The candidate submitted the following statement:

1) What is your interest in this position?

My interest in the open seat position is to give back to AoIR in the form of service to the organization and to work with like-minded, committed individuals on the executive committee.

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

I was at the first AoIR meeting in Kansas, with a panel and paper on the program, and thereafter, with yearly panels and/or papers on online relationships, identities and communities, and research ethics. I have missed only one AoIR conference so far since 2000. I also participate in the AoIR Ethics Committee, which has provided some of the earliest, most thorough guidelines for scholars researching aspects of computer-mediated communication, and continues to evolve to address various types of research methodologies through case studies. People I’ve met at AoIR in different countries connected me with others with similar research foci, including an editor and publisher for my book on couples who met online (Double Click, 2005), and collaborators to edit a book of readings (Online Matchmaking, 2007). Recently I’ve communicated with some scholars who study online communities and networks, particularly people who examine offline and online ties, as well as with faculty who teach online and write about issues of distance education.

The informal conversations with colleagues at AoIR and feedback between meetings have proven invaluable for me, personally and professionally. AoIR’s interdisciplinary, international emphasis and pioneer role in internet research has made it my primary conference.

3) What are two or three short-term goals you would like to achieve through membership of the executive (include a rationale for each and how you would contribute to their achievement)?

(1) A goal is to provide spaces at future meetings for informal sharing of data and perspectives on specified topics. Organizers at prior Aoir conferences solicited suggestions, and announced the topics in the program. At one such session, I recall a large number of people gathered around a long table for spirited and fruitful sharing of their ongoing research projects.

(2) A goal is to have scholars at conferences held by a variety of other disciplines from gender studies to computer science become more aware of the benefits of AoIR by attending co-sponsored sessions or pre-conference workshops at their national and international meetings led by members clearly identified with AoIR. Through this method, they would learn firsthand more about our philosophy, research and support network.

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

A long-term view is to expand the group, to have it grow in size and scope, and yet retain the camaraderie and sense of “home” that members have felt from the start.

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

I have a background of nearly fifteen years of research in internet studies and can perhaps provide a long-range view on the field, at least on certain aspects of it.

The candidate submitted the following statement:

1. What is your interest in this position?

I have had a long-standing involvement with AOIR. Although I was not present at the creation of AOIR , I did stage the conference –The World Wide Web and Contemporary Cultural Theory at Drake University in 1999–that inspired Steve Jones and Nancy Baym to do IR 1.0, which in turn became the founding moment of organization. Since that time I have either presented papers and/or organized panels at IR 4 (Toronto), IR 6 (Chicago), IR 8 (Vancouver), IR 9 (Copenhagen), IR 10 (Milwaukee) and IR 11 (Gothenburg). I also have a panel and paper accepted for IR 12 (Seattle). I have also served as a reviewer for conference paper proposals for IR 6-IR 11 (not sure what happened this year). AOIR is the one and only professional academic organization that I consider to be my “home” and, as such, want to contribute to its well-being in ways different than the conference itself.

2. What are your qualifications for this position?

I am presently Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario (that’s in Canada!) with prior institutiona stints as Visiting Professor at York University (Toronto-Communication and Culture) and College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, MA-Sociology). I was a tenured Associate Professor of Sociology at Drake University (Des Moines, Iowa) before moving to Canada in 2004. I have a long history of research and scholarship in the field of Internet Research beginning with my co-edited book, The World Wide Web and Contemporary Cultural Theory (Routledge, 2001). Since then, I have published on digital media and internet issues in an array of journals, ranging from DePaul Law Review and South Atlantic Quarterly to Cultural Studies and Anthropological Quarterly. I am current working on sequel to the World Wide Web book that was based on a workshop I just hosted in February called “Materialities and Imaginaries of the Mobile Internet”. My work is promiscuously interdisciplinary in theory and method, qualities that I adore and treasure in AOIR as an academic organization and as an intellectual community

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

First, I would like to see AOIR make a sustained effort to broaden our membership to regions outside of Europe, North America and Australia. There is so much exciting work being done by scholars in South America, South Asia, South Africa and East Asia and it behooves us to widen the circle of our community to include them if we are to be the leading organization of Internet scholars on the planet (see below). If elected to the executive, I promise I will call forth the heavy metal spirits to convince the organization to hold an IR in the near future in either Brazil, India or Korea.

Secondly, I would like to see us development a more compelling and dynamic Internet presence. I realize that this takes a lot of work and creativity, but we of all academic organizations should be able to work the medium to our advantage in terms of community, collaboration, and advancement of the project of critical internet studies.

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

World domination. Period. \,,/

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

I am at the stage of my career where I can say that the only reason I want to be on the Executive is to help take the organization to the next stage of its existence, however we collectively define it, without regard for recognition or recompense of any kind.

The candidate submitted the following statement:

1) What is your interest in this position?

I am glad and honored to be nominated for the open seat position of the AoIR executive committee. I have been involved with the association since its beginning when Steve Jones was President. I served in the AoIR ethics committee under the leadership of Charles Ess and later with Elizabeth Buchanan. We deliberated on how best to undertake “research on human subjects” in an ethically sound manner when the “subjects” in question are those who participate in various ways on the Net. My interest in this position is to expand the scope of the Association so that it become genuinely international. Though the Net originated in the US, it has expanded to cover all corners of the globe as we know. So it is fitting that our association should expand its reach internationally too.

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

I am now associate professor of philosophy and Director of the Center for Ethics of Science and Technology at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand. I have published a number of works on the interdisciplinary areas where philosophy, sociology and new media studies intersect. As I said I have served under the AoIR ethics committee for a number of years and have been a long standing member of the association since its beginning. Though I have not participated in an AoIR conference (due mostly to budgetary reasons) I have followed its progress since AoIR 1 many years ago.

3) What are two or three short-term goals you would like to achieve through membership of the executive (include a rationale for each and how you would contribute to their achievement)?

One thing I would like to explore is the possibility of holding an AoIR conference abroad, perhaps in Asia, where it not been held before. Asia is the region where the internet is expanding most rapidly, and there are a growing number of scholars there who are investigating the phenomenon from their perspectives. This will fit with my interest in expanding the scope of our association to be more international.

Another thing is that I would like to help promote the activities of our association in my region. This can take many forms, such as organizing smaller local seminars under the auspice of the association on topics such as internet governance, freedom of expression, comparative studies of values in the east and west, and so on. This will do a great deal toward raising the awareness of the association among Asian internet scholars.

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

Usually scholarly associations are eventually associated with teaching programs. Perhaps there will be a “discipline” of internet studies which has a firmer shape and boundary. This will certainly remain interdisciplinary at its core, but it would be great for training newly emerging scholars in our field. So one vision I have is for our association to do what it can to nurture these younger scholars, as well as to integrate teaching and research in such a way that the knowledge we produce will help all of us in the world better reflect and understand the internet situation which is highly volatile. Our strength lies in this interdisciplinary nature where we come from different fields, backgrounds and methodologies to work together on the same set of problems. This has of course been our vision now and we can certainly look at it and find ways to adapt and modify that vision for the future while keeping our core value of camaraderie and interdisciplinarity.

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

Those who know me usually say that I am easy to work with and are helpful to others. I am dedicated to working for the group, a great team player and I am committed to working hard to complete the task at hand. I would be a very good choice if you consider expanding the scope of the association to become more international.