June 3, 1999
Contact: Margaret McCarthy, (312) 996-8279, [email protected]
UIC PROFESSOR FOUNDS FIRST INTERNATIONAL INTERNET RESEARCH ASSOCIATION
Online think tank (http://aoir.org) broadens Internet understanding
A new group of international scholars is taking to the Internet to start a think tank on Internet issues. The group, association(of).internet.researchers, will be a new resource for policymakers, media and academics shaping the future of the Internet.
"Currently, there are two types of experts available to give counsel, to lawmakers for example, regarding Internet policies and ethics," says UIC communication chair Steve Jones, association founder. "These are people from inside the Internet industry who have a vested interest, and scholars who have studied the Internet in relation to their specific discipline but do not have a broad understanding. By sharing knowledge through association publications, conferences and listserv debates, the association(of).internet.researchers will provide online one-stop shopping for Internet expertise."
"The greatest benefit of the association(of).internet.researchers is to help better understand what's going on online. So when we have debates, such as in Congress over Internet law, morality and privacy, we will have organizational representatives - a body of researchers - to give broadly informed counsel without vested interest."
Although the association(of).internet.researchers is in its formative stages, more than 100 international scholars have already contacted its new listserv to discuss Internet research ([email protected]).
"Currently there is Internet research being pursued in every social science and humanities discipline, but there is no clearing house or common ground to share research approaches and findings," said Jones. "All scholars would benefit from shared knowledge."
Jones held the inaugural meeting of the non-profit association(of).internet.researchers in conjunction with the International Communication Association (ICA) meeting in San Francisco on Sunday, May 30. Onehundred scholars from across the nation, as well as some international participants, attended the first meeting.
The association members intend to conduct Web-based discussions and start a member-operated on-line bibliography, among other plans. The association will hold its next business meeting in Chicago as part of the National Communication Association's November 1999 meeting, and its first independent conference in 2000.
Jones founded the association(of).internet.researchers, the first scholarly group devoted to Internet research, with the goal of promoting scholarly, critical and ethical research into the social, cultural, political, economic and aesthetic aspects of the Internet.
"The main motivation for the association(of).internet.researchers is to get scholars together from numerous disciplines who are unaware of what's going on in other fields that may directly relate to their work," said Jones. "The association will bring a cohesion to online social study."
Steve Jones has been "Internetworking" since 1979 when he was using and co-authoring educational materials on the PLATO system at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his Ph.D. in Communication from the Institute for Communications Research there in 1987, and is author of five books, including Doing Internet Research, CyberSociety and Virtual Culture. His books have earned him critical acclaim and national attention. He is co-editor of New Media & Society, an international journal of research on new media, technology, and culture and edits New Media Cultures, a series of books on culture and technology for Sage Publications.
With 25,000 students, the University of Illinois at Chicago is the largest and most diverse university in the Chicago area. UIC is home to the largest medical school in the United States and is one of the 88 leading research universities in the country. Located just west of Chicago's Loop, UIC is a vital part of the educational, technological and cultural fabric of the area.
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