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

oxford directory
by jeremy hunsinger 24 Jun '01

24 Jun '01

UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD Director of the Oxford Internet Institute and Professorship of Internet Studies The University wishes to appoint as quickly as possible the founding Director of the newly created Oxford Internet Institute (see http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/po/oii/. The Director will also be the Professor of Internet Studies. The University is looking for an academic with international research standing and considerable leadership skills, including the ability to stimulate debate on the public policy aspects of the Internet. The appointment offers a unique opportunity to shape a new interdisciplinary venture, examining the impact of the Internet on society. A fellowship at Balliol College, where the Institute is located, is attached to the professorship. Applications (eleven copies, but only one from overseas candidates) naming three people who have agreed to act as referees on this occasion should be received not later than 16th July 2001 by the Registrar, University Offices, Wellington Square, Oxford OX1 2JD, from whom further particulars may be obtained. Further particulars may also be accessed on the Web (http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/fp/) The University is an Equal Opportunities Employer.

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New & Old Membership Benefits
by Nancy Baym 19 Jun '01

19 Jun '01

An announcement and a reminder about the benefits available to paid members of AoIR: Taylor & Francis is delighted to announce a special AoIR membership rate on their journal, Information, Communication and Society. For the 2001 volume, all regular and student members of AoIR are entitled to a 50% discount off the standard individual subscription rate. That is just $35/£22 a year. Further details about Information, Communication and Society can be found on http://www.tandf/journals/routledge/1369118X.html with additional information, including a featured article on http://www.infosoc.co.uk/ A notice regarding how to receive this discount will be mailed separately to members. AoIR members also receive discounted subscriptions to the journals New Media & Society (20% discount), Cyberpychology and Behavior (~30% discount), and e-Service Journal: A Journal of Electronic Services in the Public and Private Sectors (20% discount). These discounts generally exceed the cost of AoIR membership, so if you are interested in subscribing to even one of them, it is in your best financial interest to join AoIR. If you'd like to subscribe to more than one, you will be paying to NOT be a member of AoIR. If you registered for Internet Research 1.0 or have paid your dues, you are already a member and are eligible for these benefits now (these memberships expire in September, 2001). If you would like to join, please visit: http://www.aoir.org/airjoin.html If there are other journals you would like me to pursue discounts with, or other benefits you think AoIR should pursue for its members, please let me know. Thank you, Nancy

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Oxford Internet Institute
by Ken Friedman 18 Jun '01

18 Jun '01

Interesting note from NewScan OXFORD TARGETS THE INTERNET'S IMPACT ON SOCIETY Oxford University has announced plans to create the Oxford Internet Institute, a multidisciplinary center focused on the societal and ethical impact of the Internet. According to UK Secretary of State for Education David Blunkett, one of the center's top priorities will be research issues surrounding cryptography, intellectual property and security. Research programs will target the fundamental shifts in human behavior and interactions as a result of technology, comparative media law and policy, and creating new educational software. (InformationWeek 10 May 2001) http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB20010510S0012 If you don't get NewsScan, you should. It's free, and always informative. ********* We call our news section "Above The Fold" to honor the tradition of the great "broadsheet" newspapers in which editors must decide which news stories are of such importance that they should be placed "above the fold" on the front page. The NewsScan Credo: Be informative, have fun, and get to the point! See http://www.newsscan.com/, and send us mail: John Gehl <gehl(a)NewsScan.com> and Suzanne Douglas <douglas(a)NewsScan.com>, or call 770-704-7517. ********* Ken Friedman

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Re: Air-l digest, Vol 1 #39 - 2 msgs
by Mike Posey 18 Jun '01

18 Jun '01

I am out of the Office until June 26th and unavailable. Phyllis Duryee will be handling my Course Manager Duties for all Professional Foundations classes. She can be reached at: duryee(a)franklin.edu. Thank you and have a GREAT week!

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An interesting article in The New Yorker
by Leo Simonetta 18 Jun '01

18 Jun '01

The May 28, 2001 edition of The New Yorker has an interesting article on the online world Britannia from Ultima Online and some of the strange things that have happened when people went beyond the designed boundaries of the game. Some of the changes/challenges that the designers did not expect were; prostitution, serial killers, counterfeiting, conspicuous consumption, extinction and hoarding. The article is called "Pimps and Dragons" and is by Elizabeth Kolbert. Unfortunately I can't find the article on-line. (I tried sending this last week but it seems to have never made it.) -- Leo G. Simonetta Art & Science Group, LLC simonetta(a)artsci.com

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Re: Air-l digest, Vol 1 #38 - 2 msgs
by Mike Posey 17 Jun '01

17 Jun '01

I am out of the Office until June 26th and unavailable. Phyllis Duryee will be handling my Course Manager Duties for all Professional Foundations classes. She can be reached at: duryee(a)franklin.edu. Thank you and have a GREAT week!

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Re: Air-l digest, Vol 1 #36 - 2 msgs
by Mike Posey 16 Jun '01

16 Jun '01

I am out of the Office until June 26th and unavailable. Phyllis Duryee will be handling my Course Manager Duties for all Professional Foundations classes. She can be reached at: duryee(a)franklin.edu. Thank you and have a GREAT week!

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Re: Air-l digest, Vol 1 #37 - 2 msgs
by Mike Posey 16 Jun '01

16 Jun '01

I am out of the Office until June 26th and unavailable. Phyllis Duryee will be handling my Course Manager Duties for all Professional Foundations classes. She can be reached at: duryee(a)franklin.edu. Thank you and have a GREAT week!

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June 2001 report
by Steve Jones 15 Jun '01

15 Jun '01

June 15, 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: Matt Stoner Treasurer (on leave): Benjamin Bates Interim Treasurer: Wes Shrum Open Seats: Beth Kolko and Sean Cubitt Appointed Seats: Diane Witmer and Fay Sudweeks Student Seat: Matt Williams Publications Officers: Jeremy Hunsinger and Charlie Breindahl 2001 Conference Coordinator: John Logie 2001 Conference Program Chair: Leslie Shade Ethics Working Group Chair: Charles Ess 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. The executive committee is working on a revision to the AoIR bylaws to make them better reflect the shape the organization has taken. We will, of course, share the proposed revisions with the membership, ask for comment, etc. This is an important matter. We have been operating under essentially "draft" bylaws. I encourage your participation and discussion of the revisions when they are posted. 2. Along with that revision I have asked the executive committee to draft new descriptions of their roles, now that they've had some time to work in them, in advance of upcoming AoIR elections. 3. An important point follows, which is that since we are now a paid membership organization, and according to the bylaws, only members who have their dues paid up at the time of a vote are in fact eligible to vote. 4. There is planning afoot for the 2002 and 2003 conferences, and I hope to have an announcement soon about those. 5. For those of you keeping score... :-) As of a couple of weeks ago on air-l there are 773 people. There are 358 paid members including people from AoIR 1.0 whose membership was included in the registration for the conference. 279 of those expire on October 1. We have 79 members who paid apart from AoIR 1.0. 2.2 Vice President (Baym) 2.2.1 We (Ben Bates, Steve Jones, and I) met in DC [SJ note - at the International Communication Association meeting] where we discussed the upcoming elections, bylaws revisions, and a few other lesser topics. No decisions were made. The two are somewhat interdependent, since election procedures and elected positions are set forth in the bylaws. I have been trying to get and keep some of this discussion going. 2.3 Secretary (Stoner) 2.3.1 Nothing to report. 2.4 Treasurer (Shrum - interim, Bates) 2.4.1 Shrum: No report. 2.4.2 Bates: Will get back to work after research trip to NZ for the next month or so. 2.4.3 S. Jones addendum: As you may recall Ben was on a Fulbright to Finland the past year. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Wes Shrum for standing in, particularly during the conference in Kansas, and helping us out. 2.5 Open Seats (Kolko, Cubitt) 2.5.1 Kolko: No report. 2.5.2 Cubitt: Nothing to report. 2.6 Appointed Seats (Witmer, Sudweeks) 2.6.1 Witmer: Nothing to report. 2.6.2 Sudweeks: Nothing to report. 2.7 Student Seat (Williams) 2.7.1 No report. 2.8 Publications Officers (Hunsinger, Breindahl) 2.8.1 Hunsinger: Everything seems to be going smoothly on the server. I'm in preparation to upgrade several things in the members only section. I just received Manuel Castells' keynote back on two cdroms. I should be making that stream soon, but it is currently not compressed as much as it could be, so I have to do that also. I think other than that we're good. John is generating some bios for this year's keynotes, once we have those we'll put those up. I may be migrating the conference material and picture archives over to the aoir server sometime soon also. 2.8.2 Breindahl: No report. 2.9 2001 Conference (John Logie, Coordinator and Leslie Shade, Program Chair) 2.9.1 Logie: As of today, June 15th, there are 29 registrants for the conference. We expect a significant spike in registrations in the coming weeks, as scheduling within the conference is finalized. Roughly half of the registrants have "opted in" for the Friday night dinner. We will continue to monitor registrations and evaluate whether the dinner is beyond the means of a significant number of registrants. U of MN's Professional Education and Conference Planning department has produced a detailed timeline for their share of the conference responsibilities. Meanwhile, I have been working on five core issues: 1) Formalizing arrangements with D'Amico, caterer for the Thursday night reception; 2) Establishing a working relationship with local bookseller Ruminator Books to handle the book exhibit room. 3) Working with the local Apple representative to maintain the high standard of technical support found at IR 1.0 4) Revising the Conference webpages to answer still more frequently asked questions and to provide more information about our keynoters. 5) Locating additional space for the conference should the number of confirmed continue to outpace the totals for IR 1.0. I had hoped for #4 (the revised site) to be up and running by today, but it now seems clear the task will extend into the weekend. Look for the revised site Monday. 2.9.2 Shade: Paper and panel acceptances have been sent out in May and I am doing an e-mail follow-up, this next week, for those folks that haven't responded as to whether or not they're coming. Then the jig-saw of putting together the panels starts. Meanwhile, summer's here and I'm taking advantage of that. 2.10 AoIR Ethics Working Group (Charles Ess, Chair) 2.10.1 No report.

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A Study Finds That Web Users Are More Tolerant Than Non-Users
by Ken Friedman 15 Jun '01

15 Jun '01

* INTERNET USERS ARE MORE TOLERANT of diverse viewpoints than those who do not venture into cyberspace, according to data from an extensive survey of American public opinion. --> SEE http://chronicle.com/free/2001/06/2001061501t.htm Excerpt: --snip-- Friday, June 15, 2001 A Study Finds That Web Users Are More Tolerant Than Non-Users By JEFFREY R. YOUNG Internet users are more tolerant of diverse viewpoints than those who do not venture into cyberspace, according to data from an extensive survey of American public opinion. The information was collected as part of the 2000 General Social Survey. The survey, which is commonly used by social scientists, has been conducted every one or two years since 1974 by the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center. --snip--

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