The conference started on Sunday, luckily later in the day so I could sleep in. At lunch I ran into some friends and we made plans to go into town for the evening.

During the afternoon there was one session, I choice the "Academic Discipline" panel which had four papers scheduled. In particular I went to hear Denise Rall, her paper will be linked here when it is available online. You see most of us go to conferences to hear what others are working on and learn things that will add to our own research, but Denise comes to watch us do what we do. I love the levels of all of that; it's a nice professional lurker stance. Information from the program follows:

Author(s): Denise Rall

Title: "Exploring the breadth of disciplinary backgrounds in internet scholars participating in AoIR meetings, 2000-2003 "

Abstract: The Internet Research 5.0 call for proposals indicates that ?IR5.0 will feature a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives on the Internet.? This shows the recent interest that internet researchers have taken in locating their work within the academic disciplines. This started with the discussion thread, ?What is a Discipline?? in 2002-3 and continues with the AoIR President, Nancy Baym, and her role as guest editor for the special issue of The Information Society (TIS). This special issue posits the question how both inter- and transdisciplinary theory intersects with the practice of internet-based research (Baym, 2003). Some scholars have viewed internet research as a special content area in new media studies, while others explain Internet Studies & Research (ISR) programs as coming from a variety of related disciplines: IDS - Interdisciplinarity Studies, CMC - computer-mediated communication, or as specifically tied to the theory and practice of social infomatics (Rall & Boyd, in review). Other scholars have used the term cyberculture studies to describe their area of research (Silver, 2000). This interest in the disciplines which comprise study of the internet is important. Yet the empirical studies are still lacking. In particular, there are no empirical studies which reference the breadth of disciplinary backgrounds by those scholars who focus on ?the internet, its use and users? (Rall, 2003). Following the lead of Ennis (1992), this researcher examines the disciplinary affiliations of internet researchers represented in the last four years of AoIR international meetings (2000-2003), either as guest speakers, presenters, panel members or workshop coordinators. This brief analysis, while no means exhaustive, will indicate the academic disciplines in which AoIR participants hold degrees as well as the departmental affiliations where they are currently employed. This short longitudinal study will show whether interest research is strongly affiliated with a single area of study, such as communication, or whether it is increasingly dispersed among many disciplines. The results may be controversial, or they may be seen as disappointing for those scholars who hope that interest-based research has acquired a broad representation amongst the disciplines.

In the evening a group of us headed into town on the city bus. By unanimous vote we decided to head for The Lanes and sushi.

We ended up at Moshi Moshi Sushi, the restaurant listed as the original conveyor-belt sushi bar in the U.K. Oh my goodness we are talking sushi almost as good as what I had in Hawaii, totally outstanding food and great company. I haven't laughed that much in - well in forever.

Posted by prolurkr at September 19, 2004 09:17 PM

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