[Air-L] CfP AoIR 2016 Berlin: Internet Rules!

[Cornelius Puschmann]

***Apologies for cross-postings***

1st Call for Proposals
================================

AoIR 2016: INTERNET RULES!

Workshops: 5 October 2016
Main Conference: 6-8 October 2016

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany

AoIR 2016 is the 17th annual conference of the Association of Internet
Researchers, a transdisciplinary gathering of scholars interested in the
place of networked technologies in social processes.

AoIR 2016 will emphasize the relevance of the Internet in today’s culture
and politics. The conference theme addresses the significance of the codes
and rules that frame the Internet, as well as their playful circumvention,
from technical protocols and popular platforms to the emerging,
established, and contested conventions of online communities. Who are the
actors both in practices of rule-making and rule-breaking, what are their
motivations and resources, and how can their power relations and
communicative figurations be described? How does the Internet influence the
proliferation of the values that its platforms, services and
infrastructures embody, and what spaces of creative resistance persist? How
do various forms of technical, social, and cultural hacking subvert these
orders?

The committee calls for proposals for papers, panels, workshops,
roundtables, and other events that engage with the conference theme or the
field more generally. Topics could include (but are not limited to):

- coordination and rule-making online
- media, culture and identity
- (h)activism and social justice
- critical approaches to algorithms, platform studies
- codes and practices of internet culture
- connected devices and the internet of things
- big data and predictive analytics
- techno-social interfaces
- digital labor, crowdsourcing and co-creation
- internet governance and regulation
- (global) social media
- communication, participation and polarization online
- philosophy of information and knowledge

We particularly invite submissions that engage with or challenge the
conference theme in new and exciting ways, are innovative, or present a
novel approach to the topic. We encourage “experimental sessions” that
extend research in unusual directions (via method, topic or presentation
structure). We also welcome submissions on topics that address social,
cultural, political, legal, aesthetic, economic, and/or philosophical
aspects of the internet beyond the conference theme. The committee extends
a special invitation to students, researchers, and practitioners who have
previously not participated in an Internet Research event to submit
proposals.

*PROPOSALS*

We seek proposals for several different kinds of contributions to encompass
the breadth of relevant research. We welcome proposals for traditional
academic conference PAPERS, organized PANELS, ROUNDTABLES, FISHBOWLS,
EXPERIMENTAL SESSIONS, and PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS. We invite proposals
that will focus on discussion and interaction among conference delegates.
Finally, doctoral students are invited to participate in the DOCTORAL
COLLOQUIUM preceding the main conference.

*IMPORTANT DATES*

15 January 2016
Submission site opens for AoIR 2016 in Berlin

1 March 2016
Submissions due for PAPERS, PANELS, ROUNDTABLES and FISHBOWLS, EXPERIMENTAL
SESSIONS, and PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS

15 March 2016
Nominations for Nancy Baym Book award and Best Dissertation Award due

5 May 2016
Notification of acceptances for presenters

7 June 2016
Applications due for conference travel SCHOLARSHIPS and for DOCTORAL
COLLOQUIUM

1 August 2016
Early Bird Registration Deadline for all presenters

For further information and updates, please visit the conference website at
aoir.org/aoir2016.

*SUBMISSION TYPES*

Traditional papers: Paper submissions should articulate the issue or
research question to be discussed, the methodological or critical framework
used, and indicate the findings or conclusions to be presented and/or the
relevance to wider conference themes. Papers can present any kind of
research or analysis, but should be written so that the importance of the
work can be understood by reviewers working in different disciplines or
using different approaches. Cross- or trans-disciplinary work is especially
encouraged. Paper submissions should be approximately 1200 words long,
including references. Please note that paper submissions need not adhere to
a pre-formatted template, but should give an indication as to the
consistency, rigor and relevance of the work. Presentations at the IR
conference are generally intended to be dynamic, and provide a broad
overview of the scholarship being engaged, with the hope of generating
useful conversation.

Preconstituted panels: Panels should present a coherent group of papers on
a single theme. Panel proposals should include 1200-word abstracts as above
for each of the constituent papers, as well as a brief statement
articulating the papers’ relationship to each other. It is recommended that
panels include four papers, although submissions of three to five papers
will also be considered. The organizer is responsible for compiling the
proposal into a single document for submission.

Preconference workshops: Workshops may be either half or full-day events
that occur on the first day of the conference and focus on a particular
topic. They may be a workshop of some kind (e.g., a publishing workshop), a
methodological “bootcamp” (e.g., on ethnography or statistical analysis),
an exploration of a theoretical tradition or topical area (e.g., symbolic
interaction, political economy, or GIS) or anything else that may be of
interest to conference delegates. Proposals for workshops should explain
for a general scholarly audience the goals of the workshop, the way it will
operate, and an indication of potential audience or attendees who may be
interested in attending (such as “early career scholars” or “researchers
using statistical analysis”). Proposals for workshops should be
approximately 600-800 words in length, and should name the workshop
facilitators.

Roundtable Sessions: Roundtables encourage discussion and interaction among
delegates. They may involve brief introductory presentations by organizers.
Proposals should include details on the theme or topic of discussion and
its relevance, along with names of the organizers/initial participants.
Roundtables can include no more than 5 initial participants. Roundtable
submissions should be between 250-300 words long (to be included as the
“abstract” in the submissions process–no separate document need be
uploaded).

Open Fishbowls: Fishbowl sessions should cover broad topics of interest to
a wide segment of the AoIR community, and create a space for dialogue
across different types of research. Submitted proposals should include a
brief statement as to the core idea or theme for the fishbowl, emphasizing
its relation to conference themes or relevance to the IR community.
Fishbowls can include no more than 5 initial participants (named fish).

Experimental Sessions: Experimental sessions are those that, while of
interest to members or engaging with conference themes, meaningfully “push
the envelope” beyond more traditional forms of conference engagement and
participation and as such do not fit into any of the other proposal
formats. Examples may include Ignite or pecha-kucha presentations,
demonstrations, performances, installations, short-form workshops,
unsessions, maker or code-based projects, or interactive experiences.
Proposals for experimental sessions should describe for a general scholarly
audience the goal or idea of the session and how it will operate, and
discuss why the proposed format will be of interest to AoIR delegates.
Organizers of experimental sessions will be responsible for supplying any
necessary equipment beyond that usually provided for conference
presentations, and should be prepared to coordinate closely with the
conference committee as necessary to enable a successful presentation of
the alternative format. To encourage this kind of submission, we are again
offering the “Halavais Prize for Weirdness” this year for the most
interesting and successful submission in a non-traditional format.

Doctoral Colloquium: The Association of Internet Researchers believes that
its emerging researchers are the best in its disparate constituent fields.
In keeping with its commitment to students’ scholarship, we continue the
tradition of bringing emerging and established scholars together through
the AoIR 2016 Doctoral Colloquium. The colloquium offers PhD students
working in internet research or a related field a special, day-long forum,
to be convened on 5 October 2016. For many years, this pre-conference event
has provided students with the opportunity to a concentrated amount of time
with senior scholars to share research projects, address methodological and
theoretical challenges, and exchange informal advice on juggling the
multiple pressures associated with job searching, publishing, and finishing
the dissertation
Interested students should prepare a) a two-page summary of your research.
This should provide a context for the research, describe the methods being
used, the progress to date, and primary concerns and issues; and b) A brief
statement indicating why you want to participate in this doctoral
colloquium and what you hope to get out of it. These are due on or before
15 June 2016.

*CONFERENCE SCHOLARSHIPS*

In order to increase the diversity of participation in the AoIR
conferences, the Association of Internet Researchers makes available
conference fee waivers and partial travel stipends ($500) per year. The
number of fee waivers and travel stipends will depend first of all upon the
ability of the conference budget to sustain such waivers (a judgment to be
made by the AoIR Executive Committee upon the advice of the AoIR Treasurer
and the local organizing committee) as well as upon the quality of the
applications for fee waivers. Conference scholarships are made available
only to participants who have had papers accepted via the peer review
process, and applications are due on 1 June 2016, after acceptances have
been announced.

More information will be made available regarding the scholarship
application process at the conference website: aoir.org/aoir2016.

*CONTACT INFORMATION*

Please address any questions to the conference chair, Cornelius Puschmann,
Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, aoir2016 [at]
aoir [dot] org.

================================

-- 
Dr. Cornelius Puschmann
Postdoctoral Researcher (DFG)
Berlin School of Library and Information Science (BSLIS)
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Dorotheenstraße 26
10117 Berlin, Germany
www.ibi.hu-berlin.de

Research Associate
Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG)
Oberwallstraße 9
10117 Berlin, Germany
www.hiig.de

Faculty Associate
Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University
23 Everett Street, Second Floor
Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
cyber.law.harvard.edu

p: +49 7541 6009-1321
e: cornelius.puschmann at hiig.de
e: cpuschmann at cyber.law.harvard.edu
w: cbpuschmann.net