The policy was that AoIR puts the privacy of its members foremost. AoIRa\ does not distribute any information about its membership beyond what people make available themselves. To that end, in the past, AoIR has not sold its membership lists, it has not published lists of emails or contact information, or provided that information in other ways. This has the added effect of limited the amount of spam that member receive, but that in my opinion, was not the primary motivation. The primary motivation is that each aoir member can choose to do as they wish individually with information that they may view as public or private, and aoir should not dictate this to members. As for what you believe the internet is for, that is a matter for your opinion, i don't think it has any normative end that defines it as a whole, just as I don't believe that the organization can determine for each individual member whether their information should be public or private. I don't think there is any paranoia. I've always thought that the best reasoned position for this is to let individuals announce their aoir membership if they want, but that is for them to do, aoir will either certify that it is true or not. That argument really isn't about abuse of information, though that could quickly become a an issue the first time that such abuse occurs. It is also the tradition of this organization to deal with these issues openly when possible, not in a private poll. In the end, decisions about things like this are generally referred to the paying members in a vote or through discussion. The original discussions about this policy will be found on the old conference lists and elsewhere. As i recall, didn't we have a vote when we instituted the non-discrimination policy the first time. On Feb 15, 2006, at 12:52 PM, wrc@tcfir.org wrote:
Dear Colleagues,
I am troubled that I cannot email other members directly as I see fit. I joined the association because I wished to form collegial relationships with other researchers around the world. This is more than a simple "fear of spam" issue to me. It goes to a crucial use of the Internet. As the Cluetrain Manifesto so clearly articulates, the Internet is about unfettered conversations. This paranoia about abuse actually reflects a systemic misunderstanding of the subject we are attempting to study.
Clearly you have an opinion about this subject. One way or another, please email me at my email address wrc@tcfir.org and state your opinion. I intend to submit the results to the AOIR leadership. I am trying to understand the policy and your opinion is important.
You have my permission to communicate with me at will. I do not object to hundreds of emails from my new colleagues!
Reid Cornwell
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W. Reid Cornwell Ph.D. The Center For Internet Research 720.212.0719 (voice) 970.485.5109 (mobile) 801.807.3130 wrc@tcfir.org http://tcfir.org
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