Posts from — March 2004

Brutal article on declining computer science enrollments. Today's New York Times carries an article entitled “Microsoft, Amid Dwindling Interest, Talks Up Computing as a Career” about Bill Gates going around to universities encouraging young people to major in computer science.  The chairman of EECS at MIT worries about the decline in enrollment (10 years ago his predecessor fretted about the explosion in enrollment; sic transit gloria major).  All too close to home… [Philip Greenspun Weblog]

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i wonder why people don't want to go to school to learn these skills…… any thoughts?

Most Americans aged 18 to 35 support gay marriage, according to a NY Times article yesterday. It's often the case that bigotry dies with the generation that embraces it… [www.gulker.com - words and pictures from Silicon Valley]

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and then is picked up by the next generation… bigotry is likely cyclical…..

 6th "INTERNATIONAL SUMMER ACADEMY ON TECHNOLOGY STUDIES":

ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR PAPERS

6th International Summer Academy on Technology Studies: ãUrban Infrastructure in
Transition: What can we learn from history?ä

Deutschlandsberg, Austria, July 11 ö 17, 2004

Organized by Inter-University Research Centre for Technology, Work and Culture (IFZ),
Graz.

Cities are powerfully shaped by socio-technical networks and infrastructures. These
organize and mediate the distribution of people, goods, services, information, waste,
capital, and energy within, and between, urban regions. The quality of urban life (50% of
the worldâs population live in cities) depends heavily on urban infrastructures and service
systems (water, sewage, energy, transport, telecommunications). Achieving sustainable
urban infrastructure networks is vital if cities are to thrive or even function in the long
term.

The Summer Academy 2004 will focus on the transition of urban infrastructure in view of
changing framework conditions and new challenges in a historical perspective. A starting
point is the contemporary debate about urban infrastructure, in which you hardly can find
a reference to historical experiences. This is precisely where the discussions of this yearâs
Summer Academy will raise the following questions:

- What can historical analysis of the development and design of urban technical
infrastructure systems contribute to an understanding of the current transition process?

- What can we learn from history to manage current challenges for our water, electricity,
telecommunications, and transport systems?

- What can we learn from history for a sustainable design and governance of infrastructure
technology networks in the present and future?

The main objectives of the Summer Academy are to explore:

- the process of transition of urban technical infrastructure systems and urban technology
networks in a historical perspective,

- strategies for a more sustainable, i. e. socially and environmentally friendly design of
urban technologies as an issue of technology studies and technology policy,

- the contribution of urban infrastructure systems for a sustainable development of cities
or urban areas in general.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Participants are encouraged to present a paper related to one of the following topics:

1) Political aspects of urban technology

This topic focuses on the question of organization, regulation, design and governance of
urban infrastructure concerning the following issues: Relationship between market/politics
and the private and public sector of the economy; systems of services of general interest;
structures of governance, measures of managing technical progress (transition
management), technical regimes, path dependencies; actors (private and public
institutions, municipalities, countries, national states, trans-national actors); decision-
making process and role of key decision-makers in determining the choice of services to
be provided (system builders); concepts of participation, beyond centralization.

2) Social aspects of urban technology

This topic of the social impacts or the social importance of urban infrastructures includes
the following issues: Systems of technical infrastructures as a socially and environmentally
sound technology; impacts on the environment; concepts or visions of public assistance or
fundamental public services; changes in the understanding of services of general interest
(or in the definition of basic needs); tensions between technical network integration and
social, political and cultural integration/disintegration processes; relationship between
citizens and public authorities; users, consumption patterns, life-styles.

3) Cultural aspects of urban technology

This topic focuses on the interaction between the transformation of urban infrastructures
and cultural change (discourses). The main issues in this context are: Interrelations
between the process of modernization (transition of urban technology) and cultural
change; theories of infrastructure; discourses of modernization, technology as a symbol of
modernity, ideas/visions and self concepts of modern or (in a contemporary context)
sustainable cities; urbanity; criticism of urban technology and civilization.

Please submit a one page abstract and a maximum of one page on your work and research
background.
The deadline for submissions is Friday, April 2, 2004. You will be notified of acceptance by
April 19.

A maximum of 40 participants will be accepted.

The language of the conference will be English.

FEES
¥ 290.ö
The fee covers the conference proceedings and materials, coffee and refreshments as well as social events during the week.

Accommodation
¥ 358.ö to ¥ 418.ö
The charge includes accommodation (six nights) and half board (breakfast and lunch) for
the period of Sunday evening to Friday evening.
Rooms have been reserved by the organisers.

GRANTS
A special grant scheme covering travel costs, accommodation and fees will be open to NIS
(New Independent States of the former Soviet Union) Young Scientists. Participants from
Central and South Eastern European and developing countries may also request financial
support.

INFORMATION AND REGISTRATION
For further information or registration form, please visit our web site: http://
www.ifz.tugraz.at/index.php/sumac

there is something to be said for taking care and managing the presentation of your self and your concerns online. lots of times, i just want to warn people toward being conservative about this, against creating possible misunderstandings and increasing the overall chance that someone will group you without really knowing what you are up to. People tend to be tribal and this creates us vs. them dynamics all over, when they need not, i find it problematic… care of the self can help avoid these misunderstandings.

New Australian PhD Weblog. New Australian PhD weblog on Internet Genealogy Research by Kylie Veale. Welcome to research blogging!… [creativity/machine]

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Kylie has a blog, but no feed:(

Twisted: there's an ad in the New York Times today congratulating President Bush for backing an amendment to the Constitution to deny marriage to gay and lesbian people. The ad compares him to President Lincoln, and is signed by many of the groups and people that I have pledged, for Lent, to study and try to understand.

So, please help me understand this: President Lincoln strove to protect the rights of a minority at the costs of thousands of lives lost in the Civil War, and indeed, of his own life. President Bush is the first President ever to attempt to restrict the rights of a minority group with a Constitutional amendment.

The link, I guess is the courts: Lincoln defied the Supreme Court's infamous Dred Scott decision, whereas President Bush styles his initiative as opposing 'activist judges.'

I find this an incredibly twisted comparison: pandering to prejudice takes no moral courage, in my mind. Standing up for a powerless minority takes enormous moral courage, the likes of which we see perhaps a handful of times in a century, if that. Please, help me, understand this. Am I wrong? Is this just not meanness and hate? [www.gulker.com - words and pictures from Silicon Valley]

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I think you really have to try to understand the other side of the argument before you call it meanness and hate. It certainly is exceptionalism and bias, but i don't think that all of the people that believe this about marriage are mean and hateful, but i do think that some are, but there are mean and hateful people on the other side too, that's just the way populations are distributed. Contrarily, i think that anyone that wants to marry another person of reasonable responsible age should be allowed to, but that marriage in that case is a state-union, and that limited gender marriages should be the provenance of religion. Let the church say you can't get married in our building, then go get married elsewhere, that is what freedom and equality conveys as citizens of the u.s. I don't think that i would be a citizen in the same way if the religious rule was constitutionalized, in fact, i would generally feel oppressed, because one freedom that i had, but did not use woudl be removed from me.

Pew Internet: “44% of Internet users have created content for the online world through building or posting to Web sites, creating blogs, and sharing files.” [Scripting News] [A blog doesn't need a clever name]

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I personally don't know anyone that hasn't in some way or another put something online….. this is by definition true, because if they hadn't, and hadn't told me, then how would i know them, and if they had and had told me then i would know… anyway, my ipod went from 2/3 full when i went to bed to dead tonight. it is time to get a new one i think.

Shaping the Future Mobile Information Society: Case Studies of Korea and Morrocco..

The ITU Strategy and Policy Unit has published case studies on Korea and Morrocco [pdf] to be presented at the ITU Workshop on Shaping the Future Mobile Information Society, 4-5 March 2004, Seoul, Korea.

See the workshop page for more information on the event or contact Lara Srivastava at futuremobile@itu.int

[ITU Strategy and Policy Unit Newslog]

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Interesting report, not sure what we can argue from these two case studies, but combined with others, they give a platform for consideration.

ITU Workshop on Internet Governance.

The archived audiocast of the ITU Workshop on Internet Governance as well as all the presentations and contributions to the workshop are available on the ITU website.

[ITU Strategy and Policy Unit Newslog]

Code Style. Code Style: Open standards Web design with CSS, XHTML, Java servlets and Javascript
http://www.codestyle.org/

The Code Style Web site aims to answer key questions for Web developers. Which Web fonts are most common? What is the best way to use media dependent stylesheets? How can I design more robust, accessible Websites? Open standards Web design with CSS, XHTML, Java servlets and Javascript including web font statistics, media stylesheet guide and open standards design. [Marcus P. Zillman, M.S., A.M.H.A. Author/Speaker/Consultant]

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This could be handy, it has some pertinent info on design, standards, etc. all in one place.