CFP - Succeeding Failure: openings in communication and media studies

Special issue of Communication Theory:

Succeeding Failure: openings in communication and media studies

Succeeding Failure: openings in communication and media studies is the title of a special issue planned for Communication Theory. This issue will be guest co-edited by Briankle G. Chang and Garnet C. Butchart of the Department of Communication at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

"Failure" typically implies a kind of breakdown, defeat, or impasse. However, "failure" may also be read as a productive concept, one that indicates an opening rather than a closure, a point of departure rather than a terminus. For example, whenever one thing is said but another is heard, it is the failure of, or discord within, such an exchange that enables one to question the possibility of communication to begin with. In this sense, failure succeeds. This special issue invites critical essays that interrogate the ways in which failure may open onto and succeed in generating innovative responses to pressing questions of theory, politics, and ethics as they relate to communication and media studies. Topics for critical reflection may include, but are not limited to:

• Aesthetics and arts
• Globalization and media
• Social interaction
• Identity and ethnicity
• Consciousness and language
• Subjectivity
• Freedom, privacy, and citizenship
• Hermeneutics
• Being and presence
• Alienation, recognition, and community
• Event, symptom, and truth
• Representation and ideology

Regardless of topic, submitted essays must offer a critical interrogation of the concept of failure as a productive entry point into the contemporary study of communication and media. Authors may submit inquires and manuscripts electronically to Briankle G. Chang at bchang@comm.umass.edu or to Garnet C. Butchart at garnet@comm.umass.edu.

Manuscripts should conform to the guidelines of Communication Theory and must be received by May 15, 2006 to be considered for this issue. The manuscript should include a title page with complete contact information (address, telephone, FAX, and email), as well as a brief biography (full name, highest earned academic degree, institution granting that degree, current academic title) for each author. Manuscripts must conform to the specifications of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.), and authors should verify that the reference list is complete and in appropriate form.

Posted by prolurkr at 03:18 PM | TrackBack

The Edublog Awards 2005 Nominations are open

Nomiantions are open for this year's Edublog Awards. The full post is reproduced below. Get your list together and nominate your favorites.

The Edublog Awards 2005

Welcome to the second international Edublog Awards - an annual event that recognises and promotes excellence in the field of edublogging.

This year I'm extremely pleased to be taking over the event co-ordination from your host last year, James Farmer. I'm very much looking forward to lively community debate and contributions this years awards, which have changed somewhat from last years format, in response to feedback. I hope to do as good a job as James and hope that the community will be positive about my management style!

First of all, the categories. This year there are ten:

* Most innovative edublogging project, service or programme

* Best newcomer

* Most influential post, resource or presentation

* Best designed/most beautiful edublog

* Best library/librarian blog

* Best teacher blog

* Best audio and/or visual blog

* Best example/ case study of use of weblogs within teaching and learning

* Best group blog

* Best individual blog

There will also be a Best of the Best award, which will be open to all winners of the 2005 Edublog Award Categories.

Nominations and Rules:

This year the nomination process is also different:

Nominations will not be made publicly this year, and all submissions will be treated as confidential. Instead, you are asked to email in your nominations.

While everyone is eligable to vote, only current edubloggers are invited to nominate contenders. If you keep a blog, and produce content which is related to education (even if you post about your haircut a lot too), you are an edublogger and are eligable to nominate. Please include your blog url with your nominations.

Each participant is able to make a maximum of two nominations per category. Self-nomination is perfectly acceptable, but you are encouraged to nominate the edublogs that you genuinely believe to be outstanding examples of practice - the blogs you refer others too. Please list your nominations in order of preference. You may enter the same person or blog for more than one award.

Nominations are open from 21 November to 4 December. When you have decided on your nominations for all of the categories, you can cut and paste the template provided into the body of an email, complete it and send to the awards email address.

The four most popular, eligible nominations in each category will be available to vote on from 5 December to 17 December. Winners will be announced live at a special broadcast awards ceremony held on 18 December 1500 GMT.

Good luck - and see you all at the awards ceremony!

Josie Fraser, EdTechUK

Posted by prolurkr at 09:30 AM | TrackBack

Countdown timers

Ok well my countdown timers have quit at the source and I have no idea how to let the guy know he needs to fix his program. So I'm testing another timer, don't be surprised if things look flakey for a bit. I'll post when I get it working correctly.

Testing 1-2-3

Counting down to New Year 2006: 1 Jan 2006 00:00:00 UTC-0500!

Ok this works now I just have to get it going in the sidebars.

Amended: Alright we are cooking with gas!

Posted by prolurkr at 07:46 AM | TrackBack

20 blog post formats

Darren at ProBlogger posted an interesting set of what he calls 20 Types of Blog Posts but I don’t think they are actual “types” as much as they are formates for posts. Wonder how many more we could name? Content Analysts make note...he days our method involves “often doing mind numbing counting jobs.”

• Instructional - Instructional posts tell people how to do something. I find that my Tips posts are generally the ones that are among my most popular both in the short term (ie loyal readers love them and will link up to them) but also in the longer term (ie one of the reasons people search the web is to find out how to do things and if you can rank highly with your tips post you can have traffic over a length of time).

• Informational - This is one of the more common blog post types where you simply give information on a topic. It could be a definition post or a longer explanation of some aspect of the niche that you’re writing on. This is the crux of successful sites like wikipedia

• Reviews - Another highly searched for term on the web is ‘review’ - I know every time I’m considering buying a new product that I head to Google and search for a review on it first. Reviews come in all shapes and sizes and on virtually every product or service you can think of. Give your fair and insightful opinion and ask readers for their opinion - reviews can be highly powerful posts that have a great longevity.

• Lists - One of the easiest ways to write a post is to make a list. Posts with content like ‘The Top Ten ways to….’, ‘7 Reasons why….’ ‘ 5 Favourite ….’, ‘53 mistakes that bloggers make when….’ are not only easy to write but are usually very popular with readers and with getting links from other bloggers. Read my post - 8 Reasons Why Lists are Good for Getting Traffic to your Blog for more on lists. One last tip on lists - if you start with a brief list (each point as a phrase or sentence) and then develop each one into a paragraph or two you might just end up with a series of posts that lasts you a few days. That’s how I started the Bloggers Block series.

• Interviews - Sometimes when you’ve run out of insightful things to say it might be a good idea to let someone else do the talking in an interview (or a guest post). This is a great way to not only give your readers a relevant expert’s opinion but to perhaps even learn something about the topic you’re writing yourself. One tip if you’re approaching people for an interview on your blog - don’t overwhelm them with questions. One of two good questions are more likely to get you a response than a long list of poorly thought through ones.

• Case Studies - Another popular type of post here at ProBlogger have been those where I’ve taken another blog and profiled them and how they use their site to earn money from their blogging (eg - one I did on Buzzmachine - the blog of Jeff Jarvis). Sometimes these are more like a review post but on occasion I’ve also added some instructional content to them and made some suggestions on how I’d improve them. Case studies don’t have to be on other websites of course - there are many opportunities to do case studies in different niches.

• Profiles - Profile posts are similar to case studies but focus in on a particular person. Pick an interesting personality in your niche and do a little research on them to present to your readers. Point out how they’ve reached the position they are in and write about the characteristics that they have that others in your niche might like to develop to be successful.

• Link Posts - The good old ‘link post’ is a favourite of many bloggers and is simply a matter of finding a quality post on another site or blog and linking up to it either with an explanation of why you’re linking up, a comment on your take on the topic and/or a quote from the post. Of course adding your own comments makes these posts more original and useful to your readers. The more original content the better but don’t be afraid to bounce off others in this way.

• ‘Problem’ Posts - I can’t remember where I picked this statistic up but another term that is often searched for in Google in conjunction with product names is the word ‘problems’. This is similar to a review post (above) but focusses more upon the negatives of a product or service. Don’t write these pieces just for the sake of them - but if you find a genuine problem with something problem posts can work for you.

• Contrasting two options - Life is full of decisions between two or more options. Write a post contrasting two products, services or approaches that outlines the positives and negatives of each choice. In a sense these are review posts but are a little wider in focus. I find that these posts do very well on some of my product blogs where people actually search for ‘X Product comparison to Y Product’ quite a bit.

• Rant - get passionate, stir yourself up, say what’s on your mind and tell it like it is. Rants are great for starting discussion and causing a little controversy - they can also be quite fun if you do it in the right spirit. Just be aware that they can also be the beginnings of a flaming comment thread and often it’s in the heat of the moment when we say things that we later regret and that can impact our reputation the most.

• Inspirational - On the flip side to the angry rant (and not all rants have to be angry) are inspirational and motivational pieces. Tell a story of success or paint a picture of ‘what could be’. People like to hear good news stories in their niche as it motivates them to persist with what they are doing. Find examples of success in your own experience or that of others and spread the word.

• Research - In the early days I wrote quite a few research oriented posts - looking at different aspects of blogging - often doing mind numbing counting jobs. I remember once surfing through 500 blogs over a few days to look at a number of different features. Research posts can take a lot of time but they can also be well worth it if you come up with interesting conclusions that inspire people to link up to you.

• Collation Posts - These are a strange combination of research and link posts. In them you pick a topic that you think your readers will find helpful and then research what others have said about it. Once you’ve found their opinion you bring together everyone’s ideas (often with short quotes) and tie them together with a few of your own comments to draw out the common themes that you see.

• Prediction and Review Posts - We see a lot of these at the end and start of the year where people do their ‘year in review’ posts and look at the year ahead and predict what developments might happen in their niche in the coming months.

• Critique Posts - ‘Attack posts’ have always been a part of blogging (I’ve done a few in my time) but these days I tend to prefer to critique rather than attack. Perhaps it’s a fine line but unless I get really worked up I generally like to find positives in what others do and to suggest some constructive alternatives to the things that I don’t like about what they do. I don’t really see the point in attacking others for the sake of it, but as I’ve said before this more a reflection of my own personality than much else I suspect and some people make a name for themselves very well by attacking others.

• Debate - I used to love a good debate in high school - there was something about preparing a case either for or against something that I quite enjoyed. Debates do well on blogs and can either in an organised fashion between two people, between a blogger and ‘all comers’ or even between a blogger and… themselves (try it - argue both for and against a topic in one post - you can end up with a pretty balanced post).

• Hypothetical Posts - I haven’t done one of these for a while but a ‘what if’ or hypothetical post can be quite fun. Pick a something that ‘could’ happen down the track in your industry and begin to unpack what the implications of it would be. ‘What if….Google and Yahoo merged?’ ‘What if …’

• Satirical - One of the reasons I got into blogging was that I stumbled across a couple of bloggers who were writing in a satirical form and taking pot shots at politicians (I can’t seem to find the blog to link to). Well written satire or parody can be incredibly powerful and is brilliant for generating links for your blog.

• Memes and Projects - write a post that somehow involves your readers and gets them to replicate it in someway. Start a poll, an award, ask your readers to submit a post/link or run a survey or quiz. Read more on memes.

As I wrote above - this is not an exhaustive list but rather just some of the types of posts that you might like to throw into your blog’s mix. Not every one will be suitable for all blogs or bloggers but using more than one format can definitely add a little spice an color to a blog. Lastly another technique is to mix two or more of the above formats together - there are no rules so have a bit of fun with it and share what you do in comments below.

Posted by prolurkr at 05:48 AM | TrackBack

Merit in Action

Confessions of a Community College Dean has a required reading post for all of us that will be looking for tenure tracks at some point in the future, Who Would You Hire?, or, Merit in Action.

Assume you're the hiring decision-maker at Hypothetical State. You're hiring for a tenure-track position in English. The position involves some teaching of composition, though the majority of the courses are literature and/or film. The department search committee sends you three finalists:

Earth Mother: ABD from Respectable State, "almost done," lots of composition experience at multiple colleges, great committee work and collegiality, likable personality, teaching awards, a few conference papers.

EuroDude: Ivy Ph.D., book contract, references from gods, great job talk, contacts/experience in film industry, slightly icy personality, minimal teaching experience, has never breathed the word 'composition' or taught outside Ivy U.

Sisyphus: M.A. from They Have a Graduate Program? State, longtime internal adjunct, trailing spouse of bigshot at Nearby U, faithful to the department for 15 years, plays well with others, taught everything from soup to nuts, no plans for a doctorate, never published.

Which one has the most merit?

The only intellectually honest answer is: it depends.

Like every other hiring situation in the world more goes into the decision than a single criteria - in this case which is the best candidate for where the department is currently and where they want to go? Well that depends...and in truth much of what it depends upon is unlikely to be obvious to the candidates. So make yourself prepared for your search...broadly prepared. Be skeptical of advisors who say you don't need publications or maybe, teaching experience before you go out...be broadly prepared because you have no idea what skills will be required or what will make you rise to the top of the pool.

Posted by prolurkr at 11:08 AM | TrackBack

Cats in sinks

Yes there is a website devoted to pictures of cats in sinks. What will they think of next? No no don't tell me, my delicate constitution probably can't take it. LOL

Posted by prolurkr at 02:29 PM | TrackBack

Not a good use of CMC...

Teen in Crash May Have Been Text Messaging

Nov 26, 1:24 PM (ET)

HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. (AP) - A 17-year-old likely will face misdemeanor charges after allegedly losing control of his car while text messaging and hitting a bicyclist.

The bicyclist, Jim R. Price of Highlands Ranch, died Friday, two days after the accident.

"We do not believe it was an intentional act, but it was inattentiveness to the roadway," said Lt. Alan Stanton, spokesman for Douglas County Sheriff's Office.

"The investigation showed that he was text-messaging on his cell phone" at the time of the accident, said Stanton.

The driver could face a charge of careless driving resulting in death, Stanton said. Under Colorado law, the teen could face up to a year in prison.

It was the second time Price, an avid cyclist, had been hit by car. He suffered a broken ankle two years ago when he was hit while riding on a bike path. His wife, Shirley, said he had been especially mindful of cars since then.

Shirley Price wasn't angry with the teen. "I feel sorry for the teenager," she said. "It was a stupid mistake," she told the Rocky Mountain News.

Posted by prolurkr at 08:40 AM | TrackBack

CFP - The Third International Workshop on Weblogging Ecosystems

CFP: 3rd International Workshop on the Weblogging Ecosystem (WWE 2006)
Edinburgh, UK
May 22 or 23rd (TBD) at the WWW 2006 conference
http://www.blogpulse.com/www2006-workshop/

Paper submission deadline: March 10, 2006
Author Notification: April 3, 2006

Introduction
The weblogging community continues to evolve: weblogs are gaining more and more exposure, the number of bloggers continues to grow and the contribution of individual bloggers is becoming significant and compelling. The dynamics of the blogosphere, found in trackbacks, citation links, blog-rolls, comments, tags, shared topics and interests provides a facinating domain of study for researchers from all academic and commercial fields including text mining, social network analysis, computational linguistics, business and marketing intelligence, library sciences, taxonometrics, graph theory and data visualization.

The workshop will build on the success of the previous two meetings, bringing together researchers from these diverse areas, working in both academic and commercial settings: contributors with a keen interest in an area with increasing technological, social, political and cultural impact. In addition to a regular track of research presentations, this year's workshop will feature the first ever weblog research data release. This data release will allow researchers access to a large coherent body of weblog post data for a specific time period. Researchers are encouraged to use this data set in the presentation of their research results at the workshop. We plan to compile the papers that focus on this data set into a book which will present an exciting view of a specific period of blogosphere history.

Areas of Interest
The weblogging phenomenon represents an exciting opportunity for many fields of research. Papers submitted to this workshop should be focus on one or more of the following topics:

• Mapping and visualization of the blogosphere
• Weblog taxonomies: automatic and/or manual construction, automatic classification of weblog entries
• Weblog tools: search, structured blogging, collaborative filtering
• Aggregate measures over the blogosphere
• Dynamics of information flow across the blogosphere
• Sociological analyses: methods for weblog census, weblog lifecycle
• Influence of the blogosphere on the information landscape
• Alternative blog forms (podcasting, moblogging, photoblogs, etc.)
• Text mining: topic detection, phrase mining, sentiment analysis, gender/age/demographic identification, spam filtering, topic trending/tracking, tag analysis
• Time series forecasting: predicting future trends based on blog content
• Social network analysis: influential bloggers, ranking, authority, centrality, community identification
• Document analysis for weblogs

Data Challange
Much of the interest in research relating to weblogs involves the analysis of large quantities of data. As part of this workshop, we are very excited to provide a data set to the research community. The aim is to encourage the use of this data to focus the various views and analyses of the blogosphere over a common space. This will provide a unique opportunity to compare different views of the blogosphere and to stimulate interesting discussion and collaboration. As a result of this exercise, we plan to publish a book containing the collected data challange papers.

The data release comprises a complete set of weblog posts for three weeks in July 2005 (on the order of 10M posts). This data set has been selected as it spans a period of time during which an event of global significance occurred, namely the London bombings.

The data set includes the full content of the posts plus mark-up. The marked-up fields include: date of posting, time of posting, author name, title of the post, weblog url, permalink, tags/categories, and outlinks classified by type - details may be found at the workshop homepage (see above).

Intelliseek, Inc. will facilitate the distribution of the data. To obtain a copy of the data, sign and fax the datashare individual agreement form to Intelliseek.

Paper Submission and Review
Please see the website for submission details.

Papers submitted to the workshop will undergo a peer review process overseen by the workshop co-chairs. Each paper will be reviewed by at least two program commitee members. Accepted papers will be presented at the workshop by one of the authors and will be published in the WWW-2006 Workshops CD-ROM and online. Papers should not exceed 5000 words (approximately 12 pages) in length and must be submitted in PDF. Short papers (up to 6 pages) describing early research results are also welcome.

Posted by prolurkr at 03:59 PM | TrackBack

Tango into small spaces

Ok anyone who either reads this blog or knows me personally, knows I'm "green" when I can be and that I have a passion for alternative fuel vehicles. So when I ran across the Tango today I simply had to pass on the information.

Communiter Cars Corp. is making these little beauties. They are two seaters, one in front and one in back, that are narrower than a modern motorcycle. The idea is that by using Tango's we could double the capacity of the existing roadway system plus all the eco-advantages of an electric car.

At the moment the 80-mile range of the car makes it out of my reach, unless there was a place to plug it in on campus, and the price is a bit steep for an around town car inaddition to my driving-to-campus car. So I guess I will just keep an eye on this one and see what happens with their future production. But believe me if I could afford it I would order on today...what can I say I'm a cutting edge kinda girl.

To secure a place in the build sequence for a production Tango, a fully refundable deposit is required. When your vehicle is allocated a manufacturing date you will be asked to confirm the order and select the color and any appropriate options.

Please download, complete, and return the reservation form with your deposit.

Tango T600 Features ($85,000 with $10,000 deposit)

Tango T200 Features ($39,900 with $1,000 deposit)

Tango T100 Features ($18,700 with $500 deposit)

What can I say I like it. LOL Reminds me of the Corbin Sparrow but with two-person capacity and a real eye for safety, not that the Sparrow doesn't just the Tango is so clearly designed around safety. Sparrows are more like motorcycles with shells, this seems like a redesigned car.

Plus the blue Tango sorta looks like Nemo from the front. What girl wouldn't love that.

Posted by prolurkr at 02:15 PM | TrackBack

Google 2006 Anita Borg Scholarship

Google 2006 Anita Borg Scholarship

As part of Google's ongoing commitment to encourage women to excel in computing and technology, we are pleased to announce the 2006 Google Anita Borg Scholarship. Dr. Anita Borg (1949 - 2003) devoted her life to revolutionizing the way we think about technology and dismantling barriers that keep women and minorities from entering computing and technology fields. Scholarships will be awarded based on the strength of candidates' academic background and demonstrated leadership. They will each receive a $10,000 scholarship for the 2006-2007 academic year. Please visit http://www.google.com/anitaborg/ for additional details.

Eligibility Requirements

Candidates must:

• be entering their senior year of undergraduate study or be enrolled in a graduate program in 2006 - 2007 at a university in the United States.
• be Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related technical field majors.
• be enrolled in full-time study in 2006 - 2007.
• maintain a cumulative GPA of at least 3.5 on a 4.0 scale or 4.5 on a 5.0 scale or equivalent in their current program.

How to Apply

• Fill out the online application @ http://www.google.com/anitaborg/.
• Submit resume, transcript(s), essays, and 2 recommendation letters.
  

All applications must be postmarked by Friday, January 20, 2006. If you would like an application reminder at the end of November, please let us know at https://services.google.com/inquiry/anitaborg_remind.

Posted by prolurkr at 11:56 AM | TrackBack

CFP - INTERACTING WITH COMPUTERS JOURNAL

CALL FOR PAPERS
INTERACTING WITH COMPUTERS JOURNAL

Special Issue of Interacting with Computers on "HCI Issues in Computer Games"
http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~zaphiri/Announcements/games.html

Guest Editors
Panayiotis Zaphiris & CS Ang,

Centre for HCI Design,
City University London

Introduction to special issue topic

Computer Games are at the forefront of technological innovation and their popularity in research is also increasing. Their wide presence and use makes Computer Games a major factor affecting the way people socialize, learn and possibly work. Computer Games are also beginning to attract the attention of educators and education technologists.

With this special issue of Interacting with Computers we wish to explore the relationship between Computer Games and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). Are current HCI techniques and methodologies appropriate for designing Computer Games? Do we need new Computer Game focused HCI methods, theories and paradigms? What are the new challenges when it comes to evaluating Computer Games?

This special issue of Interacting with Computers is inviting contributions from both the academic community and industry. It will focus on issues surrounding the analysis, design, development and evaluation of Computer Games and the issues surrounding them. Potential topics include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Design approaches and techniques suitable for Computer Games
• Usability studies regarding Computer Games
• Theoretical and/or pedagogical foundations for analysing Computer Games
• Within-game and/or out-game activities and their HCI analysis
• Computer Games and Online Communities
• Social and Cultural Issues and Computer Games
• Accessibility of Computer Games
• Transfer of gaming metaphors to business applications

"Interacting with Computers" is an interdisciplinary journal of Human-Computer Interaction, published by Elsevier. More information about this journal can be found at: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/525445/description

IwC special issues contain only 5 - 6 papers, each of no more than 10,000 words (so acceptance will be fairly selective).

Submission:

Papers should be submitted through the manuscript management system at http://ees.elsevier.com/iwc/ by the 10th of April 2006. The style standard is that of the American Psychological Association (APA), more details about which can be obtained from: http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/DocAPAFormatting.html

Important dates:

• Full paper submission: 10th April 2006 (Monday)
• Response to authors: 8th May 2006 (Monday)
• Final version of papers: 5th June 2006 (Monday)
• Planned publication: September 2006

Dr. Panayiotis Zaphiris (zaphiri@soi.city.ac.uk) and CS Ang Centre for HCI Design, City University London, Guest Editors

Posted by prolurkr at 07:44 AM | TrackBack

An academics eye view of the damage in NOLA

A friend of our's here has a sister who teaches at Tulane, apparently she is in the math department. She and her family have just gone back to NOLA. They have posted some photos on a Tulane website showing the extent of the damage and some of the repairs. Here is the link to her photos of some of the damage around NOLA (opens in a new window).

Posted by prolurkr at 07:27 AM | TrackBack

CFP - IR 7.0: INTERNET CONVERGENCES

IR 7.0: INTERNET CONVERGENCES

INTERNET CONVERGENCES The Internet works as an arena of convergence. Physically dispersed and marginalized people (re)find themselves online for the sake of sustaining and extending community. International and interdisciplinary teams now collaborate in new ways. Diverse cultures engage one another via CMC. These technologies relocate and refocus capital, labor and immigration, and they open up new possibilities for political, potentially democratizing, forms of discourse. Moreover, these technologies themselves converge in multiple ways, e.g. in Internet-enabled mobile phones, in Internet-based telephony, and in computers themselves as "digital appliances" that conjoin communication and multiple media forms. These technologies also facilitate fragmentations with greater disparities between the information-haves and have-nots, between winners and losers in the shifting labor and capital markets, and between individuals and communities. Additionally these technologies facilitate information filtering that reinforces, rather than dialogically challenges, narrow and extreme views.

CALL FOR PAPERS
Our conference theme invites papers and presentations based on empirical research, theoretical analysis and everything in between that explore the multiple ways the Internet acts in both converging and fragmenting ways - physical, cultural, technological, political, social - on local, regional, and global scales. Without limiting possible proposals, topics of interest include:
- Theoretical and practical models of the Internet
- Internet convergence, divergence and fragmentation
- Networked flows of information, capital, labor, etc.
- Migrations and diasporas online
- Identity, community and global communication
- Regulation and control (national and global)
- Internet-based development and other economic issues
- Digital art and aesthetics
- Games and gaming on the Internet
- The Net generation
- E-Sectors, e.g. e-health, e-education, e-business

We call for papers, panel proposals, and presentations from any discipline, methodology, and community that address the theme of Internet Convergence. We particularly call for innovative, exciting, and unexpected takes on and interrogations of the conference theme. However, we always welcome submissions on any topics that address social, cultural, political, economic, and/or aesthetic aspects of the Internet and related Internet technologies. We are equally interested in interdisciplinary proposals as well as proposals from within specific disciplines.

SUBMISSIONS
We seek proposals for several different kinds of contributions. We welcome proposals for traditional academic conference papers, but we also encourage proposals for creative or aesthetic presentations that are distinct from a traditional written 'paper'. We welcome proposals for roundtable sessions that will focus on discussion and interaction among conference delegates, and we also welcome organized panel proposals that present a coherent group of papers on a single theme. This year AoIR will also be using an alternative presentation format in which a dozen or so participants who wish to present a short overview of their work to stimulate debate will gather together in a plenary session involving short presentations (no more than 5 minutes) and extended discussion. All papers and presentations in this session will be reviewed in the normal manner. Further information will be available via the conference submission website.

- PAPERS (individual or multi-author) - submit abstract of 500-750 words
- SHORT PRESENTATIONS - submit abstract of 500-750 words
- CREATIVE OR AESTHETIC PRESENTATIONS - submit abstract of 500-750 words
- PANELS - submit a 250-500 word description of the panel theme (and abstracts of the distinct papers or presentations)
- ROUNDTABLE PROPOSALS - submit a 250-500 word statement indicating the nature of the roundtable discussion and interaction.

Papers, presentations and panels will be selected from the submitted proposals on the basis of multiple blind peer review, coordinated and overseen by the Program Chair. Each person is invited to submit a proposal for 1 paper or 1 presentation. People may also propose a panel of papers or presentations, of which their personal paper or presentation must be a part. You may submit an additional paper/presentation of which you are the co-author as long as you are not presenting twice. You may submit a roundtable proposal as well. Detailed information about submission and review is available at the conference submission website http://conferences.aoir.org. All proposals must be submitted electronically through this site.

PUBLICATION OF PAPERS
All papers presented at the conference are eligible for publication in the Internet Research Annual, on the basis of competitive selection and review of full papers. Additionally, several publishing opportunities are expected to be available through journals, again based on peer-review of full papers. Details on the website.

GRADUATE STUDENTS
Graduate students are strongly encouraged to submit proposals. Any student paper is eligible for consideration for the AoIR graduate student award. Students wishing to be a candidate for the Student Award must also send a final paper by 31 July 2006.

PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS
Prior to the conference, there will be a limited number of pre-conference workshops which will provide participants with in-depth, hands-on and/or creative opportunities. We invite proposals for these pre-conference workshops. Local presenters are encouraged to propose workshops that will invite visiting researchers into their labs or studios or locales. Proposals should be no more than 1000 words, and should clearly outline the purpose, methodology, structure, costs, equipment and minimal attendance required, as well as explaining its relevance to the conference as a whole. Proposals will be accepted if they demonstrate that the workshop will add significantly to the overall program in terms of thematic depth, hands on experience, or local opportunities for scholarly or artistic connections. These proposals and all inquires regarding pre-conference proposals should be submitted as soon as possible to the Conference Chair and no later than 31 March 2006.

DEADLINES
Submission site available: 1 December 2005
Final date for proposal submission: 7 February 2006
Presenter notification: 21 March 2006
Final workshop submission deadline: 31 March 2006
Submission of paper for publication/student award: 31 July 2006
Submission of paper for conference archive: 30 September 2006

CONTACT INFORMATION
Program Chair: Dr Fay Sudweeks, Murdoch University, Australia, sudweeks@murdoch.edu.au
Conference Chair: Dr Axel Bruns, Queensland University of Technology, Australia, a.bruns@qut.edu.au
President of AoIR: Dr Matthew Allen, Curtin University of Technology, Australia m.allen@curtin.edu.au
Association Website: http://www.aoir.org
Conference Website: http://conferences.aoir.org (from 1 December)

Posted by prolurkr at 07:18 AM | TrackBack

VIP Organizer

For the last month I have been testing a PIM called VIP Organizer. Yes I like my hipster PDA but I need something with the ability to set times as well as due dates. Basically I need something finer grained. While I simply love UltraRecall I do like keeping some information separate...it makes it visually easier for me to sort out what I have to do today from what is due down the road. Basically I need a simple project planner.

So I ran across VIP Organizer and I have liked using it. The interface is fairly intuitive and attractive and I have lots of options for organizing data. I decided I was going to buy it, up until I went to buy the program and found out a thing or two about it. First the software is $49.95, not the most expensive out there but neither is it the cheapest. However that $49.95 buys you one download, and if you pay an extra $6.95 you can have additional downloads for up to one year. So if your hard drive crashes, or like me you reformat periodically, or you buy a new computer you better plan on doing it in that first year because afterward you will be forced to pay for a new program.

This I do not like, at all. It's a good business model for the company...steady stream of revenue and that $6.95 is insurance rather than a product to be made. But for the consumer this is a bad idea. So I won't be buying their program any time soon....not at those prices.

Oh well back to the hunt for an easy to use to-do list/project planner.

Posted by prolurkr at 10:49 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

525,600 minutes - how do you measure, measure a year?

Some musicals you can listen to without ever seeing the action and the music works...think Rogers and Hammerstein. Sure the music moves the plot but by and large they are great songs that are secondary to the book. Of course that is why they can become pop hits because you don't need to know the story for the song to work on its own.

Then you have musicals where the music is so intimately wrapped up around the plot that the two have become inseparable. Those musicals you have to watch. Oh sure once you have, the music can play forever in your head with the snip-its of visual you have saved in your personal repository. But that first time you have to see to understand and become. These are the songs that don't become pop hits but that you play in your head after seeing a cast performs on the Tonight Show or Letterman.

Rent is one of those musicals. I knew it the first time I read about it. And I've avoided hearing the music until I could see the show, though of course Seasons of Love had snuck through from the late night shows and from the Tony's but it alone was my example of the show. Of course I had almost given up on ever seeing a performance until I heard they were filming it with a stellar director and much of the original cast.

And this afternoon I went. Go see it. It is amazing. I know I will be going back.

Posted by prolurkr at 06:58 PM | TrackBack