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call for papers
by Adrian Miles 23 Jan '03

23 Jan '03

hi of interest to many here: Call for Papers Southern Review: Communication, Politics & Culture Special Issue, 36.2, 2003. The Geopolitics of Electronic Messaging Editors: Mary Griffiths and Susan Yell mary.griffiths(a)arts.monash.edu.au sue.yell(a)arts.monash.edu.au Monash University, Gippsland Campus "The Geopolitics of e-Messaging" invites theoretically informed discussions of the social and political outcomes of P2P electronic communications, and case studies of the dynamics of governing new publics and the spaces of private communication. Email, webmail, voicemail, text messaging, ICQ, pxt, chat forums, digital television messaging, discussion boards, and now, wireless communications form distinctive protocols, and different capacities in users. New geographies of space and politics are made possible. But, not all that results from the increase in the kind and volume of communication is beneficial. The pressure on many users is to be always available and immediately responsive. Organisational communications may improve but increased surveillance is the corollary. At home and work, time is needed to manage "legitimate" electronic messages and users also deal with unsolicited spam, and with scams, and viruses. Many find themselves, either willingly or involuntarily, in new and compelling sets of relations with others. New etiquettes of interaction are emerging. The "free" space of limitless communication shows signs of shrinking back to more private and customised domains. For example, online communities now use gating technologies to secure themselves from all but identifiable messages. Individuals are increasingly using filters, junk folders and different accounts for protection of privacy. What is being gained or lost by these developments? Is an organised retreat from the exigencies of the most demanding and clamorous aspects of e-messaging starting? Can the new gated communities be thought of as publics? Do they provide evidence of undemocratic tendencies? What can be produced by the crossing of traditional communicative borders? What are the skills, capacities and literacies which are being formed by different messaging technologies? What counts as "nuisance mail" and how is it being dealt with? How are subjectivities being constructed and governed by compulsory participation in online work and educational communities? How are nations, communities, institutions, businesses and individuals managing the virtual spaces of electronic messaging across physical frontiers? Which technologies are being favoured to help sort and filter messages, and protect the privacy of the user? Conversely, why have weblogs, the privatised acts of publicity and broadcasting, become so popular? Full articles due: April 30, 2003. cheers adrian miles -- + MelbourneDAC2003 digital arts and culture conference [http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/dac/] + interactive desktop video developer [http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/vog/] + hypertext rmit [http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au] + InterMedia:UiB. university of bergen [http://www.intermedia.uib.no]

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CALL FOR BOOK CHAPTERS: Visual Approaches to Website Analysis
by J. Sternberg 22 Jan '03

22 Jan '03

CALL FOR BOOK CHAPTERS: Visual Approaches to Website Analysis The following is a call for book chapters to be included in a book on visual approaches to website analysis, edited by Sally Gill. The website, as a new medium of communication, challenges our traditional methods for analyzing media. Beginning a little over a decade ago as a network linked by hypertexts to aid scientists and scholars with their research, the World Wide Web is rapidly evolving into a highly visual mass medium with commercial, educational, informational and entertainment uses for virtually every segment of society. With an increasing amount of activity now being conducted in the visual environment of the Web, it becomes crucial for everyone to develop an ability to analyze a site from a visual perspective. We are looking for book chapters that explore various approaches to website analysis from the perspective of visual communication, visual rhetoric, visual perception and cognition, signs and symbols, typography, and graphic design. Topics might include how the visuals of a website are used to define the purpose of the site, to attract users to a site and keep them engaged, to persuade, to guide users through a task, to create organizational or product identity, to garner support for a cause, to promote and aid learning, or to reinforce or challenge cultural values. Please send 2 copies of chapter submission by July 1, 2003 to: Sally Gill, Ph.D., 111 W. Pennsylvania Ave. #4R, San Diego, CA 92103-4055; email: sgill(a)alliant.edu or sally.gill(a)cox.net

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RE: Global data on Teen Internet use
by Amanda Lenhart 21 Jan '03

21 Jan '03

Thanks to everyone who rang in with suggestions on the Global Internet Use by Teens/SMS thread. If you're interested, email me off list, and I'll send along a reply with everything that I've gathered both from this discussion and off-list. Thanks, Amanda Amanda Lenhart alenhart(a)pewinternet.org Pew Internet & American Life Project

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research opportunity in Amsterdam
by Anne Beaulieu 21 Jan '03

21 Jan '03

Networked Research and Digital Information Within Nerdi's programme, a project has been funded by NWO (the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research) to study the use of metaphors within networks. To pursue this one year project, Nerdi is seeking a researcher (M/F) (Vacancy number PZ 014 (40 hours full-time *1) The successful applicant will be part of Nerdis team that presently consists of seven people. The project falls under the themes of collaboration and research methods, as laid out in our research programme (http://www.niwi.knaw.nl/nerdi) See the call for applications under the heading 'reasearch opportunities' on our website or contact Anne Beaulieu (anne.beaulieu(a)niwi.knaw.nl) Dr Anne Beaulieu Networked research and digital information KNAW-Netherlands Royal Academy of Arts and Science Joan Muyskenweg 25 Postbus 95110 1090 HC Amsterdam The Netherlands tel: (31)(20)462-8739 fax: (31(20)665-8013 http://www.niwi.knaw.nl/nerdi/anne/home.htm

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Sources for data on Internet use
by Susan Kenyon 21 Jan '03

21 Jan '03

*** Apologies for cross-posting *** Dear all I am searching for references for studies that monitor Internet use, in the UK and abroad. I am thinking not only of statistical sources, but studies that monitor the role of the Internet in everyday life, like the UCLA CCP studies, or work done by the Pew Internet and American Life project. I would be very grateful if you could email me with details of any such projects that you are aware of. Thank you very much for your time. Susan Susan Kenyon Research Fellow in Transport and Social Exclusion Unit for Transport and Society Faculty of the Built Environment University of the West of England Bristol BS16 1QY Tel: 0117 344 3996 Email: susan.kenyon(a)uwe.ac.uk Web: http://www.transport.uwe.ac.uk

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CFP: Towards New Media Paradigms
by Charlie Breindahl 21 Jan '03

21 Jan '03

This call may be of interest to AoIR list subscribers. Best, Nick Jankowski CALL FOR PAPERS Towards New Media Paradigms: Content, Producers, Organisations and Audiences University of Navarre 26-28 June 2003 The Internet is now a part of the daily life of large numbers of people throughout Europe and the developed world generally. Now that the period of Internet euphoria is a distant memory, we are in a clearer position to begin to analyse the nature of the changes that are taking place as a result of this new technology. Research shows that for many people, the uses they make of the Internet overlap in important ways with the historical functions of the mass media. The aim of this conference is to consolidate the work that is going on in Europe and elsewhere in order to analyse in depth the key changes to the media, and to suggest emerging paradigms for the communication industries. Abstract are invited for papers that focus on one of the following four main themes: 1. Media products: new news formats, new media languages, new forms of interactive content 2. Media producers: new professional skills, changes in training and education, new careers patterns 3. Organisations: new business models, convergence of media businesses, changing industrial structures 4. Audiences: changing relationships between media and society, the impact of new media on the public, social uses of the new and old media. Abstracts should be submitted by February 15. They will be refereed and proposers will be notified of decisions by 1 March. Completed papers will be expected by 30 May. Abstracts should be submitted electronically through the web page: http://www.unav.es/fcom/newmediaconference/eng/en_abstracts.html. The working language of the Conference will be English. The conference will take place at the School of Communication of the University of Navarre, in Pamplona, Spain. The School is one of the largest and best known in the Spanish-speaking world. For further information about the conference, the School of Communication and the city of Pamplona, visit the conference web site http://www.unav.es/fcom/newmediaconference. The conference is co-organised with the COST Network on the Impact of the Internet on the Mass Media. For information about the network, visit the website: http://cost-a20.iscte.pt.

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IM and SMS: Linguistic Analysis
by Naomi Susan Baron 21 Jan '03

21 Jan '03

I'm embarking on a linguistic comparison of the actual texts of IMs and SMSs, especially among high school and college students. Is anyone doing analysis of this sort? I'll be working with Rich Ling (at Telenor), who has been analyzing Norwegian SMSs, but I'm wondering if anyone else has actual IM or SMS corpora they have been looking at linguistically (or that could be used for that purpose). Thanks, Naomi Naomi S. Baron Professor of Linguistics American University Washington, DC 20016-8045

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(no subject)
by virtualart＠culture.hu-berlin.de 20 Jan '03

20 Jan '03

--Apologies for Cross-Posting--- VIRTUAL ART From Illusion to Immersion by Oliver Grau A Leonardo Book published by MIT Press (January 2003, ISBN 0-262-07241-6, 7 x 9, 360 pp., 89 illus) "Equally at home in art history, media history, and new media art, Grau situates immersive image spaces of new media within a rich historical landscape. A must-read for anyone interested in new media, visual culture, art history, cinema, and all other fields that use virtual images." (Lev Manovich, author of The Language of New Media) "Dismiss Oliver Grau's new book as a German multimedia theorist's scholarly treatise on art, and you'll miss a great read. Underneath its stald packaging, Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion puts forth the sort of provocative insights that any Newromancer fan can appreciate." (WIRED, January 2003) CONTENT: Going beyond technical and ahistorical views of media art, Oliver Grau analyzes what is really new in media art by focusing on recent work against the backdrop of historic developments. Although many people view virtual and mixed realities as a totally new phenomenon, it has its foundations in an unrecognized history of immersive images. The search for illusionary visual space can be traced back to antiquity. Oliver Grau shows how virtual art fits into the art history of illusion and immersion and shows how each epoch used the technical means available to produce maximum illusion from Pompeiis Villa dei Misteri via baroque frescoes, panoramas, immersive cinema to the CAVE. He describes the metamorphosis of the concepts of art and the image and relates those concepts to interactive art, interface design, agents, telepresence, and image evolution. Grau retells art history as media history, helping us to understand the phenomenon of immersion beyond the hype. GRAU also examines those characteristics of virtual reality that distinguish it from earlier forms of illusionary art and thus shows us what is really new in media art. His analysis draws on the work of contemporary artists and groups ART+COM, Maurice Benayoun, Charlotte Davies, Monika Fleischmann, Ken Goldberg, Agnes Hegedues, Eduardo Kac, Knowbotic Research, Laurent Mignonneau, Michael Naimark, Simon Penny, Daniela Plewe, Paul Sermon, Jeffrey Shaw, Karl Sims, Christa Sommerer, and Wolfgang Strauss. Grau offers not just a history of illusionary space but also a theoretical framework for analyzing its phenomenologies, functions, and strategies throughout history and into the future. Quotes from the press: "A key book -- Oliver Grau's art historical study taps into the new virtual image spaces." (Frankfurter Allgemeine) "The parallels revealed are astounding." (Sueddeutsche Zeitung) Oliver Grau is a new-media art historian and lectures at the Department of Art History, Humboldt University in Berlin. He is a visiting professor at the Kunstuniversity Linz and is head of the German Science Foundation project on Immersive Art in Berlin, also he is developing the first international data base resource for virtual art. (See also: http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?sid=26570CB6-AB47- 414B-A780 -1ECA08AAB2D3&ttype=2&tid=9214) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/104-6017318-2877562

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January, 2003 AoIR Executive Committee Report
by Steve Jones 20 Jan '03

20 Jan '03

January 19, 2003 Report of the a(o).i.r. executive committee Prepared by Steve Jones AoIR Executive Committee President: Steve Jones Vice-President: Nancy Baym Secretary: Ulla Bunz Treasurer: Benjamin Bates Open Seats: David Silver and Barry Wellman Appointed Seats: Matthew Allen and Leslie Shade Student Seat: Lisbeth Klastrup Publications Officers: Jeremy Hunsinger and Charlie Breindahl 2002 Conference Coordinator: Monica Murero 2002 Conference Program Chair: Klaus Bruhn Jensen 2003 Conference Chair: Liss Jeffrey 2003 Conference Program Co-Chairs: Matthew Allen and David Mitchell Ethics Working Group Chair: Charles Ess Elections Working Group Chair: Mia Consalvo Net Resources Working Group Chair: Charlie Breindahl 1. Introduction & General (Jones) Below is the monthly report from AoIR executive committee members. If you aren't reading this...well, you ought to be. I know it can get lengthy, and it can get detailed, but it's the single best way to know what AoIR is up to, and to find ways to get involved with it (in any number of ways from contacting the people who report to volunteering to work on something you see mentioned to making suggestions to...). 2. Executive Officers' Reports 2.1 President (Jones) 2.1.1 The call for papers for the 2003 AoIR conference in Toronto was published a short while ago. If you haven't had a chance to read it, it will be re-posted several times over. Planning for the conference has been under way for some time now, and it promises to be a great one. I hope you can join us, and I hope you can have some of your colleagues who may not have yet attended an AoIR conference join us, too. 2.2 Vice President (Baym) 2.2.1 I've been working on the annual book project with Jeremy and others, thinking about future conferences post-Toronto, and participating in discussion, though not as much as usual because my colleagues on air-exec generally beat me to what I would have said these days. 2.3 Secretary (Bunz) 2.3.1 Participated in the CfP and "joint conference or not" discussions. Other than that, pretty slow month compared to the one before. December 16, 2002 - January 13, 2003 This month on the executive list: . The exec committee finalized its recommendations for the call for papers, especially with regard to topics and keywords. The recommendations were shared with the conference/program organizers. The CfP was posted to air-l by President Steve Jones on January 6. . We were approached by the ACM Special Interest Group on Computers and Society about possibly organizing a joint-conference. This lead to animated discussion about the issue of joint conferences in general, and possible collaboration with this specific group. Overall, sentiment was positive about collaborating with this particular group, though the proposed timing (June 2004) is not ideal. Other possibilities (such as special topic or summer conferences in addition to the annual AoIR conference) were discussed. The general topic of "affiliation" was discussed too, and we agreed that we need clear guidelines that govern when and why we "affiliate" or "collaborate" with any interested organization. . Beta-testing of the conference submission website (thanks Jeremy!) . The executive committee has been debating the report of the election committee actively. 2.4 Treasurer (Bates) 2.4.1 Staying pretty current on memberships, accounts. 2.5 Open Seats (Silver, Wellman) 2.5.1 Silver: Nothing to report. 2.5.2 Wellman: Liaising between Exec Committee and the Toronto organizers of the 2003 conference (next October). 2.6 Appointed Seats (Allen, Shade) 2.6.1 Allen: In the past month I have concentrated on finalising aspects of the 2003 conference, as Program Chair, including assisting to finalise the call for papers (thanks to Liss and Steve and all), assisting to prepare the conference submission system (thanks to Jeremy for tech wizardry), and arranging the reviewing team. 2.6.2 Shade: Worked with Logie to figure out our contributions to AOIR conf book. 2.7 Student Seat (Klastrup) 2.7.1 Nothing much to report - have had to be AFK most of December/early January. The AIR-grad list is up and running and now have 50+ members! 2.8 Publications Officers (Hunsinger, Breindahl) 2.8.1 Hunsinger: the usual lot. I've been rewriting the submission system so it works the way it was requested. once that is finished, i plan on updating the listserve system, after that I probably have to start working on some sort of election system, as that is coming up soon too. 2.8.2 Breindahl: I have been overseeing postings and subscriptions on AIR-L and our other lists as usual. I have also done some minor editing and additions to our public web site and continue to update the book list. There has been no activity in the 'Net WG. 2.9 2003 Conference (Liss Jeffrey, Chair; Matthew Allen, David Mitchell, Program Co-Chairs) 2.9.1 Jeffrey (with her team: Katherine Parrish, Jason Nolan, Alex Kuskis, and steering committee chair Barry Wellman): - Call for papers has gone out, and is up on Toronto 2003 web site <www.ecommons.net/aoir web> . French translation was arranged and sent out. AIR-meet has been the place to send notice of the lists where our cfp is circulating. More to go. - Working committee member Alex Kuskis arranged the book display with Richard A. Koenigsberg, PhD and his Library of Social Science Book Exhibits group, after assuring us that Canadian authors would be represented and space and other issues addressed. Authors who wish to launch books or internet authors wishing to launch web sites should contact organizers with proposals. aoir(a)ecommons.net - Tech committee has met with Hilton Hotel (which is being very supportive). David Mitchell, program co-chair, came to town and had successful meetings with Ryerson and Toronto tech committee (Jason Nolan) Ryerson University has come on board to help, which is very welcome. - Fund raising is starting, slowly. No news yet on our grant request. Contact aoir(a)ecommons.net if you have sponsors you wish to propose, or if you wish to donate. - Steve Jones will give an invited lecture to the Knowledge Media Design Institute on February 13 (4 - 5:30, 40 St George St. University of Toronto) and on February 14th we will hold a Valentine special event 12 - 2 PM for volunteers and prospective sponsors for AoiR 4.0 (McLuhan Video conference room 140 St George St). - Volunteer, working and steering committees are all meeting in the next six weeks. contact bev(a)ecommons.net to get involved in Toronto. - Pre conference workshop list is in process, and we will report soon on further developments. Katherine Parrish playing a key role. - Thanks to my organizing committee, which is just terrific. 2.9.2 Mitchell: Over the past month or so I have been working with a sub committee which is planning for the technical needs for the conference. I visited Toronto last week and met with the Rogers Communication Centre at Ryerson University to ask for their help on the technical side and also perhaps with demonstration events. They were quite excited and later one of their members (Many Amrylou) accompanied me to the Hilton where we met Jason and Katherine from the Toronto team -- and together planned for connectivity needs. This week we met via videoconferencing to continue our group's discussion of technical needs and ideas. I am also trying to find funds to support bilingual translation for the conference. I will keep you posted on any progress here. 2.10 AoIR Ethics Working Group (Charles Ess, Chair) 2.10.1 There has been light discussion of very modest modifications of the ethics report (e.g., formatting, availability in HTML, wording regarding audience, requests for citation, etc.) - impeded, appropriately enough, by the solstitial holidays and a sense of well-deserved rest following the approval of the report. More to come, however! 2.11 AoIR Research Annual Working Group (Mia Consalvo, Chair) 2.11.1 The Research Annual Working Group has actively begun narrowing down appropriate themes for the first volume of the annual, which will include a selection of the research presented at the first three AoIR conferences. We are also determining a pool of potential contributors from conference presentations that fit the themes and represent some of the best work to come out of the conferences and the association. 2.12 AoIR Net Resources Working Group (Charlie Breindahl, Chair) 2.12.1 There has been no activity in the 'Net WG. ------------------------------------end of executive committee report------------------------------ The Association of Internet Researchers is a scholarly association dedicated to the advancement of the cross-disciplinary field of Internet studies. It is a resource and support network promoting critical and scholarly Internet research independent from traditional disciplines and existing across academic borders. The association is international in scope. The association's web site is at http://www.aoir.org. Membership information is available at http://aoir.org/airjoin.html _______________________________________________ Air-l mailing list Air-l(a)aoir.org http://www.aoir.org/mailman/listinfo/air-l

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RE: internet regulation - few questions
by a-matwyshyn＠law.northwestern.edu 20 Jan '03

20 Jan '03

Ondrej, Here are a few national and international internet regulation resources for you - http://www.findlaw.com/01topics/10cyberspace/index.html http://www.bakernet.com/ecommerce/ http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/iclp/bib.html http://www.ftc.gov/privacy/index.html http://dmoz.org/Society/Law/Legal_Information/Computer_and_Technology_Law/I… http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/index.html http://www.export.gov/safeharbor/ The Baker website (the second URL) has a country by country and genre by genre breakdown of regulations that is updated pretty regularly. Also, I research, teach and practice law in the area, so please feel free to contact me directly with any questions about US internet regulation. best, Andrea M. Matwyshyn a-matwyshyn(a)law.northwestern.edu Adjunct Professor of Law Northwestern University School of Law Ph.D. candidate - Human Development and Social Policy Northwestern University

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