Wednesday...a good day and a dreadful day

Wednesday afternoon ended as a very good day.  I finished the second main section of the quals paper, which felt pretty cool.  I have one more main section to write and then there is all the front and back stuff....introduction, future research, etc.  So we are definitely moving in the right direction.

To celebrate I made dinner for hubby and after we ate we were talking about some general stuff nothing that was a huge big deal at all.  Then he changed the subject and told me he wants a divorce.  Not a fun way to end the day.

As you can imagine after several days of discussion with him since Wednesday, during which he has refused my request for counseling on two separate occasions, I now have my brain around the idea that this is actually happening.  There is lots of what is going on that I don't understand...and I hope I do have more understandable reasons from him before it is all over.  Of course that is aside from the fact that he has found someone else...it's a long and fairly ugly story that I won't be telling here.  So as you can see Wednesday night didn't end well at all.

For now I have to set my focus on quals aside.  I need to disentangle 16 years of living in his family home so I can then pack and move.  A process that I expect to take about a month, given that classes start in less than two weeks.

Since I'm not much of a diary blogger and am by nature fairly private I don't expect to be talking much about it all here.  For now I just wanted to let you know that my quiet posting summer here at prolurker is likely to continue for some time as I try to get other things together. 

Posted by prolurkr at 08:42 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack

CFP - Gender & Technology Plenary Session

Call for Papers: Gender & Technology Plenary Session
2007 Southwest/Texas Popular Culture/American Culture Association
The 28th Annual Meeting of the SW/TX PCA/ACA
February 14-17, 2007
Hyatt Regency Albuquerque
Albuquerque, New Mexico

The 2007 SW/TX PCA/ACA Conference will be held in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the Hyatt Regency downtown. Further details regarding the conference (listing of all areas, hotel, registration, tours, etc.) can be found at http://www.h-net.org/~swpca/.

Proposals are now being accepted for the Gender & Technology Plenary Session, which will focus on the various relationships that exist between gender and technology. Listed below are some suggestions for possible presentations, but topics not included here are also welcome.

·      gender and technology in learning environments
·      gender in IT careers
·      medical regulation, invention, and augmentation of gender
·      gender and science theory (dealing with philosophical questions/aspects, i.e. Keller, Longino, etc.)
·      gender role-playing on the web
·      gender differences in human-computer interaction
·      media portrayal of women and men interacting with technology
·      feminine, masculine, and gender-neutral technology

Inquiries regarding this area and/or abstracts of 250 words may be sent to Brian Still at brian.still@ttu.edu by December 1, 2006.

Posted by prolurkr at 10:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

CFP - Narrative Conference

Narrative Conference
March 15-18, 2007
Washington, D.C.

For a proposed panel at the 2007 Narrative Conference, I am seeking papers that explore situations in which the strict distinction between narrator and author begins to blur. What are the conditions for and significances of such moments?

Proposals should include 1) a 300-word abstract, 2) a brief vitae (for panel proposal purposes). Please send proposals (in the body of email or as Microsoft Word attachment) to Sue Kim at suekim@uab.edu by October 1, 2006.

See the conference's official website for additional information:
http://narrative.georgetown.edu/conference2007/callforpapers.html

Posted by prolurkr at 10:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

CFP - ACM CHIMIT 2007

 ACM CHIMIT '07: 1st ACM Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction for
                Management of Information Technology

               March 30-31, 2007 - Cambridge, MA, USA
                   http://chimit.cs.tufts.edu


Over the years, IT systems have become increasingly complex such that management is now a serious bottleneck to personal and organizational productivity. IT service delivery costs are now dominated by operating expenses, and end-user productivity suffers as a consequence. Simply put, we are at a turning point in IT: Further advances in technology, business efficiency, and growth require fundamentally new approaches to system design and management. Solutions will require a broad understanding of technology, people, organizations, and business. This symposium aims to bring together stakeholders, researchers,
practitioners, and designers from diverse fields such as human-computer interaction, human factors, computer science, management science, social sciences, and service sciences, to identify issues, put forward a research agenda, and propose solutions.

TOPICS
Original contributions are sought broadly on workplace studies, processes and practices, organizational knowledge, models and metrics, design, experimental studies, tools, and automation approaches for IT
management. More specifically topics of interest include but are not limited to:

* Workspace Studies
  - Ethnographic studies of IT work in context
  - Patterns of work for various IT processes
  - Requirements for the design of new technologies
  - Issues related to new technology adoption
  - Role and forms of organization for effective work

* Processes and Practices
  - Development and use of processes in IT
  - Best practices in problem solving strategies
  - Impact of business decisions on IT
  - Standards and guidelines of IT management
  - Experiences in policy development and use

* Organizational Knowledge
  - Case studies and techniques for expertise-finding
  - Approaches to supporting communities of practice
  - Relationship computing and role management
  - Studies of collaboration and coordination
  - Knowledge management and training in IT

* Models and Metrics
  - Models and metrics of key performance indicators
  - Quality analysis of models and metrics
  - Techniques for dynamic data collection
  - Development of early problem indicators

* Design
  - Design of human-centered IT systems
  - Architectural considerations for user experience
  - Design methodologies for complexity and risk

* Experimental Studies
  - Models of interaction with complex IT systems
  - Language in human-machine interaction
  - Evaluations of system management interfaces
  - Experiments on human error and attention
  - Cognitive issues in complex display design
  - Studies of decision-making for complex problems

* Tools and Techniques
  - Interaction techniques for system management
  - Collaborative system administration workspaces
  - Visualizations of complex system behavior
  - Management tools for personal computing
  - Script and tool development environments

* Automation
  - Automation/Policy languages
  - Human interfaces to automation
  - Policy-based interaction and control
  - Trust management in automation
  - Human-automation work division and redundancy
  - Agent-based automation and control

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS
Papers must be in standard ACM two-column format and cannot exceed 10 pages in total length, including the abstract, figures and references, and must be formatted according to the detailed ACM SIG publication
instructions. Posters must be in standard ACM two-column format and cannot exceed 2 pages in total length. Please visit the CHIMIT '07 web site for further information.

IMPORTANT DATES
September 1, 2006: Papers Submission
October 13, 2006: Papers Notification
October 27, 2006: Posters Submission
November 17, 2006: Posters Notification

GENERAL CHAIRS                              PROGRAM CHAIRS
Alva Couch, Tufts                           Patricia Jones, NASA Ames
Paul Maglio, IBM                            Eser Kandogan, IBM

                          STEERING COMMITTEE
John Bailey, IBM                            Tom Sheridan, MIT
Stephen Barley, Stanford                    Ben Shneiderman, Maryland
AEleen Frisch, Exponential                  Tony Temple, IBM
David Woods, Ohio State

                          PROGRAM COMMITTEE
Ismail Ari, HP Labs                         Paul Luff, Kings College London
Jim Barlow, NCSA                            Wayne Lutters, Maryland, BC
David Blank-Edelman, Northeastern           David Kaber, North Carolina State
Jeannette Blomberg, IBM                     Emre Kiciman, Microsoft
Geoff Bowker, Santa Clara                   Rob Kolstadt
Mark Burgess, University College Oslo       Luke Kowalski, Oracle
Terrel Cox, Microsoft                       Hanan Lutfiyya, Western Ontario
Catalina Danis, IBM                         Gloria Mark, UC, Irvine
Mica Endsley, SA Technologies               Mustapha Mouloua, UCF
Christine Halverson, IBM                    Susan Leigh Star, Santa Clara
Pam Hinds, Stanford                         Jim Thornton, PARC
Erik Hollnagel, École des Mines de Paris

TREASURER                                   REGISTRATION CHAIR
Asaf Degani, NASA Ames                      Chris Campbell, IBM

PUBLICITY
Jim Thornton, PARC

Posted by prolurkr at 01:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

CFP - Webology: Sociology of the Web

Webology: Sociology of the Web

Background and Significance
The World Wide Web is a global force affecting socio-cultural changes worldwide. These changes are affecting cultural diversity and difference throughout the world. The purpose of this Special Issue is to identify sociological issues (aspects of race, ethnic/national origin, language, religion, class, color, gender and other sociological issues) that exist on, and because of, the World Wide Web.

Contributions to this Special Issue (Volume 3, Number 4) should address either sociology of the Web as it is relates to users' context, or socio-cultural and socio-political issues of the Web as it relates to the world society. More broadly, papers are solicited on, but not limited to, the following topics:
     - Web sociology
     - Socio-cultural impacts of the Web and the impact of the Web on social interaction
     - Socio-political impacts of the Web
     - Web users' behavior
     - Web users and usage studies
     - Web and civil society
     - Web and globalization
     - Web and Digital Divide
     - Web accessibility in developing countries
     - Web and Open Access
     - The role of the Web and ICT in research, education, economy, social development
     - Censorship and Website filtering
     - Intellectual freedom on the Web
     - International issues of the Web
     - Evaluating Web resources
     - Wikipedia and its Implications

The topics above are not a comprehensive list of all possible topics for this Special Issue. Submissions to this Special Issue should address the topics above (as well as other related topics).

Guest Editor of the Special Issue
      Dr. William Bostock
      School of Government
      University of Tasmania
      Australia
      bostock at utas.edu.au
      www.utas.edu.au

Submissions
Submissions should follow the Author Guidelines of Webology. All Submissions will be acknowledged and then refereed by at least 2 peer reviewers. Authors should indicate that the submission is intended for
the Special Issue on Sociology of the Web, in the accompanying cover letter.

All submissions must be in English, and should represent the original work of the authors.  Improved versions of papers previously published in conference proceedings are welcome, provided that no copyright limitations exist. Submissions must be made electronically via e-mail to the Guest Editor (sending a CC: copy to the alternative e-mail address). The manuscript should be included as an attachment in MS-Word.

E-mail address for submission:
      TO: bostock at utas.edu.au
Alternative e-mail address for submission:
      CC: nouruzi at gmail.com

Important Dates:
      October 10, 2006: Deadline for submission of papers. All submissions are due to the Guest Editor.
      November 30, 2006: Notification to authors.
      December 15, 2006: Special Issue is published.

Posted by prolurkr at 06:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

State of the Blogosphere, August 2006

Dave Sifry has posted another quarterly report on the State of the Blogosphere, August 2006.  Check the actual post for lots of very cool graphics, especially the hour-by-hour breakdown by post language.

First off, the total posting volume of the blogosphere continues to rise, showing about 1.6 Million postings per day, or about 18.6 posts per second. This is about double the volume of about a year ago. Along with the aggregate posting volume information, we've put in some annotations of the events that occurred at the time of the spikes, showing that the blogosphere continues to react strongly to various world events. It is important to note that it is the relative increase in posting volume rather than the absolute increase that is most relevant here. In other words, because more people are blogging now, the total number of posts on a particular day don't tell the whole tale of the impact of an event - For example, The National Spelling Bee was not as large an event in the blogosphere as Hurricane Katrina. What is important to note in these charts is the relative size of the spike in relation to the posting volume at that time.

<snip>

Next, let's look at the language distribution of the blogosphere. One of the most interesting statistics that has changed since the last State of the Blogosphere is that English has retaken the lead as the #1 language of the blogosphere. However, it's not by much - the Japanese blogosphere has grown substantially as well.

<snip>

It is interesting to note that the most prevalent times for English-language posting is between the hours of 10AM and 2PM Pacific time, with an additional spike at around 5PM Pacific time. Japan, which is 17 hours ahead of San Francisco, shows a different pattern - more posting occurring during the evening hours into the night, as well as the early morning hours before work begins. I'm not entirely sure what to make of these numbers, but it would appear that English-speaking people are more likely to blog during work hours and early evening in the USA, while they are more reluctant to blog during work time in Japan. More research is definitely needed to understand when and where people are blogging. Perhaps a more experienced cultural anthropologist or sociology researcher can provide better insight here, if you're interested, drop me a line at dsifry AT technorati DOT com.

In summary:

• Technorati is now tracking over 50 Million Blogs.
• The Blogosphere is over 100 times bigger than it was just 3 years ago.
• Today, the blogosphere is doubling in size every 200 days, or about once every 6 and a half months.
• From January 2004 until July 2006, the number of blogs that Technorati tracks has continued to double every 5-7 months.
• About 175,000 new weblogs were created each day, which means that on average, there are more than 2 blogs created each second of each day.
• About 8% of new blogs get past Technorati's filters, even if it is only for a few hours or days.
• About 70% of the pings Technorati receives are from known spam sources, but we drop them before we have to send out a spider to go and index the splog.
• Total posting volume of the blogosphere continues to rise, showing about 1.6 Million postings per day, or about 18.6 posts per second.
• This is about double the volume of about a year ago.
• The most prevalent times for English-language posting is between the hours of 10AM and 2PM Pacific time, with an additional spike at around 5PM Pacific time

Posted by prolurkr at 08:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Do you know this weblog publication? HELP

Ok I need to pick the collective cosmic brains of prolurkr readers.  You see I am looking for a citation and having trouble laying my hands on it.  This is one of those awful situations where I know I have the article in Reference Manger, heck I'm pretty sure I have a hardcopy too, but I haven't been able to isolate it with the right set of keywords. Please search your brain and your reference systems and let me know what information you have on this paper.

The paper (I think it's a book chapter but might be a journal article, heck it might be almost anything) is about a group of student's trip to a festival above the arctic circle (I remember they had to plan for the cold...really cold weather).  While on the trip they were all contributing to a group blog about the experience so other could take part in the experience.

Do any of you know an author's name or the title of the article?  Give me enough info so I can find the article and I will pay off with a drink at our next shared conference.  Thanks.

FOUND IT!

Hendrick, Stephanie and Örnberg, Therese (2004). The weblog as an immersive space: Moblogging Jokkmokk 2004. In Burg, Thomas N., BlogTalks2 (201-236). Vienna: Zentrum für Wissenschaftliche Forschung und Dienstleistung.

Posted by prolurkr at 07:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

CFP - THE FIFTH ANNUAL MEETING of the CULTURAL STUDIES ASSOCIATION

THE FIFTH ANNUAL MEETING of the CULTURAL STUDIES ASSOCIATION (U.S.)
Portland, Oregon (Portland State University) April 19-21, 2007
 
The Cultural Studies Association (U.S.) invites participation in its Fifth Annual Meeting from all areas and on all topics of relevance to Cultural Studies, including but not limited to literature, history, sociology,
geography, anthropology, communications, popular culture, cultural theory, queer studies, critical race studies, feminist studies, postcolonial studies, media and film studies, material culture studies, performance and visual arts studies.
 
The conference this year will feature plenary sessions on Ethics and Environment; Asia, The Pacific Rim, and Capitalism; and Post-9/11 America and the World.  Plenarists will include:

Jill Casid, Art History, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Eric Cazdyn, East Asian Studies, University of Toronto
Katharyne Mitchell, Geography, University of Washington
David Palumbo-Liu, Comparative Literature, Stanford University
Paul Smith, Cultural Studies, George Mason University
Andrew Ross, Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University

All participants in the Fifth Annual meeting must pay registration fees by March 15, 2007, to be listed and participate in the program.  See the registration page of the CSA conference website for details about fees at http://www.csaus.pitt.edu/conf/index.php?cf=4. 
 
If you have any questions about procedures for submission or other concerns, please e-mail us at: csaus@pitt.edu.
 
We welcome proposals in the following four categories:
 
1. INDIVIDUAL PAPERS
Proposals for individual papers are due October 16, 2006. 
 
Successful papers will reach several constituencies of the organization and will connect analysis to social, political, economic, or ethical questions.
 
They should be submitted at http://www.csaus.pitt.edu/conf/submit.php?cf=4.  Successful submission will be acknowledged.  If you do not receive an acknowledgement within 24 hours, please resubmit. The acknowledgement will say that your proposal has been "successfully submitted," which does NOT
mean your proposal has been accepted.
 
All paper proposals require:
 
a. The name, email address, department and institutional affiliation of the author, entered on the website.
b. A 500-word abstract for the 20-minute paper entered on the website.
c. Any needed audio-visual equipment must be noted following the abstract in that space on the site.
 
2. PRE-CONSTITUTED PAPER SESSIONS, ROUNDTABLE SESSIONS, OR WORKSHOP SESSIONS
Proposals for pre-constituted sessions are due October 16, 2006. 
 
Roundtables are sessions in which panelists offer brief remarks, but the bulk of the session is devoted to discussion among the panelists and audience members. Workshops are similarly devoted primarily to discussion, but they focus on practical problems in such areas as teaching, research, or activism. No paper titles may be included for roundtables or workshops.
 
Pre-constituted sessions should NOT be submitted on the website, but should be sent to csaus@pitt.edu with the words "Session Proposal" in the subject line. All proposals will be acknowledged, but please allow at least two business days before inquiring.
 
All session proposals require:
 
a. The name, email address, phone number, and department and institutional affiliation of the proposer.
b. The names, email addresses, and department and institutional affiliations of each participant.
c. A 500-word overview of the session, including identifying the type of session (panel, roundtable, workshop) proposed.  For paper sessions, also include 500-word abstracts of each of the papers.  Paper sessions should have three or four papers.
d. A request for any needed audio-visual equipment.  All AV equipment must be requested with the proposal.
 
3.  DIVISION SESSIONS
Proposals for division sessions are due October 16, 2006.
 
CSA is initiating a new format for the conference:  divisions, which are thematic groupings of sessions, organized by division leaders.  Division leaders will organize two to three sessions for the conference.  These
division sessions will be marked in the conference program.   Lists of divisions and procedures for submission to divisions are at http://www.csaus.pitt.edu.   (See link in the bottom paragraph.)
 
4. SEMINAR SESSIONS
Proposals for seminars are due October 16, 2006.
 
The conference will again feature a series of seminars. Seminars are small-group (maximum 15 individuals) discussion sessions for which participants write brief "position papers" that are circulated prior to the
conference. Those wishing to lead seminars are encouraged to submit a proposal.  Once seminar leaders are chosen, the seminars will be announced through the CSA's various public e-mail lists on November 1.  Participants will contact the seminar leader directly who will then inform the Program Committee who will participate in the seminar after November 20.

Seminar proposals should be sent to:  May Joseph, Assoc. Prof. Global
Studies, Pratt Institute
may.joseph@earthlink.net. 

All seminar proposals require:
 
a. A 500-word overview of the topic designed to attract participants and clear instructions about how the seminar will work.
b. The name, email address, phone number, mailing address, and departmental and institutional affiliation of the leader(s) proposing the seminar.
c. A brief bio or one page CV of the leader proposing the seminar.
d. A request for any needed audio-visual equipment.  All AV equipment must be requested with the proposal. Since seminars typically involve discussion of previously circulated papers, such requests must be explained.
 
Those interested in participating in (rather than leading) a seminar should consult the list of seminars and the instructions for signing up for them, available on November 1 at http://www.csaus.pitt.edu/conf/index.php?cf=4. 

Posted by prolurkr at 02:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication v11, i4

The JOURNAL OF COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION is pleased to announce its latest issue:

http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue4/

---------
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
Volume 11, Issue 4, July 2006
---------

Where Everybody Knows Your (Screen) Name: Online Games as 'Third Places'
- Constance A. Steinkuehler and Dmitri Williams

Gender and Computer Games: Exploring Females' Dislikes
- Tilo Hartmann and Christoph Klimmt

The Internet at Play: Child Users of Public Internet Connections
- Christian Sandvig

Metropolitan Websites as Urban Communication
- Leo W. Jeffres and Carolyn A. Lin

Developing 'Third Space' Interculturality Using Computer-Mediated Communication
- Tracey Bretag

Gender and the Use of Exclamation Points in Computer-Mediated Communication: An Analysis of Exclamations Posted to Two Electronic Discussion Lists
- Carol Waseleski

The Construction of Away Messages: A Speech Act Analysis
- Jacqueline Nastri, Jorge Pena, and Jeffrey T. Hancock

A Sign of the Times: An Analysis of Organizational Members' Email Signatures
- Stephen A. Rains and Anna M. Young

Homophily of Network Ties and Bonding and Bridging Social Capital in Computer-Mediated Distributed Teams
- Y. Connie Yuan and Geri Gay

The Pass-Along Effect: Investigating Word-of-Mouth Effects on Online Survey Procedures
- Andrew T. Norman and Cristel A. Russell

Online Word-of-Mouth (or Mouse): An Exploration of Its Antecedents and Consequences
- Tao Sun, Seounmi Youn, Guohua Wu, and Mana Kuntaraporn

Management, Market, and Financial Factors Separating Winners and Losers in E-Business
- Pradeep Korgaonkar and Bay O'Leary

Posted by prolurkr at 07:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Writing by the clock

I keep trying to learn more about the writing process, that means I tend to pickup books and articles on different aspects of the process.  Of course I learn more about my own writing process as I practice my craft, working on different types of projects. 

With all of that in mind I want to recommend a little book on planning to write that I am finding very interesting and potentially very useful.  Check out:

Zerubavel, Eviatar (1999). The Clockwork Muse: A Practical Guide to Writing Theses, Dissertations, and Books. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.

From the book's webpage on the Harvard Press site:

For anyone who has blanched at the uphill prospect of finishing a long piece of writing, this book holds out something more practical than hope: it offers a plan. The Clockwork Muse is designed to help prospective authors develop a workable timetable for completing long and often formidable projects.

The idea of dashing off a manuscript in a fit of manic inspiration may be romantic, but it is not particularly practical. Instead, Eviatar Zerubavel, a prolific and successful author, describes how to set up a writing schedule and regular work habits that will take most of the anxiety and procrastination out of long-term writing, and even make it enjoyable. The dreaded "writer's block" often turns out to be simply a need for a better grasp of the temporal organization of work.

The Clockwork Muse rethinks the writing process in terms of time and organization. It offers writers a simple yet comprehensive framework that considers such variables as when to write, for how long, and how often, while keeping a sense of momentum throughout the entire project. It shows how to set priorities, balance ideals against constraints, and find the ideal time to write. For all those whose writing has languished, waiting for the "right moment," The Clockwork Muse announces that the moment has arrived.

Posted by prolurkr at 06:24 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Anatomy of a(n ongoing) Disaster...

If you've ever had problems with your blog, or other website, host, you know how painful it can be.  Well you have to take that experience and multiply it a couple of thousand times to get to the level of pain DreamHost has been experiencing.  While it may not be really useful to share in another's pain...it can be kinda fun to do it vicariously.  Check out Anatomy of a(n ongoing) Disaster.. at The Official DreamHost Blog.

Posted by prolurkr at 08:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July Advisory Committee Report

Another month has flown by...is it just me or is this summer going far to fast?  Oh well, here is my monthly report to my Advisory Committee (pdf) so that July's work is recorded for posterity. 

Posted by prolurkr at 03:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack