Call for Papers – IR 6.0: INTERNET GENERATIONS

International and Interdisciplinary Conference of the Association of

Internet Researchers

Chicago, Illinois, USA

October 5 – 9, 2005

Workshops: October 5, 2005

AoIR conference: October 6 – 9, 2005

Deadline for submissions: February 1, 2005. Submission instructions will be announced soon.

INTERNET GENERATIONS

The
Internet has been a rapidly evolving phenomenon, so much so that we may
talk about generations of the Internet. With everything moving faster
in ‘Internet time,’ we have arguably spanned many technological
Internet generations within a single human generation: from the birth
of computing to the first online communications; from the beginnings of
email to the enriched worlds of chat, virtual worlds and mobile text messaging; from
the workplace to home and school; from optional to all-but-mandatory;
and from mainframe to desktop to laptop to mobile devices.

We
can also talk about contextual Internet generations, from the early
pioneers who count themselves among those communicating online before
the 1980s; to the early adopters of the 1980s in university and
proprietary systems; to latecomers finding the need to adopt computing
and technology use as part of their daily work; to the current and
coming generations that will not know a time without a computer in the
household, a mobile phone in their hand, and a lap- or palmtop and an MP3 player an essential part of their daily wear.

This massive change in technologies, and in work and social practices suggests many avenues of interest for Internet research.

CALL FOR PAPERS

We
call for papers from a wide perspective of disciplines, methodologies,
and communities. We invite papers that address the theme of Internet
Generations including TOPICS such as:

• Histories of the Internet: human, social, technical, and/or cultural stories and histories
• Internet use by generation, e.g., by era of technology, by children and seniors, or by age of user, etc.
• Individual, group, organizational, or community use, adoption, or diffusion of the Internet and its practices
• Development in use of languages, new vocabularies, social roles, rules, and etiquette
• Societal impacts of and on the Internet and its evolution
• Perspectives on the Internet and social change in a changing world
• Internet expansion across divides, borders, nationalities, etc.
• Mapping the course of Internet connectivity
• Prospects for the future: Next generation Internet

We
invite submissions for papers, panels, and demonstrations of work on
topics related to the conference theme of Internet Generations.
Sessions at the conference will be established that specifically
address the conference theme. We particularly call for innovative,
exciting, and unexpected takes on the conference theme. We also welcome
submissions on topics that address social, cultural, political,
economic, and/or aesthetic aspects of the Internet beyond the
conference theme. In all cases, we welcome disciplinary and
interdisciplinary submissions as well as international collaborations
from both AoIR and non-AoIR members.

GRADUATE STUDENT PROPOSALS AND PARTICIPATION

We
strongly encourage submissions of proposals from graduate students, and
papers for consideration for a special Student Award. Students should
note their student status with submission. Students wishing to be a
candidate for the Student Award must send a full final paper to the
conference organizers by June 1, 2005.

PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS

We
invite proposals for a limited number of pre-conference workshops which
will provide participants with in-depth, hands-on and/or creative
opportunities. Proposals should be no more than 1000 words, and should
clearly outline the purpose, methodology, structure, participant costs,
equipment and minimal attendance required, as well as the relevance of
the workshop 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.

CONTACT INFORMATION

If
you have questions about the conference, program, or AoIR, please
contact the following people. Please use a subject line that clearly
distinguishes your message for spam!

Program Chair: Caroline
Haythornthwaite haythorn@uiuc.edu – Inquiries on conference content:
paper submissions, reviewing, paper organization

Conference Site Coordinator: Steve Jones sjones@uic.edu – Inquiries on meeting rooms, audiovisual equipment, conference site

AoIR
President: Nancy Baym, University of Kansas, nbaym@ku.edu – Inquiries
regarding the Association of Internet Researchers and sponsorship

Association Website: http://www.aoir.org