Copyright
Geoffrey Rockwell; Oliver Rossier; Chelsea MiyaPublished On
2021-04-29Page Range
pp. 399-420Language
- English
Print Length
21 pages
15. An Intro to Econferences
Flying is one of the most environmentally detrimental activities associated with our research practices. Until recently, even as colleges and universities took steps to green their campuses, conference-related air travel was on the rise. The COVID-19 pandemic forced academics (along with much of the world) back to the ground, but what will happen after travel restrictions are lifted? Will we slip back into old habits? Our reliance on flying is unsustainable, but research depends on open and timely communication of ideas, methods and results. How then can we adapt our conferencing practices to preserve their communicative value while reducing the need to fly so often? The following chapter introduces the econference medium and makes the argument for bringing academic conferences online, and maintaining these efforts after travel restrictions are lifted.
Contributors
Geoffrey Rockwell
(author)Geoffrey Rockwell is a Professor of Philosophy and Digital Humanities, Director of the Kule Institute for Advanced Study and Associate Director of the AI for Society signature area at the University of Alberta. He publishes on textual visualization, text analysis, ethics of technology and on digital humanities including a co-authored book, Hermeneutica, from MIT Press (2016). He is co-developer of Voyant Tools www.voyant-tools.org, an award-winning suite of text analysis tools.
Oliver Rossier
(author)Oliver Rossier has a BA in History and Political Science, and an MA in Communications and Technology, both from the University of Alberta. He has over twenty years of post-secondary administrative experience, facilitating collaborative research projects and strategic initiatives. He is committed to helping research teams find the right tools and techniques to navigate transitions caused by the tandem tsunamis of COVID-19 and significant budget reductions.
Chelsea Miya
(author)Chelsea Miya is a PhD Candidate and CGS SSHRC fellow in English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta where her work focuses on the cultural history of data. She is a researcher and podcaster with the SpokenWeb, a multi-institutional interdisciplinary project dedicated to the discovery, preservation, and analysis of sonic artifacts.