Call for Papers

Internet Research 13.0: Technologies

The 13th Annual International and Interdisciplinary Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR)

October 18-21, 2012

MediaCity:UK – University of Salford
Salford – Greater Manchester – UK

Internet Research 13.0 will focus on the theme of technologies, understood in the broadest sense as crafts, techniques, and systems. The conference will examine the place of the Internet in the contemporary world and in relation to a range of existing and emerging technologies, considering its impact in a context where life is entangled with technologies of all kinds as never before. The conference will bring together scholars, researchers, students and practitioners from many disciplines to map and situate the development of the Internet as part of the history of human technology.

To this end, we call for papers, panel and pre-conference workshop proposals from any discipline, methodology, community or a combination of them that address the conference themes, including, but not limited to, papers that intersect and/or interconnect with the following:

• the speed and acceleration of technological change
• 
the past, present and future of technology
• emerging and converging technologies
• educational technology
• cultures of crafting
• connectivity and access
• space, location and mobile technologies
• technology, networks and attachments
• 
technology and the body
• 
technologies of the self
• technology, regulation and ethics

Sessions at the conference will be established that specifically address the conference themes, and we welcome innovative, exciting, and unexpected takes on those themes. We also welcome submissions on topics that address social, cultural, political, legal, aesthetic, economic, and/or philosophical aspects of the internet beyond the conference themes. In all cases, we welcome disciplinary and interdisciplinary submissions as well as international collaborations from both AoIR and non-AoIR members.

Submissions

We seek proposals for several different kinds of contributions. As in the past, we welcome proposals for traditional academic conference PAPERS, organized PANEL PROPOSALS that present a coherent group of papers on a single theme, as well as PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS which focus on a particular topic. We also invite proposals that will focus on discussion and interaction among conference delegates. A common form of this type is the ROUNDTABLE SESSION, but we would also like to encourage other formats, such as OPEN FISHBOWL SESSIONS. (See the Wikipedia entry under “Fishbowl (conversation)” for a description of this format. Fishbowl sessions should cover broad topics of interest to a wide segment of the AoIR community.) Finally, we invite short 5-minute talks on topics of interest to the community as part of our Ignite-IR panels. Please see below for more information on this format.

Deadlines

• 

Submissions Due: 1 March 2012 (Papers, Panels and Pre-Workshops. Details below.)
  NOTE: The submission deadline is a HARD DEADLINE; there will be NO extensions to this date.
• Notification: 1 May 2012
• Full Papers Submissions Due for inclusion in Selected Papers of IR: 1 July 2012
• Ignite-IR Final Proposal Deadline: 1 August 2012
• Ignite-IR Slides Due: 15 September 2012

Submission Requirements

• All papers and presentations will be evaluated in a standard blind peer review.
• PAPERS (individual or multi-author) – submit abstract of 600-800 words
• PANEL PROPOSALS – submit a description of 600-800 words on the panel theme, plus a 250-500 word abstract for each paper or presentation. The panel organizer must assemble these materials for submission
• ROUNDTABLE and FISHBOWL PROPOSALS – submit a statement indicating the nature of the discussion and form of interaction, and listing initial participants. (In the case of a fishbowl proposal, this will include the name of the moderator, and the names of the first four speakers for the fishbowl.)
• PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS – please submit all workshop proposals via email to atwood@aoir.org. Workshop proposals should include names of presenters and a 1,000-word description.
• IGNITE-IR – please submit a one-paragraph abstract and other information. Details at http://ir13.aoir.org/ignite-ir

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 individual may present only one paper during the conference, though they may be listed as a co-author on multiple papers. In addition to this one presentation, they may also appear on a panel, roundtable, or performance. The exception is the Ignite-IR lightening talk, which may be in addition to any other presentations.

Publication of Papers

Full papers submitted by the 1 July 2012 deadline will undergo review to be published in an open-access, online collection, Selected Papers of Internet Research (ISSN 2162-3317). A template and guidelines for preparing your final paper are available on the conference website (http://ir13.aoir.org/papers)

Selected papers from the conference will alternatively be published in a special issue of the journal Information, Communication & Society. Authors selected for submission for this issue will be contacted prior to the conference.

Pre-conference Workshops

On 18 October 2012, there will be a limited number of pre-conference workshops and symposia that 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 1,000 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 inquiries regarding pre-conference proposals should be submitted as soon as possible to both the program chair (atwood@aoir.org) and no later than 1 March 2012.

Contact Information

Program Chair: Feona Attwood, Communication, Sheffield Hallam University, UK. email: attwood@aoir.org

Local Conference Chair: Ben Light, School of Media, Music, and Performance, University of Salford, UK. email: light@aoir.org

On the opening morning of the conference, I will join John Palfrey and Lydia Shrier for a plenary panel on “Would Margaret Mead Have Blogged? How Social Media has Changed Research”. My slides for that presentation are provided below. I will also be leading a workshop on “Research, the Cloud, and the IRB”, and giving a presentation to the U.S. Department of Energy Human Subjects Working Group.

Internet research ethics is well represented at this year’s AER conference, with a strong track focusing on “Research Involving the Internet & Social Networking”. Among these presentations and workshops are several led by Elizabeth Buchanan. Buchanan will be co-facilitating a pre-conference workshop entitled “What a Tangled Web We Weave: Ethical, Regulatory, and technical Aspects of Internet Research”. She is also participating in the following workshops:  “Research, the Internet, and the IRB: Ethical and Regulatory Issues,” “Research, Social Media and the IRB,” and “Ethical Implications of Pre and Post Enrollment uses of Social Media in Clinical Trials”.

Monday, Elizabeth Buchanan and I are convening a doctoral colloquium, bringing together over thirty young scholars to discuss their dissertation research with a collection of notable Internet researchers. It should be a stimulating — and hopefully fruitful — day.

Tuesday the main conference kicks off, featuring a new format for AoIR: Ignite presentations. An “Ignite” presentation is a structured, high-energy, short talk in which you share your passion and creative ideas about internet research. Like pecha-kucha, Ignite is formed around a formalism: you must create a “deck” of 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds. This represents a radical departure from the traditional paper presentation, and is focused on telling an enlightening story, making an argument, and inciting an audience to come to your way of thinking and action. Nick Proferes, a 2nd year SOIS PhD student, is slated to kick off the ignite sessions with a very clever presentation of his on-going research into how issues of research ethics are discussed on the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) mailing list. I saw a preview of Nick’s talk — it will be very entertaining.

Wednesday, I’m moderating a privacy panel, featuring these excellent papers:

Information Movements in Networked Spaces: A Model of Networked Private and Public Spaces
Beth Patin, Jeff Hemsley, Karine Nahon
University of Washington, United States of America

Seeing Surveillance in the Cloud: Both Sides for the Moment
David J. Phillips, Karen Pollock, Michael Murphy
U Toronto, Canada

Social Networking & Young Adults in the U.S.: Participation, Privacy, and (Mis)Perceptions
Heidi A. McKee, Hillary Oberpeul, Amy Wilkins, Francis Kazungu
Miami University, United States of America

I also will be attending various sessions on technology & resistance, the Wisconsin labor protests, and, of course, just catching up with many old friends.

And while in Seattle, I’ll be taking in the Battlestar Galactica exhibit at the EMP museum. I also might or might not be spending some time at Tavern Law.

Hope to see many of you there!

I am pleased to announce the following student travel grant opportunity for IR 12 in Seattle.

The Center for Information Policy Research (CIPR) is pleased to again offer a CIPR Student Award in Information Policy & Ethics, to sponsor one student (undergraduate, graduate or post-doc) for the Association of Internet Researchers IR12 Conference in Seattle, Washington. The amount of the award is US$500.

The student’s research must focus on some aspect of information policy or ethics, and internet studies, broadly conceived. The recipient must have an accepted paper at IR12 and must attend to present the research.

To apply, please send the following documents to Michael Zimmer at zimmerm@uwm.edu:

• Accepted Paper Abstract
• CV
• Brief statement describing how the paper/research will make an impact on the fields of information policy, ethics, and internet studies.

Application deadline is August 31, 2011. Notification of award will be received by September 15.

The recipient should acknowledge the CIPR grant at IR12 and in any subsequent presentations or publications.

***

The Center for Information Policy Research (CIPR) is the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s multidisciplinary research center for the study of the intersections between the policy, ethical, political, social and legal aspects of the global information society. It is lead by co-directors Dr. Joyce Latham and Dr. Michael Zimmer.

Call for Participation:

Doctoral Colloquium at the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) Annual Conference 2011

Internet Research 12.0

Seattle, Washington, USA

In keeping with its commitment to students’ scholarship in the Association of Internet Researchers, the Internet Research 12.0 Doctoral Colloquium offers Ph.D. students  working in internet research or a related field a special forum on October, 10, 2011. Participants will have a chance to present their dissertations-in-progress and discuss them at length, with peers and established senior researchers.

This year, Elizabeth Buchanan and Michael Zimmer will coordinate the Doctoral Colloquium, and will be joined by colleagues including:

• Mia Consalvo
• Andrew Herman
• Steve Jones
• Charles Ess
• Hector Postigo
• (Others to be announced)

Interested students should prepare a two-page summary of their research. This should provide a context for the research, describe the methods being used,  the progress to date, and expectations and hopes from the colloquium.  Participants will be encouraged to discuss research problems or statements, methodologies, ethics, and the process of “bringing it all together” in the dissertation.

SUBMISSION/PARTICIPATION

Please submit the two page application by Friday, May 31, 2011 to: Elizabeth Buchanan, at buchanane@uwstout.edu

Applicants will be notified of acceptance by July 1, 2011. Successful applicants will be asked to prepare a four page paper on their research and the issues they wish to discuss by August 30, 2011

I presented a paper co-written with three of my esteemed colleagues, Johannes Britz, Peter Lor, and Shana Ponelis, titled “From Codification to Actualization: Applying Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach to an Information-Based Rights Framework.” In this work-in-progress, we use Sen’s capability approach to reveal how personal, social, and environmental factors shape individuals’ capabilities to capitalize on their access to information and knowledge, and conclude by suggesting that information rights advocates must turn their focus from simply promoting access to fostering capabilities, which in turn will truly empower individuals to exercise and actualize their basic information rights.

All the papers and comments at this event were stimulating, but one talk in particular grabbed my attention. David Cullier, an associate professor in the School of Journalism at UofA, presented “Freedom of Information Gazebos: The Ethical Imperative for News-Library Town Squares in the Digital Age to Preserve the Communal Right to Know”, where he called on public libraries to take on a slightly new role in their communities.

Concerned that the shrinking of local news rooms and resulting lack of reporting of local news and government activities, Cullier called on libraries to be more proactive in the gathering and sharing of public records and other government information — to become freedom of information gazebos. He points out that:

Most communities have libraries, serving as a focal point for information important to citizens, often providing physical space for discussion, forums, and community meetings. Libraries are staffed by professionals expert in finding and disseminating information for citizens. Libraries also are embedded with a culture of information freedom.

To serve as true freedom of information gazebos, Cullier suggests, libraries would need to make several important changes in their culture and organizational composition. Libraries would need to be more aggressive in seeking information, actively filing freedom of information requests, and litigating for access to public records when necessary.

Local librarians should also engage in reporting and synthesizing government activities, such as attending a city council meeting, summarizing it online and posting the minutes and supporting documents. Cullier even suggested that MLIS programs should include journalism training, and libraries could even hire the reporters being laid off by newsrooms to perform this important function.

Most importantly, libraries would have to be granted greater independence from local governments, and protections would be necessary to protect libraries from retaliation, both in budgetary cuts or outright firings.

These are not modest proposals, but I really like the direction of Cullier’s thinking. Groups of activist-minded librarians, like Radical Reference, have embarked on similar efforts, but a call for more structural change in the nature of the library profession and institution might be just what is needed to help libraries maintain their central role in providing access to information.

This year, I participated in three main events: a pre-conference workshop on “Ethics and Internet Research Commons:  Building a sustainable future”, a session on “Networking and Social Sites” where I presented a paper on “The Laws of Social Networking, or, How Facebook Feigns Privacy”, and a panel discussion titled “On the Philosophy of Facebook“. Details below…

:::

Ethics and Internet Research Commons:  Building a sustainable future

This pre-conference was organized primarily by Elizabeth Buchanan, and featured brief talks by Charles Ess, Alex Halavais, Annette Markham, Malin Svenningson, and myself. We presented case studies that revealed key ethical challenges and identified important components of ethical decision making for Internet researchers, including:

• How does cultural specificity define research ethics and regulation?
• What constitutes a public text online and in what ways can and should they be used in research?
• Why do we consider firewalls and passwords to be the “gold standard” for determining if something was meant to be kept public or private?
• How do researchers work towards the imperative of sharing data while adhering to human subjects regulations?
• What ethical guidelines should be applied to trace data?
• How do researchers handle “closeness” in ethnography in ethical ways?
• What oscillations take place when a researcher is first known as a member of a group and then as a researcher?
• How is “empirical imperialism” affecting research ethics?
• What are the virtues of deception?

An excellent summary of the entire day is over at the Internet Research Ethics project website, which includes links to my slides.

:::

The Laws of Social Networking, or, How Facebook Feigns Privacy

I participated on an excellent session titled “Networking and Social Sites”, which also featured Robert Bodle and Christian Thorsten Callisen.

Bodle’s presentation, “Opening the social media ecosystem: the tenuous nature of interoperability, crossposting, and sharing among dominant social media sites, services and devices”, explored the values, characteristics, and conditions of interoperability between Facebook and its third party developer ecosystem. He found that while Facebook’s APIs provide new ways to share and participate, they also provide Facebook a new means to achieve market dominance, as well as undermine privacy, data security, contextual integrity, user autonomy and freedom.

Callisen’s talk, “The Old Face of ‘New’ Social Networks: The Republic of Letters”, was a historical contextualization of the so-called digital revolution within the longer history of “the virtual”. He showed how the Republic of Letters was essentially a networked virtual community for the reciprocal sharing of information, complete with its own techniques for simulating co-presence, protocols for information transfer and interaction, and varying levels of transparency and encryption.

My presentation, “The Laws of Social Networking, or, How Facebook Feigns Privacy”, was an expanded thought piece inspired by this blog post, where I suggest three natural laws that thwart attempts to provide users of social networking sites sufficient means to control their information flows:

• The first law is somewhat obvious: Social networking sites are incentivized to promote the open and unfettered flow of mountains of personal information.
• The second law, perhaps more of a corollary, follows naturally from this: Providing users robust and easy-to-use tools to control their personal information flows is counter to this profit maximization motive.
• Thus, the third law: Provide users privacy controls only when you must, and position them as both a great a sacrifice, as well as something users probably shouldn’t bother with; make privacy hard.

To support this argument, I discuss various public comments by Facebook’s management team, and show how the laws become encoded within the design of Facebook’s architecture and recent privacy “upgrades”. I concluded that the existence of the laws of social networking create — and perpetuate — a great power imbalance where users lack robust privacy controls, leaving them with limited ability to manage their personal information flows.

The rough text of my remarks can be downloaded here, and my slides are available here.

As an aside: I found it amusing that the most tweeted comment from my talk was a completely off-the-cuff remark criticizing Facebook’s claim that users have control over their information simply due to the existence of privacy controls. I noted that all the controls to fly  a 747 are in the cockpit too, but that doesn’t mean anyone can fly a 747.

:::

On the Philosophy of Facebook

Recognizing that Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has built his social networking empire on the belief that “information wants to be shared“, a particular philosophy of information that directly impacts the values built into the design of Facebook, ranging from its user interface, privacy policies, terms of service, and method of governance, I organized a panel to explore the philosophy of Facebook and its broader implications for norms of privacy, identity, governance, sociability, and online life generally.

I was lucky to welcome the following speakers to IR.11 to discuss this important topic:

• Kate Raynes-Goldie, Curtin University of Technology, Australia
• Anthony Hoffmann, UW-Milwaukee, USA
• Korinna Patelis, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
• Trebor Scholz, New School University, USA
• Dylan Wittkower, Coastal Carolina University, USA

Unfortunately, we only had 1 hour (!!) for the panel discussion, but it was a very good 60 minutes; one of the few times I’ve heard Marx, Hegel, Kant, Rawls, Deleuze and Guattari, etc discussed at length at AoIR. We concluded that perhaps an entire pre-conference on the topic is in order for IR.12 (in Seattle in 2011).

I’ve decided to focus on how LIS scholars and professionals need to place renewed focus on providing information ethics education across various contexts. We must move beyond just implementing information ethics within LIS curricula, and find innovative ways to incorporate it into elementary and secondary schools, public & school libraries, homes and community centers, as well as within popular media, video games, and the Internet.

See the call for participation below, and please submit a proposal if you want to join this conversation.

Call for Participation
ALISE 2011 Information Ethics SIG panel discussion
San Diego, CA, January 2011

Innovations in Teaching Information Ethics Across Contexts

:: Submission deadline: July 28, 2010 ::

In keeping with the 2011 ALISE conference theme of “Competitiveness and Innovation,” the Information Ethics SIG invites submissions to participate in a panel discussion to highlight innovations and new approaches for teaching information ethics across multiple contexts.

While recent Information Ethics SIG activities have focused on innovative ways to integrate information ethics across LIS curricula, the 2011 panel discussion will broaden this scope to include multiple educational contexts and opportunities, ranging from elementary/secondary education, university & professional environs, public & school libraries, within homes and community centers, or through popular media, gaming and the Internet.

Possible topics for this panel discussion include:

• What innovative educational tools and methods are being used for teaching information ethics across various contexts?
• How can information ethics be introduced in elementary through secondary education curricula?
• What place does information ethics have within broader “21st Century Skills” or “S.T.E.M.” educational initiatives?
• What topics in information ethics (i.e., privacy, netiquette, intellectual property, plagiarism, information literacy, etc.) are most appropriate to introduce within specific educational contexts?
• How can popular media, video games, and the Internet be leveraged to foster information ethics awareness and education?
• How can information ethics be established within general requirements for undergraduate education?
• What role do parents and non-traditional teachers play in educating youth about information ethics?
• How are LIS scholars and professionals providing information ethics education across various contexts? What contexts are underserved, and how can we target them?

We envision this panel discussion to take the form of a guided conversation, featuring 4-6 selected speakers addressing relevant topics, complemented by a robust exchange of ideas with the audience members.

Interested participants are invited to submit a 300-word abstract of their intended contribution to Michael Zimmer (zimmerm@uwm.edu) by July 28, 2010. A full proposal will be submitted to ALISE on July 30, 2010.

Registration is now open for Internet Research 11.0: Sustainability, Participation, Action, the 2010 conference for the Association of Internet Researchers, taking place October 21-23 in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Yes, the costs are higher this year, but, frankly, this conference is more expensive to run than IR.10 was in Milwaukee last year.

If you’re a student looking for ways to defray some of the costs, the UW-Milwaukee Center for Information Policy Research (CIPR) will again sponsor a student (undergraduate, graduate or post-doc) for the conference in the amount of US$800. Details below:

Center for Information Policy Research (CIPR)
School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
AoIR 11 Grant

The CIPR will sponsor one student (undergraduate, graduate or post-doc) for the Gothenburg AoIR 11conference in the amount of $800 (US). The student’s research must focus on some aspect of information ethics or information policy, and internet studies, broadly conceived. The recipient must submit a proposal for a paper according to AoIR procedures. Once accepted, the following should be submitted to Elizabeth Buchanan at elizabeth at internetresearchethics.org:

• Paper Abstract
• CV
• Brief statement describing how the paper will make an impact on the fields of information ethics, policy, and internet studies.

Submissions should be received by 1 August 2010. Recipient will be notified by 30 August 2010.

The recipient should acknowledge the CIPR grant at AoIR and in any subsequent presentations or publications.

I hope to see many of you in Gothenburg this fall!

For 2011, the conference theme is “Crossing Boundaries: Ethics in Interdisciplinary and Intercultural Relations”. The full call for papers is below.

Call for Papers: 2011 Computer Ethics/Philosophical Enquiry Conference

The CEPE (Computer Ethics Philosophical Enquiry) conference series is recognized as one of the premier international events on computer and information ethics attended by delegates from all over the world.

CEPE/2011 is hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and will take place in Milwaukee, WI from May 31 to June 3. The theme for the conference is “Crossing Boundaries: Ethics in Interdisciplinary and Intercultural Relations.”

Possible topics for papers/presentations:

• E-governance
• E-waste
• E-politics
• Intercultural ethics
• Professional Ethics
• International ethics, law and policy issues
• E-crime and security
• E-Research Ethics

Deadlines and Notification Dates:

• Extended abstracts of 2000 words due: December 15, 2010
• Notification by 30 January 2011
• Full papers in CEPE style guide due: March 15 2011

Please send abstracts, papers, and other inquiries to Jeremy Mauger at jjmauger [at] uwm [dot] edu.