[ICTs-and-Society] Uppsala conference report

[Z. Karvalics László]

Well, 
sorry for generating such a sprawl. 
I am happy that most of you got that the comment I made was not about the race for "having been the first". It's a simple historiography issue, and the landscape is really more colourful, than we think. I spent few months in South-East Asia in 1996, and that time the KISDI (Korean Information Society Development Institute) run several interesting Internet-related social science research, while the Information Culture Center (ICC), a voluminous organization with dissemination focus tried to popularize the Internet itself (and we see the results from the news). Malaysia and Singapore was also very aware, but that time it was more useful for them to "import" American experts and scholars than raising their own pool.

I agree with Christian, the identification issues are far more interesting than the historiography ones. (However, it would be great to know the rate of overlapping of this list with the members of the Association of Internet Researchers, which's first conference was organized  - also - in 2000.)  

On the other hand, it is always bigger challenge to mark the limits of our knowledge and generate new research questions, than running around in a disciplinary classification treadwheel. So, following the questions of Christian, I add only one plus item for the analogy of "which book you'd choose on an uninhabited island" - if you would not have lack in financial and human infrastructure to try to get answer to your most burning research question about the Internet, how'd you define this ONE? 

Best

Laszlo



-----Original Message-----
From: Christian Fuchs [mailto:christian.fuchs at uti.at] 
Sent: Monday, January 07, 2013 7:23 PM
To: discussion at lists.icts-and-society.net
Subject: Re: [ICTs-and-Society] Uppsala conference report

Hello all,

This is an interesting discussion about the nature and history of Internet Studies.

I think a contemporary important question is, which forms of Internet Studies there are, what the main topics are  now and which ones are emerging for the future, what the role of social theory, empirical research, ethics and critique is or should be for Internet Studies, etc.

What kind of Internet Studies do we have? What kind do we desire? And what kind do we need and what for?

Best wishes, Christian


Am 1/7/13 5:37 PM, schrieb Kaarle Nordenstreng:
> Dear colleagues,
>
> My response to Lazlo a while ago was written before seeing Ursula's 
> flash in the list. She has a point but so have Lazlo and Niels Ole, 
> who
> -- like me -- just made a polite reminder of earlier research tradition.
> Naturally we who have been personally involved in earlier research 
> often overemphasize its significance, but the scholarly community has 
> also an unhealthy tendecy to forget about "the shoulders of our predecessors".
>
> Ceterum censeo: sharp debate is welcome, but too sharp and personal 
> turns are not conducive to a healthy growth an academic field.
>
> With best regards,
> Kaarle
>
> Lainaus Ursula Huws <ursulahuws at analyticaresearch.co.uk>:
>
>> This seems to be a particularly pointless argument to be having.
>> Scholars in a variety of disciplines have been studying the internet 
>> since the early 1990s. In many cases this built on earlier research 
>> on ‘socio-technical systems’, the ‘information society’ and numerous 
>> other designations. To bring these discussions together under the 
>> broad heading of ‘internet studies’ is useful. To pretend that in so 
>> doing anyone has invented a new field of study is fatuous nonsense. 
>> We all stand on the shoulders of our predecessors. A failure to 
>> recognise this is a sign, not of originality, but of blinkered vision 
>> (possibly combined with an over-inflated sense of self-importance).
>> Ursula Huws
>>
>> From: discussion-bounces at lists.icts-and-society.net
>> [mailto:discussion-bounces at lists.icts-and-society.net] On Behalf Of Z.
>> Karvalics László
>> Sent: 07 January 2013 13:30
>> To: 'Niels Ole Finnemann'; 'Mathieu ONeil'; 
>> discussion at lists.icts-and-society.net
>> Subject: Re: [ICTs-and-Society] Uppsala conference report
>>
>> Dear Collegues,
>>
>> Just for the record, as a part of the landscape:
>> Other dedicated, systematic social science focused research on 
>> Internet and society has been started around 2000 in research 
>> institutes, devoted to information society research in Tampere (2001) 
>> and Budapest (1998).
>> Best
>>
>> Laszlo Z. Karvalics
>>
>> From: Niels Ole Finnemann [mailto:finneman at imv.au.dk]
>> Sent: Monday, January 07, 2013 1:17 PM
>> To: Mathieu ONeil;
>> discussion at lists.icts-and-society.net<mailto:discussion at lists.icts-an
>> d-society.net>
>>
>> Subject: Re: [ICTs-and-Society] Uppsala conference report
>>
>> Thanks a lot  for these interesting accounts.
>> I have a very small correction however. In the opening it is said 
>> “Internet studies have historically developed in the United States.
>> The Oxford Internet Institute (OII) was the first Internet research 
>> centre to be launched in Europe, in 2001.”
>>
>> This is not quite correct as we initiated a Center for Internet 
>> Research in September 2000 at Aarhus University in order “to promote 
>> research on the social and cultural functions and meanings of the 
>> internet”.
>> Prior to that we had a series of conferences on internet studies.
>> The center still exist and you can an overview of its history and 
>> activities at http://cfi.au.dk/ - for the early history:
>> http://cfi.au.dk/news/2000/
>> Of course the OII have been much more influential, but anyway.
>> Best regards
>> Niels Ole Finnemann
>>
>> Fra:
>> discussion-bounces at lists.icts-and-society.net<mailto:discussion-bounc
>> es at lists.icts-and-society.net> 
>> [mailto:discussion-bounces at lists.icts-and-society.net] På vegne af 
>> Mathieu ONeil
>> Sendt: 7. januar 2013 12:09
>> Til:
>> discussion at lists.icts-and-society.net<mailto:discussion at lists.icts-an
>> d-society.net>
>>
>> Emne: Re: [ICTs-and-Society] Uppsala conference report
>>
>> Hi everyone
>>
>> In case you missed it, here is another account of the conference, 
>> recently published in InMedia:
>>
>> Mathieu O'Neil, "Internet Studies in Europe. Symposium on Internet 
>> and Society, 25-28 October 2011, Humboldt University, Berlin; ICTs 
>> and Society Conference, 2-4 May 2012, Uppsala University, Uppsala".
>>
>> http://inmedia.revues.org/489#article-489
>>
>> cheers
>>
>> Mathieu
>>
>> On 01/07/13, Christian Fuchs
>> <christian.fuchs at uti.at<mailto:christian.fuchs at uti.at>> wrote:
>> Dear colleagues,
>>
>> Please find below a link to a report on the Uppsala ICTs & Society 
>> conference.
>>
>> Best, Christian
>>
>> Fuchs, Christian. 2012. Conference Report: The 4th ICTs and Society
>> Conference: Critique, Democracy and Philosophy in 21st Century 
>> Information Society. Nordicom Information 34 (3-4): 89-99.
>> http://fuchs.uti.at/wp-content/NI.pdf
>>
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>> ciety.net
>>
>> --
>> ****
>> Dr Mathieu O'Neil
>> Adjunct Research Fellow
>> Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute College of Arts 
>> and Social Science The Australian National University
>> email: mathieu[dot]oneil[at]anu[dot]edu.au
>> web: https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/o-neil-m
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