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

[Nancy Baym]

July 23, 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
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

2.2 Vice President (Baym)

2.2.1 I have temporarily assumed presidential duties as Steve has 
taken a hiatus for personal reasons. Our thoughts and prayers are 
with him and his family at this time. In the meantime, if you were 
going to email Steve about AoIR, please email me instead.

Our elections are moving along. We have a terrific slate of 
candidates. I look forward to working with those you elect, and hope 
also to work with those who are not elected to follow through on the 
many wonderful ideas they have posed in the election forum. Thanks 
again to the elections working group, particularly Mia Consalvo and 
Jenny Stromer-Galley, for their recommendation that we institute the 
forum.

Conference planning is also proceeding well, and we look forward to 
seeing you in (officially SARS-free) Toronto this October. For those 
of you making hotel recommendations, I want to remind you that 
staying at the Hilton helps subsidize the meeting rooms, and it is 
important to the success of the conference that our attendees stay 
there. If it is too pricey, the roomate finder board is up and 
running (see Rhiannon Bury's recent email for appropriate links).

2.3 Secretary (Bunz)

2.3.1 Have participated as usual, and been working especially on the
t-shirt/merchandise project.

June 15 - July 16, 2003
This month on the executive list:
.       The exec has been working on AoIR merchandise that will be sold
through an online vendor, starting later this summer. Currently, a
t-shirt design contest is under way that will be judged by Charlie
Breindahl and Ulla Bunz.
.       The exec finalized the AoIR election forum
(<http://aoir.org/forum>http://aoir.org/forum) which has since been 
put to use in the current
elections, and the election email. The election period ends on July 28.
Only members are eligible to vote. Current members received the
election email, if you have not received the election email, please
verify that you are a member, then contact Jeremy Hunsinger at
jhuns at vt.edu. If you would like to vote, you can still become a member
by going to the AoIR website at 
<http://aoir.org/airjoin.html>http://aoir.org/airjoin.html. Votes will
be counted by AoIR member Jennifer Stromer-Galley.
.       The exec reconfirmed that the graduate student representative on
the exec committee has to be a grad student at the time of election, but
not necessarily for the entire term.
.       The exec has continued to advise the program chair Matt Allen on
conference matters and grad student prize matters, and has continued to
communicate with the conference team in Toronto about local issues
including databases, and student volunteers.


2.4 Treasurer (Bates)

2.4.1 Keeping up with everything. Been quite busy last couple of
days. Working on conference registrations, processing a batch of new
memberships and renewals as well.


2.5 Open Seats (Silver, Wellman)

2.5.1 Silver: No report.

2.5.2 Wellman: Brought news of AoIR to the Arctic Circle. Worked to 
secure volunteers for the Toronto conference. Gave advice as needed 
to Exec Committee.


2.6 Appointed Seats (Allen, Shade)

2.6.1 Allen: Conference duties as Program Chair

2.6.2 Shade: Nothing to report. (Waiting with bated breath to index 
the AOIR annual ;) )


2.7 Student Seat (Klastrup)

2.7.1 No report.


2.8 Publications Officers (Hunsinger, Breindahl)

2.8.1 Hunsinger: primarily i've been doing election stuff but i've 
been doing other things as necessary.


2.8.2 Breindahl: The web site has had another minor overhaul and with 
help from Jeremy I
finally nailed the problem with snippets of Dreamweaver mark-up at 
the bottom of the pages. Our mail lists and aoir.org mail accounts 
still receive massive amounts of spam. I hope I haven't accidentally 
deleted a legitimate query.


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

2.9.1 Dr Liss Jeffrey: No report.

2.9.2 Mitchell: No report.


2.10  AoIR Ethics Working Group (Charles Ess, Chair)

2.10.1 As chair I distributed my report on the June RESPECT 
conference in Budapest
to the ethics working committee for discussion. The RESPECT project 
seeks to build a set of ethical guidelines for "socio-economic" 
research within the European Research Area (as established and funded 
by the European Union - specifically, under the European Commission's 
information Society Technologies (IST) Programme).  In particular, 
the project seeks to establish codes for:

Professional Conduct in Socio-Economic Research
Data Protection
Conducting Ethical Socio-Economic Research
Professional (Behavior), and
Intellectual Property Rights

(See 
<<http://www.respectproject.org/main/index.php>http://www.respectproject.org/main/index.php> 
for a description of the
project, links to the guidelines in their current form, and other important
resources.)

The report includes description of important resources on the web affiliated
with both the RESPECT project and related E.U. projects: in addition, all of
the conference presentations are available on the conference web site
(<<http://www.respectproject.org/events/budprog.php>http://www.respectproject.org/events/budprog.php>).
Four are especially worth the notice of AoIR members:

* DG INFOSOC socio-economic activities, Tina Mede, DG INFOSOC
* Conducting European socio-economic research: which competencies are
needed? Ellen Schryvers and Tom Vandenbrande, HIVA
* International and Intercultural Competencies in Vocational Contexts: What
is it and how to teach and learn it? (Educational requirements for
interdisciplinary, cross-cultural socio-economic research.) Holger Reinisch,
University of Jena
*Ethics and Public Policy: the Science and Society Programme,
Maurizio Salvi, Directorate General Research, European Commission

The AoIR ethical guidelines need to be updated in light of this work, at
least with respect to the resources list.  It also seems clear to me that
this work reiterates the more deontological cast of research ethics in the
EU, as compared with the US, and so the discussion of this topic in the AoIR
document also needs updating in this light.

An important conceptual starting point for this project, as articulated by
the project director, Ursula Huws, is one that I will raise on the AoIR
list, in hopes to get AoIR-ists insight and wisdom on this point.

It may also be worth mentioning:
1.  The NESH guidelines (from Norway, which figured prominently in the
development of the AoIR ethiccs guidelines) are being revised - with
specific attention to Internet research.  I'm hoping to get an English copy
of these for our use this fall in the pre-conference workshop on Internet
research ethics (Wednesday, October 15) in Toronto.
2.  Specific legal requirements continue to emerge, insofar as they're not
already established in diverse E.U. countries under EU Data Privacy
Protection Direction 95.
I'm hoping to be able to offer more detailed information and resources on
this in the near future, thanks to several conference colleagues with
expertise on Internet law.

If any AoIR members are interested in seeing the longer report, please write
me - <cmess at drury.edu> - and I will happily forward it to you.



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

2.11.1 All contributors corrected and returned their copy-edited 
chapters, after
which I organized the files needed by the publisher, and sent them in for
the compositor to create page proofs. That process should take about 8
weeks, after which we'll get the page proofs back to double-check, and then
the volume goes to press. Additionally, initial planning has begun for the
second volume.

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

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