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Uncanny Networks: collected interviews by Geert Lovink
by geert lovink 26 Dec '02

26 Dec '02

Uncanny Networks Dialogues with the Virtual Intelligentsia By Geert Lovink Leonardo Book Series/The MIT Press, 2003. For Geert Lovink, interviews are imaginative texts that can help to create global, networked discourses not only among different professions but also among different cultures and social groups. Conducting interviews online, over a period of weeks or months, allows the participants to compose documents of depth and breadth, rather than simply snapshots of timely references. The interviews collected in this book are with artists, critics, and theorists who are intimately involved in building the content, interfaces, and architectures of new media. The topics discussed include digital aesthetics, sound art, navigating deep audio space, European media philosophy, the Internet in Eastern Europe, the mixing of old and new in India, critical media studies in the Asia-Pacific region, Japanese techno tribes, hybrid identities, the storage of social movements, theory of the virtual class, virtual and urban spaces, corporate takeover of the Internet, and the role of cyberspace in the rise of nongovernmental organizations. Interviewees included Norbert Bolz, Paulina Borsook, Luchezar Boyadjiev, Kuan-Hsing Chen, Cãlin Dan, Mike Davis, Mark Dery, Kodwo Eshun, Susan George, Boris Groys, Frank Hartmann, Michael Heim, Dietmar Kamper, Zina Kaye, Tom Keenan, Arthur Kroker, Bruno Latour, Marita Liulia, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Peter Lunenfeld, Lev Manovich, Mongrel, Edi Muka, Jonathan Peizer, Saskia Sassen, Herbert Schiller, Gayatri Spivak, János Sugár, Ravi Sundaram, Toshiya Ueno, Tjebbe van Tijen, McKenzie Wark, Hartmut Winkler, and Slavoj Zizek. To order: http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/Leonardo/ The MIT Press A Leonardo Book Available: March 2003 ISBN 0-262-12251-0 7 x 9, 392 pp. $27.95/£18.50 (CLOTH)

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16. Stuttgarter Filmwinter - online
by Benjamin Fischer 23 Dec '02

23 Dec '02

English version see below ______________ Liebe FreundInnen des Filmwinters, es ist kurz vor Weihnachten und schon bald steht die 16. Ausgabe des Stuttgarter Filmwinter - Festival for Expanded Media - ins Haus. Ab dem 9. Januar geht es schon mit einigen Warm Up-Veranstaltungen los. Vom 16.-19. Januar 2003 findet dann das Festival im Filmhaus Stuttgart und im Ex-IKEA statt. Aus 1300 Einreichungen in den Bereichen Kurzfilm und -video, Medieninstallationen, CD-ROM und Internet haben die Vorauswahlkommissionen die spannendsten Arbeiten ausgewählt. Im Rahmenprogramm gibt eine Werkschau mit Videos von Erwin Wurm zu sehen. Unter dem Schlagwort "Erdung" haben wir uns mit dem "neuen Heimatgefühl in der Medienkunst" auseinandergesetzt. Gibt es ein Korrektiv auf Mobilisierung, Flexibilisierung und Globalisierung, ohne in das traditionelle Werteschema zurückzufallen, das mit Begriffen wie "Wurzel" oder "Heimat" verknüpft ist? Das Programm "Gegenspieler" beschäftigt sich mit "Machinimas" und subversiven Erzählformen in Computerspielen. Weitere Informationen zu Programm und Gästen, Eintrittspreisen und Veranstaltungsorten findet Ihr auf unserer Website http://www.filmwinter.de Cheers, Wanda +*+*+*+*+* Dear friends of the Stuttgart Filmwinter, just before x-mas, I want to announce the upcoming 16th Stuttgart Filmwinter - Festival for Expanded Media. The event starts with a Warm Up from January 9 on with various exhibitions and programmes. The festival itself takes place from January 16-19 at the Stuttgart Filmhaus and the Ex-IKEA (former IKEA-building).

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Collaborating on a project about information technologies in heterogeneous social groups: a survey
by Gianluca Miscione 21 Dec '02

21 Dec '02

**APOLOGIES IN ADVANCE FOR CROSS-POSTING AND MULTIPLE COPIES** Hi, I'm Gianluca Miscione, PhD student at Trento University, Italy. I'm looking for researchers, teachers, N.G.O, students... interested in information technologies and culturally and socially heterogeneous groups. I would like to create a network to share information and to collaborate on matters related to that argument. The main object of this work are groups characterised by different cultural identities, ethnic or religious belongings, unbalanced economies. I'm interested in studying what is the possible role of media. How they can be used by different social actors, what are the effects. This project is at the beginning, the purposes are to understand more about relations between communication and social groups. Then it is interesting to use consequent hypotesis and theories to realise practical projects. Within this quite large frame, any contribution is welcomed, in particular suggestions about articles, books, web-sites, theories, studies. I hope this co-operaration will grow and stronger relations between universities, N.G.O., people would take place. Feel free to forward this message to whoever you think that could be interested. Thanks for your attention, Yours sincerely, Gianluca Miscione ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ MORE DETAILED PROJECT: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES AND HETEROGENEOUS SOCIAL GROUPS GENERAL PURPOSES Theoretical purpose of this project is to study social groups organised by formal and informal norms and uses of media in different contexts. Keeping in mind the vital role of cultures in relations, my particular interests are: - what media and strategies of communications fit different social and cultural environments; - what are the relations between communication and social cohesion; - how new media organise and/or fragment groups; - effects on cultures; - ethical and political aspects of these changes. A specific argument I'd like to treat is networks of trust: how trust increases and what reduces it between social actors and groups. Main attention is given to communication mediated relations. The essential research question is "Can reliance be created and supported by media? How?" Particular attention is due to groups whose relations are not forced by external forces and to open and decentralised networks, where trust is more important than in hierarchies. It's useful to consider how social groups that exist on the Internet have solved this problems and what seem to be future possibilities: digital signature and electronic money, in particular. The main object of this research are social groups divided by different cultural identities, ethnic or religious belongings, unbalanced economies. My focus is on how to use media (and new media in particular) where there aren't shared values, norms or an effective power, at least. The objective is to understand how social cohesion is affected by media and find if there is any norm in that. The general objective is to understand what role may have communication where there is no common sense and/or no common law. This knowledge is useful even to improve communication in social groups that only use media to create and maintain social relations. Then it would be interesting to situate mutual effects between communications and social networks in contemporary societies. THEORETICAL ASPECTS The theoretical part of the research is made up of different disciplines, notions and outlooks useful to understand the problem and to guide practical activity; a wide range of theories, studies, concepts are focused on a field of application. Thomas' theorem, anthropological and microsociological theories are useful tools to understand how people image situation they live in. From a sociological point of view, ethnometodolgy, communities of practice and accountability theories are stressed to understand how information technologies and social groups are related, not considering technical development a force external to society. So that, technology evaluation theories could be enriched by perspectives that consider social and cultural changes not only as effects. Wittgenstein and Austin perspective help to maintain a pragmatic view on the subject and to consider communication in general -not only languages- as a practical skill, not as a formal structure. A theoretical and practical analysis could exploit relational and informational aspects of communication, necessary to create common outlook and social cohesion. Sense-making could be stimulated even with not-alphabetical languages, it depends on chosen situations. It is important to focus on social environments, the contexts in which communication is possible. Because of variety of cases, I don't think it's possible to create a general model applicable everywhere. More suitable would be to prepare a methodology that could help in different situations. How do persons become a group, give similar meanings to situations, share objectives? How to give coherence and unity to environment in which they act? How do other people's actions become understandable/foreseeable? Can new media support strong social groups that don't lie on offline organisations? These are questions I hope to answer and that may lead to a kind of social ergonomics. Cases related to media and e-government present interesting issues about adapting global technology to local requirements, applications and adaptations to local circumstances, where proximity and remoteness are cultural rather than geographical. Open questions are: - if communities of practice are self-referential cultural systems which prevent their members from comparing their implicit beliefs, can intentional evolution take place? - as there is discontinuity among different practices, is it necessary to go beyond this way of organisation in order to obtain bigger groups? - what is the relation between practices and meanings actors give to things of the world they live in? PRACTICAL ASPECTS The first part is descriptive. I'm looking for at least two cases of study, compare them and analyse how social cohesion is been affected by other social-relevant changes in communication. The second part aims to use knowledge and hypothesis arose from those descriptions to prepare a project. Effects of this activities will help in evaluating theories. Fragmented societies are quite frequent in less developed countries (but cultural variety is remarkable in western societies as Europe or USA), so that it could be a good choice to find cases there. The second step is to consider all the actors involved in chosen social situations (local population, government, civil-society, N.G.O., investors...) and what are their activities and interests. Then is to be noted how they try to direct social situations and what results are achieved. It's important to analyse communities of practice in chosen groups. Special attention is to be addressed to how private, common and public places are used and what social functions are carried out there. As any communication need a common area to be performed, the first grade is letting different groups to find it, not to manage contents. Next steps need to be decided on the basis of feed-back. In planning the practical project, instead of focusing on media, it's better to define beginning and expected social situations. If chosen media are not already present in local mediascape, communication tools design has to be consequent. To fit a particular setting, participatory design is a good manner to let people to develop their own way to use communication. This could prove if personal and free use of media is a way to obtain that social actors believe in mediated relations. On the other hand, it's to be proved if pre-defined systems can be understood or accepted and how they can affect practices and purposes of social groups. Examples of communication to employ can be divided into two types: uses of media to promote cultural interchange and systems that make as impersonal as possible social relations. Local newspapers collaboratively made (and translated in different languages if necessary), production and release of videos or documentaries, shows... are to meet and understand different social groups. Systems that make relationships impersonal are useful when the task is to apply formal rules. Co-ordination of different strategies is fundamental. Can new media facilitate meetings, dialogue, realisation? Practical achievement is the strengthening of information and communication technologies employment in social, cultural and economic development.

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Call for papers - Digital News conference
by Joyce Nip 21 Dec '02

21 Dec '02

Conference in Hong Kong, China Digital News, Social Change and Globalization Organized by Department of Journalism, Hong Kong Baptist University, China, on the university campus, July 10-11, 2003 Call for Papers Academic papers, project papers, and broadcast news items (in English or Chinese) related to online, satellite, television or radio news are solicited on themes including but not restricted to the following: * The past, present, and future of online journalism * Satellite news and globalization * Evolving policies and laws relating to online and broadcast journalism * News values and ethics in global journalism * Alternative digital news and social change * Online and broadcast news coverage Paper abstracts and panel proposals must be submitted by March 14, 2003. Authors will be notified of acceptance by April 4. Full papers will have to be submitted by June 27. The conference also invites submission of full papers for blind review. Full papers for review must be received by April 4. Authors will be notified of acceptance by May 2. Authors of news items -- including broadcast news reports, features, or documentaries -- are invited to submit item descriptions by April 4. Publication of Papers The Information Society journal has agreed in principle to publish selected papers of this conference in a special issue. We are also exploring the possibility of publishing other selected papers in a refereed book volume. Sponsorship Financial support is available from Oxfam Hong Kong to sponsor participants from developing countries. For details visit the web site: http://www.hkbu.edu.hk/~jour -- Joyce Nip, Ph.D. Conference Chair Department of Journalism Hong Kong Baptist University Kowloon Tong Hong Kong T: (852) 3411 7834 F: (852) 2336 1691 Email: joycenip(a)hkbu.edu.hk

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Air-l digest, Vol 1 #580 - 9 msgs
by caidi＠fis.utoronto.ca 19 Dec '02

19 Dec '02

I will not be reading my mail until Dec 30. Your mail will be read when I return. Thank you. Nadia Caidi

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RE: [Air-l] What is Instant Messaging
by Anderson, Ben 19 Dec '02

19 Dec '02

Jeremy's points are strong on two counts: 1. My understanding is that you can't patent interfaces - they are 'designs' (ref the Apple/Microsoft/Xerox 'desktop' debacle). You can patent the 'function' and the 'architecture' but the way you present that function to the user is a 'design'. (I may be wrong on this - corrections welcomed) 2. If the patent has been awarded exactly as: IM=(online awareness + buddy list + over TCP/IP protocal + messaging) then there does indeed seem to be prior art although I agree that those apps 'presented' the functionality to the user rather differently. I suspect the patent won't stand up but i am no patent lawyer. Thankfully. Ben -- Dr Ben Anderson www.essex.ac.uk/chimera +44 (0) 7710 187 806

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RE: [Air-l] Internet Modes of Experience
by amarkham 19 Dec '02

19 Dec '02

Hi Chris, Your question is a good one: I am guessing that because of >these technological developments more people are >perceiving the Internet as a place or a state of >being. > Has the perception of the medium >begun to change due to technological developments that >have increased accessibility ? > I don't have the answer, but it raises interesting discussion. My early morning thoughts drift this way: The cause/effect is not easily determined. One's perception of the medium as Tool or Place or Way of Being may be due to the technology, or it may be due to the interactions/relationships that develop, or it may be due to a combination of both and other factors. The typically academic thought, "it depends" pops into my head. If the technology one uses is apparent or present, one's experience of the medium will be different than for someone for whom the technology is transparent. And the technology may be more *present* in some contexts versus others; take for example students in online classes who might find internet technologies completely transparent in their everyday conversations with friends, but when they perceive the context to be a classroom, find the technology rushing into the foreground, interfering with their ability to communicate. One's experience depends on the frame of reference, the context, and multiple other factors.....from my perspective, it is impossible to generalize the experiential frame or the causal agent for current frames. Having said that, I believe it's still useful to ask the question. What is the context in which you're thinking about the shift in access and associated perception of the medium? Annette Annette N. Markham, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of Communication (M/C 132) 1007 W. Harrison Street Chicago, IL 60607-7137

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NYTimes.com Article: Mississippi Students Build Their Own PC's
by hitch＠hum.ku.dk 19 Dec '02

19 Dec '02

This article from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by hitch(a)hum.ku.dk. Mississippi Students Build Their Own PC's December 19, 2002 By MICHEL MARRIOTT Mississippi couldn't afford to put PC's in every classroom. So students are building them as part of an ambitious effort to add computer engineering to the curriculum. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/19/technology/circuits/19buil.html?ex=104129… HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact onlinesales(a)nytimes.com or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to help(a)nytimes.com. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company

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Call for Papers - BlogTalk Conference
by Thomas Burg 19 Dec '02

19 Dec '02

Dear Group-Members, I wish you a merry christmas and a happy new year in advance. Besides I'd like to bring a conference to you knowledge and ask you for your possible particiaption. BlogTalk - A European Weblog Conference: Web-based publishing, communication and collaboration tools for professional and private use. http://blogtalk.net The primary goal of BlogTalk is to inventory the current and emerging uses of blogs. Active bloggers as well as people from all professional fields are invited to attend. Paper submissions are being invited on all subjects relevant to the theme of the conference, including, but not limited to topics such as: Definition and scope of blogs Case study of a blog in a professional or private environment Collaboration and community building Mobile applications Influence of blogs on software products and vice versa Influence of blogs on mass media and vice versa The blog as a special interest publication Blog aided self-reflection or self-portrayal Knowledge management Business models Thomas

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Air-l digest, Vol 1 #579 - 7 msgs
by caidi＠fis.utoronto.ca 18 Dec '02

18 Dec '02

I will not be reading my mail until Dec 30. Your mail will be read when I return. Thank you. Nadia Caidi

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