[Air-l] December 2002 AoIR Executive Committee Report

[Steve Jones]

December 18, 2002
Report of the a(o).i.r. executive committee
Prepared by Steve Jones



AoIR Executive Committee
President: Steve Jones
Vice-President: Nancy Baym
Secretary: Ulla Bunz
Treasurer: Benjamin Bates
Open Seats: David Silver and Barry Wellman
Appointed Seats: Matthew Allen and Leslie Shade
Student Seat: Lisbeth Klastrup
Publications Officers: Jeremy Hunsinger and Charlie Breindahl
2002 Conference Coordinator: Monica Murero
2002 Conference Program Chair: Klaus Bruhn Jensen
2003 Conference Chair: Liss Jeffrey
2003 Conference Program Co-Chairs: Matthew Allen and David Mitchell
Ethics Working Group Chair: Charles Ess
Elections Working Group Chair: Mia Consalvo
Net Resources Working Group Chair: Charlie Breindahl


1.  Introduction & General (Jones)

Below is the monthly report from AoIR executive committee members. If 
you aren't reading this...well, you ought to be. I know it can get 
lengthy, and it can get detailed, but it's the single best way to 
know what AoIR is up to, and to find ways to get involved with it (in 
any number of ways from contacting the people who report to 
volunteering to work on something you see mentioned to making 
suggestions to...).


2.  Executive Officers' Reports

2.1 President (Jones)

2.1.1 I hope you are reading this. Whether you are a dues-paying AoIR 
member or simply a subscriber to air-l reading the monthly report is 
probably the best way to catch up on what AoIR is up to.

If you _are_ reading this you'll probably note a couple of things. 
One is that there are quite a few "nothing to reports." Those may be 
evidence of the approach of the holiday season, but in fact they're 
usually evidence of executive committee members being too busy with 
AoIR business on top of other work. Another thing you'll notice is 
that there has been much activity related to the conference in 
Toronto in 2003, which itself is evidence to support the previous 
claim. In fact I'm behind myself, needing to do a couple of little 
things to the CFP for IR 4.0 and get it out the door - keep your eyes 
on air-l for the CFP, and feel free to forward it far and wide 
(within the bounds of reasonable rules of netiquette, of course)!

Finally, I do indeed hope you've read at least this far so that a) 
you keep reading and b) I can wish you a very happy holiday season 
and all the best for the new year!


2.2 Vice President (Baym)

2.2.1 Nothing to report.


2.3 Secretary (Bunz)

2.3.1 As you can see the exec committee has been busy this past month. Several
decisions have been made. I've contributed to the discussions below.

Summary November 13 - December 16, 2002
This month on the executive list:

.	AoIR is going to start publishing a "Research Annual" based on
conference papers (Publisher: Peter Lang). The new chair of the research
annual working group is Mia Consalvo. All questions should be addressed
to her. The working group is comprised of all previous conference and
program chairs. In the future this might be limited to the immediate
past two or three years.
.	The exec committee has been debating various options for future
conference planning, such as outsourcing conference planning completely,
pulling it internally completely, and various mixed models. As our
association grows, we are confronted with these and similar issues. At
this point, no final decisions have been made. We might be forced one
way or another depending on host proposals which are due anytime, but
preferably before January 31 for the 2004 conference. Along with this
discussion, there was discussion on a clear definition of roles for exec
and conference committee with regard to decision making on conference
issues. The "internal/external host" discussion is ongoing.
.	Discussion on the decision power and role of air-meet.
.	Ben Davidson volunteered to contribute to the "resource
committee" that was suggested at the general meeting in Maastricht
(entails potentially taping/streaming sessions). Ben is now in touch
with the conference committee in Toronto to discuss this issue further.
The exec committee debated various options such as a pre-payment plan
partially supported by AoIR as an organization to create such tapes/CDs.
The issue is still in discussion. People interested in contributing to
this (financially or through expertise) please contact Ben Davidson or
Liss Jeffrey.
.	Debate on cost for pre-conference workshops. General agreement
is that costs should be kept as low as possible for participants, so
whether the organizer can get a honorarium depends on other costs
involved, such as room rent, etc. Awaiting feedback from the conference
committee to make decisions.
.	The air-grad student Listserve is up and running. Contact
Lisbeth Klastrup for more information.
.	Agreement to continue with the Carl Couch Center award for at
least another year.
.	Matt Allen (program chair) bounced a few ideas concerning
reviewing and panel construction off and received exec committee
feedback.
.	Exec committee granted permission to Naomi Baron to use screen
shots from the Aoir Listserve archive as long as involved participants
are contacted.
.	AoIR was approached by IEEE's SSIT group. The exec agrees that
we should discuss potential affiliation with this group. Steve Jones and
Clint Andrews (the two presidents) will discuss this in more detail.
.	The ethics report has been passed by member voting. It is linked
to the AoIR website under "resources."
.	The Elections Working Group has submitted their report and
recommendations to the exec committee. The committee is and will
continue to discuss the recommendations made by the committee. Changes
to previous elections will be explained in the spring at the next
elections.
.	The executive committee has been working with the conference
committee in Toronto on a variety of conference issues, including and
keynoters and call for papers. With regard to the CfP some of the issues
discussed included topics list, issues of French language, grad student
issues, length of abstracts, etc. One committee member had some major
reservations about the CfP on a number of issues that included a lack of
focus on the current state of affairs - terror, terrorism, war, etc.,
little advancement of AoIR's research agenda compared to much
recapitulation of past CfPs, and a call to educate ourselves with
respect to the most current work going on in other fields in order to
truly "broaden the band."


2.4 Treasurer (Bates)

2.4.1 Keeping up.  Accounts still in good shape.  Big dues revenue last month.


2.5 Open Seats (Silver, Wellman)

2.5.1 Silver: I participated actively in discussions regarding the 
call for papers for IR 4.0.

2.5.2 Wellman: Liasing with 2003 conference working committee. 
Contribution to online
Executive Committee discussions.


2.6 Appointed Seats (Allen, Shade)

2.6.1 Allen: Nothing to report. (Probably because he's swamped with 
conference matters. -Sj)

2.6.2 Shade: Nothing to report.


2.7 Student Seat (Klastrup)

2.7.1 Nothing to report.


2.8 Publications Officers (Hunsinger, Breindahl)

2.8.1 Hunsinger: Nothing to report.

2.8.2 Breindahl: I have mainly moderated our listserv and done minor 
updates to the public aoir site. Major updates have been postponed - 
with seven months left, I am just too busy with my dissertation.


2.9 2003 Conference (Liss Jeffrey, Chair; Matthew Allen, David 
Mitchell, Program Co-Chairs)

2.9.1 Jeffrey (with her team: Katherine Parrish, Jason Nolan, Alex 
Kuskis, and steering committee chair Barry Wellman): Nothing to 
report.


2.10  AoIR Ethics Working Group (Charles Ess, Chair)

2.10.1 The ethics committee discussed some final points of polish on 
their working document, which was then submitted for vote by aoir 
members. As has been announced, the ethics document was approved at 
the close of the vote on November 27, 2002. [The document can be 
found at <www.aoir.org/reports/ethics.pdf>, and is linked from the 
home page of AoIR.  (Those having trouble downloading the PDF file 
may write to Charles Ess - <cmess at drury.edu> - and request a version 
of the document in Word and/or .rtf format.)]

The ethics committee is very grateful to the aoir membership for its 
contributions to and endorsement of the ethics statement - and 
especially to Steve Jones and Jeremy Hunsinger for their multiple 
layers of advice and assistance. Much virtual champagne was drunk 
among the committee members, amidst many virtual toasts...and we are 
now about two items of business. One, a few members of the committee 
have expressed the desire to resign in order to move on to other 
projects, occasioning a re-organization of the
committee over the next few weeks. Two, once our (re)new(ed) 
committee is in place, we will then take up any additional points and 
issues regarding Internet research ethics that may be raised by aoir 
members - especially if these are not adequately addressed by the 
approved ethics statement. We look forward to y/our ongoing 
discussion and debate.


2.11 AoIR Research Annual Working Group (Mia Consalvo, Chair)

2.11.1 A working group has been formed to create a published research 
annual stemming from AoIR's conferences. The idea is to produce one 
annual based on the first three conferences, and then a yearly annual 
for each conference thereafter. Currently the group is determining 
appropriate themes for the previous conferences as well as possible 
contributions, and will also soon determine a publisher. We are just 
getting started, so expect to hear more in the near future.


2.12 AoIR Net Resources Working Group (Charlie Breindahl, Chair)

2.12.1 There has been no activity in the 'Net WG.


------------------------------------end of executive committee 
report------------------------------

The Association of Internet Researchers is a scholarly association 
dedicated to the advancement of the cross-disciplinary field of 
Internet studies. It is a resource and support network promoting 
critical and scholarly Internet research independent from traditional 
disciplines and existing across academic borders. The association is 
international in scope.

The association's web site is at http://www.aoir.org. Membership 
information is available at http://aoir.org/airjoin.html