conducted by Valérie Peugeot. Speakers: François Dufour, > Frédéric Thomas, Anne Chetaille and Suman Sahai. > > - Research, industry and patents: conducted by Philippe Aigrain. > Speakers: Mohamed Larbi Bouguerra, Cheick Oumar Sagara, Michel > Trometter > and Jamie Love > > - Knowledge, creation and intellectual property: conducted by Hervé Le > Crosnier. Speakers: Pascal Renaud, Jean-Claude Guédon and Claudine > Belayche. > > Plenary closing session: 5.00 p.m.: conducted by Valérie Peugeot. > Speakers: Suman Sahai, German Velasquez and Jamie Love > > > 3 - Organisation: > ------------------- > The April 1st meeting is an initiative of French non for profit > organisation Vecam made possible by a partnership with: > - the Intergovernmental Agency of French speaking countries > - The journal Transversales sciences culture > - l'ENST (Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications) > - The non for profit organisations Mosaïque du Monde, April and the > Foundation Sciences Citoyennes. > - C&F editions > > The organising committee is coordinated by Valérie Peugeot and gathers > Philippe Aigrain, Nicolas Casadevall, Florent Latrive, Véronique Kleck, > Hervé Le Crosnier, Pascal Renaud and Nicolas Taffin. > > The complete program, a presentation of the speakers as well as a > documentary kit can be found on line http://www.vecam.org. > Registration on line http://www.vecam.org > The conference is free space willing. > Registration is advised. > A contribution is requested for the buffet. > > ----------------------------------------------------------- > Thank you for circulating this information among your networks. > ----------------------------------------------------------- > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > gcnp mailing list > gcnp(a)globalcn.tc.ca > http://globalcn.tc.ca/mailman/listinfo/gcnp > Hosted by Telecommunities Canada http://www.tc.ca/ > > ===8<===========End of original message text=========== > > > > ____ > ________________________________________ > Asis-l mailing list > Asis-l(a)asis.org > http://mail.asis.org/mailman/listinfo/asis-l > > Jeremy Hunsinger Center for Digital Discourse and Culture () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail /\ - against microsoft attachments

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Re: [Air-l] counting google hits
by Greg Elmer 04 Mar '05

04 Mar '05

Thomas, Of course all samples have biases, but isn't it incumbent upon us to better understand them -- particularly in the case of Google, precisely because it is fast becoming "all that we have", that is a default choice for information retrieval, not only for everyday users, but also for students and Internet researchers? Greg Elmer ----- Original Message ----- From: Thomas Koenig <T.Koenig(a)lboro.ac.uk> Date: Wednesday, March 2, 2005 8:54 pm Subject: Re: [Air-l] counting google hits > Citeren elijah wright <elw(a)stderr.org>: > > [What's wrong with using Google stats?] > > because people assume that all texts that are available are > represented,> which according to the google people they are *not*. > > Fair enough, but what is your alternative corpus? Most traditional > corporahave a bias away from everyday language to journalistic > and/or literary > writings. Sometimes these bias' may not matter, some other times, they > might be even desirable, but at times google is the better choice, > even if > imperfect. > > > in other words, the sample that you are pulling numbers from is > neither> complete nor perfect - so your results won't be either. > > Who gets unbiased random samples? No-one, not even NORC, who are > pretty good > at it. Does that invalidate *all* statistical results? Of course > not. Don't > get me wrong, I am all for careful random sampling, but if I cannot > get it, > I might, under some circumstances, resort to biased samples, rather > than to > not get any sample at all. > > > do you understand what google does well enough (details of the > algorithm,> et cetera) to know what the weaknesses are? oh, you > say they haven't > > published enough information for you to know? that's what i > thought. :| > > I do not know, how google indexes (I have a faint idea, though), > but for > many practical purposes, it simply does not matter, as long as I do > notsuspect a bias of exclusions of websites, which are *systematically > related* to the topic I am researching. > > Would I rather have a random sample of all human-generated websits, > preferably with the vital stats of their authors attached? You bet. > I just > won't get it. So I am taking the next best thing, aka Google. > > > > I am afraid, this is how your argumentation sounds to me. Why > should it > > > be wrong to use the number of google hits under all circumstances? > > > > i think your tone is pretty crass. > > Funny, that's what I thought of yours, that's why I chose to use > *your*words. You probably know that it's sometimes difficult to > discern the tone > when you have no cues other then some ASCII strings. > > > > If I want to show that Canada is better known than Vanuatu > > > > > > (http://googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=canada&word2=vanuatu)> > why would the comparison of google hits be inadmissable? (There are a > > > number of reasons, why the "Vunuatu" hits are inflated, but > that is of > > > no concern here). > > > > popularity of a term is one of the few instances in which > comparative> occurrence vis a vis the google corpus *might* be > useful. it would > > depend > > on your question, and whether the data available from the particular > > google server you're connected to is appropriate to answering it. > > Of course, it always depends on what you want to do, but that's a far > stretch of your wholesale rejection of using Google hits for any > kind of > research: > > "folks realize that using the "number of hits returned on google" > is a > hilarious bad way to prove a point -- right?" > > Thomas > > -- > thomas koenig, ph.d. > department of social sciences, loughborough university, u.k. > http://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/mmethods/staff/thomas/index.html Greg Elmer, PhD Bell Globemedia Research Chair Rogers Communications Centre/School of Radio-TV Arts Ryerson University 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, Ontario Canada M5B 2K3 416-979-5282 _______________________________________________ Co-Editor, Space and Culture: An International Journal of Social Spaces http://www.carleton.ca/space/ >

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Business history of Google?
by Steve Jones 04 Mar '05

04 Mar '05

Does anyone know of any histories of Google that focus on its business and the economics of search/search engines? Thank you in advance, Sj

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Special Issue on Trust and Community on the Internet
by Uwe Matzat 04 Mar '05

04 Mar '05

Dear Internet researchers, the journal Analyse & Kritik has published a special issue on "Trust and Community on the Internet". The issue contains 16 articles within the following categories: Concepts and Background The Internet as an Environment for Trust Reputation and Online Auctions Groups and Networks Law and the Internet You can find detailed information at http://www.analyse-und-kritik.net/english/current_issue.htm. These articles are a selection of papers that were presented at the international conference "Trust and Community on the Internet" that was held at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Bielefed, Germany in Summer 2003. You can find the complete list of all conference presentations at http://www.uni-duesseldorf.de/~matzat/conference.htm. Enjoy! Uwe Matzat ======================================= Uwe Matzat Sociology Section Department of Technology Management Eindhoven University of Technology P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven The Netherlands --------------- phone: +31 40 247-8392 email: u.matzat(a)tm.tue.nl http://www.tue-tm-soc.nl/~matzat/ =======================================

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RE: [Air-l] counting google hits
by Rowin Young 04 Mar '05

04 Mar '05

I'd second Ulla's recommendation, it's an excellent, thought-provoking film. Rowin. > -----Original Message----- > From: air-l-aoir.org-bounces(a)listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-aoir.org- > bounces(a)listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Ulla Bunz > Sent: 04 March 2005 15:12 > To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org > Cc: araney(a)fsu.edu > Subject: RE: [Air-l] counting google hits > > I've been reading about google hits and checking spelling and students > using > google for research (which I find somewhat troublesome), and I'd like to > recommend EPIC to you. Check it out here: http://www.robinsloan.com/epic/ > EPIC is essentially an 8 minute movie (it takes a long time to load on > dial-up) about the future of our information media. For example, it > projects > the merging of google and amazon and the consequences this will have for > "personalization" of information. If you are concerned at all about > critical > thinking and evaluation of online information sources, I recommend this > highly. Make sure you watch the whole thing and then share it with your > more > advanced students. > Ulla > > ---------------------------------------------------- > Ulla Bunz > Assistant Professor > Department of Communication > Rutgers University > 4 Huntington Street > New Brunswick, NJ 08901 > Email: bunz(a)scils.rutgers.edu > ---------------------------------------------------- > > > > _______________________________________________ > 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://aoir.org/airjoin.html

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