- Air-L - lists.aoir.org

Tech Requirements for AOIR Conference-
by andrew.herman＠comcast.net 11 Aug '03

11 Aug '03

Friends- I am sure I was already sent this information but I can't find it: whom do I contact about tech requirements (i.e. LCD Panel) for the conference. Andrew Herman

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Re: [Air-l] Electronic Media in 21st Century Social Movements
by andrew.herman＠comcast.net 11 Aug '03

11 Aug '03

Dear Chuck: There have been two books published in the last year or so that are a good place to start: 1)Future Active: Media Activism and the Internet by Graham Meikle (Routledge, 2002)and Cyberactivism: Online Activism in Theory and Practice edited by Martha McCaughey and Michael Ayers (Routledge, 2003). Both cover the most well-known articulations of the Internet as medium of communication and mobilization with social movements on the RL side of the screen (i.e. anti-globalization, Zapatistas). I like the former book because it also address the WWW itself as a terrain for social movements with its own distinct identities, strategies, and tactics (i.e. Hactivism and Electronic Civil Disobedience). And since you asked for observations I will offer one: it is very important to take an instrumental stance towards the relationship between "new media" and social movements, that is, media as something that either affects social movements from the outside or, conversely, new media as tool that social movements utilize to achieve this or that goal or objective. New media, like all media, can be constitutive of the very shape, identity and practices of social movements. I think the anti-globalization movement is very good example of the constuitive role of new media. A couple of good web sites that will lead you to other examples are: 1) Citizen Lab at http://www.citizinlab.org. Citizen Lab "is an interdisciplinary laboratory based at the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto, Canada focusing on advanced research and development at the intersection of digital media and world civic politics" that is headed by Prof. Ron Deibert (you can eben see Prof. Deibert eat his lunch via web cam); 2)The Interactivist Info Exchange at http://slash.autonomedia.org. Thef ormer, obviosuly, has a scholarly bent and the latter an activist one but neither is exclusively one or the other. I am sure that others on the list will have many other suggestions as well. Good luck. Andrew Herman > For a chapter on 21st century social movements, I would welcome papers, > bibliographies, crucial citations, or observations on how the > availability and employment of electronic media have affected the > organization and practices of recent social movements. I promise > acknowledgments for items I use. > > Chuck T. > > -- > Charles Tilly > Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science, Columbia University > Office 514 Fayerweather Hall, letters and packages 413 Fayerweather > Hall, > Mail Code 2552, Columbia University, New York 10027-7001, USA > telephone 212 854 2345, fax 212 854 2963, electronic ct135(a)columbia.edu > > > > _______________________________________________ > Air-l mailing list > Air-l(a)aoir.org > http://www.aoir.org/mailman/listinfo/air-l

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Call for papers
by Isidro F. Aguillo 11 Aug '03

11 Aug '03

Since 1997, Cybermetrics the electronic journal devoted to informetrics/scientometrics/cybermetrics/webometrics is the main scientometrics-related website. We think it is playing an important role as reliable provider of information, news, bibliography, software and even data for our community. Unfortunately the number of quality manuscripts we received were not very high and the papers finally accepted for publication are becoming scarce. But did you know that Rousseau article (Cybermetrics, 1997, "sitations") is cited at least 43 times in the Web of Science alone, being his most-cited paper!. It is becoming evident that web visibility is much higher than printed visibility (at least for most journals). We are planning to update both the design and contents of the e-journal but we badly needed additional contributions from internet quantitative research community so we invite all of you to submit your manuscripts for editorial reviewing. Thanks in advance -- ^ Isidro F. Aguillo isidro(a)cindoc.csic.es CINDOC-CSIC Joaquin Costa, 22 28002 Madrid. SPAIN +34-630858997 www.cindoc.csic.es/cybermetrics ^

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parution d'un livre : INTERNET, CYBERESPACE ET USAGES EN AFRIQUE
by George Lessard 10 Aug '03

10 Aug '03

> Begin forwarded message: From: rakotonoera denis <rktdenis(a)yahoo.fr> Date: Sun Aug 10, 2003 4:55:15 AM America/Winnipeg To: africa_net(a)yahoogroupes.fr Subject: [africa_net] parution d'un livre : INTERNET, CYBERESPACE ET USAGES EN AFRIQUE Reply-To: africa_net(a)yahoogroupes.fr INTERNET, CYBERESPACE ET USAGES EN AFRIQUE Abdoul Ba COMMUNICATION, MÉDIAS AFRIQUE NOIRE L'Afrique comme la planète toute entière n'échappe pas au développement de l'internet. En 1996, quatre pays étaient connectés au réseau. Aujourd'hui, ils sont plus d'une cinquantaine à disposer d'accès au cyberespace. Ce livre propose une première évaluation et une analyse inédite sur l'introduction et le développement du réseau sur le continent, mais aussi sur les internautes, sur les usages et sur les apports de l'internet. Internet peut-il favoriser le développement des pays d'Afrique ? De quel développement parle-t-on ? Du développement de qui ? ISBN : 2-7475-4411-7 • 286 pages • 23 € (151 FRF) ===== Denis Rakotonoera Association e-développement www.aedev.org Internet au service du développement durable > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = > Via / Excerpted / By / From / Thanks to: http://tinyurl.com/h4m7 http://media002.tripod.com/ ___________________________________________________________ Archives :http://fr.groups.yahoo.com/group/africa_net/ Pour vous désabonner, écrire à: africa_net-unsubscribe(a)yahoogroupes.fr Pour vous abonner écrire à : africa_net-subscribe(a)yahoogroupes.fr > (c)info http://members.tripod.com/~media002/disclaimer.htm > Due to the nature of email & the WWW, check ALL sources. > "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." >> (Gandhi)

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invitation to a party and a research group
by Barry Wellman 09 Aug '03

09 Aug '03

*** Communication and Information Technologies - Come Play with Us *** You're invited to a party to celebrate the relaunching of the Communication and Information Technologies section of the American Sociological Association. The party's in Atlanta during the ASAs, Saturday, Aug 16, 2003. 7:30-9PM Hilton Council Room, 4th floor. Blackwells is sponsoring the party with lots of goodies. They've published The Information Age book series, including Manuel Castells' Network Society volumes and the Wellman-Haythornthwaite Internet in Everyday Life. I include below a draft recruiting flyer for this section. Your comments are appreciated. Non-sociologists who are members of the ASA are welcome to join. 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 _____________________________________________________________________ DRAFT FLYER If you're interested in communication and information technologies -- including the impact of the Internet on our world - come join the American Sociological Association's section on on Communications and Information Technologies (CIT). It's clear that the Internet (and all that) is too important to be left to the computer scientists! We've reexamined our mission, re-energized our commitment, and renamed the former Computers and Society section. We support research, teaching and other professional activities related to: " The social aspects of computing, the Internet, new media, computer networks, and other communication and information technologies. This includes online communities, knowledge management, the digital divide, labor markets, workplaces, and how the Internet fits into everyday life. " The design and use of technology. This includes developing and analyzing new kinds of software, and thinking about the implementation of technologies for teaching, research, and the real world. " To find out more, look for CIT members at the conference with their shiny yellow buttons. And come to our reception Saturday, Aug 16, 7:30-9PM, Hilton Council Room, 4th floor We want - and need -- you as a member! You'll have a great opportunity to influence the field and become a leader of our small, but growing, section. Help to present papers, animate our list-serve, circulate news about grants, invigorate our newsletter and webpage, and develop new computer applications for research, teaching, and society. From social software to data mining, the world needs sociologically-informed work with these technologies. *** Joining the section is cheap and easy. If you're an ASA member, section dues are only $10; student dues only $5. *** 1. You can go directly online to the following ASA page: http://www.asanet.org/forms/sectionform.html and select #28 (Computers and Society). 2. Or, Select section membership as part of your overall ASA membership renewal: http://www.asanet.org/forms/membapp.pdf and select #28 (Computers and Society) 3. Or, Send an email to Michael Murphy at sections(a)asanet.org, and tell him that you'd like to join the Communications and Information Technologies section. Include payment information (i.e., credit card #, expiration date, and name as it appears on the card). 4. Or, Join the section at the registration desk of the ASA meetings in Atlanta. 5. Or, see Barry Wellman at the AoIR conference in Toronto. We'll also have a Birds of a Feather group meeting then. We'd also appreciate your support in recruiting new members. Please send this email to colleagues who might be interested in joining the section. David Elesh, Chair (Temple University) delesh(a)temple.edu George Dowdall, Chair-elect 2003-2004 (Saint Joseph's University) gdowdall(a)sju.edu Barry Wellman, Chair-elect 2004-2005 (University of Toronto) wellman(a)chass.utoronto.ca

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WSIS - some data
by Philipp Budka 09 Aug '03

09 Aug '03

"The majority of humans does not have a telephone" said Marc Furrer, director of the Swiss Federal Office of Communications (BAKOM) - http://www.bakom.ch/en/index.html? - at a press conference in Biel (Switzerland) concerning the WSIS in Geneva in december 2003. In developing countries there is one telephon main-line for 200 persons. In Bangladesh the costs for a Computer are about eight average yearly incomes. In Nepal an internet-connection costs about 278 percent of an average monthly income compared to 1,2 percent in the USA. the complete article can be read at http://derstandard.at/?id=1385083 in German. Greetings, Philipp -- Philipp Budka email: philbu(a)gmx.net tel.: +43 (0)1 95 28 244 tel. mobil.: +43 (0)6991 95 28 244 Rustengasse 5/10 1150 Wien, Austria http://www.philbu.net COMPUTERBILD 15/03: Premium-e-mail-Dienste im Test -------------------------------------------------- 1. GMX TopMail - Platz 1 und Testsieger! 2. GMX ProMail - Platz 2 und Preis-Qualitätssieger! 3. Arcor - 4. web.de - 5. T-Online - 6. freenet.de - 7. daybyday - 8. e-Post

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AOIR Toronto: Birds of a Feather phorum
by Rhiannon Bury 07 Aug '03

07 Aug '03

Folks: In case you haven't been by the conference website lately, we have set up a new phorum for Birds of a Feather and the first suggestion has been posted. Check it out! http://www.ecommons.net/aoir/p/list.php?f=3 Rhiannon Bury AOIR Toronto Working Committee

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A Fight for Free Access To Medical Research
by Art McGee 07 Aug '03

07 Aug '03

[Internet and Cyberspace Research is next on the hit list <evil grin goes here>.--Art] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19104-2003Aug4.html Washington Post Tuesday, August 5, 2003; Page A01 A Fight for Free Access To Medical Research Online Plan Challenges Publishers' Dominance By Rick Weiss, Staff Writer The family was poor, living on the Great Plains, and the child had a rare medical condition. "Here's what we can do," the family doctor told them. But it didn't work, recalled Michael Keller, who oversees the libraries at Stanford University. "So the family went to the Internet." Soon they were back at the doctor's office with a report of a new therapy. "They plunked it down and said, 'Hey, can we try this?' And guess what? It worked." Such tales are becoming increasingly common, but the happy endings come at a cost -- literally. That is because the vast majority of the 50,000 to 60,000 research articles published each year as a result of federally funded science ends up in the hands of for-profit publishers -- the largest of them based overseas -- that charge as much as $50 to view the results of a single study online. The child's parents, Keller said, paid for several papers before finding the one that led them to the cure. Why is it, a growing number of people are asking, that anyone can download medical nonsense from the Web for free, but citizens must pay to see the results of carefully conducted biomedical research that was financed by their taxes? The Public Library of Science aims to change that. The organization, founded by a Nobel Prize-winning biologist and two colleagues, is plotting the overthrow of the system by which scientific results are made known to the world -- a $9 billion publishing juggernaut with subscription charges that range into thousands of dollars per year. In its place the organization is constructing a system that would put scientific findings on the Web -- for free. Scientists and budget-squeezed librarians have long railed against publishers' stranglehold on scientific literature, to little avail. But with surprising political acumen, the Public Library of Science -- or PLoS -- has begun to make "open access" scientific publication an issue for everyday citizens, emphasizing that taxpayers fund the lion's share of biomedical research and deserve access to the results. "It is wrong when a breast cancer patient cannot access federally funded research data paid for by her hard-earned taxes," Rep. Martin O. Sabo (D-Minn.) said recently as he introduced legislation that would give PLoS a boost by loosening copyright restrictions on publicly funded research. "It is wrong when the family whose child has a rare disease must pay again for research data their tax dollars already paid for." It remains to be seen whether the newly bubbling discontent among citizens and politicians will boil over into a full-blown coup, fulfilling scientists' longstanding goal of democratizing the scientific publication enterprise. But whether it succeeds or fails, historians of science say, the effort is a remarkable social experiment in itself. After all, publication is at the heart of the scientific system of rank, respect and power. So the movement to dissect and rewrite the rules of that system is, in effect, a rare opportunity to watch scientists experiment on themselves. Research as Moneymaker Historians peg the birth of scientific publication to 1665, when England's Royal Society began publishing its Philosophical Transactions -- the same journal that would later announce key discoveries by Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and other icons of science. Today the universe of scientific journals includes about 28,000 titles, but they fulfill the same four basic needs: communicating findings; controlling quality by "peer review," in which scientists check one another's work; creating a historical record; and documenting authorship for personal credit and professional recognition. In recent decades, however, journals have found that scientific communication can be not only a service but also a potent moneymaker. Central to their success is that each journal publishes original research that appears nowhere else, so each is necessary for scientists in a given field. "Scientific journals are monopolies in that there's the Journal of Artificial Intelligence, for example, and the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, and as long as they're both good there's no way a library can just say, 'We'll take the one that's most cost-effective.' They have to have both," said John McCarthy, a Stanford University professor emeritus of computer science and an authority on scientific publication. "And when there's a monopoly there's always the opportunity for extra profit." Indeed, said Stanford's Keller, "over the course of the years several of these companies have become giants. And some of their price increases have been horrendous, sometimes 25 to 35 percent per year. It's been unbelievable." Many commercial publishers -- the biggest include Elsevier and Wolters Kluwer, both of Amsterdam; Blackwell Publishers of England, and BertelsmannSpringer of Germany -- charge between $1,000 and $5,000 for a one-year subscription to their journals. One prestigious collection of journals called Brain Research costs subscribers about $20,000 a year. Publishers defend their prices largely by pointing to the extra services they provide. Not only must they pay for publication and mailing, they say, but they also hire peer reviewers, editors and contributors to write commentaries and review articles. Some, including the premier journals Nature and Science, also have writers who produce news articles and scientific perspectives. "We believe we add value to the research," said Jayne Marks, publishing director for Nature Publishing Group in London, a closely held company that publishes about 50 journals, including Nature. Nature does not reveal financial details, but figures released by the largest publisher of scientific journals -- Amsterdam-based Elsevier -- help explain why many scientists and others are frustrated. Its 1,700 journals, which produce $1.6 billion in revenue, garner a remarkable 30 percent profit margin. "I do realize that the 30 percent sticks out," Elsevier Vice President Pieter Bolman said. "But what we still do feel -- and this is, I think, where the real measure is -- we're still very much in the top of author satisfaction and reader satisfaction." In October, critics say, the real test of that will begin, as PLoS begins the first of a series of journals dedicated to the free sharing of results. The aim is to get the world's best scientists to submit their best work to PLoS -- and force change by starving profit-oriented publishers of their earnings and prestige. "Our goal," said PLoS's executive director Vivian Siegel, "is to transform the landscape completely." Shift to Open Access The PLoS plan is simple in concept: Instead of having readers pay for scientific results through subscriptions or other charges, costs would be borne by the scientists who are having their work published -- or, practically speaking, by the government agencies or other groups that funded the scientists -- through upfront charges of about $1,500 an article. The shift is not as radical as it sounds, the library's founders argue. That is because government agencies and other science funders are already paying for a huge share of the world's journal subscriptions through "indirect cost" grants to university libraries, which are the biggest subscribers. The new system would radically increase the number of people who would have access to published findings, though, because results would be freely available on the Internet. By contrast, people today who do not subscribe to these journals must pay charges, typically $15 to $50, to get a reprint of -- or online access to -- a single article. Those charges can add up quickly. "When my father was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, for example, I must have glanced through 50-100 articles almost immediately" while searching for treatment information, Siegel wrote via e-mail. Physicians, professors, graduate students and others, including science journalists, face the same problem daily. Some journals have already made the leap to open-access publishing. But for the most part they have not attracted the best science -- a key to success. Now, with a $9 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the PLoS hopes to lift open-access publishing into the scientific stratosphere, in part through the personal gravitas of its founders and friends. In terms of scientific stardom, the critical mass is there. PLoS was founded by three highly respected scientists: Harold Varmus, who won a Nobel Prize in 1989 for his work with cancer viruses, headed the National Institutes of Health from 1993 to 1999 and is now president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York; Patrick O. Brown, a renowned genomics expert at Stanford University School of Medicine and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute; and Michael Eisen, a computational and evolutionary biologist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California at Berkeley. Having hired a team of hotshot editors and reviewers -- in some instances wooing them away from prestigious journals -- the group will begin its first monthly open-access journal, PLoS Biology, in October. It plans to launch PLoS Medicine in 2004. Others may follow, but the group hopes that the need to keep creating journals will drop off as existing journals see how successful the model is and shift to the open-access system themselves. For scientists, the benefits would extend well beyond being able to read scientific papers for free. Unlike their ink-on-paper counterparts, scientific papers that are maintained in open electronic databases can have their data tables downloaded, massaged and interlinked with databases from other papers, allowing scientists to compare and build more easily on one another's findings. "In epidemiology and public health it would be an enormous leap forward," said Christopher Murray, a World Health Organization epidemiologist and health economist. "You can't imagine how much time researchers spend trying to get access even to old data sets to do new things or make new connections." But pressure from consumers, whose taxes provide about $45 billion in federal research funding each year and who are increasingly asked to take on a larger role in their own care, may be the force that finally tips the balance. "They've paid for the research," Eisen said. "And the fact that the primary results are not available to them is really crazy and grossly unfair and completely unnecessary." Publishers Raise Red Flags The bigger for-profit publishers say advocates of open access exaggerate the benefits. "This is, in general, very esoteric material . . . not written for the public," said Elsevier's Bolman, adding that he doubts the business model will work. "Everybody is getting onto the open-access bandwagon. It reminds me of the enthusiasm and mania of the dot-com explosion, and it will pop, too." But what Bolman and other publishers object to most of all are budding congressional efforts to force publishers to adopt open-access principles. The latest House appropriations report instructs the National Library of Medicine to look into ways to make federally funded research more available to the public. And Sabo's bill would require research "substantially funded" by the federal government to be in the public domain. That is especially worrisome to the smaller, not-for-profit publishers -- most of them affiliated with scientific societies -- that say they are sympathetic to open-access principles but fear that the system will not work for them, with their tighter margins. "Saying you're for free access is like motherhood and apple pie," said Ira Mellman, chairman of Yale's Department of Cell Biology and editor in chief of the highly cited but inexpensive and nonprofit Journal of Cell Biology. "But you have to recognize that this is an experiment in publishing, and the legislation seems to be trying to enforce one model before the conclusion of the experiment." Several journal editors noted that they have moved in recent years to widen access. Many have agreed to make their papers available for free to scientists in developing countries, for example, and some release results freely to anyone six to 12 months after publication. But critics say that is not enough, arguing that even a six-month delay deprives scientists and others of the latest and best information. Ironically, several observers said, the fate of open-access science publication may ultimately depend on something highly unscientific: the enigmatic quality of prestige. With scientists' professional standing still intimately linked to their latest paper in journals such as Science and Nature, will the best of them step up to the plate and start sending their hottest papers to open-access journals such as PLoS? "With scientific journals, competition is not so much on the reader end but on the author's end," Bolman said. "When you get the best authors, then other authors tend to follow, and then you have an exciting journal, which really is your objective." PLoS Biology started accepting its first submissions for its premiere issue last month, and Varmus said he is pleased with the quality of the work the journal is attracting. One thing is certain: Among the countless scientists and others who will read PLoS Biology for free in October will be Bolman and other publishing executives, who will be looking for the first hints of an exodus. Copyright (c) 2003 The Washington Post Company

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Re: [Air-l] Action Research
by MSJANEW＠aol.com 07 Aug '03

07 Aug '03

I am interested in finding validation studies for K-8 web-based instruction for children, in health and safety relating to sports. Do this seem like a topic to fit this group?

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Online Vigilance task
by ps201nf＠gold.ac.uk 06 Aug '03

06 Aug '03

hi, I would appreciate it if any members could take part in the following or forward the following standard message to anyone they know who may be interested in taking part in the following study many thanks Nick Forbes MSc Occ. Psych. student Goldsmiths College Hello, > > I would be grateful if you could take part in my MSc Psychology project. > It is an online version of the SART vigilance test, and assesses > sustained attention. > > The study consists of 2 tasks, and requires a little personal information > for data analysis purposes. > > The entire study should take no more than 12 minutes to complete. > > All data will be kept confidential during the study, and will be deleted > afterwards. You are not required to give your name in any part in the > study. > In order to participate you will need to make sure you use either a PC or > Mac running Microsoft Internet Explorer, and that you have the Flash > plugin installed. If you do not have the Flash Plugin you can download > it from here > > www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/ > > > If you would like to take part please point your browser to the following > website > > www.bikerwales.com/nick > > Please note the website is password protected, the password which must be > typed in lower case is zx212 > > Many thanks > > Nick Forbes > MSc Occupational Psychology Student. >

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