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Call for Proposals: Digital Threats to Democracy (deadline February 3)
by Cristian Vaccari 28 Jan '19

28 Jan '19

The Media & Democracy program <https://www.ssrc.org/programs/view/media-democracy/> at the Social Science Research Council <https://www.ssrc.org/> is pleased to announce a call for proposals for the “*Digital Threats to Democracy: Comparative Lessons and Possible Remedies*” workshop. This workshop will bring together social science and humanities scholars to present comparative research on how countries adapt and respond to digital threats to democracy. The workshop, organized in collaboration with Cristian Vaccari <https://cristianvaccari.com/> (Loughborough University), will be held at the Social Science Research Council in New York City on *June 13-14, 2019*. Accepted participants’ travel and accommodation costs will be covered by the organizers. We welcome applications from both junior and senior scholars across all disciplines. However, the focused nature of the workshop demands that we limit participation to 10–12 authors. Thus, our selection will be determined not only by the quality of submissions, but also by their thematic fit and complementarity. A selection of the papers presented at the workshop will be invited to submit full manuscripts of up to 8,000 words for publication in a special issue of the *International Journal of Press/Politics <http://journals.sagepub.com/home/hijb>*, subject to peer-review. To apply, please submit a current C.V. and an abstract of up to 500 words to mdapplications(a)ssrc.org by *February 3, 2019.* For more information, please see the SSRC website <https://www.ssrc.org/programs/component/media-democracy/call-for-proposals-…> : https://www.ssrc.org/programs/component/media-democracy/call-for-proposals-… Please feel free to share this announcement with anyone who may be interested. Cristian Vaccari Reader in Political Communication, Loughborough University <http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/socialsciences/staff/cristian-vaccari/> Associate Professor in Political Science, University of Bologna <http://www.unibo.it/SitoWebDocente/default.htm?UPN=cristian.vaccari%40unibo…> (on leave) Personal website: https://cristianvaccari.com/ Editor-in-Chief: International Journal of Press/Politics <http://hij.sagepub.com/> Research project: Social media and politics in comparative perspective <http://www.webpoleu.net/> Latest book: Digital Politics in Western Democracies: A Comparative Study <http://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/ecom/MasterServlet/GetItemDetailsHandler?iN=…> Google Scholar profile <http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=3_TethEAAAAJ&hl=en> Twitter: @25lettori <https://twitter.com/25lettori>

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CFP 4S New Orleans Open Panel // Race and/as technology today
by Thao Phan 27 Jan '19

27 Jan '19

*4S 2019 Open Panel Call for Papers* September 4 -7, 2019 New Orleans *Race and/as technology today* Thao Phan, University of Melbourne Scott Wark, University of Warwick In her seminal essay, “Race and/as Technology”, Wendy H. K. Chun proposed that race could be understood as a technology—that is, as neither biological nor cultural, human nor machine, mediated nor environmental, visible nor invisible, but as a category that organises all of these dualisms and many more. Race, she argued, can be thought of as a “technique that one uses, even as one is used by it” (38). Using this essay and its concerns as a touchstone, this panel will ask how we might understand race and/as technology in the present. What is the relationship between visibility/invisibility and race and how is it mediated? How are emergent technologies of control, such as facial recognition, racialised? How might we think categories—like race, person, or population—after Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, and big data? How might these technologies be understood historically? What is the relationship to related categories, such as gender, class or ability, in the technologisation of race? How might analyses of culture help us to understand race and/as technology? If we adopt Chun’s idea that this approach “displaces ontological questions of race” (56), what different things might race be made to do, in the present? We want to bring together scholars working in any discipline touched by these questions to think through what it might mean to consider race and/as technology today. Please feel free to pass on to your colleagues. *Deadline:* Feb 1, 2019 *Submissions:* https://www.4s2019.org/accepted-open-panels/ <https://www.4s2019.org/accepted-open-panels/> *Conference details: *https://www.4s2019.org/

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Facebook Data Collection: app review
by Alexandre Leroux 27 Jan '19

27 Jan '19

Dear colleges, I'm looking for feedback from researchers working on Facebook who tried/passed App Review process. How did it went? Was it successful? Did you fill it stating your research purpose or a more generic aim? My feeling is that FB might be hostile to academic research on its ground but maybe some of you experienced the opposite? Our current project requires downloading a large amount of post and comment from Pages and our API access is locked down since last December and we have yet to submit the review. Thanks in advance, Alex -- Leroux Alexandre Ph.D candidate Group for research on Ethnic Relations, Migrations and Equality Université Libre de Bruxelles

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Call for paper
by Hakikur Rahman 27 Jan '19

27 Jan '19

Dear Colleagues, Please refer to publish journal in the International Journal of Information Communication Technology and Human Development (IJICTHD). Details are at: www.igi-global.com/ijicthd Best Regards, Hakikur Rahman <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_cam…> Virus-free. www.avg.com <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_cam…> <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>

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Call for participation: ACM Intelligent User Interfaces - IUI 2019
by Axel Soto 25 Jan '19

25 Jan '19

ACM IUI 2019 (https://iui.acm.org/2019/index.html) is the 24th annual meeting of the intelligent interfaces community and serves as a premier international forum for reporting outstanding research and development on intelligent user interfaces. ACM IUI is where the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) community meets the Artificial Intelligence (AI) community. Registration is now open, please register and book your hotel room as soon as possible (last year, registration was sold out one month in advance!). This year we decided to offer two registration options. Main conference+workshop: Main conference+workshop registration includes the main conference from March 16 to March 20, 2019, with keynotes, paper presentations, posters, demos, workshops, a reception, and a banquet. Workshop only: Workshops will be on March 20, 2019. Registration dates: - Early registration (until Feb 8th) - Late registration (until March 15) - Onsite (after March 15) Please visit https://iui.acm.org/2019/registration.html for more details. Also information on accommodation can be found at: https://iui.acm.org/2019/accomodation.html

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Call for Papers: SBP-BRiMS 2019 -- Social Computing, Behavior/Cultural Modeling, Prediction and Simulation
by Hemant Purohit 25 Jan '19

25 Jan '19

[Apologies for multiple copies] SBP-BRiMS 2019 2019 International Conference on Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling, & Prediction and Behavior Representation in Modeling and Simulation July 9-12, 2019, Lehman Auditorium, George Washington University, Washington DC, US http://sbp-brims.org/ #sbpbrims CALL FOR PAPERS: SBP-BRiMS is an interdisciplinary computational social science conference focused on both modeling complex socio-technical systems and using computational techniques to reason about and study complex socio-technical systems. The participants in this conference take part in forming the conversation on how computation is shaping the modern world and helping us to better understand and reason about human behavior. Both papers addressing basic research and those addressing applied research are accepted. All methodological approaches are encouraged; however, the vast majority of papers use computer simulation, network analysis or machine learning as the method of choice in addressing human social and behavioral activities. At the conference, these paper presentations are complemented by data science challenge problems, demonstrations of new technologies, and a government funding panel. Submissions are solicited on research issues, methodologies, theories, and applications. Topics of interests include but are not limited to the following: Advances in Sociocultural & Behavioral Process Modeling * Group formation, interaction, and/or evolution * Collective action and governance * Information, belief, technology of disease diffusion * Public opinion representation, identification and modeling * Information diffusion * Psycho-cultural situation awareness * Intelligent agents and avatars/adversarial modeling * Models of reasoning and decision making * Performance prediction, assessment, & skill monitoring/tracking * Intelligent tutoring systems * Cognitive robotics and human-robot interaction * Human behavior issues in model federations * Validation and analysis techniques for social behavioral models Information, Systems, & Network Science * Data mining on social media platforms * Diffusion and other dynamic processes over networks * Inference of network topologies and changes over time or space * Analysis of link formations and link types * Detection of communities and other types of structures in networks * Analysis of high-dimensional networks * Analytics for social and human dynamics Military & Intelligence Applications * Group formation and evolution in the political context * Networks and political influence * Group representation and profiling * Reasoning about terrorist group behaviors and policies towards them * Cyber and attribution * Social Cyber-Security applications * Social simulation for military training * Cyber diplomacy * Computational methods to transform traditional GEOINT and open source data into spatio-temporal information describing events and activities Applications for Health and Well-being * Data science applied to health behavior * Modeling of public health and health care policy and decision making * Modeling of behavioral aspects of infectious disease spread * Modeling of behavioral aspects of prevention and treatment for chronic diseases (e.g., cancer, obesity, asthma) * Intervention design and modeling for behavioral health Example Other Applications of Interest to the Community * Economic applications of behavioral and social prediction * Model federation, integration, verification, or validation * Evolutionary computing and optimization * Education, training, professional development and workforce training in modeling and simulation CHALLENGE PROBLEMS: There will be two data science challenges, one on opioids and one on disinformation. Additional details are posted on the conference website, SBP-BRiMS.org<http://secure-web.cisco.com/1Id2LRNYN0t4obHocy-UFR3EW8RATL38h1m0YOqj1hHlFtG…>/challenge. The deadline for submissions this year will be 17-May-2019. IMPORTANT DATES: Regular Paper Submission: 22-February-2019 Author Notification: 22-March-2019 Final Version Submission for Regular Papers: 12-April-2019 Challenge Problem Paper Submission: 17-May-2019 All accepted papers require confirmation of conference registration when uploading final versions. Each accepted paper requires a separate registration. All regular papers will be a maximum of 10 pages including all figures, tables and references. See http://sbp-brims.org/cfp for more information on formatting AWARDS: All papers are qualified for the Best Paper Award. Papers with student first authors will be considered for the Best Student Paper Award. Those receiving these awards will be invited to publish an extended version in a special issue of the journal Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory. Submission of a paper to the conference means that the authors consent to send an extended version to the special issue, should they receive one of the awards. Papers receiving the best paper awards, the best student paper award, winner of the opioid challenge, and winner of the disinformation challenge will then send an extended version of their paper for publication in the best of SBP-BRiMS 2019 special issue.

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WEBCAST TODAY: Trinidad and Tobago Internet Governance Forum #TTIGF2019
by Joly MacFie 25 Jan '19

25 Jan '19

Just starting *https://livestream.com/internetsociety/ttigf2019 <https://livestream.com/internetsociety/ttigf2019>* <https://livestream.com/internetsociety/teamhuman> [image: livestream] <https://livestream.com/internetsociety/ttigf2019>Today *Thursday January 25th, 2019* the third *Trinidad and Tobago Internet Governance Forum <http://igf.tt/>* (TTIGF) will be held in Port of Spain, Trinidad. TTIGF 2019 has the theme “*The Internet of Trust*”. A live webcast is available on both* YouTube <https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzKEG9fcJHGm3P2nZpC0viw/live>* and the *Internet Society Livestream Channel <https://livestream.com/internetsociety/ttigf>*. *What: Trinidad and Tobago Internet Governance Forum <http://igf.tt/>* *Where: Port of Spain, Trinidad* *When: Thursday January 25th, 2019 09:00-17:00 AST | 08:00-16:00 EST | 13:00-21:00 UTC* *Agenda: https://ttigf2019.igf.tt/TheInternetofTrust#/agenda?lang=en <https://ttigf2019.igf.tt/TheInternetofTrust#/agenda?lang=en>* *YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzKEG9fcJHGm3P2nZpC0viw/live <https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzKEG9fcJHGm3P2nZpC0viw/live>* *Livestream: https://livestream.com/internetsociety/ttigf2019 <https://livestream.com/internetsociety/ttigf2019>* *Twitter: #TTIGF https://bit.ly/ttigf2019 <https://bit.ly/ttigf2019>* *Permalink* https://isoc.live/10866/ -- --------------------------------------------------------------- Joly MacFie 218 565 9365 Skype:punkcast -------------------------------------------------------------- -

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CCPR, the University of Glasgow, is seeking to recruit a Senior Lecturer in International Media
by Inge Sorensen 25 Jan '19

25 Jan '19

The Centre for Cultural Policy Research (CCPR) at the University of Glasgow offers a vibrant and supportive research-led work environment in one of the UK’s oldest and most inspiring universities. We are currently seeking to recruit a Senior Lecturer in International Media in order to strengthen the Centre’s reputation for research on media and communications and to support our PG teaching. Further details of this post, for which the closing date is Monday 18 February 2019, can be found (Ref: 024028) at: https://www.gla.ac.uk/it/iframe/jobs/ Interviews will be held on the 10th April 2019. Thanks very much for forwarding to any potentially interested candidates.

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CfP Conference Political epistemologies of Big Data (Berlin)
by Lena Ulbricht 25 Jan '19

25 Jan '19

Call for Papers for the Conference „Scraping the Demos“: Political epistemologies of Big Data Organizers: Research Group Quantification and Social Regulation (Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society) and DVPW Thematic Group “Internet and Politics. Electronic Governance” Date: 8-9 July 2019 (lunch-to-lunch) Conference location: WZB Berlin Social Science Center, Reichpietschufer 50, D-10785 Berlin, Germany Responsible: Dr. Lena Ulbricht lena.ulbricht(a)wzb.eu The conference explores political epistemologies of big data. Political epistemologies are practices by which societies construct politically relevant knowledge and the criteria by which they evaluate it. These practices and criteria may originate in scientific, political, cultural, religious, and economic contexts. They evolve over time, vary between sectors, are inherently political and therefore subject to conflict. Big data is the practice of deriving socially relevant knowledge from massive and diverse digital trace data. The rise of digital technologies in all social spheres has enabled new epistemic practices which have important political implications: Political elites see digital technologies as sources of new and better tools for learning about the citizenry, for increasing political responsiveness and for improving the effectiveness of policies. Practices such as “big data analysis”, “web scraping”, “opinion mining”, “sentiment analysis”, “predictive analytics”, and “nowcasting” seem to be common currency in the public and academic debate about the present and future of evidence-based policy making and representative democracy. Data mining and web scraping, techniques to access information “hidden” behind the user interface of a website or device, seem to establish themselves as epistemic practices with political implications. They generate knowledge about populations and the citizenry which diverge in many ways from previous ways of “seeing” and constructing the demos. Data that is based on digital collection tools is often much more personal, it can relate different kinds of information and in many cases offer an improved predictive capability. Therefore, survey methods and traditional administrative data may lose influence on political epistemologies. To rely on big data means to rely on data sources that accumulate information without awareness of the concerned individuals. This epistemic shift can be observed in policy advice, government and administration, and political campaigning. Emerging research strands such as “computational social sciences,” “social physics,” “policy analytics”, “policy informatics”, and “policy simulations” strive for better evidence, more transparency and responsiveness in policy making and governments such as in the UK, or, as in Australia, have set up strategies of “open policy making”, “agile policy making” and “public service big data”. Political parties and advocacy groups use digital data to address citizens and muster support in a targeted manner; public authorities try to tailor public policy to public sentiment measured-online, forecast and prevent events (as in predictive policing, preemptive security and predictive healthcare), and continuously adapt policies based on real-time monitoring. An entire industry of policy consultants and technology companies thrives on the promise related to the political power of digital data and analytics. And finally, academic research engages in digitally enhanced computational social sciences, digital methods and social physics on the basis of digital trace data, machine learning and computer simulations. The political implications of these epistemic practices have yet to be examined in detail. Indeed, the rise of digital technologies in all social spheres may alter the relations between citizens and political elites in various ways: it could improve, impoverish (or simply change) political participation, policy transparency, accountability of political elites and, and decision-making. The aim of the conference is to bring together scholars from various related disciplines working on the topic, including, but not limited to: political communication, elections and party politics, science and technology studies, political theory, history, sociology and philosophy of science, critical data studies and computational social sciences. These fields of research have addressed various aspects related to political epistemologies in the digital age – but there have been only few opportunities to relate them, to compare similar practices in different fields (for example in public policy and in political campaigning) and to examine the broader picture in order to generate theories about the political epistemologies of big data, algorithms and artificial intelligence. Contributions can be both, conceptual or empirical. The conference is interested in research concerning the following questions and similar topics: • What are the political epistemologies underlying the use of big data and related phenomena such as algorithms, machine learning and artificial intelligence in political contexts? • Which scientific, political, social and economic practices make use of digital data and methods? How do these practices construct knowledge which is deemed as politically relevant? By which (rhetoric/procedural/technical) means do these practices and the actors involved substantiate their claims to political relevance? • What insights can we gain from the computational social sciences in relation to traditional social science methods when it comes to political behavior, public opinion, policy making etc.? • How are digitally mediated political epistemologies related to other political epistemologies? How are they embedded in institutional practices and values? • Which interpretive conflicts do we witness with regard to the knowledge produced and legitimized by digital technologies; which are its major challengers? In which ways do epistemic practices based on big data, compared to other epistemic practices, influence the chances for challenging political knowledge claims? • How can we place political epistemologies in a historical or cultural perspective? • What are the implications of digitally mediated political epistemologies for evidence-based policy making and for representative democracy? Which conceptions of participation, representation and good governance are embedded in the related practices? How do big data-related epistemic practices reconfigure democratic concepts? Do we witness a new form of technocracy? • How should democratic societies shape and regulate big-data-based epistemic practices? Which contributions can we expect from algorithmic accountability, data protection and research ethics? The conference will provide academic reflections to current public debates about the state of democracy in the digital age, considering that in 2019 various elections take place in German speaking countries, at the level of the European Parliament and within the German federal states of Bremen, Hamburg, Saxony, Brandenburg and Thuringia, as well as in Austria and Switzerland (regional and federal level). The keynote will be held by professor Daniel Kreiss, the author of a seminal book about the use of data-related practices in political campaigning (“Prototype Politics” 2016). The conference will also include artistic interventions and a lab. The conference will offer childcare, will be video-recorded, and held in English. If the funding application is successful, the travel costs of paper presenters will be covered. The organizers plan on following up the conference with a publication project. Abstracts should make explicit on which theories, methods and, if applicable, empirical material the paper is based. Please send your abstract of 300-500 words until February 24 to the following address: demosscraping-weizenbaum(a)wzb.eu Preliminary program structure 8 July 2019 14.00 Welcome address 14.15 Keynote by professor Daniel Kreiss + discussion 15.30 Coffee 16.00 Paper presentations 17.30 Lab and art exhibition 18.30 Reception 9 July 2019 9.00 Paper presentations 10.30 Coffee 11.00 Paper presentations 12.30 Paper presentations or panel discussion 14.00 Ending -- Dr. Lena Ulbricht Research Group Leader Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society WZB Berlin Social Science Center Forschungsgruppenleiterin Weizenbaum Institut für die Vernetzte Gesellschaft Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB) Hardenbergstr. 32 D-10623 Berlin Germany Tel.: +49-(0)30-700 141 077 Email: lena.ulbricht(a)wzb.eu

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Social Science One application acceptances
by Anja Bechmann 25 Jan '19

25 Jan '19

Dear all, As some of you would know we initiated a critique of the lack of access to Facebook data last year and I just want to follow up on that: Has anyone within the community of AoiR heard from their application to Social Science One for Facebook URL dataset? I am especially interested in knowing whether any European researchers have been granted access - please email me directly at anjabechmann(a)cc.au.dk<mailto:anjabechmann@cc.au.dk> if you know of any research teams worldwide that have been granted access. The website states that they will announce winners when ready: https://socialscience.one/. Yours sincerely, Anja Bechmann Director, Assoc. Professor Mobile: (+45) 51335138 Email: anjabechmann<mailto:anjabechmann@cc.au.dk>@cc.au.dk<mailto:anjabechmann@cc.au.dk> Web: www.datalab.au.dk<http://www.datalab.au.dk> DATALAB, Center for Digital Social Research Aarhus University Helsingforsgade 14, ICT-City 8200 Aarhus N Denmark

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