March 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 Work on creation of two new working groups (Internet resources and elections) has continued, and I hope to announce to members the charge to those groups and solicit volunteers shortly. Work on creating a subscriber policy is ongoing and should be announced shortly. One quick note regarding "moderation" of air-l. At this time the only moderation that takes place (courtesy Charlie and Jeremy) is the approval or disapproval of posts from those who are not subscribed to the list. On occasion it happens that even though one subscribes, due to e-mail configuration it appears to the server that e-mail is being sent from an address other than the one that had been subscribed. Charlie and Jeremy try to get to all messages that are queued for approval as quickly as possible. On behalf of the entire executive committee - congratulations, _Dr._ Ulla Bunz! 2.2 Vice President (Baym) 2.2.1 Coordinating reviews for the E-Sector category of conference submissions, drafting charges for upcoming working groups, collecting and analyzing data on nations from which we received proposals in our three conferences (growing steadily), advising a bit on conference 2004 in Toronto planning. 2.3 Secretary (Bunz) 2.3.1 I have participated in the exec discussions (summary see below). I have also worked with David Silver and Matt Allen on the "list of lists" project. We are currently at step 4 of 6 (editing submissions) and hope to be able to announce the completed project soon. I also defended my dissertation and have joined the ranks of "terminally degreed". This month on the executive list: * Decision to create policies regarding promotional or discount offers, and regarding affiliation with other organizations or businesses * Decision to provide information (such as announcements and travel info) about conference that are close to Aoir (time, space, topic) during our Maastricht meet * Discussion on possible aoir member input/polling regarding passing along members benefit offer the exec receives; aoir member input would suggest evaluation criteria that could be applied to potential offers; different polling options (like members only announcements, website, etc. were discussed) * Discussion on calling for or nominating people for the two working groups (election, Internet resources) * We began to share some data on number of people/countries submitting to Aoir 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0; and number of countries represented in the organization's membership; Overall we are happy to report that especially with Aoir 3.0, we are becoming increasingly international and are drawing submissions from several countries that were not represented before. * Discussion whether we should craft a statement of values concerning the use of technology for creative work and publication * Discussion on spam, filtering messages, reducing quotes in postings, list management, policies and netiquette * Some organizational and scheduling issues regarding planning Aoir 3.0 2.4 Treasurer (Bates) 2.4.1 No report. 2.5 Open Seats (Silver, Wellman) 2.5.1 Silver: Continuing work with Ulla and Matt on the list of lists projects. We have received from air-l members the names of and information on over 120 Net-related mailing lists. We have worked to trim this list down to the most relevant and currently have a little more than 80. We are now in the process of annotating them and designing a platform for access to the lists. For AIR 3.0: Coordinating the proposal review process for the Internet in History section. Reviewing proposals for the Internet in Cultural Contexts section. We've seen some great proposals and have an excellent team of reviewers. 2.5.2 Wellman: On leave. 2.6 Appointed Seats (Allen, Shade) 2.6.1 Allen: No report. 2.6.2 Shade: Participated in a symposium at Harvey Mudd College, March 9, titled Community in the Digital Age: Philosophy and Practice. (see www.hixon.hmc.edu/Calendar.html) The Sj was also there so it provided an opportunity to chat about some AOIR stuff and life in general. I much appreciate f2f rather than e-chat. but hey. Finished the reviewing and assigning of the papers for AOIR3.0. 2.7 Student Seat (Klastrup) 2.7.1 On leave. 2.8 Publications Officers (Hunsinger, Breindahl) 2.8.1 Hunsinger: busy with conference primarily; did some things on the server; answered questions; debated on exec. 2.8.2 Breindahl: I have been acting as list moderator for AIR-L as usual. I have also taken part in the discussions in the exec committee, especially with regards to our web presence. 2.9 2002 Conference (Monica Murero, Coordinator; Klaus Bruhn Jensen, Program Chair) 2.9.1 Murero: In the last month I have been doing several activities for AoIR conference organization, and kept in constant contact with Steve and Klaus. I have worked on sponsors and speakers' contact, registration process, web site up-date, supervision of local facilities, and coordinate local activities. Folks, the exhibition center looks great! As regards the program and the submissions, I have been working with Klaus to set the scheduling of the program/panels for the conference, and with Nancy, Jeremy and Klaus on reviewing abstracts. I have answered to many messages related to the abstract proposals, and decided with Klaus on late proposals we have received. All the activities are proceeding well and we have already received almost 50 pre-registrations to the conference. 2.9.2 Jensen: Having passed the submission deadline of February 15, coordinators, reviewers, and I have been hard at work processing proposals for the AoIR 3.0 conference. The process is proceeding on schedule, so that we expect to notify submitters as well as outlining a preliminary program by April 1. 2.10 AoIR Ethics Working Group (Charles Ess, Chair) 2.10.1 Draft modified in light of comments and responses to a first draft, a second version of the document we hope to present to aoir 3.0 in October is being circulated among committee members for further comment and refinement. ------------------------------------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