Thanks to all for not cancelling - a fanTAStic event, in all regards! Kudos all around, and I look forward to again seeing the many of you whom I have just met. Cheers, Ellis
-----Original Message----- From: air-l-admin@aoir.org [mailto:air-l-admin@aoir.org]On Behalf Of Steve Jones Sent: Friday, September 14, 2001 6:26 AM To: air-l Subject: [Air-l] AoIR 2001 Conference in Minnesota
Fellow members of the Association of Internet Researchers and air-l subscribers:
These are trying times, to greatly understate things. We will all struggle in one way or another to re-imagine the world now that everything has changed. The attacks in the U.S. this week were in part directed squarely at the U.S., But they were also directed in part at the world. The destruction of the World Trade Center towers killed and hurt many people from all walks of life, from all beliefs, races, countries. AoIR is an international organization, and each of us feels some sense of loss. Our thoughts go out particularly to those who have lost friends, family and acquaintances.
We have been asked by several people whether the 2001 conference in Minneapolis will be cancelled. The executive committee, the conference organizers at the University of Minnesota and I have decided that the conference will not be cancelled.
None of us associated with AoIR will ask anyone to do something with which they are uncomfortable. Were I to have to fly within the next week I would certainly think twice, although I think I would go ahead with it. I would be apprehensive about it, and will be for quite some time, and I will not be very happy at the prospect, and I will be ever so glad to land. However, the alternative is to cease travelling by air and therefore cease meeting indefinitely (except online, of course, or at short distances), and to lose all confidence in the variety of human systems on which the world is, and must, be based. I do not choose that alternative. Your choice, however, should, and will be, respected. We will, of course, keep abreast of events.
Do not hesitate to e-mail me at sjones@uic.edu with any questions and concerns. I will look forward to seeing some of you in Minneapolis, and others of you at other places and times in the future.
Steve Jones, President of the Association of Internet Researchers
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