- Air-L - lists.aoir.org

Late adolescents and dating on the Internet
by Michele White 03 Dec '03

03 Dec '03

Hello, My article, "On the Internet, Everybody Worries that You're a Dog: The Gender Expectations and Beauty Ideals of Online Personals and Text-Based Chat" presents a general consideration of Internet dating sites that is targeted at the undergraduate reader. I do a close analysis, indicate how Yahoo's dating/personals site and other Internet settings encourage traditional conceptions of the body, and introduce feminist methods that can be used to analyze these problems. I have more recent research on the issue of Internet representations but this article may be of interest to you because it specifically addresses Internet dating sites. The anthology was just released and the full citation is: White, Michele. "On the Internet, Everybody Worries that You're a Dog: The Gender Expectations and Beauty Ideals of Online Personals and Text-Based Chat." Readings in Gender Communication, eds. Mary Rose Williams and Phil Backlund, Wadsworth, 2003. All my best, Michele air-l(a)aoir.org writes: >Hi - >A colleague of mine is searching for any literature focusing on Internet >dating among late adolescents (approximately ages 18-25). Can anyone >pass on citations/resources? Thank you in advance for your help!

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RE: [Air-l] how to measure participation rates
by Charlie Breindahl 03 Dec '03

03 Dec '03

Katerina, If you're looking at USENET newsgroups, you might want to take a look at the social accounting search engine "NetScan" at http://netscan.research.microsoft.com. I successfully used the muscle of their automated newsgroup participation statistics for a recent study I performed; "Discussing Our Family Trees: Finding Community-Based Communication in Genealogical Newsgroups". I used the Common Ground Model of Whittaker, Terveen, Hill, and Cherny (1998), and the Online Community (OC) Model of Scoberth, Preece, and Heinzl (2003), to test for online community - the NetScan database statistics worked fabulously well (though I did also use some manually collated stats for some specific OC tests). I studied four years of data for the newsgroup in my study, which had over 123,000 posts during that period. Regards Kylie Veale | Brisbane, Australia GradDipInvEnv, MInetStds [2003] email: kylie(a)veale.com.au www: http://casa.de.veale.com.au www: http://www.veale.com.au/kylie -----Original Message----- From: air-l-admin(a)aoir.org [mailto:air-l-admin@aoir.org] On Behalf Of Katerina Sent: Wednesday, 3 December 2003 1:42 AM To: air-l(a)aoir.org Subject: [Air-l] how to measure participation rates As part of my study of an online community I have to measure the participation rates among participants, in a way similar to Nancy Baym's in her classic study of the r.a.t.s online community. From my participation and observation of this particular community so far, it is obvious to me that most of the messages are contributed by a small group of heavy users. However, I need to quantify it, measure it and present it as a table containing percentages of posters and posts contributed. My question is how can I do it? What is the method of measuring these rates? Does it simply consist in noting down how many messages each member writes? Prima facie that may look like an easy procedure but once starting to do it it turns out to be extremely difficult since this online community is made up of more than 20 conferences each one comprising more than 50 different topical discussions. Overall the number of messages written every week is enormous. Any ideas on how I can measure overall participatio rates of such an environment? Thank you, K. Diamantaki

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The Multilingual Internet
by herring＠slis.indiana.edu 03 Dec '03

03 Dec '03

We are pleased to announce the publication of: Brenda Danet and Susan C. Herring, Eds. (2003, November). The Multilingual Internet: Language, Culture and Communication in Instant Messaging, Email and Chat. Special issue, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, volume 9, issue 1. Table of Contents: Brenda Danet and Susan C. Herring `"Introduction: The Multilingual Internet" David Palfreyman and Muhamed Al-Khalil "'A Funky Language for Teenzz to Use:' Representing Gulf Arabic in Instant Messaging" Yukiko Nishimura "Linguistic Innovations and Interactional Features of Casual Online Communication in Japanese" Hsi-Yao Su "The Multilingual and Multi-orthographic Taiwan-based Internet: Creative Uses of Writing Systems on College- affiliated BBSs" Dimitris Koutsogiannis and Bessie Mitsikopoulou "Greeklish and Greekness: Trends and Discourses of 'Glocalness'" Mercedes Durham "Language Choice on a Swiss Mailing List" Salvador Climent, Joaquim More, Antoni Oliver, Miriam Salvatierra, Imma Sanchez, Mariona Taule and Lluisa Vallmanya "Bilingual Newsgroups in Catalonia: A Challenge for Machine Translation" Sandi Michele de Oliveira "Breaking Conversational Norms on a Portuguese Users Network: Men as Adjudicators of Politeness?" Siriporn Panyametheekul and Susan C. Herring "Gender and Turn Allocation in a Thai Chat Room" ------------- The issue can be accessed at no cost at: http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol9/issue1/ ============================================ Susan C. Herring Professor of Information Science Adjunct Professor of Linguistics Indiana University Bloomington Email: herring(a)indiana.edu http://www.slis.indiana.edu/faculty/herring/ ============================================

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CFP extended - Media Ecology Association @ RIT, Rochester, June 10-13, 2004
by J Sternberg 03 Dec '03

03 Dec '03

Call for Papers - Deadline Extended The Fifth Annual Convention of the Media Ecology Association RIT Campus, Rochester, New York June 10-13, 2004 Media Environments and the Liberal Arts Sponsored by The Department of Communication and The William A. Kern Professor in Communications College of Liberal Arts Rochester Institute of Technology How do changing media environments influence the ways in which people express themselves, communicate with each other, and pass on knowledge to future generations? From cities to cyberspace, and ancient writing systems to digital communication technologies, media help shape human interaction, understanding, and organization. This conference explores the various ways in which past, present, and emerging media environments influence human life in general, and its self-examination via the liberal arts disciplines. These include the subjects of inquiry and the way research is conducted, changesin human and mass communication, policy-making, and evaluation, individual expression and representation, formation and change in cultural attitudes, media representations of natural environments, emerging digital expression (hyperfiction, digital poetry, electronic music), and the social impact of media. What is Media Ecology? "It is the study of media environments, the idea that technology and techniques, modes of information and codes of communication play a leading role in human affairs." -Lance Strate You are invited to submit papers, panels, workshop proposals, and short film and video works related to the conference theme. Complete papers may be entered for the Top Paper Award or the Linda Elson Scholarship Award (Top Student Paper). Please indicate entry on submissions. Submission deadline extended to December 15, 2003. Send submission to Dr. Sue Barnes Department of Communication College of Liberal Arts Rochester Institute of Technology 92 Lomb Memorial Drive Rochester, NY 14623-5604 (585) 475-4695 or (585) 475-6649 Email: sbbgpt(a)rit.edu Convention Web log We have set up a Web log for the convention at http://www.rit.edu/~sbbgpt/mea-rit/. -------------------------------- Media Ecology Association http://www.media-ecology.org

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transcription tools?
by Karen Lunsford 02 Dec '03

02 Dec '03

Hello AoIR members, I'm hoping to hear that ethnographic transcription tools have advanced miraculously since I last was transcribing tapes. Does anyone know whether it is now possible to have voice recognition (or other) software transcribe interview tapes directly? For example, if I have a digital or analog recording, is there anything out there that can provide even a rough transcription of it automatically? perhaps like closed captioning? In the past, I've used Dragon Naturally Speaking to help me transcribe analog audio cassette tapes. To do this, I listened to the tape using a regular foot- pedal transcription machine and then repeated everything that I heard into the microphone attached to the computer. That way, it didn't matter that I had multiple voices on the tape and that I didn't have each speaker train the software to recognize his/her voice (not a possibility). Dragon was trained to recognize my voice, and my re-voicing of everything could produce acceptable first passes of the transcript. Then, I could go back to edit. Saved some time, but more important, it saved some of the repetitive motions of typing. Does anyone know of a better technique now? And/or are there tools other than voice recognition available? Thanks, Karen -- Karen Lunsford, Assistant Professor of Writing Writing Program University of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA 93106-3010 klunsford(a)writing.ucsb.edu 805-893-8556

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how to measure participation rates
by Katerina 02 Dec '03

02 Dec '03

As part of my study of an online community I have to measure the participation rates among participants, in a way similar to Nancy Baym's in her classic study of the r.a.t.s online community. From my participation and observation of this particular community so far, it is obvious to me that most of the messages are contributed by a small group of heavy users. However, I need to quantify it, measure it and present it as a table containing percentages of posters and posts contributed. My question is how can I do it? What is the method of measuring these rates? Does it simply consist in noting down how many messages each member writes? Prima facie that may look like an easy procedure but once starting to do it it turns out to be extremely difficult since this online community is made up of more than 20 conferences each one comprising more than 50 different topical discussions. Overall the number of messages written every week is enormous. Any ideas on how I can measure overall participatio rates of such an environment? Thank you, K. Diamantaki

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November 2003 executive committee report
by Nancy Baym 02 Dec '03

02 Dec '03

November 28, 2002 Report of the a.o.i.r. executive committee Prepared by Nancy Baym AoIR Executive Committee President: Nancy Baym Vice-President: Matthew Allen Secretary: Ulla Bunz Treasurer: Benjamin Bates Open Seats: Radhika Gajjala and Annette Markham Appointed Seats: Monica Murero and Randolph Kluver Student Seat: Leslie Tkach-Kawasaki Publications Officers: Jeremy Hunsinger and Charlie Breindahl Past President (ex-officio): Steve Jones 2004 Conference Chair: Kate O'Riordan Ethics Working Group Chair: Charles Ess AoIR Annual Chair: Mia Consalvo 1. Introduction & General (Baym) This is the place to find out what's going on in the association. It's long, it's not always thrilling, but it's always the best way for you to keep up so please read it! Our 24/7 discussions of the month on the executive committee mailing list are summarized in Ulla Bunz's section of the report, 2004 Conference Host Kate O'Riordan provides a Sussex overview in the conference chair report below, Charles Ess keeps us posted on ethics, and Mia Consalvo keeps us up to date on the forthcoming Annual. All this and more! Read on... 2. Executive Officers' Reports 2.1 President (Baym) 2.1.1 We've had a productive month launching Sussex 2005's CFP which I hope you have all received. As Kate notes below, your help reaching out to those you think should be included by distributing the CFP is greatly appreciated. We often hear that AoIR doesn't have enough {fill in the blank with discipline, focus, nation, flavor of your choice} -- sending a copy of the CFP with a personal request that they consider coming is the best way we have to get them there! We had a mini-meeting at the National Communication Association in Miami which five members of exec attended (me, Ulla, Steve, Radhika, and Annette) where we discussed public relations possibilities as well as whether and how to be proactive about seeking funding, from whom, and for what. There are several potential initiatives that we could do if someone were willing to take the initiative and seek funding for them (research related, foundation, corporate -- whatever, so long as it funds what aoir wants accomplished without selling us out). If you have ideas about potentially fundable projects or funders, please let me know. 2.2 Vice President (Allen) 2.2.1 still recovering from Toronto :) (no, seriously, suffered a mild form of lethargy brought on by, I think, the relief that nothing went wrong!) contributed slightly to air-meet re 2004 conference; attempting to be careful not to say too much - each conference has to 'develop' not replicate (and old program chairs should fade into the background:) ) end of semester/year here at Curtin so marking/admin/jobs/PhDs/new students occupying time mostly Revising/adding to Conference Guide is my next endeavour for the association 2.3 Secretary (Bunz) 2.3.1 I participated in the Miami meeting at NCA, and otherwise mostly added my views to the discussion ensued by an informal bid for the 2005 conference, and the formal bid for the 2005 (or beyond) conference. I also summarized some discussion points to move us closer to a decision on issues emerging from these discussions. October 25 - November 26, 2003 This month on the Executive Listserve: - After singing "happy birthday" to Jeremy in various languages we got right back to work. - We also celebrated the fact that Sheizaf Rafaeli agreed to be the new program chair. Then we really got back to work. - Four members of the exec (Nancy, Radhika, Annette, Ulla) and the immediate past president (Steve) organized a get-together at the November meeting of the National Communication Association. Here we discussed a) opportunities for seeking external funding, and b) a member's offer to engage in (free) public relations for AoIR. The discussion was summarized by Nancy and posted to air-exec afterwards, where it continues. - Final edits were made to various AoIR conference minutes. - Air-meet was re-vitalized and announced on air-l to allow those who were interested in providing input to conference organizing a forum. - The exec began discussing issues related to the Call for Papers, but discussion was then moved to the re-opened air-meet list. Discussions on budget (Toronto and future) and website continued with feedback from conference chair Kate O'Riordan and program chair Sheizaf Rafaeli. Jeremy urged us to standardize a number of things (i.e., submission guidelines, time slots, etc.). - The CfP was finished by Kate with input from air-meet and posted to air-l on November 18, 2003. It is available on the conference website http://aoir.org/2004 - The exec discussed some issues concerning task distribution and job definition for the program chair and the conference chair for future (beyond 2004) conferences. - The conference management committee (Kate, Sheizaf, Nancy, Ben, Monica) was set up to facilitate communication between the exec and the conference/program chairs. - The exec voted in favor (7 for, 2 abstain, 2 missing) to agree to placing the AoIR logo on the ASCUS website http://www.ascus.info/ - The exec had an in-depth discussion on an informal bid for the 2005 conference, and a formal bid from a different location also for the 2005 conference (or at a later time). Both the informal and the formal bid are for US locations. As the informal bid suggested a format different from previous conferences, the exec had animated discussion about AoIR's identity, mission, and main goal that we try to reach with our conferences. No decision has been made on the 2005 host, as discussions are still ongoing. Potential hosts can still submit their bids to Nancy Baym. 2.4 Treasurer (Bates) 2.4.1 Keeping up with memberships. Awaiting final numbers from Toronto. 2.5 Open Seats (Gajjala, Markham) 2.5.1 Gajjala: I have basically the same stuff as Ulla:) (see above) 2.5.2 Markham: I am still following up on conversations held at NCA with members about future special interest areas. Based on one significant area of interest and possibilities for collaborative scholarship across disciplines, we are creating an AOIR mailing list for qualitative research. This list will be used to discuss methodological challenges in qualitative research of ICT (or CMC or Internet or whatever one wants to call it). The list will also be used to find collaborators for projects. More info forthcoming. Attended the National Communication Association's annual convention and met with the AOIR executive committee to discuss upcoming issues and events. Met with several AOIR members and generally recruited as much as possible at the conference. 2.6 Appointed Seats (Murero, Kluver) 2.6.1 Murero: As representant of the Appointed Seat at air-exec, I have sent contributions and opinions about future AoIR conferences, analyzed proposals and shared concerns and opinions. Under proposal of Nancy Baym, our President, I have accepted to serve in the newly appointed "Conference Management" committee, an air-exec sub-committee acting as a "liason" between air-exec and the conference and program chairs. I have contributed to this year's CFP. Last week I was in Parma (Italy) for an international conference on the "Quality for the cultural Web site" (cultural heritage). The conference was sponsored by the European Commission and major international actors. I have diffused info about AoIR and our next conference, raising *a lot* of interest. 2.6.2 Kluver: have been participating in ongoing AoIR executive council discussions, and have been publicising the work of AoIR among Asian institutions and researchers. 2.7 Student Seat (Tkach-Kawaski) Report coming soon... 2.7.1 This past month, in addition to giving opinions at times on various AoIR executive matters, I have mainly been (a) discussing AoIR with colleagues here and strategies for promoting AoIR here in Japan (translations are necessary!); and (b) considering potential activities for graduate students in Sussex next year. 2.8 Publications Officers (Hunsinger, Breindahl) 2.8.1 Hunsinger: i helped a bit on conference materials, advised Kate, Sheizaf, etc. i turned on the conference management list. i tweaked some of the security and spam settings again. i had a nice chat with charles and presented some of the work that i did with the ethics working group at itu.dk i had some nice talks with charlie about copenhagen and a future conference there. i helped a bunch of people who lost various passwords (please remember that i am not responding to requests everyday, but usually respond at least every monday) various other things that i'm surely forgetting. 2.8.2 Breindahl: I updated the web with information about the new executive committee (not quite finished). Also moderated the lists as usual. Discussed with Jeremy and Kate how to organize work with conference web site. 2.9 Past-President (Jones): Continuing to work on closing out 2003 conference matters. Participated in the informal semi-executive committee meeting in Miami. Learning to not be in charge (and loving it). 2.10 2004 Conference Chair (Kate O'Riordan) 2.10.1 The AoIR-meet discussion list went through a busy period getting the call for papers out for IR 5.0. (Many thanks to all concerned) The CFP is now available on the conference web site and we would appreciate members' help in circulating this as widely as possible. Suggestions for keynote speakers and sponsorship will be next on the agenda. In the meantime the conference web site is under development and I am working in further detail on the budget. 2.11 AoIR Ethics Working Group (Charles Ess, Chair) 2.11.1 Elizabeth Buchanan has kindly permitted us to post her PowerPoint slides for her presentation to the AoIR Preconference Workshop, "IRBs and Internet Research Ethics": please find the link on the ethics working committee website - specifically http://www.cddc.vt.edu/aoir/ethics/papers.html Soon Jeremy will also post an English translation of the Internet research ethics guidelines developed and approved in September, 2003, by Norway's National Research Ethics Committee for Social Sciences and Humanities (NESH). Ms. Line Gulløv Lundh, who studies with our colleague Klaus Bruhn Jensen at Copenhagen University did much of the translation work, for which I am very grateful. We are exploring the possibility of collecting researchers' experiences with IRBs and their equivalent beyond the borders of the U.S. by way of a website. If and when this possibility is realized, we will announce it on the AoIR list. In the meantime, if you have an experience with dialogue and negotiation regarding ethical issues in online research that you can write up for our discussion and use, please forward it to me (Charles Ess - chess(a)itu.dk or cmess(a)drury.edu) Finally, the ethics committee is reviewing candidates to replace two members who have resigned this year. As soon as they are decided upon, we will announce their names to the AoIR list. 2.12 AoIR Annual Editor (Mia Consalvo) 2.12.1: The page proofs have been sent from the publisher, and are being rechecked with authors on outstanding questions. Proofs should return to the publisher by the end of the month, and we will await camera copy before printing begins.

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Re: how to measure participation rates
by Christopher Helland 02 Dec '03

02 Dec '03

Hi Katerina, I depends on where the group is located. If your lucky you can analyze the group using Marc Smith's "Project Netscan" available at: http://netscan.research.microsoft.com/ Netscan has all the tools you need to evaluate the interactions. CH ===== Christopher Helland My Web Space http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~chelland/index.html Doctoral Candidate Centre for the Study of Religion University of Toronto __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Free Pop-Up Blocker - Get it now http://companion.yahoo.com/

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CFP: Fast Capitalism
by jeremy hunsinger 02 Dec '03

02 Dec '03

Call for submissions to a new refereed electronic journal, Fast Capitalism, which addresses the impact of information and communication technologies on self, society and culture in the 21st century. Bridging the social sciences and humanities, we welcome disciplinary and interdisciplinary work. We anticipate posting our first number in summer or fall 2004. Please direct submissions to Ben Agger, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Box 19599, University of Texas at Arlington 76019 or to agger(a)uta.edu. hosted at the center for theory at http://www.uta.edu/center-for-theory. jeremy hunsinger jhuns(a)vt.edu on the ibook www.cddc.vt.edu www.cddc.vt.edu/jeremy www.cddc.vt.edu/jeremy/blog () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail /\ - against microsoft attachments

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Re: [Air-l] _Data Made Flesh_
by andrew.herman＠comcast.net 02 Dec '03

02 Dec '03

Phillip- This sounds great! What else are you working on? Routledge wants Thom Swiss and I to do a sequel to THE WORLD WIDE WEB AND CONTEMPORARY CULTURAL THEORY and the stuff you apear to working on is very interesting. Perhaps you would be interested in joinging the project. Let me know. Andrew -- Visiting Professor and Research Fellow in Digital Communications and Cultural Policy Joint Graduate Program in Communication and Culture York University 4700 Keele St.TEL 3007 Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3 (416)736-2100 x 30157 > Please excuse the self promotion but I think some on this list might be > interested in the following. > Phillip > > > > > Announcing a New Publication from Routledge: > > > > _Data Made Flesh: Embodying Information_ > > > > Co-editors: Robert Mitchell and Phillip Thurtle > > > > Contributors: Richard Doyle, Mary Flanagan, N. Katherine Hayles, Robin > > Held, Eduardo Kac, Elisabeth LeGuin, Timothy Lenoir, Robert Mitchell, > > Mark Poster, Phillip Thurtle, Steve Tomasula, Ann C. Villa, Bernadette > > Wegenstein, and Kathleen Woodward > > > >> In an age of cloning, cyborgs, and biotechnology, the line between > >> bodies and bytes seems to be disappearing. Data Made Flesh is the > >> first collection to address the increasingly important links between > >> information and embodiment, at a moment when we are routinely > >> tempted, in the words of Donna Haraway, "to be raptured out of the > >> bodies that matter in the lust for information," whether in the rush > >> to complete the Human Genome Project or in the race to clone a human > >> being. The contributors gathered in this collection are leading > >> figures in Cyberculture Studies and Science and Technology Studies, > >> many of who have established the terms of today's academic discourse > >> surrounding bodies and technology. > >> > > > > "It's about time embodiment got considered in relation to data! . . . > > _Data made Flesh_ does just this. It is fresh, multidisciplinary, and > > does its work at a high level of critical and descriptive performance. > > Bodies, materiality, and the dominance of an information metaphor have > > had some attention, but the ways in which humans within the digital > > and data world experience and act call for the kind of attention that > > this book gives." > > --Don Ihde, author of _Bodies in Technology_ > > > > > > "By establishing once and for all the inseparability of information > > and materiality, signifying practices and embodiment, _Data Made > > Flesh_ will fundamentally reorient future debates over human > > technogenesis itself. I can think of no more pressing task for > > technocultural criticism today." > > --Mark Hansen, author of _Embodying Technesis_ > > > > > > I found this collection inspiring, innovative, and intellectually > > stimulating. It offers an ultra-contemporary terrain of current > > critique across a variety of academic disciplines and provides a new > > conception of the term "information" with an emphasis on materiality > > and embodiment." > > --Barbara M. Kennedy, co-editor of _The Cybercultures Reader_ > > > > November 2003**6 x 9**320 pp > > 30 halftones > > Pb**0 415 96905 0**$27.95 > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Air-l mailing list > Air-l(a)aoir.org > http://www.aoir.org/mailman/listinfo/air-l

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