The 25th annual conference of the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) begins next week in Sheffield, UK, and we are delighted to share that 26 SMC-connected scholars — current and former researchers, postdocs, predocs, and interns — are presenting in a total of 26 separate sessions. The SMC and AoIR have a long and storied history, with SMC’s Partner Research Manager Nancy Baym organizing the first AoIR conference in 2000 and serving as the Association’s second president. Microsoft Research is also helping to sponsor this year’s conference, as it has in several years past.
To celebrate and promote the research of our AoIR-active SMC community, we have compiled a schedule of all of the presentations featuring at least one SMC-connected researcher. These presentations are diverse in topic, covering technologies from artificial intelligence to money technologies to hentai streaming platforms, but are connected by the thoughtful and innovative approach to sociotechnical systems that defines the SMC. And for the very first time, we are thrilled to announce that this year’s AoIR will feature an SMC-connected researcher in every session, including preconferences! Though, of course, we hope that you will explore the full breadth of scholarship at AoIR.
Five sessions feature work from current SMC members that you won’t want to miss. Nancy Baym (Partner Researcher), Chuncheng Liu (postdoc), and Ryland Shaw (predoc) have collaborated on work they will present on the AI Industry Expectations & Underperforming Imaginaries panel on Friday. Another SMC postdoc, Zoë Glatt, will have work on display with co-author Brooke Erin Duffy in Industry Tensions: Labor Subjectivities & Self-Reinvention in Platform Work. Tarleton Gillespie (Senior Principal Researcher) organized the roundtable titled Generative AI as a Media Technology, featuring SMC alums Aleena Chia, Kate Miltner, and Luke Stark, and assisted by SMC’s newest predoc, Parker Bach (Ph.D. student, UNC-Chapel Hill). And two of our 2024 interns will also be presenting: Emillie de Keulenaar (Ph.D. candidate, University of Groningen) on LLMs and the Generation of Moderate Speech and Nancy Salem (DPhil student, Oxford Internet Institute) along with co-author Maggie Mustaklem on Co-Constituting Materially Grounded Methodologies in Creative Participatory AI Research and Practice.
Congratulations to all the presenters in the SMC extended community and we look forward to seeing you in Sheffield!
You can download the below schedule as a PDF, but the most up-to-date information can be found in the official AoIR program.
| Presenter(s) (bold are SMC- connected) | Presentation Title | Session Title | Day & Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Robyn Caplan, João C. Magalhães | Alternative Platform Archives: Methods, Politics, Impact (preconference) | Alternative Platform Archives: Methods, Politics, Impact | Wed 9:00am – 4:30pm |
| Sarah Florini, Alexander Halavais, Jaime Kirtz, Nicholas Proferes, Michael Simeone, Shawn Walker | AI, Ethics, and the University (preconference) | AI, Ethics, and the University | Wed 1:00 – 4:30pm |
| Elizabeth Nixon Fetterolf | Automating Eldercare? Visions, problems, and expertise in the “Age Tech” Industry | Ageing & Technology | Thurs 9:00 – 10:30am |
| Kate Miltner | “A.I. is Holding a Mirror to Our Society”: Lensa and the Discourse of Visual Generative AI | AI & Hype | Thurs 9:00 – 10:30am |
| Brandon C. Harris, Christine H. Tran, Christopher J. Persaud | Recontextualizing Violence in Real Time: Live Streaming & the Governance of Inconsistency on Twitch.tv | Livestreaming | Thurs 9:00 – 10:30am |
| Emillie de Keulenaar | LLMs and the generation of moderate speech | Language & Sentiment | Thurs 9:00 – 10:30am |
| Niall Docherty, Matías Valderrama Barragán | Educated users: Refining manners through social media corporate curriculums | Platforms & Education | Thurs 11:00am – 12:30pm |
| Alexander Monea, Shaka McGlotten, Susanna Paasonen, Katrin Tiidenberg, Robert Jacobsson | Sex as/and/on Social Media (panel) | Sex as/and/on Social Media | Thurs 11:00am – 12:30pm |
| Katrin Tiidenberg, Jaana Davidjants, Gillian Rose, Josie Hamper, Maria Schreiber, Marius Liedtke | Visual Trust on Social Media: Meaning, Money, and Motivation (panel) | Visual Trust on Social Media: Meaning, Money, and Motivation | Thurs 1:30-3:00pm |
| Fernando N. van der Vlist, Anne Helmond, Esther Weltevrede, Michael Dieter, Stefanie Duguay, Iain Emsley, Fangzhou Zhang, Anthony Glyn Burton, Christopher Dietzel, Eric Filice, Diana C. Parry, Corey W. Johnson | Exploring Appification (panel) | Exploring Appification | Thurs 3:30 – 5:00pm |
| Tugce Bidav, Smith Mehta, Arturo Arriagada, Wangari Njathi, Karis Wilson, Cecilia Ka Hei Wong, Suren Nora, Kaye Bondy | Global South Creator Cultures (roundtable) | Global South Creator Cultures | Thurs 3:30 – 5:00pm |
| Stephen Yang | Formats as/of Expressivity: Templates, Samples, and Platform-Ready Short Video Creation on TikTok | The Creator Industry | Fri 9:00 – 10:30am |
| Katrin Tiidenberg, Crystal Abidin, Jing Zeng, David Kneas, Stefanie Duguay | Why Does Authenticity (Still) Matter on Social Media? (roundtable) | Why Does Authenticity (Still) Matter on Social Media? | Fri 9:00 – 10:30am |
| Jessica Maddox, Arturo Arriagada, Jeehyun (Jenny) Lee, Pranav Malhotra, Colten Meisner | Low Visibility Practices: Reconsidering Visibility and Value on Social Media (fishbowl) | Low Visibility Practices: Reconsidering Visibility and Value on Social Media | Fri 11:00am – 12:30pm |
| Ashley Mears, Elif Birced, Jeff Sheng, Alison Hearn, Daniel Joseph, Sophie Bishop, Arturo Arriagada, Karis Wilson | Platforms, Valuation, & Inequalities (panel proposal) | Platforms, Valuation, & Inequalities | Fri 11:00am – 12:30pm |
| Muira McCammon | Deletion as a Crisis Communication Practice: An Analysis of U.S. State Public Health Agencies’ Social Media Accounts during COVID-19 | Tech & Public Sectors | Fri 11:00am – 12:30pm |
| Natalia Stanusch, Richard Rogers, Nancy Baym, Chuncheng Liu, Ryland Shaw, Christian Katzenbach, Vanessa Richter, Sigrid Kannengießer, Anne Mollen, Saba Rebecca Brause, Heng Yang, Mike Schäfer, Jing Zeng | AI Industry Expectations & Underperforming Imaginaries (panel proposal) | AI Industry Expectations & Underperforming Imaginaries | Fri 1:30 – 3:00pm |
| CJ Reynolds, Blake Hallinan | Creator Cartels as Emergent Platform Governance | Internet (Political) Economies | Fri 1:30 – 3:00pm |
| Ysabel Gerrard, Debbie Ging, Craig Haslop, Jessica Ringrose, Devina Sarwatay | The Politics of Worrying about Young Lives on Social Media (roundtable) | The Politics of Worrying about Young Lives on Social Media | Fri 1:30 – 3:00pm |
| Aurélie Petit | The hentai streaming platform wars | Global Labour Practices | Fri 1:30 – 3:00pm |
| Arturo Arriagada, Brooke Duffy, Zoё Glatt, Elizabeth Wissinger, Rachel Wood, Matías Valderrama | Industry Tensions: Labor Subjectivities & Self-Reinvention in Platform Work (panel) | Industry Tensions: Labor Subjectivities & Self-Reinvention in Platform Work | Friday 3:30 – 5:00pm |
| Tarleton Gillespie, Aleena Chia, Kate Miltner, Caitlin Petre, Jill Walker Rettberg, Luke Stark | Generative AI as a Media Technology (roundtable) | Generative AI as a Media Technology | Sat 9:00am – 10:30am |
| Maggie Mustaklem, Nancy Salem | Co-Constituting Materially Grounded Methodologies in Creative Participatory AI Research and Practice | Materialities | Sat 9:00am – 10:30am |
| CJ Reynolds | Felt Privacy: Reconciling competing regimes of camera surveillance in the United States | Surveillance | Sat 9:00am – 10:30am |
| Lana Swartz, Clea Bourne, Ashley Mears, Rachel O’Dwyer, Yichen Rao | Money and other Technologies of Value in Internet Industries (roundtable) | Money and other Technologies of Value in Internet Industries | Sat 11:00am – 12:30pm |
| Jabari Miles Evans | Word on the (Digital) Street: Exploring YouTube Vlogs as Reputation Management for Artists in Chicago’s Drill Rap Scene | Fringe Communities | Sat 11:00am – 12:30pm |
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