Institute of Network Cultures News In this newsletter you can read more about: Unlike Us #3 conference and the Unlike Us Reader Out of Ink research project on the future of publishing Re-search project and Society of the Query New intern: Larissa /////////////////////////////////////////////////// Unlike Us #3 Conference: March 21-23, 2013 After a successful Unlike Us conference earlier this year, INC is planning Unlike Us #3, to be held March 21-23, 2013, again in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. This next edition will build on topics, discussions, and questions raised at the last conference, and approach timely topics in social networking that are being discussed on the Unlike Us list (with 700 participants), the blog and elsewhere. Themes under discussion are (among other things) theory, history and critique of social media, The Federated Web Show, mobile use of social media, activism and the political economy of social networks. The main discussion will, most likely, be about the notions of the decentralized/federated social web in relation to alternative software/ web platforms which are currently under development. Alongside the conference, a series of smaller sessions and workshops, like a hackathon, will be set up in a community space. The planning team is now contacting potential speakers, ranging from theory, art, and computer science. If you want to receive Unlike Us updates, please subscribe to the email list: http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/unlike-us_listcultures.org. More information about Unlike Us: http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/unlikeus/ Unlike Us Reader An Unlike Us Reader will be published prior to the conference in the INC Readers series. Written by theorists, artists, philosophers and other creative thinkers, the collected articles touch on topics like Facebook, Diaspora and Lorea, software studies, philosophy and economy, next to art, activism and alternatives. Publication is planned for the beginning of 2013, and of course the reader will be presented at the conference. The Unlike Us Reader will be published in the line of the INC Readers and produced in print, pdf, and epub. /////////////////////////////////////////////////// Out of Ink, research project on the future of publishing With the Out of Ink project, INC is currently investigating the state of the art on the future of publishing industries. Recently our Italian intern Francesca Coluzzi interviewed several experts in the field: Interview with Niels Schrader, Mind Design Amsterdam: 'a new adventure is starting!' Interview with Michele Aquila and Valeria Di Rosa, U10 Milan: Tweetbooks and storytelling Interview with Dimitri Nieuwenhuizen, LUST The Hague Interview with Erik Kessels, KesselsKramer Amsterdam The main research issues are: digital technology shaping the entire publishing cycle; book form and content change and translation across print and digital media; tools, software and open source culture in the publishing practice; and digital environments and new possibilities for collaborative practices and self publishing. Besides that the blog (http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/outofink/) will undergo a makeover, in order to have a complete overview of the whole Out of Ink project with new features and aims. Also concept models will be made. /////////////////////////////////////////////////// Re-search and Society of the Query René König continues building the Re-search network on search engines by maintaining the collaborative research blog Society of the Query (networkcultures.org/wpmu/re-search) and an associated mailing list. The mailing list currently consists of around 80 researchers who post about relevant news, conferences, publications, etc. in the field of search engines. Read the new blogposts on Google's autocomplete feature and "Googling 9/11". Posts by guest authors are planned for the near future. The goal of the network is to gather researchers, artists and other people with varying perspectives on search engines and their societal and cultural implications. This will create a basis of ideas and people for a conference planned for late 2013. René König is also working on his PhD thesis which deals with the usage of search engines from the perspective of sociology of knowledge: How do search engines shape our information practices? Which strategies do users develop to navigate through search engines and how do they evaluate the presented information? User studies will help to answer these questions. Currently, the concrete design of these studies is getting conceptualized. Subscribe to the Re-search mailinglist here: http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/re-search_listcultures.org /////////////////////////////////////////////////// New intern at INC Larissa Hildebrandt is an intern for the Unlike Us #3 conference in Amsterdam. She is currently a student in the New Media and Digital Culture MA program at the University of Amsterdam. She recently completed her BA in Communication at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. Email: larissa[at]networkcultures[dot]org /////////////////////////////////////////////////// Also check: Institute of Network Cultures Blog http://networkcultures.org/ Overview INC Publications http://networkcultures.org/publications/overview/ Institute of Network Cultures Media Archive http://networkcultures.org/archive/ Geert Lovink’s Net critique blog http://networkcultures.org/geert/ Institute of Network Cultures Amsterdam New Media Research Centre http://www.networkcultures.org