AoIR Review

As at AoIR last year I saw some great presentations, made connections with people from around the world, and had a good time. Because it was so far from home this time I got to do touristy things and meet a lot of folks I wouldn’t have otherwise met. I also had some serious jet lag, but I hope to add my bit to the record by providing a few notes.

Links on the presenter’s name go to the abstract in the AoIR program.

Hugh Mackay presented part of what seemed like a huge amount of ethnographic data about the role of the net in “normal” households. It’s nice to get a good dose of reality in terms of how people are actually using the internet today. It’s easy to get caught up in the geek world and think everyone is like you. People are actually not using it for a wide variety of purposes, just a few well defined genres, and not very often, usually something quick and specific.

Sabryna Cornish, a UIC alum, presented part of her PhD work on how major print newspapers framed the internet between 1988 and 1994. She has found the words safety, security, and lost as the most frequently associated with the internet in news stories throughout the whole period. I was somewhat surprised at “lost” showing up so high, but safety and security seem to be a pretty strong theme even today. I wonder if the themes have stayed the same through say 2004? I’d imagine that there is more diversity, but these themes still might take the top spots. It’s an interesting finding, if you think about the exuberance about the early internet, but not if you think about the conventions of journalism and scare tactics.

Nancy Baym presented a study of how Ann Landers and Dear Abby wrote about the internet from about 1992-2002. This was very interesting partly because the ‘internet as home-wrecker’ theme seems so funny to us now. She found a major shift in 2000 where letter writers and columnists stopped talking about the internet as a common problem that we face, but as individual issues i.e. the problem is that your husband/wife is having an affair, not the internet.

Richard Smith talked about his experience using podcasts, live streaming media, and many more technologies in his courses. I’ve seen/heard a lot of “how to use podcasts/Web 2.0/etc.” in the classroom, but this wasn’t tool-focused or exuberant. He had actual experience and research to base this on, and focused on learning. He recorded the presentation itself (he walks the walk..).

My own session went well. Although it was fairly early on the last day of the conference I still got some good feedback and questions. I’ve held off putting my part of the research for IRB reasons, and it’s just a first draft right now. We’re clear with the IRB, and maybe someone will find it useful, so here it is. It’s about our experience using tags at AoIR 05.