Re: Newsletter & Call for Papers WebSci'18

I find this an unnecessarily derogatory comment about someone's
full-time research work. Especially when said research is solely
directed at improving the community of which you are a part.

I for one find plenty of value in Sarven's continued challenging of the
status-quo, which, in case you missed it, also includes development,
standards work and event planning, and certainly isn't confined to
mailing lists.


On 20.02.2018 10:19, Mauro Dragoni wrote:
> Sarven, I definitely envy the amount of free time that you have.
>
> On Sat, Feb 17, 2018 at 3:35 PM, Sarven Capadisli <info@csarven.ca
> <mailto:info@csarven.ca>> wrote:
>
>     re "newsletter", a quote from my in-progress PhD thesis:
>
>     “The past went that-a-way. When faced with a totally new situation we
>     tend always to attach ourselves to the objects, to the flavor of the
>     most recent past. We look at the present through a rear-view
>     mirror. We
>     march backward into the future. Suburbia lives imaginatively in
>     Bonanza-land” – Marshall McLuhan, The Medium is the Massage: An
>     Inventory of Effects, p74-75, 1967
>
>     http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/634760105
>     <http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/634760105>
>
>     I offer a brief reflection on spotting archaic practices:
>
>     On 2018-02-17 13:04, Steffen Staab wrote:
>     > Web Science is the premier interdisciplinary conference on
>     understanding
>     > the World Wide Web in all its facets - technological, social,
>     cultural,
>     > political. WebSci'18 is held 27-30 May 2018 at VU Amsterdam, The
>     > Netherlands. Below are highlights of the program and call for
>     papers.
>
>     re "papers", what are the "effects" of this sort of mentality on the
>     community?
>
>     > ********************************
>     > Tim Berner's-Lee: Turing Lecture
>     > ********************************
>
>     s/'//
>
>     > ******************************************************************
>     > PAPERS FOR THE MAIN CONFERENCE DUE FEBRUARY 25, 2018, Midnight UTC
>     > ******************************************************************
>
>     papers, papers, come get your papers in the electric age! Is it merely
>     the lack of technology or know-how to use the "new" medium to its full
>     potential, or are we simply attaching ourself to the past because some
>     chose to speak for all?
>
>     > The 10th International ACM Conference on Web Science in 2018
>     (WebSci�18)
>     > is a unique conference where a multitude of disciplines converge
>     in a
>     > creative and critical dialogue with the aim of understanding the
>     Web and
>     > its impacts.
>
>     The "impact", ie. the *effects* of the "paper" in practice is crystal
>     clear. I argue that we haven't actually studied the *effects*, but the
>     anecdotal evidence is clear. While the *content* of these Web
>     conferences are about the Web (and no doubt that it has value to
>     humanity), the message is delivered in is something no less than an
>     enhanced version of a physical paper; better ink via faster horses. It
>     has been more or less that way since the Web was conceived. That
>     has set
>     the tune on the rest of the workflow, anything from discovery, reuse,
>     funding, policies, to our rights.
>
>     > WebSci�18 welcomes participation from diverse fields
>     > including (but not limited to) art, anthropology, computer and
>     > information sciences, communication, economics, humanities,
>     informatics,
>     > law, linguistics, philosophy, political science, psychology, and
>     > sociology. We particularly welcome contributions that seek to cross
>     > traditional disciplinary boundaries. We are seeking papers that
>     describe
>     > original research, analysis, and practice in the field of Web
>     Science,
>     > as well as work that discusses novel and thought-provoking ideas and
>     > important research-in-progress.
>
>     The content is a by-product given the framework it has set itself. The
>     *effects* of the requirement to participate *is* part of this
>     conference's "impact".
>
>     What is the impact of this conference on the Web and our society?
>
>     Is it self-aware?
>
>     > Possible topics for submissions include (but are not limited to) the
>     > following:
>     > Current theoretical, methodological, and epistemological
>     challenges of
>     > Web Science:
>     > * Ethical challenges of technologies, data, algorithms,
>     platforms, and
>     > people in the Web
>     > * Interdisciplinarity in Web Science
>     > * Modeling Web-related structures, data, users and behaviours
>     > * Impact of big data on the development of Web Science
>     > * Web Science approaches to data science, data analytics, and
>     the Web of
>     > data
>     > * Detecting, preventing and predicting anomalies in Web data
>     > * Data curation and stewardship in Web Science
>     > * Sharing Web research data, Web archiving, and scholarly uses
>     of Web
>     > archives
>     > * The psychological, sociological, legal and technological aspects
>     > related to the temporal and spatial dimensions of the web as a
>     > repository of information
>     >
>     > Web practices of individuals, collectives, institutions, and
>     platforms:
>     > * The architecture and philosophy of the Web
>     > * Social machines, crowd computing, collective intelligence, and
>     > collaborative production
>     > * Health and well-being online
>     > * Humanities, arts, and culture on the Web
>     > * Web Science and the Internet of Things
>     > * Web economics, social entrepreneurship, and innovation
>     > * Analysis of online social and information networks, social
>     media analyses
>     > * Governance, democracy, access, intellectual property:
>     > * Personal data and privacy
>     > * Anonymity, security and trust for Web access
>     > * Web access, literacy, divides, and development
>     > * Knowledge, education, and scholarship on and through the Web
>
>     This is all fascinating.
>
>     > Submission
>     > **********
>     > WebSci18 is a selective conference with a rigorous review process.
>     > Reviewing will be single-blind (authors are identified on
>     submissions;
>     > reviewers are anonymized). To accommodate the distinct
>     traditions of Web
>     > Science�s many disciplines, we allow for two different paper
>     submission
>     > formats: full papers and short papers.
>     >
>     > Full papers are up to 8-10 pages long, ACM double column. Full
>     papers
>     > should present new and substantial theoretical, empirical,
>     > methodological, or policy-oriented contributions to research and/or
>     > practice. Full papers include an abstract, an introduction,
>     sections and
>     > especially significant conclusions and should be well on top of the
>     > current literature in the field as evidenced by appropriate
>     referencing.
>     > Full papers should be original work that has not been previously
>     > published. Full papers are presented through regular talks. The
>     program
>     > committee may decide to recommend full papers that were rejected
>     as such
>     > to be accepted as short papers, if the authors agree.
>     >
>     > Short papers are 3-5 pages long, ACM double column. Short papers
>     should
>     > present new ideas and/or work in progress that may have significant
>     > impact to or implications for the progress of the Web and Web
>     Science.
>     > Short papers should include an abstract, an introductory
>     paragraph and
>     > appropriate references. Short papers should be original work
>     that has
>     > not been previously published. Short papers are assigned short
>     talks.
>
>     "full", "short", US Letter, font-size 10pt, black ink, number of
>     words... How does the print-centric format have any relevance on
>     what's
>     intended to be expressed? Why must the results be presented and
>     consumed
>     in a non-interactive, anti-social manner?
>
>     What are the *effects*? What are the affordances?
>
>     This is of course completely arbitrary and archaic in that this
>     particular "publisher" requires academics to present their scientific
>     results in a way that that "publisher's" platform can accommodate. At
>     another time, in a galaxy far far away, for another "publisher",
>     it will
>     be completely different.
>
>     Consider the *effects* of imposing knowledge to be squeezed into these
>     static two dimensional containers.
>
>     What is this conference's impact on the scientific community?
>
>     How did it lead academia to use the Web towards its full potential?
>
>     The "average" academic that studies or works with the Web is
>     unaware of
>     the medium it is using to express its knowledge simply because it is
>     told not to really use it. We pretend to use it. We talk about the
>     content, but we don't go further. Some will argue "change is slow",
>     "that's how things are", but they only speak for themselves. Evidently
>     the Web has taken off, but it is only them that are left behind.
>
>     If you are an academic supervisor or a team lead of some sort, please
>     take a moment to consider whether you want to grow your team with
>     expertise in LaTeX/Word or the Web stack when it comes to
>     publishing/consuming scholarly information. Whether you are a
>     junior or
>     senior researcher, the actions you take today matters.
>
>     Have a look at the Web. What's stopping you from participating in that
>     bazaar of ideas and exercising your freedom of expression? You need to
>     go through a third-party? You think that's air you're breathing now?
>
>     > Both types of accepted submissions will be included in the
>     proceedings,
>     > which will be archived by the ACM Digital Library. However, in
>     order to
>     > accommodate the publication priorities of different scientific
>     > communities, we allow authors to opt out of having their
>     contribution
>     > appear in the published proceedings (thus allowing the authors
>     to retain
>     > the right to publish later in academic journals).
>
>     >From the sounds of it, the former requires the publisher to have
>     exclusive rights on the work. Why must (most likely) publicly funded
>     research go through that torture? Why can't the knowledge producers
>     retain "ownership"? What are the *effects* of academics giving up
>     their
>     hard earned rights?
>
>     Having said that, the alternative sounds good! Get the "stamp of
>     approval" from the scientific community, then proceed to self-publish
>     and archive.
>
>     > Furthermore, the WebSci18 Scientific Program Chairs intend to
>     organize a
>     > special issue of The Journal of Web Science. Authors of selected
>     full
>     > and short papers and extended abstracts will be contacted and
>     invited to
>     > submit a full-length journal paper for the special issue. All papers
>     > invited to this submission will go through a peer-review process
>     before
>     > receiving final approval.
>     >
>     > Submission Instructions:
>     > ************************
>     > Full and short paper submissions should be formatted according
>     to the
>     > official ACM SIG Conference Proceedings,
>     > see�http://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template
>     <http://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template>�(From the zip
>     > files provided, please select the SIGCONF version). 
>     > ***********************************************************
>     > You can find the WebSci�18 paper submission pages at
>     > Easychair:�https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=websci18
>     <https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=websci18>
>     > ***********************************************************
>
>     What are the *effects* of using Easychair:
>
>     * asking everyone to create (yet another) account at a third-party
>     service in order to participate;
>     * agree with the terms of service;
>     * invest content (eg reviews) into a silo, with no comforting
>     guarantee
>     on its permanence.
>     * maintain disconnection from the rest of the Web
>     * ...
>
>
>     Needless to say, none of this is meant to finger-point at any
>     person or
>     group. If anything, a reflection on the collective's practices. There
>     are different stakeholders. One size does not fit all either. I
>     think we
>     just need to be a bit more mindful about what constitutes scholarly
>     communication which is nearly non-detachable from the Web (today),
>     under
>     what conditions one can participate, and the *effects* that this
>     sort of
>     a conference (in the pursuit to share scientific knowledge) has on the
>     community and the society.
>
>
>     Bon week-end,
>
>     -Sarven
>     http://csarven.ca/#i
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Dr. Mauro Dragoni
> Researcher at Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK-IRST)
> Via Sommarive 18, 38123, Povo, Trento, Italy
> Tel. 0461-314053 <tel:0461%20314053>
>
> ########################################
> Consider attending the
> Cognitive Computing track @ ACM SAC 2018
> https://coco.fbk.eu/sac2018/
> Pau, France, April 9-13, 2018
> ########################################
>
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