In response to Rich Ling's query, there are numerous items to mention but one would want to begin with the classic and still important book by Daniel Lerner from the 1950s, THE PASSING OF TRADITIONAL SOCIETY (re the Middle East) for a set of dimensions (re urbanization, participation in politics, etc.) that will be of importance with the mobile phone in Myanmar as elsewhere as a starting point. The technology involved is different, but here, as elsewhere, what was learned before the Internet and mobile telephony came along remains of deep value for questions such as this. Sandra Braman ----- Original Message ----- From: air-l-request@listserv.aoir.org To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Sent: Monday, July 21, 2014 5:01:19 PM Subject: Air-L Digest, Vol 120, Issue 18 Send Air-L mailing list submissions to air-l@listserv.aoir.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to air-l-request@listserv.aoir.org You can reach the person managing the list at air-l-owner@listserv.aoir.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Air-L digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Re: Suggestions for literature on adoption of technology as background for our study of mobiles in Myanmar (OPEN) (john-willy.bakke@telenor.com) 2. European meta data researchers wanted (Mathias Klang) 3. The Fibreculture Journal?Call for Papers?Entanglements: Activism and Technology (Jean Burgess) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 12:24:23 +0000 From: <john-willy.bakke@telenor.com> To: <riseling@gmail.com>, <air-l@listserv.aoir.org> Subject: Re: [Air-L] Suggestions for literature on adoption of technology as background for our study of mobiles in Myanmar (OPEN) Message-ID: <57C423DD43E5384FB10AE35D448ECF282A506DF8@TNS-FBU-24-205.corp.telenor.no> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Hi Rich & the rest of the community Two titles come to my mind - both directly related to the introduction of phones: Assa Doron and Robin Jeffrey: The Great Indian Phone Book: How the Cheap Cell Phone Changes Business, Politics, and Daily Life (2013) Heather Hudson: When Telephones Reach the Village: The Role of Telecommunication in Rural Development (1984) BR, John Willy Bakke -----Original Message----- From: Air-L [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Rich Ling Sent: 2. juli 2014 09:10 To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: [Air-L] Suggestions for literature on adoption of technology as background for our study of mobiles in Myanmar Dear all,? Along with colleagues from Nanyang Technical University, I am starting an ethnographic study of the adoption and diffusion of mobile phones in Myanmar. The study is also being supported by Telenor. Myanmar is one of the last countries in the world without a well developed mobile communication network (the others are North Korea,? Cuba and Eritrea).? We are starting to put together the literature review and we are interested in gathering suggestions. We are using Jonathan Donner's lives and livelihoods idea to frame the work. Beyond that I would like to get the wisdom of the crowd regarding the articles and books that examine the question of introducing new technology to a society and tracing the social consequences of the technology.? I think,? for example, of Cottrell's Death by Dieselization or perhaps Sharp's Steel Axes for Stone-age Australians. I know that neither of these two articles are about ICTs and that both are as old as dust, ?but they focus on socio-technical transitions and their social consequences. ?What are the other articles and books in this genre that might help us focus on the transition from face to face interaction to mediated communication?? Thanks in advance.? Rich Ling _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/ ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 14:42:29 -0400 From: Mathias Klang <klang@ituniv.se> To: <air-l@listserv.aoir.org> Subject: [Air-L] European meta data researchers wanted Message-ID: <53CD5F15.3070309@ituniv.se> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"; format=flowed Hi, Part of my work is for Commons Machinery (commonsmachinery.se) and we are applying for an EU grant. As part of this process we would like to include European researchers interested in culture and metadata. This should be a good opportunity for PhD students. Please contact me if you are interested. See the short proposal sketched out below regards Mathias *The **Snappy Title **Project* Commons Machinery and partners are planning to apply for funding for a project, the goal of which is to bridge the gap between audiences and artists by making cultural material more useable online. Succinctly, we're developing tools that make it possible to link back to the original context of images, even when those images are distributed and shared widely online. With this e-mail, we're looking for partners in academia, among cultural institutions, artists, and from the community itself -- as thought partners, active participants in the project, participants in our reference group or in other forms. *The Funding* We're applying for a small scale Cooperation Project under Creative Europe, with an expected deadline for submission the 1st of October 2014. The EU funds up to EUR 200,000 for small scale projects, and require a 40% co-financing by applicants. We're looking for a project that lasts 1?-2 years, with a start date in May 2015 - but we'll draft the final details in collaboration. Organizations from any part of the world may join, but there are restrictions on the funding that could be made available for organizations from outside of the EU (and some other countries, full list on http://ec.europa.eu/culture/opportunities/documents/eligible-countries_en.pd...). *The****Background* Our online environment is awash with images, however many of these images have been moved from their original context and no longer retain the information that gives them meaning. When organizations and individuals put images online they are often viewed in within a single web domain, collection or authorship. However, due to the ease in copying, images are often removed from their original contexts and, through this, they lose some of their meaning and value; it becomes impossible to trace them back to their origin. From a practical point of view, it's also an issue for users who want to correctly reuse an image in accordance with copyright legislation; they must save copyright and other information to adequately attribute the creator, and maintain this information through all stages of their work. This system is unwieldy, complex, and unreliable. Using new technology with tool integration, information about the images could seamlessly follow the image without effort from the users. This system would not be limited to copyright basics such as authorship but can include a range of additional information about the image, for example, where the original is, which collection it belongs to, which organization retains rights to the image (if any!), and where users can learn more about the image. Such information could be automatically visualized and made available to users, even when they encounter images outside of their original context, for instance when an image has been shared online, posted in a forum, or made available on another web site. This is of interest to organizations connected with the image (such as galleries, libraries, archives, and museums). Such organizations, as well as the artists themselves and the audience, would all benefit from having a stronger association between each and every digital image and its' context. *The **Solution **& Our Hypothesis* Commons Machinery is working to create an infrastructure and the tools needed to make this association persistent. Our Elogio web service will enable an audience to save and use images, while keeping all relevant contextual information intact. It will also allow holders of information about images to make such information available through this common infrastructure in a way that when the audience encounter their images online, the contextual information is displayed, and when a user saves or uses an image, the original context is carried over into the resulting work. Our hypothesis is that if this information is made available to the audience, it would increase the bond between audiences and artists, and between audiences and cultural institutions. By visualizing the context in which images used online originally has appeared, we believe that the viewers will feel a stronger connection with the artists and the institutions holding the originals, leading to a potential in retaining and enlarging their audience, as well as improving the experience of viewing images online and deepening the relationships. *The Project & The **Test* The technology is still in its early stages, and our hypothesis is just this -- a hypothesis. Through this project, we would hope to learn more about how this kind of technology can be used for audience engagement, and if it does indeed lead to deeper and more relevant relationships. We envision a project where each main partner has specific and complementary skill sets and expertise. The content providers -- cultural institutions -- know their content and are interested in making it more usable to the public while ensuring that links back to their institution remain intact. Our systems developers will collaborate with these participating institutions in tailoring the system to their needs, providing education and training, and gathering data on its use. Research partners will be engaged in the gathering and analysis of the empirical data through qualitative interviews with the participants, surveys among users, and analysis of the data generated from the use of the system. Researchers will be actively involved by conducting in depth interviews with stakeholders, gathering empirical data about each of their needs. The data from the use of the system together with interviews will provide material for researchers working to evaluate the system in the wider context of sharing cultural material online. Community partners will be engaged throughout the project in raising awareness and interest in the project and the work by holding workshops, training sessions and facilitating other meetings involving the projects' stakeholder groups. The project will provide education and training materials about metadata and its usage to help content providers and individuals alike. *What we're looking for* If you, as an individual, as representing an organisation or institution, or your organization or institution as a whole, has an interest in the project, we invite you to email us at hello@commonsmachinery.se <mailto:hello@commonsmachinery.se> to introduce yourself. As mentioned in the beginning, we're looking for participants in our reference group of the project that will continuously influence the project by giving their thoughts on issues we'll be facing along the way. We're also looking for GLAM institutions and other information holders who may want to participate in the project by delivering information to it, and, with our help, engaging with their own audiences to try the tools (primarily browser extensions). We can only have a very limited number of such core partners though, but we'll aim to make the instructions available broadly so that others can also participate. In terms of research partners, we're looking for people and universities with a background and interest in researching these kinds of audience engagements through technology, or who have other complementary research agendas which they feel are interesting to explore in collaboration. -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mathias Klang, Associate Professor, University of G?teborg Website: http://klangable.com US Cell: 215 882 0989 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 21:16:41 +0000 From: Jean Burgess <je.burgess@qut.edu.au> To: AoIR <air-l@aoir.org> Subject: [Air-L] The Fibreculture Journal?Call for Papers?Entanglements: Activism and Technology Message-ID: <58AB30B3-0453-41F0-A114-3DE41E8BFFC4@qut.edu.au> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252" Dear colleagues, a reminder about our upcoming special issue of FCJ. Abstracts due on or before 20 August. Begin forwarded message: CFP?Issue 24 Fibreculture Journal: Entanglements: activism and technology http://fibreculturejournal.org/cfp-entanglements/ Please note that for this issue, initial submissions should be abstracts only. Issue Editors: Pip Shea, Tanya Notley and Jean Burgess Abstract deadline: August 20 2014 (no late abstracts will be accepted) Article deadline: November 3 2014 Publication aimed for: February 2015 all contributors and editors must read the guidelines at: http://fibreculturejournal.org/policy-and-style/ before working with the Fibreculture Journal Email correspondence for this issue: p.shea@qub.ac.uk<mailto:p.shea@qub.ac.uk> This themed issue explores the entanglements that arise due to frictions between the philosophies embedded within technologies and the philosophies embedded within activism. Straightforward solutions are rarely on offer as the bringing together of different philosophies requires the negotiation of acceptance, compromise, or submission (Tsing 2004). This friction can be disruptive, productive, or both, and it may contribute discord or harmony. In this special issue, we seek submissions that respond to the idea that frictions between technologies and activists may ultimately enhance the ability of activists to take more control of their projects, create new ethical spaces and subvert technologies, just as it may also result in tension, conflict and hostility. By dwelling in between and within these frictions and entanglements ? through strategic and tactical media discourses as well as the very concept of an activist politics within technology ? this special issue will elucidate the context-specific nature, constraints and possibilities of the digital environments that are co-habited by activists from proximate fields including social movements, human rights, ecological and green movements, international development, community arts and cultural development. Past issues of the Fibreculture Journal have examined activist philosophies from angles such as social justice and networked organisational forms, communication rights and net neutrality debates, and the push back against precarious new media labour. Our issue extends this work by revealing the conflicting debates that surround activist philosophies of technology. Submissions are sought that engage specifically with the ethics, rationales and methods adopted by activists to justify selecting, building, using, promoting or rejecting specific technologies. We also encourage work that considers the ways in which these negotiations speak to broader mythologies and tensions embedded within digital culture ? between openness and control; political consistency and popular appeal; appropriateness, usability and availability. We invite responses to these provocations from activists, practitioners and academics. Critiques, case studies, and multimedia proposals will be considered for inclusion. Submissions should explore both constraints and possibilities caused by activism and its digital technology entanglements through the following themes: Alternative technology versus appropriate technology Pragmatism and technology choice The philosophies and practices of hacking technologies Activist cultures and the proprietary web Digital privacy and security breaches and errors Uncovering and exposing technology vulnerabilities Technology and e-waste The philosophies of long/short term impact Authenticity and evidence Initial submissions should comprise 300 word abstracts and 60 word biographies, emailed to p.shea@qub.ac.uk<mailto:p.shea@qub.ac.uk> and t.notley@uws.edu.au<mailto:t.notley@uws.edu.au> References: Tsing, A. 2005 Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection. Princeton: Princeton University Press. The Fibreculture Journal (http://fibreculturejournal.org/) is a peer reviewed international journal, associated with Open Humanities Press (http://openhumanitiespress.org/), that explores critical and speculative interventions in the debate and discussions concerning information and communication technologies and their policy frameworks, network cultures and their informational logic, new media forms and their deployment, and the possibilities of socio-technical invention and sustainability. ------------------------------ Subject: Digest Footer _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/ ------------------------------ End of Air-L Digest, Vol 120, Issue 18 **************************************