Internet Researchers take Gothenburg by storm (literally)

Last week was an eventful one, when the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) descended upon Gothenburg, Sweden for their annual meeting (October 21-23rd), affectionately known as #ir11 on Twitter.
My experiences of the city, unfortunately, seemed to occupy the rainy blustery times (after the conference let out each evening) whereas those who managed to explore during the day got a sunny version. This picture (above) shows the battle between dark and light being fought out in anticipation of my session letting out.
The conference sessions took place at Chalmers University of Technology, and was well-documented via the Twitter/Facebook channels, as well as blogs. Staying true to the "Internet Research" and "Green" aspect, pen and paper was a rarity!
Mathias Klang's blog documents most of the sessions I attended (including my own!), and does a good recap. The usual suspects, along with a good showing from the local Scandinavian populous, made for a classy yet casual affair :)
What I continue to appreciate about AoIR is the interdisciplinary nature of the conference and panels at large. Of course, the question of whether or not to split into Special Interest Groups came up at various points and the AGM, but really, experience leads me to believe that we can handle our special interests the rest of the year and that conferences are a great time to come together and cross-pollinate and find new compatible research partnerships as well.
People were mentioning that some of the most intellectually stimulating points of the conference came from when they just serendipitously walked into a session.
Speaking of which, there are always unexpected things that occur, such as keynotes not being able to show up, or suddenly finding yourself doing one because a whole other panel did not show up (just say), or some people in your audience trying to get everyone to sing you happy birthday after your presentation (for example:). Thanks, Jeremy!
Again, what I really enjoy about AoIR is how we manage to organize, grow, yet keep it real and messy (as we know the world to be) and how it always seems like a family reunion. Only, this family does interesting research on the Internet.

AoIR 8.0 a huge success

The 8th annual meeting of the Association of Internet Researchers (“AoIR”) has just wrapped up in Vancouver. It was, by all accounts, an enormous success, despite the heavy rain that kept people indoors.

Sponsored in part by Simon Fraser University, University of Washington, and the University of Southern California, as well as Microsoft Research, Linden Labs, and Joi Ito Lab, the conference ran from October 17 to 20th at SFU’s downtown campus.

Over 300 delegates from 29 countries participated, and over 240 papers were presented in up to 9 parallel sessions on the 3 main conference days (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday). Keynote speakers included John Lester (LindenLabs, Boston), Henry Jenkins (MIT) and John Willinsky (Stanford).

Read the summary on the School of Communication's blog here>>

Delicious, flickr... searches all apply. There's lots.
As Borat would say, "Great SUCCESS!"

Internet Researchers descend on Vancouver for AOIR 8.0 Let's Play

Here at SFU Vancouver, we are proud to host the Association of Internet Researchers annual conference starting TOMORROW October 17, and going until the 20th. As part of the ground committee (organized by fearless Conference Chair Richard Smith) I can say that we've got a great event lined up and we're looking forward to welcoming y'all to share ideas with leading movers and shakers in the field. Just take a look at the awesome lineup of keynote speakers: Henry Jenkins (MIT), John Lester aka Pathfinder Linden (Linden Lab), and John Willinsky (UBC).

The conference website with information on the program, abstracts, and presenters is here. Too numerous and high quality to name them all here, so you'll just have to see for yourself.

The wiki of goings ons is here. What would we do without them.

There is, of course, a Facebook group -- just search under AoIR... and pie...

The abstract of my presentation on the Korean online games industry with Dal Yong Jin is here. Please do come. It's going to be a smashing panel with Lisa Nakamura (UIUC), Dan Burk (UMinnesota Law School), Sal Humphreys (Queensland UT), and Sara Grimes(SFU). It's on Friday, October 19th in theatre HC 1900 at Harbour Centre, 1:30.

Let's Play. Come and say hi. I'll be making sure there's still cream for coffee and the like.

Publication in Internet Research Annual

More lovely surprises in the mail, my own copy of the latest AOIR Internet Research Annual. It contains selected papers from the Association of Internet Researchers Conference from 2005 that got flagged for the publication and underwent subsequent revisions. The final product looks great. The editors did a fabulous job keeping everything going and making the process as painless as possible!

New this year from Peter Lang Publishers, is the Internet Research Annual Volume 4, edited by Mia Consalvo and Caroline Haythornthwaite. It is #33 in the Digital Formations series.

My contribution: Florence Chee/Richard K. Smith: Online Gamers and the Ambiguity of Community: Korean Definitions of Togetherness for a New Generation.

Specs:
Year of Publication: 2007
New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, Oxford, Wien, 2007. VI, 213 pp.
ISBN 978-0-8204-7857-9 pb.

For more info, book synopsis, contents, and ordering, go here.