April 15, 2002 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 Treasurer: Benjamin Bates Open Seats: David Silver and Barry Wellman Appointed Seats: Matthew Allen and Leslie Shade Student Seat: Lisbeth Klastrup Publications Officers: Jeremy Hunsinger and Charlie Breindahl 2002 Conference Coordinator: Monica Murero 2002 Conference Program Chair: Klaus Bruhn Jensen 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 As you can tell from the below reports AoIR continues to make progress in fundamental areas. I am hopeful that we will soon have some opportunities for volunteers to join in, and that we will have some new initiatives to boot. At present we do have our hands rather full ensuring that the pieces are in place for continuity and quality when it comes to the annual conference, website and air-l. 2.2 Vice President (Baym) 2.2.1 I've participated in the ongoing discussions. I will be meeting with Steve Jones for some face to face discussion of the issues involved in running this association. 2.3 Secretary (Bunz) 2.3.1 David Silver, Matt Allen and I are continuing to make progress on the "list of lists" project. We have almost completed our research and are discussing website design/presentation/usability issues. Transforming the information into an online format is the last step before announcing the project to the list. Except for active participation in the air-exec listserve (summary see below) I have no Aoir related business to report. Summary March 12 - April 12, 2002 This month on the executive list: * Completed preparations and charges for two volunteer work groups (election, and Internet resources). The charges have been finalized and will be distributed soon via email to Aoir members only. [Note: please notify bjbates@utk.edu or bunz@scils.rutgers.edu of address and/or email address information changes] * Discussions on Netiquette, followed by the development of the Air-l posting policy. The policy was posted to Air-l on March 21, 2002 by President Steve Jones (see http://www.aoir.org/pipermail/air-l/2002-March/001661.html). Air-l now requires subscriber approval, but remains unmoderated. * Repeated discussion (once in mid March, once in early April) whether Aoir should provide feedback/rejection comments on conference submissions. Overall agreement that the final decision lies with the program chair, not the executive committee. * Evaluation of various offers for member discounts; discussion on need for guidelines/policy * Discussion on possible collaboration for the design aspect of the "list of lists" project; final decision pending * Currently debating possible sponsorship for the Maastricht conference 2.4 Treasurer (Bates) 2.4.1 I've caught up with the slight backlog, and sent out renewal notifications to members with expiring, or recently expired memberships. Will do that again before starting my round-the-world travels/travails (Ireland/Finland/NZ/LA). Will be traveling May, June, and some of July (IAMCR- Barcelona) - should be able to handle things while in NZ, but there's a couple of weeks at the front and back end while travelling that I'm not sure I'll have full net access. 2.5 Open Seats (Silver, Wellman) 2.5.1 Silver: Contributing to conference planning. 2.5.2 Wellman: Suggested that AOIR adopt a policy that names of rejected paper-submitters not be made publiclly available. Suggested that AOIR provide reasons for rejecting papers from its conferences. 2.6 Appointed Seats (Allen, Shade) 2.6.1 Allen: No report. 2.6.2 Shade: Finished panel configuration reviews for AOIR 3.0 2.7 Student Seat (Klastrup) 2.7.1 On leave. 2.8 Publications Officers (Hunsinger, Breindahl) 2.8.1 Hunsinger: primarily technical things: server upgrades and maintenance installed calendar program for testing other things: working on eprints proposal helped Klaus worked on some conference materials for 3.0 promoted aoir at rubi-con normal activities: answered the suggestions@aoir.org questions or forwarded them to those who could answer them checked the members area on the website, and approved a post, we could use more activity there. 2.8.2 Breindahl: I have mostly been involved in running the lists and facilitating a more active web-site. 2.9 2002 Conference (Monica Murero, Coordinator; Klaus Bruhn Jensen, Program Chair) 2.9.1 Murero: I have been working on the conference organization details, in constant contact with Steve. Specifically we have made progresses on different issues, like invited speakers and the online registration process. Furthermore, I have been working with Klaus on the pre-conference workshops, the preliminary program. I have also worked on the conference organization steps for the next months. 2.9.2 Jensen: The past month has seen the completion of the review process, the notification of submitters, and the drafting of the preliminary program. I am grateful to the many air'ers who contributed actively to the planning of the program so far. Confirmations from conference participants are due by June 1. In the meantime, adjustments of the program will proceed, just as an announcement of preconference workshops is being prepared. 2.10 AoIR Ethics Working Group (Charles Ess, Chair) 2.10.1 No report. ------------------------------------end of executive committee report------------------------------ The Association of Internet Researchers is a scholarly association dedicated to the advancement of the cross-disciplinary field of Internet studies. It is a resource and support network promoting critical and scholarly Internet research independent from traditional disciplines and existing across academic borders. The association is international in scope. The association's web site is at http://www.aoir.org. Membership information is available at http://aoir.org/airjoin.html