Alex, My objections (which I've already articulated in the past) weren't with the template, but with the set out on the AoIR 13 Conference page, which laid at the paper proposal guidelines as follows: - Description/summary of the work's intellectual merit with respect to its findings, its relation to extant research and its broader impacts. - A description of the methodological approach or the theoretical underpinnings informing the research inquiry. - Conclusions or discussion of findings. ------------------------------------------------- Conclusions? Findings? In a paper proposed in January and delivered in October? You don't need to be a Foucault scholar to understand how that forecloses all sorts of projects, including ones that are activist, performance-oriented, involve collaboration with communities in flux, and so forth. Last year during a plenary talk for this very organization, I asked when we would hear from the Roland Barthes of Internet Studies. Under this sort of structure, I don't even think McLuhan would stand a chance. Thinkers this interesting just don't even want to play in the "Live Act my Finished Paper" sandbox. __________________________________________ Now, to the oft-suggested idea that interesting thinkers take their work to the preconference/workshop/roundtable/fishbowl/hamster wheel margins: I am actually okay with this. In fact, I tried it this year. I begin with the guidelines as stated. ROUNDTABLE and FISHBOWL PROPOSALS – submit a statement indicating the nature of the discussion and form of interaction, and listing initial participants. Below are the responses I received for a proposal for a roundtable on the deployment of the term "slut" online, that pulled together a group of internationally recognized experts on teen sexuality education, global sex work, anti-racist activism, gaming cultures, and law. Roughly 80 percent of these individuals had never been to an AoIR conference before. Comments for the authors ------------------------ Review 1 In theory, a panel on this topic could be quite interesting but there is only an abstract provided, not a full proposal using the template, and it says very little about exactly what the panel will contain or its specific relevance to AOIR - it's just a very underdeveloped proposal. Review 2 I absolutely feel like a conversation about the role of social media in framing and negotiating sexual recognition and subjectivity NEEDS to be at IR14.0. My only concern: the connections between U.S./North American practices and other(ed) global practices seems tenuous and a bit unclear through the discussion. I would encourage participants to work on bringing these ties to the forefront to frame the discussion a bit more clearly. Review 3 The various phenomena you chose to discuss are very interesting and significant for various areas; however, I'm concerned that your proposal still stays on the surface level, focusing on describing the phenomena but not interpreting them. I'd like to know what sets of theories you are going to use to frame your discussion, and how you will do that. I'm also interested in learning how you would approach these phenomena with a cross-cultural angle. For example, how did you get the cross-cultural data? What sampling procedures are you going to use here? _____________ Now, I can see one reviewers mistaking my roundtable submission for a panel, but two out of three doing that? I'm just so confused, and clearly so is everyone else. The bottom line, and what I would really like to know, is whether this is an organization that is more interested in the margin, or the center? I'm not sure the answer can be both, and I'm not sure I want that decision made by ConfTool or whatever it is we are using. Control society and all that. With love in my heart (really), Terri <http://goog_689013053> <http://goog_689013053> Dr. Theresa M. Senft Global Liberal Studies Program School of Arts & Sciences New York University 726 Broadway NY NY 10003 home: *www.terrisenft.net <http://goog_689013053>** *(needs a serious updating) facebook: www.facebook.com/theresa.senft twitter: @terrisenft ______________________