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(Buffalo) Well, today is my busy day here in Buffalo - with a workshop after lunch and my guest talk in the evening. I met some of the students here as Trebor Scholz showed me around yesterday, and I'm looking forward to the events. Some other interesting developments: I received an email yesterday from former La Trobe University MA student Derek Lackaff, whose thesis on heterarchical moderation schemes in Slashdot and elsewhere I had the pleasure to examine recently - turns out he's now based here in Buffalo doing his PhD... Also, an email from Mark Tribe at Brown University - he's invited me to do a guest lecture there as well, and I may be able to take a day trip to Providence during my week in New York City. And I phoned David Marshall at Northeastern University in Boston, who is also looking to set up something. More soon!

(Buffalo) Well, after 24 hours on progressively smaller planes I'm finally here in Buffalo, arriving late last night. An eventless flight on Qantas and American Airlines - a nice sunrise over the Californian coastline flying into LAX, and luckily none of the landing gear problems that occurred so dramatically and telegenically on a JetBlue flight at the same airport just a few days ago. Flying across the U.S. by daylight for the first time I was struck by the vast and barren expanses of land still left more or less untouched especially in the West (this would have been Arizona in particular, I guess) - perhaps its just me, but you don't think about America in such terms these days... Of course I also couldn't help but think 'Google Earth' at the same time - will have to revisit some of the sites along the way later (was that the Las Vegas or Phoenix speedway I saw from the air?).

• 28 Sep., 1 p.m.: Produsers and Produsage - workshop at SUNY Buffalo
• 28 Sep., 6 p.m.: 'Anyone Can Edit': Understanding the Produser - guest lecture at SUNY Buffalo
• 30 Sep., 1.30 p.m.: Teaching Creativity in a Creative Town - exhibition in the Creativity Marketplace at the Creative Places + Spaces conference, Toronto
• 8 Oct., 8.30 a.m.: Wikinews: The Next Generation of Online News? - paper at the Association of Internet Researchers conference in Chicago
• 11 Oct., 10 a.m.: 'Anyone Can Edit': Understanding the Produser - guest lecture at New School, New York City
• 11 Oct., 6 p.m.: Gatewatching: Collaborative Online News Production - guest talk at The Thing / Postmasters Gallery, New York City
• 12 Oct., 12 noon: Public/Private Intersections in New Media - panel guest at Northeastern University, Boston
• 12 Oct., 5 p.m.: 'Anyone Can Edit': Understanding the Produser - guest lecture at Brown University, Providence
• 14 Oct., 12.30 p.m.: 'Anyone Can Edit': Understanding the Produser - guest lecture at Temple University, Philadelphia

A number of elections took place over the weekend - in Afghanistan, New Zealand, and Germany - but it's the German one which stands to produce the most lasting effect (and entertainment, if the first days after the election are any guide). German voters have delivered a result which has puzzled many and has been described by some as unworkable - even though upon closer inspection it has opened up rather than closed down political options for those who are willing and able to realise them.

To begin with, however, the result (which has the conservative CDU/CSU and the progressive Social Democrats neck and neck at around 35%, and the three minor parties Free Democrats, Greens, and Left/PDS at 8-9%) is a clear demonstration of how significantly more representative and democratic the German electoral system is, especially when compared with British, Australian, or U.S. models. A look at the map of directly elected German representatives shows that a Westminster-style election would likely have produced a highly polarised parliament dominated by the major parties, however much their share of the votes has been slashed in the election - potentially with a small number of independents and minor-party candidates holding a tenuous balance of power. Instead, however, the German system adds list candidates to these directly elected representatives until the balance of parties in parliament represents the distribution of votes - and so the 35/34/9/8/8 split in percentages is reflected very accurately in the 225/222/61/54/51 distribution of seats.

With my host Trebor Scholz from the Institute for Distributed Creativity I'm now confirming the various talks and presentations I'm giving in Buffalo and New York City as part of my research residency at the iDC - my thanks for them for having me and organising these events. For any readers based over there, here's what we have planned so far:

Buffalo

• 28 Sep., 1-3 p.m. - Workshop at SUNY Buffalo
  Produsers and Produsage 
   
• 28 Sep., 6 p.m. - guest lecture at SUNY Buffalo (room 235):
  'Anyone Can Edit': Understanding the Produser
  The Mojtaba Saminejad Lecture (see announcement)

New York City

• 11 Oct., 10 a.m. - guest lecture at the New School:
  'Anyone Can Edit': Understanding the Produser
   
• 11 Oct., 6 p.m. - guest talk at The Thing:
  Gatewatching: Collaborative Online News Production

  Recent years have seen the emergence of collaborative publishing models in key news Websites ranging from the worldwide Indymedia network to the massively successful technology news site Slashdot and further to the multitude of Weblogs. Such sites have been instrumental in debunking political misinformation and providing first-hand coverage of unfolding events from 9/11 to Hurricane Katrina, but also provide an important corrective to the mainstream news media in their everyday coverage of current events.

This made it into my inbox today. With Sal Humphreys, I have a paper in this - but unfortunately we're both unable to make it. Wish I could be there...

Call for Participation

2005 INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON WIKIS (WikiSym 2005)

Oct 16-18, San Diego, California, U.S.A.

WikiSym 2005 features keynotes by

• Ward Cunningham (inventor of the wiki)
• Jimmy Wales (founder of Wikipedia), and
• Robert Hass (former U.S. poet laureate).

The program offers a research paper track providing the best in current wiki research, as well as workshops, tutorials, demos, and social events. Everyone who is involved in using, researching, or developing wikis is invited to participate!

My colleagues at the Smart Internet CRC at Swinburne University have just released a major report forecasting Internet developments over the next half decade or so - not an easy task, as in Internet years even 2010 still seems an eternity from now. Looks very interesting - and I'm especially intrigued by the four 'Schools of Thought' for what the Net will be which they've identified in their research:

1. Adaptive User Environment
   (the Net of 2010 will be highly adaptive to human needs)
2. Not The Smart Internet
   (functional and low-cost solutions will lead the way)
3. Rich Media
   (rich, mobile media and media platforms will be the key drivers)
4. Chaos Rules
   (a continual state of decay and worsening disorder)

But of course this brief outline doesn't do the whole 170-page report justice. I look forward to reading the whole thing - and so can you (PDFs):

I didn't yet get around to mentioning that I spent the last weekend in Darwin, visiting my old friend Ron who currently works up there. Just a quick weekend trip (on Frequent Flier points accumulated through conference travel last year), flying out Friday after work and returning Monday morning directly back to work - and I think I'm still backing up for the sleep I lost in transit. It was great to get out of the Brisbane cold for a while and warm up in very balmy conditions - and interesting to see Darwin for the first time, with Ron a a tour guide.

What struck me was how much more, well, Australian Darwin seemed - perhaps that's just the wide open streets, or the greater amount of red dust everywhere, or the ant hills on the outskirts of town, but I really felt more like being in Australia again than I do during my everyday life here in Brisbane. In fact, Darwin now reminded me of how Brisbane felt when I first came here on holidays in 1990 - so perhaps it's the familiarity of having lived in Brisbane for 11 years now or the fast that this city has gone through some massive changes since then and become more cosmopolitan (and crowded): more of a metropolis in its own right, and less part of a national image.

I'm now starting work on my Wikinews article, for the Association of Internet Researchers conference in Chicago in October, and possible later publication in the 'News and the Net: Convergences and Divergences' issue of the journal Scan, edited by Chris Atton and Graham Meikle. I've sent a questionnaire about the Wikinews experience to my contact there, but if any other Wikinewsians happen to read this, your views would also be very much appreciated. Reply through comments, or email me.

Hmm, what is it with blogging academics at the moment? Most of the people on my blogroll (such as it is) seem to be in a go-slow period with their blogging at right now - Jean had to reassure us she's still there; Jill signed off for the northern summer once or twice; Jo's blogging has been intermittent for a while as well. For me, if I don't get a good holiday early on, by the time my birthday comes around in August I'm just about out of steam for the year, and so the blog has suffered as well.