CONFERENCE APRIL 9, 2011

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND

TTW v1.0 USER’S GUIDE

iSchool
Department of Department of Sociology University of
Sociology and Anthropology Maryland
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

Thank you for attending the inaugural Theorizing the Web conference.
Today’s program consists of 54 competitively selected papers arranged into 14
open-submission panels. In addition, there are invited panels on methods, feminism,
and race. Two symposia discuss the role of social media and the recent uprisings
in the Arab world and the intersection of social media and street art. Straddling
lunchtime are two plenary talks—one about post-Modern theory and the Web by
George Ritzer and another about online power relations by Saskia Sassen. Finally,
danah boyd will deliver a keynote on the enmeshed nature of publicity and privacy.
Participants and attendees from across the globe have joined us to discuss what
has turned out to be a topic of intense interest. We are humbled by the quality of
submissions and speakers who have joined us to build a program that far exceeds
our initial goal for this one-day event.

We convened this conference with the belief that social theory vis-à-vis new, social,
technologies (e.g., Facebook, mobile phones) has, so far, been inadequate in scope.
Major disciplinary, and even topical, conferences often address social media and
related technologies without sustained, critical theoretical discussions.

We hope that the conference will accomplish many things. We seek to bring
together those interested in theory and technology to ignite and advance new
critical perspectives on social media. We hope the conference brings to light both
the promise and the perils surrounding this new (augmented) reality, especially
concerning its affect on those most vulnerable.

We pay special attention to a fundamental theoretical distinction woven throughout

the program. You may have noticed that the conference website is located on a site
called “Cyborgology.” Cyborgology is a project that the co-chairs of this conference
created to host our own academic work, as well as to develop a broader community
of theorists doing critical work on human-technology interaction—realized
recently in both the Cyborgology blog and in a series of events (such as the one
you are currently attending). The term “cyborgology,” itself, highlights the fact that
individuals and social groups have always been cyborgs because we have always
existed in tandem with technology. Today, techno-human syntheses occur in more
aspects of our lives than ever before. Our usage of the term “cyborg” goes far
beyond the half-human, half-robots propelled into the popular imaginary by science
fiction and cyberpunk because technology is about more than electronics. The
layout of a prison or a school is a technology of discipline; language is a technology
of thought and communication; cultural norms themselves are technologies of
social organization—in every instance, technology is the product of a particular
historical moment and it becomes integrated into the social life of that period. This is
further reflected in the notion that reality is not two separate spheres of physicality
and digitality, but always an augmented reality that is composed of both.

Another theme central to this conference is social activism. This is most strikingly
illustrated by the special attention paid to the recent uprisings in the Arab world. The
timing of this event makes this a special opportunity to advance our understanding
of the role social media play in providing support to vulnerable populations and even
offering them a mechanism to effect revolutionary change.

Please, be active in engaging others at this conference. In articulating your

ideas, we encourage you to construct accessible statements directed at a broad
audience. The cyborgology project is oriented toward public sociology (i.e., the
intent to tackle ideas that are socially significant through media that is publically
engaging, for example, blogging, tv/radio appearances, and street art). To this end,
art also plays a special role in this conference. Artists are displaying their work in
this building, as well music during the after-party after the conference—all of which
has been chosen with the themes of the conference in mind.

Finally, welcome and be sure to take in what Washington D.C. has to offer!

Nathan Jurgenson & PJ Rey

Conference Co-Chairs
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ORGANIZERS
Co-Chair // Nathan Jurgenson
Co-Chair // PJ Rey
Treasurer // Tyler Crabb
Designer // Ned Drummond
Secretary // Sarah Wanenchak
Facilities Coordinator // Dave Strohecker
Publicity Officer // William Yagatich
Publicity Officer // Sean Gray
Faculty Sponsor // George Ritzer

OUR SPONSORS

iSchool
Department of Sociology University of
Department of and Anthropology Maryland
Sociology
GENERAL INFO

CONFERENCE HASHTAG # TTW2011

Interactive Twitter feeds will be on display throughout the day.

EVENT LOCATIONS
Most events of the day will be held in the Art-Sociology building. The
keynote and other large sessions will be held in room 2203. The rooms
for all other sessions are noted on the program schedule. Food options
are available on and off campus within walking distance. The after-
party will be held at the WMUC Radio Station on campus.

FULL PROGRAM
Abstracts have not been included in this program. They can be down-
loaded at cyborgology.org/theorizingtheweb/fullprogram.pdf

ART INSTALLATIONS
Will be on display in the Atrium of the Art-Sociology building.

PARKING AND PUBLIC TRANSIT

Free parking is available in Lot 1, the lot closest to the Art-Sociology
building. Please observe the parking restrictions for other lots and use
them at your own risk. Metro busses and the 104 College Park Metro
Shuttle runs between the Stamp StudentUnion and the metro station
until 1:45 AM. Metro Rail closes at 3:00 AM on weekends. Please keep
these schedules in mind if relying on public transit.
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
8:00 AM Registration Opens
Atrium Light breakfast provided
9:00 AM – Opening Remarks
9:15 AM
Room 2203 Introduction: George Ritzer // Speakers: Nathan Jurgenson & PJ Rey
9:30 AM – Undergrad Workshop: Social Media & Feminist Activism
10:45 AM Organizers: Katie King & Jarah Moesch // Posters Presentations:
Room 3203
students of WMST 488A: Feminist Social Media Activism // Partici-
pants: All Attending
Room 3207 Invited Panel: Internet Theory Meets Practice
Organizer: Bill Yagatich // Participants: Derek Hansen, Dana
Fisher, Paul-Brian McInerney
Room 3211 Open Panel: “Like!” ;) - Affect Online
Presider: Zachary Richer // Participants: Lisa Sanders, “Computer
Mediated Communication and Emotional Effervescence” // Tamara
Peyton, “From emotion to action: The ontological politics of the ‘like’
button” // Andrea Baker, “Comparing Online Communities: Norms,
Structures and Processes of Two Groups of Music Fans”// Meghan
Rosatelli, “Digital Emotions: An approachable approach”
Room 3215 Open Panel: The New Economies of the Web
Presider: Joseph Waggle // Participants: Ashlee Humphreys, “The
Construction of Value in Attention Economies” // Han-Teng Liao,
“Keyword Economy of the Web: Seeking Order in Open Linguistic
Materials” // Piergiorgio Degli Esposti, “Information overload and
size paradox”
Room 3217 Open Panel: Questioning Agency and Structure Online
Presider: TBA // Participants: Andrew Hare, “The YouTube War:
Wikileaks, Warfare and The New Digital Politck” // Donghee Yvette
Wohn, “Crystallization” // Sam Han, “The Digital Milieu of Online Chris-
tianity: The Folding of Religious Experience into Sociality” // Thomas
Geary, “Electracy and Digital Agency: How Attainable Are They?”
11:00 AM – Invited Panel: Cyber-Racism, Race & Social Media
12:15 PM Organizer: Jessie Daniels // Participants: Stephanie Greenlea,
Room 3203 “Blogging for Justice: Black Technophilia and the Vitality of Black
Activism in the Jena Six Case” // Jillet Sam, “Caste Endogamy on
the Internet: Spatial Considerations” // Daniel Greene, “Among
‘Friends’: Comparing Social Networking Functions in the Baltimore
Sun and Baltimore Afro-American in 1904 and 1933” // Jessie
Daniels, “Theorizing Race & Racism in Internet Studies”

Room 3207 Open Panel: Augmented Engagement - Global Politics by Digital

Means
Presider: Sarah Wanenchak // Participants: Julia Schroeder,
“A Cultural Sociology of Technological Risk and Cyber Terrorism” //
Louis Sagnières, “The Internet and the rise of a transnational public
space” // Joseph Obi, “Cyberspace, Place Polygamy, and the Distrib-
uted Self: An African Viewpoint” // Miles Townes, “The Spread of
TCP/IP and the Political Origins of the Internet”

Room 3211 Open Panel: Cyborgology

Presider: Nathan Jurgenson // Participants: Bonnie Stewart, “The
Branded Self: Cyborg Subjectivity in Social Media” // David Banks,
“Practical Cyborg Theory: Discovering a Metric for the Emancipatory
Potential of Technology” // Stephanie Laudone, “Constructing and
Regulating Sexuality on Facebook” // Michael Schandorf, “Medi-
ated Gesture Of The Distributed Body”

Room 3215 Open Panel: all ur informations iz belongs to facebook

Presider: Tyler Crabb // Participants: Anthony Hoffmann, “Me, not
mine: Facebook, ontic informational beings, and the problem with
information as property” // Stephen Lilley, “Facebook Members’
Complicity with Commercial Transparency” // Jason Treit, “Privacy
and Possessive Language in the Interpersonal Commons”
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Room 3217 Open Panel: Cyber-Support
Presider: Jessica Vitak // Participants: Stephanie Vineyard,
“Technology and Social Capital: How new media tools give opportuni-
ties to women” // Nick Violi, “Motivation for Participation in Online
Neighborhood Watch Communities” // Sara Martucci,“‘The Most
Important Day of Your Life:’ Friendship and support on an online wed-
ding forum” // Ishani Mukherjee, “My husband doesn’t know I’m
blogging: In Search of Safe Spaces Online”
12:15 PM– Plenary Address I: “Digital Formations of the Powerful and the
1:15 PM Powerless”
Room 2203 Speaker: Saskia Sassen // Presider: TBA
1:15 PM – Lunch
2:30 PM See map for local lunch options
2:30 PM – Plenary Address II: “Why the Web Needs Post-Modern Theory”
3:15 PM
Room 2203 Speaker: George Ritzer // Presider: Zeynep Tufekci

3:30 PM – Symposium: “Revolution 2.0? The Role of the Internet in the

4:45 PM Uprisings from Tahrir Square and Beyond”
Room 2203 Organizer: Zeynep Tufekci // Presider: Amanda French //
Participants: Marc Lynch, Henry Farell, Dave Parry, and Zeynep
Tufekci
Room 3203 Open Panel: Counter-Discourses – Resistance and Empowerment
on Social Media
Presider: David Strohecker // Participants: Jes Koepfler, “Con-
necting: A Case Study of a Twitter Network for the Homeless” //
Andrew Lynn, “Authenticity FAIL: The Internet as Resistance to
Popular Culture” // Randy Lynn (with Jeffrey Johnson), “‘Bitches
Love’ Ambiguous Sexism: Gender, ‘Karma,’ and the Limits of Male
Progressivism in Online Communities” // Sabrina Weiss, “Cyber-
liberation: From Egypt to Azeroth”
Room 3207 Open Panel: Poets and Scribes - Constructing Fact and Fiction on
Social Media
Presider: PJ Rey // Participants: David Zweig, “Fiction Depersonal-
ization Syndrome” // Dwight Hunter, “Why is Deception Utilized in
Online Dating Profiles?” // Jorge Ballinas, “Facebook Negotiation”
Jenny Davis, “Beyond the popularity Contest: Constructions of Exclu-
sivity on Facebook”

Room 3211 Open Panel: Augmented Reality – The Implosion of Atoms and Bits
Presider: David Banks // Participants: Sang-hyoun Pahk, “Restaurant
2.0: bringing online sociality to the streets” // Xili Deng, “Bridging
Reality and Virtuality – Trust as a force that joins online and offline
world” // Daniel Susser, “From Telephones to Smellophones: Place
and its Role in Electronically Mediated Communication” // Raz
Schwartz, “I’m the Mayor here! Place Attachment and the Personal-
ized Physical Place”

Room 3215 Open Panel: Augmented Encounters: Sex and Sexuality in the Age
of Social Media
Presider: Katie King // Participants: Nicholas Boston, “The Amorous
Migrant: Race, Relationships and Resettlement through Cyberspace”
Anastasia Salter, “#DearJohn, Don’t be a Dickwolf; or, A Rape in
Twitterspace” // Jarah Moesch, “Queer Profiles: embodying the
(computer) code” // Alecea Standlee, “Technologies of Relation-
ships: Meaning Making in the Techno-Organic Social World of College
Students”

5:00 PM – Symposium: “Street Art, the Web, and the Digital City – A
6:15 PM Conversation”
Room 2203 Organizer: Martin Irvine // Panelists: Martin Irvine
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Room 3203 Open Panel: The Arts of Existence - Self and Subjectivity Online
Presider: Jenny Davis // Participants: Jessica Vitak, “Theorizing
the Future of Computer-Mediated Communication: The Changing Role
of Self-Presentation, Audience, and Interaction” // Mark Matienzo,
“Everyone Is Here In The Future: Digital Preservation, Digital Suicide,
and Other Archival Strategies of Networked Im/mortality” // Aimée
Morrison, “Hiding in the Crowd”
Room 3207 Open Panel: The Rise of the Prosumer
Presider: Ashlee Humphreys // Participants: Jacob Landis,
“Phases in the Crowd: How Traditional Media Outlets Can Best Use
Crowdsourced Data” // Eun Ryung Chong, “Globalization and Web
2.0 in the Network Society” // Jonathan Albright, “Participatory
Mediation: audiences as meta-cast filters for online news content” //
Chetan Chawla, “Unweaving the Web: Prosumption as Strategy – The
Case of User Generated Content”
Room 3211 Open Panel: Wiki-Knowledge - Populist Epistemologies from the Web
Presider: Bill Yagatich // Participants: Katy Pearce,“‘I don’t use the
Internet. I just use social networking sites and download content onto my
phone.’ Defining the Internet: Perspectives from mobile-only Internet us-
ers in Armenia” // Ayelet Oz, “The Legal Consciousness of Wikipedia” //
Kyle Reinson, “Buying the experts when the expertise is free: Contem-
porary (mass) media consciousness and the knowledge economy in the
Web era of post-expertise” // Sally A. Applin (with Michael Fischer),
“Humans and Knowledge: Making it in the Web 2.0 World”
6:30 PM – Keynote
7:45 PM
Room 2203 Speaker: danah boyd
8:00 PM – Reception
9:00 PM
Atrium food and drinks provided
9:00 PM Afterparty
Radio Station Bands: Screen Vinyl Image // Yoko K
PROSUMPTION SPACE
CAMPUS MAP

PARKING
THEORIZING THE WEB
ART/ SOCIOLOGY BUILDING
AFTERPARTY
WMUC RADIO STATION

STAMP STUDENT UNION

SOUTH CAMPUS DINING HALL

DOWNTOWN COLLEGE PARK

CORNERSTONE GRILL & LOFT

PLATO’S DINER
A full interactive map is available online at
cyborgology.org/theorizingtheweb/location.html