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New book: "From Usenet toCoWebs"
by Danyel Fisher 15 Jan '03

15 Jan '03

This list has periodically discussed ways of dealing with data online: at the end of last year, for example, we talked about ways of extracting usenet data, and what one might do with it. I believe that this book might help address some of these questions, and gives an overview of some of the techniques now available. >From Usenet to CoWebs: Interacting with Social Information Spaces Christopher Lueg and Danyel Fisher, eds. London: Springer-Verlag. January, 2003 Price: US$49.95 http://www.ics.uci.edu/~danyelf/projects/book.html FROM THE INTRODUCTION This volume explores ways to look at, and instrument, spaces for social awareness. We want to learn how to look at a space, and understand what is going on with the group that inhabits it. We want to come to a space to learn what it has to offer. We want to build new spaces that open themselves to productive exploration, both to researchers and to participants. These are tasks for statisticians and designers, sociologists, anthropologists, and technologists to work together to explore, characterise, and build these spaces. Through this book, we ask what aspects of an online group are important to its participants. What tools do we have to measure online groups, and what do those measurements mean? What are appropriate tools for the researcher to use to examine the group? What tools might be brought to the group to examine itself? We also try to understand a second question: How can we take advantage of the specific characteristics of social information spaces to build new or enhance existing interfaces to these spaces? Different kinds of spaces have been built with different attributes: some are highly controlled spaces, carefully limiting what sorts of contributions can be made to the space, while others grant a high degree of freedom to their users. These technical attributes partially drive the social abilities of users. Because software can be used to restrict certain types of use, software drives the culture, norms, and understandings in the groups. Differences in user interfaces can be affect the participants' experience of the space-as well as the ability to study the groups, and the ability to collect data from them. These differences will delineate some of the abilities to measure and understand the spaces, and will shape the conversation happening within the spaces. Researchers have enjoyed extensive access to social information spaces. Usenet is publicly accessible and discussion lists are often easy to join, so an anthropologist can lurk quietly, asking questions of a few key informants but remaining largely hidden. Online spaces have been a popular domain of study: a researcher of virtual worlds once commented half in jest, "every MUD has its own ethnographer." The longer tradition of formal online research has been dominantly qualitative, as those public spaces allowed for close examination. From this tradition has emerged a rich variety of projects, from examinations of individuals and their social interaction, to larger-scale issues of group overload and crises of filtering. Our emphasis in this volume, however, is with an eye to fine-grained, quantitative studies. Quantitative researchers take advantage of the fact that online spaces are easily amenable to computer analysis. Of course, some aspects of online interaction can be invisible to quantitative techniques. Although these types of studies may never fully convey the texture of a space, they can be powerful tools for describing many of the important group behaviours and attributes. They have the ability to process large amounts of data at once, allowing visualizations to interactively compare different data sets. Quantitative methods can therefore be very good at highlighting potentially interesting sites for closer future study. TABLE OF CONTENTS Part I: Introduction to Online Studies and Usenet 1 Introduction: Studying Social Information Spaces -- Danyel Fisher 2 "A Standing Wave in the Web of Our Communications": Usenet and the Socio- Technical Construction of Cyberspace Values -- Bryan Pfaffenberger Part II: Studying Spaces 1 Measures and Maps of Usenet -- Marc Smith 2 The Dynamics of Mass Interaction -- Steve Whittaker, Loren Terveen, Will Hill, Lynn Cherny 3 Conversation Map: A Content-Based Usenet Newsgroup Browser -- Warren Sack 4 Silent participants: Getting to know lurkers better -- Blair Nonnecke and Jenny Preece Part III: Enhancing Spaces 1 Computer Mediated Communication among Teams: What are "Teams" and how are they "Virtual"? -- Erin Bradner 2 CoWeb - Experiences with Collaborative Web spaces -- Andreas Dieberger and Mark Guzdial 3 From PHOAKS to TopicShop: Experiments in Social Data Mining -- Brian Amento, Loren Terveen, and Will Hill 4 GroupLens for Usenet: Experiences in Applying Collaborative Filtering to a Social Information System -- Bradley N. Miller, John T. Riedl and Joseph A. Konstan 5 Exploring Interaction and Participation to Support Information Seeking in a Social Information Space -- Christopher Lueg Appendix: Studying Online Newsgroups

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Proposed Abstracts due by 31 January for iCS Conference in Oxford, September 2003
by William Dutton 14 Jan '03

14 Jan '03

iCS Conference, 17-20 September 2003, Oxford: Proposed Abstracts due by end of January http://www.cira.org.uk/ics_call.htm 'Information, Communication, Society', a Research Symposium for the international journal iCS, will be held at Balliol College and the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, 17th-20th September 2003. Proposals for papers should be submitted as abstracts of no more than 500 words, and should include details of the proposers name, position, affiliation, and contact details. Proposals should be submitted electronically to b.d.loader(a)tees.ac.uk in RTF, Word or PDF format. Papers accepted for presentation at the research symposium will be eligible for review for publication by iCS, should the author(s) wish to have an expedited review. Deadline for abstracts: 31st January 2003 Authors of accepted papers notified by: 1st March 2003

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e-Living project - Survey data on and analysis of ICT usage in 6 'European' countries
by Anderson, Ben 14 Jan '03

14 Jan '03

Dear All, As some of you may know the EU's 5th Framework IST Research Programme has funded a longitudinal household panel study of ICT usage in 6 'European' Countries - UK, Norway, Germany, Italy, Bulgaria and Israel. The project, e-Living (www.eurescom.de/e-living/) has recently completed analysis of the first (i.e. cross-sectional) wave of data collection on the 1750 individuals who were recruited in each country in 2001. The reports are now available on the website (see 'Deliverables'). We have a public email list to which you can subscribe at http://lists.eurescom.de/exilist.cgi.pl?filter=e-living-public if interested. This low volume list is used to announce new data, results, reports and dissemination events. The list is archived here: www.eurescom.de/e-living/email.htm As part of our (and the EU's) commitment to supporting comparative research and maximising the value of this data, we have made the wave 1 dataset available for academic research at no cost. The wave 1 questionnaire, data codebook, fieldwork technical report and access/license form are here: http://www.eurescom.de/e-living/deliverables/e-Living-D6.1-Wave-1-Documenta… The zipped and password protected data (in SPSS form) is here: http://www.eurescom.de/e-living/deliverables/e-Living-D6.2-Wave-1-Data-Rele… If, having looked at the codebook etc, you would like to use the data you will need to follow the instructions in the access/license form to receive the password. regards Ben -- Dr Ben Anderson www.essex.ac.uk/chimera +44 (0) 7710 187 806

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Erweitere Dein Bewusstsein - Stuttgarter Filmwinter - Festival for Expanded Media
by Benjamin Fischer 13 Jan '03

13 Jan '03

English version see below Erweitere Dein Bewusstsein - Stuttgarter Filmwinter - Festival for Expanded Media Festival: 16.-19. Januar 2003 Warm Up: 9.-15. Januar 2003 http://www.filmwinter.de Entdecke die Moeglichkeiten! Der Stuttgarter Filmwinter findet vom 16.-19. Januar statt. Bereits am 14. Januar eroeffnet das Ex-IKEA in der Kronenstr. 36 mit einer Auswahl an Medieninstallationen seine Pforten. Die Vernissage beginnt um 20 Uhr. Im Anschluss legt das monoton-Team auf. Das Festival mit den diversen Kurzfilmprogrammen beginnt dann am Donnerstag, den 16. Januar um 20 Uhr, im Stuttgarter Filmhaus, Friedrichstr. 23 A. Neben dem internationalen Kurzfilmwettbewerb gibt es zahlreiche Medienkunst-Veranstaltungen. Beim DASDING-Publikumspreis Internet kannst Du selbst abstimmen unter http://www.dasding.de/community/events/archiv/filmwinter/ und die beste Website auszeichnen. Die Abstimmung laeuft bis zum 19. Januar um 12 Uhr. Das Themenprogramm *Erdung - Neue Heimatgefuehle in der Medienkunst* beschaeftigt sich im weitesten Sinne mit Globalisierung und Identitaet. Welche Role spielen in der heutigen Gesellschaft geographische und emotionale Orte? *Gegenspieler - Narrative Subversion in Computerspielen* beschaeftigt sich mit der Verbindung Film und Computerspielen und spuert dem Trend der *Machinimas* nach. Ausserdem gibt es zum Ausklang der Filmwinter-Abende noch ein wunderschoenes Musikprogramm, u.a. mit Vert (Koeln), DJ Bleed (Berlin), DJ ARJ Snoek (Koeln), Institut fuer Feinmotorik (Freiburg), DJ Werner (Stuttgart), 3 Normal Bealtes (Hamburg) und DJ Stanley Ipkiss (Hamburg). Alle Programminfos findet Ihr unter http://www.filmwinter.de. Ausserdem gibt es einen 160-seitigen zweisprachigen Festivalkatalog. Herzlichst, Wanda ***** Expand your mind - Stuttgart Filmwinter - Festival for Expanded Media Festival: January 16-19, 2003 Warm Up: January 9-15, 2003 http://www.filmwinter.de Explore the possibilities! The Stuttgart Filmwinter takes place from January 16-19. Already on the 14th the venue Ex-IKEA (Kronenstreet 36) opens the doors for the exhibition of selected media installations. The opening starts at 8 p.m. - followed by a DJ set of the monoton-team. The festival with its various shortfilm programmes starts at January 16 at 8 p.m. in the Stuttgart Filmhaus, Friedrichstreet 23 A. Besides the International short film competition various media presentations and special programmes take place. At the DASDING-Audience Award for Internet you can vote for the best websites. Please visit: http://www.dasding.de/community/events/archiv/filmwinter/ The voting ends on Sunday, January 19 at 12 a.m. Under this year*s headword *Grounding*, Wand 5 traces trends in film and media art as well as technological and social developments. Which roles inhere geographical and emotional places in today*s media society? How do digital technologies change identity models, attached to real spaces? Is there a corrective to the trends of mobilization and globalization? *Counterplots - Narrative Subversion in Computer Games* deals with the relation between film and computer games and highlights the *Machinima*-trend. Besides every evening there will be the legendary Filmwinter-parties. This time we have invited: Vert (Cologne), DJ Bleed (Berlin), DJ ARJ Snoek (Cologne), Institut fuer Feinmotorik (Freiburg), DJ Werner (Stuttgart), 3 Normal Bealtes (Hamburg), and DJ Stanley Ipkiss (Hamburg). All programme information and facts you find on our website http://www.filmwinter.de. A 160-page, bilingual festival catalogue with detailled information is available, too. Greetings, Wanda

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The Internet and Communications on September 11
by William Dutton 13 Jan '03

13 Jan '03

With respect to work on the Internet and September 11, there is a broad symposium on communications on September 11 in Volume 20, No. 3, September 2002 of the journal Prometheus, edited by A. Michael Noll. -- Professor William H. Dutton, Director Oxford Internet Institute University of Oxford 1 St Giles', Oxford OX1 3JS United Kingdom Phone: +44 (0)1865 287 210 Fax: +44 (0)1865 287 211 WWW: http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/

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non-US Internet use
by Barry Wellman 13 Jan '03

13 Jan '03

Greg Wise, et al: Some sources I know (really well) of non-US Internet use (there is a huge amount, so Greg, please list scope conditions): 1. Wellman-Haythornthwaite, _The Internet in Everyday Life_ (Blackwells 2002) has a bunch of chapters (Germany, Canada, Japan, India, UK). Plus a comparative data chapter ("The Global Villagers'). 2. The Universitat Oberta Catalunya website has a book-length report about the Internet in Catalonia. Manuel Castells is the first author. I (with Isabel Diaz de Isla) have a chapter doing my Users and Uses thing. Originally, only in Spanish, but Catalan and English translations may have been posted. Barry ___________________________________________________________________ Barry Wellman Professor of Sociology NetLab Director wellman(a)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 ___________________________________________________________________

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The Internet and September 11
by Greg Wise 13 Jan '03

13 Jan '03

I've been finding information on Internet use and September 11th in the United States (e.g., the Pew Internet & American Life reports), but am now looking for work on non-US internet use. Any suggestions? Also, are there reports out there that cover pager, text-pager (e.g., Blackberry), and cell phone use in NY during that crisis? For example, people being able to contact loved ones via text-pagers when the phone lines were busy, etc. Or even email use in that context? And since I'm asking a lot, I might as well ask if there are studies of Non-US broadcast coverage of September 11th (was it carried live? By who? For how long? Etc.) Again, most of the things I've been able to find are solely for the US context. I'm probably just looking in the wrong places. Off-list replies are fine (gregwise(a)asu.edu) Cheers, greg

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RE: [Air-l] Internet as a database?
by Randolph Kluver (Assoc Prof) 13 Jan '03

13 Jan '03

Lev Manovich does some theorizing along these lines (the Internet as database) in his book the Language of New Media. You would probably find in there a pretty cogent case for this argument. I think that it is something of a false dichotomy to think of it as either cmc or database, as people make vastly different uses of it. For my research, it is primarily a database. For my communication, it is cmc. A. Randolph Kluver School of Communication and Information Nanyang Technological University 31 Nanyang Link Singapore, 637718 (65) 6790-5770 Fax (65) 6792-4329 > -----Original Message----- > From: Denise N. Rall [mailto:denrall@yahoo.com] > Sent: Monday, January 13, 2003 6:41 AM > To: air-l(a)aoir.org > Subject: Re: [Air-l] Internet as a database? > > > Dear Aoir's - > > I have recently heard some conversation among the New > Media crowd regarding the internet as a database > rather than as a CMC, or communicative medium. > > I know some properties of databases, storage, > indexing, retrieval and so on. Of course the phone > book is a database, databases are not > medium-dependent, although usually today they are > conceived of as digital rather than text-based. > > I am interested to know any authors who are putting > this view forward, and how the database model gains > anything conceptually over CMC. I have stayed with > CMC as a conceptual model because it allows for > transport. I don't yet see in a database model where > the transport segment lies. Someone said, distributed > database but that, to my mind, only implies a variety > of databases connected by some indexing scheme, and > packets are distributed in quite another way. > > I think we might keep this discussion on list if > others find this provocative as it may prove very > enlightening. > > Cheers, Denise > > > > ===== > "it's easier to use your mouse than your brain" > Denise Rall, Sustainable Forestry Mentoring Coordinator & > PhD student, School of Education, Southern Cross University, > PO Box 157, Lismore, NSW, 2480 Australia > Phone +61-2-6624-8627 Fax +61-2-6624-8637 > Office (Tuesdays) (02) 6620 3577 Mob 0438 233 344 > http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/edu/research/deniserall/index.ht ml __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Air-l mailing list Air-l(a)aoir.org http://www.aoir.org/mailman/listinfo/air-l

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Re: [Air-l] recording .swf and .mov
by Willard Uncapher 12 Jan '03

12 Jan '03

At 04:20 PM 1/12/2003 -0500, you wrote: >http://www.nokia.com/flash/phones/7210/index.html >http://www.nokia.com/flash/phones/7210/player_7210.swf For what it is worth, I simply looked in the internet cache (for the appropriate .swf file, which was called. anime[1].swf, under windows/temporary internet files/content.ie5/[the appropriate subdirectory- the mac would be similar. ). I then dragged it into a copy of 'macromedia flash player 6' which comes with Macromedia Flash MX (but which might be available through www.macromedia.com- not a 'plugin' but an actual viewer). And then I had to remember to press 'play' and voila- it played. I might node that Flash MX editor wouldn't open the file, noting that it was locked. But for research and aesthetic consideration, the integral file was simply waiting there, ready to be databased, watched, and integrated into some other presentation. Willard Uncapher, Ph.D. / Network Emergence / 8706 Kendall Court, Arvada, CO 80003 mailto:willard@well.com / http://www.well.com/user/willard

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recording .swf and .mov
by Jonathan Lillie 12 Jan '03

12 Jan '03

I am trying to get some movies (.swf and .mov) from Nokia.com for my dissertation research....but getting the direct URLs to the files and trying to "save as" is not working. Somehow I was able to save one .swf but it won't run of my drive, I think becuase it is trying to access some other files. I have been able to get around the same problem with RealMedia files designed not be be copied by using some hacker software designed specifically to work with RealServer. Does anything similar exist for Shockwave or Quicktime? Does one of the delux versions of Quicktime allow you to "save as" once you have a URL for a .mov? I have tried some of the motion capture software, but the frame rates are not fast enough and this does not capture the all important audio. Here are two examples of files I am trying to get: shockwave example http://www.nokia.com/flash/phones/7210/index.html http://www.nokia.com/flash/phones/7210/player_7210.swf quicktime example http://www.nokia.com/nokia/0,,4678,00.html http://www.nokia.com/flash/phones/5100/5100small.mov Thanks for any ideas!!!

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