AoIR 2006 in Brisbane, Australia

Brisbane put on its best springtime colours to welcome the delegates of IR7.0, the 2006 annual conference of the Association of Internet Researchers. The conference was held at the Hilton Brisbane, with workshops and an opening reception at the Queensland University of Technology’s Creative Industries Precinct. 2006 marked the first time that AoIR has ventured outside of Europe and North America for its annual conference, and the Association chose Brisbane as the conference location because of: (i) QUT’s key role in theoretical and applied Internet studies; (ii) the strong support from local universities, businesses, and local and State governments for projects in fields related to information and communication technologies (ICTs), interaction design, and the creative industries; and (iii) the city’s role as a gateway to the Asia-Pacific region which continues to experience an ICT boom.

Chaired by Axel Bruns and Fay Sudweeks with a host of conference volunteers, the conference was supported by Gold sponsors Cisco Systems, the Institute for Creative Industries and Innovation, and the QUT Creative Industries Faculty, as well as major sponsors Peter Lang Publishing, the Australasian Cooperative Research Centre for Interaction Design, and the Queensland State Government. Further technology support was provided by Videopro and the Apple University Consortium.

AoIR 2006’s venture to the southern hemisphere was reflected in the strong turnout of Australasian delegates and presenters, but a sizeable number of ‘northern’ AoIR members also made the trip down under. For many local and regional participants the conference provided their first opportunity to engage face-to-face with international research leaders in the field, while overseas visitors were also able to sample the impressive range of Internet research projects currently underway in Australia and Asia. This was also especially obvious from the very well-received keynotes by Professor Guo Liang from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and Distinguished Professor John Hartley from the ARC Centre of Excellence in Creative Industries and Innovation.

The conference also saw book launches of Technically Together by Michele Willson and Uses of Blogs, edited by Axel Bruns and Joanne Jacobs (the latter also featuring the contributions of a large number of other AoIR members) and the launch of online publication M/C Dialogue, which has now published an interview with keynote speaker Guo Liang by AoIR executive member Randy Kluver. Moreover, outside of the conference, some lucky delegates were able to make friends with local residents on a trip to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, bringing back many photographic memories.

Many papers from the conference are now available through the AoIR Website, with a number of selected contributions also to be published in the International Handbook of Internet Research and the International Journal of Communications Law and Policy. Some papers have already been published in a special issue of the Australian Journal of Emerging Technologies and Society. Conference delegates were also actively blogging and otherwise documenting the event; see for example the Technorati tag ‘AoIR2006’ and the Flickr photostream for AoIR2006. In addition, Kevin Lim produced a short video feature with interviews from the closing reception, which is available on his blog.

AoIR returns to Canada for its 2007 conference. Entitled ‘Let’s Play’, IR8.0 invites delegates to come to Vancouver on 17-20 October 2007. The conference will be chaired by Richard Smith and Mia Consalvo. More information about the conference and a full call for papers will be available from the AoIR Website shortly.

Our thanks and best wishes go to everyone who made it to Brisbane this year, and we look forward to seeing you in Vancouver in 2007!

Axel Bruns & Fay Sudweeks
IR7.0 Chairs

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Emailing Community: Moral Panics and Evidence
 by Barry Wellman

We thought that the debate was settled five years ago – an eon in Internet time. A decade ago, at the dawn of the Internet era, pundits had either cheered the global village – where distance had died – or had howled at how the Internet would wither real, flesh-to-flesh, relationships. Both sorts of pundits were liberated by not having to bother with data.

To those who take evidence seriously, all of these fantasies became crushed by data by the early 2000s. Controlled lab studies showed how email fosters creativity (and flaming). Detailed ethnographies described the nuances of how people relate on and offline. Large-scale surveys found that email intensified relations with the same people that were also communicating flesh-to-flesh and by telephone. Review articles summed the matter up, showing that the Internet was not a separate universe but part of everyday life. (A note on scope conditions: I write about North American adults only, where email [and more communal listservs and chat groups] was almost the only game in town – unlike instantly messaging teens and texting foreigners.) It seemed as if all we had to do was specify our hypotheses a bit more, and do more nuanced observations and regressions.

But as the Bush II administration has shown, truthiness is not always daunted by evidence. Suddenly, in summer 2006, pundits had a moral panic about the supposed social isolation of the American public, a panic spurred by a sociological article documenting the 28 percent decline in the mean number of confidants in two decades, from 2.9 to 2.1. Pundits seized on the Internet as the culprit – the screens were gobbling people up and diverting them from the high-minded salons in which most had purportedly engaged. Columnist Sebastian Mallaby opined in the Washington Post, “by some reckoning, social isolation is as big a risk factor for premature death as smoking” (June 26).

Never mind that the sociologists had not found evidence of the Internet’s impact, and that many structural changes had happened in American society, from reconfigured domesticity to post-911 paranoia. Never mind that most Americans had heretofore spent most of their evenings watching television rather than debating Habermas, and it was television ratings that were palpably down.

Yet, there is evidence, and it is accumulating in a nuanced fashion. I have space to present only a few bits from Statistics Canada’s 2005 General Social Survey, our NetLab’s “Connected Lives” studies, “Netville” study, and “The Strength of Internet Ties” study (the latter done in collaboration with the Pew Internet folks). These studies show an abundance of ties with friends, relatives and neighbors. While the Statistics Canada survey suggests somewhat less flesh-to-flesh contact with community members, the totality of the other studies shows that people are maintaining many ties, they are communicating often with the members of their communities, and they are using a variety of media – they are multiplexing mavens of flesh-to-flesh, phone (wired and mobile; voice and text), email, and IM. Email is for contact with a wide range of people, while IM and mobile phone is for contact with those who are socially close or who are spatially close and about to meet. Yet, despite the hype about the Internet, most contact is flesh-to-flesh and by phone: not everyone lives online as much as we do. Nevertheless, the Internet seems to be especially useful for those who are active in their networking and who are immersed in large social networking.

These are first-pass observations. Although they go beyond the sheer counting of early surveys, they require more detailed analysis. The analytic fun will go on; the panic is foolish.

Extracts of Matthew Allen’s reflections on the Internet Studies developments
at Curtin University in July 2002
Interview questions, interview edits and commentary by Denise N. Rall

Denise: Matt, what do you conceive of as Internet studies? Or is this a bad question for right now? . . . why don’t you tell me how you got involved?

Matthew: I did a PhD which was kind of a historical storytelling around what is organizational change in the military, I guess it inspires me to a different set of ideas [including] questions of organizational change, it was very interdisciplinary, and while I was doing that I became very interested in the general question of innovation. Through that I discovered poststructuralism and so on.” After his Ph.D., Matthew moved to Perth, Western Australia, and worked in a variety of positions in History and Cultural studies departments.

Also, Matt met Elizabeth Reid at a conference. She had written her Master’s and Ph.D. thesis around the topic of virtual communities before the Word Wide Web. Matt reports: “I happened to buy two first editions of the WIRED magazine, and foolishly for me, although luckily for her, I gave her my second copy of the first edition. She was indicating to me this amazing world of the ‘net [through the] the text-based world. And I started to get a sense here of something which was really amazingly different and creative, and wasn’t just something that academics might use, which had been my experience up until then” and Elizabeth influenced Matt, “just through – maybe three hours of conversations.”

Further, as Matt notes: “because of the online teaching and using the internet for my own research, I could foresee that this was something absolutely central to social and cultural life. As it happened, at about that time, ’97, the Business school was setting up an e-commerce venture.” Elsewhere on the Curtin campus, the attitudes were similar to computer science, where they thought of the internet as “just a waste of time.”

Matt then comments, “So I started one unit in internet studies which ran for the first time in 1998. And when I started to research for teaching this unit, it was interesting, the teaching-research nexus [was] going the other way. To teach something you’ve actually discovered a whole lot of really interesting questions that you think you want answers to. So teaching a unit, seeing the student’s reaction to it which was – they were very enthused about it. But it drew together some unusual kinds of mixtures of students.”

Later in 1999, Matthew’s naescent internet studies program was relocated to the school of media and information. As he notes, the reception there to internet studies was interesting, as some academics told him, THEY knew the internet, and he didn’t. Matt notes: “that frustrated me hugely at the time, because they said: ‘We do the internet.’ And I said, ‘ where are your units on it?’ ‘Oh, we just talk about it inside the units.’ So I said, ‘ You haven’t got any documentation about it? I don’t think you’re doing it.’ Plus, even if you are, ‘so, where’s your Baudrilliard in your unit?’ ‘Oh, who’s he?’

Denise and Matthew talked for about three hours, so the interview here is greatly abbreviated. What is remarkable is a snapshot on internet studies that still resonates today. As Matthew indicated in July of 2002, the internet is a contested term:

"It’s a very overladen signifier. You say ‘internet’ to a librarian, and they think in terms of information quality, information retrieval, even things as simple as document delivery . . . They had no conception of it as a social technology that would involve people having cybersex, and doing their banking from home, and setting up web cams. Then,you’d talk to the sociologists of work, and they were all fixed into the teleworking mentality. As good Marxists they were very anti-this, because it was just capitalism exploiting workers more. To the business people it was money . . . And in a sense, was the dot-com revolution – [while] for me, the dot-com revolution is an interesting object of study. . . in information systems, the internet as a portal, it’s about information systems, a big computer, with workers, with server-client software, that’s exactly controlled through the server.”

Matthew also felt adamant that the program should not become new media studies, because: “it’s known as new media, even when it’s old media, because of the history [behind it], [but] it wasn’t new. And so I wasn’t going to call it new. And I wasn’t interested in pay TV and digital TV and new ways of making films.”

Matthew wanted his students to actively pursue meanings rather than focus on mastering the technology. As he says: “There’s a set of interests there that are personal to me, that are internalized by looking at the media – and ‘what does this mean?’ What is this all about? About audiences and constructions of active audience and constructions of meaning, and so on. And, there was something about the internet that couldn’t be neatly fitted into any of those boxes. . so I was very conscious that the internet would get absorbed into new media. I was [more] interested in the concept of social infomatics from [the late] Rob Kling . . . ”

Finally, Matthew had to collaborate with his colleagues about naming the new program. “I got talked out of infomatics, [and] we had to get a consensus on this. People were looking to me to lead the debate, but it had to be consensual within the school. People [thought of] the bad old days of infomatics out of that behaviorist - AI background. So [was] the wrong phrase, because it’s now part of health infomatics, or cultural infomatics, to mean the capture of a social phenomenon within data that is automatically processed.”

From its inception in 1998, the internet studies program at Curtin University continues from strength to strength, not just because it is the largest program, as based on student enrollments, but because of the innovative leadership of Matthew Allen and the programs other talented academics. (See netstudies.curtin.edu.au/).

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Current Conferences and CFPs -

2007 Conference on Communities and Technologies
Conference: June 28-30, 2007 at Michigan State University. Click here for more information.

2007 International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS)
Conference: June 1-2, 2007 at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. More information

Association of Internet Researchers
Conference: Internet Research 8.0: Let¹s Play! International and Interdisciplinary Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers October 17 - 20, 2007 in Vancouver, Canada

CFP:
International and Interdisciplinary Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers due February 1, 2007 Click here for more information

The Society for Social Studies of Science (4S)

Editor: The Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) is soliciting applications for the editorship of the journal Science, Technology, & Human Values. (http://www.4sonline.org/pubs.htm)

CFP: 2007 Annual Meeting October 11-13, Montreal, Canada due February 1, 2007 (http://www.4sonline.org/meeting.htm)

The European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST)
International Communication Association (ICA)
Conference: 2007 Conference of the International Communication Association May 24-28, 2007 San Francisco, USA

European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA)
Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association (MeCCSA)
Conference: Joint Annual Conference of MeCCSA and AMPE January 10 –12, 2007 Coventry University Technology Park, Puma Way, Coventry, CV1 2TT, UK

Central States Communication Association (CSCA)
Conference: 2007 Central States Communication Association Conference, March 27 -April 1, 2007 Minneapolis, Minnesota

Southern States Communication Association (CSCA)
Conference: 2007 SSCA Convention March 28th - April 1st Louisville, Kentucky.

Eastern Communication Association (ECA)
Conference: 98th Annual ECA Convention April 25, 2007 - April 29, 2007, Providence, Rhode Island
Western States Communication Association (WSCA)
2007 Western States Communication Association Conference February 16-20 Seattle, WA

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Report from the Publishing Working Group
By Caroline Haythornthwaite, Chair

The AoIR Executive has established a Publishing Working Group to look at publishing options and opportunities for AoIR, its members, and presenters at conferences. The group will be led by Caroline Haythornthwaite and will include 4-5 AoIR members. The group will begin its operations in January, 2007.

Report from the Ethics Working Group
By Elizabeth Buchanan, Chair

The Ethics Working Group is comprised of a number of dedicated and diverse individuals, many of whom have been on the committee since its inception. Early work of the Group entailed the formulation of the Ethical decision-making and Internet research: Recommendations from the AoIR ethics working group, a document that is widely consulted, cited, and used in academic coursework. A compilation of its use is available here.

The Group also continues to field questions and inquiries from scholars across the world on a regular basis, and will be revisiting the Recommendations report over the next year for updates. Committee members have been quite busy on their own, as well. Andrea Baker is co-editor, with Monica Whitty and James Inman, of a new book forthcoming next year from Palgrave, Online Matchmaking, and along with continuing her work on romantic relationships, is beginning a study of an online community of rock fans. Maria Bakardjieva is completing a study on the demand and use of broadband in rural communities in Alberta, Canada and is starting work on a book project tentatively entitled From Promise to Prose: The Mainstreaming of the Internet. Heidi Campbell is writing a book, When Religion Meets New Media while also conducting research on how bloggers represent and construct religious authority online. Annette Markham is working on a new book, with Nancy Baym, entitled Qualitative Internet Research: Dialogue among Scholars. Michele White published The Body and the Screen: Theories of Internet Spectatorship (MIT Press), and is researching Buy It Now: Lessons from eBay. Mark Johns is busy heading up his department of Communication Studies at Luther College, while also doing work on identity performance on Facebook. Charles Ess is serving as an Information Ethics Fellow at the Center for Information Policy Research (CIPR), University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and is writing a book for Polity Press on information ethics, among numerous other engagements. I am writing a case book on library and information ethics, and recently took over as Director of the CIPR. This Center has great potential—one large-scale project just getting underway comes from a collaboration with Mark Frankel at the AAAS. The CIPR will assume work on an extensive IRE online resource center. When completed, it will serve as a great site for IRE scholarship. I will be posting more information about this project as it unfolds. Finally, Charles Ess and I submitted a grant proposal around IRE issues to the National Science Foundation and hope this is funded to provide further research opportunities for the AoIR Ethics Group and other IRE scholars. There is much work yet to be done!

Individuals interested in the Ethics Group’s work, please email me

Report from the Graduate Group
By Ted Coopman, Chair

I am happy to report that the Exec continues to be very supportive and interested in the needs of graduate student members. I have worked hard to ensure that the needs and concerns of student members are taken into consideration in all deliberations. First I would like to thank Mary-Helen Ward for taking the initiative and starting the AoIR Student Blog Ring. We like good ideas and REALLY like people who want to implement them! Stay tuned to the AoIR website for more information. This past year I initiated the Graduate Student Research Group (GSRG) project and supporting listserv. This is an opportunity for student members to conduct research for the benefit of the general membership and get an introduction to academic service. Graduate Student Research Teams (GSRT) are recruited from the GSRG for specific projects. The pilot project was an analysis of national, institutional, and disciplinary affiliations of participants for the Brighton conference. The Exec would like to thank our international team, Michelle Kowalsky, Maciej Kos, Samantha Henderson, Magdalena Olszanowski, Jonathan Stern, Paul Teusner, Maja Turnsek, and team coordinator Tim Patch for their hard work. A second team has formed to do a similar analysis of the Chicago program. Results will be posted on the AoiR website. This research helps the Exec determine the contours of conference participation, which assists us in planning, outreach, and organizing efforts. Another GSRT is currently forming to identify and gather information on academic publication venues for internet research. Stay tuned to the AoIR list for further information. If graduate student members are interested in joining the GSRG, they can email me.

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Introduction:
The Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) is an entirely volunteer run organisation. It’s primary resources are: its members, the general email list (air-l), the website (aoir.org) including conference papers, wiki, members directory and other participatory tools and resources, information about the annual conference (air.org/conference), the Aoir working groups, the four AoIR annuals, and the executive

Resource Guide:
List Serv
The air-l list serv is open to both members and non-members and is where the main life of AoIR occurs, in between the annual conferences - generally friendly and a great source of information.
http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org

Web Site
The website (ww.aoir.org) has content that is open to members and non-members, general resources and information about the organisation is open to all. Content varies according to how much people are putting into the site. Currently we have the following:
• air-l email list
• AoIR Wiki
• Members Directory
• Scholarly Resources
• AoIR Conferences
• Internet Research Annual
• AoIR Publications

The AoIR wiki is also open to all internet research scholars.

Scholarly Resources
These are divided into:
• Individual Articles and Papers
• Books, Journals and Bibliographies
• Email Lists and electronic forums
• Websites and Webliographies

AoIR conferences
The heart and soul – (after the list serv) - we are on our 8th!
AoIR 8: Let’s Play, 2007, the site is open and the conference is in Vancouver. More information here.

AoIR Research Annuals
The four AoIR annuals were produced from the conferences and are published by Peter Lang as the Internet Research Annuals (volumes 1-4). These were edited by the Exec and conference organisers each year.

AoIR web site publications are currently:
• The AoIR Ethics Guide, the fruits of the first Ethics Working Group, written in 2002 under the leadership of Charles Ess
• The AoIR List of Lists, a collaborative effort of the Executive in 2003, to bring together a list of many useful email lists

Links to all of these resources are available on the website: www.aoir.org

The Executive Committee:
This is the primary decision-making body of the Association of Internet Researchers. Its primary role is to ensure the continued viability of the Association, advance the interests of members and of Internet research in general. The Committee is elected every two years, with the previous Vice-President becoming President.

The current Executive, which took office in October 2005, is:

• President - Matthew Allen
• Vice-President - Charles Ess
• Treasurer - Monica Murero
• Secretary - Irene Berkowitz
• Graduate Student - Ted Coopman
• Open Seats (3) - Caroline Haythornthwaite, Randy Kluver, Kate O'Riordan
• Past President - Nancy Baym
• Systems Officers (2) - Alex Halavais, Holly Kruse

The roles remain the same but anyone in the membership can be elected - so take part and help contribute

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