October 2001 - Air-L - lists.aoir.org

tenure track CSCW job
by Beth Adelson 18 Oct '01

18 Oct '01

I think the I/O job will be of interest to those of you working in any area of CSCW. The campus has a small college atmosphere but with access to the resources of the large Rutgers U. system. It is also centrally located with respect to colleagues in Philadelphia (10 minutes away), Princeton, Baltimore/DC and NYC. -- Beth Adelson THE DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY AT RUTGERS UNIVERSITY-CAMDEN CAMPUS invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. Applicants should have a Ph.D. or equivalent, an active research program and a committment to teaching. Applicants with any area of specialization are welcome. The University and the Department seek to attract an active, culturally diverse faculty of the highest caliber. Review of applications for each position will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. Send letter of application, CV, supporting materials, and three letters of recommendation to the I/O Search Committee, Department of Psychology, Rutgers University, Camden, NJ 08102-1405. Rutgers University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. Women and members of minority groups are strongly encouraged to apply.

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Re: [Air-l] Writings On listserv materiality
by Frank Schaap 18 Oct '01

18 Oct '01

Robert asked: > Does anyone know where I might find discussions regarding the materiality > of a listserv -- as a thing unto itself? I'm looking for journal articles > or academic books that deal with this idea. (It could also be a discussion > involving websites or e-mail in general.) You might want to have a look at Alan Sondheim's work (he co-started one of the longer running mailinglists that has turned into a true online community, Cybermind). His work is more artistic than scientific, but his groundings in theory are solid. Much of his work deals with materiality, especially in relation to online/electronic 'spaces,' the mailinglist being one of them. Here are some URLs: Internet text at http://www.anu.edu.au/english/internet_txt Partial at http://lists.village.virginia.edu/~spoons/internet_txt.html Trace Projects at http://trace.ntu.ac.uk/writers/sondheim/index.htm CDROM of collected work 1994-2000/1 available: write sondheim(a)panix.com Cheers, Frank. -- The Cyberculture, Identity and Gender Resources ==> http://fragment.nl/resources/

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Re: [Air-l] Fw: Finding email survey samples
by Frank Schaap 18 Oct '01

18 Oct '01

<snip> Danyel wrote: > But I wouldn't want to get spammed myself, and I don't think anyone else > does, either. So I'm looking for other good sources of subject pools. > Where do you find sets of internet users? Setting up and managing a pool of volunteers to test out a survey or a questionnaire might be something that the AoIR could organise, possibly around/through some section of the aoir.org website. Some 100-150 people in all should be sufficient I think and there'd have to be a limit to how often they're called upon... say maximum of twice per month? Frank. -- The Cyberculture, Identity and Gender Resources ==> http://fragment.nl/resources/

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Fw: Finding email survey samples
by Danyel Fisher 18 Oct '01

18 Oct '01

First, thanks to all for a great conference. I had a marvelous time meeting a lot of people, and look forward to future conferences. I'm currently working on a survey of email accounts. I've spent some time writing a series of questions that ask users how many accounts they maintain, and for what purposes. It's a brief survey, under ten minutes. But now (as always), I need to find a sample population. The first temptation is to spam some mailing list somewhere: after all, mailing list users are likely to maintain multiple accounts, and so the sample would be broad. But I wouldn't want to get spammed myself, and I don't think anyone else does, either. So I'm looking for other good sources of subject pools. Where do you find sets of internet users? Danyel

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minutes from the executive committee meeting 2001
by Bunz, Ulla K 17 Oct '01

17 Oct '01

Secretary report (Bunz) On a personal note, I'd like to share my colleagues' excitement and enthusiasm about the recent conference. I would forsake sleep any time for another four days like these. Actually, I'm looking forward to doing just that next year in Maastricht, only an hour's drive from where I grew up. I'm excited to be part of this association, and to be able to meet and exchange ideas with so many of you. Together, we can do great things! Please find below the minutes of the executive committee meeting, 2001. ulla ********************************************** Association of Internet Researchers 2nd Annual Executive Committee Meeting Minneapolis, October 12/13, 2001 Minutes October 12 An informal pre-meeting took place on October 12, 2001. Attending were: Steve Jones, Nancy Baym, Benjamin Bates, Ulla Bunz, David Silver, Jeremy Hunsinger, and Charlie Breindahl. The purpose of the meeting was 1) to welcome the new officers to their positions, 2) to appoint two publication officers, and 3) to nominate people for the two appointed open seats. Jeremy Hunsinger and Charlie Breindahl accepted their nominations for publication officers. Matthew Allen and Leslie Shade were nominated for the appointed open seats. They later accepted their appointments. October 13 Attending were: Steve Jones, Nancy Baym, Benjamin Bates, Ulla Bunz, Andrea Baker (for Barry Wellman), Leslie Shade, David Silver, Matthew Allen, Jeremy Hunsinger, and Charlie Breindahl. At 9 pm, Monica Murero (conference chair for 2002) and Ira Nayman (conference chair for 2003) joined the meeting. Lisbeth Klastrup was absent. Steve Jones called the meeting to order at 7 pm. After recalling the previous evenings events and welcoming Leslie and Matthew to the committee, Steve Jones introduced the first item on the agenda. 1. ASSOCIATION ACTION ITEMS 1.1 Journal and Book discounts There are no changes as to the journal and book discounts members of Aoir receive. The discounts are outlined on the association website. Members can now get a discount on a new book, "Cyber Education." Nancy Baym called for an effort to assess the existing benefits. The committee agreed to seek membership input and will call for volunteers at a later time. 1.2 Conference Proceedings Jeremy Hunsinger reported a distinct membership interest in making conference proceedings available online. Jeremy will provide a special email address via the association listserve so people can submit manuscripts. Submission will be voluntary, but encouraged. 1.3 Syllabus Archive It was suggested to use the resources on David Silver's RCCS website. Rather than creating a joint site, the committee agreed to link the RCCS site to a new Aoir site in a collaborative effort. Access to the RCCS site would still be free. Access to the Aoir site, which would contain PDF files of syllabi in an effort to preserve the history of developing syllabi, will require paid membership in Aoir. David Silver and Jeremy Hunsinger agreed to work on this. David and Jeremy will seek to complete this (then ongoing) project by October 2002. David also agreed to construct a test site with Fall 2001 syllabi that would also include search capabilities. A final decision about how to tackle the larger project will be made depending on the outcome of this test site. 1.4 Clearinghouse on Website for Non-Aoir Conferences In an effort to provide papers and not just announcements of other conferences, Nancy Baym will connect with Rob Kling and his students, who are involved in a project on scholarly communication and information technology. The intent is to investigate what Aoir might do and what the association needs to consider in helping facilitate scholarly communication, publishing, paper collecting, etc. Nancy also calls for a vision and timeline for the kinds of electronic resources Aoir would want to provide. 1.5 Prizes/Awards It was agreed to award the best graduate student paper with books and a certificate. Award winners will also be publicized on the website, including a list of past recipients. It was also suggested to institute voting for "my favorite article/book this year." David Silver will investigate how other organizations handle similar assessments. 1.6 Ethics Task Force Charles Ess has agreed to serve on the Ethics Task Force again. The goal is to develop an association Code of Ethics which would be presented in 2002 and voted on by the full membership. 1.7 Database/Bibliography Steve Jones suggested to create a database modeled after ERIC. The committee agreed that though including titles and abstracts from other conferences would be highly desirable, this is beyond Aoir's capabilities at this point. It remains a future goal. Jeremy Hunsinger agreed to share the existing review system, that will then be evaluated by the executive committee. No final decision was made on this issue. The fundamental question is what kinds of databases Aoir will get the most benefits from providing. The committee is in the process of continuous reflection on this issue. 1.8 Virtual Graduate Seminar Originally, the virtual graduate seminar's purpose was to create panels for Aoir conferences. The committee agreed that the online information is outdated and reflects poorly on the association. The information will be taken down for now. The committee encouraged Lisbeth Klastrup to consider and organize any future action upon this issue. Lisbeth is currently sharing her ideas with the committee. 2. NEW BUSINESS 2.1 Mailing Lists Much discussion arose from the suggestion to have a user inputted annotated list of other Internet Study mailing lists. The two main arguments were to a) have a community built overview list, or b) ask list owners to write descriptions of their list. It was finally agreed to not pursue formal action on this issue at this point. If members desire to share information about other listserves, they can do so on the association listserve. Matthew Allen suggested that depending on membership interest and contribution, a website could be created and linked into the Aoir website. 2.2 Moderated Chats/Forums In general, the committee supported the idea to have moderated chats or discussion forums online. After much reflection, the committee agreed to leave things as they are at this point. The general opinion was that discourse will develop on its own. [Note: Discussion on a related topic continued throughout the executive committee listserve. Charlie Breindahl suggested to provide sign-up sheets at the next conference to have open discussion forums among conference attendees with similar interests. Nancy Baym supported this idea, and options will be evaluated and decided on by the committee and Monica Murero.] 2.3 Media Relations It was suggested to create a "list of expertise" that could be shared with the media. "Expertise" would be defined as information volunteered by the people described. As this issue is sensitive, and media contacts are usually handled by a specifically designated public relations officer, the committee agree to not move on this suggestion for now, but instead contemplate the suggestion. 2.4 Research Database It was suggested to create an online library of research data sets, such as Pew data, or dissertation data. The goal would be to stimulate joint research; and the further use and interpretation of existing data. Lisbeth Klastrup is currently sharing her ideas with the committee, especially on involving graduate students. 2.5 Growing Aoir Aoir membership needs to grow in number. It was agreed to publicize Aoir's existence widely through conference announcements, and through providing flyers about Aoir at related conferences. 3. AOIR 3, 2002, IN MAASTRICHT The meeting continued with planning and discussion regarding the 2002 conference in Maastricht. Detailed information will be shared on the soon-to-be opened air-meet listserve. At the end of the meeting, president Steve Jones expressed his sincere gratitude to the current committee for its enthusiasm and active involvement during the executive committee meeting. With no further business, the meeting was adjourned. Respectfully submitted, Ulla Bunz, Oct 17, 2001 ******************************************** Ulla K. Bunz Ph.D. Candidate, Teaching Assistant University of Kansas 102 Bailey Lawrence, KS 66045 785-864-1160 ulla(a)ukans.edu ******************************************** Never Surrender ... ********************************************

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October 2001 report
by Steve Jones 17 Oct '01

17 Oct '01

October 17, 2001 Report of the a(o).i.r. executive committee Prepared by Steve Jones AoIR Executive Committee President: Steve Jones Vice-President: Nancy Baym Secretary: Ulla Bunz (Matt Stoner, outgoing) Treasurer: Benjamin Bates (Wes Shrum, outgoing Interim Treasurer) Open Seats: David Silver and Barry Wellman (Beth Kolko and Sean Cubitt, outgoing) Appointed Seats: Matthew Allen and Leslie Shade (Diane Witmer and Fay Sudweeks, outgoing) Student Seat: Lisbeth Klastrup (Matt Williams, outgoing) Publications Officers: Jeremy Hunsinger and Charlie Breindahl 2002 Conference Coordinator: Monica Murero Ethics Working Group Chair: Charles Ess 2001 Conference Coordinator: John Logie 2001 Conference Program Chair: Leslie Shade 1. Introduction & General (Jones) Below is the monthly report from AoIR executive committee members. 2. Executive Officers' Reports 2.1 President (Jones) 2.1.1 Well, we had a conference, didn't we?! The reason I put it that way is that I am still ever so slightly disbelieving that we pulled it off under the circumstances, and that we pulled it off two years in a row. But the truth is that from my perspective and from that of many conference-goers it went off without a hitch. Now, whether John Logie and Leslie Shade think it went that way I can't be sure! I saw them both running around constantly making sure that we would have a great conference, and to them I and the members of AoIR and conference attendees are enormously indebted, as we are to the myriad people who assisted (not least of which includes conference participants - thank you for turning out and attending!). 2.1.2 While on the topic of conferences, planning is now well under way for next year's conference in Maastricht, and has begun for the 2003 conference in Toronto. I encourage all of you to join in and present your research, review submissions, etc. Further information will be provided shortly in the form of calls for participation. 2.1.3 On a different topic, allow me to thank all those who voted in our elections, and all who stood for election. The energy and effort people are devoting to AoIR is steadily increasing, to my delight. I'm pleased to be able to serve another term as president, and while it will be my final term, I'm absolutely confident given the aforementioned energy and effort that the association will be in good hands for a long time to come. 2.1.4 I have invited each officer to provide a report, including the ones who are leaving the executive committee (with particular thanks to them for their work for AoIR). We are all looking forward to working together the next couple of years, and hope that we can create opportunities for you to join us and assist us. As ever, we are an open association, and if you have any questions, please feel free to direct them to any of us. 2.2 Vice President (Baym) 2.2.1 I want to take a quick line or four and say thank you to everyone who cared enough to vote. We had a real glut of excellent candidates for the board, and I am excited to have such a diverse and energetic group together for the next two years. I've been offering my assistance to the coordinators of the next two years' conferences and enjoying discussing the association and its aims with the new members of the executive committee and those conference attendees I got the chance to speak with. It has been a while since we discussed membership benefits on air-l, and our membership's needs may have grown or changed or been reprioritized as aoir has grown and evolved, so we need to assess the kinds of benefits we should add as we grow. I want to encourage anyone with ideas about what they wish this association could do to share them with me. At some point, this question will get somewhat more formalized with surveys and what not, but in the meantime, please help brainstorm: what are the very best things this association could do for you to improve your life as an internet researcher? 2.3 Secretary (Bunz) 2.3.1 A posting of the minutes from the executive committee meeting in Minneapolis is forthcoming. 2.4 Treasurer (Bates) 2.4.1 Thanks to Steve Jones for preparing the interim Treasurer's Report. When the mechanics get transferred over, I'll start regular reports on memberships and finances. 2.5 Open Seats (Silver, Wellman) 2.5.1 Silver: Bringing myself up to speed with respect to Board duties, conference planning, the ins-and-outs of the AoIR bylaws, etc. Brainstorming with Jeremy Hunsinger a collaboration between AoIR and the Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies to provide a dynamic and searchable syllabus archive. Proposing with Matt Allen an annotated list of mailing lists devoted to Internet Studies. Soaking in all I heard and learned at 2.0. 2.5.2 Wellman: No report. 2.6 Appointed Seats (Allen, Shade) 2.6.1 Allen: I am delighted and honoured to have been appointed to the AoIR executive committee. Coming from Australia, I can confirm that Internet research and studies is wonderfully global and I will be focusing, in 2002, on assisting the development of AoIR via membership and conference attendance from Australia. One exciting development downunder is the ::fibreculture:: list - a list designed to increase the debate around internet and similar issues in Australia, fusing both practitioners and researchers within a national context. Its first conference will be held in December at which I hope to spread the word about AoIR. To find out more about me and the program I run visit http://smi.curtin.edu.au/internet 2.6.2 Shade: Nothing to report. 2.6.3 Sudweeks: Nothing to report, but I would like to thank AoIR for the opportunity of serving on the committee and wish you every success. I'm happy to assist in any way I can in the future. 2.7 Student Seat (Klastrup) 2.7.1 I am new member of the commitee and look much forward to collaborating with the great people in the commitee. I work as a phd.student at the IT University at Copenhagen, Department of Digital Aesthetics and Communication (DIAC). Currently I am a visiting scholar at University of Bergen and in collaboration with ph.d. student Jill Walker of University of Bergen, organising a seminar "Cyber.*" to be held at the University of Bergen, October 24 &25th 2001. The seminar is an informal gathering of phd.students and researchers in the Nordic countries, working with various aspects of cyber.life and aesthetics. Games, gender, learning, IT-rhetorics are among topics presented. If any A.i.R members happen to be in Norway at this time, please feel free to stop by! http://cmc.uib.no/jill/seminar/index.html 2.8 Publications Officers (Hunsinger, Breindahl) 2.8.1 Hunsinger: Nothing to report. 2.8.2 Breindahl: The pre-conference workshop "Critical Choices in Web Research Design" went really well. The effort is going to continue in the members area and I will be taking part as a kind of topic editor. I really enjoyed IR 2.0. The diversity is amazing - from spoken words to online surveys. 2.9 2002 Conference (Monica Murero, Coordinator) 2.9.1 Murero: I'd like to start my contribution with simple but basic information, which is next year conference's dates: 13 October (Sunday) pre-conference workshop 14-16 October 2001: AoIR 3.0 conference 2.10 2001 Conference (John Logie, Coordinator) 2.10.1. We had a big honkin' conference that a lot of people seemed to enjoy. Almost everything seemed to work. The technology room buzzed. Presentations flowed. Food was tasty. The hotel was capacious and reasonably comfortable. Final tallies are still unavailable. My guesstimates are: 300 attendees. Close to 200 presentations At least 60 no-shows half of whom offered no notice, and some of whom had not paid their conference fees. I now begin the process of settling the conference accounts. The preliminary picture is good, but the bottom line has been damaged by the number of no-shows. The conference is likely still in the black, but not nearly as far as it ought to be. I will be drafting a "lessons learned" (positive and negative) for future organizers. But for the moment, I wish to reiterate my verbal and program-based thanks to those who helped make this year's conference happen. The comments I'm receiving suggest that our hard work resulted in a conference which merited the effort it took to travel halfway around the globe, or even from Eau Claire. Those who contributed should feel very proud. 2.11 AoIR Ethics Working Group (Charles Ess, Chair) 2.11.1 Eight members of the ethics working committee met for the first time face-to-face on Tuesday, October 9, prior to the aoir 2.0 conference. Our conversations proved what is now a truism: online discussions are indispensable - especially for a group of 21 people scattered across the globe - but we got more done in five minutes of conversation with one another sitting at the same table than we would have accomplished across several days of e-mail (a rough quote from committee member Amy Bruckman). These conversations allowed us to substantially improve on a draft version of the report originally circulated via e-mail. The report is now online at http://aoir.org/reports/ethics.html. We hope the report is clear both about what we've accomplished - and what remains to be done. In particular, the report emphasizes a number of caveats about our modest first efforts at recommending guiding values for Internet research. As well, the report foregrounds the many _differences_ between traditional Human Subjects research and research conducted online, and some of the ethical consequences of those differences, including specific examples of arguable exceptions in Internet research to the general guidelines for Human Subjects research. The report will be updated in light of additional study and discussion over the coming year. We will ask committee members to develop and oversee discussion of a specific case-study, beginning with Brenda Danet's suggestions for ethical guidelines based on her recent research and experiences (included in the report as an addendum). Aoir members are encouraged to send their responses (including criticisms and counterexamples) to our report to the chair, Charles Ess <cmess(a)drury.edu>. We welcome your thoughts and comments as we continue to struggle with the ethical difficulties posed by new technologies.

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Found floppy at IR 2.0
by Nalini Kotamraju 17 Oct '01

17 Oct '01

I found a Sony floppy disk that someone left at the Social Capital session on the last day of the conference in Minneapolis. It is labelled "AUSTR.AOIR 2.0". If it's yours and you'd like it back, please contact me. -- Nalini P. Kotamraju Department of Sociology, University of California at Berkeley nalinik(a)socrates.berkeley.edu | http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~nalinik

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Anthrax scare pushes requests for electronic letters to the edito r
by Jennifer Stromer-Galley 17 Oct '01

17 Oct '01

I subscribe to the Benton Foundation's Email list (www.benton.org/news) and I found this little tidbit synopsized by them from CNET news. Only months (weeks?) ago we were worried about viruses being passed through email, now we are worried about bacteria passed through postal mail. I would not have predicted a year ago that people would be urging electronic mail over postal mail. ~Jenny Stromer-Galley Annenberg School for Communication University of Pennsylvania jstromer(a)asc.upenn.edu E-MAIL A SAVIOR AMID ANTHRAX SCARE Issue: Internet A number of corporate entities, as well as Congress, have begun urging people to communicate through e-mail instead of sending traditional letters through the U.S. Postal Service. This week, the Arizona Daily Star announced that the newspaper would no longer accept regular postal mail addressed to "Letters to the Editor." Instead, editor and publisher Jane Amari told readers the paper is asking people to send all correspondence by e-mail, fax or through an online calendar. The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) sent an e-mail to its members urging them to send e-mail in conjunction with mass mailing campaigns. "This is not something that we just thought up Tuesday," said Lou Mastria, director of public and international affairs for the New York-based DMA, the oldest and largest trade association for users and suppliers in the direct, database and interactive marketing fields. "This is a practice that's been developing for some time...It increases response rates normally, but it's particularly effective in this kind of environment, when people are concerned about their mail." More than half of all Americans use e-mail, for an average of a half-hour each day, according to a recent report by Forrester Research. Jupiter Media Metrix predicts that by 2006 140 million Americans will be "active" e-mail users. [SOURCE: CNET News, AUTHOR: Rachel Konrad and Paul Festa] (http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-7546301.html)

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FW: Tucson conference-Call for Papers
by C Frank 17 Oct '01

17 Oct '01

-----Original Message----- From: Andrea Hoplight Tapia [mailto:andreat@u.arizona.edu] Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2001 3:58 PM To: Cfrank(a)biocom.arizona.edu Subject: Tucson conference-Call for Papers A brand new conference is coming into being and I'd like to invite you to be part of it. The conference is entitled "The Technology Economy on the Sonoran Border: Theory, Practice and Promise." We hope to focus on information technology and social change, especially between diverse populations, nations, and institutions. It is a one day (plus) conference to be held Friday, May 3rd, 2002 at the Sheraton El Conquistador in Tucson, AZ. There will also be a reception on Thursday evening, May 2nd. We are looking for papers/presentations in four areas: 1. The digital divide-- with special focus Latin American and Hispanic-American populations. 2. Technology at the border- International borderlands and IT 3. E-commerce- the changing nature of technical/information work 4. Law, privacy and policy in institutions- Higher Education and Government This conference draws from both sides of the border and from the academic and practical worlds.This conference will be a tremendous opportunity for dialogue, debate, and visioning with collaboration between academic, government, and industry constituents concerned about information technology. The deadline for paper submissions is November 1st, 2001. Please send them electronically to my address, andreat(a)u.arizona.edu. Email me earlier with ideas and questions. Very limited funding is available to help defer travel costs on a competitive basis. Andrea Hoplight Tapia, Ph.D. University of Arizona, Science and Technology Studies Post-Doc., NSF grant "Universities in the Information Age" Office phone: 520-626-8221 Email: andreat(a)u.arizona.edu

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FW: PSA Call for papers
by C Frank 17 Oct '01

17 Oct '01

-----Original Message----- From: Andrea Hoplight Tapia [mailto:andreat@u.arizona.edu] Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2001 3:57 PM To: Cfrank(a)biocom.arizona.edu Subject: PSA Call for papers >> I just wanted to let you know that I will be running 3 >> sessions at the >> Pacific Sociological Associan Meetings to be held next April 18-21, >> 2002 in Vancouver, BC. I am looking for good papers/presenters in all >> three. To learn more about the conference go to >> http://www.csus.edu/psa/vancouver02.html. >> >> The deadline for submissions is October 15th. HOWEVER i WILL ACCEPT PAPERS UP UNITL MONDAY OCTOBER 22ND. You do not need to >> be a sociologist to apply. >> >> Three sessions: >> >> 55) Technological and Cultural Change in Institutions of Higher >> Education >> >> 146) Life Cycle Changes in High Tech Industry >> >> 180) The Wireless Society >> >> Email me with any ideas if you are interested. I hear Vancouver is >> beautiful in the spring! >> >> Andrea Hoplight Tapia, Ph.D. University of Arizona, Science and Technology Studies Post-Doc., NSF grant "Universities in the Information Age" Office phone: 520-626-8221 Email: andreat(a)u.arizona.edu

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