[Air-l] Reification was Definitions

[Sam Tilden]

All,
   
  I don't dispute the contribution of scholars that don't identify with "Scientist".
   
  The problem that started this discussion was a definition of the word "Internet". Many contributions were both scientific and literary and most of all, thoughtful.
   
  I think that what both Ellis and I are attempting to communicate is that, any time a new metaphor enters the language there is the possibility of it being reified and turned into a trope. The term "cyberspace" is such a term and it started as fiction has become a trope in popular usage and is now used in scholarly writing without objectification.
   
  I have read many papers from our members and have seen this to be the case. I could be wrong, but I believe that as scholars it is our role to objectify the language of  Internet research and subvert this process.
   
  As Barry Wellman points out the leaders in our area of investigation are interested in what we are doing. I have had conversations with some of them and they have concerns about the work being less than "objective."
   
  On a more practical level, I have investigated deviant behavior in this group. I have reason to believe that lack of objectification has created a situation in which incomplete and imperfect understanding of the many of these tropes and definitions has created the manufacturing of trolls when none exist.
   
  In the end, if some understanding of this issue is not addressed it will be impossible for empirically grounded scholars to cite anything associated with AOIR. I know that I am crying the "sky is falling" but I have had this conversation offline with several people not the least of which are two of the people who have been labeled trolls.
   
  Both are serious scholars and have been mislabeled. They believe, that given the mission statement of the organization, there is a patent misrepresentation afoot.
   
  I will probably join them on the outside by have the temerity of stating this as I have.
   
  I apologize for my impertinence.
   
  Pax Electronica
   
  Sam

Nancy Baym <nbaym at ku.edu> wrote:
  >
>If "research" is something done by humanists and artists, as well as
>scientists and practitioners, is there anyone who isn't a researcher? Is
>this, in essense, the Association of Internet Anythingers?



 		
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