[Air-l] AoIR in Latin-America

[Jeremy Hunsinger]

Just two points here.   I think you'll recall that we did attempt  
multi-linguality in Toronto, but in the end it did not work well.    
there are systemic barriers to multi-lingualism in the organizational  
context currently that are immense, the cost of translation for  
instance, live translation in toronto was as i recall priced at  
around $25k.   it is priced that high because the groups that are  
required by law to afford it can afford that kind of money.   I think  
we had looked at it in Maastricht too, also very highly priced.    
When the conference costs $70k, and people already complain about  
costs and prices, adding another $25k is not really an option.   That  
is just a practical concern.    After Toronto, the Association  
decided that the operating languages of the association is english.    
of course, any executive committee in the future could change that,  
but it really was just a pragmatic decision.   my argument has been,  
and will tend to be that AoIR has to serve the majority of its  
population, when that switches from an English commonality to a  
different commonality, then I think we should change our language.

The other thing to remember is that while in the world, those who  
write in english are a minority, in academia, in most disciplines in  
the world, the majority of publishing is in english (though this is  
changing pretty quickly and the major publishing houses want more of  
the Asian market).

so who is spinning off who, and what is derivative of what is a great  
question for the internet's and aoir's future, because while the  
hegemonic discourses are being transformed, academic cultures tend to  
move a bit slower...


On Mar 20, 2006, at 4:49 AM, geert lovink wrote:

> No worries! People who speak in English are a minority in this world.
> The content in English on the Net is shrinking (relatively speaking)
> and so are the users for whom English is their first language. I guess
> it is time for Internet researchers to wake up to this new reality.
> Please read the basic statistics. We're spinning off those who speak
> English. It's not the other way round... Those who write in English  
> are
> in the minority, big way. Let's not portray it otherwise.
>
> Geert

Jeremy Hunsinger
Center for Digital Discourse and Culture
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