The 12th Annual International and Interdisciplinary Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR)

October 10-13, 2011

Renaissance Hotel, Seattle

Seattle, Washington, USA

People perform identities, worry about economic performance, expect better performance from technologies, and feel pressure to perform as employees or in other roles in life. We observe or participate in artistic performances, ritual performances, and the performance of experiments. Join us in considerations, analyses, and celebrations of the many types of performance and participation online and in blended online/offline contexts. We look forward to creative articulations of the many meanings of the term performance and to the many ways of considering types of participation.

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:

Creative performances and digital arts
Participatory culture and participatory design
Critical performance and political participation
Identity performance
Exclusion from participation
Economic performance of Internet-related industries
Game performance
Performance expectations (as workers, citizens, etc.)
Ritual performances and communal participation
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. We particularly invite proposals from scholars in the areas of digital arts and digital humanities.

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 “Fishbowl (conversation)” 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: 1 March 2011 (Papers, Panels and Pre-Workshops. Details below)

Notification: 1 May 2011

Full Papers Submissions Due: 1 July 2011

NOTE: The submission deadline this year is later than in previous years, but for this reason, it is a HARD DEADLINE; there will be no extensions to this date.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

All papers and presentations will be evaluated in a standard blind peer review.

Format

PAPERS (individual or multi-author) – submit abstract of 600-800 words
PANEL PROPOSALS – submit a description of 600-800 words on the panel theme, plus a 250-500 word abstract for each paper or 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 ir12chair@aoir.org. Workshop proposals should include names of presenters, and a 1,000-word description.
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 PAPERS

Full papers submitted by the 1 July 2011 deadline will undergo review to be published in an open-access, online collection, Papers of the Internet Research Conference (ISSN forthcoming).

Selected papers from the conference will be published in a special issue of the journal Information, Communication & Society. Authors selected for submission for this issue will be contacted prior to the conference.

PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS

On October 10, 2011, 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, 2011.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Program Chair: Lori Kendall, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, email: loriken(at)illinois(dot)edu
Conference Chair: Karine Nahon, Information School, University of Washington, email: karineb(at)uw(dot)edu