Things I Learned at IR9…(or how I Spent my Fall Vacation)

First of all, the Association of Internet Researchers held a fantastic conference this year at the IT University of Copenhagen. The building is indeed an architectural work of art and is a beautiful complement to the learning that occurs in this institution. I feel that sharing what I’ve learned during the conference is my small way of showing thanks and also fulfilling the role of the public academic as I want to shine a light on the knowledge gathered from #ir9.

1.) If you are going to travel to an international conference, make sure that you either are talking from a script or have a well-structured outline/Powerpoint combo. I fell into the classic trap of “gee, I done my fifteen minute speech about my work. I can just wing it.” I experimented with a loose Keynote presentation, that didn’t work when I got there. So, I tried to do the “unplugged” version of the show. YUCK! The jetlag kicked in 10 minutes into the presentation and my train of thought got derailed. Next time, next time…

2.) Don’t be afraid of being exposed to new methods, new techniques or even throwing yourself into roles in which you are not comfortable. There were sessions at the end of the conference called “Birds of a Feather” or BoaF, which were designed to be informal get-togethers. I volunteered to run one on microblogging. Then, I went to Dr. Johns to ask him what exactly I got myself into. He explained and I felt a little less nervous. It could be as simple as researchers coming together to exchange business cards, then leaving. I could be as complex as a three hour rehashing of issues in the field. Thankfully, it was in the middle. We had an hour-long breakdown of microblogging. There was first an exchanging of Twitter names and other microblogging profiles. Next, there was a strong discussion of the state of microblogging research. Then came the ontological, epistemological and praxis issues surrounding microblogging. Finally, there was the long look of future research in the field. It was an amazing experience, capping of an already amazing conference. With the two “meta-issues” out of the way, it seems appropriate to discuss some of the strings of thought that seemed to run through the entire conference:

3.) The “remediation” of common culture into the new adaption of technology is an issue that is being dealt with and will continue to be dealt with by those in and outside of the academic discipline. The three keynote addresses of the conference seemed to have this common theme. Dr. Mimi Ito approached this theme through her discussion of internet-driven communities. She especially hit on this theme in her examples dealing with the communities surrounding the creation of Anime Music Videos or AMV. Dr. Rich Ling hit on this point, despite several unfortunate choices of words, with his discussion around the domestication of communication technologies and the “for granted…ness” of the general public regarding the significance of processing a wireless phone, a car or other mass accessible technology. Dr. Steven Graham finalized the point with his lecture “Competing Logics of Emerging Sentient Urban Spaces” and how government agency are struggling to find the balance between the technological ability to “keep us safe” and the private/public needs of the urbanized citizen.

4.) Social network analysis was a really popular method of research. With all due respect those using this method, I glad I’m using Hine’s work on “Virtual Ethnography” in combination with J.A. Barnes’ original work on “Social Networks” for my dissertation’s theoretical/methodological framework. It seems we as an academic discipline may be overusing the method as a point of analysis. However, the outside academic disciplines may not care or even worry about this repeated use of a technique.

5.) Microblogging was/is/will be a powerful tool in this conference. I found that Twitter kept an incredible public record of the meeting. I already compiling the data from the Twitter post and will present a paper at next year’s IR conference regarding Twitter’s role as a public academic. (I called it first)

6.) Finally, Randall Munroe is in my head. Enough said.