November 28, 2002 Report of the a.o.i.r. executive committee Prepared by Nancy Baym AoIR Executive Committee President: Nancy Baym Vice-President: Matthew Allen Secretary: Ulla Bunz Treasurer: Benjamin Bates Open Seats: Radhika Gajjala and Annette Markham Appointed Seats: Monica Murero and Randolph Kluver Student Seat: Leslie Tkach-Kawasaki Publications Officers: Jeremy Hunsinger and Charlie Breindahl Past President (ex-officio): Steve Jones 2004 Conference Chair: Kate O'Riordan Ethics Working Group Chair: Charles Ess AoIR Annual Chair: Mia Consalvo 1. Introduction & General (Baym) This is the place to find out what's going on in the association. It's long, it's not always thrilling, but it's always the best way for you to keep up so please read it! Our 24/7 discussions of the month on the executive committee mailing list are summarized in Ulla Bunz's section of the report, 2004 Conference Host Kate O'Riordan provides a Sussex overview in the conference chair report below, Charles Ess keeps us posted on ethics, and Mia Consalvo keeps us up to date on the forthcoming Annual. All this and more! Read on... 2. Executive Officers' Reports 2.1 President (Baym) 2.1.1 We've had a productive month launching Sussex 2005's CFP which I hope you have all received. As Kate notes below, your help reaching out to those you think should be included by distributing the CFP is greatly appreciated. We often hear that AoIR doesn't have enough {fill in the blank with discipline, focus, nation, flavor of your choice} -- sending a copy of the CFP with a personal request that they consider coming is the best way we have to get them there! We had a mini-meeting at the National Communication Association in Miami which five members of exec attended (me, Ulla, Steve, Radhika, and Annette) where we discussed public relations possibilities as well as whether and how to be proactive about seeking funding, from whom, and for what. There are several potential initiatives that we could do if someone were willing to take the initiative and seek funding for them (research related, foundation, corporate -- whatever, so long as it funds what aoir wants accomplished without selling us out). If you have ideas about potentially fundable projects or funders, please let me know. 2.2 Vice President (Allen) 2.2.1 still recovering from Toronto :) (no, seriously, suffered a mild form of lethargy brought on by, I think, the relief that nothing went wrong!) contributed slightly to air-meet re 2004 conference; attempting to be careful not to say too much - each conference has to 'develop' not replicate (and old program chairs should fade into the background:) ) end of semester/year here at Curtin so marking/admin/jobs/PhDs/new students occupying time mostly Revising/adding to Conference Guide is my next endeavour for the association 2.3 Secretary (Bunz) 2.3.1 I participated in the Miami meeting at NCA, and otherwise mostly added my views to the discussion ensued by an informal bid for the 2005 conference, and the formal bid for the 2005 (or beyond) conference. I also summarized some discussion points to move us closer to a decision on issues emerging from these discussions. October 25 - November 26, 2003 This month on the Executive Listserve: - After singing "happy birthday" to Jeremy in various languages we got right back to work. - We also celebrated the fact that Sheizaf Rafaeli agreed to be the new program chair. Then we really got back to work. - Four members of the exec (Nancy, Radhika, Annette, Ulla) and the immediate past president (Steve) organized a get-together at the November meeting of the National Communication Association. Here we discussed a) opportunities for seeking external funding, and b) a member's offer to engage in (free) public relations for AoIR. The discussion was summarized by Nancy and posted to air-exec afterwards, where it continues. - Final edits were made to various AoIR conference minutes. - Air-meet was re-vitalized and announced on air-l to allow those who were interested in providing input to conference organizing a forum. - The exec began discussing issues related to the Call for Papers, but discussion was then moved to the re-opened air-meet list. Discussions on budget (Toronto and future) and website continued with feedback from conference chair Kate O'Riordan and program chair Sheizaf Rafaeli. Jeremy urged us to standardize a number of things (i.e., submission guidelines, time slots, etc.). - The CfP was finished by Kate with input from air-meet and posted to air-l on November 18, 2003. It is available on the conference website http://aoir.org/2004 - The exec discussed some issues concerning task distribution and job definition for the program chair and the conference chair for future (beyond 2004) conferences. - The conference management committee (Kate, Sheizaf, Nancy, Ben, Monica) was set up to facilitate communication between the exec and the conference/program chairs. - The exec voted in favor (7 for, 2 abstain, 2 missing) to agree to placing the AoIR logo on the ASCUS website http://www.ascus.info/ - The exec had an in-depth discussion on an informal bid for the 2005 conference, and a formal bid from a different location also for the 2005 conference (or at a later time). Both the informal and the formal bid are for US locations. As the informal bid suggested a format different from previous conferences, the exec had animated discussion about AoIR's identity, mission, and main goal that we try to reach with our conferences. No decision has been made on the 2005 host, as discussions are still ongoing. Potential hosts can still submit their bids to Nancy Baym. 2.4 Treasurer (Bates) 2.4.1 Keeping up with memberships. Awaiting final numbers from Toronto. 2.5 Open Seats (Gajjala, Markham) 2.5.1 Gajjala: I have basically the same stuff as Ulla:) (see above) 2.5.2 Markham: I am still following up on conversations held at NCA with members about future special interest areas. Based on one significant area of interest and possibilities for collaborative scholarship across disciplines, we are creating an AOIR mailing list for qualitative research. This list will be used to discuss methodological challenges in qualitative research of ICT (or CMC or Internet or whatever one wants to call it). The list will also be used to find collaborators for projects. More info forthcoming. Attended the National Communication Association's annual convention and met with the AOIR executive committee to discuss upcoming issues and events. Met with several AOIR members and generally recruited as much as possible at the conference. 2.6 Appointed Seats (Murero, Kluver) 2.6.1 Murero: As representant of the Appointed Seat at air-exec, I have sent contributions and opinions about future AoIR conferences, analyzed proposals and shared concerns and opinions. Under proposal of Nancy Baym, our President, I have accepted to serve in the newly appointed "Conference Management" committee, an air-exec sub-committee acting as a "liason" between air-exec and the conference and program chairs. I have contributed to this year's CFP. Last week I was in Parma (Italy) for an international conference on the "Quality for the cultural Web site" (cultural heritage). The conference was sponsored by the European Commission and major international actors. I have diffused info about AoIR and our next conference, raising *a lot* of interest. 2.6.2 Kluver: have been participating in ongoing AoIR executive council discussions, and have been publicising the work of AoIR among Asian institutions and researchers. 2.7 Student Seat (Tkach-Kawaski) Report coming soon... 2.7.1 This past month, in addition to giving opinions at times on various AoIR executive matters, I have mainly been (a) discussing AoIR with colleagues here and strategies for promoting AoIR here in Japan (translations are necessary!); and (b) considering potential activities for graduate students in Sussex next year. 2.8 Publications Officers (Hunsinger, Breindahl) 2.8.1 Hunsinger: i helped a bit on conference materials, advised Kate, Sheizaf, etc. i turned on the conference management list. i tweaked some of the security and spam settings again. i had a nice chat with charles and presented some of the work that i did with the ethics working group at itu.dk i had some nice talks with charlie about copenhagen and a future conference there. i helped a bunch of people who lost various passwords (please remember that i am not responding to requests everyday, but usually respond at least every monday) various other things that i'm surely forgetting. 2.8.2 Breindahl: I updated the web with information about the new executive committee (not quite finished). Also moderated the lists as usual. Discussed with Jeremy and Kate how to organize work with conference web site. 2.9 Past-President (Jones): Continuing to work on closing out 2003 conference matters. Participated in the informal semi-executive committee meeting in Miami. Learning to not be in charge (and loving it). 2.10 2004 Conference Chair (Kate O'Riordan) 2.10.1 The AoIR-meet discussion list went through a busy period getting the call for papers out for IR 5.0. (Many thanks to all concerned) The CFP is now available on the conference web site and we would appreciate members' help in circulating this as widely as possible. Suggestions for keynote speakers and sponsorship will be next on the agenda. In the meantime the conference web site is under development and I am working in further detail on the budget. 2.11 AoIR Ethics Working Group (Charles Ess, Chair) 2.11.1 Elizabeth Buchanan has kindly permitted us to post her PowerPoint slides for her presentation to the AoIR Preconference Workshop, "IRBs and Internet Research Ethics": please find the link on the ethics working committee website - specifically http://www.cddc.vt.edu/aoir/ethics/papers.html Soon Jeremy will also post an English translation of the Internet research ethics guidelines developed and approved in September, 2003, by Norway's National Research Ethics Committee for Social Sciences and Humanities (NESH). Ms. Line Gulløv Lundh, who studies with our colleague Klaus Bruhn Jensen at Copenhagen University did much of the translation work, for which I am very grateful. We are exploring the possibility of collecting researchers' experiences with IRBs and their equivalent beyond the borders of the U.S. by way of a website. If and when this possibility is realized, we will announce it on the AoIR list. In the meantime, if you have an experience with dialogue and negotiation regarding ethical issues in online research that you can write up for our discussion and use, please forward it to me (Charles Ess - chess@itu.dk or cmess@drury.edu). Finally, the ethics committee is reviewing candidates to replace two members who have resigned this year. As soon as they are decided upon, we will announce their names to the AoIR list. 2.12 AoIR Annual Editor (Mia Consalvo) 2.12.1: The page proofs have been sent from the publisher, and are being rechecked with authors on outstanding questions. Proofs should return to the publisher by the end of the month, and we will await camera copy before printing begins.