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

[Sun Sun LIM]

Thanks Alex for your question. Just to chime in, I agree that streaming the conference may not be that essential as my personal experience is also not to avail of such services, and I have encountered few colleagues (none, in fact) who has. Instead, picking up on Jenny's point about building a richer digital presence, we may want to think about developing an online archive of videos of selected lectures, TED style perhaps. I reckon that if effectively presented, those are likely to attract more viewers than streaming.

For the conference proper, the current format works, and is something academics/researchers are familiar with and can therefore make the most of. That said, I think we could also think of opening up pockets of time (say 90 mins) to try out alternative formats such as BarCamp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BarCamp  or PechaKucha http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/challenging-the-presentation-paradigm-in-6-minutes-40-seconds-pecha-kucha/22807 where we have briefer and more "packed" exchanges of quick ideas centring around specific themes. These presentations would not have "conference paper status" per se but are really meant to ignite further discussion. The sessions should ideally segue into a reception/coffee break so that the discussion can continue informally amongst conference attendees.


Sun Sun LIM, PhD
Associate Professor & Deputy Head (on sabbatical leave from Oct '12 to June '13)
Department of Communications & New Media
National University of Singapore
Website: http://profile.nus.edu.sg/fass/cnmlss/



-----Original Message-----
From: Jennifer Stromer-Galley [mailto:jstromer at syr.edu]
Sent: Saturday, May 25, 2013 12:51 AM
To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
Subject: Re: [Air-L] Voting Open & A Question for Candidates

We definitely have seen members organize informal social gatherings and panels at other associations' conferences, and we should continue to encourage that.

The issue of streaming the conference to those who cannot attend is so tricky. When I was pregnant and then had wee ones, I really cut back on my conference travel, so I did not attend AoIR. I would have loved to be present, but even if there had been some digital means for me to watch panels or attend virtually, I don't know if I would have. I do think we as an association about the Internet could and should put more energy over the next few years towards building a richer digital presence, and that might mean experimenting with avenues for digital participation with the conference. The how of that requires some thought.

~Jenny

-----Original Message-----
From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org<mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org> [mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Deller, Ruth A
Sent: Friday, May 24, 2013 10:14 AM
To: 'jeremy hunsinger'; air-l at listserv.aoir.org<mailto:air-l at listserv.aoir.org>
Subject: Re: [Air-L] Voting Open & A Question for Candidates

I think the idea of multiple events has some merit - in addition to your sponsorship suggestions, perhaps we can even out forward AOIR-affiliated panels at other large conferences?

Re: streaming - I've seen a lot of people asking for streaming on the Twitter feeds the past couple of IR conferences, although they may be a minority  - there are probably other ways of interactive participation for those not physically present that we can look at - Twitter's obviously one, but it often ends up being reportage and comment from the people there and maybe we could look at ways of having more dialogue/interaction with those not there.  And we should bring back Terri's kissing booth ;)  I do think that as an internet-research organisation, we could be using the internet a lot more than we are...

I think we both agree - and so do pretty much all the candidates from their statements - that widening participation is really key to the future of AOIR.  I'm sure we're all open to suggestions from members about how that can happen though, especially those who have felt distanced from things so far or have struggled to get to conferences.

Ruth

-----Original Message-----
From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org<mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org> [mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of jeremy hunsinger
Sent: 24 May 2013 15:08
To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org<mailto:air-l at listserv.aoir.org>
Subject: Re: [Air-L] Voting Open & A Question for Candidates

In my memory... there has been at least 3 proposals for streaming type talks at the conference and at least 1 committee established to try to make it happen.

I think that the answer is less of 'stream talks'  because if that was going to happen, it would have achieved critical mass to make it happen by now as we have the people with technical understanding and capacity in our membership to make it happen.  I suspect that people don't really want streaming, but what they do want, as I indicated in my nomination information is more opportunity to participate.  I think that is really about more opportunities to network and share research in face to face environments.  This is why i suggested that we should 'distribute the association activities', or in other words, we should sponsor or co-sponsor small events at other conferences in places away from the other conference.  For instance if the International Studies Association is in Budapest and we have members there, we could sponsor a small event there, or similar activities with any scholarly association.   The idea is to put AoIR members in closer contact with each other by using t
 heir other disciplinary and interdisciplinary associations as venues for AoIR.  In conjunction with those activities, I suggest we start activities that bond our association together better, such as Mentoring, restarting the Birds of Feather lunches, and making our 'web and email space' more actively available to member interaction, which it is now somewhat, but we only have 2 or 3 other email groups existing and I think that mostly those groups are non-functioning, such as the graduate student list, the political economy and policy list, etc.  Advertising those more and providing more of those, will I think allow us to grow both deeper and broader in our membership.     If the goal is to get people involved in novel and interesting ways, I think we should be providing the infrastructure for that involvement.

Jeremy Hunsinger
Communication Studies
Wilfrid Laurier University
Center for Digital Discourse and Culture Virginia Tech



Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
--Pablo Picasso





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