I am an outsider looking in, I don't attend AOIR. Nor do I attend AA, but I do lurk on this listserve and I consequently I feel free to take from Terri's list of questions the problem of "Who are we?" I'm not a part of the we, so for me its more a problem of "who are you?". I'm actually very interested in the question of "who are you". From what I can see, you are an organization of communications scholars rooted in the idea that the internet represents a dramatically new media of communication who are at the same time trying to downplay this drama because you are at the same time rooted in the notion that communications as a field still needs to be more professionalized. So your choice to me seems simple: a) make it explicit that this is a communications organization with respectable professional standards, or b) re-think your objectives: are you committed to such objects 'the internet' and 'media' or are you open thinkers enough to pursue new ways of imagining the convergence of the social, cultural, and technological? I would think (b) would be alot more interesting. The world has enough 'communications' conferences and organization. Two cents worth from an outsider. -- Dr. David Toews, PhD Assistant Professor Sociology Department York University 2060 Vari Hall 4700 Keele Street Toronto, Ontario Canada M3J 1P3 Tel. 416-736-2100 ext. 60307 Fax. 416-736-5370 dtoews@yorku.ca Follow me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/dtoews