Just two points here. I think you'll recall that we did attempt multi-linguality in Toronto, but in the end it did not work well. there are systemic barriers to multi-lingualism in the organizational context currently that are immense, the cost of translation for instance, live translation in toronto was as i recall priced at around $25k. it is priced that high because the groups that are required by law to afford it can afford that kind of money. I think we had looked at it in Maastricht too, also very highly priced. When the conference costs $70k, and people already complain about costs and prices, adding another $25k is not really an option. That is just a practical concern. After Toronto, the Association decided that the operating languages of the association is english. of course, any executive committee in the future could change that, but it really was just a pragmatic decision. my argument has been, and will tend to be that AoIR has to serve the majority of its population, when that switches from an English commonality to a different commonality, then I think we should change our language. The other thing to remember is that while in the world, those who write in english are a minority, in academia, in most disciplines in the world, the majority of publishing is in english (though this is changing pretty quickly and the major publishing houses want more of the Asian market). so who is spinning off who, and what is derivative of what is a great question for the internet's and aoir's future, because while the hegemonic discourses are being transformed, academic cultures tend to move a bit slower... On Mar 20, 2006, at 4:49 AM, geert lovink wrote:
No worries! People who speak in English are a minority in this world. The content in English on the Net is shrinking (relatively speaking) and so are the users for whom English is their first language. I guess it is time for Internet researchers to wake up to this new reality. Please read the basic statistics. We're spinning off those who speak English. It's not the other way round... Those who write in English are in the minority, big way. Let's not portray it otherwise.
Geert
Jeremy Hunsinger Center for Digital Discourse and Culture () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail /\ - against microsoft attachments http://www.aoir.org The Association of Internet Researchers http://www.stswiki.org/ stswiki http://cfp.learning-inquiry.info/ LI-the journal