- Air-L - lists.aoir.org

4th International Workshop on Real-life modeling in 5G/6G networks and beyond -- REFRESH 2023, co-located with IEEE DCOSS-IoT 2023 -- Deadline: April 15, 2023
by Eirini Eleni Tsiropoulou 23 Mar '23

23 Mar '23

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- REFRESH 2023 4th International Workshop on Real-life modeling in 5G/6G networks and beyond https://refreshworkshop.github.io/#/ co-located with INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING IN SMART SYSTEMS AND THE INTERNET OF THINGS (DCOSS-IoT 2023) https://dcoss.org/ Paper Submission: April 15, 2023 Submission Link: https://easychair.org/account/signin?l=NVJeoMVzQdUYtGmAFq9ajI ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scope and Overview The economic and societal potential of emerging 5G/6G and cyber-physical social systems is vastly greater than what has been realized so far, and major investments are being made worldwide to develop the corresponding science and technology. The Future Internet paradigm, the proliferation of emerging networks and architectures, wireless access technologies and multi-homing smart devices are evolving towards a competitive environment, where users and devices have access to various resources, while their behaviors become strongly interdependent. This fact demands and motivates the development of user-centric resource management and optimization frameworks, which enable user's self-optimization and autonomy. This vision is further motivated and supported by the convergence of various emerging technologies enabling Cyber-Physical Systems operation, including 5G/B5G/6G technologies, Internet of Things (IoT), Mobile Edge Computing and Software Defined Networking, all targeting flexibility and efficiency. To deal with the involved complexity, and driven by the requirements of autonomy and scalability, distributed resource orchestration approaches appear as a necessity rather than a desire. The REFRESH Workshop aims at to stimulate research on the most novel topics of real-life modeling in 5G/6G networks and beyond. This year's edition encourages submission of theoretical and experimental work (including studies of real deployment), with a primary interest in new directions of wireless networking in concrete application scenarios and demonstrators in areas such as, but not limited to: mobile edge computing, Internet of Things, cyber-physical systems, unmanned aerial vehicles, public safety networks, dynamic spectrum utilization, smart grid communications, wireless power communication, green wireless networks, information-centric wireless networks. The workshop seeks original work presented in the form of research papers describing new research and development approaches and results, as well as work-in-progress papers. Highly disruptive work-in-progress and position papers are also welcome, provided they focus on particularly innovative solutions or applications for 5G/6G networks and beyond. All papers shall be forward-looking, describe their relationship to existing work, and shall argue their impact and implications for ongoing or future research. Selected workshop papers will also be considered for publication in a Special Issue and/or Special Sections of international peer-reviewed journals. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to 5G/6G Cellular systems and beyond Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces Integrated Access and Backhaul Channel modeling and measurements Cloud/CRAN-based networks5G/B5G/6G Networks Millimeter-wave and THz communication technologies Massive MIMO Multi-modal sensing/sourcing Cognitive radio networks, dynamic spectrum access, and emerging applications and services Wireless power transfer and energy harvesting for wireless networks Delay tolerant networks Wireless communications on different media End-to-end protocols, flow, and congestion control Artificial intelligence and machine learning for wireless networks Attack modeling, prevention, mitigation, and defense in wireless networks Security, Reliability, Privacy, and Trust in Wireless Networks Green Wireless Networks Heterogeneous, Small-Cell, and Dense networks Information-centric wireless networks Internet of Things Pervasive and wearable computing and networking Public Safety Networks Social wireless networks Quality of Service provisioning and management in 5G networks and beyond Quality of Experience and User Experience in 5G networks and beyond Software-defined wireless networks Vehicular wireless networks Wireless mesh networks Wireless multimedia networks Wireless network virtualization Multiple Access, Radio Resource Management, Interference Management, and Scheduling Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Networks Hybrid communication systems (e.g., satellite/unmanned aerial vehicles/terrestrial/wireline hybrids) Machine learning-based resource allocation for wireless networks Reinforcement learning and deep learning for 5G/6G networks and beyond Architectures, models, security, and approaches for smart grid networks Economics and pricing for 5G/6G networks and beyond Smart Cities supported by 5G/6G networks and beyond Scalability, Robustness, and Resilience in 5G/6G networks and beyond Integrated Sensing, Communications and Computing Submission Guidelines Authors are invited to submit original unpublished manuscripts that demonstrate current research on real-life modeling in 5G/6G networks and beyond related to REFRESH workshop's topics of interest. Please use the US letter size (8.5 X 11 in) standard IEEE conference LaTeX format or Microsoft Word template available on the link below: http://www.ieee.org/conferences_events/conferences/publishing/templates.html All submissions should be written in English and submitted as a full or work-in-progress paper. Full papers should have a maximum of eight (8) printed pages including figures and references. Full papers are expected to describe fully developed ideas with a thorough evaluation. Work-in-progress papers should have a maximum of four (4) printed pages including figures and references. Work-in-progress papers are expected to describe new and interesting ideas that have not yet reached full maturity. Note that REFRESH does not follow the double-blind review policy. The names and affiliations of all the authors must be present in the submitted manuscript. Accepted and presented papers will be published in the DCOSS 2023 conference proceedings and submitted to IEEE Xplore as well as other Abstracting and Indexing (A&I) databases. Submission Site Please submit your papers in PDF format using the following paper submission website: https://easychair.org/account/signin?l=NVJeoMVzQdUYtGmAFq9ajI Important Dates Paper Submission: April 15, 2023 Notification: May 7, 2023 Camera Ready: May 19, 2023 Program Committee Chairs Eirini Eleni Tsiropoulou (University of New Mexico, USA) Symeon Papavassiliou (National Technical University of Athens, Greece) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eirini Eleni Tsiropoulou, Assistant Professor Computer Engineering Vice Chair Director of Recruiting and Admissions Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM, 87131 Office: 326B Tel.: (505)-277-5501 Email: eirini(a)unm.edu<mailto:eirini@unm.edu> Website: PROTON Lab<http://ece-research.unm.edu/tsiropoulou/index.html> PROTON Lab's News: @Tsiropoulou_EE<https://twitter.com/Tsiropoulou_EE> "Those who know, do. Those that understand, teach." ~ Aristotle

1 0

CfP | ICEGOV 2023 | Digital governance for the United Nations Sustainable Development goals Track
by Mamello Thinyane 23 Mar '23

23 Mar '23

Dear colleagues, This is an invitation to submit your papers to the "Digital governance for the United Nations Sustainable Development goals<https://www.icegov.org/edition-2023/papers/track-7/>" track at the 16th edition of the International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance<https://www.icegov.org/> (ICEGOV 2023) by the 23rd April 2023 (AOE). Digital governance can be a strong tool to achieve a better and more sustainable world. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) present the most challenging problems and ways to overcome them as a global community. This Track aims to include paper presentations that link the digital governance systems' planning, implementation or evaluation to the UN SDGs. Studies showing how digital governance systems can help achieve goals towards SGDs, identifying problems of implementation or cooperation, and evaluating the impact of digital governance systems on the Goals are welcome in this track. ICEGOV 2023 returns to South America after the editions of 2009 (Colombia) and 2016 (Uruguay). This time, BRAZIL is the host country, with the city of BELO HORIZONTE setting itself up to be the hotspot of Digital Governance between 26-29 SEPTEMBER 2023. This year's theme focuses on Digital Governance for Democratic, Equitable, and Inclusive Societies. Citizen-centric values such as inclusion, participation, engagement, and transparency in government should be at the forefront when it comes to digital governance initiatives. In a networked, globalised, and increasingly data-driven world, in which democracies are put to the test, digital governance continues to play an important role. Citizen-centricity has proven difficult to achieve in practice, and there are challenges and limitations to reaching more democratic, equitable, and inclusive societies through digital governance. Over the past 16 years, ICEGOV has established itself as a significant and structured source of in-depth, rich research, policy insight, and networking that reaches audiences on a national and international scale. It is ranked as one of the leading conferences in Digital Governance and brings with it a state-of-the-art, 4-days programme where academia, governments, international organisations, industry, and civil society share the latest insights and experiences in the field. Join the conference community by submitting your research work through this Call for Papers & Workshops. More than 2000 authors from 96 countries have already contributed towards 1390 published papers covering a vast majority of topics, regions, and people of the world, with over 6900 people having attended ICEGOV thus far. We very much look forward to welcoming you to Belo Horizonte in September 2023! Regards, -- Mamello Thinyane | BScIS, MSc, PhD | Optus Chair of Cybersecurity and Data Science UniSA STEM | University of South Australia Mawson Lakes Campus, Mawson Lakes Blvd, Mawson Lakes | SA 5095 Tel +61 8 8302 3255 mamello.thinyane(a)unisa.edu.au<mailto:mamello.thinyane@unisa.edu.au> | www.unisa.edu.au<http://www.unisa.edu.au/>

1 0

Fitter, Happier, More Productive: Algorithmic Regimes & the Future of Work
by Luke Munn 22 Mar '23

22 Mar '23

Kia ora koutou katoa / Greetings AOIRers, A quick note to let you know about an event next month that you may be interested in. Clickwork. Quiet quitting. Bossware. Gigging. Automated Management. Precarity. In the face of advanced technologies, post-pandemic conditions, and intersecting economic and ecological crises, labour is undergoing a series of substantial upheavals. Old paradigms are being rethought; new modes of production are being unlocked. Work is being reworked. In some ways, these shifts are unprecedented; in others, they continue long standing inequalities predicated on race, class, and gender. How do we make sense of these digitally-driven shifts and their social, cultural, and political consequences? This two-day event brings together scholars from media and communication, migrant studies, business and management studies, and other disciplines to develop a rich portrait of our changing work conditions. Day 1 will present a series of interdisciplinary papers and provocations from the listed speakers; Day 2 will workshop projects-in-progress through informal presentations and discussions. (Full speaker list and abstracts at the link below) Register Here by April 11: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fitter-happier-more-productive-algorithmic-reg… ngā mihi / best, Luke Munn Digital Cultures & Societies, University of Queensland

1 0

Looking for News Companies and Journalists working with AI in Japan
by Marc Gallofré Ocaña 22 Mar '23

22 Mar '23

Hey digital enthusiasts! I am looking to connect with news companies, journalists, and researchers who are working with AI for news production, in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto or anywhere else in Japan. I would be like to meet face-to-face or visit the offices for a lively discussion about the usage of AI in journalism and present my research too. I am a researcher in the field of AI, big data and journalism, currently planning a research stay in Japan. Any help in providing any contacts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. You can contact me at: marc.gallofre(a)uib.no<mailto:marc.gallofre@uib.no> (Marc Gallofré) Thank you for your time!

1 0

Book: TikTok Cultures in the United States
by Tom Divon 21 Mar '23

21 Mar '23

Hey Digital Culture explorers! Check out the recent book publication from Routledge - "TikTok Cultures in the United States" - edited by Trevor Boffone. This book delves into the role of TikTok in US popular culture and analyzes the platform's growing body of subcultures. Comprising contributions from scholars across various disciplines, the chapters in this book create novel analytical frameworks to examine TikTok's impact within a distinct context, exploring issues such as gender, sexuality, feminism, race and ethnicity, and wellness. By analyzing TikTok's influence and intersecting with those topics, the book offers valuable insights into how the platform is shaped by users' subcultures and, in turn, shapes users' understandings of their contemporary socio-political environment. This book can be a valuable resource for students and scholars seeking a comprehensive and accessible understanding of TikTok's complex role within the digital landscape. Currently, the book is being sold with a 20% discount available (enter the code FLE22 at checkout on https://www.routledge.com/TikTok-Cultures-in-the-United-States/Boffone/p/bo…) You may want to consider introducing this book to your institution and recommending it for purchase. Unfortunately, the book is not OA, but If you are interested in accessing a particular chapter, I would be happy to connect you with the relevant authors (email me at: tom.divon(a)mail.huji.ac.il) *Table of content: * Introduction: The Rise of TikTok in US Culture \ Trevor Boffone *Section I: Race and Ethnicity on TikTok* 1. The D’Amelio Effect: TikTok, Charli D’Amelio, and the Construction of Whiteness \ Trevor Boffone 2. Digital Blackface and the Troubling Intimacies of TikTok Dance Challenges \ Cienna Davis 3. TikTok For Us By Us: Black Girlhood, Joy, and Self Care \ Wendyliz Martinez 4. #JewishTikTok: The JewToks’ Fight Against Antisemitism \ Tom Divon and Tobias Ebbrecht-Hartmann *Section II: Gender and Sexuality on TikTok* 5. Watching TikTok, Feeling Feminism: Intergenerational Flows of Feminist Knowledge \ Shauna Pomerantz and Miriam Field 6. "Do you want to form an alliance with me?": Glimpses of Utopia in the Works of Queer Women and Non-Binary Creators on TikTok \ Claudia Skinner 7. Trans TikTok: Sharing Information and Forming Community \ Elle Rochford and Zachary Palmer *Section III: TikTok (Sub)Cultures* 8. Hocus-Pocus: WitchTok Education for Baby Witches \ Jane Barnette 9. Wellness TikTok: Morning Routines, Eating Well, and Getting Ready to be "That Girl" \ Katlin Marisol Sweeney-Romero 10. Hype it Up: US Latinx Theater on TikTok \ Elena Machado Sáez *Afterword* TikTok Industrial Complex; or Twenty-first Century Transculturative Creative Critical Collaboratory? \ Frederick Luis Aldama -- *Tom Divon* *Media & Culture Researcher* Dept. of Communication & Journalism, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Sammy Ofer School of Communications, IDC, Herzliya Tel: +972-547-532681 [image: Twitter] <https://twitter.com/TomDivon>[image: Instagram] <https://www.instagram.com/divon.tom/>[image: Facebook] <https://www.facebook.com/tom.divon> *Publications*: Playful Activism: Memetic Performances of Palestinian Resistance in TikTok #Challenges <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20563051231157607>. Playful Publics on TikTok: The Memetic Israeli-Palestinian War of #CHALLENGE <https://www.dropbox.com/s/0r6d8ctd3m4xgrk/PLAYFUL_PUBLICS_ON_TIKTOK.pdf?dl=0> . #JewishTikTok: The JewToks' Fight against Antisemitism <https://www.dropbox.com/home?preview=JewishTikTok_The_JewToks_Fight_against…> . Serious TikTok: Can You Learn About the Holocaust in 60 seconds? <https://reframe.sussex.ac.uk/digitalholocaustmemory/2022/03/24/can-you-lear…>

1 0

AoIR Executive Committee Nominations deadline: 26 March
by Michelle, Association of Internet Researchers 21 Mar '23

21 Mar '23

I am happy to announce that nominations for the new Executive Committee, to take office in October of this year and serve until October 2025. Nominations are open. Below, you will find: (a) a timeframe for the election, (b) a description of the AoIR governance system and the elected positions, (c) our nominations and elections processes, and (d) some key questions for candidates. *A. Timeframe of the Election:* 1. The call for nominations opens on 11 March 2023 and will remain open for fifteen (15) days. 2. *Nominations for all positions close on 26 March 2023.* 3. Candidates will be listed on aoir.org and further information will be made available on our membership system, where discussion fora will let you ask questions of the candidates. 4. Voting begins on 22 April 2023 at our online balloting site and will remain open for ten (10) days. (Details for accessing this site will be sent in a later message through our membership system.) 5. Voting ends on 1 May 2023, expiring at 12:00 noon, U.S. Eastern Time in the State of Delaware. Election results will be announced on air-l. The new Executive Committee is formally introduced and assumes its duties during the Annual General Meeting during the AoIR conference in Philadelphia, on 21 October 2023. More information about our election processes can be found in the AoIR Bylaws: https://aoir.org/bylaws/ Candidates should familiarize themselves with the duties laid out in the Bylaws. I also encourage persons interested in running for a specific position to contact me or any of the current office-holder(s) with any questions. In particular, the Treasurer needs to be financially literate, including the use of budgeting spreadsheets, and should ideally liaise with the current Treasurer or Vice-President in advance of nominating. *B. AoIR Governance and Description of Elected Positions:* The organizational structure of AoIR is simple. There are 5 officers (President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Graduate Student representative). The 9-member Executive Committee consists of these officers, plus the Past President and 3 Open Seat representatives. Elected officials hold their positions for two years. After two years, the Vice President becomes President. Nominations are invited for Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Graduate Student representative, and 3 Open Seats. You may nominate yourself or someone else you think would do a good job. Details on the nomination procedure follow below. Nominations officially open on 11 March 2023. Duties of the President: Article 4/Section 6 of AoIR's bylaws. Duties of the Vice President: Article 4/Section 7 of AoIR's bylaws. Duties of the Secretary: Article 4/Section 8 of AoIR's bylaws. Duties of the Treasurer: Article 4/Section 9 of AoIR's bylaws. Duties of the Graduate Student Representative: Article 4/Section 10 of AoIR's bylaws. Duties of Open Seat representatives: Represent the membership of AoIR, and contribute to decision-making. Members of the Executive have their membership fees waived for the duration of their term, and pay a reduced conference registration fee. *C. Nominations and Elections Processes:* *Only current members of AoIR can run for a position.* They may be nominated by anyone, including themselves. If nominated for more than one position, a nominee must choose to run for one (and only one) position in this election. You may nominate yourself or others. If nominating someone else, confirm with that person that they are willing to run, and eligible to do so. Self-Nominations: Email AoIR Association Coordinator Michelle at <ac at aoir dot org> and indicate the position for which you are nominating yourself. Please provide in your nomination email a short candidate statement addressing the questions below. Nominating Others: Email AoIR Association Coordinator Michelle at <ac at aoir dot org> with the name of the person you want to nominate, the position for which you are nominating this person, contact information for the person, and an indication of whether you know if this person would accept this nomination. (If you don't know, we'll contact them and ask.) All candidates for election will be required to provide answers to the questions listed below, have the answers posted to the AoIR election forum, and participate in an online candidate forum. In addition, the Graduate Student candidates must confirm in their response that they comply with the by-laws: the Graduate Student Representative must be actively enrolled in a degree program at the time of nomination and election. The Treasurer needs to be financially literate, including the use of budgeting spreadsheets, and should ideally liaise with the current Treasurer or Vice-President in advance of nominating. The voting system used by AoIR allows one vote per member for each of the elected positions listed above. Votes will be tallied using a balloting software. In the case of the four directly elected officers, the candidate with the highest number of votes shall be declared the winner; in the case of the Open Seats, the candidates with the highest, second-highest, and third-highest votes shall be declared the three winners of the Open Seats. In the case of tied results for the officer positions, the winner shall be determined by the ballot counters, by drawing of lots, using a method that ensures each of the tying candidates has an equal chance of success and witnessed by at least 1 person independent of the association. In the case of tied results for the open seat positions, the drawing of lots shall be used only when there are more tied candidates than seats available. *D. Questions for Candidates (these questions must be answered in yournomination email):* 1. What are your qualifications for this position (including prior experience and participation in AoIR)? 2. Please describe two or three short-term goals you would like to achieve through membership on the executive (including a rationale for each and how you would contribute to their achievement). 3. What is your long-term vision for AoIR? 4. What else should voters consider when deciding on whether or not to vote for you? In answering the questions, please be concise and give information specific to the position for which you are nominating, to enable voters to assess your case for election to that position. I sincerely hope that you will consider running, or nominating someone who you think would help advance AoIR and its community of Internet scholars. Many thanks in advance to those willing to serve! Tama Leaver President, Association of Internet Researchers

1 0

Vacancy: Tenure-Track Faculty at Center for Survey Research, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
by Wen-Hsin Wang 20 Mar '23

20 Mar '23

Dear colleagues, We're hiring a new Tenure-Track faculty member at the Center for Survey Research, Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences in Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan. Applicants specializing in computational social science, text mining, social network analysis, and data science are strongly encouraged to apply. Application will due on June 20, 2023. Come and join us! For further information please see: https://survey.sinica.edu.tw/?p=14971&lang=en Please help share with your networks! Kind regards, Contact: Ms. Wen-Hsin Wang (Executive Officer of the CSR) Websites: Academia Sinica: https://www.sinica.edu.tw/en Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences: https://www.rchss.sinica.edu.tw/main.php Center for Survey Research: https://survey.sinica.edu.tw/

1 0

Rescheduled Lecture: “Researching Disability and Play – Where’s the fun in that?” with Dr. Katta Spiel
by Gerald Voorhees 20 Mar '23

20 Mar '23

Dear Colleagues, Please join the Games Institute <https://uwaterloo.ca/games-institute/> at the University of Waterloo for a (rescheduled) Lecture on “Researching Disability and Play – Where’s the fun in that?” with Dr. Katta Spiel on Thursday, March 23rd, 2023 at 2:30 - 3:30 PM! This is a free and hybrid event! *Registration is required. <https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/researching-disability-and-play-wheres-the-fun-…>* *About the event:* Games research is slowly diversifying in matters of representation as well as accessibility related investigations. Similarly, a materialist and embodied understanding of play (also digitally) seeps in more on a theoretical basis. However, we need to critically examine what kind of bodies are invited to participate in play and how. Where games and play are mostly conceptualised as entertainment for the majority of bodies, disabled people are often relegated to playing for externally motivated purposes that are often driven by deficit oriented medical models of disability. Using the theory on the surrogate body in play, I illustrate how it can be instrumental to critically engage with norms governing digital play and identifying design opportunities playing with said bodily norms to holistically cater to disabled audiences. I do so by focusing on the critical analytical category of disability not just through an access oriented lens per se, but rather to bring principles of disability justice to play. *About the speakers:* Katta Spiel is an FWF Hertha-Firnberg scholar at the HCI Group of TU Wien (Vienna University of Technology), where they work on the intersection of Computer Science, Design and Cultural Studies. Katta researches marginalised perspectives on technologies to inform interaction design and engineering in critical ways so they may account for the diverse realities they operate in. Drawing on methods from (Critical) Participatory Design and Action Research on a background heavily shaped by Queer Theories and Disability Studies, they collaborate with neurodivergent and/or nonbinary peers in conducting explorations of novel potentials for designs, methodological contributions to Human-Computer Interaction and innovative technological artefacts. -- ------------------------------ Gerald Voorhees, Ph.D. (he/him) Associate Professor Department of Communication Arts University of Waterloo 257A ML, Waterloo ON, N2L 3G1 President, Canadian Game Studies Association ------------------------------ *I acknowledge that I live and work on the traditional territory of the Attawandaron (Neutral), Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee peoples. The University of Waterloo is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land promised to the Six Nations that includes ten kilometers on each side of the Grand River. *

1 0

TODAY at 11am Eastern: Book Talk by Aynne Kokas on "Trafficking Data: How China is Winning the Battle for Digital Sovereignty"
by Joshua Braun 20 Mar '23

20 Mar '23

Hi All, A friendly final reminder of today's book talk, accessible by Zoom (free registration here<https://umass-amherst.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUoce-hqDIiGtLjzd6PH8FPFNQx…>). It's worth mentioning that Dr. Kokas's work extensively explores and contextualizes the debate around the proposed TikTok ban that has been in the news for the past week, and so may be of particular interest to students. Dr. Aynne Kokas, Associate Professor of Media Studies, C.K. Yen Chair, and Director of the East Asia Center at the University of Virginia will be speaking on her new book, Trafficking Data: How China is Winning the Battle for Digital Sovereignty<https://global.oup.com/academic/product/trafficking-data-9780197620502?cc=u…> (Oxford University Press, 2022) here at UMass Amherst. The talk will take today, March 20th from 11am to 12:15pm Eastern and will be livestreamed on Zoom for anyone who is interested (free registration required). The registration link is here<https://umass-amherst.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUoce-hqDIiGtLjzd6PH8FPFNQx…> and book details are below. In Trafficking Data: How China is Winning the Battle for Digital Sovereignty, Dr. Aynne Kokas looks at how technology firms in the two largest economies in the world, the United States and China, have exploited government policy (and the lack thereof) to gather information on citizens. Kokas argues that US government leadership failures, Silicon Valley's disruption fetish, and Wall Street's addiction to growth have fueled China's technological gold rush. In turn, American complacency yields an unprecedented opportunity for Chinese firms to gather data in the United States and quietly send it back to China, and by extension, to the Chinese government. Drawing on case studies from rapidly growing areas of global media investment like social media apps TikTok, WeChat, and Grindr, and gaming platforms like Fortnite, Trafficking Data explains how China is fast becoming the global leader in internet governance and policy, and thus of the data that defines our public and private lives. This free event is co-sponsored by the UMass Amherst College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, the Journalism Department, the Department of Communication, the School of Public Policy, the Public Interest Technology Initiative, and the Public Engagement Project. All the Best, Josh Braun and Emily West -- Josh Braun, Ph.D. Associate Professor // Journalism Department University of Massachusetts Amherst Mastodon: @josh@sciences.social Distribution Matters series @ The MIT Press https://mitpress.mit.edu/search-result-list/?series=distribution-matters "Maybe the only gift is a chance to inquire, to know nothing for certain. An inheritance of wonder and nothing more." William Least Heat-Moon

1 0

[Call for Papers] TikTok and Children Symposium (8 May 2023)
by Jin Lee 20 Mar '23

20 Mar '23

Dear colleagues, I hope everyone is keeping well. I am delighted to share a CfP for a one-day virtual Symposium "TikTok and Children", hosted by TikTok Cultures Research Network and Australian Research Council of Centre for Excellence of the Digital Child. Please feel free to circulate among interested parties. I look forward to seeing you at the Symposium! Thank you in advance Jin * *Call for Papers: TikTok and Children Symposium* (*8 May 2023*) <also see our CfP here <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kLznGxAwInxUYwaRBoTwcmJE9hslbAOn-xAtus5…> > The popularity of the short-video social media platform TikTok is prominent across the globe with more than 1 billion monthly active users in over 150 countries (Doyle, 2023). Social media culture is being rapidly reshaped around this relatively new platform through the creative lens of the short-video format. Its creative and playful culture has particularly attracted young demographics of social media users, especially children who are below the age of 18 years. According to a US statistics report, 30% of the users are assumed to be children under 19 years old (Doyle, 2023). A recent UK study reveals that 16% of toddlers in the UK are introduced to TikTok by their parents despite the app users having to be 13 or older to sign up to the platform (Waterson, 2022). TikTok is now the most-used app among children, outranking other social media platforms like YouTube and Instagram (Perez, 2023). For some young people TikTok serves as a playground where they make connections with their peers (Bresnick, 2019). TikTok’s pedagogical potential is also acknowledged for child education, such as language learning (Karimah et al., 2022), and identity development (Sarwatay et al., 2021). Children’s political voice is also actively formed and amplified on the platform as children take up the platform space and discuss various issues of social injustice, climate change, and electoral politics (Literat & Kligler-Vilenchik, 2021). However, children’s use of the platform, and how they are represented on TikTok also gives rise to new challenges and concerns. Many parents are concerned about children’s exposure to harmful content and potential risks of children’s health (Collins, 2022). Data insecurity of the app has been widely criticized, which is more serious for especially younger children who are in need of guidance as to how to protect their digital privacy in the highly surveillant environment of social media (Sawers, 2022). Indeed, several countries fined TikTok for mishandling children’s data without parents’ consent, such as the UK (Sawers, 2022) and South Korea (BBC, 2020). Countries like India even banned the platform ostensibly to protect children from potential sexual trafficking and graphic content (Bursztynsky, 2020). Being aware of these concerns, TikTok announced a new feature, “Family Safety Mode” that allows parents to manage their children’s use of TikTok by linking their accounts to their children’s ones (Brown, 2022). Nevertheless, TikTok is still an arena for debate on children’s healthy and sound use of social media (Sawers, 2022). In response to such potentials and pitfalls in children’s use of TikTok, we will be holding a one-day online Symposium (on Zoom) to discuss crucial issues to understanding children’s rights on TikTok and to examine their wellbeing and safety on the platform. The Symposium will showcase the emergent research on characteristics, climate, concerns, and chances of children growing up with and on TikTok, and discuss these issues with the industry and TikTok studies scholars. We seek to provide a meaningful opportunity to think about balanced and practical approaches to ensure children’s rights and agencies in the popularly emerging platform and cultures, to make the best use of the platform cultures for child development, while protecting children from possible risks of surveillance and harmful content. We invite submissions on themes that include, but are not limited to: - Child influencers on TikTok - Children and play culture on TikTok - Children and digital wellbeing on TikTok - Children and education on TikTok - Children and identity on TikTok - Children and creator culture on TikTok - Children and technologies on TikTok - Parenting and TikTok - Child policies and regulations and TikTok HDRs, ECRs, and scholars in/or from the Global South are strongly encouraged to apply. A selection of papers will also be considered for inclusion in a Special Issue tentatively entitled “TikTok and Children” that will be published in a top-ranked peer-reviewed journal in the field of Media and Communication Studies. For consideration in this Symposium, please submit abstracts (up to 250 words) on previously unpublished papers and a short bio (up to 100 words) to TikTok Cultures Research Network (tiktokcultures(a)gmail.com) *Key Dates*: - *03 April 23:* Abstracts and biographies due - *12 April 2023:* Notifications of acceptance - *08 May 2023: *TikTok and Children Symposium We look forward to receiving your submissions! Please contact TikTok Cultures Research Network (tiktokcultures(a)gmail.com) with any questions about this event. This Symposium is the seventh event organized by the TikTok Cultures Research Network and its first collaboration with the Australian Research Council of Centre for Excellence of the Digital Child. TCRN is an Asia Pacific-based Network dedicated to understanding and developing qualitative and cultural approaches to studying the impact of TikTok on society, founded by Prof Crystal Abidin and supported by a network of Founding Members in October 2020. This event is supported by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Digital Child, Curtin’s Centre for Culture and Technology (CCAT), and the Faculty of Humanities at Curtin University. TikTok and Children team, Prof. Crystal Abidin, Dr Jin Lee, and Prof. Tama Leaver -- Jin Lee, PhD Research Fellow, Internet Studies, Curtin University & ARC Centre of Digital Child Affiliated researcher, Korean Research Centre of Western Australia Visit my website <https://ljin8788.wixsite.com/website> for more

1 0