The AoIR conference serves as an interdisciplinary venue for inspiring new ideas, presenting cutting-edge studies and encouraging collaborations between scholars in the area of internet studies. It brings together researchers from various disciplines and areas like: information, communication, sociology, business, political science, design, engineering, art and more.

We are proud that we have been given the opportunity to host IR 12.0 in Seattle.  Seattle is a home to many Hi-tech companies, and is a hub for communities and academic institutions that study Internet and society. As such, it can serve as a great location for a conference like this.

On a personal note, I can now tell you that organizing a conference is not exactly what we are trained for… It requires the help of many volunteers that contributed many hours to make it successful. A special thanks to Beth Patin and Lassana Magassa, both PhD students, and Maria Garrido from the iSchool of UW, who helped with  the thousand details of organizing the conference.  Special thanks to Lori Kendall, the program chair. It always seemed so easy when she was in charge of things. Thanks for the on-going guidance and help of the conference committee: Mia Consalvo, Alex Halavais and Michael Zimmer.

So, it is time to enjoy our conference. My hope is that the conference will serve as a locus for interdisciplinarity, a space for discourse and collaboration.  Let the show begin!!!
I look forward to seeing you in Seattle,

Karine Nahon
Conference Chair