Computer Mediated Communication Conference, 17-19 April 2008

The first conference organised by EUROCALL's Computer Mediated Communication Special Interest Group (CMC SIG) will take place at the University of Padua, Italy, 17-19 April 2008.

In an earlier contribution to this blog (7 November 2007) I wrote about setting up EUROCALL's new HQ in Second Life. I shall be giving a presentation about the HQ in Second Life at the CMC SIG conference - from a distance (i.e. in the UK). It's nothing spectacular - just a tour of the HQ, which is located on EduNation III island in Second Life. The HQ can be used for real-time meetings and presentations to small groups, e.g. PowerPoint and video presentations and slide shows. Here is the EUROCALL HQ SLURL:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/EduNation%20III/9/29/22/
You may find me lurking there sometimes in the guise of Groovy Winkler.

David Richardson and his colleagues will be giving a presentation at the conference entitled "Practicing proficiency in virtual space - a case study of cross-cultural collaboration in language learning", which will also be delivered at a distance (from Sweden) using Second Life. David has posted messages concerning his Kamino Island project, which focuses on oral production, in the EUROCALL CMC SIG discussion list at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CMC_SIG/
You can read more about David's oral production project at:
http://www.humsam.hik.se/distans/existstud/op/index.htm

Further information on the Padua conference can be found in the CMC SIG discussion list (above). The main contact person in Padua is Francesca Helm. Contact her via the discussion list.

Participating in conferences at a distance is now established practice. The Consultants-E, a business based in Barcelona, manage the EduNation islands in Second Life, where they are running a series of seminars entitled EduCation@EduNation:
http://www.theconsultants-e.com/edunation/edunation.asp

We focus on Second Life in Section 14.2.1 of Module 1.5 at the ICT4LT website:
http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod1-5.htm#secondlife

EUROCALL has incorporated a virtual strand into its last two conferences, 2006 and 2007. The archives are here:

EUROCALL 2006 blog:
http://eurocall2006blog.blogspot.com/

EUROCALL 2007 virtual strand, which includes streamed videos of the keynotes:
http://vsportal2007.googlepages.com/

EUROCALL 2008 in Hungary will also include a virtual strand - details to be announced later:
http://www.asszisztencia.hu/eurocall/

Regards
Graham Davies

Copyright - new tricks to catch you out!

A colleague drew my attention to the following article at the website of the Computer & Technik Magazin, which summarises a TV broadcast on 16 February 2008: http://www.heise.de/ct/tv/artikel/103344

For those of you who cannot read German, here's a brief summary: A couple in Germany, Marion and Folkert Knieper, have put together an online cookbook with lots of photos taken by Folkert Knieper, e.g. the sort of photos of food that teachers like to use in their worksheets, blogs and online worksheets. The online cookbook includes a lexicon and has lots of links to other sites - which puts it high on Google's hit list if you are doing a search. So you search (in German) for an image of tomatoes, carrots, a cup of tea, etc. You find the image in the cookbook and add it to your website, blog, or online worksheet. Now here's the catch. Folkert Knieper uses the image search facility in Google to find his own photos. Bingo! The photo that you have added to your website turns up. He then asks you to pay for it and takes you to court for breach of copyright if you refuse. In Germany the law on copyright is much the same as it is in the UK. If you take a photograph and publish it on the Web you automatically own copyright in the photo unless stated otherwise. Apparently, Folkert Knieper is making hundreds of thousands of euros out of this venture. Nice little earner, eh? It could catch on...

Selling digital photos is a growing business these days:
http://www.cameradollars.com/?hop=linguaglot