[Air-L] AoIR 2016 Conference Code of Conduct

[Unger, Johann]

Dear Sava,

I think your call for a code of conduct certainly merits consideration - but in my view it's not something that should be done hastily two weeks before the conference. I say this for two reasons:

First, as the blog you shared suggests, it is difficult to come up with a set of guidelines and form of words that meets everyone's needs. For instance the phrase in the example given: "use of sexual or discriminatory imagery, comments, or jokes" seems at first glance to be something we of course would not wish to encounter at a conference, certainly not as behaviours directed at other attendees. But for those of us working on digitally mediated politics, online misogyny, trolling, etc., these may form part of our data, and a clumsily worded code of conduct could leave us unable to present our research.

Second, I have never been to a friendlier and more welcoming conference than the last #AoIR I attended, in Salford. While I support your call for discussion about the adoption of such a code, I think it is rather unfair to imply the organisers are being negligent by not implementing one immediately. It is worth remembering that even if a code of conduct is in place, people can behave in undesirable ways. The values of a community are about more than written codes and rules (a topic that will no doubt be taken up by a number of colleagues, given this year's conference theme!).

Having said that, I do hope your message will make everyone in the community think carefully about how they communicate and interact with others, especially in this intercultural context.

Best wishes, Johnny.



On 20 Sep 2016, at 21:18, sava saheli singh <savasaheli at gmail.com<mailto:savasaheli at gmail.com>> wrote:

hello,

I am looking forward to attending AoIR 2016, but I was dismayed to hear
that there is no code of conduct in place for the conference. I reached out
to the conference organizers asking about this, and they said they were not
familiar with a code of conduct but suggested I bring it up for discussion
during the General Meeting at the conference.

I appreciate that I was invited to bring the idea to the Executive
Committee during AoIR16, but I think the right time to have a code of
conduct in place is *before* the conference so that there is something in
place to address anything untoward that might occur, and be clear to
attendees that they have recourse to help and safety should they need it.

I encourage members to consider establishing a code of conduct for our
conference before the conference. I had shared this resource with the
conference organizers, and I share it here as well:
http://incisive.nu/2014/codes-of-conduct/. it is a good starting point, and
includes links to other useful resources.

I am happy to contribute in anyway, and I hope those involved in the
conference and the community also take this on.

look forward to seeing many of you in Berlin,
sava


--
sava saheli singh
PhD Candidate | Adjunct Instructor | Program Assistant
Educational Communication and Technology Program
<http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/alt/ect>
NYU Steinhardt
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