Hello All,

I am happy to announce the formation of the Association of Internet Researchers Graduate Student Research Group (AoIR-GSRG) and a call for participants.

The purpose of the GSRG is to recruit graduate student members of AoIR who wish to take a more active role in the association. GSRG members would agree to serve one year as part of a pool of volunteers from which specific Graduate Student Research Teams (GSRT) would be drawn. GSRT participation would be on a voluntary basis. Individual teams would be tasked with a research project that would benefit the association and its members. The AoIR Executive Committee would determine the projects, the scope, and the disposition of the research performed. The rationale is that the association and its members can make better decisions with accurate information on topics of interest. More details on potential projects are below.

It is envisioned that any project would be distributed among team members so that the time commitment would be on par with an average research paper or less.

Members wanting to serve for more than one year may be renewed at the discretion of the Graduate Student Representative to the Executive Committee who acts as overall project coordinator.

Teams are largely self-managing, but will be required to submit research plans and meet specific deadlines. The Executive, through the Graduate Student Representative, would work collaboratively with each team to ensure that projects are successfully completed within the terms originally approved by the Executive.

"Exploring Online Research Methods in a Virtual Training Environment is an ESRC funded project running from May 2004 to July 2006 under the Research Methods Training Programme.

The project aims to enhance understanding of online research methods through the production and evaluation of a self-supporting online training package targeted at the social science community."

The following are Quicktime videos of the presentations at Internet Research 6.0 in the autumn of 2005 in Chicago. Thanks are due to Soo Jeong An, Marisha Pathak, Francisco Seoane, and Evan Venie for shooting and preparing the videos.

The UN and Internet Governance: Fears, Hopes, and Possibilities
Ang Peng Hwa, Nanyang Technological University

Digital Formations: the Intersection of Technical and Social Logics in Electronic Space
Saskia Sassen, University of Chicago
(Based on her chapter in Digital Formations: New Architectures in the Global Realm Princeton University Press, 2005.)

Youthful Experts: A Critical Appraisal of Children and Young People's Emerging Internet Literacy
Sonia Livingstone, London School of Economics

"The Center for Internet Research was created to conduct inter-disciplinary research into the nexus of Internet technology and the human experience. Topics include digital technology, psychology, sociology, ethics, commerce, politics, semiotics and pedagogy. By creating a collaboration of industry, government, learning institutions, and the scientific communities TCFIR will become a focal point for Internet research in a global community.

Works relating to the areas of education, cyber-culture, cyber-business, social theory, literary studies, digital art, and cultural studies will be given priority.

In this collaboration, we invite participation from the world-wide community of Internet scholars.

The center has no agendas other than spirited discourse, discovery and scholarship."

The IR7.0 Doctoral Colloquium offers PhD students working in Internet research or a related field a special forum on 27 September 2006 where they will have a chance to present their research plans and discuss them with peers and established senior researchers.

Interested students should prepare a 2 page summary of their research. This should provide a context for the research, describe the methods being used, the progress to date and expectations and hopes from the colloquium.

Please submit your 2 page application by 1 April 2006 to: Marcus Foth at m.foth@qut.edu.au

Applicants will be notified of acceptance by 1 June 2006. Successful applicants will be asked to prepare an 8 page report (not a paper) on their research by 1 August 2006.

Colloquium Chairs: Steve Jones, Nancy Baym, Randy Kluver, and Barbara Adkins

Doctoral Colloquium Host and Sponsor: Creative Industries Faculty at Queensland University of Technology

Abstract
"This study summarizes prior reviews of new media and Internet research, and the growth of the term Internet in academic publications and online newsgroups. It then uses semantic network analysis to summarize the interests and concepts of an interdisciplinary group of Internet researchers, as represented by session titles and paper titles and abstracts from the 2003 and 2004 Association of Internet Researchers conferences. In both years, the most frequent words appearing in the paper abstracts included Internet, online, community, social, technology, and research. The 2003 papers emphasized topics such as the social analysis/research of online/Internet communication, community, and information, with particular coverage of access, individuals, groups, digital media, culture; role and process in e-organizations; and world development. The 2004 papers emphasized topics such as access; news and social issues; the role of individuals in communities; user-based studies; usage data; and blogs, women, and search policy, among others."

Ronald E. Rice, "New media/Internet research topics of the association of Internet researchers" (2005). Information Society. 21 (4), pp. 285-299. Postprint available free at: http://repositories.cdlib.org/postprints/943 (click visit below).

We are slowly reorganising and developing the AoIR website, so please bear with us for a few weeks if things seem to be changing. You will notice, firstly, a different 'look' to the front page, with some different menu items. The left navigation block, 'AoIR Activities', is highly specific to the main things which the Association does at the moment. The front page will tend to be 'light on', containing only the most important content. The best way to use the site for your own content is, when you have logged in as a member:

• create a new forum topic to stimulate discussion
• make a contribution to an existing discussion
• create content such as individual pages, stories, books, and more
• maintain a blog here or link from here to your own blog

As part of the development of the AoIR website, I have created this discussion topic so as to gather opinions from members and visitors about the ways in which AoIR might develop further. To commence this discussion I will pose a simple question:

how much should this website should be used like the air-l list - for freeflowing discussion - and how much should the site be a relatively 'static' place, with most of the 'current info' appearing on air-l?

Digital Formations book series, published by Peter Lang (series editor Steve Jones), contains many books that are highly relevant to Internet Studies, Cybercultural Studies, and other internet and new media-related research.

Many of these books are written by AoIR members. The series includes the three AoIR Internet Research Annuals.

More information on all titles in the series can be found at the Digital Formations page at Peter Lang's website.