From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: 03 October 2007 13:12
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: social software workshop Portugal

Hi

If this is relevant, will you please send the information to your list?

Thanks for attention

Zara Pinto-Coelho
Assistant Professor
Communication Sciences Department, University of Minho



Subject:CALLS FOR APPLICATIONS

PhD Workshop
Researching Social Software

28-30 November, 2007

Course Leader: Adrian Mackenzie, University of Lancaster. 

Location: Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Campus de Gualtar, Braga, Portugal

organized by: 
Communication and Society Research Center, University of Minho, Portugal Social Sciences Rsearch Center, University of Minho, Portugal

Workshop language: english

Description and objective

This PhD-course aims to examine and discuss different versions and definitions of social software and how experiences of relation to others can be understood in social software. It also aims to situate software in terms of processes of production, consumption and exchange, and to discuss different approaches, techniques and difficulties involved in researching software.

Structure of the course
Each session would be 2.5 to 3 hours. Each session would have one or two readings to be done in advance. There are also websites and internet examples that should be consulted in advance. Student presentations would be part of each session.

Background reading for the workshop:
Maurizio Lazzarato (1996) 'Immaterial Labour', in Paolo Virno & Michael Hardt
(eds.) Radical Thought in Italy: A Potential Politics, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Programme

Session 1: What is social software?
Oreilly, Tim. What Is Web 2.0 Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software, http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/whatisweb20.
html
Scholz, Trebor, 'The Participatory Challenge' [from: Krysa, J., ed. (2006) DATA Browser 03. Curating immateriality. The work of the curator in the age of network systems. Autonomedia: New York. 
http://www.collectivate.net/theparticipatorychallenge/

Exploration of different versions and definitions of social software. This would best be done by working with same major examples including ebay, facebook, myspace, flickr, and youtube. The session would centre on close analysis of the visual and material cultures of examples. The reading for this session comes from a well known internet commentator, and publisher, Tim O'Reilly.

Session 2: Living with social software: self-other relations and sociality Terranova, T. 2004 Network Culture. Politics for the Information Age, London: 
Pluto Press, chapter 5.
KnorrCetina, K. and Bruegger, U. 2002 'Traders' Engagement with Markets. A Postsocial Relationship', Theory, Culture and Society 19(5/6): 161185.

Key example: Facebook or Second Life
Main focus of this session will be on how experiences of sociality, of belonging, of relation to others can be understood in social software. The readings analyse this from very different angles. The first is informed by Marxist thought, the second by social studies of technology.

Session 3: Social software in technological economies Barry, A. and Slater, D. 2005 The technological economy, London ; New York: 
Routledge.(introduction)
Benkler, Y. 2006 The wealth of networks : how social production transforms markets and freedom, New Haven [Conn.]:Yale University Press. chapters 3-4

Key example: Google
This session will situate software in terms of processes of production, consumption and exchange. The readings offer very different perspectives on this. Barry and Slater's article comes from sociologies of science and technology. Benkler's work comes from liberal political thought.

Session 4: Researching social software
Mackenzie, A. 2006 Cutting code: software and sociality, New York: Peter Lang. 
(Introduction)
Rabinow, P. 2003 Anthropos Today. Reflections on Modern Equipment, Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press. (Chapter 2)

Session on different approaches, techniques and difficulties in researching software.

Registration and contact:

The application deadline is 28th October 2007. Please send by email a short description (no more than one page) of your PhD project, specifying your name, email address, affiliation, supervisor, your particular interest in the seminar and why you would benefit from attending it, to the organization committee ([log in to unmask]). Number of participants: max. 15.

A fee will be charged for participation to cover administrative costs, tea/coffee and lunches and one dinner during the seminar. .The fee is 60 euros, payable on the first day of the seminar in cash (an official receipt will be given). Travel and accommodation are the responsibility of the participant. 

For more information, contact:

José Pinheiro Neves ([log in to unmask])or
Zara Pinto-Coelho ([log in to unmask])

************************************************************************************
Distributed through Cyber-Society-Live [CSL]: CSL is a moderated discussion list made up of people who are interested in the interdisciplinary academic study of Cyber Society in all its manifestations.To join the list please visit:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/cyber-society-live.html
*************************************************************************************

************************************************************************************
Distributed through Cyber-Society-Live [CSL]: CSL is a moderated discussion
list made up of people who are interested in the interdisciplinary academic
study of Cyber Society in all its manifestations.To join the list please visit:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/cyber-society-live.html
*************************************************************************************