:: Netwoman ::

:: Wednesday, June 28, 2006 ::

Gender, Images and Global Contexts

The 3rd Christina Conference on Women’s Studies & The 4th European Gender & ICT symposium

Gender, Images and Global Contexts
March 8–10, 2007, University of Helsinki, Finland

Gender, Images and Global Contexts brings together two successful
conferences: the Christina Conference on Women’s Studies, organized in Helsinki in 2003 and 2005 and the European Gender and ICT symposium, previously organized in Amsterdam (2003), Brussels (2004) and Manchester (2005). It explores the challenging phenomena of gender and ICT that take place in-between the cultural images and societal contexts in the processes where the local intertwine with the global. We invite scholars, students, educators, policy makers and other practitioners to consider the challenges and possibilities brought forth by global information and communication technologies for working practices, education and feminist theorization. The conference aims to be a meeting point for researchers from different disciplines and research schools.

We invite abstracts addressing gender and ICT from the perspectives of
* cultural images
- representations of gender, sexuality and technology, or, of gendered agency in technically mediated society and digital culture

* work
- design, production and use processes, work and technology, new forms of work in technically mediated society, global economy and global division of work

* education and policy
- teaching and learning using ICT; gender and e-learning; gendered
ways of learning technology, including learning styles and pedagogies; design of ICTs in education, policies of inclusion.

* feminist theory
- theorizing the phenomenon of gender and ICT in between images and global processes of trade and work; gender inscriptions in ICT and in computing science

Keynote speakers:
* Karen Barad, University of California, Santa Cruz, US
* Celia Lury, Goldsmith College, UK
* Susanna Paasonen, University of Jyväskylä, FI
* Els Rommes, Nijmegen University, NL
* Jenny Sundén, Royal Institute of Technology, S
* Marja Vehviläinen, University of Tampere, FI
* Gabriele Winker, Technical University Hamburg, D

International advisory committee:
Anne-Jorunn Berg (N)
Hilde Corneliussen (N)
Wendy Faulkner (U.K)
Liisa von Hellens (Aust)
Clem Herman (U.K)
Malgorzata Radkiewicz (Pl)
Els Rommes (NL)
Heidi Schelhowe (D)
Malin Sveningsson Elm (S)
TL Taylor (Denmark)
Maureen Mc Neill (UK)

Organising group: Susanna Paasonen, Marja Vehviläinen, Kirsi Saarikangas, Aino-Maija Hiltunen, Eeva Raevaara, Outi Pajala

Organisers: Christina Institute, University of Helsinki and Department of Women’s Studies, University of Tampere, and HILMA- University Network of Women's Studies.

Fee -- sorry, no grants available!
120 euros (paid before Jan 15, 2007)
50 euros for (unwaged and undergraduate) students 150/70 euros after January 15, 2007.

Dates:
CFP May 2006
2nd CFP September 2006
Abstracts Oct 15th 2006
Notification of acceptance by: Nov 15th 2006 Early bird registration until Jan 15th 2007 Conference March 8-10th 2007.

Conference web-site

:: Netwoman 1:18 PM [+] ::
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Demographics
Originally uploaded by Netwoman.

Microsoft Ad Centre

Demographics Prediction
You can use adCenter technology to predict a customer’s age,
gender, and other demographic information according to his or her
online behavior—that is, from search queries and webpage views.

Here is an interesting site - you can find out what the demographics are for your website. For some reason, it didn't work for my Blog, so I did it for my main page.

I am surprised at the results - and I can't say that I agree; 18-24 year old men? hmmm

:: Netwoman 4:46 PM [+] ::
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Link Round up

*Terra Nova points to 15 new papers on Virtual Worlds - very cool!

*Organizers of the 2006 Toronto Independent Games Conference announced that the event will take place from August 31 through September 2 in Toronto at the George Brown College, at its Casa Loma campus.

*How to make friends and kill people: relationships in first-person shooters

*Female clans launch protest:

Two all-female gaming clans are protesting against a new beauty contest which they say could damage the way women gamers are perceived.

The winner of the Miss World Series Videogames contest will receive $1000, a contract to appear at all WSCG events, and will be featured in a forthcoming game. The only gaming-related entry requirement is that entrants state what their favourite game is.

Both the US Frag Dolls and the PMS clan are boycotting the contest - and have decided to hold their own Mr WSVG competition in protest.

:: Netwoman 4:35 PM [+] ::
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World's Science Academies Must Increase Female Participation

...And Urge Policymakers to Support Women in Science and Technology

AMSTERDAM — The world's academies of science, engineering, and medicine must take immediate action to help remedy the widespread and persistent underrepresentation of women in scientific and technical fields, says a new report by the InterAcademy Council (IAC), an organization created by 90 science academies across the globe.
As a start, the academies themselves need to implement internal management practices that encourage and support women, and influence policymakers and other leaders to bring about broader change. On the whole, the disproportionately small number of women in the science and technology (S&T) enterprise, particularly in leadership positions, is a major hindrance to strengthening science capacity worldwide.

"If we are to spread science and its values around the globe, both in industrialized and developing nations, the full potential of all populations must be harnessed for scientific endeavors," said IAC Board co-chairs Bruce Alberts, past president of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and Lu Yongxiang, president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, "and science must belong to all citizens, whether male or female, rich or poor."

The advisory report, Women for Science, targets the IAC's membership, pointing out that women typically make up less than 5 percent of an academy's members. And many research institutions around the world have resisted fully opening their doors to women in science and technology, or eliminating barriers they often face after they do gain entry. As a result, women drop out in the early stages of their S&T careers more frequently than men, and few rise to the top strata of leadership.

"The perspectives, talents, and skills of women will enrich the science and technology enterprise," said Johanna (Anneke) Levelt Sengers, co-chair of the advisory panel that wrote the report, and scientist emeritus, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Md. "Global S&T capacity building is not possible without including women."

"All nations, whether industrialized or developing, face a broad array of challenges that require the application of up-to-date scientific knowledge and technology, such as finding strategies to stimulate economic growth, mitigate environmental problems, safely adopt beneficial new technologies, and quickly respond to sudden outbreaks of diseases," said Manju Sharma, co-chair of the panel that wrote the report, India's former secretary of biotechnology, and the current president and executive director of the Indian Institute of Advanced Research, Gandhinagar. "But the research enterprise is being deprived of the vibrancy that results from the inclusion of a wider range of skills, experiences, viewpoints, and working styles.
Every person counts."

The report urges academies to formally commit to the full inclusion of women in their organizations, in any research institutes they manage, and throughout the S&T community. It concludes that "good management practice" is required to help reach this goal, including commitment from the top leadership, clear criteria for promotions and awards, professional training and mentoring, and inclusion of women in formal and informal organizational networks.

The report is available online.

:: Netwoman 9:57 AM [+] ::
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Link Round-Up

*Feminist SF Carnival:

The Carnival of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans periodically collects posts from the hazy side-reality where feminist social consciousness meets the outer limits of the imagination. This is to draw attention to lesser known bloggers, to bring individuals of like-minded (or at least, understanding) interests together, and to foster the growth of feminist fan communities.

*Games people play - from Terra Nova:
Jennifer Jamieson Bortle, Games People Play: Identity and Relationships in an Online Role-Playing Games. The research focuses on three players of Everquest. The abstract is below. PDF Here

The following is a study of online relationships and identity formation in Everquest, a multiplayer online role-playing game. Using a phenomenological and reflexive approach, the study seeks to explicate the attractions of this type of online forum, which draws hundreds of thousands of players who spend many hours each week playing the game. Three Everquest players' experiences are considered in light of literature from mainstream psychological, social constructionist, psychodynamic, and cyborg theory, with special focus on the players' reports of the dialogue between player and character, and of the nature of their relationships in Everquest. Subjects participated in a non-directive, qualitative interview and submitted and discussed gameplay logs. Findings challenge the notion that these players' online identities are escapist paradoxes of their offline personae, but highlight the ways in which their ego-ideal colors and limits their online identifications. The participants' ambivalence about the limits of Everquest relationships is also explored, especially such as the Everquest community might be understood as an example of hyperreality structuring the experience of the real. Finally, suggestions for further research in the area are suggested.

*Gay video game player survey- an article on Newsweek...

The first study ever of GLBT gamers or "gaymers" was approved by the institutional review board of the University of Illinois and was activated this week for participation at www.gaymersurvey.org. It will be open to participation for 8 weeks.

The study is the brainchild of Jason Rockwood, a recent graduate and a self-confessed non-gamer, who says the last game he really played was "Duck Hunt" on the Nintendo Entertainment System during the 1980s.

The survey is located HERE. See the discussion over at Womengamers.com to read comments about how there's no need to consider sexuality & gaming...

*Student Thesis: Network Gaming Utilizing Ubiquitous Computing

"Context awareness related to computing is very rigid. The context itself can be just about anything: time, location, preferences. How it is perceived as data is variable. The context can be defined according to a user or the system that utilizes it; it could be dynamic or constant. Typically, data based on users or entities is constant, while system-based context is to some degree dynamic [6]. Regardless of its form, it is this concept of context awareness in computers that will allow for them to interact with the real world by using the given context as data to fulfill specified acts, i.e. displaying data, triggering events, etc.

Fritz Hohl, at a seminar in Dagstuhl on ubiquitous computing, makes reference to a context service system by which the digital world is integrated into the real world. Its overall role is to model the real world in the digital one, so that changes in the real world would be reflected, and the system could act accordingly. An example in this system might be an 'intelligent' copy machine that changes its preferences and settings according to user. The context being the user, the machine is able to handle both switches in setting and in whom to bill any charges to [6].

His discussion brings to point two methods by which a context-based system would be implemented. The importance of these matters is that, to have ubiquitous devices ever present and working, a system would be required by which they can interact with the real world.

*GLS: Videogames as Designed Experiences - Lisa Galarneau:

What are games good at?
* Examining choice and consequences
* Exploring eticing identities
* Thinking with virtual tools (spreadsheets, charts, graphs)
* Crossing transmedia/transnational boundaries (e.g. reading books associated with games)
* Cultures/diversity
* Rhythmic immersion - things done in cycles
* Creative expression
* Collaborative competition
* Retribalization

Connect the study of games as designed objects, naturalistic studies of gaming as a social practice, etc.

Educational games as designed experience

* Game designers construct ideological worlds
* Game players learn through performance
* Learning through participation in social structures

*The Truth about Little Girls - over at The Escapist

I have been a boy. I have been a man. I have been a voluptuous vixen with pistols poised on either swaying hip. I have been a zombie, a pokemon, a pants-less ninja. I have been a plump, pink, vacuum-mouthed ball.

But I have never been a little girl.

*Offensive is Not a Feminist Value over at Shrug.com Blog

For the record, I don’t think that not giving a shit if you’re offensive to other feminists is something to be proud of, or something to admire. I don’t think that being trollish is something to be proud of, especially when one is trolling one’s own community. There’s a difference between examining an issue and advocating your morality as the only correct path, and frankly the latter does not encourage the former.

:: Netwoman 10:25 AM [+] ::
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Automated Work Places - A thought Experiment

Here is something to reflect on...

The Idea
Imagine a completely automated Wal-Mart. When you enter the store, there are,
generally, no employees to help you. At most times, the only people in the store are
customers. If you show up between 3 and 6 a.m., you might see employees
performing shelf-stocking activities. A clean-up crew shows up at 6:30 a.m.
How could this be possible, you ask? Don’t you need people to run a store? In this
document, I will demonstrate that it is now possible to run a store using various
technologies. Remember, this is a thought experiment. Such a store does not exist today. However, it might in the future. This is intended to provoke thought and reasoned conversation. I expect that this document will mainly be used in educational settings

If you want to comment on this, have a look at the document (there's a link to the PDF on the site) and send your responses to the person listed. I have a few comments, ones that I have made before about the automated check outs at the grocery store...

:: Netwoman 2:10 PM [+] ::
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Microsoft's'Women in Technology' Initiative

Microsoft announces 'Women in Technology' initiative at the Global Summit of Women
At the Global Summit of Women, Microsoft Corp, in conjunction with the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), launched an initiative to support women in technology (WIT) in the Arab region.

The WIT programme will provide women across the Middle East the opportunity to enhance their marketable skills and gain economic independence. WIT will also benefit from the cooperation of the Institute of International Education West Coast Center, which will manage and implement the project in collaboration with local partners.

The programme will help build community centres that will provide women with both IT skills and general business skills and create a network of women and organisations across the region. It will be implemented initially in six countries: Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. It is anticipated that the programme will be extended to other countries in the region.

:: Netwoman 9:24 PM [+] ::
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Video Game Link Round Up

*Socialstudiesgames.com has Game-related Podcasts - looks interesting!

*One of my favourite games - Tekken 5 - here is a home made video that you can get on You Tube; two guys playing out a 'real' Tekken battle. This is very cool!

*Average US Gamer is 33 years old from Gamasutra

According to the report, which questioned a sample of 1,700 U.S. households, 69 percent of American "heads of households" play computer or video games. The average gamer was said to be thirty-three years of age, with 31 percent under eighteen years of age, 44 percent between eighteen and forty-nine and 25 percent fifty years or older. The average age of the most frequent game purchaser is forty years of age.

I don't know why they are using the term 'head of household' anymore. It's gendered and archaic...but useful info here anyway.

*Hilary Clinton calls for federally funded research on the effects of video games. Glad to hear it - with all the fluff circulating about the violent effects of video games, it'll be useful to see some data (which I am interested in more so than their write up/analysis/summary of the findings, as I am sure they will be interpreted differently then how I would analyze it).

*Reforming the dress code at E3 - from Gamasutra:

Yasmin Kafai steps up to the Soapbox to discuss why the reformatted dress code for so-called "booth babes" at this year's E3 is the "first step towards reform in an industry where women have traditionally been marginalized," and conversely how the Ubisoft-funded girl gamer clan, the Frag Dolls (whose Team Captain, Morgan Romine, participated in a panel discussion at the Kafai-organized Girls 'N Games Conference last May) are "making inroads into the video and computer game world one gigabyte at a time."

See Official Shrub Blog to see a response to this...good points to consider.

:: Netwoman 1:42 PM [+] ::
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