Jess

[new media digest]

2009-07-20T15:17:00.004+01:00

Want to do some thinking? Follow these links:

Neuroplasticity: we can rewire the brain with the power of thinking and technology. Read Norman Doidge's The Brain that Changes Itself. A documentary will be aired on the 30th of July on CBC: http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/natureofthings/2008/brainchangesitself/
Some suitable trending twitter topics today (nice alliteration eh?):

Apollo 11
Moon
Neil Armstrong

Exercise, community participation and higher literacy skills mean less chance of cognitive decline with age. Read about the study here.
Time people are spending on Facebook is up 700%
Businesses going *online* and having a FB profile or tweeting isn't necessarily (the right kind of) participating...but putting thought into why the business is online and actually connecting with the audience/client is key. Read more about social business design.

[cfp: democracy and communication]

2009-07-17T19:50:00.003+01:00

Call for Papers: Canadian Journal of Communication

Special Issue: Democratizing Communication Policy in the Americas: Why It Matters

Deadline for full papers December 15, 2009; publication date Fall 2010.

Communication policy is an often important but overlooked topic a blind spot - in much social policy research and public discourse. Media and telecommunications systems have become so fundamental, ubiquitous and pervasive that we often take them for granted as enablers, and nothing more, of many other freedoms, rights, and capabilities. Many do not realize the extent to which policies concerning communication resources are quite vulnerable to fluctuating corporate and government interests.

This "knowledge gap" is what this special issue of the CJC seeks to address:

how do communication policies affect economic, social justice and human rights, and what are civil society organizations in the Americas doing about this? For example, how do the supposed decline of traditional news media such as newspapers, struggles over copyright, the emergence of new ways of communicating online, questions about who owns or controls the internet, or access to the information we need, relate to social policy concerns such as sustainable development, immigration, environmental degradation, labor rights, gender equity, and other concerns across the Americas? What do any of these struggles have in common related to media, communication, and internet policies?

With these ideas in mind, we seek two types of submissions from concerned experts working either in academic or non-academic settings in the Americas:

Policy Contexts (i.e., Enabling/Disabling Legal and Regulatory Environments): Short syntheses of the current state of play re communication policy that includes attention to the full spectrum of convergent policy issues such as broadcasting, telecommunications, information (i.e., intellectual property rights and access to information laws), and internet governance policies in each of the following regions: North America (Canada and the U.S.); Mexico and Central America; the Caribbean; Spanish-speaking Latin America; and Brazil.

Civil Society Responses: Research illuminating either failed (and why) or successful (and how) civil society engagement related any of the previously listed communication and social policy areas in terms of making policy making actors, processes or institutions more transparent, representative, and accountable to public vs. corporate interests. Simply put, we seek to know why and how communication policies matter to a variety of social policy concerns and how civil society actors are working to effect communication policy change in a variety of contexts.

For this special issue, and given our interest in linking media and communications with social policy more generally, we are also interested primarily in research that is informed by critical theory, social justice and/or human rights frameworks and that features praxis-oriented research capturing the various challenges and/or opportunities for public-interest oriented interventions in policy making processes across the Americas.

Full-length papers (7,000-9,000 words) in English or French should be submitted electronically following the guidelines laid out on the CJC submissions website (http://www.cjc-online.ca/submissions.php). Make sure to write in all caps "COMM POLICY" in the Comments to the Editor field, and also to include it on the cover page of your article as well. Please do
not include your name on the cover page.

Comments and queries can be sent to one or both of the special issue editors:

Dr. Leslie Regan Shade, Concordia University, leslieshade@gmail.com
Dr. Becky Lentz, McGill University, becky.lentz@mcgill.ca

[web as culture]

2009-07-15T17:11:00.004+01:00

Even if you are unable to make it to (Giessen, Germany) the fascinating-sounding conference on the web as culture (ethnographic, linguistic and didactic perspectives), you can watch it streaming live as of tomorrow at 13:00 Germany time (so subtract 8 hours to get Alberta time).

Read more about the conference here and watch other keynotes streamed live over here.

Given my current interest, I'm going to be watching this keynote with interest: Prof. Dr. Angelika Storrer "Chatspeak: How web users adapt written language to synchronous communication"

"Chatspeak: How web users adapt written language to synchronous communication

Prof. Dr. Angelika Storrer, Technische Universität Dortmund

Thursday, July 16, 2009, 4:30-5:30 p.m.

Abstract: In synchronous forms of web communication – chat groups, instant messaging etc. – users directly interact with each other by text messages. Since most of these messages are keyed in and exchanged in a very short time, they are typically formulated in a speech-like style and deviate from the standards of grammar and orthography established for written language. In the mass media these deviations are often interpreted as a symptom of the decay of literacy. Most linguists, in contrast, describe and analyze the stylistic peculiarities of online messages as a new register which adapts written language to the demands of interactive online communication. The paper will support the linguists’ view using data from a corpus of German chat logfiles recorded in different chat environments (IRC, moderated and non-moderated webchats) and in various communication settings (E-Learning, business, politics, flirt/socializing). Findings from quantitative and qualitative studies in this corpus will show (1) which factors influence form and structure of the utterances, (2) how register-specific word and sign formation patterns compensate for the lack of direct visual and auditive contact between the chat participants and (3) how web users make use of these patterns for self-presentation and community building. In conclusion we will discuss how the stylistic peculiarities of this new written register should be considered in the context of language teaching and language learning.

Angelika Storrer is Professor for German Linguistics at Technische Universiät Dortmund. Her current research focuses on linguistic aspects of computer-mediated communication and hypertext; lexical information systems and computational lexicography; corpus linguistics."

[Swiss Biennial on Science, Technics + Aesthetics]

2009-07-14T16:32:00.002+01:00

The Large, the Small and the Human Mind
The 8th Swiss Biennial on Science, Technics + Aesthetics

Saturday, January 16, 2010, 12 – 7 p.m.
Sunday, January 17, 2010, 12 – 7 p.m.

Swiss Museum of Transport, Lucerne Early Register: http://www.neugalu.ch/e_bienn_2010.html#9

Roger Penrose’s hotly disputed book The Large, the Small and the Human Mind (1997) contributed to a new scientific world-view of physics and a more complete understanding of conscious minds at the boundary between the physics of the small and the physics of the large. In a similar vein, the Swiss Biennial 2010, The Large, the Small and the Human Mind, will trigger debate about the unequal status that we have attributed to the physical world “out there” and our many beliefs and mental conceptions “in us” about this world, and it explores the fingers of science, rationality, ontology, epistemology, reflexivity, ethics, ecology, and politics that point to the realities of our beliefs.

The New Gallery Lucerne organises this two-day conference which brings together a group of internationally renowned scientists, sociologists, philosophers, ecologists, writers, artists, and policy-makers. From the debate about the pursuit of a “Theory of Everything” (TOE) in physics, extreme objectivity, our relationship to the “Universe,” to “human,” “nature,” “human culture,” and the “human mind,” The Large, the Small and the Human Mind will touch on the world’s first climate war, the destructive side of globalization, and the contradictions of our striving for unlimited economic growth and consumption. “When the sage points at the Moon,” says the Chinese proverb, “the fool looks at his fingertip.” The Large, the Small and the Human Mind offers a critical look at the fingertip, and from it to the Moon. From the question of how to free Pandora’s Hope, to the meaning of Leonardo’s science for our time, and the significance of the Space Age for humanity, the Swiss Biennial will reflect on these topics from an interdisciplinary perspective with the aim to create a deeper and finer sense of possibility.

Confirmed Keynote Speakers
Michel Bitbol (physicist and philosopher of mind, Director of Research, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique [CNRS], Paris)
Fritjof Capra (physicist and systems theorist, Berkeley)
John Horgan (science writer/author, Director of the Center for Science Writings [CSW], Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, USA)
Kevin W. Kelley (artist, author, and entrepreneur, San Rafael / USA)
Bruno Latour (sociologist, Scientific Director and Professor at Sciences Po, Paris)
Pier Luigi Luisi (Professor Emeritus ETH Zurich, Professor at the Dipartimento di Biologia, Università degli Studi di Roma)
Robert Poole (historian, University of Cumbria, Lancaster / UK)
Harald Welzer (social psychologist, Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Memory Research, Essen)
Margaret Wertheim (science writer, curator, cultural historian of physics, Director of the Institute for Figuring, Los Angeles)

Confirmed Presenter
David McConville (artist, Director of Noospheric Research, The Elumenati, Asheville / USA)

Confirmed Chairpersons
Christina Ljungberg (University of Zurich)
Josef Mitterer (University of Klagenfurt)
Isabelle Stengers (Free University of Brusells)

Confirmed Leader of the Panel Discussions
Peter Weibel (Chairman and CEO, Center for Art and Media [ZKM], Karlsruhe)

A New Gallery Lucerne conference in association with the Swiss Museum of Transport, the City of Lucerne, the Swiss Federal Office of Culture (BAK), and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).

Swiss Museum of Transport, Lucerne, Coronado Hall

CHF 90.00 (CHF 65.00 concessions) – Booking required http://www.neugalu.ch/e_bienn_2010.html#9

The Large, the Small and the Human Mind continues the Swiss Biennial’s aim to involve people from all faculties, schools of thought and walks of life in a critical dialogue concerned with science, technological innovation, art, and society which they have long sought themselves but for which there has been no point of contact to date. The Swiss Biennial sees its role as that of a touchstone for such dialogues. Its interdisciplinary activities and projects are concerned with new challenges posed by widely varying fields of knowledge and research. Find the Swiss Biennial on Science, Technics + Aesthetics on http://www.neugalu.ch

New Gallery Lucerne and The Swiss Biennial on Science, Technics + Aesthetics
P.O. Box 3501, 6002 Lucerne / Switzerland, Tel. +41 (0) 41 370 38 18
Image credit: Jacket photograph, Earth, from Apollo 4 (November 1967) © NASA.

[street performers festival: edmonton]

2009-07-11T15:29:00.004+01:00

The Edmonton International Street Performers Festival was the first of its kind in North America. Now in its 25th year, it is known worldwide for its amazing artists and generous audiences. Since 1984, almost four million people have participated. Read more on the streetfest site.

[st. albert farmers' market]

2009-07-07T15:40:00.003+01:00

St. Albert is on the north western tip of Edmonton (have a look at a map here). For many I've spoken with it's considered to be a bit of a trek. I thought the 30min drive via highway with no traffic was super, especially compared to the usual 2 hours we enjoyed on the M25 getting from home to work in London. The St. Albert market is one of the signs that it is summer here in Edmonton and the produce on offer certainly attested to that! There was a great selection of fruits, berries, vegetables and of course cheeses and meats too. Along with all the edibles were housewares, gardening supplies, furniture and face painting.

[edmonton canada day 2009]

2009-07-06T16:36:00.002+01:00

Some images captured during the Canada Day parade (note: unlike may day in England where we witnessed tractors as part of the parade, here celebrations are not complete unless there is a big truck)

[happy canada day!]

2009-07-01T15:06:00.005+01:00

Image of fireworks from itroy on flickr.

It's my first time celebrating Canada Day in Canada as a resident in the past nine years!!! And, I'll be celebrating in Edmonton. Canada is now 142 years old. We're going to be checking out the Silly Summer Parade which starts at noon (it goes from Queen Alex School, 7730 106St., heads west on Whyte Ave. to 108 St. and back to Queen Alex School for family activities - sounds great if you have wee ones). Then we're going to do a picnic and in the evening I'm hoping to catch the moment when the city's High Level bridge turns into a waterfall (21:00-23:15). After that there will be the customary fireworks (which take place here). According to the city website, some good viewing locations:

* Alberta Legislature Grounds
* Victoria Park (River Valley Road)
* Ezio Faraone Park (west entrance to High Level Bridge on 109 St. north)
* Dantzer’s Hill (below Queen Elizabeth Park)
* Government House Park (Groat Road & River Valley Road)
Note: No viewing from Kinsmen Park

Viewing Areas Accessible on Foot Only (closed to vehicles):

* River Valley Road
* Walterdale Hill Road & Queen Elizabeth Park Road
* 109 St. (between Saskatchewan Drive & the High Level Bridge)
* Access is restricted in Kinsmen Park, Walterdale Hill, High Level & Menzies Bridges after road closure times. Kinsmen playground and picnic area are closed on Canada Day.

Have a look at this amazing photo taken by labels_30 of the waterfall on Canada Day last year:

If you're local (I know I now have a few Albertans reading this blog) here are some other things you might want to do:

Alberta Legislature Canada Day Celebrations
Various activities 7:00 am - 6:00 pm

Borden Park Canada Day Celebrations
Various activities 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Canada Day Road Race 2009
South Ends of Legislature Grounds

Citizenship Ceremony
Legislative Grounds 10:00 am

City Hall Activities
11:00 am - 4:00 pm

Devon Canada Day Celebrations
Centennial Park 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Fort Edmonton Park Dominion Day
Whitemud & Fox Drive 10:00 am - 6:00 pm

Fort Saskatchewan Canada Day Celebrations
Breakfast to Fireworks 8:00 am - 11:00 pm

John Walter Museum - "Spirits Of The Past"
Sunday, June 28, 2009 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Louise McKinney Riverfront Park - Canada Day!
2:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Millwoods Celebrates Canada
2:00 pm - 11:00 pm

Muttart Conservatory Canada Day
1:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Old Strathcona
Silly Summer Parade & Picnic in the Park - Whyte Avenue
12:00 pm - 3:30 pm

Spruce Grove Canada Day & Street Performers Festival
Calahoo Road and Grove Drive 8:00 am - 11:00 pm

St Albert
Lions Park 11:00 am - 2:00 pm

Strathcona County's 2009 Canada Day Festival
Broadmoor Lake Park Sherwood Park 9:00 am - 11:00 pm

The Works Art and Design Festival
Churchill Square Edmonton June 24 – July 6

Valley Zoo Canada Day & the Valley Zoo's 50th Birthday Bash!
13315 Buena Vista Rd. 11:00 am - 4:00 pm

More events are listed here.

BTW: the weather is going to be warm and sunny.

[towards information literacy]

2009-06-29T16:31:00.003+01:00

This Unesco report (from 2008) has a succinct definition of information literacy that has to do with people's capacity rather than specific rules:

"Recognise their information needs;
Locate and evaluate the quality of information;
Store and retrieve information;
Make effective and ethical use of information, and
Apply information to create and communicate knowledge."

Information literacy (as noted here and in the digital cultures master's module) doesn't just apply to one context, when using a computer for example, it's applicable throughout contexts and I think that's what defines capacity as literacy - readers/users can move through a variety of contexts (much like transliteracy). "IL skills are necessary for people to be effective lifelong learners and to contribute in knowledge societies."

These elements of information literacy say it all - they cross contexts:

"a. Recognise information needs
b. Locate and evaluate the quality of information
c. Store and Retrieve information
d. Make effective and ethical use of information, and
e. Apply information to create and communicate knowledge."

Citation info:

Catts, R. & Lau, J. (2008). Towards Information Literacy Indicators. Paris: UNESCO. Retrieved May 07, 2008 from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/001587/158723e.pdf

via ICTlogy.

Read more of the report here.

[food politics]

2009-06-27T13:21:00.001+01:00

I came across this hilarious take on the politics of cuisine via Chris at Eating is the Hard Part:

Flickr image from passiveaggressivenotes which can be found here.

[becoming technologically iterate]

2009-06-24T22:14:00.004+01:00

On ‘Becoming’ Technologically Literate: A Multiple Literacies Theory Perspective/p>

FRANCIS BANGOU & MONICA WATERHOUSE University of Ottawa, Canada

doi:10.2304/ciec.2008.5.4.445

VIEW FULL TEXT | BACK TO CONTENTS LIST

This article uses a multiple literacies theory framework to explore the processes of ‘becoming’ technologically literate through a year-long ethnographic study of two Master of Education pre-service second language teachers, a Latina woman and an African American woman, who learned how to use computer technology to teach Spanish at a large Midwestern university. The case studies of these two women are analyzed to gain insights into how teacher education programs can support racial minority pre-service teachers in ‘becoming’ technologically literate. First, the authors provide an overview of the multiple literacies theory developed by Masny. Second, the stories of the two pre-service teachers are presented. Finally, curricular and pedagogical recommendations for second language education Master of Education programs are provided.

[interdisciplinary papers]

2009-06-23T16:03:00.002+01:00

The online conference on the Future of Scientific Publications resumes with an new paper by Roberto Casati "On Publishing", now available on http://www.interdisciplines.org/liquidpub. In his paper Roberto Casati discusses the social significance of publication in the life of a scientific knowledge object (SKO). The importance of publication is made evident by the complex issue of unpublication (the strong version of retraction whereby a SKO is completely destroyed). Unpublication is a tempting option in the electronic world. He argues against the viability of unpublication, both on practical and on principled grounds related to the cascading entitlements of published paper.

There is also a paper by Eric T. Meyer and Ralph Schroeder of the Oxford Internet Institute on "Sifting through the online web of knowledge" at: http://www.interdisciplines.org/liquidpub. Their essay examines how researchers gain access to knowledge at a time when scholarly communication and materials are increasingly moving online. This topic has so far mainly been discussed in terms of journal publication and readership. Here a broader view is taken, including a variety of areas where knowledge production and dissemination is broader than journal publications and includes data and tools. A second reason to take a broader view extends the horizon still further, since scientific communication and collaboration are not just undergoing change within the research community, but also depend on wider changes such as the use of search engines and how they affect what can be found online generally. New search behaviours are particularly evident among a new generation of scholars and potential scholars. Hence we will look at changes in research as well as in the realm of online knowledge more broadly.

Have a look at the papers: www.interdisciplines.org/liquidpub.

Via an e-mail from the interdisciplines.org list.

[employment: lectureship in new media]

2009-06-22T11:17:00.000+01:00

This is an amazing position at the University of Leeds...makes me (almost) wish I was in the U.K.:

Closing Date: 17th July 2009

Lectureship in New Media
(Job reference: 317127)
Faculty of Performance, Visual Arts and Communications
Institute of Communications Studies

The institute of Communication Studies seeks to appoint a Lecturer in New Media from
2 September 2009 or as soon afterward as is mutually convenient.

You will deliver teaching and research primarily in areas related to New Media at
both undergraduate and postgraduate level, but may also be asked to teach more
generally in other areas of media and communications. Essential teaching
requirements are ‘Design for New Media’ and ‘New Media, Planning and Gaming’. You
will also be required to take responsibility for student project work. You will be
expected to play a leading role in the continued development of the programme in New
Media and undertake supervision of undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD projects and
dissertations.

You will possess a PhD, or have such an award pending and be able to demonstrate a
developing research profile with a clear indication of future plans and potential
commensurate with aspirations to an 'international' standard of excellence.


See http://ics.leeds.ac.uk for more information on the Institute of Communications
Studies or http://hr.leeds.ac.uk/jobs/ViewJob.aspx?CId=3&JId=416 for more details
about the post.

University Grade 7 (£32,458 – £35,469 p.a.)
Salary: Lecturer Grade 7 (£32,458 - £35,469)
Apply using: Application form, CV and Equal Opportunities Monitoring form
Download an application form: (pdf version) | (Word version)

Informal enquiries: to Dr Stephen Sobol, New Media Programme Head, email
s.c.sobol@leeds.ac.uk, tel +44 (0)113 343 6247 or Professor Gary Rawnsley, Director
of the ICS, email g.d.rawnsley@leeds.ac.uk , tel +44 (0)113 343 6906.

Send completed applications to:
email vpaempl@leeds.ac.uk, or by post to:

VPAEMPL,
PVAC,
Faculty Office,
Man-Made Fibres Building,
University of Leeds,
LS2 9JT

Closing date: 17 July 2009

[cfp: workshop on academia 2.0]

2009-06-21T18:26:00.002+01:00

Academia 2.0 and Beyond – How Social Software Changes Research and Education in Academia

(at the European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work 2009)

Workshop will take place on the 8th of September in Vienna, Austria

Organizers:

Michael Koch, Bundeswehr University Munich, http://www.kooperationssysteme.de/
Isa Jahnke, Technische Universität Dortmund, http://www.isa-jahnke.de/

Abstract

The Web 2.0 and Social Software is often attributed with a high potential for addressing today’s challenges in knowledge management and distributed collaboration. This development has already reached industry. Using the term Enterprise 2.0, different possibilities to use Social Software in enterprises are researched. But also in academia, cooperation to generate new knowledge, and to add it to the scientific discourse may radically change under open Web 2.0 conditions. In addition, teaching and learning scenarios might be moved towards technology enhanced lifelong learning communities. The aim of this workshop is to discuss the application of Social Software in academia (research as well as teaching and learning) – and how these new kinds of software might change the whole setting – make new ways of doing research or teaching and learning possible or at least easier to do.

Motivation/Theme

New buzzwords have become part of our daily lexicon: Web 2.0, Social Software and Social Web are often used as synonyms. These concepts focus on new or existing software systems, which are influenced by human communication and collaboration (Jahnke & Koch 2009). Thus, Web 2.0 is heavily reliant on social interaction, and so, social web-based applications generate and require a human-centered design approach. Furthermore, this kind of new media influences the people. A new generation of the “digital natives” are arriving (Prensky, 2001). The number of users of Web 2.0 applications in private settings (e.g., leisure) is very high. However, in organizations and enterprises Web 2.0 concepts or such combined applications are still at an early stage (Koch & Richter 2008). The same is true for universities. Franklin & van Harmelen (2007) show some examples of institutional practices. A potential of Web 2.0 for academia show also Rollet et al. (2007). To conclude, there are some Web 2.0 tools in universities, in particular wikis and blogs (e.g., Hookway, 2008) but the usage of these tools and other Web 2.0 scenarios for supporting teaching, learning or research is not yet fully developed. So, the question how the Web 2.0 can support community-based learning (e.g. Barr & Tagg, 1995) or research processes in academia is not yet satisfactorily answered.

Research questions

The main research question of the workshop is: Are there any innovative research and/or teaching designs or arrangements (e.g., Alexander, 2006; Downes, 2005) using social software and what can we learn from these scenarios? Some derived research questions which we will discuss in our workshop:

a) What Web 2.0 applications exist in universities, in research or in learning? Do Web 2.0 applications in academia make a difference to existing Internet applications like email, content management systems or newsgroups?
b) Do you have success stories or success criteria of Web 2.0 usage in academic fields? What changes are observable or essential when introducing Web 2.0 concepts in teaching (e.g. new design/balance of teaching and learning) or research settings?
c) How can we introduce Web 2.0 applications in the academic world, and support the change management process? How can we successfully distribute the concepts into a university?

Aim

Our aim is to collect proposals for academic practice with Web 2.0, to specify research questions dealing with Web 2.0 in academia (e.g., new forms of interactions, changing research practice, new learning scenarios, organizational change by using new media) or to discuss new research methods (e.g., e-ethnography) and their challenges in this topic. In our workshop, we want to share practical experience or research results about using Web 2.0 in teaching and research, for example, e-learning goes Web 2.0, scientific communities goes Web 2.0, research publications goes Web 2.0 or university goes Web 2.0. Therefore, we strongly invite researchers and practitioners who have ideas or experience of using Web 2.0 applications in academia.

Participation Requirements

Workshop participants are requested to submit a position paper covering practice with Web 2.0 in academia, research focus or research questions, proposals for academic practice with Web 2.0, proposals for new research methods with regard to Web 2.0 in academia or specific case studies (if applicable) and findings to date. Using practical examples the participants should demonstrate how the concepts and developments behind the Web 2.0 and Social Software movement are used in academia, what Web 2.0 characteristics could make a good basis for academia.

Deadline for position papers: June 29, 2009 (new deadline)

There is no size limit or formatting requirement for position papers.

Please send position papers as PDF or document files to the two organizers:

Position papers will be presented and discussed during the workshop.

[twitter & politics]

2009-06-17T14:48:00.004+01:00

Is Twitter now a part of U.S. foreign policy? The Washington Post reports that:

The State Department asked social networking site Twitter to delay scheduled maintenance earlier this week in order to avoid disrupting communications among tech-savvy Iranian citizens as they took to the streets to protest Friday’s reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

That sounds like a wow. Only maybe not. A few grafs down the Post also reports that the White House downplayed the request this way:

“This wasn’t a directive from Secretary of State, but rather was a low-level contact from someone who often talks to Twitter staff.”

But a senior State Department official told the Post that the contacts were quite official.

“One of the areas where people are able to get out the word is through Twitter,” said a senior State Department official in a conversation with reporters, on condition of anonymity. “They announced they were going to shut down their system for maintenance and we asked them not to.”

On the other hand, is this all being blown out of proportion by the Twitter-loving press?

“Twitter’s impact inside Iran is zero,” said Mehdi Yahyanejad, manager of a Farsi-language news site based in Los Angeles. “Here, there is lots of buzz, but once you look . . . you see most of it are Americans tweeting among themselves.”

Re: Twitter's impact inside Iran is zero? Not sure about that. If people are doing something outside of Iran, wouldn't that have an impact within?

See these stories too:

Iranian Youth Protests Could Outlast Ahmadinejad Rule
"Since the election, reformist Web sites, as well as Twitter and Facebook, have been cut off in Iran, although Iranians are evading the controls via proxy"
Iran's Twitter Revolution "Ahmadinejad will twitter to his supporters he will save Iran from the rule of the twitter mobs and the Ayatollahs and mullahs will twitter"
Dissecting Twitter's Role In Tech, Society, Politics"The Iran situation, where Twitter continued to provide communication resources to Iran residents after the government had shut down other communication"
Iran's Protests: Why Twitter Is the Medium of the Movement "The U.S. State Department doesn't usually take an interest in the maintenance schedules of dotcom start-ups. But over the weekend, officials there reached out to Twitter and asked them to delay a network upgrade that was scheduled for Monday night. The reason? To protect the interests of Iranians using the service to protest the presidential election that took place on June 12. Twitter moved the upgrade to 2 p.m. P.T. Tuesday afternoon — or 1:30 a.m. Tehran time." (this link via @SteveCadwell)

Article from Richard Koman at ZDNet.

[wedding!!]

2009-06-16T16:19:00.003+01:00

I couldn't resist putting a personal note up here on the blog about our wedding which took place on Saturday the 13th of June. We married at Vineland Estates Winery in Vineland, Ontario (in between Toronto and Niagara).

We had an amazing photographer Judy who has already put a few photos up. I've added some to our wedding blog but here are a few tasters too:

This one of us in the car is my favourite!! My idea of a yellow mustang convertible didn't quite work out but Judy saved the day by letting us borrow her own convertible!! What a woman eh?!

***Am loving my bouquet!***

Isn't that background amazing? Tuscany or Vineland?

I love how Judy framed Steve's head in the triangle of the wine boutique:

This was a moment of pure relaxation! Wonderful!

Check out Keith's fab grin!

Judy knows me well....convertible lover AND shoe lover! Great way to bring the two together! (Along with my little piece of England - I got the shoes there!)

[influence of new media]

2009-06-15T16:33:00.001+01:00

[digital media & learning]

2009-06-15T02:56:00.003+01:00

Re-reading a report on the "digital youth" and how they use/interact with digital media. (Note this is US-based but over 800 "youths and young adults"). Some interesting take-aways:

Most youth use online networks to extend the friendships that they navigate in the familiar contexts of school, religious organizations, sports, and other local activities
The majority of youth use new media to “hang out” and extend existing friendships
Contrary to popular images, geeking out is highly social and engaged, although usually not driven primarily by local friendships
Geeking out in many respects erases the traditional markers of status and authority
New media allow for a degree of freedom and autonomy for youth that is less apparent in a classroom setting
Rather than assuming that education is primarily about preparing for jobs and careers, they question what it would mean to think of it as a process guiding youths’ participation in public life more generally.

[social networking conference: wolverhampton uni]

2009-06-11T16:07:00.000+01:00

Wolverhampton Internet and Technology Society (WITS) together with the Statistical Cybermetrics Research Group are hosting the 1^st Social Networking in Cyberspace conference in April, 2010. We welcome contributions from scholars in the social and behavioural sciences and media and information disciplines, regardless of theoretical orientation.

The conference, which is to be sponsored by the Research Centre in Applied Sciences (RCAS), will be a one-day event and will take place on Friday the 23^rd of April, 2010. The Venue for the conference will be the Lighthouse Media Centre in Wolverhampton (Please click here for Map).

Call for papers

We invite potential presenters to submit an abstract (no longer than 300 words) for peer-review. The deadline for submission of the abstract is October 30^th, 2009. A decision on this abstract will be made by November 20^th, 2009 and authors will be notified via email soon after.

Abstracts should be submitted to SNIC@wlv.ac.uk

Subsequently, all presenters will be invited to prepare a paper for publication. The International Journal of Internet Science will be publishing a peer-reviewed selection of the best papers from the conference.

Papers should be submitted to SNIC@wlv.ac.uk by the 28^th of May 2010.

Postgraduate poster competition

We will be running a postgraduate poster competition on the day of the conference. Prizes will be awarded for the best posters on the day (further information to follow). We invite postgraduate students to submit an abstract by October 30^th 2009 for consideration.

Keynote Speakers

The following have been confirmed as keynote speakers at the conference:

Professor Mike Thelwall: University of Wolverhampton – “Detecting and analysing emotion in social networking sites”

Doctor Monica Whitty: Nottingham Trent University.

Fees

£80 standard rate

Discount rate for presenters (£60)

Discount rate for students (£50)

The fee includes morning and afternoon coffee and lunch.

Registration

Conference registration opens in January 2010

Important dates

Abstract submission deadline: 30^th October 2009

Notice of acceptance deadline: 20^th November 2009

Conference date: 23^rd April 2010

Full papers deadline: 28^th May 2010

contact us

If you have any enquiries or would like to contact us regarding the suitability of your research for the conference, please email us on SNIC@wlv.ac.uk

[computer human interaction conference: australia]

2009-06-07T15:30:00.003+01:00

OZCHI 2009 – Design: Open 24/7

21st Annual Conference of the Australian Computer-Human Interaction Special Interest Group (CHISIG) of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society of Australia (HFESA)

23 – 27 November 2009, The University of Melbourne, Australia

http://www.ozchi.org/

Paper submission site now open: http://precisionconference.com/~ozchi

OZCHI is Australia’s leading forum for research and development in all areas of Human-Computer Interaction. OZCHI attracts an international community of practitioners, researchers, academics and students from a wide range of disciplines including user experience designers, information architects, software engineers, human factors experts, information systems analysts, and social scientists.

The main conference will be from Wed 25 to Fri 27 Nov 2009, and will be preceded by two days of Workshops, Tutorials and a Doctoral Consortium on Mon 23 and Tue 24 Nov 2009.OZCHI will take place back-to-back with HFESA 2009: http://www.hfesaconference.org.au/ scheduled to run from 22-25 Nov 2009. The venue for both conferences is the ICT building of the University of Melbourne, 111 Barry St, Parkville.

The keynote speakers for this year's OZCHI conference:

Bill Moggridge, Co-founder of IDEO.com
Patrick Hofmann, Head of User Experience, Google Australia
Yvonne Rogers, Director, Pervasive Interaction Lab, Open University, UK

Important Dates

Long papers, and workshop & tutorial proposals
19 Jun 2009: EXTENDED SUBMISSION DEADLINE
14 Aug 2009: Notification of acceptance
28 Aug 2009: Camera ready papers deadline

Short papers, industry case studies, demos & posters, workshop papers, and doctoral consortium
28 Aug 2009: Submission deadline
25 Sep 2009: Notification of acceptance
02 Oct 2009: Camera ready papers deadline

Conference Theme

The 2009 conference theme is Design: Open 24/7. Accessibility, inclusivity and dissolving boundaries are core to the Open 24/7 theme for the design of human interaction with and through digital technologies. The integration of digital technologies into our everyday life allows for a seamless transitioning between open and closed, work and leisure, public and private. Open implies participation and collaboration across traditional borders between individuals, organisations and disciplines. OZCHI 2009 provides a forum to discuss all aspects of openness, open borders, open participation, open source and open architecture. Theme-related submissions may address these topics:

Open always-on real-time ubiquitous and pervasive designs
Open design and universality versus situatedness, contextualisation and personalisation
Open source for design – design for open source
Open mind – new ideas, concepts and approaches from outside HCI
Beyond open – never closed: design for escapism

Conference Topics

Submissions in all areas of HCI are encouraged. In addition, we particularly invite authors to address any of the following topics:

Augmented Reality
Context and Location Awareness
Education and HCI
Health Care and HCI
Innovative Design Methodologies
Smart Service Delivery
Sustainability
Universal Usability and Accessibility
Urban Informatics
Tangible User Interfaces
Visualisation Techniques
Working across Cultures

Read more about the paper/workshop submission process and conference here.

[world digital library]

2009-06-04T14:48:00.003+01:00

The World Digital Library (WDL) makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world.

The principal objectives of the WDL are to:

Promote international and intercultural understanding;
Expand the volume and variety of cultural content on the Internet;
Provide resources for educators, scholars, and general audiences;
Build capacity in partner institutions to narrow the digital divide within and between countries.

Items on the WDL may easily be browsed by place, time, topic, type of item, and contributing institution, or can be located by an open-ended search, in several languages. Special features include interactive geographic clusters, a timeline, advanced image-viewing and interpretive capabilities. Item-level descriptions and interviews with curators about featured items provide additional information.

Navigation tools and content descriptions are provided in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. Many more languages are represented in the actual books, manuscripts, maps, photographs, and other primary materials, which are provided in their original languages.

The WDL was developed by a team at the U.S. Library of Congress, with contributions by partner institutions in many countries; the support of the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); and the financial support of a number of companies and private foundations.

Read more about the background, partners, contributors and more.

[newspapers, new media & monetization]

2009-06-03T15:36:00.005+01:00

Thanks to a link from @jayrosen_nyu I've seen this interesting article on how to obtain value from (or rather, monetize) online content. Zachary M. Seward notes that the meeting of industry execs held on Thursday was aptly titled "Models to Lawfully Monetize Content."

The report itself outlines five key changes (or "doctrines" according to Rick Edmonds).

True Value. Establish that news content online has value by charging for it. Begin "massive experimentation with several of the most promising options."
Fair Use. Maintain the value of professionally produced and edited content by "aggressively enforcing copyright, fair use and the right to profit from original work."
Fair Share. Negotiate a higher price for content produced by the news industry that is aggregated and redistributed by others.
Digital Deliverance. "Invest in technologies, platforms and systems that provide content-based e-commerce, data-sharing and other revenue generating solutions."
Consumer Centric. Refocus on consumers and users. Shift revenue strategies from those focused on advertisers.

Why the interest in monetizing online content...to protect the print newspapers.

Paid content wall would protect print subscriptions
The report also suggests a paid content wall would help retain print subscribers, citing a recent USC Annenberg survey finding that 22 percent of online news readers said that they had dropped print subscriptions because they could most of the same content free online.

But is charging for online content the best way to generate revenue? Hard-hitting sales tactics doesn't seem synonymous with loyal readership. In James Warren's words: "collecting enhanced online newspaper user data across newspaper properties and mining that data to aggressively sell target content to specific audience segments across the network (e.g. golf enthusiasts)."

Newspapers need to get creative. Leverage some of the amazing web 2.0 tools to generate interest. Perhaps online versions might offer something for the long tail too which won't be present in the print versions (I know some newspapers are already doing this).

Note: The Huffington Post, having "reinvented the American newspaper," seems to do quite well (without a print version) though only 6% of it's news stories are original content.

[employment: phd in digital literacy practises of immigrant youth]

2009-06-01T01:55:00.003+01:00

The digital literacy practices of immigrant youth for the formation of identity and learning networks (0.9 fte)

This project is focused on the analysis of the everyday digital literacy practices of Moroccan immigrant youth.While the past several years have seen an increasing amount of research on the digital literacy practices of youth, within and well beyond theNetherlands, relatively little of this work to date has focused on immigrant youth and their productions and interpretations of social media (e.g. weblogs, Hyves, YouTube, texting, Twitter, gaming). This project will provide a unique contribution to the field by developing ethnographic studies of youth as they use social media and integrate it into their everyday lives in the Netherlands.

We are particularly interested in how digital literacy practices are used to produce identities and learning networks. What are the shapes and scales of new media networks for Moroccan immigrant youth? How are these new networks changing, and how are they related to social networks with longer histories (e.g., extended family, community)? How do networks formed through practices with social media support the development of local, national, and transnational identities? How do such networks also structure new social spaces for learning?

These questions are addressed in this project through ethnographic research that will be augmented with other research methods, including social network analysis and survey data.

For more information see: www.uu.nl/wireduphttp://www.academictransfer.nl/organisaties/?adm_pin=00351&fuseaction=detail&Vacature_ID=B3KTUQY9

[swarm theory and social media]

2009-05-27T22:09:00.002+01:00

I'm in the final stages of editing a selection of articles to appear in an upcoming journal issue and one of the articles deals with swarm theory. Many readers here would recognise Howard Rhiengold's Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution or perhaps Gerardo Beni and Jing Wang who coined the term in 1989 (see the *trusty* resource wikipedia).

More recently there's the famous National Geographic article on swarm theory: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/07/swarms/miller-text/1 which does an excellent job (exciting and informational) of explaining the science behind swarms. Enter left stage, the ants:

"I used to think ants knew what they were doing. The ones marching across my kitchen counter looked so confident, I just figured they had a plan, knew where they were going and what needed to be done. How else could ants organize highways, build elaborate nests, stage epic raids, and do all the other things ants do?

Turns out I was wrong. Ants aren't clever little engineers, architects, or warriors after all—at least not as individuals. When it comes to deciding what to do next, most ants don't have a clue. "If you watch an ant try to accomplish something, you'll be impressed by how inept it is," says Deborah M. Gordon, a biologist at Stanford University.

How do we explain, then, the success of Earth's 12,000 or so known ant species? They must have learned something in 140 million years.

"Ants aren't smart," Gordon says. "Ant colonies are." A colony can solve problems unthinkable for individual ants, such as finding the shortest path to the best food source, allocating workers to different tasks, or defending a territory from neighbors. As individuals, ants might be tiny dummies, but as colonies they respond quickly and effectively to their environment. They do it with something called swarm intelligence."

And that, in a nutshell, is collective intelligence and why crowd sourcing can be beneficial (knowing the right questions to ask helps too) and why tools like twitter are great resources for getting tips (maybe even on finding the shortest path to food).

As the National Geographic writer, Peter Miller, says of the ant colony the same can be said for social media: "no one's in charge."

[employment: professorships in digital media and design]

2009-05-25T14:57:00.003+01:00

The IT University of Copenhagen has just advertised a super position for those working with digital media and communications or interaction design to start in Jan. 2010.

"The program covers two main areas: Media and Communication and Interaction Design. Successful candidates should be competent in one of the two areas and must be enthusiastic about:
• conducting research at the highest international level
• developing and conducting excellent and inspiring graduate and under-graduate teaching
• actively taking part in developing the IT University and its relations with external partners
Furthermore, faculty on associate professor level are expected to draw in external funding for research and be capable of, and prepared to supervise Ph.D. Students.

Applicants in the area of Media and Communication should be competent in a broad selection of topics from the area of digital media and communication, including humanistic, social and cultural aspects of digital technologies. A disciplinary background in the humanities, communication or social sciences is preferred, although others are not excluded if the candidate can document work within the area.
Topics of interest are: digital communication (Internet/mobile), academic communication and writing, digital media theory, digital rhetoric, methodologies in the study of communication, strategic communication, cultural and sociological approaches to the study of digital media, digital culture and cultural policy, digital literature, digital aesthetics, art and design, historical perspectives on digital media and design, and visual communication. Moreover, it will be an asset if the applicant engages in creative digital practice.

Applicants in the area of Interaction Design should be competent in a broad selection of topics from the area. Topics of interest are: methodologies, methods and techniques for interaction design, contextualized philosophy of science and historical aspects of digital design, techniques and tools for sketching, modeling and prototyping, ethnographic approaches to design, methods for user-driven design, digital aesthetics, pervasive computing, location-based services and gaze interaction."

Submit applications to:

The IT University of Copenhagen
Att. Journalen
Rued Langgaards Vej 7
2300 Copenhagen S
Denmark

journalen@itu.dk.

Read more about the application process and what you need to include here.