[Air-l] community and technology conference

[Barry Wellman]

I'm just back from the Communities & Technologies conference (in beautiful
East Lansing MI), and I want to congratulate Chip Steinfield and his posse
for running what I think is the best Internet-Society conference I've ever
attended.

Almost all of the papers were good. Well-prepared, and had systematic
evidence, qual, quant, or (even better, often) both.

Mediating on why it was good:
1. Somewhat of a focused theme, altho "community" has at least 57 meanings
(and many of them were used).
2. Papers prepared ahead of time.
3. Pretty tight refereeing.

My only complaint: Michigan State Uni's catering couldn't get the concept
of providing alternatives to ultra hi carb breakfasts.

And others may rightly point out the inadequacies of American airline
service, 24-36 hours after a storm. (The Toronto/London Ont folks drove,
and just had a chance to compare/contrast US immigration -- [hyper macho]
and Cdn immigration [sweet].

I'm looking forward to the next one, 6/09, in beautiful Penn State Uni

Happy Canada Day!
 Barry Wellman
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  S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC              NetLab Director
  Centre for Urban & Community Studies           University of Toronto
  455 Spadina Avenue    Toronto Canada M5S 2G8     fax:+1-416-978-7162
  wellman at chass.utoronto.ca   http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman
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