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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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FW: ::fibreculture:: Fibreculture::Brisbane_2003::fibrepower:
by Danny Butt 23 Feb '04

23 Feb '04

Hi I thought Air-l members may be interested in this. Cheers Danny -- http://www.dannybutt.net ------ Forwarded Message Fibreculture::Brisbane_2003:::::::::: fibrepower:: Currents in Australasian New Media Research and Internet Culture :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: July 11, 12, 13th:::2003 Fibreculture http://www.fibreculture.org Brisbane::Powerhouse - Centre for the Live Arts New Farm Park, Brisbane QLD Tel: 3358 - 8622 :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Fibreculture::Brisbane_2003::::::Fibrepower::Schedule & Themes Three day Meeting Fri July 11, Sat 12, Sun 13th Powerhouse: Courier Mail room Fibreculture :: in association with critical new media studies sections in universities across Brisbane, invites you to a meeting in July 2003 on theory, policy, practice, and education in New Media and the Internet. Fibrepower :: Currents in Australasian New Media Research and Internet Culture will bring together practitioners in the academy and industry from around Australia and New Zealand to participate in critically informed debates about new media and its cultures. It follows the ANZCA03 conference (see http://www.bgsb.qut.edu.au/conferences/ANZCA03/index.html - 9-11 July at QUT Gardens Point Campus, Brisbane). :: Theme of the 2003 Fibreculture Meeting :: fibrepower:: In academic and popular discourses, new media, the Internet, and 'virtual reality' are often described as just this - a 'virtual' reality, an Other, a 'cyberspace' which is somehow disconnected from the 'real' and secondary to 'life' experiences and issues. It is rarely accepted in the dominant Internet discourses of commercial and social culture that the truth is vastly different. New media and networked technologies currently pervade our lives and connect us ever more closely and solidly as citizens of networked society. If information and knowledge, in the new economy, are 'power', then the copper, optical, or wireless fibres spanning the networks are conduits for this power; they are full of power, and powerful. Their daily influence and the network's influence on human society is real and tangible. Fibreculture:: wants to address this continued insistence on conceptualising networked life and Internet cultures as a separate, second-rate or exotic reality, a dichotomy which obscures fact and prevents any in-depth engagement with and critique of the power of 'fibre' over and in our everyday lives. Set in a literal and figurative locus of power from the previous, industrial, era, ::fibrepower:: will engage with a range of themes that disclose the unseen power of fibre-culture in the informational age. Outcomes of this event will include a high profile public forum, an online publication of refereed articles, and deeper connections between new media industries, the academy and others. The meeting will be held at the Brisbane Powerhouse from July 11-13, 2003. (For reports from past fibreculture meetings and updates on fibreculture 2003, please see the Website at http://www.fibreculture.org/.) :::::::::::: FRIDAY nite JULY 11th 7 p.m. Welcome and Registration 8 p.m. Session 1: Fibrepower in the Regions :: Headed by Gerard Goggin Public forum with Guest Speakers, Panelists, and Q&A (TBA) In Australasia regional and rural areas continue to miss out on reliable and fast access to the global networks. This contributes significantly to the growing digital divide, and carries important implications for public and private policy. How can we increase the fibrepower of the regions, and what are current examples of best practice? Gerard Goggin (g.goggin(a)uq.edu.au) is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies, University of Queensland. He is writing a book entitled *Networked Imaginings: Cultural History of Australian Internet*, and has long had an interest in rural and regional internet and telecommunications (not least from living in the country himself). plus :: Introduction to the Fibreculture List & its Open Session, M/C Collaboration, fc Webjournal, and other Fibreculture activities with Geert Lovink, David Teh, Axel Bruns, and other list facilitators. **10 p.m. OPENING Art & Music :: Digital Literacies :: New Media Arts Exhibition :: Guest djs and vjs. No host bar. In conjunction with the conference, Fibreculture and fineArtforum are offering an online gallery space set up as an opportunity for artists to explore critical literacies and conference themes. An A4 gallery of resonant works will also be displayed at the meeting venue providing opportunity for practitioners and attendees to respond visually to the fibrepower themes both beforehand and during the discussions. Organized by Jane Turner. --- :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Fibrepower::Weekend Schedule - Discussion Sessions Brisbane Powerhouse - July 12th and 13th SATURDAY JULY 12th 8 a.m.::Registration 8:45 a.m.::Welcome 9 - 10:45 a.m.::Session 2: Intellectual Property-Intellectual Possibilities :: Headed by Esther Milne and Kate Crawford The exercise of intellectual property rights can stifle the generation of intellectual property. The U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has been abused on any number of occasions. How can copyright be reconfigured for the networked age? How can creative rights be protected, and innovation ensured? How can fibrepower be harnessed to drive intellectual possibilities? What measures, policies and action should be implemented to protect indigenous cultural heritage and intellectual property? 10:45 a.m. Morning tea & coffee 11:15 - 1 p.m.::Session 3: Information Warfare :: Headed by Steve Stockwell and Geert Lovink Weapons of mass destruction may remain elusive - but weapons of mass disinformation are evident in any political or military conflict, if you know where and how to look. Information warfare adds to the firepower of conventional weapons arsenals. How do we disarm the information warriors? How do we distinguish freedom of information fighters from info-terrorists? How do we keep truth from becoming a battlefield detainee? 1 p.m.LUNCH 2:00 - 4 p.m. ::Session 4: Fibre Access Geopolitics Wired :: Headed by Guy Redden Much has been made of the distributed nature of the Internet. Does this make it a means through which previously unheard voices can carry, enhancing democracy? Or is it more that network capitalism can now get its tentacles everywhere, determining access and usage on its terms? This session invites critical appraisal and geopolitical interpretation of the spread of informational networks. How does the digital divide play out across space, class and ethnicity? Is access a luxury? With Google in China and aol.com in Australia and numerous other mergers and shifts, who controls the networks? With concentration/convergence, will there be an enclosure of the networks, new ways of constraining and exploiting their use to the detriment of the 'online commons'? Will distributed fibrepower continue to give an edge to international activism, indigenous rights, direct democracy/publishing, and other mobilisations against the centralisation of power? At least relative to other media? Consideration also needs to given to how these matters can be regulated. Is it time for a United Networks alongside the United Nations and who would hold the veto rights?! ____ 4 p.m.:: Warchalking Walk - Methods & Details Bring laptop with a wireless modem installed. Anyone with knowledge, please attend. ____ 7 p.m. Fibreculture dinner (optional) __ SUNDAY JULY 13th 9 a.m. Registration 10 - 11:45 a.m.::Session 5: The Internet Is Not Virtual :: Headed by Axel Bruns The myth of a separate, containable 'cyberspace' persists despite all evidence to the contrary. Rather than perpetuating new age visions of leaving the body behind to virtually 'inhabit' cyberspace, it is important to begin to realise that cyberspace, or fibrespace, already envelops society; is society. What are the implications of this fact? For example, how can disciplines like teaching and publishing turn to integrating Internet content, literacies, and technologies as part of their core activities rather than as an adjunct afterthought? In doing so, how can this 'fibrepower' be released from the strangleholds of outdated mythologies? 11:45 LUNCH 12:45 - 2:30 p.m.Session 6 ::Teaching Fibrepower:: :: Headed by Molly Hankwitz and Danny Butt Debates over technology and education are often couched in between the university sector hanging on to its critical freedom, authority and scholarship vs. government policy directions which are pushing higher education, among other sectors, into more corporatized, privatised spheres. Meanwhile, schools, colleges, and universities are struggling to keep up with the pace of technology. Teaching methods and approaches to cybercultures lag behind and students are often forced to take the initiative into their own hands if they hope to build useful skills sets and acquire an understanding of new media. Whole communities miss out on participating if they cannot make their voices heard. How can teaching institutions redress this situation? What are some excellent practices? 2:30 - 3 p.m. Afternoon Tea 3 - 4:45 p.m.::Open Session:: No set topic. Discussion about the direction of fibreculture. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: REGISTRATION: Three-day registration includes attendance at all sessions, lunches, morning and afternoon teas. All prices include GST. :: Three-day registration $27.50/$55.00 :: Opening nite forum and art exhibition only $10.00/$15.00 (Prices are for students and other concession cardholders / non-students) Pre-registration forms are available from the fibreculture website: http://www.fibreculture.org/ Late registration will be possible during the meeting. Cheques, cash and money orders only, thank you. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: For more information and to subscribe to the fibreculture list: See http://www.fibreculture.org/ :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: For more inf. contact meeting organizers: Axel Bruns snurb(a)snurb.info Molly Hankwitz m.hankwitz(a)qut.edu.au Thank you to all participants and sponsors, John Hartley, QUT, UQ Media & Cultural Studies, M/C, fAf, Brisbane Powerhouse, Karen Hands, David Cox, Anna Zagala, and Jo Gray. Fibreculture 2003 sponsors: QUT Creative Industries Faculty http://www.creativeindustries.qut.edu.au/ - UQ Media and Cultural Studies Centre http://www.emsah.uq.edu.au/ - M/C - Media and Culture http://www.media-culture.org.au/ - fineArt forum http://www.fineartforum.org/ - Australian Network for Art and Technology http://www.anat.org.au/ - Brisbane Powerhouse - Centre for the Live Arts http://www.brisbanepowerhouse.org/ - Fibreculture is served by: Myspinach http://www.myspinach.org/ ::::::::::::::::::: ::posted on ::fibreculture:: mailinglist for australian ::critical internet theory, culture and research ::subscribe: fibreculture-request(a)lists.myspinach.org ::with "subscribe" in the subject line ::unsubcribe: fibreculture-request(a)lists.myspinach.org ::with "unsubscribe" in the subject line ::info and archive: http://www.fibreculture.org ::please send announcements to seperate mailinglist: :: http://lists.myspinach.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fibreculture-announce ------ End of Forwarded Message

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RE: [Air-l] International Internet
by Randolph Kluver (Assoc Prof) 23 Feb '04

23 Feb '04

Thanks! Randolph Kluver Singapore Internet Research Centre School of Communication and Information Nanyang Technological University Singapore 637718 phone (65) 6790-5770 http://www.ntu.edu.sg/sci/sirc/home.asp -----Original Message----- From: air-l-admin(a)aoir.org [mailto:air-l-admin@aoir.org] On Behalf Of S. Liban Sent: Friday, February 20, 2004 11:17 PM To: air-l(a)aoir.org Subject: AW: [Air-l] International Internet Hi there! > one, but rather > specific data concerning how the internet facilitates international > contacts, primarily for personal, rather than advocacy purposes. http://www.nua.com/surveys/ They used to have a lot of data concerning Internet - and that international - I think they have been acquired... http://www.emarketer.com/estats They have been there for a while, but I never used them myself... I have just conducted an E-Mail based survey in 39 countries (Europe and Middle East + states that emerged from the former Soviet Union)....one barrier is, that ASCII was not really meant to be international :) Also - the skills of the population regarding language capabillities should be a good lead... Hope something of this will help... sam _______________________________________________ Air-l mailing list Air-l(a)aoir.org http://www.aoir.org/mailman/listinfo/air-l

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fyi on a "Virtual Conference" and forthcoming e-journal
by Radhika Gajjala 22 Feb '04

22 Feb '04

e-journal in- formation http://www.cyberdiva.org/PTT/ "Virtual Conference" http://www.cyberdiva.org/techcluster/ I will have more details by and by - if interested - do contact me. thanks, r http://www.cyberdiva.org blogs: http://www.cyberdiva.org/cyberdiv/october research and teaching: http://personal.bgsu.edu/~radhik

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transcribing interviews digitally
by Bernie Hogan 22 Feb '04

22 Feb '04

To keep it simple I use winamp and openoffice (or word). Play the transcription (get a winamp plug in to make it play slower if you like), and then simply alt-tab between the two programs. left and right cursor keys make a song go 5secs back or forward. Its a little harried at first, but I got used to it rather quickly. If this doesn't work then I'd move on to the transcribing suites. Sadly I don't know of any open source solutions... (shamelesss plug for open source conference... http://osconf.kmdi.utoronto.ca ) Take Care, BERNiE

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survey update
by Eero Tarik 21 Feb '04

21 Feb '04

for those interested in the progress of my little survey, you will be pleased to know that whilst it is still less than a week old, it made it into Adelaides Saturday morning paper(circulation 204,000) with one of their columnists giving it a mention. She wrote... "Net User Survey The Littlest Internet User Survey is a rather sweet exercise by an Adelaide student doing a BA in Internet Studies. I had no idea the Net was an academic course already - but there you go. Give this simple survey a go. It doesnt hurt a bit. (website address)" It will be interesting to see if this creates a spike in the level of responses, although I imagine any such spike will occur on Monday when people go back to work. see ya Eero Tarik

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Renewed call for roundtable participation at ASA
by Gina Neff 21 Feb '04

21 Feb '04

Hello all, I'm organizing the Communication and Information Technology roundtables at this summer's American Sociological Association meetings in San Francisco. We've gotten several great papers through the official ASA submission process, but before I finalize the lists of tables, I'd like to put out another "unofficial official" call for participation. I'm looking for participants on a range of communication and information technology roundtables -- from a roundtable on ethnicity and the internet to scientific communication to social movements. If you would like to submit an abstract, I'll let you know if it fits into the planned roundtables. Please send your name, your email address, your affiliation, the title of your paper, and an abstract to me at gneff(a)ile.ucla.edu. I'll be evaluating the proposed papers by the end of March, but the sooner you can get something to me the better. Thanks, Gina Neff Postdoctoral Fellow Institute for Labor and Employment UCLA

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