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digital recording
by bernie.hogan＠utoronto.ca 25 Feb '04

25 Feb '04

Hi Everyone, A thread was started last week about digital transcription software. This week I was wondering what people were using to actually get the digital files. I've been using a minidisc player and a program called WinNMD, but that is subpar since it only transfers in realtime. Any suggestions? Take Care BERNiE Bernie Hogan Ph.D. Student Department of Sociology NetLab, Knowledge Media Design Institute University of Toronto

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UCSD Division of Cal-(IT)2 Offers Two Faculty Positions in Arts & Humanities
by Steve Jones 25 Feb '04

25 Feb '04

UCSD Division of Cal-(IT)2 Offers Two Faculty Positions in Arts & Humanities 2.23.04 – The UCSD Division of Cal-(IT)2 and the UCSD Division of Arts & Humanities are recruiting for two new tenure-track positions. Both positions will benefit from New Media Arts research and performance facilities planned for the first floor of the Cal-(IT)2 building, which is currently under construction and slated for occupancy in early 2005. One position is for an assistant or associate professor in the humanities whose research addresses or engages the development of information technology and telecommunications. This appointment will be in the appropriate department: Literature, History, or Philosophy. The application deadline is March 21. The second position is for an assistant or associate professor who brings creative and/or theoretical work demonstrating substantial engagement with computing in any field of the arts such as (but not limited to) the visual arts, music, theatre and/or dance. The position will be affiliated with the New Media Arts layer of Cal-(IT)2. The application deadline is March 10. More specifics for both positions and how to apply for each are listed below. Position Title: Assistant or Associate Professor Job Number: 4-320-AA Description: As part of the California Institute of Information Technology and Telecommunications (Cal-(IT)2), UCSD is seeking to hire an outstanding assistant or beginning associate professor in a humanities field whose research addresses or engages the development of information technology and telecommunications. The appointment will begin July 1, 2004 or thereafter. This position will be affiliated with Cal-(IT)2 and will have a primary appointment in the appropriate humanities department (Literature, History, or Philosophy). At present, the institute has four main thematic focus areas: new media arts, intelligent transportation, environment and civil infrastructure, and digitally enabled genomic research. Candidates for this position should have work that demonstrates a substantial engagement with information and telecommunications technology that will either contribute to one or more of the focus areas or address broader issues, including but not limited to, the aesthetics of information technology, information theory, the historical development, epistemological or ethical implications, and intellectual ramifications of telecommunications and information technology. A Ph.D. is required. Salary: Salary commensurate with experience and publication record and based on UC pay scales. Closing Date: Review of applications will begin on March 21, 2004 and will continue until the position is filled. To Apply: Applications should include letter of intent, CV, placement file or three letters of reference. Applicants who are not U.S. citizens should state their immigration status at the time of application. Send applications to: Humanities Cal-(IT)2 Search Department of Philosophy 7002 Humanities and Social Sciences University of California, San Diego 9500 Gilman Drive La Jolla, CA 92093-0119 Inquiries: bechtel(a)ucsd.edu Please refer to position #4-320-AA in your response. Posted on 01/28/04. Faculty Position: Assistant or Associate Professor, New Media Arts The University of California, San Diego Division of Arts and Humanities (http://dah.ucsd.edu) invites applicants for an assistant or beginning associate professor of New Media Arts to begin July 1, 2004. Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience and based upon UC pay scales. Candidates should have creative and/or theoretical work that demonstrates a substantial engagement with computing in any field of the arts such as (but not limited to) the visual arts, music, theatre and/or dance. The position will be affiliated with the New Media Arts layer of the California Institute of Information Technology and Telecommunications [Cal-(IT)2 - http://www.calit2.net ], and with the Center for Research in Computing and the Arts (CRCA - http://www.crca.ucsd.edu) The position will involve teaching within the Interdisciplinary Computing in the Arts Major and development of new digital arts graduate programs. The candidate will join one of the departments of Visual Arts, Music, or Theatre and Dance. Ph.D., M.F.A., or commensurate professional experience is required. To apply, please send a letter of intent including a statement of qualifications and research interests, curriculum vitae, samples of creative work and/or publications, along with names and addresses (including email addresses) of three references to: Digital Arts Search Committee CRCA 0037 UC San Diego La Jolla, CA 92093-0037 The application deadline is March 10, 2004, or until the position is filled. Please reference position #4-332-fAf in all correspondence. Enclose self-addressed postcard for acknowledgment of application and SASE for return of work samples. About UCSD: UCSD is a major research university that promotes and supports creative work and advanced research in all forms of the arts including practice, history, and theory. One of the 10 campuses in the world-renowned University of California system, UCSD has rapidly achieved the status as one of the top institutions in the nation for higher education and research. Total current campus enrollment is nearly 25,000. Generous research funding and excellent studio facilities are available. Teaching will include both graduate seminars and undergraduate classes and active involvement with a new interdisciplinary graduate program currently in development. UCSD is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer with a strong institutional commitment to excellence through diversity.

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CFP: Survey on mobile phone
by Susan B. Kretchmer 24 Feb '04

24 Feb '04

Posted on behalf of Jason Rutter Jason.Rutter(a)man.ac.uk * * * Please forward as appropriate * * * Hi, I'm from Manchester University where I'm currently undertaking a survey of how people use their mobile phones for things like gaming, leisure information and other new services. We're looking for what attitudes people have about their network providers, quality of service and how they feel about mobile devices in general. What we are after is people to complete the questionnaire but because we don't believe in asking for something for nothing we are offering a prize of a PALM TUNGSTEN T3* to one respondent. The survey is available in English, Spanish, Greek and Italian at: www.mobile-ent.org/survey Thanks for your time. Good luck with the prize draw. Jase -- Dr Jason Rutter Mobile Entertainment: User Centred Perspectives 25th-27th March 2004 www.mobile-ent.org ESRC DigiPlay Seminar series www.cric.ac.uk/cric/digi/digisems.htm ESRC Centre for Research on Innovation and Competition (CRIC), The University of Manchester, Harold Hankins Building, Booth Street West, Manchester, M13 9QH. UK PH: +44 (0) 161 275 6859 Fax: +44 (0) 161 275 7361 http://www.cric.ac.uk/cric/Jason_Rutter __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail SpamGuard - Read only the mail you want. http://antispam.yahoo.com/tools

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CFP: HICSS minitrack: "Information and Communication Technologies in support of KM"
by Caroline Haythornthwaite 24 Feb '04

24 Feb '04

Below please find a call for papers for a minitrack at the Hawai'i International Conference on Systems Science, January 2005, on Information and Communication Technologies in support of Knowledge Management, Organizational Memory, and Organization Learning. Please forward to appropriate lists and colleagues. This minitrack was put together to address alternate views of knowledge management (KM), e.g., ideas that challenge knowledge-based systems' concepts of knowledge "codification" and "transfer", and studies that pay attention to situated knowledge. We seek papers that examine the processes associated with knowledge creation, sharing, communication, recognition, evaluation and internalization, and their implications for the use of ICTs, as well as presentation of alternate kinds of knowledge management systems. We are interested in submissions addressing social studies of science (and e-science), education (and online learning, online education systems), library and information science, as well as management and business-organization studies. We welcome papers that explore what is shared as well as what is not shared in defining the role and significance of ICTs in the knowledge-sharing process. Finally, we are interested in studies and presentations of applications such as collaboratories which provide a mix of means of communicating, storing and retrieving information in support of knowledge processes. We are looking for both thoughtful, informed empirical studies as well as strong theoretical that present rich conceptualizations of how ICTs may support knowledge sharing. Questions can be addressed to me Caroline Haythornthwaite (haythorn(a)uiuc.edu) or to either of the other co-chairs: Saonee Sarker ( ssarker(a)wsu.edu) and Susan Gasson (sgasson(a)cis.drexel.edu) --------------------------- CALL FOR PAPERS Hawai'i International Conference on Systems Science, Hilton Waikoloa Village, Big Island of Hawaii, January 3-6, 2005 (http://www.hicss.hawaii.edu/) We invite submissions for a minitrack on Information and Communication Technologies in support of Knowledge Management, Organizational Memory, and Organization Learning (KM/OM/OL). Abstracts to minitrack co-chairs March 31, 2004 Full papers to minitrack co-chairs June 15, 2004 Details of the KM/OM/OL cluster can be found here: http://www.hicss.hawaii.edu/Hicss38/foscfp.htm#***CLUSTER*** Minitrack Co-Chairs Saonee Sarker (Primary Contact) Washington State University ssarker(a)wsu.edu Susan Gasson Drexel University sgasson(a)cis.drexel.edu Caroline Haythornthwaite University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign haythorn(a)uiuc.edu Information And Communication Technologies In Support Of Km/Om/Ol This minitrack looks at technical issues and tools for building and supporting knowledge management, organizational memory, and organizational learning systems including the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to support the sharing of knowledge between individuals, groups, and organizations in a variety of contexts (e.g., collocated, distributed nationally or internationally). In addition, we welcome studies with implications on social/technical design of systems enabling knowledge sharing. We encourage papers that explore the role of information and communication technologies (e.g., knowledge management systems, digital libraries, online learning environments, intranets, etc.) in mediating/facilitating knowledge sharing. Papers that generate new paradigms and present alternatives to the knowledge-based systems' concepts of knowledge "codification" and "transfer" are of interest. Potential topics include: -- How ICTs affect knowledge sharing. -- Knowledge characteristics in ICT-mediated collaboration. -- ICT design attributes that facilitate or constrain effective knowledge sharing. -- The role of ICTs in facilitating collaborative work. -- Tools and technologies for developing KM/OM/OL oriented Systems -- Capture, storage, search, retrieval, and use of knowledge and organizational memory -- Development and use of taxonomies, ontologies, and knowledge/topic maps -- Development and implementation of Knowledge networks -- Developing processes and systems for visualizing knowledge -- New paradigms for KM. Dates March 31, 2004: Abstracts to be submitted to Minitrack Chairsfor guidance and indication of appropriate content. June 15, 2004: Authors submit full manuscripts to Minitrack Chairs. Contact the chairs in advance for specific submission instructions. August 15, 2004: Minitrack Chairs send notices of accepted manuscripts to Authors. (Note: Acceptance may be conditional; revisions may be requested for final acceptance of paper.) October 1, 2004: Deadline for Authors to submit the final version of their accepted papers electronically for publication. At least one author of each paper must have registered to attend the conference by this date. December 10, 2004: All conference registrations and payments are due. On site registration fee applies after this date. No refunds after this date. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Caroline Haythornthwaite (haythorn(a)uiuc.edu) Associate Professor Graduate School of Library and Information Science University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 501 East Daniel St., Champaign, IL, 61820 phone: 217-244-7453 fax: 217-244-3302 www.lis.uiuc.edu/~haythorn

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Survey for Encyclopedia of Learning
by JASON NOLAN 24 Feb '04

24 Feb '04

Hi Everyone; If you're interested in the larger issues of learning, please fill out my <a href="http://www.zoomerang.com/recipient/survey-intro.zgi?ID=L2233PCDY3U5&PIN=8Y8… ">survey</a>. Joel Weiss and I are working on a plan for an Encyclopedia of Learning with Kluwer Academic Publishers, and Kluwer has put together a survey go get some general information from folks interested in Learning. Here's the raw URL. If you could share it, blog it, mail it to your friends, I'd greatly appreciate it. http://www.zoomerang.com/recipient/survey-intro.zgi?ID=L2233PCDY3U5&PIN=8Y8…

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[EURICOM-L] Call for Papers: International Colloquium -- Communication and Democracy: Technology and Citizen Engagement (fwd)
by Barry Wellman 24 Feb '04

24 Feb '04

fyi. Please note that for some of us it is just before the Amer Soc Assoc conf in SFO. 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: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 11:41:43 -0500 From: "Bill McIver, University at Albany" <mciver(a)ALBANY.EDU> To: EURICOM-L(a)listserv.albany.edu Subject: [EURICOM-L] Call for Papers: International Colloquium -- Communication and Democracy: Technology and Citizen Engagement * * * * *Call for Papers* International Colloquium *Communication and Democracy: Technology and Citizen Engagement* Wednesday, August 4 - Friday, August 6, 2004 Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada Sponsors University of New Brunswick, Department of Sociology and Office of Research Services National Research Council Canada Institute of Information Technology, Atlantic Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia Since the early 1990s, governments, industry and commercial organizations, public agencies, non-governmental organizations, communities and individual citizens have embraced the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICT), expending extensive resources on their deployment and adoption. Along this digital journey, on one end of a continuum, claims have been made about the revolutionary and emancipatory potential of ICT. Promoters exhort the urgency of its adoption to realize citizen empowerment, institutional transformation and transparency, direct democracy, and the erasure of time and space to create an electronic global village. At the other end of this continuum of debate, critics argue that the potential benefits of ICT are being outweighed by a growing digital impotence for citizens, who are increasingly bound by new forms of regulation, institutional electronic rigidities, market regulation, the extension of commercial practices deeper into social life, and technical design myopic of human needs. The broad themes of citizen engagement, democratic inclusion, and socio-economic betterment for citizens, communities and nations have emerged as key research concerns that cut across issues such as the digital divide, convergence, e-commerce and the dot com bomb, e-learning, e-health, gaming, virtual communities, community informatics, connectivity, broadband, and government online. Now, ten years into the popular development of the Internet, it is opportune to critically reflect on where we have been, where we are supposed to be, what we have learned, or what we should have learned, where we should be going, and what questions we should be asking as we continue further on this journey. The purpose of this colloquium is to reflect on the core issues of communications, democracy and citizen engagement and to push the margins of thinking and debate around entry points such as methodologies, social practices, theoretical frameworks, technical design, institutional relations and citizen needs. It will bring together up-and-coming researchers and established experts to exchange ideas about current research and theories - and rethink the ways forward. Presentations can be based on local, national or international research. To facilitate open discussion and full involvement all sessions will be plenary. Central themes for panels (papers) include, but are not restricted to: *Technology R&D and Citizen Needs* This panel focuses on user needs and applications research and development. Featuring social scientists and computer science researchers, half the presenters discuss communication from a user needs perspective, and other presenters discuss the process behind the design of community informatics and other applications. One goal of the panel is to encourage debate among social and computer scientists about citizen needs and technology research and development. Needs assessment, the socio-economic aspects of the communication relationship, and technology designed to meet user needs are possible theme areas. *Research Methodologies* Various qualitative and quantitative methods offer a number of possibilities for research on citizen needs, democratic communications, community communications, human/technology interface, and community informatics, among others. This panel discusses such questions as: what are the 'right' research questions that should be asked, and why? What are different methodologies that should be employed? Empirical examples, theoretical and methodological examples or possibilities could be explored. *Citizen Engagement and E-Democracy* Panelists will discuss findings of research on ICT used to facilitate citizen engagement in communities and between citizens, in relation to community organizations, government agencies and the state. What do "engagement" and "e-Democracy" mean to citizens, governments and communities, and what should they mean? What are the best means, channels or practices to attain them? * * *Organizers* * * Andrew Reddick, Ph.D. Group Leader, e-Government/e-Citizen Group, National Research Council Canada, Institute for Information Technology, Fredericton, NB, Canada andrew.reddick(a)nrc-cnrc.gc.ca <mailto:andrew.reddick@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca> Vanda Rideout, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada vrideout(a)unb.ca <mailto:vrideout@unb.ca> Mary C. Milliken, MA, Ph.D. candidate, UNB, Conference Organizer, NRC-CNRC IIT, mary.milliken(a)nrc-cnrc.gc.ca <mailto:mary.milliken@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca> *Submission of Abstract* Faculty, researchers and graduate students are encouraged to submit 250 word abstracts in .doc or .pdf format, for peer review, to the attention of Mary C. Milliken, mary.milliken(a)nrc-cnrc.gc.ca <mailto:mary.milliken@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca> by 1 April 2004. Authors will be notified of acceptance by 30 April. The deadline for full papers is 12 July 2004. Discussants will provide comments on final papers. For further information about this event, please refer to our web site at http://www.unb.ca/technocitizen/ or contact Mary at the above e-mail address.

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Ethnography, space and some more thoughts on Ghana.
by Theresa M.Senft 24 Feb '04

24 Feb '04

As usual, I find myself nodding in agreement with Don Slater, particularly with his observations about Ghana. Based on my (very limited) in Accra, and in the ethnographic spirit of "adding stories," I wanted to submit some other data points to Don's. Some of these relate to our discussions about how certain internet settings (hi Michelle) become the new "hot" cyberspaces. Others relate to space in the old-fashioned colonial sense of the term. Still others concern the crazy mixture of for-profit and development spaces in Africa, especially where telecommunications is concerned. In April of 2003 I left NYC for the BusyInternet Cener in Accra, Ghana (http://www.busyinternet.com) BusyInternet is a 100+ seat cybercafe/copy shop/conference space/bar located on Ring Road, which is the main drag in Accra, open 24 hours and always full of people. The computers are fast (even when one considers the whole joint has the bandwidth equivalent of ONE DSL line), surfing prices are reasonable, and the food at the bar is cheap. From daily inspection, I'd say the expat to local ratio is about 1:20, remarkable considering that due to mad inflation, the expats are the ones who always seem to have cash to burn on things like Internet use. For the past five years, Ghana's relatively stable government and economy have made it a West African Silicon Valley of sorts for those who have managed to not piss off local officials (see the NYT coverage of the VoiP laws in Ghana). Many of the startup businesses in Accra arrived about three years ago, and a number were begun by ex-dot commers from the States and Europe. BusyInternet is among them. Busy was founded by Mark Davies (Welsh), Alex Rousselt (French) and Ellen McDermott (American), using Mark's earnings from CitySearch (later bought by Microsoft), which he also founded. With the exception of these three, however, all the other management, workers and investors at Busy are Ghanaian. Of these, two managers (the General Manager and the Director of Public Relations) and about 1/3 of the workers on the floor assisting users are women. I was originally asked by Ellen McDermott if I wanted to come to Accra for two weeks (all the time I had, as I was advising at NYU) to touch base with some women's groups there, and see who might be interested in computer classes. The term they were using for all this was "community outreach." For better or for worse, Busy operates as a FOR PROFIT business, and it would be naive to think their "outreach" didn't have a bottom line attached. Though all sorts of people meet at the Busy already to use computers, socialize at the bar and sit in the air conditioning (NEVER to be underestimated in Africa), there was a feeling that more could be done to get certain populations into the center for, notably women and children. In essence, Busy was trying to combine the classic development model of "get greater numbers online" with a hope that ultimately, these folks might also wind up potential customers. When Ellen first approached me to go to Africa, I was excited, but worried. I had no prior experience in Ghana, and no experience with development in the traditional sense. I was uninterested in working with women's groups who weren't explicitly feminist, yet at that same time nervous that I might cause people more harm than good running around with my cyberfeminism hanging out everywhere. Ellen saw things differently. She thought my lack of training in the non-profit world would keep me satisfied with small-scale projects at Busy, compared to other people who always wanted to taken large-scale projects like those underwritten by groups like USAID . She also thought that whether they explicitly termed themselves feminist or not, Busy was a notable exception to the "boy/girl expat split" rule in Accra. The rule, coined by a journalist I met there, refers to the fact that men seem to work almost exclusively in the for-profit telecommunications sector, while women dominate the non-profit, NGO human services sector. Why not use Busy as a launching pad to help break that stereotype, she asked? Ellen knew I had been deeply moved by the ideas I read _Banker to the Poor_ (about the Grameen Banks), particularly Mohammed Yunnus's assertion that he began his micro-lending project the day he stopped relying on his Ph.D. in economics and took 37 dollars out of his own pocket to help someone get started. I'm planning to visit the Grameen Technology Center in Seattle to get trained in a more "official" way as soon as I kill my dissertation. I also know that there are important criticisms about the ways in which certain micro-credit schemes can harm the women they purport to help by turning them into bill collectors for the transnational banking world. However, not being a transnational bank myself, I was willing to put 100 dollars of my own money where my mouth was in Ghana. According to Ellen, an hour of computer training at Busy was 10,000 Ghanaian Cedis (roughly 10USD).If I was willing to put 100 dollars of my own money down, Busy would save the space and I could offer ten women scholarships to take a computer class. Then I would see what I could do next. Inch by inch, etc. With things broken into micro-installments like this, Accra seemed a more do-able plan to me, but sitting in NYC, I hardly knew where to begin locating women. Estelle and Amma, two of the managers at Busy, directed me to WISE, a local group whose philosophy and attitude I liked, almost immediately. WISE (stands for women's initiative for self-empowerment) provides counselling, advocacy, and job training for survivors of gender violence (http://www.wise-up.org) Begun in 1998 by Violet (Esi) Awaturi, WISE is a non-profit organization, partnering when appropriate with a number of other NGO's in Ghana and West Africa. I called Esi on the telephone (itself an event), told her that I had a connection to BusyInternet, and asked if WISE might be interested in a scholarship so that ten women could take a computer class. If WISE liked the arrangement, I told Esi, I would set up ongoing classes and raise the funds for them myself. The only thing we needed from WISE were interested women."How fast can you get here?" Esi asked me. I think that might the the only time someone asked me to be quick while I was in Africa. I understand the risk of coming off as a poor woman's Bill Gates, here. In my defense, I told Esi that if she wanted the money for something else, I would gladly donate it, but that my expertise and connections were with computer training. Esi replied that she'd rather work with someone who knew what they could bring to the table than with a well-meaning but unfocused person who 'wanted to help', and urged me to come on over. That afternoon, Esi, Frances Gwira (who helps Esi run WISE), Greg (who would be teaching the classes) and I sat down and talked about what WISE could use in the way of computer training. I had already been working for a few days with children's groups at Busy, and had already stumbled a number of instances of the colonial mind in cyberspace. For example: the simplest way to secure email addresses for new users is through Yahoo or Hotmail, and that's pretty much where we directed the kids we helped in Accra. On the sign up page for Yahoo, you'll see a pull-down menu that asks for your language and region. In Ghana, the official language is English, but although one can find English--US, English--Britain, English--Hong Kong, English--Singapore. However, a search for English--Ghana, English--Nigeria, or even English--Africa yields nothing. Faced with this dilemma, my ten-year old students, who have never known a time when England ruled Ghana, instinctively chose "English--Britain" as their default. When faced with the challenge of picking a screen name for themselves, boys chose (in order) names from the Bible, sports team names, or variants of their proper name. Girls chose (in order) variants on Lady Diana, variants on their proper name, or the name of their pet. Of course, the Lady Diana stuff is most striking here. No Spice Girls, no Kylie. How long ago did Lady Di, well, die? Because we were concerned that their very Christian caretakers would accuse us of hooking kids up to a medium that did nothing but send unsolicited ads for penis enlargement, my colleagues and I tried to teach the children who came to our classes tricks for avoiding the spam that accompanies free email accounts. Though many of the children dutifully did as told, a number of kids (mostly boys) insisted on knowing exactly what spam was before they opted out. Our most politic answer, "It is unwanted mail from strangers," backfired on us. Once the ringleader of the boys declared, "I want spam!" the rest followed suit. Yes, these are ten year olds, and yes as people become more sophisticated around Net use, their desire for online penis enlargement, uh, shrinks. Still, I hadn't realized until this moment that a big part of the challenge we have facing us in the spam wars is the legitimate desire among people around the world for contact--any contact. We're talking about an entire country that speaks English and has internet technology and a reasonable amount of capital by African standards, who cannot even get a freaking Yahoo mail designation. Should I be surprised that they'll take what they can get, even if it's spam? As Don points out, email was pretty much the exciting part of the Net for these kids, especially those who had family working or going to school abroad. Although a few kids did send email to their friends sitting next to them, most were earnestly trying to compose letters to far-flung family, or to me, wishing me Jesus's blessings and so forth for my help. That said, we did introduce kids to the Web and showed them how to surf for things. In order, they were interested in pages about sports teams, pages about musicians, and the Google search engine. At the time, I was writing about the trip in my LiveJournal, and I very much wanted to get them started using that. I had even been hoarding my LJ user invite codes to give away. Once I got to the class, however, I realized that for all the talk about youth on LJ, there really is nothing on there of interest to a ten year old. The staff at BusyInternet expressed some interest in LJ, but even they abandoned their journals after realizing that you get blog readers primarily by having the time to read and respond to the blogs of others, not just by putting words on a page and waiting for the hordes to arrive. Although Busy employees did get some free time to surf the Web and thus read blogs, there was more instant gratification to be found in things like Yahoo chat, particularly when one could get access to the webcams (there were four, and always in use.) When I went to visit the women at WISE, I thought they would want the sort of Internet classes we were teaching children. However, Esi and Frances--who already have Net access and a pretty nice Web page--weren't all that interested in that sort of thing. What they could really use--what might immediately benefit the clients- -were some rudimentary computer classes for their staff and counselors. They explained that although WISE had procedures in place for documenting cases, the quality of the documentation varied wildly, depending upon who the counselor was, and how good her word processing skills were. For instance, while many counsellors knew that photos went a long way in impressing upon police the severity of a client's case, only a few of counselors actually knew they could cut and paste digital photos into Word documents. Likewise, while their website looked professional and polished, it was chiefly the labor gift of a volunteer long since gone. Since the staff had no knowledge of HTML, the site had gone updated for a few years now. They worried aloud about whether the same thing might happen with their (first ever) database of cases, now under construction by a group of volunteer programmers. For the first time perhaps ever, I began to understand the obvious connection between a certain type of computer proficiency and women's advocacy. Esi and Frances explicitly requested classes on Microsoft Word and Excel, and I agreed to fund them. To those who gasp at the "M" word, I have to say I was met with blank stares every time I mentioned licensing issues anywhere. Overall, the feeling in Accra--at least at smaller organizations--seems to be that you use whatever someone gives you and teaches you to use, end of story. Ultimately, we hoped to offer classes for WISE's clients as well, since job training is part of their mission statement (women everywhere tend to stay in abusive environments if they are financially dependent on men), I thought we might offer data entry, word processing or "make your own business card" classes to WISE clients. Esi agreed that many WISE clients could benefit from computer training of some sort. As she put it, "Some of the women we work with say, 'I can sell my batik and my kenke to support my family', to which I have to respond, 'Accra doesn't need another kenke stand. Look where you are. Accra is an urban area, and its getting more telecommunications by the day. But to get a job at a call center you'd at least have to have some basic knowledge of computers." At first, we thought about offering client classes at the WISE center, where there are four computers and we could bring some laptops. We wound up rejecting that idea. At WISE, there are opportunities to connect with other battered women, their children, and their advocates, and of course this initial "safe space" is critical. But if further modeling is to take place, it is necessary for women to witness other women working with computers in an environment with telecenters and help desks (where these women would most likely be seeking jobs) on-premises. Like many telecenters in Africa, Busy is a social affair, and this element would be lost if we moved the training to WISE. Even offering students a cold drink in the bar after class allows these them to stop being "clients" and instead just be women interacting with the place and its inhabitants. I want to take a moment to describe the joy and the weirdness of raising money for a project like this. As I mentioned earlier, WISE is a non-profit with tax deductible status in Africa (they are working on the paperwork for the U.S.) Ideally, they would like to be able to raise funds online. However, due to the fact that Ghanaian and Nigerian ISPs seem to be on a number of "danger lists" for fraudulent practices, easy online payment venues such as PayPal aren't options for them. Now, there are some organizations that orchestrate online fundraising for West African concerns, and WISE wants to get in touch with them, but that's pretty low on the to-do list at this point. As it stands, this is how I raise funds for classes as it stands (feel free to laugh; I do): I write to friends and acquaintances, given them a URL to a page on my web site: http://www.echonyc.com/~janedoe/WISE/computer.htm There, they can read about the program and make a donation via PayPal to my account here in the States. (Btw, I designed this page for WISE, and really don't want it on my site, but we haven't yet transferred it to the WISE site because they are still trying to figure out an overall plan for online fundraising, and don't want people to get confused thinking they are donating to say, the shelter, when the page I designed is just for the computer training.) Once I raised enough money for a class, I transferred the money to Greg via a shared Fleet bank account. Greg withdraws the money in Ghanaian Cedis from the Barclay's bank in Accra, using his Fleet Visa card. Greg brought the cash to Busy Internet and booked the space (his teaching services are volunteer, so we don't pay for that.) Obviously this is a temporary measure. I really cannot expand fundraising until I figure out a more sensible system, but given the fact that I've only raised a few hundred dollars so far and that a long-term solution involves things like U.S. nonprofit status and tax law and blah blah, and at the time, Greg was there are ready to teach for free, so I went with this. I wish I could report that the project was a wild success, but after about six classes, WISE decided to "re-evaluate" things (although encouraging me to stay active with the group.) Esi told me that although WISE was deeply appreciative of my efforts to help ( I never met a Ghananian who wasn't deeply appreciative, or at least too kind to hurt someone's feelings) she felt that right now, there were just too many women with too many varying skill sets to be effectively taught in groups of ten. In email exchanges since, two suggestions have been floated for our next step: A) "ramp up" and organize a large-scale teaching initiative by courting development money (which would take us out of the small-scale model I had envisioned) or B) get someone like me to move to Accra and do hardcore volunteer one-on-one training to get staff and clients up to speed at their facility (which eliminates the sort of cross-pollination I spoke of earlier at Busy.) We know there are probably answers between those two poles, but negotiating with women whose main concern is (rightly) caring for their clients is taking much more time than my New York self is used to. Plus there is, you know, my dissertation. If you have read this far, I probably owe you a beer, and promise to never post something this long to the list again, as long as I live. Best, Terri Theresa M. Senft Auxiliary Adviser, Gallatin School of Individualized Study Adjunct Professor, Interactive Telecommunications Program New York University, 719 Broadway, Room 519 (212) 998-7333 email: terri.senft(a)nyu.edu

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National Reading Conference Request for Proposals
by Don Leu 24 Feb '04

24 Feb '04

I hope we are able to attract some exceptional proposals from AIR. I am looking for a really strong strand on issues that we share in common about literacy and technology. The call is below. Cheers, Don Leu Dear Colleagues, We invite you to submit a research proposal to the 54th annual meeting of the National Reading Conference, the largest annual conference devoted solely to literacy research. The National Reading Conference is internationally known for the warm welcome it extends to new members of our research community and for high standards in intellectual inquiry and research. This year, the conference will take place in beautiful and historic San Antonio, Texas from December 1-4, 2004. It will feature plenaries by leading scholars who will address the critical issues in our field today. You may download a copy of the Call for Proposals with complete and detailed guidelines at: http://www.nrconline.org/cgi/t4cgi.exe/propsubmission.taf All proposals will be submitted and reviewed online from the link that appears at our conference web page: http://www.nrconline.org Proposals must be complete and conform to the Guidelines for Submission. Only original work related to literacy not presented or published elsewhere may be proposed for the conference. Current membership in NRC is not required for submitting proposals or attending the conference, but all participants and attendees are required to register for the conference. This year, programs areas include: Area 1: Pre-service Teacher Education in Literacy Area 2: In-service Teacher Education/Professional Development in Literacy Area 3: Literacy Instruction and Literacy Learning Area 4: Literacy Assessment, Evaluation, and Public Policy Area 5: Early and Elementary Literacy Processes Area 6: Adolescent, College, and Adult Literacy Processes Area 7: Social, Cultural, and Political Issues and Practices in Literacy Area 8: Literacy Learning and Practice in Multilingual and MulticulturalSettings Area 9: Children’s, Young Adult, and Adult Literature Area 10: Literacy and Technology/Media Area 11: Study Groups Area 12: Other Topics Proposals must be submitted online to the appropriate area no later than midnight EST March 1, 2004. Proposals that do not fall within the main program areas listed above should be submitted to Area #12. We invite you to circulate this announcement and we look forward to seeing you in San Antonio! Donald J. Leu, Program Chair and President Elect Victoria Purcell-Gates, Assistant Conference Chair and Vice President -- Donald J. Leu John and Maria Neag Endowed Chair in Literacy and Technology University of Connecticut 249 Glenbrook Road Storrs, CT 06269-2033 Office: 860.486.0202 Fax: 860-486.2994 Homepage: http://www.sp.uconn.edu/~djleu/index.html

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Net Researchers in Korea and Japan
by Steven Clift 23 Feb '04

23 Feb '04

Any of you on Air-l? What about similar e-networks/organizations in those countries to AOIR? How about others, who do you recommend that I connect with? I might be coming through one of both of your countries March 29 - April 2. I'd like to connect on issues like social networking, e-democracy, e-government, etc.. Thanks, Steven Clift http://www.publicus.net P.S. I have a post with details at: http://www.mail-archive.com/do-wire@lists.umn.edu/ Or drop me a note <clift(a)publicus.net> and zip it to you. Steven Clift - http://publicus.net - Reply to: clift(a)publicus.net Join DoWire: http://e-democracy.org/do Speaking requests: http://publicus.net/speaker.html Watch my BBC World interview: http://publicus.net/media.html

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Re: [Air-l] cfp: LIFE WITH THE ULTIMATE CONGLOMERATE
by Mark D. Johns 23 Feb '04

23 Feb '04

At 02:15 PM 2/23/2004 -0500, katharine sarikakis wrote: >We, the citizens, own the airwaves, yet we don't control them. The >corporations that control them feed us a steady diet of electronic junk >food and it is making our democracy sick. >(Ralph Nader) For those of us in the U.S., I can't think of a worse day to lead with a Ralph Nader quote. ;-) ----- Mark D. Johns, Ph.D. Asst. Prof. of Communication/Linguistics Luther College, Decorah, Iowa USA http://faculty.luther.edu/~johnsmar/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- "Get the facts first. You can distort them later." -- Mark Twain

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