[spectre] Amsterdam Workshop: The News about Networks

[geert lovink]

From: "Richard Rogers" <rogers at hum.uva.nl>

**Workshop Announcement**

The News about Networks

Workshop by the Govcom.org Foundation, Amsterdam

Supported by the Ford Foundation's portfolio in media policy and
technology, part of the Media, Arts and Culture Unit, New York

Dates:                         10-14 November 2003
Location:                     de Balie, Amsterdam
Deadline for applications:    14 September 2003
(newly extended)
Send application to:          participant at issuenetwork.org
Workshop website: http://www.issuenetwork.org
Who should apply:             Advocates & Academics
Participant acceptance notice: 19 September 2003

The Govcom.org Foundation, Amsterdam is organizing a workshop for
researchers, advocates, and grassroots organizers in the field of
media democracy, communications rights, and media policy. The
Govcom.org Foundation, Amsterdam, is dedicated to creating and
hosting political tools for the Web.

Over a five-day period, the workshop will provide an immersion
experience in Govcom.org's work in a media laboratory, where all
participants will be invited to use state of the art information
tools created by govcom.org and its collaborators. The participants
also are invited to present and share their own tools and knowledge.

Much of the workshop will revolve around using the Issue Crawler,
server-side software, developed with OneWorld International (London)
and Aguidel.com (Paris) that locates, analyses and visualises
networks on the Web. Some of the questions one may ask are:

--What are my networks? What is my relative standing within these networks?
--Which types of organizations and agendas dominate these networks?
--Do the organizations in these networks recognise each other's work?
Do they (instead) rely on news coverage as a sign of recognition?
--Which parts of the networks hold together if one takes out funders?
Do they hold together if one takes out other agenda-setters, be it
(big) media or intergovernmental organizations?
--How relevant is media coverage to the overall effectiveness of my
organization? Do NGOs take up issues depending on the press coverage
of the same issues?

To answer these questions, we will undertake network location
exercises, and enquire into the extent to which the networks we find
are dominated by the agendas of (big) media, funders,
intergovernmental organizations and/or NGOs.

Workshop Substance.

One of the greater paradoxes, even tragedies, of NGOs these days is a
continued reliance on measuring the value of their activities by
press appearance. Despite the rise of independent and internet forms
of 'news', many NGOs still rely on (commercial) press coverage as
demonstrable evidence of organizational or individual worth. At the
same time, reliance on the press, and a media strategy, may raise
questions about integrity and authenticity. The workshop takes up
some of the larger dilemmas inhering in activist and NGO activity
today: the extent to which NGO work is driven by the coverage of its
work. Similarly, and related to the question of coverage is another
potential impact of the news on NGOs. Do NGOs take up issues
depending on the press coverage of the same issues?

In asking the extent to which NGOs are beholden to the press, both in
terms of self-representation and in terms of issue selection, we also
would like to know whether it matters. That is, is coverage of itself
or of its issues related to an NGO's standing in its network? The
networks may have other means of distributing standing, and other
ways of choosing issues. Indeed, we may find that NGO standing and
issue selection has little to do with the leanings of the press.

The Network News workshop is dedicated to understanding relationships
between network work, issue work, and news work. To this end, we will
grapple with some methods and techniques in tracking the resonance of
issues in the news, of network issues in the news, as well as the
resonance of news within issue networks. The lead question for the
workshop reads:

Is NGO standing - in its networks - significantly related to its
appearance in the news?

To answer this question, a number of exercises are to be undertaken.

1. Network location. In which network or networks does the NGO appear?
2. News-in-the-network. Is news (and, more importantly,
newsworthiness) a significant feature within the network?
3. Standing and coverage. Is an NGO's relative standing in the
network related to its practice and display of newsworthiness? Are
NGOs driven towards seeking coverage by the network?
4. News strategies. Is newsworthiness an organizational feature to be
recommended to actors in the network? Or is it futile?

The workshop will also feature the introduction of an automated news
monitoring system, using RSS (rich site summary) technology. Press
trackers, under development by anderemedia.nl and govcom.org at
issuenews.org, capture streams from leading news organizations. At
the workshop we would like to analyse these streams for NGO and NGO
issue mentionings (or anything else one may wish to track). In doing
so, we will be able to perform a second check about the extent to
which organizational and issue standing within the networks we find
may be related to press coverage.

Format of the workshop.

The format of the workshop intersperses the following:

1) Introduction and Software Training
2) Talks and Demonstrations by the Participants and Cartographers
3) Software Use and Feedback on Findings
4) Designer Map-making
5) Individual Analysis and Presentations of Results
6) Discussions of texts from the Reader
7) Public Presentations

A presentation - The News about Networks - will be made upon
conclusion of the workshop, on Friday evening, the 14th of November.
The presentation is held at de Balie and is open to the public.

A public debate will take place on Wednesday evening, the 12th of
November. Though as of yet unconfirmed, the public debate is expected
to feature a presentation on one of the more advanced forms of
information politics, 'Pre-mediation'. Applying the notion to the
Iraq War, we are interested in understanding the extent to which the
premediation of the Iraq War - summed up in the concept of PreWar -
produced a sense of war's inevitability.

The media laboratory has facility for laptops with cabled ethernet
connectivity. Wireless network to be confirmed.

Application Details

Please apply. To apply, please send a biographical sketch, a one-page
description of the questions and themes you would like to see
addressed at the workshop as well as the answers to the questionnaire
below. Please send these 3 items to participant at issuenetwork.org by
14 September. Space is limited.

The answers to the questionnaire allow for the advance mapping of the
issue areas, as well as advance issue news monitoring. The criteria
of acceptance to the workshop is the mutual fit between the
applicant's analytical desires and expectations, and the capacities
of the analysts on hand.

The workshop is free of charge. Participants should cover travel and
accommodation expenses. We can help you find accommodation. For
accommodation and other queries, write to Catherine Somze, Govcom.org
Workshop Producer, catherine at issuenetwork.org.

The Ford Foundation has made available five Workshop Fellowships for
US-based participants. Application information is available at
http://www.issuenetwork.org.

**Questionnaire**

All workshop participants are asked to submit answers to the
following questions.

The questionnaire is as follows:

1. Name your issue/research area(s), e.g., Climate Change, Media
Justice, Indigenous Rights, Ancient Forests, Spectrum Policy,
low-power FM.

2. Name the most significant organizations per issue area(s), along
with their Web addresses (URLs). Please separate URLs with a comma,
and use 'deep pages' wherever possible, i.e.,
http://www.greenpeace.org/international_en/campaigns/intro?campaign%5fid=393
8
(the Greenpeace Ancient Forests page), instead of www.greenpeace.org

3. List the most significant sub-issues, terms, slogans, individual
names per issue.

4. List the 3-5 most important conferences in each issue area, for
the past year, the current year and next year, along with the web
addresses (URLs).

5. List the 3-5 most significant web-accessible documents in the
issue area(s). Provide the exact web addresses for each document.

6. List (no more than 10) the organizations in that issue area(s)
that you have had the most direct email contact with in the past 6-12
months.

7. List the most significant news sources for your work and the web
locations for these sources.

*Please return the answers to the questionnaire to
participant at issuenetwork.org. We kindly request that you return the
answers in English as well as your own language.

Questionnaire en Français

**Préparatifs au groupe de travail**

Tous les participants au groupe de travail sont priés de répondre aux
questions suivantes.

Voir questionnaire ci-dessous:

1. Définissez votre question/domaine(s) de recherche.

2. Définissez les principaux acteurs/organisations dans le cadre de
votre recherche, par URLs

3. Établissez une liste des principales questions dérivées de votre
(vos) question(s) principale(s).

4. Établissez une liste des conférences importantes de cette année,
l'année passée et l'année à venir dans le(s) domaine(s) recherché(s),
par URLs

5. Établissez une liste des documents les plus importants dans votre
(vos) domaine(s), par URLs.

6. Établissez une liste des organisations dans le(s) domaine(s)
recherché(s) avec lesquelles vous avez eu dans les 6 à 12 mois passés
un contact direct par e-mail. Établissez, de façon séparée, celles
avec lesquelles vous avez eu un contact de type standard par e-mail,
c.a.d. reçu ou envoyé un courrier purement informatif.

7. Établissez une liste des sources d'information (presse inclue)
dans les sociétés dans lesquelles vous menez à bien votre travail de
recherche.

*Ayez l'amabilité de faire parvenir les réponses au questionnaire à
participant at issuenetwork.org. À votre convenance et/ou en accord avec
le contenu de certaines réponses, celles-ci peuvent être adressées
soit en Anglais, soit dans votre propre langue.

Cuestionario en Español

**Preparativos para el grupo de trabajo**

A todos los participantes al grupo de trabajo se les pedirá que
contesten a las preguntas siguientes.

Vea el cuestionario que sigue:

1. Nombre/Defina su pregunta/campo(s) de investigación.

2. Nombre las organizaciones más significantes en su campo de
investigación, por URLs.

3. Nombre las preguntas subsiguientes más significantes en relación
con su pregunta/campo(s) de investigación.

4. Establezca una lista de las conferencias más significantes en su
campo de investigaciòn que hayan tenido lugar este año, el año
precedente y el año pròximo, por URLs.

5. Establezca una lista de los documentos más significantes en su
campo de investigación, por URLs.

6. Establezca una lista de las organizaciones en su campo con las
cuales haya tenido un contacto directo por e-mail en los últimos 6 a
12 meses pasados. Establezca una lista, de manera separada, con las
cuales haya tenido un contacto por e-mail de tipo estándar, i.e.,
correo informativo, recibido o mandado.

7. Establezca una lista de las fuentes de información más
significantes (prensa incluída) en las sociedades en las cuales está
investigando.

*Por favor, mande las repuestas al cuestionario a
participant at issuenetwork.org. Le pedimos que mande las respuestas en
Inglés o, si es preciso, en su propio idioma.

--

About Govcom.org

The Govcom.org Foundation, Amsterdam, is dedicated to creating and
hosting political tools for the Web, at http://www.govcom.org. Its
director is Richard Rogers (rogers at hum.uva.nl), also of the
University of Amsterdam. The workshop is co-organised by Noortje
Marres (marres at dds.nl), University of Amsterdam. Govcom.org workshop
producer is Catherine Somze (catherine at issuenetwork.org). The
designers are Marieke van Dijk and Auke Touwslager of anderemedia.nl.
Principal affiliates and analysts are Andrei Mogoutov (Ecole des
Mines/aguidel.com), Andres Zelman (Thinkamalinks), Greg Elmer
(Florida State) and Astrid Mager (University of Vienna).

The Workshop is part of the Social Life of Issues Series, number 8,
http://www.govcom.org/workshops.html. For viewing and navigating, the
maps from previous workshops may require an svg plug-in, available,
for example, at http://www.adobe.com/svg.

Govcom.org also has developed the Web Issue Index of Civil Society.
It is a downloadable quicklaunch application and interactive
screensaver that shows the rise and fall of attention to important
social issues by select civil society actors, previewed at
http://www.infoid.org.