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 President of AoIR (Alex Halavais, prez@aoir.org), and must be received by July 15, 2013. 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, and an indication that the applicant will be able to make effective use of the funds. 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 and travel stipends of up to $500 will be awarded (to be paid out after the conference) 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 will be held in strict confidence.

The AoIR Executive Committee regretfully acknowledges that there may be more fully meritorious applications than we will be able to award and support. Nonetheless, we hope that awarded fee waivers and travel stipends will not only assist deserving scholars and researchers, but also thereby enrich the IR 14.0 conference in important new ways.

Here is an overview of the election timeline, procedures and positions for nomination, as determined by the Association’s by-laws. This year we will be handling voting through an election management site, and voting instructions will be provided later.

Below in this email, you will find: A. Time frame of the election. B. Description of the AoIR governance system and of the elected positions. C. Nominations and Elections Processes. And D. Questions for Candidates.

A. Time Frame of the Election:

1. Call for Nominations: opens April 25, 2013.

2. Nominations close for all positions (4 officer positions and 3 open seats) May 8, 2013.

3. Candidate information will be made available to AoIR members on aoir.org and will be sent to air-l.

4. Voting begins May 22, 2013 at the balloting site. (Details for accessing this site will be sent in a later email.)

5. Voting ends May 31, 2013.

The new committee is formally announced and assumes its duties at the end of the Annual General Meeting during the AoIR conference, 23-26 October 2013.

B. AoIR Governance and Description of Elected Positions:

The organizational structure of AoIR is simple. There are 5 officers (President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Graduate Student representative). The 9-member Executive Committee consists of these officers, plus the Past President and 3 open seat representatives. Elected officials hold their positions for two years. After two years, the Vice President becomes President. In this election, nominations are invited for Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Graduate Student representative, and 3 open seats. You may nominate yourself or someone else you think would do a good job. Details on the nomination procedure follow below.

Here are brief descriptions of positions:

President: Acts as “CEO” and supervises the organization. The President’s duties include serving as part of the Conference Committee. This position is not directly elected, as the Vice President becomes President after two years.

Vice President: “Back up” for President, performing various duties as they arise; becomes President after 2 years. The Vice President also serves on the Conference Committee.

Secretary: Handles records and membership matters.

Treasurer: Liaises with Secretary to maintain membership records; takes care of financial and related administrative duties (e.g., annual report to membership and U.S. tax authorities), including close attention to the annual Internet Research (IR) conference budget. The Treasurer serves on the Conference Committee.

Graduate Student Representative: Responsible for running graduate student activities. The Graduate Student Representative must be actively enrolled in a degree program at the time of nomination and election. All members can vote for the grad student representative.

Open Committee Seats: Three open Seats on the Executive Committee represent membership of AoIR, and contribute to decision-making.

Immediate Past President: Serves on the Executive Committee.

More information can be found in the AoIR Bylaws:

http://aoir.org/about/bylaws-statements-and-policies/bylaws/

Candidates should familiarize themselves with the duties laid out in the Bylaws. I also encourage persons interested in running for a specific position to contact the current office-holder(s) with any specific questions, etc.

C. Nominations and Elections Processes.

Only a member of AoIR can run for a position, nominated by anyone. If nominated for more than one position a nominee must choose to run for one (and only one) position in this election. You may nominate yourself or another person (or people).

Self Nominations: Email AoIR Secretary Catherine Middleton and indicate the position for which you are nominating yourself. Please provide, in your nomination email a short candidate statement addressing the questions below.

Nominating Others: Email AoIR Secretary Catherine Middleton with the name of the person you want to nominate, the position for which you are nominating this person, contact information for that person, and an indication of whether you know if this person would accept this nomination. (If you don’t know, we’ll contact them and ask).

All candidates for election will be required to provide answers to the questions listed at the end of this email, have the answers posted to the AoIR election forum website, and participate in an online candidate forum.

In addition the Graduate Student candidates must confirm in their response that they comply with the by-laws: The Graduate Student Representative must be actively enrolled in a degree program at the time of nomination and election.

The voting system used by AoIR is one vote per member for each of the eight positions for election listed above. Votes will be tallied using a balloting software site. In the case of the four directly elected officers, the candidate with the highest number of votes shall be declared the winner; in the case of the open seats, the three candidates with the highest, second-highest and third highest votes shall be declared the winners of the open seats.

In the case of tied results for the officer positions, the winner shall be determined by the ballot counters, by drawing of lots, using a method that ensures each of the tying candidates has an equal chance of success and witnessed by at least 1 person independent of the association. In the case of tied results for the open seat positions, the drawing of lots shall be used only when there are more tied candidates than seats available.

D. Questions for Candidates:

1. What are your qualifications for this position (including prior experience and participation in AoIR)?

2. Please describe two or three short-term goals you would like to achieve through membership on the executive (including a rationale for each and how you would contribute to their achievement).

3. What is your long-term vision for AoIR?

4. What else should voters consider when deciding whether or not to vote for you?

In answering the questions, please be concise and give information specific to the position for which you are nominating and which will permit voters to assess your case for election to that position.

In closing – please consider contributing your time and energy to making AoIR even better in the upcoming years! Many thanks in advance to all who will consider running and serving AoIR in this way.

Sponsored by the Carl Couch Center for Social and Internet Research
http://www.cccsir.com/

The Carl Couch Center issues an international call for student-authored papers to be considered for Carl J. Couch Internet Research Award. The Couch Center welcomes both theoretical and empirical papers that apply symbolic interactionist approaches to internet studies.

According to basic symbolic interactionist premises, what we understand as self, identity, relationship, and cultural formations are constructed dialogically and interactively. While the works of George H. Mead, Georg Simmel, Erving Goffman and other leading symbolic interactionists have been integral to the study of social interaction, Carl Couch was among the first from this tradition to suggest the importance of engaging in the study of mediated interaction. It is critical that symbolic interactionists move boldly forward, beyond Couch’s initial suggestion, to study what has become for many a dominant form of communication in their everyday life.

Whether we research identities, emotion, memory, family, work, career, presentations of self, deception, love, loss or other areas, the impact of mediated communication is felt by those interacting within it. As internet-related media continue to influence our everyday interactions–not only with other people but also with technologies, devices, algorithms, platform parameters, and so forth–it becomes crucial for symbolic interactionists to attend to the role of these mediating factors in the interaction process.

We encourage any paper that uses a symbolic interactionist approach in internet studies. We also encourage papers that explore the interface between deliberate social interaction and structured (or automated) interactions sponsored or enacted by various technological features, exploring not only how identities, relations, and social formations are negotiated through social interactions, but also how these interactions are mediated further through the use or capacities of various technologies.

Papers will be evaluated based on the quality of (1) mastery of symbolic interactionist approaches and concepts, (2) originality, (3) organization, (4) presentation, and (5) advancement of knowledge. Those contemplating entering should note that an interactionist approach demands thoughtful analysis, and not mere description, of social interactions. Evaluation will be administered by a Review Committee of four:

Mark D. Johns, Luther College, Decorah, Iowa

Jennifer Dunn, Texas Tech University, Lubbock

Annette Markham, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee

Lois Ann Scheidt, Indiana University, Bloomington

Competition is open to graduate or undergraduate students of all disciplines. Works that are published or accepted for publication are not eligible for award consideration. Entries should be in English and not exceed 30 pages (approximately 7500 words) in length, including references and appendices. Limit of one entry per student per year.

The top paper will receive Couch Award to be presented at the 2013 meeting of the Association of Internet Researchers (aoir.org) at the University of Denver. The top paper will be awarded a certificate and a cash prize of $300 US and the author will be invited to present their work at a session of the AoIR conference, October 23-26, 2013 in Denver, Colorado, USA.

Candidates should send a copy of their paper, with a 100-word abstract, electronically to Mark Johns at mjohns@luther.edu . Application deadline is May 15, 2013. Notification of award will be sent by June 15.

Those with questions or comments about Couch Award application, please contact:

Mark D. Johns
Communication Studies
Luther College, Decorah, Iowa
Phone: 563-387-1347
E-mail: mjohns@luther.edu

This year, Annette Markham will coordinate the Doctoral Colloquium and will be joined by colleagues including:

Tom Boellstorf, University of California, Irvine

Steve Jones, University of Illinois at Chicago

Mia Consalvo, Concordia University

Charles Ess, University of Oslo

Alice Marwick, Fordham University

Michele Jackson, University of Colorado, Boulder

Adrienne Russell, University of Denver

Lori Kendall, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Klaus Bruhn Jensen, University of Copenhagen

Michael Zimmer, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

….Others to be announced later. Details forthcoming on the IR14 conference website: http://ir14.aoir.org/

SUBMISSION/PARTICIPATION

If you’re an interested student, you should prepare a brief application including:

a) a two-page summary of your research. This should provide a context for the research, describe the methods being used, the progress to date, and
primary concerns and issues; and

b) A brief statement indicating why you want to participate in this doctoral colloquium and what you’d like to get out of it.

Submission format: Single PDF document

Submission address: amarkham@gmail.com

Submission deadline: Friday, May 31, 2013

Applicants will be notified of acceptance by July 1, 2013. Successful applicants will be asked to prepare a four-page paper on their research and
the issues they wish to discuss by August 31, 2013.

Feel free to contact me with questions,

annette

In addition to winning a cash prize, the individual will also be invited to present their research in a session at Internet Research14.0 in Denver, October 24-27, 2013.

Submissions should be sent as PDFs via email to Lori Kendall, loriken@illinois.edu by March 15, 2013. (Each submission will be acknowledged. If you do not receive an email acknowledging your submission within a week, please send a follow-up email.)You may send your own dissertation or that of an advisee (with their permission). The winner of the award will be announced in early Summer. Please contact Lori with any questions.

Three copies of the book being submitted for review should be sent to Steve Jones to arrive before April 1, 2013 at the following address:

Prof. Steve Jones
Department of Communication (m/c 132)
University of Illinois at Chicago
1007 W. Harrison St.
Chicago, IL 60607
USA

The winner of the award will be announced in the summer of 2013. In addition to winning a cash prize, the individual will also be invited to participate at the next AoIR conference. Please contact Steve Jones at sjones@uic.edu or Alex Halavais at prez@aoir.org if you have any questions about this process.

Looking forward to some outstanding papers, panels, and roundtables.

Internet Research 14.0 will focus on the theme of Resistance and Appropriation. Many people think of the internet and related technologies as basic infrastructure — a field for everyday life. But this ignores the processes through which we decide to use the internet, and the complex relationships between social practices and technologies. We invite contributions that help us to understand these processes and relationships. The conference organizers particularly invite explorations of how people, alone or together, choose to use these technologies in ways other than their most commonly accepted uses.

To this end, we call for papers, panel and pre-conference workshop proposals from any discipline, methodology, community or a combination of them that address the conference themes, including, but not limited to, papers that intersect and/or interconnect with the following:

* The internet, technology and social movements
* Appropriation of content and infrastructure
* Reconfiguring meaning
* Reconfiguring participation
* The political economy of social-technical practice
* User-centered/originated design
* User appropriation and repurposing
* Contention, cooperation and organization
* Digital media artists

Sessions at the conference will be established that specifically address the conference themes, and we welcome innovative, exciting, and unexpected takes on those themes. We also welcome submissions on topics that address social, cultural, political, legal, aesthetic, economic, and/or philosophical aspects of the internet beyond the conference themes. In all cases, we welcome disciplinary and interdisciplinary submissions as well as international collaborations from both AoIR and non-AoIR members.

SUBMISSIONS

We seek proposals for several different kinds of contributions. As in the past, we welcome proposals for traditional academic conference PAPERS, organized PANEL PROPOSALS that present a coherent group of papers on a single theme, as well as PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS which focus on a particular topic. We also invite proposals that will focus on discussion and interaction among conference delegates. A common form of this type is the ROUNDTABLE SESSION, but we would also like to encourage other formats, such as OPEN FISHBOWL SESSIONS. (See the Wikipedia entry under ìFishbowl (conversation)î for a description of this format. Fishbowl sessions should cover broad topics of interest to a wide segment of the AoIR community.)

DEADLINES

Submissions Due: March 1, 2013 (Papers, Panels and Pre-Workshops. Details below)

Notification: May 31, 2013

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

All papers and presentations will be evaluated in a standard double-blind peer review, with the exception of Roundtable/Fishbowl, Ignite, and Preconferences, which will include the names of presenters and organizers as part of the refereeing process.

Format

SHORT PAPERS (individual or multi-author) – Minimum 1000 words, 1200 word maximum not including bibliography. Papers should include:

- Description/summary of the workís intellectual merit with respect to its findings, its relation to extant research and its broader impacts.

- A description of the methodological approach or the theoretical underpinnings informing the research inquiry.

- Conclusions or discussion of findings.

- Bibliography of work cited.

PANEL PROPOSALS – submit a description of 600-800 words on the panel theme, plus the SHORT PAPER for each presentation. The panel organizer must assemble these materials for submission.

ROUNDTABLE and FISHBOWL PROPOSALS – submit a statement indicating the nature of the discussion and form of interaction, and listing initial participants. (In the case of a fishbowl proposal, this will include the name of the moderator, and the names of the first four speakers for the fishbowl.)

PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS – please submit all workshop proposals via email to Lynn Schofield Clark: ir14sitechair@aoir.org

Workshop proposals should include names of presenters, and a 1,000-word description.

IGNITE-IR presentation: Ignite is a high-energy five-minute plenary presentation format (see http://igniteshow.com/). Please submit a proposal via http://bit.ly/ignite-ir14 no later than August 1, 2013.

Papers, presentations and panels will be selected from the submitted proposals on the basis of multiple blind peer review, coordinated and overseen by the Program Chair. Each individual may present only one paper during the conference, though they may be listed as a co-author on multiple papers. In addition to this one presentation, they may also appear on a panel, roundtable, or performance.

PUBLICATION OF SHORT AND EXTENDED PAPERS

All Short Papers accepted for presentation will be published in the Selected Papers of Internet Research(http://spir.aoir.org). In addition, selected extended papers from the conference will be invited to appear in a special annual AoIR issue of Information, Communication & Society (http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rics20/current). Authors selected for submission for this issue will be contacted prior to the conference.

PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS

On October 23, 2013, there will be a limited number of pre-conference workshops and symposia that will provide participants with in-depth, hands-on and/or creative opportunities. We invite proposals for these pre-conference workshops. Local presenters are encouraged to propose workshops that will invite visiting researchers into their labs or studios or locales. Proposals should be no more than 1000 words, and should clearly outline the purpose, methodology, structure, costs, equipment and minimal attendance required, as well as explaining its relevance to the conference as a whole. Proposals will be accepted if they demonstrate that the workshop will add significantly to the overall program in terms of thematic depth, hands on experience, or local opportunities for scholarly or artistic connections. These proposals and all inquiries regarding pre-conference proposals should be submitted as soon as possible to both the Conference Chair and Program Chair and no later than March 1, 2013.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Program Chair: Hector Postigo, Media Studies and Production, School of Media and Communication, Temple University. ir14programchair@aoir.org

Conference Chair: Lynn Schofield Clark, School of Communication, University of Denver. ir14sitechair@aoir.org

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 President of AoIR (Alex Halavais, prez@aoir.org), and must be received by August 15, 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 and travel stipends of up to $500 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 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 and travel
stipends will not only assist deserving scholars and researchers, but
also thereby enrich the IR 13.0 conference in important new ways.