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Re: [Air-l] Query - How many mailing lists
by Jonathan Marshall 02 Feb '04

02 Feb '04

Thank you to everyone who offered help with this question. I now see it was far more complex than I had thought :) Not surprising really. If I get any figures from some of the methods suggested I will post them back to the list. Thanks! jon UTS CRICOS Provider Code: 00099F DISCLAIMER ======================================================================== This email message and any accompanying attachments may contain confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, do not read, use, disseminate, distribute or copy this message or attachments. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete this message. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the sender expressly, and with authority, states them to be the views the University of Technology Sydney. Before opening any attachments, please check them for viruses and defects. ========================================================================

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Re: [Air-l] Query - How many mailing lists
by Art McGee 02 Feb '04

02 Feb '04

> I wonder if anyone could help me uncover the number of > mailing lists there might be in the world? The trick to this question is that in addition to public lists that are hosted on systems such as YahooGroups, or legacy university Listserv lists held over from BITnet, there are an ever increasing number of lists that are hosted on organizational and personal servers, which fly underneath the casual research radar, and there are an incredible number of newsletters and notification systems, like GetActive, that don't fit the classic list definition. The other trick is being able to recognize and know rebranded products. DGroups, which serves international NGOs, is a customized version of Lyris. Lyris has a huge customer base in the NGO sector, apart from their corporate contracts. Also, there is still a HUGE installed base of majordomo 1.x systems, even though the software is out of date and inadequate for most modern mailing list needs. Inertia keeps them going. Mailman, a Free/Open Source mailing list manager, is probably the most popular software program for those setting up lists on their own servers. Also, most ISPs who give you a selection of services for a flat monthly fee include the ability to setup Mailman lists as one of the built-in features of an account. Finally, there are also a bunch of lists running on less popular or more specialized software that are hard to find, which used to be included in directories like Tile and Liszt but aren't anymore (listproc, ezmlm, etc.). Places where the majority of ad-supported lists are hosted: http://www.yahoogroups.com http://www.topica.com Most popular commercial list software packages/providers: http://www.listserv.com http://www.lyris.com Most popular non-commercial list software: http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman.html http://www.sympa.org http://www.greatcircle.com/majordomo/ Most popular newsletter management system: http://www.getactive.com Art

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Re: [Air-l] capitalism always lies?
by Art McGee 02 Feb '04

02 Feb '04

> Politics, gender, race, (no evaluative order intended > here), seem to be amongst the major factors influencing > the ways that people interpret others and react to others > online. Thank you. I'm so glad we're on the same page. I know that more learned scholars such as the folks in AOIR always knew that, but there was a time, a very frightening and scary time, when a certain cliquish set of privileged "white" people were running around, writing articles in magazines like Wired and Mondo 2000, and claiming a utopian vision for cyberspace that completely ignored and dismissed issues of socially constructed race and ethnic identity and their effect in and on cyberculture and virtual identities. Thanks to the cyberfeminists, issues of gender began to be interrogated and discussed with much more frequency, but "race" (along with class) was *always* left out of the equation. I'm so glad those folks are all gone now. That was a truly sad time in cyberspace history. I hope they were able to get some help. A mind is terrible thing to waste, you know. Art

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Re: [Air-l] capitalism always lies?
by Art McGee 02 Feb '04

02 Feb '04

> Art, any chance of adding to your list -- capitalism, > patriarchy, and white supremacy -- capitalism's twin > cousins: militarism and consumerism? Consumerism is a byproduct and subset of Capitalism. The creation of demand, where none previously existed, is a key feature of our modern economies. Why do you think kids are so confused: "The economy is looking good today as *consumer spending* is up....The stock market went up 100 points on news that *consumer spending* has increased..." Ever hear of the stock market going up on news of increased consumer savings? Ever hear that the economy is strong because people are saving money instead of buying depreciating crap? These days, you're made to feel guilty, like you're not properly contributing to the economy, if you aren't spending money. Militarism, on the other hand, is a bit more complex and more of an amalgamation of everything. Part of it is Patriarchal aggression, part of it is Capitalistic greed, and part of it is White Supremacist racism and imperialism. However, one thing I would say is that militarism is definitely not unique to the U.S., it's just that when we engage in it, we tend to inflict more collateral damage due to our size. However, Patriarchal aggression is something I would say undergirds militarism globally, no matter what country. If we could just kill off all the men in a figurative (not literal) sense, there would be far fewer wars and much less violence. The social construction of male identity is basically responsible for most of the world's death and suffering. Art

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EXTENSION OF CALL FOR PAPERS
by K.S.O-Riordan＠sussex.ac.uk 02 Feb '04

02 Feb '04

Please distribute widely ------------------------------------ EXTENSION OF CALL FOR PAPERS: Internet Research **Submissions are now being accepted until the 15th of February 2004** Conference Site: http://aoir.org/2004 or http:// www.susex.ac.uk/cce/aoir The Association of Internet Researchers Conference will be held at the University of Sussex, Brighton, UK. September 19-22, 2004. The submission deadline has now been extended to the middle of this month. Take this extended opportunity to present your work and be involved in this exciting event, explore a wide range of international internet and digital media research, and visit the beautiful city of Brighton and Hove with its vibrant new media, arts and alternative cultures. Information about Brighton http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Units/publications/pgrad2004/1-1-7.html

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Digital Cultural Institutions Project - Summer 2004 Awards Competition
by dcip 02 Feb '04

02 Feb '04

::::: PLEASE CIRCULATE ::::: Digital Cultural Institutions Project - Summer 2004 Awards Competition Social Science Research Council The Social Science Research Council is pleased to announce a 2004 summer awards competition to support research on digital cultural institutions - institutions involved in aggregating digital cultural resources and developing models of access to them. About the Project The project will seek to integrate lines of research on a range of providers and mediators of cultural goods and services-from digital libraries and online museums to commercial online vendors of music and books, search engines and portals, open and collaborative knowledge archives, and peer-to-peer networks, among others. This includes consideration of the technical, architectural, and cross-institutional issues that shape aggregation and access, such as metadata standards and digital rights management. In so doing, the project will encourage a more comprehensive understanding of the emerging institutional landscape of digital culture and toward a clearer account of the choices we face as participants and stakeholders in that culture. The project will contribute to what is arguably the most important and most impoverished cultural conversation of our time: that of understanding the practical requirements of an equitable, creative, and sustainable digital cultural future, in the U.S. and across an increasingly global cultural network. Project activities in 2004 For 2004, the project will offer up to 10 awards of $5,000 to fund research over the summer. Eligibility The fellowship competition is open to advanced graduate and professional-degree students in any field, and to post-doctoral, faculty, and practitioner candidates within 7 years of their terminal degree. Applicants must be resident in the United States. There are no nationality restrictions. Applicants must be able to attend the project workshop, Sept. 23-25, 2004, at the University of California - San Diego. The SSRC will cover travel and accommodations. Selection Criteria (1) Consistency with the topics and goals described above. This implies a relatively broad definition of what constitutes an institution (e.g., search engines, portals, or standards bodies could qualify as institutional mediators of access), but a potentially narrower definition of what constitutes a cultural resource, focusing on aggregation and access to (and potentially collaborative production of) forms of expressive culture (writing, music, film/video, etc.). (2) Social scientific grounding. Although the fellowship is open to all fields, applicants must show how their projects yield generalizable social-scientific knowledge broadly construed, including engagement with existing lines of social and/or socio-technical research. Although applicant projects can include software development or other applied activities, the fellowships will be awarded on the basis of the social research outcomes likely to be derived from them. (3) Broader implications. Although we expect that many applications will focus on specific institutions, applicants should show how their projects contribute to understanding the broader conditions of access to digital cultural resources (whether technical, legal, or social). (4) Projects already underway. Due to the short time-horizon of this year's activities, projects will be preferred that are likely to result in publishable research findings by early 2005. Requirements of Award Recipients (1) Submission of a 2,000-3,000 word brief on the project by mid-August, including preliminary findings and larger questions posed about the institutional ecology of digital culture. These will support the project workshop and be published on the SSRC website. (2) Attendance at the project workshop (Sept. 23-25, 2004), UC-San Diego, travel and accommodations paid by the SSRC) (3) Interest in participation in an edited volume and other follow-up activities, to be discussed at the workshop. Application Procedures All application materials must be sent via email, with attached files, to dcip(a)ssrc.org Please make all materials available in one of the following electronic formats - MS Word (or Word compatible), Word Perfect, or RTF. Required materials for application: (1) Cover letter (please include email address) (2) Project Description (2000 words maximum, plus a 150 word abstract) (3) Curriculum Vitae (4) Pointers to or electronic copies of other published work (no more than two) Competition Schedule Applications due: March 5 Notification of awards: May 10 More Information Information about the Digital Cultural Institutions Project can be found online at www.ssrc.org/ccit/dcip/ . The project is part of the SSRC's Culture, Creativity, and Information Technology Program, www.ssrc.org/ccit/ . For fellowship questions or other project information, please contact us at dcip(a)ssrc.org or 212 377-2700 ext.606 Project Funders Funding is provided by the Culture and Creativity division of the Rockefeller Foundation.

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list rejections
by jeremy hunsinger 02 Feb '04

02 Feb '04

Some of you may have recently experienced that your mail to air-l has been rejected or held by the moderators. Due to the recent upswing in viruses and spam, we've added filters to the system to capture and hold all mime or otherwise encoded mail. We are currently only automatically allowing plain text messages through the system, everything else is being held or rejected, either manually or automatically. We are also automatically rejecting almost all emails with the subject line similar to the last round of virus's, such as Subject: Hi, Subject: Hello, etc. We have for the last two years rejected on certain forms of subject and headers for spam and virus reasons, so some of you will have experienced this before. if you have questions, feel free to send them to suggestions(a)aoir.org Thanks, Jeremy Hunsinger Center for Digital Discourse and Culture () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail /\ - against microsoft attachments

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Query - How many mailing lists
by Jonathan Marshall 02 Feb '04

02 Feb '04

I wonder if anyone could help me uncover the number of mailing lists there might be in the world? the most recent figures I've got are from April 1997 estimating the number of lists, from the Liszt directory, at 71,618. Liszt seems to have commercial since then - possibly being a spam site, and I can't find anything more recent. Obviously the total number of active lists is more interesting than the total number of lists, but i'll take anything at the moment :) Thanks jon UTS CRICOS Provider Code: 00099F DISCLAIMER ======================================================================== This email message and any accompanying attachments may contain confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, do not read, use, disseminate, distribute or copy this message or attachments. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete this message. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the sender expressly, and with authority, states them to be the views the University of Technology Sydney. Before opening any attachments, please check them for viruses and defects. ========================================================================

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4 new papers on opensource.mit.edu
by Karim R. Lakhani 01 Feb '04

01 Feb '04

Hi ALl, I have posted the following papers on the opensource.mit.edu website. Thanks Karim Paper 1 Authors: Baldwin, Carliss & Kim Clark Title: The Architecture of Cooperation: How Code Architecture Mitigates Free Riding in the Open Source Development Model http://opensource.mit.edu/papers/baldwinclark.pdf Abstract: We argue that the architecture of a codebase is a critical factor that lies at the heart of the open source development process. To support this argument, we define two observable properties of an architecture: (1) its modularity and (2) its option values. Developers can make informed judgments about modularity and option value from early code releases. Their judgments in turn will influence their decisions to work and to contribute their code back to the community. We go on to suggest that the core of the open source development process can be thought of as two linked games played within a codebase architecture. The first game involves the implicit exchange of effort directed at the modules and option values of a codebase; the second is a Prisoners' Dilemma game triggered by the irreducible costs of communicating. The implicit exchange of effort among developers is made possible by the the non-rivalrous nature of the codebase and by the modularity and option values of the codebase's architecture. This exchange creates value for all participants, both workers and free-riders. In contrast, the Prisoners' Dilemma is a problem that must be surmounted if the exchanges are to take place. It can be addressed through a combination of reducing the costs of communication, providing rewards, and encouraging repeated interactions. Finally, the initial design and "opening up" of a codebase can be seen as a rational move by an architect who is seeking to test the environment in hopes of initiating exchanges of effort with other developers. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Paper 2: Authors: Crowston, Kevin, Annabi, Hala, & Howison, James Title: Defining Open Source Software Project Success http://opensource.mit.edu/papers/crowstonannabihowison.pdf Abstract: Information systems success is one of the most widely used dependent variables in information systems research. In this paper, we identify a range of measures that can be used to assess the success of open source software (OSS) projects. We identify measures based on a review of the literature, a consideration of the OSS development process and an analysis of the opinions of OSS developers. For each measure, we provide examples of how they might be used in a study of OSS development. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Paper 3 Author: Reagle, Joseph Title: Socialization in Open Technical Communities http://reagle.org/joseph/2003/socialization/voluntary.html Abstract: While many definitions of openness focus on the character and licenses of the software products, relatively few directly address the character of the social organization that develops those products. This essay offers a definition of openness and considers how that characteristic affects the recruitment and socialization of newcomers to such organizations. The relevance of socialization is clear when one consider the growth of on-line communities, and precariousness of membership in voluntary organizations. I then suggest that "forking," a split of the communities, is integral to the definition of openness and a possible vector of communicating social norms between communities, and that a significant difference between open technical communities and some other open/voluntary communities is the internal orientation of status seeking within the community. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Authors: Bauer, Andreas & Markus Pizka Title: The Contribution of Free Software to Software Evolution http://opensource.mit.edu/papers/bauerpizka.pdf Abstract: It is remarkable to think that even without any interest in finding suitable methods and concepts that would allow complex software systems to evolve and remain manageable, the ever growing open source movement has silently managed to establish highly successful evolution techniques over the last two decades. These concepts represent best practices that could be applied equally to a number of today’s most crucial problems concerning the evolution of complex commercial software systems. In this paper, the authors state and explain some of these principles from the perspective of experienced open source developers, and give the rationale as to why the highly dynamic free software development process, as a whole, is entangled with constantly growing code bases and changing project sizes, and how it deals with these successfully. -- =============================================== Karim R. Lakhani MIT Sloan School of Management & The Boston Consulting Group, Strategy Practice Initiative e-mail: karim.lakhani(a)sloan.mit.edu | lakhani.karim(a)bcg.com mobile: 617-851-1224 http://spoudaiospaizen.net/ | http://web.mit.edu/lakhani/www http://opensource.mit.edu | http://userinnovation.mit.edu

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Re: [Air-l] capitalism always lies ?
by Jonathan Marshall 01 Feb '04

01 Feb '04

Art McGee <amcgee(a)virtualidentity.org> writes > > It also indicates that poltics is a major way that people > > interpret the responses of others when engaged in online > > discussions, and that we cannot be free of offline > > categories that easily. > > "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog." > --Peter Steiner > New Yorker Magazine > July 1993 > > > "What's wrong with being a dog?" > --Art McGee > Computers, Freedom, and Privacy Conference > March 1995 Nothing :) I'm agreeing with you. I'm just saying we can't be free of those categories, this is not meant. to imply we *should* be free of categories. I think that would perhaps leave us without language or identity. I'd much rather people acknowledged the effect that these categories have on the way they interpret others online, than to pretend they don't exist. Politics, gender, race, (no evaluative order intended here), seem to be amongst the major factors influencing the ways that people interpret others and react to others online. At the moment my research focuses on gender, but the other two categories keep sneaking in and i'm going to have to generalise, or at least learn something about them - no suprise huh? jon UTS CRICOS Provider Code: 00099F DISCLAIMER ======================================================================== This email message and any accompanying attachments may contain confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, do not read, use, disseminate, distribute or copy this message or attachments. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete this message. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the sender expressly, and with authority, states them to be the views the University of Technology Sydney. Before opening any attachments, please check them for viruses and defects. ========================================================================

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