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aoir4 follow-up: Still thinking about ethnographies?
by Christian Sandvig 20 Oct '03

20 Oct '03

Dear AIR colleagues, In the spirit of the amazon.com "customers who bought this book also bought...", if you liked the Lucy Suchman keynote in Toronto about ethnographies of Internet use, you may also like the following special journal issue that came out in print TODAY: "Policy, Politics, and the Local Internet" The Communication Review, Volume 6, Number 3 (2003). More details: http://research.niftyc.org/cr The basic idea behind this project is simply that the practice of public policy could be improved by considering problems of Internet policy and regulation using *ethnographic* research. (This is something that is almost never done in the policy world.) The articles here started at the conference "Ethnographies of the Internet: Grounding Regulation in Lived Experience" discussed previously on this list (http://aoir.org/pipermail/air-l/2002-April/001782.html) All of that was inspired by Daniel Miller & Don Slater's book _The Internet: An Ethnographic Approach_ which was featured prominently in Lucy's talk (and in fact Don was on the program committee for our meeting). Christine Hine -- whose _Virtual Ethnography_ was also put to good use by Lucy at AoIR 4.0 -- participated in the meeting as well. I can't claim that the meeting influenced their thinking on Internet ethnography but I know the reverse is certainly true. So, continuing this post somewhat in the genre of the amazon.com sales pitch: Editor's Review: All of these articles are about the Internet. But even better, if you read this special issue from cover-to-cover, you'll also receive (1) a Russian Tomagotchi joke (2) explanations of the secret software that political consultants use to translate Web banner ad buys into congressional votes (3) the real reason that banks in Singapore were once allowed to receive satellite TV when schools were not, and (4) a superficial discussion of automatic egg incubators in the 16th century. Most memorable informant lines include: "by 2050 a piece of software will be a [political] candidate", "scientists have proven that the Information Society is the next step in economic development", and the Internet is a big city "but we cannot not visit a city just because there are parts of it we do not like." On a more serious note, I've posted the full text of my essay about the issue (see http://research.niftyc.org/cr) if you would like a more serious essay. I've also posted how to get the issue. Regards, Christian -- http://www.niftyc.org/

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DiGRA 2004: Call for Conference Hosts
by Jason Rutter 20 Oct '03

20 Oct '03

DiGRA CALL FOR CONFERENCE HOSTS:- Digital Games Research Conference; DiGRA 2004 The Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) has as a central goal for its organisation the support of an annual conference on digital gaming to take place at a different venue each year. This document is a call for proposals for a committee and location to host the associations second international games research conference in 2004. The inaugural conference will take place in Utrecht, the Netherlands, on 4-6 November 2003. Institutions wishing to put themselves forward should consider the following aims of DiGRA when putting their proposal together and highlight how the event they would organise would achieve these: To support digital games research as an interdisciplinary field To encourage dialogue between researchers, practitioners, commercial organisations and policy makers To support digital gaming students and curriculum development To disseminate work produced by the associations community DiGRA is keen to receive proposals that tackle these issues in an innovative manner and build upon standard conference practices. There is no compulsory format for conference hosting proposals but is it highly recommended that they deal with the following: Venue: Location: Institution, town/City, Country. Background: What is the host city like? Attractions for visitors? Entertainment options? Location for visiting other areas before/after conference? Proximity to local game industries or other relevant sites? Venue: Description, facilities, access, lecture theatres, meeting rooms, exhibition space, etc. Accommodation: Description, university/hotel, location in relation to conference venue, facilities, etc. Conference: Programme structure Overview of themes Draft Call for Papers Type of abstracts requested and review process Potential keynote/plenary speakers Special events: Social events: What? When Where? Are they particularly digital gaming relevant or locally typical? Delegate packs: Contents. Proceedings Travel: Distance from international airport/s? Access by bus, cab, coach, train, etc Travel between conference venue and accommodation Estimated travel costs from a range of major cities Costs & Finance (in Euro and US$) Conference registration: Full & Day rates, student rates, DiGRA member rates Accommodation: Per person, room share scheme? Meals/Conference Dinner How will booking be handled? Organisation Conference committee: Details of organisers, responsibilities, administrative support, etc. Status of their DiGRA membership or office. Short research biographies. Plan for coordination of duties within committee as well as with DiGRA executive board; estimate of deadlines for conference planning schedule. Institutional support: Level and nature of department/institution involvement and funding Additional support: Details of finance, facilities, sponsorship or other involvement from additional organisations Dates: Proposed conference dates, deadline for abstracts, etc. (It is strongly recommended that proposers avoid dates conflicting with events such as E3, GDC, GDCe, ECTS, SIGGRAPH, CHI, etc) It is recommended that proposers produce a simple business plan to estimate incoming and outgoing monies for the conference depending on different levels of attendance and financial support. Issues such as how any loss will be accounted for should be dealt with, as DiGRA cannot currently offer any financial guarantee. Procedures should be in place so that in the event that the conference makes a profit DiGRA will receive 10% of this. The association will use this towards developing funds to support conference costs for some students or researchers coming from economically unstable countries. There will be more details in the Conference License Agreement that will be signed by the representatives of the conference organiser and the association. Completed proposals or general enquires about the conference hosting call, and details of the Licence Agreement etc. should be directed to Jason Rutter (Jason.Rutter(a)man.ac.uk) or Frans Mäyrä (frans.mayra(a)uta.fi) *** Deadline for proposals is Monday, October 27, 2003. *** Finally, if you havent organised an international conference before do not underestimate the time and resources it consumes. Think carefully about your organisational network and distribution of labour as well as contingency plans for if your people or funding arrangements change. --- (please feel free to forward to all relevant parties) --- -- Dr Jason Rutter Mobile Entertainment: User Centred Perspectives 25-27th March 2004 - www.mobile-ent.org Digital Games Industries: Developments, Impact and Direction 19-20th September 2003 www.cric.ac.uk/cric/workshops/dgi/ 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 www.cric.ac.uk/cric/Jason_Rutter

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editors roundtable follow up
by Ulla Bunz 20 Oct '03

20 Oct '03

Returned from Toronto and am still exited from all the wonderful presentations I've heard and people I met! Thanks to all for a great conference. The editors roundtable was a great success. Despite its Saturday 8:30 am scheduled time, there were about 40 people in attendance and we engaged in (at times) quite lively discussion with the four editors on the roundtable. Special thanks to the editors, who were: Steve Jones, Brian Loader, Teresa Harrison, and Sue Barnes. Next year, I will not be organizing this roundtable, but I gathered that there is continued interest in this, especially with more focus on book publishing. Once the Call for Papers comes out, I encourage all of you to take the initiative and organize an editors roundtable for 2004 in Sussex! During the discussion, I had promised to post two pieces of information to the list, so here they are. The URL for acceptance rates for many journals (most of them within the discipline of Communication but also including some Internet Research journals) is: http://fmp2.its.uiowa.edu/iowaguide/FMPro?-db=iowaguide_.fp5&-lay=plain& -format=journallist.html&-error=notfound.html&-token=alpha&-max=all&-sor tfield=journal%20name&edited=yes&-find You can also try to search for "Iowa Guide Journals" in Yahoo or Google. The article I referred to about reasons for rejecting an article is: Daft, R. (1995). Why I recommended that your manuscript be rejected and what you can do about it. In F. Cummings (Ed.), Publishing in the organizational sciences (pp. 164-182). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Since not everyone may have access to this book, please email me for a PDF copy. Ulla ---------------------------------------------------- Ulla Bunz Assistant Professor Department of Communication Rutgers University 4 Huntington Street New Brunswick, NJ 08901 Email: bunz(a)scils.rutgers.edu ----------------------------------------------------

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TOC - Educating Managers with Tomorrow's Technologies
by Charles Wankel 20 Oct '03

20 Oct '03

TABLE OF CONTENTS: Research in Management Education and Development, vol. 2 (2003) Volume title: Educating Managers with Tomorrow's Technologies http://management-education.net/rmed2/ Introduction: Emerging Technological Contexts of Management Learning Charles Wankel and Robert DeFillippi 1. Educating managers, managing education: Trends and impacts of tomorrow's technologies Rogier Brussee, Marjan Grootveld and Ingrid Mulder 2. Learning and Teaching Management on the Web: What Do We Know? J. B. Arbaugh and Leigh Stelzer 3. Online Simulations in Management Education about Information and Its Uses Sheizaf Rafaeli, Daphne R. Raban, Gilad Ravid, and Avi Noy 4. Innovations in Web-format Case Teaching: Leveraging Dynamic Information Delwyn N. Clark 5. Electronic Student Portfolios in Management David S. Chappell and John R. Schermerhorn, Jr. 6. The Place and Space Model TM of Distributed Learning: Enriching the Corporate e-Learning Model John Gallagher 7. Interpersonal Communication Training with Tomorrow's Technologies? Michael Henninger and Birgit Weingandt 8. Mobile Scenarios: Supporting Collaborative Learning Among Mobile Workers Johan Lundin and Urban Nulden 9. Global Management Education: The Case of ERP Enabled Business School Programs William D. Reisel and Edward F. Watson 10. From Vision to Reality: A Model for Bringing Real-World Technology to the Management Education Classroom Michael D. Hamlin, Charla Griffy-Brown, and James Goodrich FOR MORE INFORMATION GO TO: http://management-education.net/rmed2/ This link has extensive contact information for the chapter authors and purchase information including library recommendation forms.

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Allocation of money within the family - refs needed
by Sue Cranmer 18 Oct '03

18 Oct '03

Hi I'm struggling to find anything about how families negotiate the money involved in buying home computers. Does anyone know of anything relevant? Thanks Sue www.suecranmer.co.uk

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CALL FOR PAPERS: Special issue on Web surveys.
by Katja Lozar Manfreda 17 Oct '03

17 Oct '03

The Journal of Official Statistics (JOS) in cooperation with the Web Survey Methodology Portal (http://www.websm.org) is planning a Special issue on Web surveys. CALL FOR PAPERS Due date: March 31, 2004 ___________________________________________________________________________ SCOPE AND TOPICS: In recent years, a new way of collecting survey data has come into use: data collection through the World Wide Web. This innovation has many advantages, but also generates new methodological challenges. For this special issue we welcome manuscripts on various aspects of Web survey methodology and application, including (but not restricted to): · coverage issues and respondent solicitation strategies · sampling and weighting issues · visual design effects including the use of multimedia · nonresponse issues and participation patterns · measurement errors · mode effects and mixed mode surveys · Web data collection in special contexts, such as employee surveys via corporate intranets, etc. · questionnaire development and pretesting methods · studies on the utility and effectiveness of Web surveys, such as cost and benefit issues · software reviews and other technological issues. JOURNAL INFORMATION: JOS is a scholarly journal published by Statistics Sweden, the national statistical office of Sweden. The journal publishes articles on statistical methodology and theory, with an emphasis on applications. For more information on JOS, please visit the JOS home page, www.jos.nu. SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: Contributions should be submitted exclusively via email to jos(a)scb.se, preferably in MS Word. Detailed guidelines for preparation of a manuscript are available at the JOS home page. Manuscripts proposed for this special issue should not have been submitted or published elsewhere. All manuscripts are peer reviewed and evaluated with respect to quality, significance and clarity of presentation. Manuscripts should be as concise as possible without loss of clarity. To be considered for the special issue, a submitted manuscript must reach JOS no later than March 31, 2004. The special issue is tentatively scheduled to appear in December 2004. EDITORIAL COMMITTEE: The special issue is administered by a guest editorial committee, comprised of the following members: · Dr. Michael Bosnjak (University of Mannheim, Germany) · Dr. Gösta Forsman (Swedish National Road Administration and Linköping University, Sweden) · Dr. Annica Isaksson (Linköping University, Sweden) -- Committee chair · Dr. Katja Lozar Manfreda (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia) · Dr. Lars Lyberg (Statistics Sweden, Sweden) -- Chief editor of JOS · Dr. Tracy Tuten Ryan (Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA) · Dr. Matthias Schonlau (RAND, USA) The committee members are looking forward to your submission. ************************************************************** Lozar Manfreda, Katja, PhD Assistant Professor Faculty of Social Science, University of Ljubljana Kardeljeva ploscad 5, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia Tel. +386 1 5805 284 Fax. +386 1 5805 101 Email: katja.lozar(a)uni-lj.si, katja(a)ris.org Faculty of Social Sciences: www.fdv.uni-lj.si Research on Internet in Slovenija: www.ris.org Methodology of Web surveys: www.websm.org

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Web-based or paper questionnaires
by Lorna Heaton 17 Oct '03

17 Oct '03

Hi, I'm looking for previous work that has compared the use of Web-based questionnaires with paper-based ones in data collection for social science research. Particularly, do people answer in the same way or does the support make a difference? If anyone knows of work in this area, thank you in advance. Lorna Heaton Assistant Professor Department of Communication University of Montreal

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Have a great conference ... research ideas for 2004
by Steven Clift 16 Oct '03

16 Oct '03

It was great to meet so many of you when your conference came through Minneapolis in 2001. I'll have to scan your agenda and pretend that I am there. If you attend the "e-democracy: Localism" session <http://www.ecommons.net/aoir/aoir2003/index.php?p=114> on Sunday be sure to grill Jakob Jensen <http://www.jakoblinaa.blogspot.com/> on his paper about about "Minnesota E-Democracy - Online Participation And Political Effects" <http://www.ecommons.net/aoir/aoir2003/index.php?t=328>. :-) I think the questions that he asked our forum participants get at the important agenda-setting issues and provide a useful template for future comparisons with other forums. They also help one imagine the political impact of the online medium if such local public issue forums were successfully implemented in more cities. E-Democracy.Org does have a research section on our web site <http://www.e-democracy.org/research/> with the fresh content toward the bottom of the page. Some less know articles linked from here include: Bridging and Bonding Social Capital in an Online Public Sphere: the case of MN E-Democracy (Word), a Masters Thesis by Kimberly B. Kirn, 2001- Provided by E-Democracy with the permission of the author. Civic Engagement in the Cyberspace Era: A Study of a Local Cybergroup (PDF), A Ph.D by Gay Henry Lyons, 2002 - This is NOT focused on Minnesota E-Democracy specifically, but it does explore a similar forum like our own in Knoxville, Tennesse. As I indicated, E-Democracy.Org is interested in working with researchers ready to create vital knowledge about the application of information and communication technologies and strategies _with_ democratic intent. So as you get ready for AOIR in 2004, feel free to contact us. Steven Clift E-Democracy.Org http://www.e-democracy.org/about

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influencing digital policy
by Sandra Braman 16 Oct '03

16 Oct '03

Beginning in the 1970s, policy-makers in every branch of government began to admit that it was difficult to make laws and regulations dealing with digital technologies because they didn't really understand those technologies, how they were used, and the effects of those uses. Members of AOIR have answers to those questions, but like other academics find it difficult to get what they know into the heads and hands of policy-makers. Experiences of scholars of information, communication, and culture of the past who tried to bring the scholarly and policy communities closer together clarify just what those difficulties are and identify useful and effective responses or work-arounds. Those of you who hope that the results of your research might inform policy-making may be interested in a recently published book, COMMUNICATION RESEARCHERS AND POLICY-MAKING, that reviews the history of the experience of the field through the voices of those involved, and analyzes that history in light of today's deep need for more informed policy-making. Information about the book can be found at http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?sid=B4469E64-5925-44A2-A5B…, and MIT Press will have the book in its display at the upcoming conference. Sandra Braman

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autism, children and computers
by catherine middleton 16 Oct '03

16 Oct '03

Posting on behalf of Wendy Keay-Bright and Derek Freeman, please reply to freeman(a)dircon.co.uk October is Autism Awareness month in Canada. Reactive Colours Creative Presentation, 830AM Friday October 17, Room 5, Hilton Toronto by Wendy Keay-Bright and Derek Freeman of Cardiff School of Art and Design, Wales, UK Documenting visually the introduction, and first reaction, of children on the autistic spectrum to computers, a creative presentation of Reactive Colours software will explore the implications of, and explain how design, utilizing open development and community participation, can create a neutral interface where communication, through play, can occur more easily than is usual with autistic children. Please come along or if you're unable to join us ,do contact Wendy and Derek through freeman(a)dircon.co.uk and we can arrange to meet.

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