[Air-l] Of Burnished Gold

[Lachlan Brown]

All, 

One must be careful following a query 
concerning the demographics of the 
Association of Internet Researchers 
([Air-l] Re: Outreach Working Group 
Charge, with a minor tweak Lachlan Brown) 
with a thread ([Air-l] Have you 
received something like this? ) on the so 
called 'Nigerian Scam'. 

Instead of alienating West Africa, and 
those who share an affinity with West 
Africa, or otherwise share an interest 
in breaking stereotypes wherever they 
occur and however they are articulated, 
perhaps you could address the issue of 
social inclusion seriously. A way to do 
this is to be reflexive and open about 
membership. 

My question arising from many, many 
years research in the field related to 
several 'gaps', or shall we simply 
say 'a complete and utter lapses in 
scholarship' in Internet Research, arose 
from reading an important misaddressed 
email in AoIR concerning 'outreach' 
strategies highlighting the need for 
greater social inclusion. 

What we get from AoIR is endless wittering 
about 'The Nigerian Scam'. 

What social literacies are represented 
by the Association of Internet Researchers? 

How are the industries of education and of 
media and communications best served in 
their need for informed scholarship and 
advice concerning 'future markets'? 


One way to understand these literacies 
is to have a breakdown, even a rough 
guesstimate, of the demographics of AoIR, 
which is, as far as I can see, a locus of 
power in Internet and Scholarship. 

The estimate or breakdown is important 
too to my initial intervention 'Bring Me My Bow' etc (Blakes "Jerusalem' far 
from being a nationalist hymn is a poem to spiritual and intellectual striving, 
inflected by irony, political satire, but 
also by love.) of January, which raises 
ethical and legal concerns for a number of constituencies of Internet. During the years 
use of Internet has, it seems, grown from 
'cyberpunk in boystown' to take a place in 
the middle of our communication and 
media lives. Users, so I hear, now include 
the extremely angry mothers constititency, 
the raging grannies against technofascism, 
Street Kids against poor Internet 
Scholarship, not to mention the 'we know 
where you live' students against child
abuse constituency, concerned about the exploitation of innocents in the industry 
and in education. 

Please provide the information I requested. 

I asked for a rough estimate, if hard 
data is not available, on the demographics 
of the Association of Internet Researchers. 


[Air-l] Re: Outreach Working Group Charge, 
with a minor tweak Lachlan Brown 

[Air-l] Subscribe FREE to Design Research News Ken Friedman 
[Air-l] Have you received something like this? Cristian Berrio 
[Air-l] Have you received something like this? jeremy hunsinger 
[Air-l] Have you received something like this? Adrian Higginbotham 
[Air-l] Have you received something like this? Gina Neff 
[Air-l] Have you received something like this? Steve Fox (NLG) 
[Air-l] Have you received something like this? david silver 
[Air-l] Have you received something like this? Sean Cubitt 
Down Sean, Down Boy. 
[Air-l] Re: Lurking Uwe Matzat 
[Air-l] Redundancy Index: Air-l digest, Vol 1 #293 - 14 msgs James Watt 
[Air-l] Redundancy Index: Air-l digest, Vol 1 #293 - 14 msgs jeremy 
hunsinger 
[Air-l] Have you received something like this? Steve Jones 

BTW: 'The Nigerian Scam' is a perennial. I received a snail mail about it in 1991 in 
Toronto at Between the Lines Press. It is 
annoying, but it is hardly the 'thread of 
the moment'. 


In Nettime 'the Nigerian Scam' appeared 
as Nettimers began considering 'race and ethnicity'. It also appeared in a 
couple of industry groups when the question 
of 'social inclusion' arose. 


Lachlan Brown 

Cultural Studies 
Goldsmiths College 






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