{part 2 of the rejected IR8 update} Items in this part: - program update - being carbon neutral - reusing badges Program This is NOT the detailed program with the crucial element that everyone is waiting for: "when do I present MY paper?" You're going to have to wait a bit for that. Mia is working as hard as she can and is trying line things up into themes and so on. As you can imagine, this is a tricky business. Anyone interested in helping her should pipe up. Everyone else could take a look at the draft program<http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=oudk1o6evtrviddgmqanmjgfes%2540group.calendar.google.com&title=AoIR%25208.0%2520Vancouver%2520-%2520Let%27s%2520Play%21&epr=9&wkst=2&height=614&dates=20071001%252F20071101&mode=MONTH>. That's a google calendar "embed" and you can subscribe to it in your own calendar system, I think. Carbon neutral Yes, we have looked into it and it IS possible: you can arrive in Vancouver with a clear conscience. Or a clear conscience about your environmental impact, at least. There may be a link on the registration site where you can donate money to a good cause (planting trees, typically) and arrive relieved. And we all think better when our consciences are clear, right? If you haven't heard about this before, here's a story about it from Canada: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/2006/09/12/carbon-farming.html And if you want to start early: check out this story on wikipedia about personal carbon trading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_carbon_trading Re-Use (of Badges) Even better than reduce and recycle, we can re-use things. And what better thing to re-use at a conference than the badge holders? Those little plastic things on strings that accumulate in your closet and behind your office door and in a drawer of your desk. You know - I bet you have about a dozen of them somewhere, don't you? Well, the call is out - send them to me and I will use them at our conference. And you can feel even better about yourself (what with the carbon neutral donation and the reused badges, you're going to be getting quite full of yourself now, aren't you?). Here is what you do: grab as many as you can find, put them in an envelope, post them to me. Here is the address: Richard Smith SFU/CPROST 515 West Hastings Street Vancouver, BC V6B 5K3 CANADA I already have about 50 of them (in just two envelopes, plus my own collection), so we are about 20 per cent there. Come on people, get behind it! At the very least, show up at registration with a badge hold already around your neck. Everyone who does that gets a kiss from me. Well, maybe not a kiss, but something nice. -- Richard Smith, Associate Professor School of Communication Simon Fraser University, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, CANADA V6B 5K3 Phone: 604 291 5116 Web: http://www.sfu.ca/~smith/ 09-F9-11-02-9D-74-E3-5B-D8-41-56-C5-63-56-88-C0 New book!: http://arago.cprost.sfu.ca/smith/mawc