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Seminar: Media & visual technologies as material culture – students’ projects

2015/11/02 philbu No Comments

The following joint student projects are conducted in the seminar “Media and visual technologies as material culture” at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology of the University of Vienna:

Team A: Non-Use of Smartphones
-> Which impact does the non-use of smartphones have for the private and working life? Why do people decide against using smartphones?
Team B: Meaning of Cellphones for Refugees
-> What is the meaning of cellphones for refugees in Austria?
Team C: Crowd-sourcing & Labor
-> How are subjective meanings of “team work” shaped by the inter-dependencies between freelancers and the website Capacitor?
Team D: Sharing of Visual Media, Art & Cultural Identity
-> In what aspects have the Japanese art forms of dance and painting changed through the sharing of visual media/material?
Team E: Access to Internet & Power Relations within the Family Home
-> What are the effects of internet usage on children and young adults in respect to power relations in the family home?
Team F: Conversion/Discussion about Digital Content
-> What is the difference between usage of commentary sections of Serbian and German online newspapers?
Team G: Self-Identification through Visual Communication & Social Media
-> How do people identify/define themselves through visual communication via social media (websites (blogs), video blogs and Instagram)?
Team H: Ayahuasceros – Making of Ritual Community on Facebook
-> What is the relevance of Facebook in the community building process of Austrian Ayahuasca ceremonies?
Team I: Bicycle Movement & Digital Media in Vienna
-> How are digital media technologies utilized in relation to the social network BikeKitchen?

Seminar: Media & visual technologies as material culture – students’ research ideas

2015/10/16 philbu No Comments

Clustering of individual ideas to create joint research projects in the seminar “Media and Visual Technologies as Material Culture” at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology of the University of Vienna.

Article: From marginalization to self-determined participation

2015/09/28 philbu 1 Comment

Budka, P. 2015. From marginalization to self-determined participation: Indigenous digital infrastructures and technology appropriation in Northwestern Ontario’s remote communities. Journal des Anthropologues – Special Issue “Margins and Digital Technologies”. No. 142-143: 127-153.

Abstract

This article discusses, from an anthropological perspective, the utilization of digital infrastructures and technologies in the geographical and sociocultural contexts of indigenous Northwestern Ontario, Canada. By introducing the case of the Keewaytinook Okimakanak Kuh-ke-nah Network (KO-KNET) it analyses first how digital infrastructures not only connect First Nations people and communities but also enable relationships between local communities and non-indigenous institutions. Second, and by drawing on KO-KNET’s homepage service MyKnet.org, it exemplifies how people appropriate digital technologies for their specific needs in a remote and isolated area. KO-KNET and its services facilitate First Nations’ self-determined participation to regional, national, and even global ICT connectivity processes, contributing thus to the “digital demarginalization” of Northwestern Ontario’s remote communities.

Text (PDF)

Vortrag: Indigene Modernität durch digitale Medientechnologien?

2015/06/29 philbu No Comments

Budka, P. 2015. Indigene Modernität durch digitale Medientechnologien? Infrastrukturentwicklung, Technologieaneignung und soziokulturelle Praktiken im Nordwestlichen Ontario, Kanada. Vortrag im Colloquium Americanum des Instituts für Ethnologie der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, 25. Juni 2015. (PDF)

Inhalt:
Einleitung
„Modernität“ & Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie/Ethnologie
„Indigenisierte Modernität“
Indigene & Digitale Medientechnologien
Internetinfrastruktur im Nordwestlichen Ontario, Kanada
Soziale (sozial-digitale) Praktiken
„Indigene Modernität“ durch digitale Medientechnologien?

Review: Cyberidentities at war: The Moluccan conflict on the Internet

2015/02/24 philbu 4 Comments

Budka, P. 2015. Review of Bräuchler, B. Cyberidentities at war: The Moluccan conflict on the Internet. New York & Oxford: Berghahn, 2013. American Anthropologist, 117/1: 179-180.

Birgit Bräuchler’s book Cyberidentities at War was originally published in German in 2005. It is the result of her dissertation research on the Moluccan conflict and how it took place in cyberspace—the social space constituted by Internet-related practices. The English edition of this volume not only brings one of the few long-term ethnographic accounts of an online conflict to an international audience but also includes a new epilogue that briefly discusses what happened to the actors analyzed in the book and current developments in anthropological Internet research, particularly in respect to social movements and religions. In the early 2000s, a detailed anthropological inquiry into conflicts in relation to Internet technologies was still missing. By providing such an anthropological account and by conducting online ethnographic research, Bräuchler broke new ground and contributed to the then-emerging field of cyberanthropology.

Continue reading Review: Cyberidentities at war: The Moluccan conflict on the Internet

Article: Social media in remote First Nation communities

2014/07/01 philbu No Comments

Molyneaux, H., O’Donnell, S., Kakekaspan, C., Walmark, B., Budka, P., Gibson, K. 2014. Social media in remote First Nation communities. Canadian Journal of Communication, 39(2): 275-288.

Abstract

Community resilience in First Nations includes ties to people both inside and outside the community, intergenerational communication, the sharing of stories, and family and community connectedness. This study, based on a survey of Internet users in the Sioux Lookout region of Northwestern Ontario, explores the link between social networking sites and community resilience. The region is home to some of the most isolated First Nation (indigenous)communities in Canada. Cultural and familial links between these communities are strong, yet until recent use of the Internet, maintaining regular communications to strengthen cultural ties was challenging. This study examines the links between travel and communication online, the ways in which social media are used to preserve culture and maintain communication, and the implications of social networking for community resilience.

La résilience communautaire chez les Premières Nations se base sur les rapports à autrui tant au sein de la communauté qu’au-delà de celle-ci, la communication intergénérationnelle, le partage d’histoires et la solidarité familiale et communautaire. Cet article se fonde sur un sondage d’utilisateurs d’Internet dans la région Sioux Lookout du Nord-ouest de l’Ontario pour explorer les rapports entre les sites de réseautage social et la résilience communautaire. La région Sioux Lookout compte certaines des communautés autochtones les plus isolées au Canada. Les affinités culturelles et familiales entre ces communautés sont fortes, et pourtant, avant l’utilisation récente d’Internet, le maintien de communications régulières pour resserrer les liens culturels n’était pas facile. Cette étude examine les rapports entre voyages et communication en ligne, les manières dont on utilise les médias sociaux pour préserver la culture et assurer les communications, et l’impact du réseautage social sur la résilience communautaire.

Journal “Cultural Anthropology” goes open access

2014/02/04 philbu No Comments

The Society for Cultural Anthropology, in March 2013, announced plans for Cultural Anthropology to become an open access journal. Starting with its February 2014 issue (volume 29, number 1), new issues of the journal became freely available online through the CA website, and plans are in the works to make back issues available as well.

more info at: http://www.culanth.org/articles/open_access
first open access issue: http://www.culanth.org/issues/162-29-1-february-2014

Notes: Open access & anthropology

2014/01/17 philbu No Comments

Open Access (OA): freier Zugang zu wiss. Material
Goldener / Grüner Weg
alternatives Publikations- & Geschäftsmodell
2017-2021: ~50% OA Publikationen (Lewis 2012) http://crl.acrl.org/content/73/5/493

AutorInnen: + Verbreitung
LeserInnen: + Zugang
Bibliotheken: + Ersparnis
Gesellschaft: + Einsicht/Verständnis
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_access
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5rVH1KGBCY
http://www.doaj.org/
http://www.fwf.ac.at/de/public_Relations/oai/

HAU-Journal of Ethnographic Theory (seit 2011)
international, peer-reviewed, open-access (CC-Lizenz), online
ethnography as the prime heuristic & in the forefront of anthropology
http://www.haujournal.org

HAU-N.E.T., Network of Ethnographic Theory
international network of research centres & anthropology departments to support journal HAU
alternative to existing subscription models in publishing
http://www.haujournal.org/haunet/

World Summit on Information Society: Action Line “Cultural diversity and identity”

2012/11/19 philbu No Comments

“Cultural and linguistic diversity, while stimulating respect for cultural identity, traditions and religions, is essential to the development of an Information Society based on the dialogue among cultures and regional and international cooperation. It is an important factor for sustainable development.

UNESCO emphasises the value of cultural and linguistic diversity in all its work. It is also concerned to ensure that new media platforms make content available which is relevant to the lives of all communities and individuals, including the poor and marginalised. Content of local relevance, and content which is locally produced, are important in this context.” …
more info

UNESCO & WSIS
WSIS

Article: “We were on the outside looking in”: MyKnet.org – A First Nations Online Social Environment in Northern Ontario

2012/07/26 philbu No Comments

Bell, B., Budka, P., Fiser, A. 2012. “We were on the outside looking in”: MyKnet.org – A First Nations online social environment in northern Ontario. In A. Clement, M. Gurstein, G. Longford, M. Moll & L. R. Shade (Eds.), Connecting Canadians: Investigations in Community Informatics (pp. 237-254). Edmonton: Athabasca University Press.

“In 2000, one of Canada’s leading Aboriginal community networks, the Kuh-ke-nah Network, or K-Net, was on the verge of expanding into broadband services. (For more on K-Net, see chapter 14.) K-Net’s management organization, Keewaytinook Okimakanak Tribal Council, had acquired funding and resources to become one of Industry Canada’s Smart Communities demonstration projects. Among the innovative services that K-Net introduced at the time was MyKnet.org, a system of personal home pages intended for remote First Nations users in a region of Northern Ontario where numerous communities have lived without adequate residential telecom service well into the millennium (Fiser, Clement, and Walmark 2006; Ramírez et al. 2003). Shortly thereafter, and through K-Net’s community-based Internet infrastructure, this free-of-charge, free-of-advertising, locally supported, online social environment grew from its core constituency of remote First Nations communities to host over 30,000 registered user accounts (of which approximately 20,000 represent active home pages). …”

free chapter download: http://www.aupress.ca/index.php/books/120193

Publications, papers & presentations about MyKnet.org

2012/02/16 philbu No Comments

This is a list of publications, papers and presentations that results from research on MyKnet.org, an online social environment for First Nations people of northwestern Ontario, Canada. For more information on MyKnet.org and the research project, take a look at the summary of the MyKnet.org research project and the MyKnet.org research website.

Publications

Bell, B., Budka, P. & Fiser, A. 2012. “We were on the outside looking in” – MyKnet.org: A First Nations online social environment in northern Ontario. In Clement, A., Gurstein, M., Longford, G., Moll, M. & Shade, L. R. (Eds.) Connecting Canadians: Investigations in Community Informatics. Edmonton: Athabasca University Press. Forthcoming.

Budka, P. 2009. Indigenous media technology production in northern Ontario, Canada. In Ertler, K.-D. & Lutz, H. (Eds.) Canada in Grainau / Le Canada à Grainau: A multidisciplinary survey of Canadian Studies after 30 years. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.

Budka, P., Bell, B., & Fiser, A. 2009. MyKnet.org: How Northern Ontario’s First Nation communities made themselves at home on the World Wide Web. The Journal of Community Informatics, 5(2), Online: http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/568/450

Papers and presentations at conferences

Budka, P. 2011. Connecting First Nations through media and communication technologies in northern Ontario, Canada. Paper at “American Indian Workshop (AIW)”, Graz, Austria: Graz University, 31 March – 3 April.

Budka, P. 2010. Popular culture and music in an indigenous online environment. Paper at “11th Biennial Conference of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA)”, Maynooth, Ireland: National University of Irland Maynooth, 24-27 August.

Budka, P. 2010. Indigene Medienproduktion im Nordwestlichen Ontario, Kanada. Presentation at “Tage der Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie”, Vienna, Austria: University of Vienna, 22 April.

Budka, P. 2009. Die Bedeutung von (kultureller) Identität in einer indigenen Online-Umgebung (MyKnet.org). Paper at “Internet und Identitätskonstruktion von Jugendlichen Workshop”, Vienna, Austria: University of Vienna, 30 October.

Budka, P. 2008. Indigenous territories on the World Wide Web: How First Nation people in Northwestern Ontario make themselves at home online. Paper at “Internet Research 9.0 Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers”, Copenhagen, Denmark: IT University of Copenhagen, 16-18 October.

Budka, P. 2008. Indigenous media technology production in Northern Ontario, Canada. Paper at “10th Biennial Conference of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA)”, Ljubljana, Slovenia: University of Ljubljana, 26-30 August.

Budka, P. 2008. Populärkulturen in einer First Nation Internet Umgebung: Hip Hop als Element jugendlicher Identitätskonstruktion und Repräsentation. Paper at “Wiener Tage der Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie”, Vienna, Austria: University of Vienna, 10-11 April.

Budka, P. 2007. The new mediation of traumatic experiences: the First Nations online environment MyKnet.org and suicides in Northern Ontario, Canada. Paper at “Sites/Cites of Trauma Workshop”, Gothenburg, Sweden:Gothenburg University, 5-6 October.

Budka, P., Grünberg, G., & Trupp, C. 2007. Indigene und Internet in den Amerikas. Ein komparatives medienanthropologisches Projekt. Presentation at “Wiener Tage der Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie”, Vienna, Austria: University of Vienna, 26-27 April.

Bell, B., Budka, P., & Fiser, A. 2007. “We were on the outside looking in” – MyKnet.org: a First Nations online social network in Northern Ontario. Paper at the “5th Canadian Research Alliance for Community Innovation and Networking (CRACIN) Workshop”, Montreal, Canada: Concordia University, 20-22 June.

Report on the MyKnet.org and Facebook Online Survey, April – December 2011

2012/01/31 philbu No Comments

Budka, Philipp. 2012. Report on the MyKnet.org and Facebook Online Survey, April-December 2011.
http://meeting.knet.ca/mp19/course/view.php?id=7

Abstract

This report presents and discusses findings of an online survey which aims to contribute to the understanding of First Nation online practices. By looking at two popular web services, MyKnet.org, a regional First Nation homepage environment, and Facebook, the global leader in online social networking, it becomes clear that for the First Nation people of northwestern Ontario the internet is the most important communication medium. These two online services have become ubiquitous media technologies that are used to connect and represent people in this remote region. They are well integrated into people’s daily lives and practices; not only as communication tools, but also as subjects of discussion. As participants to this online survey (N=117) indicate, the popularity of MyKnet.org and Facebook is mainly due to the fact that those online services are easy and free to use for keeping in touch with family and friends. Besides maintaining and fostering social connections, people also utilize MyKnet.org and Facebook to share stories about cultural activities as well as music and videos, which is considered an important cultural practice. Survey results suggest further that while Facebook has replaced MyKnet.org in terms of online communicating and connecting, the Aboriginal online service is still being used for creating and designing web presences as well as for local information gathering and sharing.

The full report (PDF)

Links
MyKnet.org research website
MyKnet.org
KO-KNET

References and resources on online ethnography

2011/11/30 philbu No Comments

Literature on online ethnography collected through the EASA Media Anthropology Network Mailing List
to contribute to this collection go to the network’s project wiki: http://www.media-anthropology.net/index.php/projects

Bell, David, and Barbara M. Kennedy 2000 The Cybercultures Reader. London : New York: Routledge.

Boellstorff, Tom: Coming of Age in Second Life, 2008. The volume, which is an ethnography by itself, has a full chapter on methods in online research.

Buchanan, Elizabeth A. 2004 Readings in Virtual Research Ethics : Issues and Controversies. Hershey, PA: Information Science Pub.

Hine, C. (2008). Virtual Ethnography: Modes, Varieties, Affordances. In Fielding, Lee, Blank (eds) THE SAGE HANDBOOK OF ONLINE RESEARCH METHODS.

Hine, C. 2005 Internet Research and the Sociology of Cyber-Social-Scientific Knowledge. Information Society 21(4):239-248.

Hine, Christine 2005 Virtual Methods : Issues in Social Research on the Internet. Oxford, UK ; New York: Berg.

Hine, Christine 2000 Virtual Ethnography. London ; Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage.

Littleton, K., and D. Whitelock 2004 Guiding the Creation of Knowledge and Understanding in a Virtual Learning Environment. Cyberpsychology & Behavior 7(2):173-181.

Markham, Anette: Internet Research. In Silverman, D. (Ed.). Qualitative Research: Theory, Method, and Practices, 3rd Edition. London: Sage.
Draft: http://www.markham.internetinquiry.org/writing/silverman2011draft.pdf

Markham, Anette: The politics, ethics, and methods of representation in online ethnography. In Denzin, N. & Lincoln, Y. (Eds.). Handbook of Qualitative Research, 3rd Edition (pp. 793-820). Thousand Oaks CA: Sage
Draft here: http://markham.internetinquiry.org/writing/denzingalleyproofs.pdf

Marshall, Jon (2010): Ambiguity, Oscillation and Disorder: Online Ethnography and the Making of Culture
http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/ojs/index.php/mcs/article/view/1598/1859

Nardi, Bonnie: Night Elf Priest, prolog and first two chapters. Bonus: They can read it online for free: http://www.digitalculture.org/books/my-life-as-a-night-elf-priest

Pauwels, L. 2005 Websites as Visual and Multimodal Cultural Expressions: Opportunities and Issues of Online Hybrid Media Research. Media Culture & Society 27(4):604-613.

Preece, J., and D. Maloney-Krichmar 2005 Online Communities: Design, Theory, and Practice. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 10(4).

Schaap, Frank 2002 The Words that Took Us there : Ethnography in a Virtual Reality. Amsterdam: Aksant Academic Publishers.

Silver, D. 2004 Internet/cyberculture/digital culture/new media/fill-in-the-Blank Studies. New Media & Society 6(1):55-64.

Paper: Interactive technology enhanced learning for social science students

2011/09/20 philbu No Comments

Budka, P., Schallert, C., Mader, E. “Interactive technology enhanced learning for social science students”, Paper for ICL Conference 2011, Piestany, Slovakia, 21-23 September 2011.

Prezi Presentation

Abstract
This paper introduces the case of an interactive technology enhanced learning model, its contexts and infrastructure at a public university in the Bologna era. From a socio-technological perspective, it takes a look at the conditions and challenges under which this flexible learning model for the social sciences has been developed. Furthermore, selected evaluation results, including experiences and expectations of social science students, are discussed. The paper concludes that it is possible, with the appropriate didactical model, to create and facilitate interactive student-centered learning situations, even in “mass lectures”.

Article: How “real life” issues affect the social life of online networked communities

2011/08/09 philbu No Comments

Budka, Philipp. 2008. How “real life” issues affect the social life of online networked communities. In C. Trupp & P. Budka (Eds.), Austrian Studies in Social Anthropology – Sondernummer KSA-Tage 2007 (Workshop Medien und Film), June 2008, 50-61.
Online: http://www.univie.ac.at/alumni.ethnologie/journal/abstract/budka.html

Abstract

Speaking of “the internet”, one often forgets that this is not a monolithic media technology, but a whole range of applications embedded in the life of people practicing these technologies. This paper explores on the one hand the social life of a publicly accessible mailing list that connects various indigenous and non-indigenous persons to form a global electronic network. On the other hand, it analyses a Usenet newsgroup, which is dedicated to the socio-cultural life in Austria. With the help of two cyberanthropological case studies the interconnections between “real life” or offline issues and “virtual” or online lives on mailing lists and newsgroups is demonstrated. The paper intends to show that “virtual life” never can be separated from “real life” and its issues.

Text (PDF)

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