CONFERENCE APRIL 14, 2012
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
TtW v2.0 USER’S GUIDE
iSchool
Department of
Sociology
Maryland Institute
for Technology in the
Humanities
University of
Maryland
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
Thank you for attending the second annual Theorizing the Web conference.
First, we want to thank our committee: Tyler Crabb, Ned Drummond, Dan Greene,
Rachel Guo, Zach Richer, Jillet Sam, David Strohecker, Matthias Wasser , Sarah
Wanenchak, and William Yagatich.
This conference builds off of the success of last year’s event. 2011’s conference
featured open and invited panels, art, and talks by George Ritzer, Saskia Sassen and
danah boyd. It was simply too much fun to not do again. The lasting memory from
that conference is of a vibe that was both lively and smart. Folks were engaging in
their presentations, with each other in person, and also with others via the backchannel. We strongly encourage this again today (note: the hashtag is #TtW12).
Today’s program consists of 32 competitively selected papers arranged into eight
open-submission panels. We also have one invited panel discussion on art and
another on the role of technology after revolution. Our keynote will be a discussion
between Andy Carvin of NPR and Zeynep Tufekci of UNC discussing technology,
journalism and social movements.
This year, we opted for a slightly smaller and more focused conference. We
were humbled by the amount and quality of submissions and only a quarter were
accepted for today’s event. 2012’s crop of submissions was even more international
and interdisciplinary than the last.
The goal of the conference is both to demand and provide an outlet for more
theorizing of new social technologies (e.g., Facebook, mobile phones, blogs, etc.).
Discussions about these technologies both inside and outside of the academy have
been largely a-theoretical, and our understanding of these technologies is worse
for it.
Bringing together people interested in theory can help us to better refine ideas as
well as provide an outlet for theoretical insights to inform technology research in
general. A strong theoretical foundation is essential to ensuring that empirical
research captures the most significant aspects of Internet-related phenomena and,
importantly, that research does not ignore vulnerable or marginalized populations
that might otherwise be overlooked. Focusing on theory allows us to move beyond
simply describing the world and into a critical realm of conversation about the way
things ought to be.
While there is no official theme for the conference, what has emerged is a special
focus on how the Web both reinforces and upsets power dynamics, sometimes on
a grand scale. It is not enough to simply describe how people either used or did not
use new technologies to overthrow dictators, to occupy Wall Street, or to riot in the
UK. Instead, we hope to historically and theoretically situate the fact that massive
digitally-connected groups, amassing in physical space, have come to be the new
normal. Further, we hope to explore how the Web might provide new outlets for
repression and control.
Given this scope, we should also admit that this one-day conference—thrown by
a group of graduate students on a tight budget—cannot fully meet the growing
imperative to theorize the Web. We hope to find additional opportunities to expand
the conversation in the future by making this conference an annual event. Most
fundamentally, as organizers, we continue to have the simple and selfish goal of
trying to create the event we would want to attend.
In addition to the academic talks, be sure to check out the art exhibit in the Maril
gallery and the installations in the atrium, including the short film Over & Out. And,
don’t forget to take in all that the DC metro area has to offer.
Thanks for joining us!
Nathan Jurgenson & PJ Rey
Conference Co-Chairs
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ORGANIZERS
Co-Chair // Nathan Jurgenson
Co-Chair // PJ Rey
Treasurer // Tyler Crabb
Secretary // David Strohecker
Publicity Officer // Dan Greene
Publicity Officer // William Yagatich
Designer // Ned Drummond
Member // Rachel Guo
Member // Zach Richer
Member // Jillet Sam
Member // Sarah Wanenchak
Member // Matthias Wasser
OUR SPONSORS
iSchool
University of
Maryland
Department of
Sociology
Maryland Institute for
Technology in the Humanities
GENERAL INFO
CONFERENCE HASHTAG # TtW12
We encourage participating in the Twitter backchannel. Each panel has
a unique hashtag comprised of the room and session number (e.g., #b1
is for the panel occurring in room B during session 1).
BACKCHANNEL MODERATOR
The backchannel moderator will act as a panel’s official livetweeter
and will compile questions from Twitter for the Q&A session.
EVENT LOCATIONS
The Theorizing the Web 2012 is held in the Art-Sociology building.
Locations for specific events are noted on the program schedule. Food
options are available on and off campus within walking distance.
PANEL DETAILS
Though abstracts are not included in the print program, write-ups for
each panel can be viewed on the Cyborgology Blog.
ART INSTALLATIONS
Will be on display in the Atrium of the Art-Sociology building and in the
Maril Gallery.
PARKING AND PUBLIC TRANSIT
Free parking is available in Lot 1, the lot closest to the Art-Sociology
building. Metro busses and the 104 College Park Metro Shuttle run
between the Stamp Student Union and the Metro subway station until
1:45 AM. Metro Rail closes at 3:00 AM on weekends.
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
8:00
Registration Opens
Atrium
(light breakfast provided)
9:00 - 9:30
Opening Remarks
Room A
Speakers: Nathan Jurgenson (@nathanjurgenson) & PJ Rey (@pjrey)
9:45 - 11:15
SESSION 1
Room B
# B1
Manufacturing Dissent? Technology and Protest
Room C
#C1
Technologies of Identity
Room D
#D1
Augmented Reality: Intersecting Atoms & Bits
Presider: Sarah Wanenchak (@dynamicsymmetry) // Backchannel
Moderator: David Banks (@da_banks)// Presenters: Kira Jumet, “Social Media: A Force for Political Change in Egypt”// Hadi
Khoshnevis, “Web as a Platform for the Global Moral Brain: A
Case Study of Iran” // Paola Ricaurte (@paolaricaurte), “Mexican
Cyberactivism: The Power of the New Digital Intelligentsia”// Murilo
Machado (@murilomachado)”Hacktivism and Anonymous: Symbol of
Resistance in Society of Control”
Presider: Rachel Guo // Backchannel Moderator: Kim Knight
(@purplekimchi) // Presenters: Matthew Morrison, “Queering
Intimacy: Class, Coupling, and the Internet in Gay Life” // Alice
Marwick (@alicetiara), ““Pinning Down Identity: Consumer Goods
and Digital Consumption”// Kelsey Brannan,“Grindr: Networking
and Geolocating ‘Sexiness’”// Nicholas Boston, “’Tell yuh friend
dem dat Ramchan deh pon YouChoob!’: Cross-Generational Parodies
on YouTube by North American-born Prosumers of their Caribbean
Immigrant Parents”
Presider: Jillet Sam // Backchannel Moderator: David Paul
Strohecker (@dpsFTW) // Presenters: James Witte, “Synthesizing
the Analog and Digital”// Randy Lynn (@rlynn82), “Actor, Medium,
Setting: Integrating Online and Offline” // Sally Applin & Michael
D. Fischer (@anthropunk) , “PolySocial Reality: Augmentation and
Experience”// Jeremy Antley (@jsantley) ,“Charting the Waves of
Augmentation: Textual Dualism & Augmented Reality in the Russian
Empire”
11:30 - 1:00
SESSION 2
Room B
#B2
Panel Discussion: Revolution, Now What?
Backchannel Moderator: Sarah Wanenchak (@dynamicsymmetry)
// Presenters: Dave Parry (@academicdave), Zeynep Tufekci (@
techsoc), Azza Raslan (@araslangirl)
Room C
#C2
Logging Off and Disconnection
Room D
#D2
The Politics of Design
11:30 - 1:00
Lunch
Presider: Dan Greene (@Greene_DM) // Backchannel Moderator: Ismail Nooraddini (@Call_Me_Ismail) // Presenters: Jenny
Davis (@Jup83), “Diagnosing Technological Ambivalence” // Jessica Roberts, ”The Effects of Ambient Media: What Unplugging
Reveals About Being Plugged In” // Laura Portwood-Stacer (@
lportwoodstacer), “Theorizing Social Media Refusal: Conspicuous
Non-Consumption and Conscientious Objection” // Jessica Vitak (@
jvitak), “Protecting Face: Managing Privacy and Context Collapse in
the Facebook Age”
Presider: Kari Kraus (@karikraus) // Backchannel Moderator: sava
saheli singh (@savasavasava) // Presenters: Carolyn Kane, “An Archeology of Compositing: From Blue Screen and Chromakey to the Alpha
Channel and 2.0 Look, Dirt Style”// Katie Shilton & James Neal (@
KatieShilton & @james3neal), ”Theorizing Future Internet Architectures:
Values in the Design of Named Data Networking” // Jarah Moesch (@
jarahmoesch), “Queer Ghosts in the Machine: The Mechanics of Networked Anonymity in the Tor Project” // Aleena Chia, ”Google’s Mind of
God”
See map for local lunch options
2:00 - 2:30
Film Screening
Room A
Over & Out - Lunch provided for advanced registrants.
2:30 - 4:00
Session 3
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Room B
#B3
Whose Knowledge? Whose Web?
Room C
#C3
Self-Documentation
Room D
#D3
Theorizing the Mobile Web
Presider: Zach Richer // Backchannel Moderator: Jenny Davis (@
Jup83) // Presenters: Emily Lawrence, “Epistemic Privilege and the
Reification of Natural Kinds in the Radical Feminist Blogosphere”//
Piergiorgio Degli Esposti (@pgde), “Digital Garbage: Information
Overload and the Web as a Paradox” // Andrew Famiglietti (@
afamiglietti), “In Fork We Trust: Why Technologically Empowered
Individuals Can’t Guarantee Media Diversity”// Martin Irvine,
“Mediology, Network Theory, and the Web: De-Blackboxing the Shiny
New Boxes”
Presider: David Paul Strohecker (@dpsFTW) // Backchannel
Moderator: Anne Oeldorf-Hirsch (@anneohirsch) // Presenters:
Robert Horning (@marginalutility), “Facebook as the “Projective
City”// Sam Ladner (@sladner), “Digital Time: The Technological
Transformation of the Calendar” // Aimée Morrison (@digiwonk),
“The Affordance of Facebook: Autobiography and the changing Status
Update Field” // Jordan Frith (@jhfrith), “The Check-in as Marker
and Mnemonic Device: Theorizing how FourSquare use Impacts SelfPresentation and Self-Documentation”
Presider: Deen Freelon (@dfreelon) // Backchannel Moderator:
Bridgette Hendrix (@bridgettediann) // Presenters: Jason Farman
(@farman), “The Materiality of the Mobile Internet: An Object-Oriented Approach to Mobile Networks”// Katy Pearce (@katypearce),
“Is your Web everyone’s Web? Theorizing the Web through the Lens
of the Device Divide” // Jim Thatcher (@alogicalfallacy), “Mobile
Geo-Spatial Devices: a Theoretical Approach to the GeoWeb” //
David Banks (@da_banks), “Finding it ‘Otherwise’: Culturally and
Geographically Situating The Practice of Texting”
Room E
#E3
Invited Panel: Theory Meets Art
Artists will discuss their work with new media, including the installations on display in the Herman-Maril Gallery
Organizers: Jason Hughes & William Yagatich // Presider:
Jeremy Pesner (@The_Pezman) // Backchannel Moderator: William Yagatich (@Praxis_In_Space) // Presenters: Cliff Evans (@
cliffevansnet), Alberto Gaitan (@nootrope), Krista Caballero
4:15 - 6:00
Session 4
Room A
#A3
Keynote
Introduction: Nathan Jurgenson (@nathanjurgenson) & PJ Rey (@
pjrey)
Speakers: Andy Carvin (@acarvin) & Zeynep Tufekci (@techsoc)
6:00 Herman-Maril
Gallery
Dinner & Afterparty
TWITTER KEY
Jeremy
Antley
@jsantley
Sally
Applin
@anthropunk
David
Banks
@da_banks
Andy
Carvin
@acarvin
Jenny
Davis
@Jup83
Piergiorgio
Degli Esposti
@pgde
Cliff
Evans
@cliffevansnet
Andrew
Famiglietti
@afamiglietti
Jason
Farman
@farman
Deen
Freelon
@dfreelon
Jordan
Frith
@jhfrith
Alberto
Gaitán
@nootrope
Dan
Green
@Greene_DM
Bridgette
Hendrix
@bridgettediann
Robert
Horning
@marginalutility
Nathan
Jurgenson
@nathanjurgenson
Kim
Knight
@purplekimchi
Michael
Koliska
@mkoliska
Kari
Kraus
@karikraus
Sam
Ladner
@sladner
Randy
Lynn
@rlynn82
Murilo
Machado
@murilomachado
Alice
Marwick
@alicetiara
Jarah
Moesch
@jarahmoesch
Aimée
Morrison
@digiwonk
James
Neal
@james3neal
Ismail
Nooraddini
@Call_Me_Ismail
Anne
Oedorf-Hirsch
@anneohirsch
Dave
Parry
@academicdave
Katy
Pearce
@katypearce
Jeremy
Pesner
@The_Pezman
Laura
Portwood-Stacer
@lportwoodstacer
PJ
Rey
@pjrey
Paola
Ricaurte
@paolaricaurte
Jessica
Roberts
@jessyrob
Katie
Shilton
@KatieShilton
sava saheli
singh
@savasavasava
David Paul
Strohecker
@dpsFTW
Jim
Thatcher
@alogicalfallacy
Zeynep
Tufekci
@techsoc
Jessica
Vitak
@jvitak
Sarah
Wanenchak
@dynamicsymmetry
William
Yagatich
@Praxis_In_Space
PROSUMPTION SPACE
CAMPUS MAP
PARKING
THEORIZING THE WEB
ART / SOCIOLOGY BUILDING
STAMP STUDENT UNION
FAST FOOD / FOOD CO-OP
MARRIOTT UMUC
DOWNTOWN COLLEGE PARK
CORNERSTONE GRILL & LOFT
QUALITY INN
PLATO’S DINER
A full interactive map is online at cyborgology.org/theorizingtheweb/2012/location.html