Call for Participation and Programme: 3rd Digital Cultures Workshop: Navigating Multiplicity #digcult10

1-2 July 2010
University of Salford, Greater Manchester, UK. Final Programme Here (PDF)

Organizers
Ben Light and Marie Griffiths – University of Salford
Sian Lincoln – Liverpool John Moores University
Steve Sawyer – Syracuse University

Confirmed Speakers
Professor Susanna Paasonen
Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies – University of Helsinki
Grabbing by the eyeballs: affective intensities of online porn
Dr Kylie Jarrett
Centre for Media Studies – National University of Ireland Manooth
Managing the multiples:
understanding the power of google

There is still negotiation regarding the novelty of Web 2.0 and social media.  Yet, whether these arrangements are ‘new’ or recombinants/re-presentations of extant things, it is very much the case that in many societies, those that would not have engaged with such arrangements in the past are, and that different sites of such arrangements are becoming easier to connect with each other.  Thus, we are increasingly faced with the issue of having to navigate multiple places across and connected with the Internet.  Unsurprisingly, those in commercial and other formal organizations are also making these connections too.  This year we hope the workshop will tackle issues associated with the multi-sited nature of digital culture.  However, as usual, we intend for the workshop to be multi-disciplinary in nature, broad in the approaches participants take and issues they cover. If your work is about any aspect of digital culture, this is the workshop for you! The following are thus only indicative of potential topics that could be raised:

• What kinds of sites/spaces are being connected and why?
• How does identity feature in multi-sitedness?
• How does multi-sitedness feature in our knowledge and experiences of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity and disability?
• What are the problems and benefits of convergence?
• What role are mobile and ubiquitous computing technologies playing in multi-sitedness?
• How are commercial and non-commercial artifacts, digital games/TV/Radio/newsprint for example, being situated within and across physical and virtual spaces?

Following from the first workshop we continue to see this workshop having three purposes. First, we seek to give voice and structure to existing digital media, ICT and technology related research which may not readily sit within conventionally accepted areas. Second, we wish to draw in research on new forms of digital technology, ICT, computing, organizing and social interactions. Third, we want to continue discussions regarding potential futures for ICT related research, which combine research as related to the evolving forms and functions of organizations and the changing boundaries and relations between these organizations and their social milieus.

Workshop Arrangements
The fee for presentation/attendance at the workshop is £80. This will cover refreshments and meals throughout the workshop and a dinner to be held on the evening of the 1 July.

There is no fee for PhD students, however they still need to register for the workshop. PhD student registration includes refreshments during the workshop but excludes attendance at the workshop dinner (This is subject to a £25 fee, payable upon registration).

You can register for the workshop at: https://shop.salford.ac.uk

The workshop is being held in association with the Innovation Bazaar details of which can be found here: http://www.isos.salford.ac.uk/innovation_bazaar.php

Location of the workshop
The workshop will be held at CUBE.

CUBE (Centre for the Urban Built Environment) is an architecture centre and a member of the Architecture Centre Network. Located in the city centre of Manchester on Portland Street, it occupies a 500m2 gallery and seminar space. The remit of CUBE is to create and promote understanding of the built environment through activities including exhibitions, events, debates, educational projects and publications.

If you experience any difficulties regarding the workshop arrangements, please do get in touch with Deborah Woodman: d.woodman@salford.ac.uk

Presentations Include:

• Vicki Trowler – University of Cape Town – South Africa
  Political promiscuity and multi-modality
• Phoebe Moore – University of Salford – UK
  Was it an internet election?
• Helen Keegan and Frances Bell – University of Salford – UK
  Multiple spaces and discontinuities as transformative tools
• Daniel Villar Onrubia – University of Oxford – UK
  Mobility – personal learning environments – and the use of space in higher education
• Carolyn Downs – University of Salford – UK
  Growing up in a virtual world: girls – identity and facebook
• David Kreps – University of Salford – UK
  Grindr: immoderation vs sin in the global virtual gay bar
• Saeideh Hajinejad – Stockholm University – Sweden
  Gender representation of iranian youth on facebook profile pictures
• Isis Amelie Hjorth – University of Oxford – UK
  Analysing distributed agency in collaborative open source film making: towards a theoretical framework suitable for multisited ethnographies on networked creators and cultures
• Enas Al-Lozi and Anastasia Papazafeiropoulou – Brunel University – UK
  “And why would i participate?” a framework of value exchange and roles in digitally engaged communities
• Rachel mclean – University of Bolton – David Wainwright – University of Northumbria and Jeff McCarthy – Manchester Metropolitan University
  Football social media:  playing the game – but where is the trust?
• Chris Bull – Manchester Metropolitan University – UK
  Multiplicity – congruity and the development of e-gambling commerce in the uk
• Nic Crowe – University of Brunel – UK
  “We die for the glory of the emperor”: young people and ‘playing’ at war in on-line role playing games
• Ben Light – University of Salford – UK
  Missing cultures across video games: queers – gaymers and the terms of their inclusion

3rd Digital Cultures Workshop – Navigating Multiplicity #digcult10

University of Salford, UK.
1-2 July 2010

Organizers

Ben Light, Marie Griffiths and Gordon Fletcher -University of Salford, UK.
Steve Sawyer – Syracuse University, UK.
Sian Lincoln – Liverpool John Moores University, UK.

Confirmed Speakers

Professor Susanna Paasonen
Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies – University of Helsinki

Dr Kylie Jarrett
Centre for Media Studies – National University of Ireland Manooth

There is still negotiation regarding the novelty of Web 2.0 and social media.  Yet, whether these arrangements are ‘new’ or recombinants/re-presentations of extant things, it is very much the case that in many societies, those that would not have engaged with such arrangements in the past are, and that different sites of such arrangements are becoming easier to connect with each other.  Thus, we are increasingly faced with the issue of having to navigate multiple places across and connected with the Internet.  Unsurprisingly, those in commercial and other formal organizations are also making these connections too.  This year we hope the workshop will tackle issues associated with the multi-sited nature of digital culture.  However, as usual, we intend for the workshop to be multi-disciplinary in nature, broad in the approaches participants take and issues they cover. If your work is about any aspect of digital culture, this is the workshop for you! The following are thus only indicative of potential topics that could be raised:

• What kinds of sites/spaces are being connected and why?
• How does identity feature in multi-sitedness?
• How does multi-sitedness feature in our knowledge and experiences of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity and disability?
• What are the problems and benefits of sociotechnical convergence?
• What roles are mobile and ubiquitous/pervasive computing technologies playing in multi-sitedness?
• How are commercial and non-commercial artifacts, digital games/TV/Radio/newsprint for example, being situated within and across physical and virtual spaces?

Following from the first two workshops we continue to see this workshop having three purposes. First, we seek to give voice and structure to existing digital media, ICT and technology related research which may not readily sit within conventionally accepted areas. Second, we wish to draw in research on new forms of digital technology, ICT, computing, organizing and social interactions. Third, we want to continue discussions regarding potential futures for ICT related research, which combine research as related to the evolving forms and functions of organizations and the changing boundaries and relations between these organizations and their social milieus.

We seek abstracts (of up to 600 words) that focus upon an aspect of digital culture. We hope to have a special issue of a journal associated with the workshop, as in the past.  A special issue of Information Technology and People will be published early in 2011 and this has attracted papers from the 2009 event.  Abstracts should be submitted to Ben Light at: b.light@salford.ac.uk

Important Dates

Abstract Submission Date:      31 May 2010
Notification of Acceptance:     6 June  2010
Workshop Dates:                   1 and 2 July 2010

Workshop Arrangements

The fee for presentation/attendance at the workshop is £80. This will cover refreshments and meals throughout the workshop and a workshop dinner to be held on the evening of the 1 July.

There is no fee for PhD students, however they still need to register for the workshop with Deborah Woodman (details below). PhD student registration includes refreshments during the workshop but excludes attendance at the workshop dinner (This is subject to a £25 fee, payable upon registration).

From Mid May 2010, you will be able to register for the workshop at: https://shop.salford.ac.uk

Location of the workshop

The workshop will be held at CUBE.  CUBE (Centre for the Urban Built Environment) is an architecture centre and a member of the Architecture Centre Network. Located in the city centre of Manchester on Portland Street, it occupies a 500m2 gallery and seminar space. The remit of CUBE is to create and promote understanding of the built environment through activities including exhibitions, events, debates, educational projects and publications.

If you experience any difficulties regarding the workshop arrangements, please do get in touch with Deborah Woodman: d.woodman@salford.ac.uk

Accommodation

Delegates should arrange their own accommodation with their preferred hotel.  Below are a few hotels in the area – we recommend staying in the centre of Manchester.

• Jurys Inn
• Midland Hotel
• Radisson Edwardian Hotel
• Ibis Hotel
• Premier Travel Inn
• Princess Hotel on Portland

The Last Week in NZ

Will it’s been ages since I blogged anything – not that anyone would notice! Anyway, I wanted to write up a few things about this week. First – it’s been amazing – to get invited to the University of Auckland (thanks Cathy Urqhart!) and to get to do two talks – one on SingStar to the business faculty and another on Gaydar to the Arts faculty. Both were so much fun and I felt so privileged to get to talk about things I wanted to talk about twice in one week (and we had a good hour on each too – the luxury!).

I’ve got to meet some really nice people too the staff at Auckland are a great bunch and so interesting to talk to! So many suggestions and ideas and collaborations – no idea where I’ll find the time to get it all done. Plus, after my Gaydar talk, I got invited to meet the staff of the New Zealand AIDS foundation and got to talk about Gaydar and social media some more – they’re launching a new social networking site aimed educating people about ‘sex stuff’ and more www.broonline.nz It’ll be interesting to see how it pans out!

The SingStar talk has reawakened my interest in pushing the link between gaming and work that Gordon Fletcher and I tried to get into the IS community with little luck (although people in sociology and media both liked it). We have a paper on this so if you fancy a look, let me know – comments appreciated as to how we take it forward (if at all). Our argument, essentially, is that if we look at games like SingStar it can widen our view of technology use in ‘formal work’. Specifically in areas of user relations, collaboration practices and contexts of use.

The Gaydar work was pulling together the papers I have in EJIS, ITP, Information and Management and adding in (working through) ideas that I’ll be presenting properly at AOIR 10 in Milwaukee later in the year. Specifically – looking at the links between Gaydar and Facebook and the implications of this.

So, all in all, a really productive week!

#digcult09 a few amusing stories of sociotechnical problems (I think!)

Just finished up the digital cultures workshop for this year – some really great people and talks! I wanted to share a few of the stories I mentioned at the beginning of the workshop – my attempt at showing how we always encounter problems/issues with ‘technology’.

Story 1: Wednesday night, I was at Piccadilly station picking up Sian Lincoln and Steve Sawyer (two of the organisers). My phone goes – it’s my Aunt. “Sorry, I know you have visitors and your really busy but this is Urgent – Keith (my uncle) has ordered 3,000 books on Amazon by accident.”

Story 2: A certain academic’s dad believes that when you change your laptop, you have to change your email address. The academic recently changed institutions and so got a new email account but kept his laptop. His father’s explanation for this – his new institution must have really great technical staff!

Story 3: Another academic that I know – his mum made everyone sit in the Kitchen and be quiet for 30 mins when they got their first VCR – she was recording Coronation Street and didn’t want the family’s conversations to be on the tape!

Story 4: My family clubbed together and got my partner (John) a Netbook for christmas. John and I were discussing how it’ll be useful for us to webcam with each other when he goes to Japan for the year late 2009. My Aunt (story 1) says “your quite a big man John, will all of you fit on it”

2nd Digital Cultures Workshop: Social Media Publics? #digcult09

4-5 June, 2008

University of Salford, U.K.

Call for Participation

Organizers
Ben Light and Marie Griffiths, University of Salford
Sian Lincoln, Liverpool John Moores University
Steve Sawyer, Syracuse University
Keynote Speakers

• Mobile Technology at Work: Stories of Interaction Asymmetry
  Carsten Sørensen, Information Systems and Innovation Group, Department of Management, London School of Economics
• Prostitution, Prosecution and Positioning: The Curious Case of Craigslist
  Theresa Senft – School of Social Sciences, Media and Cultural Studies, University of East London

About the Workshop
It is clear that the boundaries between the ‘public’ and the ‘private’ are becoming increasingly blurred within and amongst sites of home and work. Indeed, in the wake of reality television shows, national identity card schemes, increased social media usage and the like, publicity appears to be the order of the day. In this workshop we discuss the issues raised for those living in environments where there is seemingly little room for privacy (privacy, of course, not necessarily always being a good thing). As was the case last year, we intend for the workshop to be multi-disciplinary in nature, broad in the approaches participants take and issues they cover. If your work is about any aspect of digital culture, this is the workshop for you! The following are thus only indicative of potential topics that could be raised:

• How do people domesticate social media in their attempts to maintain a balance in publicity and privacy? Do they? Why do they, or don’t they?
• What matters are raised by increased access to data about individuals and organizations?
• What does the blurring of boundaries between public and private mean for our knowledge and experiences of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity and disability?
• How are ICT mediated spaces created and maintained at home, work and those spaces in between? For example, how are ‘geek gamers’ finding spaces to play now the only console in the house can be in the living room?
• How are ICT policies shaping public and private spaces throughout societies around the world?
• What privacy issues are presented by media convergence?
• What role are mobile and ubiquitous computing technologies playing in public and private spaces?
• How is the increased commodification of social media affecting our privacy?

Following from the first workshop we continue to see this workshop having three purposes. First, we seek to give voice and structure to existing new media, ICT and technology related research which may not readily sit within conventionally accepted areas. Second, we wish to draw in research on new forms of digital technology, ICT, computing, organizing and social interactions. Third, we want to continue discussions regarding potential futures for ICT related research which combine research as related to the evolving forms and functions of work organizations and the changing boundaries and relations between these organizations and their social milieus.

We hope to have a special issue of a journal associated with the workshop as was the case last year (a special issue of the Journal of Information, Communication, Ethics and Society was published early in 2009 – Vol 7, Issue 1).

Workshop Arrangements
Workshop places are limited and would be grateful if people would register for the workshop by 22 May if possible. If you wish to register after that date, please could you contact Nathalie Audren-Howarth at: n.audren@salford.ac.uk in order that we can make sure we have space for you.

The fee for presentation/attendance at the workshop is £75 GBP. This will cover refreshments and meals throughout the workshop and a workshop dinner to be held on the evening of the 4th of June.

There is no fee for PhD students, however they still need to register for the workshop. PhD student registration includes refreshments during the workshop but excludes attendance at the workshop dinner (This is subject to a 25 GBP fee, payable upon registration). If you are a PhD student who wishes to register without attending the workshop dinner, please email Nathalie Audren-Howarth. Free PhD student places are limited.

You can register for the workshop at: https://shop.salford.ac.uk

Location of the workshop
The workshop will be held in the Peel Building on the University of Salford’s Peel Park Campus. The campus is only a few minutes from Manchester City Centre and is served by good rail and bus services. Car parking is also available onsite. For further details see http://www.salford.ac.uk/travel

Accommodation
Delegates should arrange their own accommodation. Please see: http://www.iris.salford.ac.uk and follow the conferences link for further details.

Speakers

• Twittering away at the boundary of public and private. Helen Kennedy, University of Leeds, UK.
• “And who are you today?” identity shifts across online communities. Vicki Trowler, University of Cape Town, South Africa.
• The gaze of Magibon: identity, intimacy and reception on YouTube multi-million-viewed self-broadcasts. Sérgio Luiz Tavares Filho,University of Jyväskylä, Finland.
• Digital mapping: cartography of the common. Jean-Christophe Plantin, Université Paris 8, France.
• Enacting engagement online: cultural institutions and the rhetoric of democracy. Jenny Kidd, City University, UK.
• “As if nobody’s reading”: the role of the imagination in blogging practice. David Brake, London School of Economics, UK.
• Reflections on the revelations of taboo intimacies: a study of online forums for problem gamblers and those affected by problem gambling. Chris Bull, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK.
• Physical vs. virtual interaction on the front-line: changing cultures of practice. Emma Coleman and Frances Bell, University of Salford, UK.
• ICT in family life: proximity without communication. Maryam Atoofi and Ian Beeson, University of the West of England
• Skype, blackberries, web-mail versus bedtime, family-time, your-time: are new social media steering families to a dystopian or utopian lifestyle? Marie Griffiths, University of Salford, UK and Rachel McLean, University of Bolton, UK.
• Production and sharing of vernacular mobile videos. Gaby David – Ecole des Hautes Etude en Sciences Sociales, Paris.
• Golden girls and boys: researching the online privacy concerns of older people. Danijela Bogdanovic, Michael Dowd and Alison Adam, University of Salford, UK.
• “It’s the data that makes you special”: individuation, privacy, and social media in the molecular genetics laboratory. David Wilson, Mark Bailey, and Philip Gray, University of Glasgow, UK
• Public vs. private: conflict and compromise in converging social networks. Helen Keegan, University of Salford, UK.
• Work, rest and play in the digital playground. Nic Crowe, Brunel University, UK.
• Privacy in web-based community ehealth systems. Dr Brian Regan, O. Tolga Pusatli and Eugene Lutton, The University of Newcastle, Australia
• Grief, Fame and social networks – gone too soon? Gordon Fletcher, University of Salford, UK and Anita Greenhill, University of Manchester, UK.
• New technologies confounding the boundaries of cultures: the dilemma within the digital classroom. Andrew Barbour, The University of Huddersfield, UK.
• Political technologies of the virtual body. David Kreps, University of Salford, UK.
• Organisational discourses: tackling gender inequality in the media industries. Shelia French and Maritn Griffith, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK.
• Giving strategic direction to web 2.0 applications. Andrew Basden, University of Salford, UK and Nick Breems, Dordt College, USA.

Some Initial Thoughts on LGBT Gamers

Last week I gave a talk at St Andrews LGBT student society. It was my first attempt at talking about some work I have just started on Gay Gamers, and perhaps more broadly LGBT gamers. I am greatly endebted to Fruit Brute – the creator of gaygamer.net and his posts regarding the “Top 20 Gayest Video Game Characters”, during July 2006. This gave me an excellent jumping off point.

The motivations for engaging with this area and how I am doing this are multiple:

• As I have already discussed, during my ethonographic work on SingStar gameplay, the SingStar Anthems title was released with the strapline “Unleash Your Inner Diva!”. It has also been retitled by Fruit Brute as “SingStar Queer Edition“.
• Beyond that prompt, my later work on Gaydar (and my recent post here), highlights issues surrounding the commodification of difference viz social media. So I wondered how are LGBT people configured in digital games?
• In addition, I am aware of those digital games researchers who argue that: “There is little in the way of understanding elements of the gaming experience that are not limited to the actual playing of the game itself (Crawford and Rutter 2007: 273).  So how are LGBT players engaging with games beyond the screen?

Thus, given this context, my talk was concerned with the LGBT gaming experience in terms of such things as character representation, forum participation and how LGBT gamers/characters are dealt with by those in the digital games industry. In short, I discussed LGBT gaming on and beyond the screen. What I will quickly do now is run through the things I discussed - LGBT characters, heteronormativity in games, and LGBT gaming controversies.

Below I list some of the characters I discussed and give brief explanation of why they were included:

Character/s	Why included
	Dance Summit 2001: These characters are simultaneously labelled by Fruit Brute as drag queens and trannies. A forum comment points out that there is a difference between the drag queens and trannies.
	Soul Calibur IV: Voldor is ‘thrown out there’ as potentially gay.  But it’s also made clear he could just be into S&M. A response argues that he’s probably ‘just out there’. It is clear that some characters’ sexualities are contested
	Zelda Series: Tingle is introduced with much humour by Fruit Brute and configured as high camp. This spoke to me of a recognition of the resonance of gay stereotypes. Frute Brute also talks of Tingle as a reminder of a ‘Chicken Hawk’ who pounced on him the first time he went to a gay bar thus highlighting the intertexuality of gaming
	Resident Evil: This post made clear the presence of transvestitism in gaming.  Alfred Ashford dresses as his sister. Of course, I acknowledge there is no link between transvestitism and sexuality, but transvestites are included within the trans group of LGBT.
	Street Fighter: Again Zangief’s sexuality is contested but he is also drawn upon to highlight hypermasculine discourses viz Bears in the gay community.  Frute Brute also make clear the contradictions surrouding some Bears – they are hypermasculine, yet also have the potential to be highly camp and effeminate.  Zangief sits in a bath during a game with two women and it is suggested that he is merely discussing hand bags with them.
	Super Mario Bros 2 (and beyond): Birdo/Birdetta is highlighted as a male to female trans character.  It is also the case that in later printings of the game’s guide booklet and later releases of the game Nintendo ‘corrected’ the error and discussed Birdo only as a female character.
	Streets of Rage 3: I included Ash as his playable character in the Japanese version of the game is highly camp (he has ‘slap combo’s, giggles girlishly and cries when he looses – oh yes, and there’s the outfit).  However, beyond that, it’s interesting again that in the release of the game in the US and Europe, his character was not automatically playable (it’s possible to unlock him if you know how to).
	Fear Effect 2: This game includes two openly lesbian characters who were reportedly included by the games designer to hook in young boys.
	The Temple of Elemental Evil: In contrast to Fear Effect 2, this game included gay men and gay marriage on par with other relationships in the game.  A serious attempt at social inclusion was made.
	GTA IV: This game’s storyline required a character to ‘pretend’ to be gay, and post a profile on an internet dating site in order to entrap another character.  Further, later in the game, gay bashing occurs, but there is also the potential for the ‘gay basher’ to be killed for this.
	Bully: Scholarship Edition: This game allows for fluid (Bi) sexuality.  Moreover, points can be gained for kissing other boys.

Following this discussion, I moved on to run through my experience of playing the online version of the MB board game – the game of Life. The premise of the game is to travel through life dealing with its ups and downs. I had found a story on the internet in which the game had been raised as problematic because it allowed a player to choose a spouse of the same sex. This was seen as a problem because it was a game for kids and it was felt that such a possibility with thus not appropriate. I thus decided to download and play the game. Sure enough, it was possible (as in the orginal board game) to choose a same sex spouse. However, from that point on the game was heteronormative. When I got married, an image of a man and woman appeared, when I became a grandparent, I was pictured with a woman. Only in the car was a pictured with a man and in the ‘photograph’ (as shown here) at the end of the game.  Funnily enough we only had boys!

Finally, I moved on to discuss other aspects of homophbia as related to gay gamers.  I discussed two recent cases of profile blocking in the Microsoft XBOX live gaming community. In the first case (May 2008), a gay gamer who had chosen the gamertag theGAYERgamer was blocked due to complaints by others in the XBOX live gaming community – Microsoft felt the tag broke their rules viz offensive tags.   In the second case (February 2009) a lesbian gammer was barred because she had stated that she was a lesbian in her profile. Microsoft reportedly said that other gamers were offended by this.

 So what can we make of this…  Well of course, my thoughts on this aren’t very well formed just yet, but a number of things do seem to be emerging. What personally surprised me the most was the extent to which LGBT issues/characters are engaged with in digital games, however superfically, seriously or instrumentally. Even given there is a large amount of guessing and labelling of characters (leading to the status of certain characters being contested), it is also clear that the full gambit of LGB and T are included.

It is also clear that LGBT characters are included in periferal ways and as integral to the game.  They can have ludic and narrataive value. Moreover, as with other aspects of digital gaming we see intertextuality – comparisons are made between Tingle and Chicken Hawks, hidden characters in games are equated with the hidden nature of the LGBT community at particular points in time and in particular spaces. We also see that gay gamers experiences of gaming spaces beyond game play can be ‘safe’, considered and humourous (as in gaygamer.net) but also subject to homophobia – as in the XBOX live community (I have thought about this and despite Microsoft’s attempts at explaining themselves, I do see the recent activity as homophobic. Even though I understand somewhat their attempt at crafting a policy to facilitate the enjoyment of everyone – it clearly uninformed and discriminates against gay and lesbian players).

Although my thoughts are only preliminary, it seems to me this is a fruitful area requiring more research, even though for those who identify as LGBT (including me), sexuality does not necessarily figure in gameplay and our experiences on or beyond the screen. 

As an aside, for those interested Jenny Sundén at the Royal Institute of Technology is undertaking work on the queering of world of warcraft, there is a good LGBT gamer entry in Wikipedia and the Humplex site has some interesting flash games with borrow from mainstream games such as resident evil (note this site contains material which could be categorised as pornograhpic and which some might find offensive).  If you know of anyone working in this area, please do let me know.

The Pink Pound Lives On….

This post is an extension to a stream of papers I’ve written about Gaydar.co.uk along with Gordon Fletcher and Alison Adam (see: Light 2007, Fletcher and Light 2007 and Light, Fletcher and Adam 2008). Based on my ethnograhic work within Gaydar, I/we have looked at how Gaydar works and is made to work by a number of different groups with different interest. More specfically as part of this, we’ve looked at the commodification of difference, in terms of how gay men specifically (although one might also consider the LGBT community more broadly) are ‘kept in their place’ for commercial purposes. The best exposition of this argument is probably in the paper published in Information Technology and People.

I have a couple more papers in progress about Gaydar, but I’m looking to move into other areas now and I’ve really not engaged with Gayar as much as I was a few years ago as a result (there’s only so many spaces you can engage with in any meaningful way I think!). Anyway, that said, I logged in this weekend and was invited to partipate in a survey described to me as looking at the lives of the LGBT community – it’s named Outright and is to being done in conjunction with Channel 4, Hitwise and Global Park. This survey was done a few years ago and somehow I’d missed the invite that time round – moreover, it had been quoted back at me by Qsoft (the owners of Gaydar) as a response to a press release which had been taken up by pink news (story here). Thus, I thought I’d take up the survey to see exactly what kind of data they might have collected and thus what they were basing their counter arguments upon (of course, the previous survey may well have been structured differently, but I thought it was worth a look).

Despite the invite saying the survey was about the lives of the LGBT community, it really was just market research and did nothing that I could see to illicit from resondents any thoughts about the potential for stereotyping or marginalisation within the Gaydar.co.uk  Yet, In the response to my press release, QSoft cited the previous study:

There is no need for us to change the way in which we offer categorisations to our members. They are based upon extensive research into what our users say they want us to provide. If users felt marginalised by the system, rest assured they would be the first to tell us so. We are constantly researching the views and requirements of our community of users via focus groups and research programmes such as Outright 2006.”

Of course, the 2006 survey might have asked different questions to the current one…   Whatever, it is clear that the 2009 survey is very much about market research. It asked me questions about: alcohol consumption, grooming products and cosmetics, expenditure on clothing, clothing brand preferences, mobile phones/providers, internet usage/purchasing practices, music and film preferences/consumption habits, car/home ownership, grocery shopping/eating habits, gym membership/vitamin & supplements consumption, income and expenditure habits, media consumption and advertising preferences and how I viewed technology – and people viewed me as a technology user (see picture below).

Above and beyond, the clear evidence for interest in the so called Pink Pound, what the survey also made clear to me is a continuing theme of the ‘LGBT lot’ being seen as opinion leaders, a market that will draw in those around them – as evidenced by the questions configured as ‘do people seek your opinion’. This resonates with QSoft’s prior research:

[Why Target the Gay Market?] Because you want the Mainstream Market. The gay consumers friends and family are part of the wider community. Who better to target as an ambassador [f]or your product than the person in the group with the money to purchase and the inclination to innovate?[4] (Light, et. al. 2008)

What I find interesting is that the 2006 survey was based on only 18,000 responses. To set things in context, at the time there were around 2 million worldwide/670K UK members of Gaydar alone. Yet, from the 2006 survey it was clear that data was then being used to say ‘this is what the LGBT community is like’ – they were homogenized. Even if survey participants for 2006 were recruited from beyond Gaydar and more are recruited in 2009 it is going to be difficult to get away from that homogenization process – it’s impossible to get everyone to participate. Of course it’s a perennial problem with survey work.  However, there seems to be little moderation in the way the results of the 2006 survey was reported – glitzy marketing packs and presentations are prepared which transform the data into truth. In doing this, as we have said before, this keeps a market in their place (Light, et. al. 2008) and it configures those who identifty as LGB or T in particular ways. From the survey, I found the link to Outright…

On the Outright site, I found downloads of exerpts from the research (see here - if the link is removed I have copies).  I also found video clips of representatives of Madame Tussauds and the Hilton group  talking about their approach to the LGBT market – they’re worth downloading/taking a look at (see here - again, if the link is removed I have copies).  I was going to write about these, but this post is long enough and I think they speak for themselves – whether it’s the guy from the Hilton saying they were ‘feared’ the Gay Community (what will we do – criticise their décor!) or the PDF slides which state that coming out is probably going to be easier now because the UK has civil partnerships and essentially that we don’t mind being in debt – that’s it, of course, the LGBT lot are responsible for the credit crunch!

References

Light, B. Fletcher, G. and Adam, A. (2008) Gay Men, Gaydar and the Commodification of Difference, Information Technology and People, 21(3), 300-314. PDF

Fletcher, G. and Light, B. (2007) Going Offline: An Exploratory Cultural Artifact Analysis of an Internet Dating Site’s Development Trajectories, International Journal of Information Management, 27(6), 422-431.  PDF

Light, B. (2007) Introducing Masculinity Studies to Information Systems Research: the Case of Gaydar, European Journal of Information Systems, 16(5), 658-665.

I’m a Queen, I Outrank You!

Not my story – kindly sent to me by Marie Griffiths - a kind of joke, and yes a stereotype – but funny… enjoy…

My flight was being served by an obviously gay flight attendant, who seemed
to put everyone in a good mood as he served us food and drinks.

As the plane prepared to descend, he came swishing down the aisle and told us that
‘Captain Marvey has asked me to announce that he’ll be landing the big scary plane shortly, so lovely people, if you could just put your trays up, that would be super.’

On his trip back up the aisle, he noticed this well-dressed a woman hadn’t moved a muscle. ‘Perhaps you didn’t hear me over those big brute engines but I asked you to raise your trazy-poo, so the main man can pitty-pat us on the ground.’

She calmly turned her head and said,
‘In my country, I am called a Princess and I take orders from no one.’

To which (I swear) the flight attendant replied , without missing a beat,

‘Well, sweet-cheeks, in my country I’m called a Queen, so I outrank you.
Tray -up, Bitch’

Digital Cultures 2009

I co-organising a workshop in June and thought I’d throw the details on here.  The closing date for submissions is next week and I’m getting kind of nervous – I hope we get a good turnout like last year!  We even had good weather, I remember sitting outside a bar at the end of day one with about 20 people enjoying a glass of wine ;o)  This year, if I can get things sorted, I’m hoping we can enage different forms of social media with the event so that people who can’t be in the room can engage with it… more soon… B.

2nd Digital Cultures Workshop: Social Media Publics
4-5 June 2009, University of Salford, U.K.

Final Call for Contributions

Organizers
Ben Light and Marie Griffiths, University of Salford
Sian Lincoln, Liverpool John Moores University
Steve Sawyer, Syracuse University

Confirmed Speakers
Dr. Carsten Sørensen – Information Systems and Innovation Group, Department of Management, London School of Economics
Dr. Theresa Senft – School of Social Sciences, Media and Cultural Studies, University of East London

It is clear that the boundaries between the ‘public’ and the ‘private’ are becoming increasingly blurred within and amongst sites of home and work. Indeed, in the wake of reality television shows, national identity card schemes, increased social media usage and the like, publicity appears to be the order of the day. For this workshop we seek papers that discuss the issues raised for those living in environments where there is seemingly little room for privacy. As was the case last year, we intend for the workshop to be multi-disciplinary in nature, broad in the approaches participants take and issues they cover. If your work is about any aspect of digital culture, this is the workshop for you! The following are thus only indicative of potential topics that could be raised:

- How do people domesticate social media in their attempts to maintain a balance in publicity and privacy? Do they? Why do they, or don’t they?
- What matters are raised by increased access to data about individuals and organizations?
- What does the blurring of boundaries between public and private mean for our knowledge and experiences of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity and disability?
- How are ICT mediated spaces created and maintained at home, work and those spaces in between? For example, how are ‘geek gamers’ finding spaces to play now the only console in the house can be in the living room?
- How are ICT policies shaping public and private spaces throughout societies around the world?
- What privacy issues are presented by media convergence?
- What role are mobile and ubiquitous computing technologies playing in public and private spaces?
- How is the increased commodification of social media affecting our privacy?

Following from the first workshop we continue to see this workshop having three purposes. First, we seek to give voice and structure to existing new media, ICT and technology related research which may not readily sit within conventionally accepted areas. Second, we wish to draw in research on new forms of digital technology, ICT, computing, organizing and social interactions. Third, we want to continue discussions regarding potential futures for ICT related research which combine research as related to the evolving forms and functions of work organizations and the changing boundaries and relations between these organizations and their social milieus.
We seek abstracts (of up to 600 words) that focus upon some aspect of digital culture. We hope to have a special issue of a journal associated with the workshop as was the case last year (a special issue of the Journal of Information, Communication, Ethics and Society was published early in 2009 – Vol 7, Issue 1). Abstracts should be submitted to Ben Light at: b.light@salford.ac.uk

Important Dates
Abstract Submission Date: 28 February 2009
Notification of Acceptance: 31 March 2009
Workshop Dates: 4 and 5 June 2009

Workshop Arrangements
The fee for presentation/attendance at the workshop is £75 GBP. This will cover refreshments and meals throughout the workshop and a workshop dinner to be held on the evening of the 4th of June.
There is no fee for PhD students, however they still need to register for the workshop. PhD student registration includes refreshments during the workshop but excludes attendance at the workshop dinner (This is subject to a £25 GBP fee, payable upon registration).

You will be able to register for the workshop at: https://shop.salford.ac.uk
Further details regarding the location of the workshop will be posted nearer the time at: http://www.iris.salford.ac.uk

Virgin Mobile Grrr… Things to know to protect your mobile…

Okay so here’s some lessons we learnt from experience the other week – following the lessons is the background story which explains the lessons a bit more …

1. Try to keep tabs on your phone, especially if you don’t use it regularly
2. Find out what the credit limit the the provider has set for themselves on your account, for their purposes and have it reduced if it’s way more than you spend.
3. If your phone is stolen and your provider wants to lay all the call costs on you – use whatever you can to argue against it, including cancelling your custom with them if possible (you’ll likely get a reduction, if not the whole costs wiped)
4. If you have mobile insurance, make sure you keep your provider up to date about any changes in your circumstances such as address and if you change handsets
5. If your phone as a pin capability use it – okay some people can crack them, but the opportunistic theif might not be able to…  Yeah it makes calling clunky but better than than a £200 bill!

The background…

The other week my partner went out one evening and lost/had stolen, his mobile phone.  I say lost and then stolen in that he didn’t come home with it and then we found out a bill of £220 had been racked up on it!  The problem is he didn’t realise until 7pm the day after that his phone wasn’t around.  So we dilligently rang Virgin Mobile, got the sim blocked, ordered a new one and thought no more of it.  Bad move!  The new sim arrived and I rang to activate it – I was told this couldn’t be done until we’d paid of the balance owing as it was over its limit.  This is when I found out about the 220 quid!  As people who normally only use our 300mins/300texts £10/month allowances or thereabouts - you can imagine the shock.  Moreover, noone had told me about this bill and it would have been taken as a direct debit from my bills account!  As I put around the right amount of money in the bills account every month, had I not found out about this transaction (and shoved more money in) this would have taken me overdrawn on that account and incurred further charges.  I do get emails notifying me of my latest bill, but (I suppose foolishly on my part I don’t check them as I know how little I spend on my phone).  You’d think that when we reported the phone stolen, or a few days after Virgin could have informed us?  Thanks Virgin!

Anyway, the poor call centre operator had to tell me that we were liable for all of the charges incurred before the phone had been blocked.  Actually she also told me that the original operator hadn’t blocked the phone and it had been used after so she would deduct that (all 7 quid of it – whooppee!).  To cut a long story short, I aruged this was unreasonable and that they were profiting from the mistfortune of others.  She essentially said they weren’t, it was policy and that they had to protect themselves from those customers who racked up astronomical bills themselves and tried to pass it off as a case of a stolen phone!  I pointed out that there really should be saftey procedures put in place in much the same way as credit card companies do (I can’t count the times my credit card has been refused because I forgot to tell my provider I’d be hopping between countries or making a few big purchases!).  I didn’t wash…  Indeed to rub salt in the wound, she said we were lucky it had been stopped at that as the saftey measure for Virgin had kicked in at £200.  That is, they blocked the phone at around £227 because ‘we’d’ gone over our limit.  Apparently, this info is on my direct debit agreement -  I only know this as I asked why I wasn’t told about this, because, had I been, we would automatically have had very low limits set as a protection at the beginning of our contracts given we spend so little on mobile communications.  In terms of any possible fraud on our part – I suggested they looked back at the account history in terms of numbers dialled, numbers of calls within particular periods etc and see how these marry up the spending spree over 18 hours which amounted to around £227.  They weren’t having it, even though they could tell me there’d been a stream of overseas calls (now we do know people overseas of course – but we have MSN and Skype too!).  They told us to call the police – which we have, but we doubt anything will happen as they told my partner that mobile phone companies rarely pursue cases such as this (so why did Virgin even bother telling us to report it to the police – wasting ours and their time). 

After I kicked up a fuss and said I’d pull our TV, Internet and Mobile business the call centre person said they’d speak to a manager and get back to me the next day.  True to her word she did, and said, actually, they’d got it wrong and our credit limit was £150 and even though the bill was over 200, as a gesture of good will they would only make us acocuntable for that.  I said it wasn’t a gesture of good will and that they were only implementing the credit limt… Wrong again!  I was told the credit limit is there to protect Virgin, not the the consumer!

Anyway, luckily for us we thought, my partner also has mobile insurance with Lloyds TSB… Wrong!  When he called them, they checked which handset he’d lost…  The one that was registered stopped working and so he was using a different handset and hadn’t told them – that was their out and they said they wouldn’t pay up!

It’s nice to know that in times when customers are not gonna have much money flying around, there are still companies out there willing to profit from you – however they can…