Check back next week for a new batch of calls!
- Call for Book Proposals: Routledge Series on Emerging Technologies, Ethics and International Affairs
- Deadline Extended: Digital Humanities and Scholarly Research Trends in the Asia-Pacific
- “Digital Transformation & Global Society” (DTGS’18)
- In Media Res Fall 2017: Call for Curators – “Video Game Spectatorship”
- CFP: Special issue of Social Media + Society on Alternative Social Media
Call for Book Proposals: Routledge Series on Emerging Technologies, Ethics and International Affairs
Deadline: December 15, 2017
The editors of the ongoing Routledge series on Emerging Technologies, Ethics and International Affairs are interested in considering manuscripts and book proposals for publication. This series examines the crucial ethical, legal and public policy questions arising from or exacerbated by the design, development and eventual adoption of new technologies across all related fields, from education and engineering to medicine and military affairs. The series revolves around two key themes: moral issues in research, engineering and design and ethical, legal and political/policy issues in the use and regulation of technology. This series encourages submission of cutting-edge research monographs and edited collections with a focus on forward-looking ideas concerning innovative or as yet undeveloped technologies.
For more information visit the series website here.
If you have a project that would be suitable, are working on or planning such a project, please contact the series editors via Avery Plaw (aplaw@umassd.edu).
Contact Info:
Avery Plaw
Professor, Department of Political Science
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
Contact Email:
aplaw@umassd.edu
Link to Call
Deadline Extended: Digital Humanities and Scholarly Research Trends in the Asia-Pacific
Call for Chapter Proposals
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We are now calling for chapters for the book entitled “Digital Humanities and Scholarly Research Trends in the Asia-Pacific” to be published by IGI Global scheduled for release in October 2018.
Important Dates:
Proposal submission deadline : December 15, 2017
Full chapter submission deadline : March 31, 2018
Recommended Topics:
National / region-wide overview of DH development
Environmental scanning
Single case studies
Best practices
New skillsets
Staff management model for DH
Maintaining / enhancing momentum
International collaborations
Ongoing maintenance
Project promotion
Resources allocation
Impact assessments
For more details, please refer to the call here:
Call for Chapters — Digital Humanities and Scholarly Research Trends in the Asia-Pacific
Or, feel free to contact Rebekah Wong at rebekahw@hkbu.edu.hk(link sends e-mail).
“Digital Transformation & Global Society” (DTGS’18)
May 30 – June 1, 2018, St. Petersburg, Russia
The third international conference “Digital Transformation & Global Society” (DTGS’18) will be held on May 31 – June 1, 2018 in St. Petersburg, Russia. The event is co-organized by the ITMO Univesity and the National Research University Higher School of Economics – St. Petersburg, both being the leading research institutions in Russia.
DTGS is an emerging academic forum in the interdisciplinary Internet Studies field. The mission of the conference is to serve as collaborative platform for researchers and experts to discuss the transformative impact of digital technologies on the way we communicate, work and live. Each year it brings together scholars from various countries and of different professional background.
The special focus of DTGS’18 is on the ICT – driven behavior in various spheres of life, as well as on the technology-driven institutional change in politics, economy and social life.
The general tracks of the conference are the following:
– eSociety: digital sociology and social informatics, virtual communities, e-ethics and digital security;
– ePolity: politics and governance in the cyberspace, e-governance, e-participation, smart governance and open data;
– eHumanities: ICTs in culture, education and social life;
– eCity: smart cities and ICTs in urban governance;
– eEconomy: digital economy and markets.
The special Poster Track for PhD students and young scientists is organized a day before the general conference, on May 30. Authors of accepted posters will have a chance to discuss their papers and get feedback to advance their research, and the best posters will be published in the Proceedings.
We welcome original unpublished contributions presenting completed (12-15 pages) or ongoing (10-12 pages) research, as well as experience papers (10-12 papers). All submissions are accepted via the EasyChair system only.
The language of the conference is English. All submissions will undergo a double-blind peer review.
All accepted full and ongoing papers, as well as the best posters, will be published in the Communications in Computer and Information Science Series (CCIS) by the Springer Verlag, indexed in Scopus.
In Media Res Fall 2017: Call for Curators – “Video Game Spectatorship”
According to Business Insider the most popular independent YouTube personality is PewDiePie, a Swedish man who, among other things, makes videos of himself playing video games. Rather than eSports or competitive multiplayer gaming, PewDiePie often plays single player, narrative driven games. He is not alone. Searching the phrase ‘Let’s Play’ on YouTube leads to multiple video series of producers playing through games like Minecraft, Grand Theft Auto, and Civilization, to name a few. Many of these series have hundreds of thousands of views, with the most popular among them reaching their peaks in the millions. This week’s In Media Res seeks submissions surrounding video game spectatorship and ‘Let’s Play’ video series, as well as competitive gaming and e-sports.
Other topics that might be examined:
– Business models surrounding independent YouTube creators.
– Video game audiences, the differences in playing and watching.
– Playthroughs and comedy.
– Twitch, eSports, and competitive gaming leagues.
Proposals may be brief, but do be sure to describe the topic and key question(s) to be explored. Please submit your proposal by December 4, 2017. If interested, please contact In Media Res (inmediares@gsu.edu) with topic proposals or for more information about the theme. Be sure to include the name of the theme week you would like to be involved with in the subject line of the email.
Academics, journalists, critics, media professionals and fans are all welcome to submit proposals.
The actual piece will include either a 30-second to 3-minute clip, an image, or a slideshow that will be accompanied by a 300 to 350 word response to/contextualization of your clip, image, or slideshow. In addition to your piece, you will be expected to engage the other pieces presented that week to encourage discussion and further flesh out the individual topic in relation to the week’s theme.
CFP: Special issue of Social Media + Society on Alternative Social Media
After Social Media: Alternatives, New Beginnings, and Socialized Media
Editors: Fenwick McKelvey, Sean Lawson, and Robert W. Gehl
The editors seeks 500 word abstracts for proposed articles for a special issue of Social Media + Society on “alternative social media.” The editors welcome proposals from scholars, practitioners, and activists from across disciplinary boundaries so long as the work is critical and empirically rich.
Our call starts with a question: what comes after social media? It is hard to imagine something other than the current configuration of social media – of Facebook and Twitter – but signs of discontent abound. Social media companies have become deputized to police and moderate whilst being accused of poisoning civil discourse. Their integration of advertising and targeting signals a new epoch of promotional culture, but no one trusts the media anymore. As Brooke Duffy argues in (Not) Getting Paid to Do What You Love, everyone can create, so long as they don’t mind growing broke doing so. In sum, today’s social media is broken… but what’s next?
For the past several years, one answer to “what’s next?” has been “alternative social media.” Alternative social media encompasses a wide range of systems, from diaspora* to Ello to Tokumei. In contrast to what Robert Gehl calls “corporate social media,” such as Facebook, Twitter,
Google+, and Pinterest, alternative social media (ASM) “allows for users
to share content and connect with one another but also denies the commercialization of speech, allows users more access to shape the underlying technical infrastructure, and radically experiments with surveillance regimes” (see http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2056305115604338).
Thus, alternative social media may be understood in relation to larger histories of alternative media, documented by scholars such as Megan Boler, Nick Couldry, Chris Atton, and Clemencia Rodriguez, and carried through into social media alternatives by collectives such as Unlike Us (http://networkcultures.org/unlikeus/).
Earlier instances of ASM included diaspora*, built as a critical response to the growing dominance of Facebook in the late 2000s, with a goal of decentralizing social media data and allowing end users more control over their personal information. Later, decentralized systems, such as Twister and GNU social, came online as alternatives to Twitter.
The Pinterest alternative Ello gained a lot of attention, especially due to its manifesto with the opening provocation: “Your social network is owned by advertisers.” Alternatives to Facebook and Twitter have even appeared on the Dark Web (see https://socialmediaalternatives.org/archive/items/browse?tags=dark+web for examples).
As they have developed over the past several years, alternatives decried the censorship and manipulation of content found in corporate social media. Building on this, new alternatives dedicated to “free speech” arose during and after the contentious elections in Western countries in 2016 and 2017, including the Twitter alternative Gab. Proclaiming its defense of free speech – especially against the perceived liberal bias of Silicon Valley-based corporate sites – Gab promises freedom for everyone, including the “alt right” and white supremacists, to speak.
But other networks, such as the federated system Mastodon, have been built to allow for powerful moderation of discourse, with Codes of Conduct that often prohibit hate, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, or racist speech. Indeed, while they are wildly divergent in their politics, both Gab and Mastodon have positioned themselves as antidotes to corporate social media. These debates over speech in ASM echo the longstanding tension identified by alternative media scholars, where many alternative media developers seek to socialize media and bring it in line with leftist politics, but see their discourses appropriated by right-wing media organizations.
Regardless of whether they are right or left, alternative social media face a simply reality: they just aren’t popular. Compared to the billions of Twitter and Facebook users, alternative sites’ user bases are tiny. Whether or not their goal ought to be massive scale, the powerful network effects of corporate social media – as well as the bewildering array of alternatives – certainly have stifled the growth of the alternatives. Still, the alternatives deserve critical attention, because they force us to rethink what we mean by “social media.” What tethers so many people to so few corporate sites? And what actual “alternatives” to corporate social media do the current slate of alternative social media platforms propose?
Topics that may be explored in this special issue of Social Media + Society might include:
* ethnographic or participant observation engagements with alternative social media communities
* software studies analysis of shifts in underlying ASM technologies
* narratives from practitioners who have built, moderated, or extensively participated in ASM
* comparative analysis of two or more ASM platforms
* studies of ASM as political, technical or cultural discourses or desires
* regulatory and policy discussion regarding controversies involving ASM
* speculative proposals or fictions about new ASM that address existing problems
* analysis of appropriation of ASM innovations by corporate social media systems
***Timeline/Important Dates [subject to change] DECEMBER 20 2017: 500 word abstracts and CVs/resumes may be sent to asm@robertwgehl.org JANUARY 20 2018: Acceptance notifications sent to authors MAY 15 2018: Full drafts due to asm@robertwgehl.org JULY 15 2018: Comments sent to authors by editors SEPTEMBER 15 2018: Final drafts submitted to Social Media + Society for peer review FEBRUARY 2019: Special Issue Publication
Questions? Please email asm@robertwgehl.org.