[Air-L] Let's talk about AoIR.

Alexander Halavais halavais at gmail.com
Thu May 30 10:19:05 PDT 2013


It would be helpful, at least to me, if folks could be more explicit
about *what* they objected to in the template. There were no content
restrictions. Yes, there were spaces for citations, subtitles, and for
a title, but if these were omitted, they were omitted.

I am well aware of the power of defaults, but I'm missing what it was
about this particular template that makes it difficult. (Yes, I've
heard from folks that the word-count was restrictive, but that isn't
directly a template issue.)

Best,

Alex


On Thu, May 30, 2013 at 9:35 AM, Feona Attwood <f.attwood at mdx.ac.uk> wrote:
> Thanks for bringing this up Terri. I know lots of people have had similar feelings and feel awkward about how to express it.
>
> My feeling is that  the new format for submitting proposals seems to signal a real shift in style. I haven't come across anything like that before, not even for really dull conferences and I didn't put a proposal in this year because I couldn't work out a way to fit what I do into that kind of format.  It seems designed to filter out anything imaginative, innovative, speculative or original. The papers I reviewed in that format were really difficult to read; the format had squashed all the life out of them. I had felt very enthused after last year's conference which seemed very lively and friendly - and then really deflated by the submission process this year. I'm hoping it was an experiment that won't be continued.  I'm still planning to attend this year but I can't imagine submitting anything again if this is the new direction AoIR is taking.
> Feona
>
>
>
> On 30 May 2013, at 15:27, Terri Senft wrote:
>
>> Hi Pals,
>>
>> With the encouragement of Andrew and Alex, I wanted to approach the list
>> regarding some questions I have about culture of the Association of
>> Internet Researchers today.
>>
>> I'm asking because after this round of conference proposal reviews, I feel
>> personally and professionally a bit disconnected from this group these
>> days. This freaks me out a bit, because I've always thought of AoIR as my
>> intellectual home. I am wondering if this is just me (which would be
>> fine!), or if others are in struggle as well.
>>
>> Some Big Questions I Have:
>>
>> 1. Who are we, personally and professionally? What makes us the same as
>> organizations like ICA or ACM? What makes us different from these
>> organizations?
>>
>> 2. How do we perform our identity at our annual conference? How is it
>> reflected in the way we phrase our calls for submissions? How is it
>> reflected in submission procedures?
>>
>> 3. How do we want to define "rigorous scholarship" in our organization? How
>> do we want to deal with scholarship that strikes us as urgent, necessary or
>> fresh, but not sufficiently rigorous?
>>
>> 4. Is there even an "us" anymore? Can positivists, activists, and artists
>> really sit in the same room and discuss 'internet studies'? My answer used
>> to be affirmative, but that was before internet studies was as ubiquitous
>> as literature studies.
>>
>> 5. Should the desire for a conference that showcases professionalization
>> trump a desire for a conference that encourages its youngest scholars and
>> its most senior ones to take risks, make mistakes and push the boundaries
>> of the field?
>>
>> Okay, that's plenty to start. As they say in AA, take what you want and
>> leave the rest.
>>
>>
>> Fondly,
>> T
>>
>> --
>> <http://goog_689013053>
>>
>> <http://goog_689013053>
>>
>> Dr. Theresa M. Senft
>> Global Liberal Studies Program
>> School of Arts & Sciences
>> New York University
>> 726 Broadway  NY NY 10003
>>
>> home: *www.terrisenft.net <http://goog_689013053>**
>> *(needs a serious updating)
>> facebook: www.facebook.com/theresa.senft
>> twitter: @terrisenft
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
>> http://www.aoir.org/
>
>
>
>
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