[ecrea] CfP AoIR 2016 Berlin: Internet Rules!

1st Call for Proposals
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AoIR 2016: INTERNET RULES!

Workshops: 5 October 2016
Main Conference: 6-8 October 2016

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany

AoIR 2016 is the 17th annual conference of the Association of Internet
Researchers, a transdisciplinary gathering of scholars interested in the
place of networked technologies in social processes.

AoIR 2016 will emphasize the relevance of the Internet in today’s
culture and politics. The conference theme addresses the significance of
the codes and rules that frame the Internet, as well as their playful
circumvention, from technical protocols and popular platforms to the
emerging, established, and contested conventions of online communities.
Who are the actors both in practices of rule-making and rule-breaking,
what are their motivations and resources, and how can their power
relations and communicative figurations be described? How does the
Internet influence the proliferation of the values that its platforms,
services and infrastructures embody, and what spaces of creative
resistance persist? How do various forms of technical, social, and
cultural hacking subvert these orders?

The committee calls for proposals for papers, panels, workshops,
roundtables, and other events that engage with the conference theme or
the field more generally. Topics could include (but are not limited to):

- coordination and rule-making online
- media, culture and identity
- (h)activism and social justice
- critical approaches to algorithms, platform studies
- codes and practices of internet culture
- connected devices and the internet of things
- big data and predictive analytics
- techno-social interfaces
- digital labor, crowdsourcing and co-creation
- internet governance and regulation
- (global) social media
- communication, participation and polarization online
- philosophy of information and knowledge

We particularly invite submissions that engage with or challenge the
conference theme in new and exciting ways, are innovative, or present a
novel approach to the topic. We encourage “experimental sessions” that
extend research in unusual directions (via method, topic or presentation
structure). We also welcome submissions on topics that address social,
cultural, political, legal, aesthetic, economic, and/or philosophical
aspects of the internet beyond the conference theme. The committee
extends a special invitation to students, researchers, and practitioners
who have previously not participated in an Internet Research event to
submit proposals.

*PROPOSALS*

We seek proposals for several different kinds of contributions to
encompass the breadth of relevant research. We welcome proposals for
traditional academic conference PAPERS, organized PANELS, ROUNDTABLES,
FISHBOWLS, EXPERIMENTAL SESSIONS, and PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS. We
invite proposals that will focus on discussion and interaction among
conference delegates. Finally, doctoral students are invited to
participate in the DOCTORAL COLLOQUIUM preceding the main conference.

*IMPORTANT DATES*

15 January 2016
Submission site opens for AoIR 2016 in Berlin

1 March 2016
Submissions due for PAPERS, PANELS, ROUNDTABLES and FISHBOWLS,
EXPERIMENTAL SESSIONS, and PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS

15 March 2016
Nominations for Nancy Baym Book award and Best Dissertation Award due

5 May 2016
Notification of acceptances for presenters

7 June 2016
Applications due for conference travel SCHOLARSHIPS and for DOCTORAL
COLLOQUIUM

1 August 2016
Early Bird Registration Deadline for all presenters

For further information and updates, please visit the conference website
at aoir.org/aoir2016 <http://aoir.org/aoir2016>.

*SUBMISSION TYPES*

Traditional papers: Paper submissions should articulate the issue or
research question to be discussed, the methodological or critical
framework used, and indicate the findings or conclusions to be presented
and/or the relevance to wider conference themes. Papers can present any
kind of research or analysis, but should be written so that the
importance of the work can be understood by reviewers working in
different disciplines or using different approaches. Cross- or
trans-disciplinary work is especially encouraged. Paper submissions
should be approximately 1200 words long, including references. Please
note that paper submissions need not adhere to a pre-formatted template,
but should give an indication as to the consistency, rigor and relevance
of the work. Presentations at the IR conference are generally intended
to be dynamic, and provide a broad overview of the scholarship being
engaged, with the hope of generating useful conversation.

Preconstituted panels: Panels should present a coherent group of papers
on a single theme. Panel proposals should include 1200-word abstracts as
above for each of the constituent papers, as well as a brief statement
articulating the papers’ relationship to each other. It is recommended
that panels include four papers, although submissions of three to five
papers will also be considered. The organizer is responsible for
compiling the proposal into a single document for submission.

Preconference workshops: Workshops may be either half or full-day events
that occur on the first day of the conference and focus on a particular
topic. They may be a workshop of some kind (e.g., a publishing
workshop), a methodological “bootcamp” (e.g., on ethnography or
statistical analysis), an exploration of a theoretical tradition or
topical area (e.g., symbolic interaction, political economy, or GIS) or
anything else that may be of interest to conference delegates. Proposals
for workshops should explain for a general scholarly audience the goals
of the workshop, the way it will operate, and an indication of potential
audience or attendees who may be interested in attending (such as “early
career scholars” or “researchers using statistical analysis”). Proposals
for workshops should be approximately 600-800 words in length, and
should name the workshop facilitators.

Roundtable Sessions: Roundtables encourage discussion and interaction
among delegates. They may involve brief introductory presentations by
organizers. Proposals should include details on the theme or topic of
discussion and its relevance, along with names of the organizers/initial
participants. Roundtables can include no more than 5 initial
participants. Roundtable submissions should be between 250-300 words
long (to be included as the “abstract” in the submissions process–no
separate document need be uploaded).

Open Fishbowls: Fishbowl sessions should cover broad topics of interest
to a wide segment of the AoIR community, and create a space for dialogue
across different types of research. Submitted proposals should include a
brief statement as to the core idea or theme for the fishbowl,
emphasizing its relation to conference themes or relevance to the IR
community. Fishbowls can include no more than 5 initial participants
(named fish).

Experimental Sessions: Experimental sessions are those that, while of
interest to members or engaging with conference themes, meaningfully
“push the envelope” beyond more traditional forms of conference
engagement and participation and as such do not fit into any of the
other proposal formats. Examples may include Ignite or pecha-kucha
presentations, demonstrations, performances, installations, short-form
workshops, unsessions, maker or code-based projects, or interactive
experiences. Proposals for experimental sessions should describe for a
general scholarly audience the goal or idea of the session and how it
will operate, and discuss why the proposed format will be of interest to
AoIR delegates. Organizers of experimental sessions will be responsible
for supplying any necessary equipment beyond that usually provided for
conference presentations, and should be prepared to coordinate closely
with the conference committee as necessary to enable a successful
presentation of the alternative format. To encourage this kind of
submission, we are again offering the “Halavais Prize for Weirdness”
this year for the most interesting and successful submission in a
non-traditional format.

Doctoral Colloquium: The Association of Internet Researchers believes
that its emerging researchers are the best in its disparate constituent
fields. In keeping with its commitment to students’ scholarship, we
continue the tradition of bringing emerging and established scholars
together through the AoIR 2016 Doctoral Colloquium. The colloquium
offers PhD students working in internet research or a related field a
special, day-long forum, to be convened on 5 October 2016. For many
years, this pre-conference event has provided students with the
opportunity to a concentrated amount of time with senior scholars to
share research projects, address methodological and theoretical
challenges, and exchange informal advice on juggling the multiple
pressures associated with job searching, publishing, and finishing the
dissertation
Interested students should prepare a) a two-page summary of your
research. This should provide a context for the research, describe the
methods being used, the progress to date, and primary concerns and
issues; and b) A brief statement indicating why you want to participate
in this doctoral colloquium and what you hope to get out of it. These
are due on or before 15 June 2016.

*CONFERENCE SCHOLARSHIPS*

In order to increase the diversity of participation in the AoIR
conferences, the Association of Internet Researchers makes available
conference fee waivers and partial travel stipends ($500) per year. The
number of fee waivers and travel stipends will depend first of all upon
the ability of the conference budget to sustain such waivers (a judgment
to be made by the AoIR Executive Committee upon the advice of the AoIR
Treasurer and the local organizing committee) as well as upon the
quality of the applications for fee waivers. Conference scholarships are
made available only to participants who have had papers accepted via the
peer review process, and applications are due on 1 June 2016, after
acceptances have been announced.

More information will be made available regarding the scholarship
application process at the conference website: aoir.org/aoir2016
<http://aoir.org/aoir2016>.

*CONTACT INFORMATION*

Please address any questions to the conference chair, Cornelius
Puschmann, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society,
aoir2016 [at] aoir [dot] org.

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