If you haven’t already, be sure to register for IR11.0, this October in Gothenburg, Sweden!

The original call for papers indicated that the deadline for the fee waiver for this year’s conference would be June 30. In the hope that we would have registration up well before this date, we’ve been remiss in posting details on applications for the fee waiver for that reason the deadline has been extended to JULY 14. Please read the following carefully, and if you have any questions, direct them to vp@aoir.org.

Fee Waiver Program

In order to increase the diversity of participation in the AoIR annual Internet Research (IR) conferences, the Association of Internet Researchers will make available up to three conference fee waivers per year. The number of fee waivers will depend first of all upon the ability of the conference budget to sustain such waivers (a judgment to be made by the AoIR Executive Committee upon the advice of the AoIR Treasurer and the local organizing committee) as well as upon the quality of the applications for fee waivers.

Applications for fee waivers are invited from student or faculty authors whose paper or panel proposals have already been accepted via the AoIR IR conference reviewing process. All applications should be directed to the Vice-President of AoIR (Alex Halavais, vp@aoir.org), and must be received by July 14, 2010. Late applications cannot be considered.

Applications should be no longer than 2 pages, and must include the following information:

1) A brief description of how the author’s presentation or contribution to the AoIR IR conference will uniquely articulate and/or represent a distinctive perspective (e.g., of persons and/or cultures) otherwise unlikely to be represented at the annual AoIR Internet Research conference.

2) An explanation of the author’s distinctive circumstances that would warrant a fee waiver. These may include, but are by no means limited to:

• exceptionally limited financial resources (e.g., as a graduate student or scholar in a non-OECD country, as a disabled person on a limited income, etc.);
• exceptional limits on institutional support otherwise normally available (e.g., travel funds, grant funds, etc.);
• other exceptional circumstances that render the usual AoIR IR conference fees an insurmountable obstacle to attending the IR conference in order to present one’s own work.

Applicants may also include a letter of support from someone familiar with her / his circumstances, special needs, etc.  Such a letter is optional, however, not a requirement.

Applications will be reviewed by the AoIR Executive Committee. Fee waivers will be awarded on the basis of the Executive Committee’s collective judgment as to which presentations will make the most distinctive contribution to the AoIR IR conference. In order to respect and protect the privacy of the applicants, all Executive Committee discussions and deliberations of fee waiver applications will be held in strict confidence.

The AoIR Executive Committee regretfully acknowledges that there will be more fully meritorious applications than we will be able to award and support. Nonetheless we hope that awarded fee waivers will not only assist deserving scholars and researchers, but also thereby enrich the AoIR IR conferences in important new ways.

The third Association of Internet Researchers special issue of Information, Communication & Society has recently been published, edited by Caroline Haythornthwaite and Lori Kendall. It includes papers selected from the Internet Research 10.0 conference in Milwaukee, including:

• Bridging disability divides: A critical history of web content accessibility through 2001, by Elizabeth Ellcessor
• The interpenetration of technical and legal decision-making for the internet, by Sandra Braman
• YouTube and Proposition 8: A case study in video activism, by Kjerstin Thorson, Brian Ekdale, Porismita Borah, Kang Namkoong, and Chirag Shah
• The experience of connectivity: Results from a survey of Australian internet users, by Matthew Allen
• How offline gatherings affect online communities: When virtual community members ‘meetup’, by Lauren F. Sessions
• How executives perceive the net generation, by Karine Barzilai-Nahon & Robert M. Mason
• Citizenship and communication in online youth civic engagement projects, by Chris Wells
• Getting the whole picture? New information and communication technologies in healthcare work and organization, by
• Susan Halford, Ann Therese Lotherington, Aud Obstfelder, and Kari Dyb