[Air-l] AoIR 2.0, Day 1

[Steve Jones]

Greetings from AoIR 2.0 at the University of Minnesota!

I will try to provide a daily report...call it an AoIRblog if you 
will...but given the various demands on my time I can't promise much 
depth to them or even that they'll be daily and regular.

In any event, it's my great pleasure to say that the conference has 
begun without a hitch (or at least without one that I've seen!). John 
Logie and his colleagues at the university have done a splendid job 
of organizing things (including coordinating with Apple Computer for 
a technology room and for a wireless network). And the program looks 
terrific, due to Leslie Shade's hard work and the work of the program 
committee. I'm very glad to see that attendance has remained strong 
and the program has remained diverse and interesting. As was the case 
last year it is difficult to choose among so many promising sessions!

As I said in my opening remarks this morning, this is the first 
academic conference that I have been to since September 11. I had 
never appreciated an academic conference quite so much, and I am more 
grateful than ever for the colleagues, students, and friends who I 
see. As my colleague and director of the Pew Internet & American Life 
Project said in a USA TOday story published today (in which Kirsten 
Foot, AoIR member and co-presenter at yesterday's well-attended 
pre-conference workshop, was also quoted), "The Internet was all 
about community and sharing" after the attacks last month. I think we 
all know that the obverse is true as well -- community is not only on 
the Internet. One of the greatest gifts we can give one another is to 
simply be together, and I feel extraordinarily grateful that we have 
been given that gift here at this conference, and via the medium of 
air-l. I will hope that we can continue to meet year after year and 
that all will have an opportunity to attend what has, after a scant 
two years, become a terrific annual event.

Prof. Anita Allen's keynote speech started the conference by 
encouraging us to think about the Internet in relation to law and 
policy, the first round of concurrent sessions is under way, and 
there is much more to come. Unfortunately I will not be able to 
attend sessions in the way that I would were I not president of the 
association, so it is for selfish reasons as well as unselfish ones 
that I hope I can encourage other attendees to post their impressions 
and observations on air-l or on the member web site as they have time.

My thanks again to our hosts at the University of Minnesota. Ski-U-Mah!

Yours,
Steve Jones
Sjj