[Air-l] Post-conference thank you

[Steve Jones]

It was a pleasure seeing many familiar faces, 
many new ones, and many who have posted to air-l 
(and who will hopefully post to it in the future) 
at last week's AoIR conference in Toronto.

There are many people to thank for the success of 
the conference in Toronto. I could create a list 
that would be longer than air-l rules allow! In 
no order but that of largely memory, my sincerest 
thanks go to Program Chair Matthew Allen, 
Conference Chair Liss Jeffrey and her co-Chair 
David Mitchell, the myriad volunteers on-site 
(Susan Aaron , Kristen Berg, Chris Cocca, Bernie 
Hogan, Graig Kent, Alex Kuskis, Trishna Ninan, 
Dhirender Nirwani, Jason Nolan, Katherine 
Parrish, Monica Prijatelj, Inna Romanovska, Jason 
Shim, Phuoc Tran, Mark Tufford, and likely others 
whose names I don't know) before, during (and 
probably after) the conference, Barry Wellman for 
his great local assistance, and the myriad 
proposal reviewers (Samantha Adams, Ben Anderson, 
Mark Andrejevic, Kumiko Aoki, Michael 
Arnold-Mages, Senthilkumar Ayyasamy, Gitte Bang 
Stald, Mads B¯dker, Klaus Bruhn Jensen, Ulla 
Bunz, John Campbell, Scott Campbell, Alexander 
Campbell-Halavais, Martin S¯nderlev Christensen, 
Deborah Cohen, Mia Consalvo, Ann De Vaney, Simon 
Egenfeldt-Nielsen, Eric George, Gerard Goggin, 
Eszter Hargittai, Andy Herman, Bernie Hogan, 
Philip Howard, Jeremy Hunsinger, Venilde 
Jeronimo, Michelle Kazmer, Lori Kendall, Tracy 
Kennedy, Storm King, Lisbeth Klastrup, Rita 
Lauria, Jane Long, Uwe Matzat, Dan Menchik, 
Catherine Middleton, Adrian Mihalache, Melanie 
Mortensen, Gina Neff, Jason Nolan, Diana 
Odom-Gunn, Han Woo Park, Serge Proulx, Denise 
Rall, Gilad Ravid, Wendy Robinson, Christian 
Sandvig, Michael Schulte, Susannah Stern, 
Jonathan Sterne, Jennifer Stromer-Galley, TL 
Taylor, Rianne Ten Veen, Fred Turner, Cassandra 
Van Buren, Michele Willson, Mete Yildiz, and 
there may yet be others whom I've not listed), 
Jason Nolan and his crew for blogging and blog 
setup, Eric George for coordination of 
Francophone sessions, Graham Longford and Reem 
El-Tawashy for the printed program and to Ryerson 
University's School of Information Technology 
Management for assistance with its printing and 
with the printing of abstracts, Ira Nayman for 
bringing up Toronto as a site in the first place, 
some two years ago, seed sponsors Seneca College, 
the University of Toronto's Knowledge Media 
Design Institute (KMDI), Bell University Labs at 
the University of Toronto, byDesign eLab, 
eCommons/Agora, as well as Sage Publications, 
Apple Computer/Apple-Canada for technology 
support and demos, Heritage Canada, Industry 
Canada, and let's not forget the terrific people 
on the hotel staff who took very good care of us, 
particularly Jim Muratori and Gary Krantz.

I also wish to particularly thank Rhiannon Bury, 
University of Waterloo, Catherine Middleton, 
Ryerson University, and Olivia Robertson, OISE, 
University of Toronto, who worked tirelessly 
during the run-up to the conference to put all 
the pieces together and make it happen.

If I've left anyone out I do apologize...over 
time as our conferences have grown so too has 
(thank goodness!) the number of people involved 
and so too has my memory served me less well.

I will hope to see you all at next year's conference in Sussex, UK!

Steve Jones
Sj








































the longest air-l daily digest: The Infonomics 
Institute and its Director, Luc Soete, The Cal 
Company and the MECC (which I still think stands 
for "Monica's Excellent Conference Center"), the 
members of the program committee and our terrific 
program chair this year Klaus Bruhn Jensen, the 
members of the executive committee, our 
keynoters, Apple Computer, Sander Pomme, Herman 
Pijper, Sage Publications for sponsoring a 
refreshment break...and on and on.

Nevertheless, the primary "mover and shaker" 
behind it was Monica Murero and she deserves all 
of the thanks and credit in the world, certainly 
far more than I can convey. It was through her 
hard work and dedication that the stage was 
literally set for the several days we were able 
to meet, talk, think, share, eat, in some cases 
dance, and for many us rarely get some sleep. The 
conference was splendid, and I'm sure I speak on 
behalf of the attendees, as well as many who were 
unable to attend, in addition to myself, by 
saying that Monica has earned her place in AoIR 
history.

Given this, she and the others of you, whether in 
Maastricht or not, have assured AoIR a strong and 
vibrant future. Two years ago when we met for the 
first time at the University of Kansas it was not 
entirely certain that we would have another 
meeting. The good people at the University of 
Minnesota ensured that we would, and I was more 
than heartened by the turnout there, in the face 
of great unease about travel - some of which 
continues to this day, and if not unease about 
travel then unease about the prospect of war. I 
continue to be grateful that so many are willing 
to spend time away from family and other loved 
ones to be with colleagues and friends for some 
days. Spending time with one another is a gift I 
suspect we do not think about as much as we may 
have before we had the Internet and widespread 
use of email, but it is cherished.

It is my hope that many of you will again spend 
some time together, with me, in Toronto, October 
16 - 19, 2003. There is a productive and spirited 
discussion on air-meet already going on 
concerning planning for the conference, and I 
encourage you to join in if you would like 
(http://www.aoir.org/mailman/listinfo/air-meet). 
Liss Jeffrey, David Mitchell and Matthew Allen 
are already leading us toward another excellent 
gathering in a year's time. We will need 
reviewers for conference paper, panel, workshop, 
etc., proposals - I cannot stress enough how much 
we will need your help for that!

And I encourage you to consider hosting a future 
conference, so I will be re-posting our Call for 
Hosts in a moment. It is, of course, a lot of 
work to host a conference, but with each one we 
are better able to plan and anticipate the needs. 
Given our rapid growth we need to be planning 
still further ahead, and I will look forward to 
our 2004, 2005 and beyond meetings,too, with 
great anticipation.

It is on such a note of encouragement that I will 
end this report. AoIR has grown phenomenally, and 
to make it an association that you like, you need 
to be involved in it. If you like something about 
it, please work with us to make it more to your 
liking. If you don't like something about it, 
work to change it. Whatever you do, do not walk 
away from it - neither we, nor you, I venture, 
can possibly gain that way. We have a diverse 
group of members, and we could diversify still 
further, but diversification, like anything else, 
will not happen if we look for someone else to do 
it for us. Tell people you think might be 
interested in AoIR about us. Join in on air-meet 
or on a working group. Propose a working group to 
start a new initiative. Propose panels, papers. 
Post to air-l. This association sprang from the 
desire of a few people to do something and from 
the follow-up actions they took, and it can 
continue only if others act on their interests 
and desires. Get in touch with me or with other 
members of the executive committee at your 
pleasure and let us know your thoughts and 
interests, and your interest to volunteer.