[Air-l] January, 2003 AoIR Executive Committee Report

[Steve Jones]

January 19, 2003
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 The call for papers for the 2003 AoIR conference in Toronto was 
published a short while ago. If you haven't had a chance to read it, 
it will be re-posted several times over. Planning for the conference 
has been under way for some time now, and it promises to be a great 
one. I hope you can join us, and I hope you can have some of your 
colleagues who may not have yet attended an AoIR conference join us, 
too.


2.2 Vice President (Baym)

2.2.1 I've been working on the annual book project with Jeremy and 
others, thinking about future conferences post-Toronto, and 
participating in discussion, though not as much as usual because my 
colleagues on air-exec generally beat me to what I would have said 
these days.


2.3 Secretary (Bunz)

2.3.1 Participated in the CfP and "joint conference or not" discussions. Other
than that, pretty slow month compared to the one before.

December 16, 2002 - January 13, 2003
This month on the executive list:
.	The exec committee finalized its recommendations for the call
for papers, especially with regard to topics and keywords. The
recommendations were shared with the conference/program organizers. The
CfP was posted to air-l by President Steve Jones on January 6.
.	We were approached by the ACM Special Interest Group on
Computers and Society about possibly organizing a joint-conference. This
lead to animated discussion about the issue of joint conferences in
general, and possible collaboration with this specific group. Overall,
sentiment was positive about collaborating with this particular group,
though the proposed timing (June 2004) is not ideal. Other possibilities
(such as special topic or summer conferences in addition to the annual
AoIR conference) were discussed. The general topic of "affiliation" was
discussed too, and we agreed that we need clear guidelines that govern
when and why we "affiliate" or "collaborate" with any interested
organization.
.	Beta-testing of the conference submission website (thanks
Jeremy!)
.               The executive committee has been debating the report 
of the election
committee actively.


2.4 Treasurer (Bates)

2.4.1 Staying pretty current on memberships, accounts.


2.5 Open Seats (Silver, Wellman)

2.5.1 Silver: Nothing to report.

2.5.2 Wellman: Liaising between Exec Committee and the Toronto 
organizers of the 2003
conference (next October).


2.6 Appointed Seats (Allen, Shade)

2.6.1 Allen: In the past month I have concentrated on finalising 
aspects of the 2003
conference, as Program Chair, including assisting to finalise the call for
papers (thanks to Liss and Steve and all), assisting to prepare the
conference submission system (thanks to Jeremy for tech wizardry), and
arranging the reviewing team.

2.6.2 Shade: Worked with Logie to figure out our contributions to 
AOIR conf book.


2.7 Student Seat (Klastrup)

2.7.1 Nothing much to report - have had to be AFK most of 
December/early January.
The AIR-grad list is up and running and now have 50+ members!


2.8 Publications Officers (Hunsinger, Breindahl)

2.8.1 Hunsinger: the usual lot.  I've been rewriting the submission 
system so it works the way it was requested.  once that is finished, 
i plan on updating the listserve system, after that I probably have 
to start working on some sort of election system, as that is coming 
up soon too.

2.8.2 Breindahl: I have been overseeing postings and subscriptions on 
AIR-L and our other lists as usual. I have also done some minor 
editing and additions to our public web site and continue to update 
the book list. There has been no activity in the 'Net WG.


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): - Call for 
papers has gone out, and is up on Toronto 2003 web site 
<www.ecommons.net/aoir web> . French translation was arranged and 
sent out. AIR-meet has been the place to send notice of the lists 
where our cfp is circulating. More to go.
- Working committee member Alex Kuskis arranged the book display with 
Richard A. Koenigsberg, PhD and his Library of Social Science Book 
Exhibits group, after assuring us that Canadian authors would be 
represented and space and other issues addressed. Authors who wish to 
launch books or internet authors wishing to launch web sites should 
contact organizers with proposals. aoir at ecommons.net
- Tech committee has met with Hilton Hotel (which is being very 
supportive). David Mitchell, program co-chair, came to town and had 
successful meetings with Ryerson and Toronto tech committee (Jason 
Nolan) Ryerson University has come on board to help, which is very 
welcome.
- Fund raising is starting, slowly. No news yet on our grant request. 
Contact aoir at ecommons.net if you have sponsors you wish to propose, 
or if you wish to donate.
- Steve Jones will give an invited lecture to the Knowledge Media 
Design Institute on February 13 (4 - 5:30, 40 St George St. 
University of Toronto) and on February 14th we will hold a Valentine 
special event 12 - 2 PM for volunteers and prospective sponsors for 
AoiR 4.0 (McLuhan Video conference room 140 St George St).
- Volunteer, working and steering committees are all meeting in the 
next six weeks. contact bev at ecommons.net to get involved in Toronto.
- Pre conference workshop list is in process, and we will report soon 
on further developments. Katherine Parrish playing a key role.
- Thanks to my organizing committee, which is just terrific.

2.9.2 Mitchell: Over the past month or so I have been working with a 
sub committee which is planning for  the technical needs for the 
conference.  I visited Toronto last week and met with the Rogers 
Communication Centre at Ryerson University to ask for their help on 
the technical side and also perhaps with demonstration events. They 
were quite excited and later one of their members (Many Amrylou) 
accompanied me to the Hilton where we met Jason and Katherine from 
the Toronto team -- and together  planned for connectivity needs. 
This week we met via videoconferencing to continue our group's 
discussion of technical needs and ideas. I am also trying to find 
funds to support bilingual translation for the conference.  I will 
keep you posted on any progress here.


2.10  AoIR Ethics Working Group (Charles Ess, Chair)

2.10.1 There has been light discussion of very modest modifications 
of the ethics report (e.g., formatting, availability in HTML, wording 
regarding audience, requests for citation, etc.) - impeded, 
appropriately enough, by the solstitial holidays and a sense of 
well-deserved rest following the approval
of the report. More to come, however!


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

2.11.1 The Research Annual Working Group has actively begun narrowing down
appropriate themes for the first volume of the annual, which will include a
selection of the research presented at the first three AoIR conferences. We
are also determining a pool of potential contributors from conference
presentations that fit the themes and represent some of the best work to
come out of the conferences and the association.


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

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