hello Crumbs and Oliver,
Oliver Grau wrote:
OG> To begin with the correction: I was not talking about academia, but about
OG> science, speaking of methods.
Well, so was I, but maybe not clearly enough. This could be where my
mistake lies, if I made one. I saw the call for papers to this
conference, and did not apply because it had the look of an academic
conference. This means in practice: one can maybe get selected to give
a paper, but then one is to organize one's own travel and accommodation
fee, plus often one has to pay to give the talk as well, the
'conference fee'. This is the reason I never respond to calls like
this one. To me it feels like a cheap trick, get all the content, and
have the people pay to work for you really. (ISEA works like this too,
but it has a different history, it was an artist initiative and seems
more like hacker confs, where everyone pays to make the event
possible. A bit like:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_meetup_2005 , but this is
even more open in structure) I understand this is the way academic
conferences have worked for a long time, and I think it is not
appropriate anymore. If you are not part of a system or structure that
pays all this for you, you can more or less forget attending. The new
media have brought about new institutions and professionals which fall
outside of this system or which now have to find ways to squeeze
themselves into it in order to survive. The latter is something which
makes me very wary, especially since the 'academics' which try to deal
with the same matter have a comfortable advantage position in this,
whereas their knowledge (excusez if the remark seems an insult, it is
not meant this way) and work methods do not always fit the bill.
But I can't find any info on the fees etc on the Refresh site, so my
comments might not make any sense at all.
best wishes,
J
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