[Air-L] Voting Open & A Question for Candidates

[Jennifer Stromer-Galley]

I know, Alex, you ask for a single, concrete suggestion, but I am going to toss out a few ideas. Some are likely better than others, sort of like a smorgasbord.

I think the conference already does well what a conference should: allow researchers to present their scholarship, stimulate conversation on that scholarship, and enable networking and connecting opportunities for attendees. So, efforts to improve the conference should work to further enhance that core function. To that end, I would recommend some additions:

1) Improving connections and networking: at one of the social receptions, organize some cross-group mingling, to make sure our new members and junior scholars are making connections. One way to do this might be to borrow from the comic book genre: asking people when they register to  provide their super hero name (mine would be Girlhero) and a slogan (you know, like "To Infinity and Beyond!"). This would go on the badge or maybe on a separate card that people could put in their badge holder at the social event. Catchy slogans and names would stimulate conversation, and get otherwise strangers to chat a bit. Or, alternatively, though a bit less fun (more scholarly I suppose), would be to ask people to list 3 key words (perhaps pre-defined choices) that would go on their badge. During the social event, their mission would be to find others with same or similar key words. It seems there should be some sort of prize there somewhere  to incent some hunting for others with similar keywords.  

2a) Promoting high quality scholarship: Given that the conference each year has a theme, I would encourage us to think about establishing a top scholarship award on that theme. This might be implemented as part of the abstract submission process, where people would indicate whether their abstract is on the theme. We would need to organize a volunteer committee to review submissions, perhaps headed by someone on the Exec. The one hitch here is that those who submit on the theme would need to provide a full paper within N number of days before the conference so that they could be reviewed in a timely manner and a decision rendered in time for the conference. But, I imagine those logistics can be worked out. And I imagine this in some ways as a variant of the publishing work that has been done in the past with submissions. 

Which leads me to:

2b) Also on promoting high quality scholarship: We need to continue to find ways to get the excellent scholarship published. So, working with existing, relevant journals to promote theme issues out of the conference, or edited books should be work we continue. Establishing a publication committee that could work toward this goal strikes me as wise, if there are volunteers. (Maybe this already exists?)

3) Association Visioning: As I suggested in my statement, I would like to see a panel at Bangkok that does a bit of navel gazing, if you will, and contemplates where we are as an organization and where Internet scholarship is likely to be in oh 10 years, and how will we as an association prepare for the inevitable shift in our object(s) of study? I could image bringing together some of the past members of the Executive Board to start some discussion and contextualize the original vision and purpose of the association, and then have an open conversation that I would hope would continue after the conference through the aoir list or perhaps a separate list. 

4) Promotion of the Conference: I would really like us to consider establishing a position, maybe someone on the Executive Board would serve in a vital role of heading organization and conference promotion and establishing a small committee of volunteers to help in that effort.

Although not an addition, the last thing I would like to see continue is a workshop that brings together doctoral students and senior scholars. I feel quite strongly that such a workshop can be highly beneficial to all involved, for all the reasons you might imagine: intellectual stimulation, networking, and the like.

Okay, that is quite enough out of me for now. Often smorgasbords go overboard, as I likely did here.

Regards,
~Jenny


Associate Professor | School of Information Studies
Syracuse University
220 Hinds Hall 
Syracuse, New York 13244
t 315.443.1823  f 315.443.5673  e jstromer at syr.edu  
syr.academia.edu/jenniferstromergalley
ischool.syr.edu




-----Original Message-----
From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Alexander Halavais
Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2013 7:26 PM
To: aoir list
Subject: [Air-L] Voting Open & A Question for Candidates

Dear AoIR Members (and members of the broader community),

Just a reminder that AoIR elections are now open, and will be until the end of the month. I want to encourage all members to vote. There are lots of ways to help contribute to and shape the future of an organization like ours, and electing an executive committee that represents your interests is one of these.

I have not yet voted and I'm hoping the candidates can answer a question for me. (And I hope others will ask questions as well, despite the looming
deadline!)

I've looked over your candidate statements (linked here:
http://aoir.org/2013-executive-committee-election-candidate-statements-voting-information/
)
and I recognize and agree with the need to increase connections among members outside of the conference setting--something that several of you noted. That said, I wonder what single, concrete change you would most like to see in the conferences themselves, and how you might suggest bringing that about. What would you like to see in, say, Bangkok for 2014 that we haven't seen in previous conferences? (If anything!) And what can you do to help make that happen?

Thank you all for running, and I look forward to your responses.

Best,

Alex



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