From: OII Newsletter [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 13 May 2008 12:12
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: OII News [2008.05.13]: News, events and webcasts for May
Dear friends and colleagues,
Following the intense media interest in the findings of the Byron Review, we are delighted to announce that Dr Tanya Byron will give one of her first lectures since the review's release at an event hosted by the OII in collaboration with the Family Online Safety Institute on the 12th of June.
The Byron Review was commissioned by the UK government to investigate the risks of children's exposure to potentially harmful material online, and this lecture will provide an opportunity to hear Dr Byron's reactions to the Review's launch and consider the next steps towards implementing her recommendations.
Beyond Byron: Towards a New Culture of Responsibility:
http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/events/details.cfm?id=197
In addition we'd like to flag up an exciting event on the 27th of May which brings together Andrew Keen and Larry Sanger to debate the role and potential of the Internet in shaping the future of knowledge.
Is the Future of the Internet the Future of Knowledge?
http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/events/details.cfm?id=200
Best wishes,
Victoria Nash, OII Policy and Research Officer
Also note: webcasts now available for the recent OxIS/Ofcom 'Social Networking' conference: social networking / children / stalking 2.0 / business / and more ..
http://webcast.oii.ox.ac.uk/?view=Webcast&ID=20080407_243
AND: Our partners at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society (Harvard Law School) are 10! .. Happy Birthday Berkman! Berkman@10 Conference:
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/berkmanat10
1. Government on the Internet: New Report
2. Events Diary
3. Four Webcasts / and some Press
4. Calling Recruits! eXperimental Computer Lab
5. Student Diary
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1. Government on the Internet: New Report
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'After ten years of uncoordinated growth, the Government does not know exactly how many websites it operates, although it could be as many as 2,500'
This was the first conclusion of a report published by the Public Accounts Committee on 'Government on the Internet: progress in delivering information and services'. It calls for tighter cost control on government websites and a better understanding of how they are used.
The report draws heavily on a 2007 report for the National Audit Office by a team led by Professor Patrick Dunleavy (LSE) and Professor Helen Margetts (OII). The NAO report ('Government on the Internet: progress in delivering information services online') looked at the progress made by Government in delivering services and information online since the NAO last reported in 2002.
Helen Margetts said: 'This is a strong report which should help UK government to maximise the potential of the Internet in delivering information and services on-line'
Other conclusions of the PAC Report include: 'Over a quarter of government organisations still do not know the costs of their websites, making it impossible to assess whether they are value for money', '16% of government organisations have no data about how their websites are being used, inhibiting website improvements', 'One third of government websites do not comply with the Government's own user accessibility standards, making it difficult for people with disabilities to use the sites', 'There is a risk that some people will not benefit from the Government's drive to expand the use of the internet for delivering public services and social exclusion may be reinforced'
Public Accounts Committee Report (pdf, 1.4Mb):
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmpubacc/143/143.pdf
Government on the Internet 2007 Report:
http://www.governmentontheweb.org/access_reports.asp
Government on the Web (Project Website):
http://www.governmentontheweb.org/
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2. Events Diary
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Thurs 22 - Sat 24 May:
Conference: The dilemmas of digitization. Thinking about the past, planning the future: how to digitize the humanities?
http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/events/details.cfm?id=195
Tues 27 May:
Is the Future of the Internet the Future of Knowledge?
Larry Sanger and Andrew Keen
http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/events/details.cfm?id=200
Tues 10 June:
Cyberspace: Its Protocols and Public International Law
Henrik Spang-Hanssen
http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/events/details.cfm?id=198
Thurs 12 June:
Beyond Byron: Towards a New Culture of Responsibility
Dr Tanya Byron
http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/events/details.cfm?id=197
Tues 24 June:
Search! (held at the British Library)
http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/microsites/oxis/events/
Thurs 31 July:
From Digital Photography to Fine Art Painting: The Role of Technology for the 21st Century Artist
Jeremy Sutton, artist
http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/events/details.cfm?id=180
Thurs 11 - Sat 13 September:
Oxford e-Research Conference 2008
http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/microsites/eresearch08/
Wed 24 - Thurs 25 September:
GikIII Workshop
http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/events/details.cfm?id=199
All the Events:
http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/events/
Register:
mailto:[log in to unmask]
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3. Four New Webcasts / and some press
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1. Charlie Beckett: Networked Journalism
http://webcast.oii.ox.ac.uk/?view=Webcast&ID=20080428_241
How are new media platforms and practices changing journalism? What editorial, political and social opportunities do they offer? (a discussion session follows) Charlie Beckett is the director of POLIS, a joint initiative of the LSE and the London College of Communication aimed at working journalists, people in public life and students in the UK and around the world.
2. OxIS/Ofcom Social Networking Conference
http://webcast.oii.ox.ac.uk/?view=Webcast&ID=20080407_243
The conference represented a wide range of perspectives on social networking, both as regards the interpretation of social networking and the way to approach people's interactions with Social Networking Sites. It covered 'Online Social Networks', 'Intimate Relationships and Online Social Networks' and 'Businesses and Online Social Networks'.
Conference website:
http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/microsites/oxis/events/?id=7
3. The Material of the Digital: Constructing a Computing Gallery at the Science Museum
http://webcast.oii.ox.ac.uk/?view=Webcast&ID=20080424_239
Tilly Blyth (Curator of Computing and Information at the Science Museum) asks how museums should display and interpret our computing history and culture, and unpacks some of the issues surrounding the creation of a new computing gallery at the Science Museum.
She speaks about 'Ernie' and many other famous developments in computing within the UK and world wide. Bill Dutton blogged: 'ERNIE stands for the Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment that became quite famous in 1957. Stephanie Shirley, the first benefactor of the OII, worked on ERNIE as a statistician, validating the results of its random number generation. There is a useful article by Julian Champkin on Dame Stephanie Shirley's website, entitled 'The Importance of Being ERNIE'.
More on Bill's Blog:
http://people.oii.ox.ac.uk/dutton/
4. Jonathan Zittrain Book Launch: 'The Future of the Internet'
http://webcast.oii.ox.ac.uk/?view=Webcast&ID=20080424_238
'The Internet is primed for a meltdown -- and the most obvious cures are just as bad ..'
Book Microblurb: The Internet's current trajectory is one of lost opportunity. Its salvation, Jonathan argues, lies in the goodwill of its millions of users. Drawing on generative technologies like Wikipedia that have so far survived their own successes, he shows how to develop new technologies and social structures that allow users to work creatively and collaboratively, avoiding the excesses and abuses of opennessÑand saving the Net from lockdown.
Press coverage of the book included: Guardian / FT / Sunday Times / BBC News / National Public Radio / Washington Post / Computerworld / etc etc:
http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/about/press/coverage.cfm
Book Website / Blog:
http://futureoftheinternet.org/
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4. Calling Recruits! eXperimental Computer Lab
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OXlab, the OII / Said Business School eXperimental Computer Lab, is currently in a drive to recruit more volunteers to take part in some of the paid experiments Helen Margetts, Peter John and Tobias Escher are planning for the summer of 2008. The campaign has got off to a good start with more than 50 people signing up within 24 hours of its being online.
The planned experiments will test a number of hypotheses regarding the 'logic of collective action' on the Internet. Results from an early pilot experiment in this series will be presented at a conference on the experimental method in comparative politics (University of Manchester, 1-2nd July 2008). Interim results from these experiments will be posted at http://www.governmentontheweb.org, where the findings of previous experiments are also available.
Take part!
http://oxlab.oii.ox.ac.uk
Papers on previous findings:
'Understanding Governments and Citizens On-line: Learning from E-commerce'
'Governing from the Centre? Comparing the Nodality of Digital Governments'
Are available at: http://www.governmentontheweb.org
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5. Student Diary
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A report from Han-Teng Liao on the research he will be presenting in Canada and Hong Kong:
'I will be performing some reality-checks about the status of Chinese Internet in response to the agenda set by the Sixth Annual Chinese Internet Research Conference (CIRC) in Hong Kong (June 26-28). In my paper: 'Chinese-written Internet: Diversity and Segregation', I propose a distinction between the 'Chinese Internet' and 'China's Internet', demonstrating the diversity in the former, and describing the harmony (or hegemony) in the latter ..
I am also about to share the lessons learnt from Chinese Wikipedia with the 'technological citizenship' research community, with a full paper to be presented in the 2008 IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS08), hosted at the University of New Brunswick, Canada (June 13-14). In my paper: 'Conflictual Consensus in the Chinese Version of Wikipedia', I explain how Chinese Wikipedia manages to build a unique technological polity in the Chinese-speaking environment, with an aim to accommodate regional diversity by importing Wikipedia governance principles, implementing user-generated Chinese-character conversion, and establishing the 'Avoid Region-Centric Policy'.
The technological polity is unique and rare when one recognizes that the offline socio-political differences are huge among regions ranging from free and democratic Taiwan to authoritarian Mainland China.'
And .. Marcelo Thompson is spending May and June as a Visiting Fellow at the Hans Bredow Institute for Media Research, University of Hamburg (student Malte Ziewitz's homestead). He will continue his ongoing research on the principle of neutrality in Internet law and politics, and contribute to a conference on network neutrality hosted by the Hans Bredow Institute, with support of the Alcatel-Lucent Foundation for Communications Research.
And .. in April Alejandro and Tobias attended the conference Politics 2.0 at Royal Holloway University. The conference brought together many different speakers active in the area of politics and especially political participation online. They are very grateful to the Keble Association that awarded each of them a travel grant of £150 without which they would not have been able to take part in this conference.
And .. Wolf Richter has presented his vision on the future of the Internet as a space for Digital Media at the WWW08 conference in Beijing. Before that he enjoyed the hospitality of the iResource Center at Hong Kong's Cyberport, where he continued his fieldwork with students and IT professionals on file sharing and copyright law.
All the Students:
http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/people/students.cfm
The DPhil Programme:
http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/teaching/
[Editor: David Sutcliffe]
Oxford Internet Institute
University of Oxford
1 St Giles Oxford OX1 3JS
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)1865 287210
Fax: +44 (0)1865 287211
Email: [log in to unmask]
Web: http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk
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