The template seemed to be very much oriented towards a more 'hard science' approach, and towards research which was already completed. Trying to jam more subjective research, or research to be completed in the period between abstract submission and the conference, into the format did not seem to work particularly well. On 30 May 2013 13:19, Alexander Halavais <halavais@gmail.com> wrote:
It would be helpful, at least to me, if folks could be more explicit about *what* they objected to in the template. There were no content restrictions. Yes, there were spaces for citations, subtitles, and for a title, but if these were omitted, they were omitted.
I am well aware of the power of defaults, but I'm missing what it was about this particular template that makes it difficult. (Yes, I've heard from folks that the word-count was restrictive, but that isn't directly a template issue.)
Best,
Alex
On Thu, May 30, 2013 at 9:35 AM, Feona Attwood <f.attwood@mdx.ac.uk> wrote:
Thanks for bringing this up Terri. I know lots of people have had similar feelings and feel awkward about how to express it.
My feeling is that the new format for submitting proposals seems to signal a real shift in style. I haven't come across anything like that before, not even for really dull conferences and I didn't put a proposal in this year because I couldn't work out a way to fit what I do into that kind of format. It seems designed to filter out anything imaginative, innovative, speculative or original. The papers I reviewed in that format were really difficult to read; the format had squashed all the life out of them. I had felt very enthused after last year's conference which seemed very lively and friendly - and then really deflated by the submission process this year. I'm hoping it was an experiment that won't be continued. I'm still planning to attend this year but I can't imagine submitting anything again if this is the new direction AoIR is taking. Feona
On 30 May 2013, at 15:27, Terri Senft wrote:
Hi Pals,
With the encouragement of Andrew and Alex, I wanted to approach the list regarding some questions I have about culture of the Association of Internet Researchers today.
I'm asking because after this round of conference proposal reviews, I feel personally and professionally a bit disconnected from this group these days. This freaks me out a bit, because I've always thought of AoIR as my intellectual home. I am wondering if this is just me (which would be fine!), or if others are in struggle as well.
Some Big Questions I Have:
1. Who are we, personally and professionally? What makes us the same as organizations like ICA or ACM? What makes us different from these organizations?
2. How do we perform our identity at our annual conference? How is it reflected in the way we phrase our calls for submissions? How is it reflected in submission procedures?
3. How do we want to define "rigorous scholarship" in our organization? How do we want to deal with scholarship that strikes us as urgent, necessary or fresh, but not sufficiently rigorous?
4. Is there even an "us" anymore? Can positivists, activists, and artists really sit in the same room and discuss 'internet studies'? My answer used to be affirmative, but that was before internet studies was as ubiquitous as literature studies.
5. Should the desire for a conference that showcases professionalization trump a desire for a conference that encourages its youngest scholars and its most senior ones to take risks, make mistakes and push the boundaries of the field?
Okay, that's plenty to start. As they say in AA, take what you want and leave the rest.
Fondly, T
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 _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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