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by Douglas Galbi 03 Nov '03

03 Nov '03

"As an apprentice information designer, I regularly have to decide whether to communicate information in words, images, or sounds. How do I decide this?" [Lantham (2001) p.2]. New technologies, such as mobile camera phones, voice-enabled mobile gaming devices, and lower cost color printers, are greatly increasing possibilities for sensuous choices in communication. The sensuous balance and evolution of the Internet and other communication spaces deserves more attention. My work "Sense in Communication" provides much material that you might use in considering sensuous choices in communication. It includes detailed analysis of a couple of artistic masterpieces: the Hamzanama of Akbar (sixteenth-century India) and the Morgan Bible of Louis IX (thirteenth-century France). The work also includes a discussion of sixteenth-century English iconoclasm, and demonstrates the importance of that history for understanding Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. This work, "Sense in Communication," is publicly available at www.galbithink.org I hope that it encourages more discussion of sensuous choices in communication industry development. Douglas Galbi FCC Senior Economist

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* New * Geert Lovink: My First Recession
by geert lovink 03 Nov '03

03 Nov '03

My First Recession Critical Internet Culture in Transition By Geert Lovink ISBN 90-5662-353-2 V2_Publishers, Rotterdam, 2003 My First Recession starts after the party is over. This study maps the transition of critical Internet culture from the mid to late 1990s Internet craze to the dotcom crash, the subsequent meltdown of global financial markets and 9/11. In his discussion of the dotcom boom-and-bust cycle, Geert Lovink lays out the challenges faced by critical Internet culture today. In a series of case studies, Lovink meticulously describes the ambivalent attitude that artists and activists take as they veer back and forth between euphoria and skepticism. As a part of this process, Lovink examines the internal dynamics of virtual communities through an analysis of the use of moderation and "collaborative filtering" on mailing lists and weblogs. He also confronts the practical and theoretical problems that appear as artists join the growing number of new-media education programs. Delving into the unexplored gold mines of list archives and weblogs, Lovink reveals a world that is largely unknown to both the general public and the Internet visionaries. Geert Lovink is a Australian-based Dutch media theorist and Internet critic, a co-founder of numerous online projects such as Nettime and Fibreculture, and the author of Dark Fiber and Uncanny Networks. Table of Contents: Introduction: Currents in Critical Internet Culture; Post-speculative Internet Theory, Three Positions: Dreyfus, Castells, Lessig; Anatomy of Dotcommania, Overview of Recent Literature; Deep Europe and the Kosovo Conflict, a History of the V2_East/Syndicate Network; Principles of Streaming Sovereignty, a History of the Xchange Network; Oekonux and the Free Software Model, From Linux to the GPL-Society; The Battle over New Media Art Education, Models and Experiences; Defining Open Publishing, Of Lists and Weblogs; Conclusion: Boundaries and Sustainable Models. -- V2 Publishing titles are distributed through the publishing house of the Netherlands Architecture Institute. The book will be available in Europe in the Fall 2003 and in the USA and through Amazon from January 2004. V2_Publishing Eendrachtsstraat 10 3012 XL Rotterdam The Netherlands tel: +31.10.206.72.72 fax:+31.10.206.72.71 www.publishing.v2.nl For publicity please contact Marije Stijkel (marije(a)v2.nl,) Direct ordering through V2: store(a)v2.nl Available in North, South and Central America through D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers Inc, 155 Sixth Avenue 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10013-1507, Tel 212 6271999, Fax 212 6279484. Available in the United Kingdom and Ireland through Art Data, 12 Bell Industrial Estate, 50 Cunnington Street, London W4 5HB, Tel 208 7471061, Fax 208 7422319. Available in Australia and New Zealand through Modern Journal, Robyn Ralton, P.O. Box 1082 Collingwood 3066 Australia tel/fax 0061 3 9481 2877 email modernjournal(a)netspace.net.au

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looking for a copy of "The six quests for the electronic grail: Current approaches to information quality in WWW resources" by Matthew Ciolek
by Mentor Cana 03 Nov '03

03 Nov '03

Hello, I'm looking for an electronic copy of the following paper by Mathew Ciolek: Ciolek, T. Matthew (1996). The six quests for the electronic grail: Current approaches to information quality in WWW resources. Review Informatique et Statistique dans les Sciences Humaines (RISSH)(1-4):45-71 Until recently the paper was available at http://www.ciolek.com/PAPERS/six-quests1996.html . Unfortunately, the site is no longer accessible beyond the first page (and it is empty). I'll appreciate if anyone can forward me a copy. Otherwise I'll have to scan the paper copy for the class (I'm a TA). Your help is greatly appreciated. Sincerely, Mentor

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Design in the University: an On-line Conference
by Ken Friedman 02 Nov '03

02 Nov '03

The editors of Design Research News invite you to participate in an unusual on-line conference titled "Design in the University." The conference will convene on the PhD-Design list to examine the issues, challenges, and problems of planning university level design education. What makes this conference unusual is the fact that the keynote "speakers" will focus on a specific project: the proposal for a new school of design at the University of California, Irvine. In the fall of 2000, the University of California at Irvine established a committee to develop a proposal for a new design school. Their mandate was to plan a school balancing inquiry into the nature of design and the design process with training in professional design practice. To write its report and guide the university debate, the committee studied today's leading design schools while working with a wide range of experts to plan the university-level design school of the future. The committee faced two major challenges. One was economic. The new design school would have to contribute to the economic growth and prosperity of a complex multi-cultural state positioned at the edge of the increasingly important economy of the larger Pacific region. The second challenge was quality - conceptual, intellectual, and professional. The new school must further and advance the work of one of the world's great universities, enhancing the university while drawing on its resources. After two years of work studying everything from design programs and best practices in curriculum planning to demographic trends and professional development, the committee delivered its report. The June 2003 issues of Design Research News reviewed the report: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/design-research.html The report is available in free .pdf download at http://www.evc.uci.edu/growth/design/SoD-proposal.pdf This on-line conference offers you an opportunity to meet the committee, to reflect on the questions they asked, and to ask questions of your own. Speakers at the on-line conference will include committee chairman professor Richard Taylor of information and computer science, professors Kristen Day and Sanjoy Mazumdar of urban and regional planning, professor Alladi Venkatesh of management, as well as Michael Clark, professor of English and comparative literature and associate executive vice chancellor for academic planning. Respondents include professors Lorraine Justice, head of industrial design at Georgia Technical University, Keith Russell of Newcastle University in Australia, Charles Burnette of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Christene Nippert-Eng of Illinois Institute of Technology, and David Durling of Staffordshire University. The conference open on November 10, convened by Ken Friedman of the Norwegian School of Management and Denmark's Design School. Following a brief introduction, Prof. Taylor will lead off and Prof. Justice will respond. This will be followed by two or three brief invited comments. The floor will then be open for conversation among the speakers. At this point, any conference participant will be free to ask questions or to offer comments. The first session will last for four days. The second session will open with Prof. Day, following a similar four-day format. Prof. Mazumdar will speak third, followed by Prof. Venkatesh. Vice Chancellor Clark will speak last. This conference offers participants a chance to benefit from the three-year process of research and development at the University of California, Irvine. In today's economic climate, few universities - and fewer design schools - will have the budgetary resources to build (or rebuild) design education on the level of a new purpose-built school. What this conference offers to existing schools is an opportunity to learn from improvements and changes implemented elsewhere, adapting them to local needs and opportunities as they shape programs for the future. To participate in this conference, please go to URL http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/phd-design.html Click on the line that reads Join or leave the list Follow the on-screen instructions to join. We hope you will join us in what promises to be an extraordinary on-line event with speakers and participants from around the world. David Durling and Ken Friedman

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online dating article
by Bernie Hogan 31 Oct '03

31 Oct '03

Here's one for you! https://m1.buysub.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prrfnbr=175824&prme… it does not seem to be online anymore. Hopefullly someone south of the border subscribes and you can get yourself a copy. Its a pretty good article and very recent, with entries on lavalife and friendster, if I recall. BERNiE Bernie Hogan Department of Sociology NetLab, Knowledge Meida Design Institute University of Toronto bernie.hogan(a)utoronto.ca http://edublog.com/hogan/

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AoIR Presidential Thoughts
by Nancy Baym 31 Oct '03

31 Oct '03

Hello, At our General Meeting in Toronto I did not give any sort of innagural address. I would like to offer a few thoughts here. I hope you will take some time to think about these issues and engage in their discussion on list or with me. I was struck (again) in Toronto at the extent to which, in a remarkably short time, this association has come to be an institution suspiciously similar to other academic associations. Sitting in panels, it was almost hard to remember how recently the very idea of this conference seemed like an overly-ambitious dream or how, less than four years ago, I was making arrangements for our first meeting in Kansas and wondering if anyone outside the midwestern United States would come. We have now had over 1,000 individuals come to our four meetings, and we have nearly 2,000 subscribers to air-l. Our first Internet Research Annual, bringing together selected papers from the first three conferences, will be released in a few weeks and reviewing for the second annual will begin shortly. In addition, a number of books have already been published or are being planned based on panels and collaborative research projects that grew out of our conferences, and many research papers have been published in journals. Our ethics working group has created a guide that is being used by many scholars and increasing numbers of institutional review boards. Being able to help make all this happen has easily been the most rewarding enterprise of my professional life. I've also been amazed and deeply personally rewarded by the extent to which we have created a community of friends as well as colleagues. I think I speak for many repeat attenders when I say that people who were just names to me before our first meeting are now among my dearest friends and that one regret of our meetings is that I don't have time to get to know all those other interesting looking people walking around. That said, the association's rapid growth and the increased expectations people have of us present a number of challenges and issues, particularly given our status as an all-volunteer association. Like my predecessor in this role, Steve Jones, I believe that my role, and the role of the executive committee in general, is to facilitate the association's organic growth based on the interests, desires, needs, and energies of the members. I do not have a strong agenda I wish to impose on you. I hope all of us will be engaged in making AoIR what we want it to be, recognizing that there are some tensions which may ultimately be unresolvable. In Interpersonal Communication Theory, we talk about "relational dialectics," the idea that all relationships involve continuous efforts to find satisfactory points of balance between competing demands (for instance, the desires that our conferences include scholars from more and more disciplines yet have fewer simultaneous sessions). I hope that AoIR can find balance points that work for most of us, but acknowledge that some will always want more or less of something than others do, and that no approach will ever satisfy everyone. One challenge we face is the expectation that we should always be doing more and exploring areas we haven't. In essense, the challenge here is to take full advantages of the scarce resources we do have and to find new resources in order to create what we want to have. People point out on occassion that as an internet association, we should do more with the internet. Ideas range from overhauling the web site, to creating new online spaces, to creating complex databases of internet research, publications, and so on. There is indeed a tremendous amount of unrealized potential. There are also right now exactly two people who are doing all of our web work, and they are both in the midst of writing Ph.D. dissertations. We have had some successes in this area, most recently the list of AoIR bloggers compiled by Jeremy Hunsinger and Thomas Burg, and the List of Lists compiled by Jeremy, Ulla Bunz, David Silver, and Matt Allen. What we have not had, thus far, are the financial resources to pay people to do these things nor the volunteers it would take to create as many of these resources as we want. One way to reach our online potential is to charge considerably more for membership and conference fees so that we can pay for initiatives like these. Another is for more people who can make these things happen and are willing to see them through to volunteer. Perhaps the most exciting possibility would be if people who have great ideas (and skills) for novel and beneficial ways to use the internet could partner with us in seeking grant funding to make those ideas happen. There are doubtless other possibilities as well, and we will be putting together at least one working group to guide us in thinking through these issues in the coming months. Your thoughts and energies are welcome. If you have the energy to build resources, don't ever be shy about coming to us with your ideas. Another challenge seems to me to be our greatest strength, which is interdisciplinarity. We have a dialectic between wanting to be exposed to and informed by different ways of approaching the topics we care about and at the same time wanting others' work to conform to the standards by which we assess work in our home disciplines. We all need to rise to the challenge of presenting our ideas in ways that will be compelling to those who are not grounded in our traditions while at the same time reaching the standards of our traditions. Part of our challenge as readers and listeners is to find the strengths in work that comes from traditions we don't share. I hear a consistent desire from all ends of the methodological spectrums that, regardless of its tradition, work should offer its audience theoretical significance beyond the case or project presented. One direct way in which you can influence what counts as "quality" at our conferences is to serve as a reviewer next year, and I hope more and more of you will do so. Yet another issue is what we can do to bring more people in from underrepresented parts of the world, particularly those areas where the likelihood of being able to afford our conference is minimal. One of the great promises of the internet is the ability to link people globally in the face of great challenges -- indeed I saw at least one panel talking about the ways in which the internet allows grassroots movements in poor nations to expand their resources through affiliation with one another -- yet making this happen in an association such as ours is far from easy (or cheap). This connects more broadly to the issue of recruitment. My general feeling is that there are so many targets for recruitment (based on methodology, discipline, race/ethnicity, stature, etc) that recruitment is best left to our members to call on those they wish were here to join us. However, I think it is imperative that we do what we can to lessen the financial barriers to participation in AoIR for those who would like to join us but cannot afford to. Any inspirations you have on how we might be able to do this while still breaking even on our conferences (which are expensive to run) would be most appreciated. The last issue I'll raise here is that of what benefits we need to provide in order to make more people and institutions who are interested in AoIR take the leap and become paid members. Dialectic = I want to get more, I don't want to pay for it! As you know, air-l is offered free to everyone. Right now about 1/4 of air-l subscribers are members of the association. Paid members currently get access to the archives of conference papers and discounts on several journals and Routledge's Cyberculture book series. Related to this is whether or not we should have a journal of our own, which would entail higher membership fees and an editorial board (and editor) willing to do editing. Another possibility is to charge somewhat more for membership and include subscriptions to one or several of the existing journals that are relevant to internet research (examples include those to which our members currently receive discounts, such as IcS, NM&S, TIS, Cyberpsychology and Behavior, and so on). A third possiblity is to leave things as they are now and offer our members discounts on a range of journals without building them into the membership fee. We will be putting together another working group to look at these and other possibilities and make recommendations to us. Again, your opinions on journal preferences (or lack thereof) and benefits in general are welcomed. These are by no means the only issues before us, and I am interested to hear your thoughts on what else you would have us consider as well as your thoughts on any of those I have raised. In my time as a steward of this association, I invite all of you to think about what this association does or has the potential to do for you, and what you can do for the association to make it better. Thank you, Nancy -- Nancy Baym http://www.ku.edu/home/nbaym Communication Studies, University of Kansas Bailey Hall, 1440 Jayhawk Blvd., Room 102, Lawrence, KS 66045-7574, USA Association of Internet Researchers: http://aoir.org

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thanks for dating references
by Ulla Bunz 31 Oct '03

31 Oct '03

Thanks to those who replied to my inquiry about popular press articles concerning online dating services. I received several very helpful tips and URL's and will be able to use one or two of those for my class. Thanks. Ulla ************************** Ulla Bunz Assistant Professor Department of Communication Rutgers University 4 Huntington Street New Brunswick, NJ 08901 **************************

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New Book--Online Social Research
by Mark D. Johns 31 Oct '03

31 Oct '03

Another shameless plug for a new book, just published by Peter Lang and now shipping: Online Social Research: Methods, Issues, and Ethics (Digital Formations Series, Vol. 7 -- Steve Jones, Series Editor) Edited by Mark D. Johns, Shing-Ling S. Chen, and G. Jon Hall (C) 2004 Back cover: Online Social Research: Methods, Issues, and Ethics is a collection of essays by veteran online researchers who provide testimonial illustrations as to how traditional research methods may be modified for effective online research as well as identify and discuss the critical issues and dilemmas encountered. The former serves as a resource for teachers, students, and researchers who utilize online environments for information gathering. The latter is designed to stimulate ongoing debates and creative ideas about an as yet nonregulated arena of research. Online Social Research addresses online research in the fields of communication, journalism, sociology, psychology, marketing, education, and medicine, as well as related disciplines that may have occasions to utilize surveys, interviews, and observations for information gathering in online environments. Since this book deals with methodological consideration, it is designed as a text for research methods classes as well as a resource for researchers. Table of contents appears below. ------ Mark D. Johns, Ph.D. Asst. Professor of Communication/Linguistics, Luther College, Decorah, Iowa http://faculty.luther.edu/~johnsmar/ ----------------------------------------------- "Get the facts first. You can distort them later." ---Mark Twain Contents Online Environments and Interpretive Social Research Norman K. Denzin, University of IllinoisChampaign-Urbana Part IMethods of Online Social Research Introduction: Technological Environments and the Evolution of Social Research Methods Clifford G. Christians, University of IllinoisChampaign-Urbana; Shing-Ling Sarina Chen, University of Northern Iowa Reengineering Focus Group Methodology for the Online Environment Matthew Williams, Cardiff University; Kate Robson, University of Wales College of Medicine Researching OURNET: A Case Study of a Multiple Methods Approach Sharon S. Kleinman, Quinnipiac University Managing Visibility, Intimacy, and Focus in Online Critical Ethnography Kathleen LeBesco, Marymount Manhattan College Seeing and Sensing Online Interaction: An Interpretive Interactionist Approach to USENET Support Group Research Mary K. Walstrom, Sonoma State University Part IIIssues of Online Social Research Introduction: Opportunities and Challenges in Methodology and Ethics Amy S. Bruckman, Georgia Tech Surviving the IRB Review: Institutional Guidelines and Research Strategies Mark D. Johns, Luther College; G. Jon Hall, University of Northern Iowa; Tara Lynn Crowell, Richard Stockton College Participants and Observers in Online Ethnography: Five Stories About Identity Lori Kendall, SUNY, Purchase Representation in Online Ethnographies: A Matter of Context Sensitivity Annette N. Markham, University of Illinois at Chicago Research Paparazzi in Cyberspace: The Voices of the Researched Shing-Ling Sarina Chen, G. Jon Hall, University of Northern Iowa; Mark D. Johns, Luther College Part IIIEthics of Online Social Research Introduction: Ethics and Internet Studies Steve Jones, University of Illinois at Chicago Reexamining the Ethics of Internet Research: Facing the Challenge of Overzealous Oversight Jim Thomas, Northern Illinois University Issues of Attribution and Identification in Online Social Research Susan B. Barnes, Rochester Institute of Technology Electronic Eavesdropping: The Ethical Issues Involved in Conducting a Virtual Ethnography Katherine M. Clegg Smith, University of Illinois at Chicago NEED HELP ASAP!!!: A Feminist Communitarian Approach to Online Research Ethics G. Jon Hall, University of Northern Iowa; Douglas Frederick, University of Iowa; Mark D. Johns, Luther College Epilogue Are We There Yet? Emerging Ethical Guidelines for Online Research Charles Ess, Drury University

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digital divide
by Barry Wellman 30 Oct '03

30 Oct '03

The full version of the international comparative digital divide report -- by Wenhong Chen & Barry Wellman -- is at: http://www.amd.com/us-en/Weblets/0,,7832_8524,00.html#charting It was done for AMD's Global Consumer Advisory Board. There is a slightly older version on our website. Barry _____________________________________________________________________ Barry Wellman Professor of Sociology NetLab Director wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 To network is to live; to live is to network _____________________________________________________________________

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2004 Program Chair
by Nancy Baym 30 Oct '03

30 Oct '03

I am delighted to announce that Professor Sheizaf Rafaeli has accepted our invitation to be the Program Chair for AoIR's 2004 Conference at the University of Sussex. Dr. Rafaeli is in the Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Haifa in Israel, and is also the Director of the University of Haifa's Center for the Study of the Information Society. He served for many years as a founding co-editor of the Journal of Computer Mediated Communication. He was also a keynote speaker at our second conference in 2001. We are excited by the combined energy, expertise, and enthusiasm of Sheizaf and conference chair Kate O'Riordan and look forward to a stimulating and fun event in 2004. Nancy -- Nancy Baym http://www.ku.edu/home/nbaym Communication Studies, University of Kansas Bailey Hall, 1440 Jayhawk Blvd., Room 102, Lawrence, KS 66045-7574, USA Association of Internet Researchers: http://aoir.org

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