Linked below, please find the statements from candidates for positions on the Executive Committee of AoIR during the 2009-2011 term. If you have questions for the candidates, please post them in the comments section for each statement.

Please click the candidates’ names to read their statements.

Vice President

• Alex Halavais
• Monica Murero

Secretary

• Catherine Middleton

Treasurer

• Michael Zimmer

Graduate Student Representative

• Gordon Carlson

Open Seat

• Elizabeth Buchanan
• Ted Coopman
• Suely Fragoso
• Marj Kibby

1. What is your interest in this position?

I have served Aoir since 2001 (Treasurer, Open seat, Conference Chair) . Since 2005 I am the AoIR Treasurer; during my mandate our money in the bank has triplicated.

I am interested in sustaining the uniqueness of air-l network where anyone can exchange and benefit from information and discussion of new ideas not easily available otherwise.

I have worked with all the AoIR Presidents: Steve Jones, Nancy Baym, Matthew Allen, Charles Ess and Mia Consalvo. I have learned a lot from them and I have been inspired by their dedication and hard work over the years.

Every year since 2001 I work on the conference organization. I vision the friendly atmosphere of AoIR conferences as a real treasure to safe over time. I am interested in preserving the unique “Aoir academic atmosphere” we create every year. I anticipate the moment when I meet amazing people that are stimulated and challenged by great ideas and serious discussions, different perspectives and exchanges in an informal setting, that make me look forward to traveling every year to meet what I feel have become “my people”, and without which most of my work would have not been written.

2. What are your qualifications for this position?

Charles Ess calls me the “Aoir bee”.

I have 9 years experience serving Aoir in different positions and projects. I have worked “behind the stage” in all areas of activity from finance , to conference organization and publications. I started serving when Aoir was 2 years old as Conference Chair (Maastricht, 2001/2002) and received the first Aoir Lifetime membership. In 2003 I joined the exec (invited open seat, Nancy Baym President) . From 2005 I was elected Treasurer twice (Matthew Allen and Charles Ess Presidents). I have worked with amazing people behind the stage of the most successful Aoir conferences , including Vancouver, Copenhagen and Milwaukee, trying to keep our “informal style” unchanged over time. In 2009 I was nominated for both the positions of Treasurer and VP (no self-nomination!) .

Outside from my Aoir activity, and through my professional curriculum I have developed a multicultural and open academic vision having worked and lived for several years in the US, Holland, Canada, and Ireland.

As Director of the e-Life International Institute at the University of Firenze for several years, I have developed a solid experience in financial control and I have preserved my global coordinating international teams. At the present I work as Associate Professor in Sociology of New Technologies and Politics of e-government and I have developed a research interest in the interdisciplinary field of e-health. In 2006 Ronald Rice and I edited a book where all contributors are Aoir’s ( Murero M., Rice R., (2006) Internet and Health Care: Theory, Research and Practice. NJ, USA: Erlbaum).

3. What are two or three short-term goals you would like to achieve through membership of the executive?
Planning and spending money on strategic goals is difficult . Finding the money to finance those visions and projects is challenging – my main contribute to our association in the last years.

I.First short-term goal: Introduce New Aoir Research GRANTS to fund solid research proposals from young and “not so young” scholars or groups of researchers that can contribute to the growth of Internet Research in the international scientific community. There are amazing people, ideas and projects that deserve an opportunity to grow.

II. Develop further AoIR fee-waiver policy and conference travel funds to participate to our conference (see question n.5). Funds are scarce everywhere and we need to have more chances to receive financial support based on merit and need. In 2009 three attendees will receive a conference-fee waiver. I think this is the right direction for Aoir ’s future.

III. Our website should treasure the amazing information we exchange in air-l . I think about a paid position for the job for someone interested: job and publications opportunities, research grants, news, other conferences, educational tools to improve the quality of our lessons and smart software to develop our research interests will be at easy reach in our website to anyone interested in Internet Research .

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

I think that AoIR has grown enough to straighten its prestige internationally. Our community has extraordinary competences to participate to key debates on the future of the internet from an academic perspective . In order to reach this goal I am thinking about activating collaborations and cultural exchange via publication projects, conferences, air-l diffusion and research projects with international and worldwide organizations like UNESCO, WHO, W3C and others- with which I am already in contact for my professional activity – and write together the white pages of the future of Internet Research. We have the people, resources and chances to be successful.

Long-term vision of Internal /administrative process: currently, Aoir is run exclusively thanks to volunteers that have been doing an amazing job all these years. Financially, we are solid enough to vision, plan and pay for professional services and rationalize key area like system administration and conference management. We’ll grow as association if we improve difficult internal processes (abstract submission system, management of registrations to the conference, membership database, access to Aoir website conference papers and air-l archives – should all be part of a well coordinated multi-task software solution , to be set up by paid professionals together with an Aoir’s interdisciplinary team.

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

Steve Jones wrote: ” Monica has earned her place in AoIR history” (Maastricht conference, Conference Chair, 2002 – http://aoir.org/?page_id=49 ) .

Since our bank account has triplicated during my current mandate as Treasurer we have the money for new initiatives to sustain people who “have much to contribute to an annual Internet Research Conference”, a goal I was dreaming since 2005 (I.R.6.0 , Aoir GM, Chicago) . Thanks to the hard work and dedication of many people that dream has became a concrete reality (new aoir Fee-Waivers policy, 2008 http://listserv.aoir.org/htdig.cgi/air-l-aoir.org/2009-January/017893.html ).

1. What is your interest in this position?

AoIR has been a kind of academic home for me, a place where I can learn and explore new ideas. Over the years, it has provided a great deal to me and I would like to continue to contribute back to the organization in a meaningful way. In the position of VP, I have the opportunity to help directly shape the future of AoIR, and I look forward to fostering the growth and evolution of the community.

2. What are your qualifications for this position?

I am currently an associate professor, teaching in a masters program in “interactive communication” at Quinnipaic University, just outside of New Haven, Connecticut. My research increasingly addresses how scholars make use of networked technologies, work that I hope can continue to influence the success of AoIR as a scholarly institution. I also serve as the Technical Director for the Digital Media and Learning Hub, housed at the UC Humanities Research Institute–another effort to bring together scholars into a digital community. Before and during my academic career, I have served in a range of positions in city government (in the US and abroad) and business, including work in financial services, teaching, and budget and administration.

Not having been involved from the first year, I cannot make the claim to pioneer status in AoIR. But starting in 2001, I have presented at each of the conferences, and have been an an active contributor to discussions outside of the conferences. In the process, I’ve been lucky enough to meet and talk to many of you. I’ve served on the Executive Committee for the last four years as the systems officer, and in that position gained a fairly intimate picture of the how AoIR works (and doesn’t work).

3. What are two or three short-term goals you would like to achieve through membership of the executive?

First, I think that AoIR needs a clearer long-term strategic plan. We need to think now about where we aim to be not just next year, but five years from now. This is particularly true in terms of our use of both traditional capital and social capital. AoIR is maturing as an organization, largely through the efforts of a large group of people dedicated to seeing it succeed. There is a danger that as we grow, we may fail to leverage this good will and the talents of our membership. We need to seek out ways in which small contributions of time from our members can result in significant outcomes for the field.

We have been lucky enough over the last few years to accumulate some capital, but have failed, I think, to adequately reinvest those funds in the health of the organization and the benefit of its membership. This should not be seen as a specific critique of anyone on the Executive Committee. We needed to secure the organization and ensure its continued viability even during economic and other downturns. However, we need to have a much stronger plan for how to make use of those funds most effectively in the future. There are some things we can do in the short and long term to enhance the organization and better serve its members. I have some specific ideas about how to do this, as do other members, and we need to have a conversation about how best to move forward.

Second, and very broadly, I would like to see a greater dedication to opening up the organization. This means a number of things. I think the decisions of the Executive should be transparent and publicly published so that the membership knows what we are doing, can hold us accountable, and can contribute to the discussion.

We need to actively engage a range of publics to make sure our research becomes a part of public and policy discussions. And I think we need to explore ways of engaging in open exchange of not just research results, but research in progress, shared data, methods, and tools. We need to make sure that the Association of Internet Researchers promotes not just the dissemination of research but the social and technical infrastructures to encourage it. The annual conference is a great way for this to happen, as is AIR-L, and I hope we can build on those two models.

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

I think our trajectory is right, and it’s not time for major change. But there are things we can do better.

There has been a recognition in a range of fields and industries that the social and cultural dimensions of computing and networking are especially important. This is something many of us have been telling our constituent fields for decades, but now even the slowest moving are finally coming around. This is a critical juncture, and many are adding their voices to the discussion. I think that it is important that AoIR be at the forefront of this discussion. There are opportunities for partnering with disciplinary organizations and conferences, but I do not want the unique voice of AoIR, an organization that has pioneered this as a field, to be lost in the sea of newcomers. We need to invite them in, and continue to act as a catalyst in building connections across disciplines.

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

As I’ve seen a series of people pass through the process of being VP, president, and past-president, I realize that rather than any particular stance or direction, what is important is someone who can get things done. We’ve been extraordinarily lucky as an organization to have a series of people who have been able to get things done, and people who have had fun doing it. It’s a tall order to fill those shoes, but I think I can do it.

I have some more specific thoughts about what should happen in the first few months of the new Executive. Some of these I’ve shared informally with the current Executive, and others will be specific to my successor in the systems position. However, if you have questions, I do hope you will comment below. Nothing demonstrates the health of a scholarly group better, I think, than good (friendly) critical discussion.