[Air-L] Re studying mobiles in Myanmar

Leurs, K.H.A. (Koen) K.H.A.Leurs at uu.nl
Tue Jul 22 06:40:19 PDT 2014


Dear Rich and all,

That's a really exciting project you are undertaking. Will you be maintaining a web presence on the proceedings of the work?

I thought of these points of reference that might be of interest:

Norris & Inglehart (2009) Cosmopolitan Communications. Cultural Diversity in a Globalized World. Cambridge: Cambridge UP., especially considering their discussion on the World Values Survey, and how technologies does impact upon values (or doesn't)

Sreekumar, T T (2011) ICTs AND DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA: PERSPECTIVES ON THE RURAL NETWORK SOCIETY, London: Anthem Press

Sreekumar, T. T. (2011). Mobile phones and the cultural ecology of fishing in Kerala. Information Society, 27 (3), 172–180.

Sreekumar, T. T. & Rivera–Sánchez, M. (2008). ICTs and development: Revisiting the Asian experience. Science Technology & Society, 13 (2), 159-174.

Sreekumar, T. T. (2007). Cyber kiosks and dilemmas of social inclusion in rural India. Media Culture & Society, 29 (6), 869-89.

Ethan Zuckermans (2013) Rewire. Digital cosmopolitans in the age of connection. New York: W.W. Norton. 

Andrea Calderaro is working on telecom reforms in Myanmar, see the authors blog post Digitalizing Myanmar: Connectivity Developments in Political Transitions  http://cgcsblog.asc.upenn.edu/2014/02/24/digitalizing-myanmar-connectivity-developments-in-political-transitions/

Best wishes,

Koen. 

Koen Leurs, PhD
| Marie Curie Postdoctoral Researcher,
  London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) |
| Affiliated researcher Graduate Gender Studies
Institute for Cultural Enquiry (ICON)
Utrecht University  |

www.koenleurs.net



________________________________________
From: Air-L [air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] on behalf of Sandra Braman [braman at uwm.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2014 8:11 AM
To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
Subject: [Air-L] Re studying mobiles in Myanmar

In response to Rich Ling's query, there are numerous items to mention but one would want to begin with the classic and still important book by Daniel Lerner from the 1950s, THE PASSING OF TRADITIONAL SOCIETY (re the Middle East) for a set of dimensions (re urbanization, participation in politics, etc.) that will be of importance with the mobile phone in Myanmar as elsewhere as a starting point. The technology involved is different, but here, as elsewhere, what was learned before the Internet and mobile telephony came along remains of deep value for questions such as this.  Sandra Braman

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Today's Topics:

   1. Re: Suggestions for literature on adoption of technology as
      background for our study of mobiles in Myanmar (OPEN)
      (john-willy.bakke at telenor.com)
   2. European meta data researchers wanted (Mathias Klang)
   3. The Fibreculture Journal?Call for Papers?Entanglements:
      Activism and Technology (Jean Burgess)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 12:24:23 +0000
From: <john-willy.bakke at telenor.com>
To: <riseling at gmail.com>, <air-l at listserv.aoir.org>
Subject: Re: [Air-L] Suggestions for literature on adoption of
        technology as background for our study of mobiles in Myanmar (OPEN)
Message-ID:
        <57C423DD43E5384FB10AE35D448ECF282A506DF8 at TNS-FBU-24-205.corp.telenor.no>

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Hi Rich & the rest of the community

Two titles come to my mind - both directly related to the introduction of phones:
Assa Doron and Robin Jeffrey: The Great Indian Phone Book: How the Cheap Cell Phone Changes Business, Politics, and Daily Life (2013)
Heather Hudson: When Telephones Reach the Village: The Role of Telecommunication in Rural Development (1984)

BR,
John Willy Bakke


-----Original Message-----
From: Air-L [mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Rich Ling
Sent: 2. juli 2014 09:10
To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
Subject: [Air-L] Suggestions for literature on adoption of technology as background for our study of mobiles in Myanmar

Dear all,?

Along with colleagues from Nanyang Technical University, I am starting an ethnographic study of the adoption and diffusion of mobile phones in Myanmar. The study is also being supported by Telenor.

Myanmar is one of the last countries in the world without a well developed mobile communication network (the others are North Korea,? Cuba and Eritrea).? We are starting to put together the literature review and we are interested in gathering suggestions.

We are using Jonathan Donner's lives and livelihoods idea to frame the work. Beyond that I would like to get the wisdom of the crowd regarding the articles and books that examine the question of introducing new technology to a society and tracing the social consequences of the technology.? I think,? for example, of Cottrell's Death by Dieselization or perhaps Sharp's Steel Axes for Stone-age Australians. I know that neither of these two articles are about ICTs and that both are as old as dust, ?but they focus on socio-technical transitions and their social consequences. ?What are the other articles and books in this genre that might help us focus on the transition from face to face interaction to mediated communication??

Thanks in advance.?

Rich Ling
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Message: 2
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 14:42:29 -0400
From: Mathias Klang <klang at ituniv.se>
To: <air-l at listserv.aoir.org>
Subject: [Air-L] European meta data researchers wanted
Message-ID: <53CD5F15.3070309 at ituniv.se>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"; format=flowed

Hi,
Part of my work is for Commons Machinery (commonsmachinery.se) and we
are applying for an EU grant. As part of this process we would like to
include European researchers interested in culture and metadata. This
should be a good opportunity for PhD students. Please contact me if you
are interested. See the short proposal sketched out below

regards
Mathias




*The **Snappy Title **Project*

Commons Machinery and partners are planning to apply for funding for a
project, the goal of which is to bridge the gap between audiences and
artists by making cultural material more useable online. Succinctly,
we're developing tools that make it possible to link back to the
original context of images, even when those images are distributed and
shared widely online. With this e-mail, we're looking for partners in
academia, among cultural institutions, artists, and from the community
itself -- as thought partners, active participants in the project,
participants in our reference group or in other forms.

*The Funding*

We're applying for a small scale Cooperation Project under Creative
Europe, with an expected deadline for submission the 1st of October
2014. The EU funds up to EUR 200,000 for small scale projects, and
require a 40% co-financing by applicants. We're looking for a project
that lasts 1?-2 years, with a start date in May 2015 - but we'll draft
the final details in collaboration.


Organizations from any part of the world may join, but there are
restrictions on the funding that could be made available for
organizations from outside of the EU (and some other countries, full
list on
http://ec.europa.eu/culture/opportunities/documents/eligible-countries_en.pdf).


*The****Background*

Our online environment is awash with images, however many of these
images have been moved from their original context and no longer retain
the information that gives them meaning. When organizations and
individuals put images online they are often viewed in within a single
web domain, collection or authorship. However, due to the ease in
copying, images are often removed from their original contexts and,
through this, they lose some of their meaning and value; it becomes
impossible to trace them back to their origin. From a practical point of
view, it's also an issue for users who want to correctly reuse an image
in accordance with copyright legislation; they must save copyright and
other information to adequately attribute the creator, and maintain this
information through all stages of their work.


This system is unwieldy, complex, and unreliable. Using new technology
with tool integration, information about the images could seamlessly
follow the image without effort from the users. This system would not be
limited to copyright basics such as authorship but can include a range
of additional information about the image, for example, where the
original is, which collection it belongs to, which organization retains
rights to the image (if any!), and where users can learn more about the
image.


Such information could be automatically visualized and made available to
users, even when they encounter images outside of their original
context, for instance when an image has been shared online, posted in a
forum, or made available on another web site. This is of interest to
organizations connected with the image (such as galleries, libraries,
archives, and museums). Such organizations, as well as the artists
themselves and the audience, would all benefit from having a stronger
association between each and every digital image and its' context.


*The **Solution **& Our Hypothesis*

Commons Machinery is working to create an infrastructure and the tools
needed to make this association persistent. Our Elogio web service will
enable an audience to save and use images, while keeping all relevant
contextual information intact. It will also allow holders of information
about images to make such information available through this common
infrastructure in a way that when the audience encounter their images
online, the contextual information is displayed, and when a user saves
or uses an image, the original context is carried over into the
resulting work.


Our hypothesis is that if this information is made available to the
audience, it would increase the bond between audiences and artists, and
between audiences and cultural institutions. By visualizing the context
in which images used online originally has appeared, we believe that the
viewers will feel a stronger connection with the artists and the
institutions holding the originals, leading to a potential in retaining
and enlarging their audience, as well as improving the experience of
viewing images online and deepening the relationships.


*The Project & The **Test*

The technology is still in its early stages, and our hypothesis is just
this -- a hypothesis. Through this project, we would hope to learn more
about how this kind of technology can be used for audience engagement,
and if it does indeed lead to deeper and more relevant relationships. We
envision a project where each main partner has specific and
complementary skill sets and expertise.


The content providers -- cultural institutions -- know their content and
are interested in making it more usable to the public while ensuring
that links back to their institution remain intact. Our systems
developers will collaborate with these participating institutions in
tailoring the system to their needs, providing education and training,
and gathering data on its use.


Research partners will be engaged in the gathering and analysis of the
empirical data through qualitative interviews with the participants,
surveys among users, and analysis of the data generated from the use of
the system. Researchers will be actively involved by conducting in depth
interviews with stakeholders, gathering empirical data about each of
their needs. The data from the use of the system together with
interviews will provide material for researchers working to evaluate the
system in the wider context of sharing cultural material online.


Community partners will be engaged throughout the project in raising
awareness and interest in the project and the work by holding workshops,
training sessions and facilitating other meetings involving the
projects' stakeholder groups. The project will provide education and
training materials about metadata and its usage to help content
providers and individuals alike.


*What we're looking for*

If you, as an individual, as representing an organisation or
institution, or your organization or institution as a whole, has an
interest in the project, we invite you to email us at
hello at commonsmachinery.se <mailto:hello at commonsmachinery.se> to
introduce yourself. As mentioned in the beginning, we're looking for
participants in our reference group of the project that will
continuously influence the project by giving their thoughts on issues
we'll be facing along the way.


We're also looking for GLAM institutions and other information holders
who may want to participate in the project by delivering information to
it, and, with our help, engaging with their own audiences to try the
tools (primarily browser extensions). We can only have a very limited
number of such core partners though, but we'll aim to make the
instructions available broadly so that others can also participate.


In terms of research partners, we're looking for people and universities
with a background and interest in researching these kinds of audience
engagements through technology, or who have other complementary research
agendas which they feel are interesting to explore in collaboration.




--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mathias Klang,
Associate Professor, University of G?teborg
Website: http://klangable.com
US Cell: 215 882 0989
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 21:16:41 +0000
From: Jean Burgess <je.burgess at qut.edu.au>
To: AoIR <air-l at aoir.org>
Subject: [Air-L] The Fibreculture Journal?Call for
        Papers?Entanglements: Activism and Technology
Message-ID: <58AB30B3-0453-41F0-A114-3DE41E8BFFC4 at qut.edu.au>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252"

Dear colleagues, a reminder about our upcoming special issue of FCJ. Abstracts due on or before 20 August.

Begin forwarded message:


CFP?Issue 24 Fibreculture Journal: Entanglements: activism and technology

http://fibreculturejournal.org/cfp-entanglements/

Please note that for this issue, initial submissions should be abstracts only.

Issue Editors: Pip Shea, Tanya Notley and Jean Burgess

Abstract deadline: August 20 2014 (no late abstracts will be accepted)
Article deadline: November 3 2014
Publication aimed for: February 2015

all contributors and editors must read the guidelines at:
http://fibreculturejournal.org/policy-and-style/
before working with the Fibreculture Journal

Email correspondence for this issue: p.shea at qub.ac.uk<mailto:p.shea at qub.ac.uk>

This themed issue explores the entanglements that arise due to frictions between the philosophies embedded within technologies and the philosophies embedded within activism. Straightforward solutions are rarely on offer as the bringing together of different philosophies requires the negotiation of acceptance, compromise, or submission (Tsing 2004). This friction can be disruptive, productive, or both, and it may contribute discord or harmony.

In this special issue, we seek submissions that respond to the idea that frictions between technologies and activists may ultimately enhance the ability of activists to take more control of their projects, create new ethical spaces and subvert technologies, just as it may also result in tension, conflict and hostility.

By dwelling in between and within these frictions and entanglements ? through strategic and tactical media discourses as well as the very concept of an activist politics within technology ? this special issue will elucidate the context-specific nature, constraints and possibilities of the digital environments that are co-habited by activists from proximate fields including social movements, human rights, ecological and green movements, international development, community arts and cultural development.

Past issues of the Fibreculture Journal have examined activist philosophies from angles such as social justice and networked organisational forms, communication rights and net neutrality debates, and the push back against precarious new media labour. Our issue extends this work by revealing the conflicting debates that surround activist philosophies of technology.

Submissions are sought that engage specifically with the ethics, rationales and methods adopted by activists to justify selecting, building, using, promoting or rejecting specific technologies. We also encourage work that considers the ways in which these negotiations speak to broader mythologies and tensions embedded within digital culture ? between openness and control; political consistency and popular appeal; appropriateness, usability and availability.

We invite responses to these provocations from activists, practitioners and academics. Critiques, case studies, and multimedia proposals will be considered for inclusion. Submissions should explore both constraints and possibilities caused by activism and its digital technology entanglements through the following themes:

Alternative technology versus appropriate technology
Pragmatism and technology choice
The philosophies and practices of hacking technologies
Activist cultures and the proprietary web
Digital privacy and security breaches and errors
Uncovering and exposing technology vulnerabilities
Technology and e-waste
The philosophies of long/short term impact
Authenticity and evidence

Initial submissions should comprise 300 word abstracts and 60 word biographies, emailed to p.shea at qub.ac.uk<mailto:p.shea at qub.ac.uk> and t.notley at uws.edu.au<mailto:t.notley at uws.edu.au>

References:

Tsing, A. 2005 Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

The Fibreculture Journal (http://fibreculturejournal.org/) is a peer reviewed international journal, associated with Open Humanities Press (http://openhumanitiespress.org/), that explores critical and speculative interventions in the debate and discussions concerning information and communication technologies and their policy frameworks, network cultures and their informational logic, new media forms and their deployment, and the possibilities of socio-technical invention and sustainability.




------------------------------

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