October 07, 2006
Upcoming New Media Events
Please note that the New Media Research Breakfast for October 5th (Thursday) has been cancelled. Instead the breakfast series will commence on November 2nd at 8:30 am in Murphy Hall #100. The breakfast series will feature the work of one new media researcher every first Tuesday. It will also be an opportunity to engage in conversation about the work presented and broader new media topics.
http://www.inms.umn.edu/events/breakfasts/
The inaugural New Media Happy Hour will take place Tuesday, October 10th at 5:00 pm in the Campus Club (Coffman Union). Happening every second Tuesday, the Happy Hour series will be an informal gathering where you can catch up on the latest in new media research at the U, meet potential collaborators, and just enjoy the company of colleagues.
http://www.inms.umn.edu/events/happy_hour/
The 5th season of the Emerging Digerati series got off to a great start this past Monday with presentations by web professionals around the Twin Cities. Our curator this year, Anne Jin Soo Preston, is planning an innovative and enlightening schedule of showcases for this season, featuring new media work at the U and beyond.
http://www.inms.umn.edu/digerati/
Remember to check the Institute for New Media Studies website for updates about events. If you use an iCal compatible calendar system, you can subscribe to the INMS events calendar with the address:
http://www.inms.umn.edu/inms.ics
September 08, 2006
New Media Research @ UMN Conference - Register Now
The New Media Research @ UMN conference, sponsored by the Institute for New Media Studies, will take place Thursday and Friday, September 14th and 15th. The conference is a chance to learn about new media research happening at the University of Minnesota in disciplines such as history, journalism, health sciences and more. It will also act as a venue for discussion about the state of new media research at the U and for connecting with potential collaborators across a broad range of fields.
Thursday evening will feature a short welcome program, reception and poster session. Friday will include paper sessions, a keynote by Susan C. Herring, and a discussion session on collaborative research and digital tools for collaboration. For more details on presentations and schedule, go to:
http://www.inms.umn.edu/events/past/newresearch_2006/
If you haven't already registered for the conference, you may do so at:
http://www.inms.umn.edu/events/past/newresearch_2006/participation.html
The deadline for registration is Wednesday, September 13th. A registration fee of $20, to be collected at the conference, includes all sessions, hors d'oeuvres and drinks Thursday, and lunch on Friday.
Please tell your colleagues - whether faculty, staff or students - about this opportunity to connect and collaborate with new media researchers at the U.
August 18, 2006
Full Papers for NMR@UMN
Full papers for the upcoming New Media Research @ UMN conference are starting to trickle in. You can download them from the conference website at:
http://www.inms.umn.edu/events/past/newresearch_2006/papers.html
May 22, 2006
Abstracts for conference are in
We've received a lot of great proposals for the New Media Research at UMN 2006 conference. Propsals are currently getting reviewed and acceptance notices will be sent out soon. Looking at the submitted abstracts, I think this conference is shaping up to be very enlightening and engaging. Thank you to everyone who sent in an abstract. For a schedule and more information about the conference, visit the conference site.
April 18, 2006
New Media Research @ UMN Conference - Call for Proposals
Since last year’s New Media Research at UMN conference was such a success, we’ve
decided to gather again!
For: The University of Minnesota New Media Research Community
When: Thursday, September 14, 2006 – Friday, September 15, 2006
Where: Thursday, Sept. 14, 2006 - 5:00 - 7:30 pm - Digital Technology Center,
Walter Library 4th Floor - Poster exhibition and Conference Kick-off
Friday, Sept. 15, 2006 - 9:00 am - 3:00 pm - Coffman Union, Mississippi
Room - Paper panels, posters, and roundtable discussion
Join us as we continue to:
- Showcase the cutting edge research being done right in our own backyard
- Network with other researchers and scholars interested in the examination of new media and technology
The study of the internet and other digital technologies requires innovative thinking about
methods and theories both within and across disciplines. Last year’s conference featured
presenters from across the University of Minnesota from Communication Studies,
Journalism and Mass Communication, Political Science, and Rhetoric, and included
collaborations with the Academic and Distributed Computing Services, the Academic
Health Center & Family Medicine, the Center for Public Health Education and Outreach
& the Medical School, Curriculum and Instruction, Educational Policy and
Administration, Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature & English, Family Social
Science, Computer Science.
The conference will be a combination of paper presentations, poster exhibition and
brainstorming on collaborative research opportunities. We will also hear from the
Directors and Deans of various departments about the ways new media is affecting their
research agendas. Susan C. Herring, Professor of Information Science at Indiana
University, and Editor of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication will be our
keynote speaker.
CALL FOR PAPERS
The call for papers for this conference is open to any University of Minnesota faculty,
graduate students, researchers, or librarian working on a project in the area of new media
/ internet studies. If your abstract is not selected for a full paper we are still interested in
learning about your project in an expanded poster session. We are looking for proposals
that address two aspects:
- Discuss the methodological and/or theoretical innovations, issues, and opportunities you have encountered in your new media / internet research
- Discuss a research project that illustrates the above
DEADLINE for Abstract (250 – 350 words): May 22, 2006
NOTIFICATION OF ACCEPTANCE: June 12, 2006
FULL PAPERS (7 – 10 pages) or POSTERS: August 15, 2006
SEND PROPOSALS by May 15, 2006 in Word format to: marti411@umn.edu
Download this document [pdf]
March 30, 2006
Living in Game Space
Open Source, a public radio show that initiates conversations on the internet and carries them onto the airwaves, just aired a discussion about Second Life. Discussion revolved around identity, love and making money in this new kind of online environment.
March 23, 2006
Article on "Cybersmearing"
Laura Gurak, director of the Internet Studies Center here at the U, is quoted in Duluth News Tribune article on the phenomenon of "cybersmearing." From the article:
Terence Banich had been outed as a bad tipper, and he didn't even know it.He popped up on the cheapskate list at BitterWaitress.com, berated by a server at a Chicago restaurant for leaving a $3 tip on a $200 bill.
Informed of his tipping infamy, Banich said if he had left such a measly gratuity, it was a mistake, a misplaced decimal point, and he's sorry for it.
But Banich, a Chicago lawyer, also said he was none too pleased that a waitress had lifted information from his credit card -- his name -- and posted it on the Internet.
Banich had effectively been cybersmeared, and he's far from alone.
March 15, 2006
SXSW Interactive: Podcasts
The good folks at the SXSW Conference are slowly putting up the audio from the interactive panels. You can get what's available at:
March 14, 2006
SXSW Interactive: Commons Based Business Models
Open source software business models have gone from theoretical to profitable over the past half decade-companies like Red Hat, MySQL, JBOSS, and IBM. How will peer production business models prove out in the content space? Learn how pioneering commons-based businesses are creating what Business 2.0 calls the next multi-billion dollar industry.
- Ian Clarke, Freenet Project, Revver
- Teresa Malango, Magnatune
- Jimmy Wales, Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia, Wikia)
- Joi Ito, Moderator
My notes (not direct quotes):
Clarke: Started with freenet, a peer to peer network for circumventing internet censorship. Started revver, a video distribution service for individuals.
Malango: Works with Magnatune, an online music label based on the open source model. Use non-commercial and share alike Creative Commons licenses.
Wales: Aside from Wikipedia, started Wikia, a for-profit company offering wiki services for interest groups. Commons based model is not so much about for vs. non profit, but about open vs. closed.
Ito: What about funding a commons based businesses?
Malango: Magnatune is self funded because of the passion of founder, John Buckman. The need exists to make the company sustainable.
Clarke: Same funders as Skype. Fund raising has been pretty easy with Ravver vs. other companies.
Wales: Step 1: Become the 20th most popular website in the world. Step 2: Beat the investors off with a stick until you're sure you have the right one.
Ito: Fairly easy to get funded right now, but that's not necessarily a good thing.
Clarke: Revver needed some money to get started, but if you can do it without, it's often a better way.
Ito: Creative Commons does a lot of work to make the licenses easy to use, understand and transmit.
Wales: As more commons based content is created, businesses can support other businesses by providing more content.
March 13, 2006
SXSW Interactive: How To Maintain a Design Playground
I'm at the Maintaining a Design Playground panel. Description from SXSW site:
Everybody needs a place to fail, but a commercial design project is not that place. Design playgrounds are personal, pressure-free, online environments that encourage free design play and unfettered experimentation. Successful design is a diamond hidden in the mine field of failure, and design playgrounds plunder that mine field. Panelists will share the history and practice of their own design playgrounds, and discuss how these playgrounds have influenced their commercial work.
Panelists include:
- Moderator: Curt Cloninger , University of North Carolina at Asheville
- Dustin Hostetler, upso.org
- Jemma Hostetler, Sans Nom
My notes (not actual quotes):
Curt: Design is like the stack of spring loaded plates in the cafeteria... the good idea is twenty plates down... the playground is the place to get through the first twenty plates. The playground is a place to fail, learn, keep track of your progress. Shows his playground full of crazy animated gifs. Playground: http://playdamage.org/
Jemma: Worked with Joshua Davis to make scripts for Flash pieces, then exports to Illustrator to continue playing. Says it's great to have the archive of experiments. The more you put up on the site, the more you'll get out of it. Playground: http://www.prate.com/
Dustin: Uses the playground to store projects that don't necessarily make it into production. Doesn't really like a lot of his earlier work on the site, but doesn't take it down, uses that early work as a motivator. Playground: http://www.upsod.com/
Curt also has a list of playgrounds that various designers maintain.
