About Celina

2011-02-16T19:04:00.002+01:00

:: Something New

2010-01-31T20:27:00.001+01:00

Open Source Conference in Sweden [OSS 2009]

2009-06-11T18:09:00.014+02:00

From June 3rd to 6th I attended the 5th International Conference on Open Source Systems [OSS 2009] in Skövde, Sweden. The conference, organised by the University of Skövde and the IFIP W.G. 2.13., brought together academia, industry and public administration. The conference consisted of research paper presentations, workshops, tutorials, and poster presentations. People from various disciplinary and professional backgrounds interested in FLOSS attended the conference and provided thus a wide variety of viewpoints, approaches, methods, and topics.

For the first time a doctoral consortium was organised collocated with the conference. Within the doctoral consortium I presented the current concept of my doctoral thesis. I got very valuable feedback from the professors and many other conference participants, for which I am really grateful. While the proceedings of the conference where published by Springer, the proceedings of the doctoral consortium are openly accessible and can be downloaded here (2 MB).

New publication: Raffl, Celina (2009). Innovation through Cooperation. Information and Communication Technology Assessment and Design for an Inclusive Society. In: Scacchi, Walt/Ven, Kris/Verelst, Jan (edts.). Proceedings of the Doctoral Consortium of the 5th International Conference on Open Source Systems [OSS 2009]. June 3-6, Skövde, Sweden [pp. 49-63]. Download the full book.

After the OSS 2009 conference I went from Stockholm to Vienna and attended for the 3rd time the TA'09, the 9th Congress on Technology Assessment. The congress was organised by the Institute for Technology Assessment (ITA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The topic of this year's conference questioned: "When TA", referring to the Collingridge Dilemma.

Cybercultures 09: Politics and Social Software

2009-03-16T23:45:00.003+01:00

From March 13. - 15.2009 Christina Neumayer and I attended the 4th Global Conference on Cybercultures: Exploring Critical Issues, organised by the Interdisciplinary-Net Oxford.

We presented a paper co-authored by Robert Bichler on Politics and Social Software. We discussed the potential and limits of social software for political engagement and concluded with outlining recommendations for inclusive ICTs, i.e. ICTs that are
[1] accessible, open, and participative,
[2] designed in common efforts of users,
[3] interdisciplinary analysed and assessed, and
[4] open source based.

Publications on this topic will be published soon.

Further links:
:: Robert Bichler
:: Christina Neumayer
:: Interdisciplinary-Net Oxford
:: Critical Issues on Cyberculture

New Publication: Perspectives of Cyberethics

2008-12-15T12:02:00.003+01:00

Bichler, Robert /Fuchs, Christian/Raffl, Celina (2008). Perspectives of Cyberethics in the Information Society. In: Billias, Nancy/Curry, Agnes B. (Edts.). Framing Evil. Portraits of Terror & the Imagination. Interdisciplinary-Press: Oxford [p. 153 – 162]. Download the full book

CivilMedia 08: Social Software for Networked Political Activism

2008-12-05T19:02:00.017+01:00

At the CivilMedia 2008: Cultures – Participation – Dialogue
in Salzburg from December 04 to 06 2008 Christina Neumayer and I presented:

Social Software for Networked Political Activism?

Social Software has the potential to foster grassroots activism, political inclusion and community building that decrease exclusive, oppressive or elitist forms of political decision-making. The easy-to-use architecture of many applications and tools enable ad-hoc activities to emerge, information can spread globally in real time. At the same time an exclusive character of Social Software can be observed, especially (but not only) in developing countries where an enormous social gap is predominant. By analysing the role of Social Software for political protest we show new possibilities but also limits of this kind of grassroots activism.

Image Source: www.digiactive.org

In our presentation we identified four concepts that we state as characteristics of information and communication technologies in general, and of cyberactivism in particular: [1] Social Software provides new opportunities for community building independent of geographical or national boundaries. [2] Political activism can take place in both the real and the virtual space. These spheres are not distinct but closely related to each other. [3] Knowledge gaps, limited access to the technical infrastructure, imbalanced power structures and social inequalities can raise the walls of exclusion and hence limit online grassroots activism to emerge. [4] Social Software has the potential to bring national or local political issues on a global scale since online political activism – dependent on the topic – often trespasses national and cultural boundaries.

In our presentation we discussed three examples of online political activism, which have their roots in the social networking site Facebook:

:: Support the Monks' Protest: Burma/Myanmar [2007]
:: April 6 Youth Movement: Egypt [2008]
:: A Million Voices Against FARC: Columbia [2008]

Presentation Slides:
Social Software for Networked Political Activism

New Publication: Facebook for Protest?

2008-12-01T20:59:00.006+01:00

As a follow-up of the conferences and our joint work on Social Software for Protest a first article was published in the DigiActive Research Series, December 2008:

Neumayer, Christina/Raffl, Celina (2008). Facebook for Protest? The Value of Social Software for Political Activism in the Anti-FARC Rallies. In: DigiActive Research Series, December 2008. [DigiActive]

Abstract from the DigiActive Website:
How do real and virtual spaces influence on another in the field of political activism? This R@D research product draws on the Facebook-mediated anti-FARC protests in Colombia to assess the potential of the Internet in globalizing geographically specific political contests. One of the key factors used in quantifying this relationship is access: who has the ability to express themselves politically in a virtual space?

In order to bring quantitative analysis to bear on this question, this research cross-references rally locations to rankings on the Human Development Index and finds a high correlation between the incidence of rallies and high ranking on the index, implying that Internet-mediated activism is to some extent contingent on economic class (a proxy for technology access, among other things). The paper concludes by reaffirming that the use of social software for political protest is dependent on the ideologies and the cultural and political contexts of its users and developers.

DigiActive announced our publication as follows:

We are very excited to announce the first publication of Research@DigiActive (R@D), a project which aims to produce applied, thought-provoking, actionable research at the cutting edge of digital activism. The projects is run by our Director of Applied Research, Patrick Meier.

The first R@D paper, by two doctoral students at the University of Salzburg, examines the relationship between real and virtual space through the lens of the the anti-FARC protests which were organized through Facebook. You can read the article here:

http://www.digiactive.org/2008/12/01/rd-facebook-and-the-anti-farc-rallies/

Social Software for Political Activism

2008-11-15T13:31:00.006+01:00

Christina Neumayer and I recently presented our ongoing joint research on Social Software for Political Activism at two conferences.

From October 27 – 30 2008 we attended the 5th Community Informatics and Development Informatics Conference in Prato, Italy. This highly international and interdisciplinary conference was organised by the Centre for Community Networking Research [CCNR] at the Monash University, Australia and the Community Informatics Research Network [CIRN], which is "an international network of researchers, practitioners and policy makers concerned with enabling communities through the use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) and specifically with research and practice in Community Informatics". The focus of this year's conference was on Social Inclusion.

Our presentation [and article] entitled as "Facebook for Global Protest: The Potential and Limits of Social Software for Grassroots Activism" questioned how issues such as digital divide, globalisation, community building and the interrelation of the real and the virtual sphere influence political activism.

Here are some photos of the conference and the social event.
There are also photos of Prato, Florence, Pisa and San Gimignano in Tuscany.
We visited these cities before and after attending the conference in Prato.

From November 7 – 8 2008 we presented our research at the Social Web Conference in Siegen, Germany. Our presentation "Assessing the Potential of Social Software for Political Activism Exemplified on the Anti-FARC-Rallies" was a contribution to the overall topic of the conference: Social Web: Towards Networked Protest Politics? Further information on the conference can be found here.

Before going to Siegen wie made a short stop in Cologne.

European Media and Communication Doctoral Summer School

2008-08-18T23:51:00.016+02:00

From July 27 to August 09 2008 I attended the European Media and Communication Doctoral Summer School in Tartu, Estonia. The Summer School was organised by the European Communication Research and Education Association [ECREA].

The summer school brought together 45 early stage researchers and more than 20 experts from all over Europe to discuss current issues in [new] media, communication, and cultural studies. The main emphasis of the summer school was on providing PhD-support in small feedback seminars ['flows'] in the morning. The afternoon courses were held in plenum and organised as lectures and workshops.

"The summer school aims to provide a supportive international setting where doctoral students can present their ongoing work, receive feedback on their PhD-projects from international experts and meet students and academics from other countries, establishing valuable contacts for the future. The summer school also generates a clear picture of the international landscape of communication and media research, and its diversity of academic cultures, allowing PhD-students to situate themselves within this academic field." [http://www.comsummerschool.org/node/85]

A few photos are available here: ECREA Summer School Tartu 2008.

New Publication: Is the Virtual Space a Social Space?

2008-07-01T00:02:00.002+02:00

Raffl, Celina (2008). Is the Virtual Space a Social Space? In: Zimmermann, Rainer E. [ed.]. Design Science Bd. 2. Shaker Verlag: Munich [pp. 218–240].

New Publication: Cooperative Play for Preventive Healthcare in the Office

2008-06-16T21:07:00.008+02:00

Obermair, Christoph/Lankes, Michael/Raffl, Celina (2008). Cooperative Play for Preventive Healthcare in the Office. In Oinas-Kukkonen, Harri/Hasle, Per/Harjumaa, Marja/Segerståhl, Katarina [edts.]. Poster Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Persuasive Technology, PERSUASIVE 2008, Oulu University Press: Oulu, Finland [pp. 9-12].

New Publication: Assessing the Impact of Open Content Knowledge Production in Web 2.0

2008-05-18T12:49:00.006+02:00

Raffl, Celina (2008). Assessing the Impact of Open Content Knowledge Production in Web 2.0. In: The International Journal of Technology, Knowledge and Society. Volume 4, Issue 3 [pp. 85-92].

19th EMCSR Vienna | March 2008

2008-03-25T12:59:00.008+01:00

I am recently attending the 19th European Meeting on Cybernetics and Systems Research [EMCSR] in Vienna. I present current results of our working group in my presentation "The Web as Techno-Social System: The Emergence of Web 3.0" [see also new publication].

The Austrian Newspaper Der Standard [as well as the Austrian national public service broadcaster ORF in the ORF science section] reported about this conference on March 21st 2008: Cybernetic Summit in Vienna - About Men and Machine.

Further Information about the conference: 19th EMCSR 2008.

New Publication: The Web as Techno-Social System. The Emergence of Web 3.0

2008-03-25T12:50:00.007+01:00

Raffl, Celina/Hofkirchner, Wolfgang/Fuchs, Christian/Schafranek, Matthias (2008). The Web as Techno-Social System. The Emergence of Web 3.0. In: Trappl, Robert [ed.]. Cybernetics and Systems 2008. Austrian Society for Cybernetic Studies: Vienna [pp. 604-609].

Gläserner Mensch dank Social Media?

2008-03-22T19:50:00.006+01:00

Event: Gläserner Mensch dank Social Media?

Location: net culture lab, MQ, Vienna
Date: March 26th 2008, 7pm
Further Information: Gläserner Mensch dank Social Media?

T08 Boston | January 2008

2008-02-15T22:08:00.015+01:00

Together with Robert Bichler I attended the 4th International Conference on Technology, Knowledge & Society organised by Common Ground and the Northeastern University in Boston, USA.

The conference brought together 250 international researchers from different disciplines that shared their ideas, expertise and knowledge about the interrelation of technologies and their social impacts.

In several sessions, round tables and plenary presentations the experts presented their research projects and discussed current and emerging trends in the fields of Technology in Education, Technology in Community, Knowledge and Technology, and Human Technologies and Usability.

In the stream on Knowledge & Technology I discussed the Assessment of Knowledge Production in Web 2.0. I focussed on the chances and risks of collaborative content generation in Web 2.0 due to cooperation and user integration and argued for a new understanding of intellectual property rights and digital rights management.

Here are the slides of my presentation: Assessing the Impact of Open Content Knowledge Production in Web 2.0

CivilMedia 07 | November 2007

2007-11-15T16:31:00.004+01:00

Attended the CivilMedia 07 UnConference in Salzburg today.
Title: Participation 2.0

Further Information:
CivilMedia 07

WebMonday in Salzburg | November 2007

2007-11-15T16:21:00.001+01:00

I have also attended the 3rd WebMonday on Nov. 5th 07.
It took place in the Mirabell Castle in Salzburg.
The meeting was about Web 2.0, Youth & Participation.

Further Information about this meeting
can be found at WebMonday Salzburg.