[ih] Fwd: CFP: Comparative Internet Histories (edited collection)

[Joly MacFie]

FYI, from the AoIR list http://aoir.org

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Comparative Internet Histories

Gerard Goggin and Mark McLelland (editors)

Overview

Although the Internet is entering its fifth decade, the understanding and
formulation of its histories outside of a Euro-American framework is very
much in its infancy. In this collection, which arises from a workshop at
the 2013 Association of Internet Researchers Conference:
http://ir14.aoir.org/preconference-workshop-appropriating-the-internet-alternative-comparative-histories/,
contributors explore some of the problems, questions, methods, biases,
narratives, and metaphors that underlie research into the Internet’s
diverse histories.

Given that “the Internet” is so often spoken of as a “global” and
“deterritorialised” technology, it might be supposed that specific cultures
of use can be replicated anywhere that has Internet connectivity. Yet what
Internet technologies are available and preferred depends upon cultural
factors as well as market and policy factors such as government regulation,
competition between providers, and pricing. In its current phase of
development -- often approached through ideologies and discourses such as
“web 2.0,” “convergence culture,” and “user-generated content” -- the
Internet is dominated by social networking systems (SNS) and a focus on
users’ role in production as well as consumption. Far from one SNS
dominating globally, however, the rise of this technology has been multiple
and divergent, reflecting the localized adaptations of the Internet. To
grasp the significance of web 2.0 features requires an acknowledgement of
the existing media cultures influential upon users, as well as the effects
of industry, policy, and social contexts, and the ways that imported – and
local – technologies are being domesticated.

The localised Internet histories that are emerging, and continue to evolve,
need to be investigated through a cultural history of the development of
the various aspects of the Internet in different regions and social
contexts. This is evident in early applications such as email, BBS, and
text-based online communities, through the adoption of the web and the rise
of mass Internet, as well as more recent technologies such as blogs, SNS,
and mobile and wireless technologies.

This collection brings together researchers working on country-specific and
regional histories of the Internet as well as those researching
transnational platforms and communities, thus adding to our understanding
of the different historical patterns of Internet development and deployment.


Existing chapters


“Doing Internet Histories” Gerard Goggin (University of Sydney)

 “Oral Histories of the Net: Australians Tell the Story of their
‘Connection’ via the Internet” Matthew Allen (Deakin University)

“A Decade of ‘Social Media’ and what to Do about It: Methodological
Challenges of Historicising the Proprietary Web” Jean Burgess (Queensland
University of Technology)

 “The Forgotten Foreign Phase: Early BBS Systems in Japan” Mark McLelland
(University of Wollongong)

“Challenging the Net: Japanese Political Campaigns and the Internet 1995 to
2013” Leslie M. Tkach-Kawasaki (University of Tsukuba)

“Japanese CMC as an Expanded Intimate Sphere: an Historical Analysis of
Human Relationships Online” Takanori Tamura (Hosei University)

“Internet Memory of a Counter-Hegemonic Group: An Oral History Perspective
on Chinese Internet History” Angela Xiao Wu (Northwestern University)

 “Niche Goes Global: A History of a Digitised Musical Subculture” Andrew
Whelan (University of Wollongong)

We invite further chapter proposals including but not limited to the
following topics:

• What are the challenges of doing Internet histories, and what are the
particular issues for concepts, methods, tools, documentation, archives,
interpretative strategies, and presentation of research findings? How do
these factors differ across societies?
• What are the implication of specific cultural metaphors and ways of
thinking about the Internet for the technology’s development in specific
countries and regions outside North America and Western Europe?
• Forgotten phases of the Internet – important developments that have not
been recorded in mainstream accounts Internet history.
• Internet histories outside of North America and Western Europe.
• The oral history of the net outside of North America and Western Europe.
• The Internet and Social Activism outside of North America and Western
Europe.

Please send a brief bio, proposed title and a 250 word abstract to Mark
McLelland (markmc at uow.edu.au) by 4 November 2013.

Already coming to AoIR 2013? Then join us at the Internet Histories
Workshop to discuss your proposal:
http://ir14.aoir.org/preconference-workshop-appropriating-the-internet-alternative-comparative-histories/


Editors' contact details

Professor Gerard Goggin,
Department of Media and Communications,
University of Sydney
e: gerard.goggin at sydney.edu.au
Web:
http://sydney.edu.au/arts/media_communications/staff/gerard_goggin.shtml


Professor Mark McLelland,
School of Social Sciences, Media and Communication
University of Wollongong
e: markmc at uow.edu.au
web: http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/ssmac/staff/UOW018742.html



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