[Air-l] November 2003 executive committee report

Nancy Baym nbaym at ku.edu
Tue Dec 2 10:25:18 PST 2003


November 28, 2002
Report of the a.o.i.r. executive committee
Prepared by Nancy Baym

AoIR Executive Committee
President: Nancy Baym
Vice-President: Matthew Allen
Secretary: Ulla Bunz
Treasurer: Benjamin Bates
Open Seats: Radhika Gajjala and Annette Markham
Appointed Seats: Monica Murero and Randolph Kluver
Student Seat: Leslie Tkach-Kawasaki
Publications Officers: Jeremy Hunsinger and Charlie Breindahl
Past President (ex-officio): Steve Jones
2004 Conference Chair: Kate O'Riordan
Ethics Working Group Chair: Charles Ess
AoIR Annual Chair: Mia Consalvo

1.  Introduction & General (Baym)

This is the place to find out what's going on in 
the association. It's long, it's not always 
thrilling, but it's always the best way for you 
to keep up so please read it! Our 24/7 
discussions of the month on the executive 
committee mailing list are summarized in Ulla 
Bunz's section of the report, 2004 Conference 
Host Kate O'Riordan provides a Sussex overview in 
the conference chair report below, Charles Ess 
keeps us posted on ethics, and Mia Consalvo keeps 
us up to date on the forthcoming Annual. All this 
and more! Read on...

2.  Executive Officers' Reports

2.1 President (Baym)

2.1.1  We've had a productive month launching 
Sussex 2005's CFP which I hope you have all 
received. As Kate notes below, your help reaching 
out to those you think should be included by 
distributing the CFP is greatly appreciated. We 
often hear that AoIR doesn't have enough {fill in 
the blank with discipline, focus, nation, flavor 
of your choice} -- sending a copy of the CFP with 
a personal request that they consider coming is 
the best way we have to get them there! We had a 
mini-meeting at the National Communication 
Association in Miami which five members of exec 
attended (me, Ulla, Steve, Radhika, and Annette) 
where we discussed public relations possibilities 
as well as whether and how to be proactive about 
seeking funding, from whom, and for what. There 
are several potential initiatives that we could 
do if someone were willing to take the initiative 
and seek funding for them (research related, 
foundation, corporate -- whatever, so long as it 
funds what aoir wants accomplished without 
selling us out). If you have ideas about 
potentially fundable projects or funders, please 
let me know.

2.2 Vice President (Allen)

2.2.1  still recovering from Toronto :) (no, seriously, suffered a mild form of
lethargy brought on by, I think, the relief that nothing went wrong!)

contributed slightly to air-meet re 2004 conference; attempting to be
careful not to say too much - each conference has to 'develop' not replicate
(and old program chairs should fade into the background:) )

end of semester/year here at Curtin so marking/admin/jobs/PhDs/new students
occupying time mostly

Revising/adding to Conference Guide is my next endeavour for the association

2.3 Secretary (Bunz)

2.3.1 I participated in the Miami meeting at NCA, and otherwise mostly added
my views to the discussion ensued by an informal bid for the 2005
conference, and the formal bid for the 2005 (or beyond) conference. I
also summarized some discussion points to move us closer to a decision
on issues emerging from these discussions.

October 25 - November 26, 2003

This month on the Executive Listserve:
- After singing "happy birthday" to Jeremy in various languages we got
right back to work.
- We also celebrated the fact that Sheizaf Rafaeli agreed to be the new
program chair. Then we really got back to work.
- Four members of the exec (Nancy, Radhika, Annette, Ulla) and the
immediate past president (Steve) organized a get-together at the
November meeting of the National Communication Association. Here we
discussed a) opportunities for seeking external funding, and b) a
member's offer to engage in (free) public relations for AoIR. The
discussion was summarized by Nancy and posted to air-exec afterwards,
where it continues.
- Final edits were made to various AoIR conference minutes.
- Air-meet was re-vitalized and announced on air-l to allow those who
were interested in providing input to conference organizing a forum.
- The exec began discussing issues related to the Call for Papers, but
discussion was then moved to the re-opened air-meet list. Discussions on
budget (Toronto and future) and website continued with feedback from
conference chair Kate O'Riordan and program chair Sheizaf Rafaeli.
Jeremy urged us to standardize a number of things (i.e., submission
guidelines, time slots, etc.).
- The CfP was finished by Kate with input from air-meet and posted to
air-l on November 18, 2003. It is available on the conference website
http://aoir.org/2004
- The exec discussed some issues concerning task distribution and job
definition for the program chair and the conference chair for future
(beyond 2004) conferences.
- The conference management committee (Kate, Sheizaf, Nancy, Ben,
Monica) was set up to facilitate communication between the exec and the
conference/program chairs.
- The exec voted in favor (7 for, 2 abstain, 2 missing) to agree to
placing the AoIR logo on the ASCUS website http://www.ascus.info/
- The exec had an in-depth discussion on an informal bid for the 2005
conference, and a formal bid from a different location also for the 2005
conference (or at a later time). Both the informal and the formal bid
are for US locations. As the informal bid suggested a format different
from previous conferences, the exec had animated discussion about AoIR's
identity, mission, and main goal that we try to reach with our
conferences. No decision has been made on the 2005 host, as discussions
are still ongoing. Potential hosts can still submit their bids to Nancy
Baym.

2.4 Treasurer (Bates)

2.4.1 Keeping up with memberships.  Awaiting final numbers from
Toronto.

2.5 Open Seats (Gajjala, Markham)

2.5.1 Gajjala: I have basically the same stuff as Ulla:) (see above)

2.5.2 Markham: I am still following up on 
conversations held at NCA with members about 
future special interest areas.  Based on one 
significant area of interest and possibilities 
for collaborative scholarship across disciplines, 
we are creating an AOIR mailing list for 
qualitative research. This list will be used to 
discuss methodological challenges in qualitative 
research of ICT (or CMC or Internet or whatever 
one wants to call it).  The list will also be 
used to find collaborators for projects.  More 
info forthcoming.

Attended the National Communication Association's 
annual convention and met with the AOIR executive 
committee to discuss upcoming issues and events. 
Met with several AOIR members and generally 
recruited as much as possible at the conference.


2.6 Appointed Seats (Murero, Kluver)

2.6.1 Murero: As representant of the Appointed 
Seat at air-exec, I have sent contributions and 
opinions about future AoIR conferences, analyzed 
proposals and shared concerns and opinions. Under 
proposal of Nancy Baym, our President, I have 
accepted to serve in the newly appointed 
"Conference  Management" committee, an air-exec 
sub-committee acting as a "liason" between 
air-exec and the conference and program chairs. 
I have contributed to this year's CFP.

Last week I was in Parma (Italy) for an international conference on the
"Quality for the cultural Web site" (cultural heritage). The conference was
sponsored by the European Commission and major international actors. I have
diffused info about AoIR and our next conference, raising *a lot* of
interest.


2.6.2 Kluver:  have been participating in ongoing 
AoIR executive council discussions, and have been 
publicising the work of AoIR among Asian 
institutions and researchers.

2.7 Student Seat (Tkach-Kawaski) Report coming soon...

2.7.1 This past month, in addition to giving opinions at times on
various AoIR executive matters, I have mainly been (a)
discussing AoIR with colleagues here and strategies for
promoting AoIR here in Japan (translations are necessary!);
and (b) considering potential activities for graduate students
in Sussex next year.

2.8 Publications Officers (Hunsinger, Breindahl)

2.8.1 Hunsinger: i helped a bit on conference 
materials, advised Kate, Sheizaf, etc.
i turned on the conference management list.
i tweaked some of the security and spam settings again.
i had a nice chat with charles and presented some 
of the work that i did with the ethics working 
group at itu.dk
i had some nice talks with charlie about 
copenhagen and a future conference there.
i helped a bunch of people who lost various 
passwords (please remember that i am not 
responding to requests everyday, but usually 
respond at least every monday)
various other things that i'm surely forgetting.

2.8.2 Breindahl: I updated the web with 
information about the new executive committee 
(not quite finished). Also moderated the lists as 
usual. Discussed with Jeremy and Kate how to 
organize work with conference web site.

2.9 Past-President (Jones): Continuing to work on 
closing out 2003 conference matters. Participated 
in the informal semi-executive committee meeting 
in Miami. Learning to not be in charge (and 
loving it).

2.10 2004 Conference Chair (Kate O'Riordan)

2.10.1 The AoIR-meet discussion list went through 
a busy period getting the call
for papers out for IR 5.0. (Many thanks to all concerned) The CFP is now
available on the conference web site and we would appreciate members'
help in circulating this as widely as possible.

Suggestions for keynote speakers and sponsorship will be next on the
agenda. In the meantime the conference web site is under development and
I am working in further detail on the budget.

2.11  AoIR Ethics Working Group (Charles Ess, Chair)

2.11.1  Elizabeth Buchanan has kindly permitted 
us to post her PowerPoint slides for her 
presentation to the AoIR Preconference Workshop, 
"IRBs and Internet
Research Ethics": please find the link on the ethics working committee
website - specifically http://www.cddc.vt.edu/aoir/ethics/papers.html

Soon Jeremy will also post an English translation of the Internet research
ethics guidelines developed and approved in September, 2003, by Norway's
National Research Ethics Committee for Social Sciences and Humanities
(NESH).  Ms. Line Gulløv Lundh, who studies with our colleague Klaus Bruhn
Jensen at Copenhagen University did much of the translation work, for which
I am very grateful.

We are exploring the possibility of collecting researchers' experiences with
IRBs and their equivalent beyond the borders of the U.S. by way of a
website.  If and when this possibility is realized, we will announce it on
the AoIR list.  In the meantime, if you have an experience with dialogue and
negotiation regarding ethical issues in online research that you can write
up for our discussion and use, please forward it to me (Charles Ess -
chess at itu.dk or cmess at drury.edu).

Finally, the ethics committee is reviewing candidates to replace two members
who have resigned this year. As soon as they are decided upon, we will
announce their names to the AoIR list.

2.12 AoIR Annual Editor (Mia Consalvo)

2.12.1: The page proofs have been sent from the 
publisher, and are being rechecked with authors 
on outstanding questions. Proofs should return to 
the publisher by the end of the month, and we 
will await camera copy before printing
begins.




More information about the Air-L mailing list