Call for Papers: Piracy Effect – english version

Call for Papers: Piracy Effect – English version

Edited by Roberto Braga and Giovanni Caruso

The CFP is accessible at: 

http://www.cinergie.it/?p=1136 (ITA) 

http://www.cinergie.it/?p=1142 (ENG)

Digital piracy is a very unpredictable phenomenon. It’s quite hard to keep its power under control and to identify its legal, technological and social implications and repercussions.

After Napster's success, P2P traffic has grown exponentially up to recent years when it has shown a constant decrease compared to total Internet traffic. This reduction is related to the large market penetration of real time entertainment services, cyberlockers and tothe steady and pervasive strengthening of legal distribution platforms. Economic literature on piracy effects doesn’t have a shared and clear interpretation of the phenomenon and of its effects on cultural industries. 

Furthermore, the recent shutdown of Library.nu and Megaupload has superficially affected illegal download and streaming, but, as a result, it has fed the conflict between media industries lobbies and a large amount of Internet users and consumers. Digital piracy has changed deeply after the wide diffusion of video-sharing platforms like YouTube, implying new forms of violation of copyright. In this multifaceted scenario users have deeply transformed their media consumption behaviors, new forms of entertainment have arisen and distribution platforms and the related business models are continuously reinventing themselves.

The main aim of the book Piracy Effect is to investigate the complexity of digital piracy focusing on its impact on the changing relationship between production, distribution and consumption of cultural products. Here some key topics we would like to be investigated by contributors –  although we encourage the submission of proposals on other subjects that could better explore digital piracy.

- Piracy and business models: piracy has often been depicted as a consequence of cultural industries’ lacks and failing. Which is the reply to piracy pervasiveness in terms of innovative business and production models? Which are the media industry local and globalimplications related to piracy fighting?

- Piracy and cultural behaviors: piracy cannot be considered only as an answer to market inadequacy and malfunction. Piracy plays an important role in defining forms of cultural criticism. How do these forms of resistance to cultural industries show up and how do they relate to cultural industries strategies and production patterns?

- Piracy and related economies: is digital piracy able to create new markets capable to compete with the traditional ones? How are gift economy, sharing economy, affective economy related to illegal file-sharing and are able to maintain a parallel cultural production and distribution? How are these parallel economies resetting the entire media ecosystem? 

Potential contributors can send a 300-500 word abstract together with a brief bio by July 10th 2012 to roberto.braga@unibo.it and nrgiga@gmail.com

Communications of acceptance will be sent by July 30th 2012

The final paper is due by November 30th 2012

Papers can be in Italian or English but the book will be published in Italian. Curators will take care of translations from English to italian. On author’s request, the English version of the papers will be published on a dedicated site.

The final book would be published in March 2013

PhD positions in New Zealand

Open PhD Position

Virtual reality exploration for multi-dimensional land use management

The goal of this PhD project is to explore how virtual-reality technology and super-computing capability can be used to assist decision-makers in understanding the impact of alternative optimal solutions in land management. Over 50 years worth of spatial data showing land use changes over time has been collected. An evolutionary algorithm has been developed to find optimal solutions for land use, using this data set. However the output of this algorithm is difficult to visualize and understand. So the PhD work will cover visualising this preprocessed multi-dimensional data on a virtual reality (VR) immersive display. The system will allow users to explore the solution space interactively using motion-tracking technology and get greater understanding of the data set and evolved solutions. This is a joint project between the University of Canterbury, SCION and the US NSF-funded BEACON Center. This project has a duration of three years and is funded by a NZD 25K p.a. scholarship.

The Eligible Student Should have the Following background:

· MSc or first class honours graduate degree;
· Programming in Python and C++ desirable;
· Graphics programming ability
· Experience with scientific visualization and/or virtual reality
· Interest in GPU programming/CUDA development
· Only for a full-time student.

About the Lab

The Human Interface Technology Laboratory New Zealand (HIT Lab NZ) is developing and commercializing technology that improves human computer interaction and by doing so unlocks the power of human intelligence. The HIT Lab NZ conducts research with new emerging technologies such as Augmented Reality, Next Generation Video Conferencing, Immersive Visualization and Human-Robot Interaction. Interaction Design techniques are used to adapt these technologies to the needs of end users and solve real world problems. The end goal is to improve the user experience with technology.

Duties

International applicants will be required to arrange for their NZ student visa after an offer of a place. Please check http://www.immigration.govt.nz for information about what type of visa might be most suitable and the process of acquiring it. The university has various types of accommodation available on campus. Please check http:/www.canterbury.ac.nz/accom/ for information about the options and prices. International students should also consult the International Student website at http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/international/ to learn about the cost of living, fees, and insurances.

Application.

Your application must include your resume, academic records, two references and your preferred starting date. Please send you complete application by July 18th to our online system at:http://www.hitlabnz.org/index.php/jobs/job/34/1/table . Please contact christoph.bartneck@canterbury.ac.nz if you have any questions about the opening or the application process.

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PhD in Visualization of volumetric data from the MARS spectral scanner 

The goal of this project is to develop a medical visualization software to visualize volumetric data coming from the MARS spectral scanner. This is a new type of medical x-ray scanner that measures functional tissue information of medical specimens and small animals. The technology uses spectral photon counting detectors. (http://www.bioengineering.ac.nz/mars/) This project will involve developing software for distributed graphics rendering and also new visualization techniques for showing 3D volumetric data. This project has a duration of three years and is funded by a NZD 16K p.a. scholarship.

The MARS Team
You are joining a vibrant multidisciplinary group at the forefront of developing, manufacturing, and applying new technology for biomedical use. We are strongly interlinked with industry and with international partners. We have academic, clinical, manufacturing and commercial goals, which are all interconnected. Our strength internationally is our multidisciplinary team structure. Others marvel at how engineers, physicists, mathematicians, biologists, and medical folk can work together. We are dependent on each other to deliver. By working together, and publishing together, every team member advances towards their own personal goals.

Your skills
You should have experience in range of computer languages such as C/C++, Python, OpenGL, or Cuda. You should have knowledge of the user centered software design process and be interested in our your users, which include biologists, physicist and engineers. You should have the ability to understand 3D data and the skill to create visualizations that are useful for the users. This will require an understanding of computer graphics.

Duties
International applicants will be required to arrange for their NZ student visa after an offer of a place. Please check http://www.immigration.govt.nz for information about what type of visa might be most suitable and the process of acquiring it. The university has various types of accommodation available on campus. Please check http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/accom/ for information about the options and prices. International students should also consult the International Student website at http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/international/ to learn about the cost of living, fees, and insurances.

Application
Your application must include your resume, academic records, two references and your preferred starting date. Please send you complete application by July 6th to our online system at:http://hitlabnz.org/index.php/jobs/job/26/1/table . Please contact christoph.bartneck@canterbury.ac.nz if you have any questions about the opening or the application process.

Call for Papers: Special issue of Philosophy & Technology’

Call for Papers for Philosophy & Technology’s special issue on Philosophy of Computer Games

GUEST EDITORS

Patrick Coppock, Olli Leino, Anita Leirfall

INTRODUCTION

Over the last decade, computer games have received growing attention from academic fields as diverse as engineering, literary studies, sociology and learning studies. The international gamephilosophy initiative (http://www.gamephilosophy.org) aims to broaden the scope of this effort by facilitating discussion of philosophical issues emergent on our growing engagement with computer games. In doing so, we want to contribute to our own understandings of this phenomenon and to the establishment of a new philosophical focus area: the philosophy of computer games, capable of taking its place alongside analogous areas such as the philosophy of film and the philosophy of literature. The initiative is the result of a seminar held in 2005, after Filosofisk Prosjektsenter, Oslo and the Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas  at the University of Oslo, contacted Center for Computer Games Research at the IT-University of Copenhagen about organizing a workshop on philosophical problems linked to games research. Since then, an expanding group of partners have been involved in the effort.

The network is informally organized, with an Interim Steering Group: Olav Asheim (Oslo), Patrick Coppock (Reggio Emilia), Stephan Günzel (Potsdam),  Gordon Calleja (Copenhagen), Olli Leino (Hong Kong), Anita Leirfall (Bergen) and John Richard Sageng (Oslo). The effort is interdisciplinary and our conferences serve as a fertile meeting place for philosophers and scholars in game studies, and many other academic fields.

CALL

Following the Sixth International Conference on the Philosophy of Computer Games in Madrid, Spain from 29th to 31st January 2012 (http://2012.gamephilosophy.org/), organized by ArsGames (http://www.arsgames.net/), a special issue of Springer’s Philosophy & Technology journal (http://www.springer.com/13347) is now being planned. It will contain a selection of recently revised, peer reviewed articles from the Philosophy of Computer Games international conference series. Previous conferences in the series have been held in Copenhagen, Reggio Emilia, Potsdam, Oslo & Athens.

• Authors who have presented a paper at a Philosophy of Computer Games conference are invited to submit an original, recently revised, version of their paper.

• Other interested authors are invited to submit original papers related to the topics mentioned below.

• All submissions will be double-blind, peer reviewed according to usual standards.

• Papers submitted for this Call must not have been published previously in academic journals or article collections, including proceedings of the 2008 and 2009 Philosophy of Computer Games conferences online or in print with ISSN/ISBN codes. However, submissions may be new elaborations of ideas previously developed in such publications, as long as they represent new, original papers.

TOPICS

Computer games and conceptions of reality; ontological status of game objects and events; computer game entities, metaphysical issues; epistemological foundations of game studies; player identity, perceptual experience; ethical and political issues in game design and consumption; experiential, interactional, cognitive dimensions of gameplay; ethical responsibilities of game-makers; ethical norms in gaming contexts; the “magic circle” of games and actions/interactions transcending it; fictionality and interaction; defining computer games; player-avatar identity; player identity and conceptions of self; identity and immersion; imagination and interpretation; world, space and experience; technology, process, experience; time experience in gameplay; embodiment, emotion and player experience; aesthetics, ethics and player experience, “gamification”.

TIMETABLE

September 15th 2012: Deadline papers submissions

December 15th  2012: Deadline reviews papers

February 15th 2013: Deadline revised papers

Summer 2013: Publication of the special issue  

SUBMISSION DETAILS

To submit a paper for this special issue, authors should go to the journal’s Editorial Manager (EM) http://www.editorialmanager.com/phte/  

The author (or a corresponding author for each submission in case of co-authored papers) must register with EM.

Authors must select article type: "SI on PCG” from the pull-down list during the submission process. This is necessary for assignment of submissions to Guest Editors.  

Submissions will be assessed according to the following procedure:  

New Submissions > Journal Editorial Office > Guest Editors > Reviewers > Reviewers’ recommendations > Guest Editors’ recommendations > Editor-in-Chief’s final decision > Author Notification of Decision.

The process will be reiterated in case of requests for revisions.

For any further information please contact:

Patrick Coppock patrick.coppock@unimore.it

Anita Leirfall anita.leirfall@umb.no

Olli Leino otleino@cityu.edu.hk  

Download Call in pdf format

First number of G|A|M|E is just out on the web

Link to the first issue

Theme:
All of us, players. Pathways in the diffusion of digital gaming: relocations, pervasiveness, ramification

In our first issue, we have invited scholars and researchers from various fields to reflect on the diffusion of the video game medium outside of its established contexts. This phenomenon should lead us to reconsider the object of our research as part of a wider media ecology ...