Joss In June: June 2013

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Only 3 More Days!

That's right folks, in less than three days, Shelby will be the place to be for all sorts of academic Whedony goodness!

So here's a final bit of information for those of you who're planning to join us:

Program

You can access a .pdf copy of the program here. You'll get a hard-copy program when you check in on Saturday, but this one accurately lists who is presenting when and where. The conference schedule can be found in the program, and also here on on the JIJ blog.

Registration

Registration will run from 8 am until 12 noon. As Joss In June is a one day conference with a grand total of four sessions, we urge everyone to get there in time to register and be ready to attend the first session at 9:15. For those of you with friends, family, or colleagues who are interested in seeing the conference but have not already registered, we will be offering same-day, attending-only registration on Saturday during the same time period, at a cost of $20.00 per person, payable by cash or check only. Same-day registration includes access to all of the panels, but does NOT include lunch. The final lunch order went in yesterday, and we cannot add any more orders to it.

The LeGrand Center

The LeGrand Center is a multi-function building, with the first floor devoted to classroom space for Cleveland County Schools' Early College program, and Joss in June will take place in the conference center on the second floor. Just head upstairs form the main lobby, and you'll see the reception desk where you'll be checking in at the top of the stairs. Elevators are located under the stairs on the first floor for those with mobility issues. We'll have signs posted, so finding your way shouldn't be a problem.

You can find a map of the LeGrand Center's second floor here.

The conference welcome, lunch, keynote, and raffle will be taking place in the Special Events Ballroom, labeled as Ballrooms 4, 5, and 6 on the map. The panels will be taking place in Conference Rooms 1 - 3.

Technology

All conference rooms are equipped with projectors, screens, and ports for VGA and HDMI cables. VGA cables will be provided, but if you need an HDMI cable BRING YOUR OWN. If you are planning to incorporate visual presentations, clips, etc. with your presentation you will need to bring your own laptop. For those of you who might want or need internet access during the conference, WiFi internet access is free under the LeGrand's guest access, with no password needed. The signal is strong and fast throughout the conference center.

Either Dale or I or a Joss In June technical assistant in a black t-shirt labeled "Operative" will be in each conference room for every session. Any of us will be willing, able, and happy to provide technical assistance, if you need it. Please don't hesitate to call on us!

Shopping and Other Fun Stuff

McFarland and Co. publishing will be at Joss In June, with tables set up in the atrium area outside of the ballroom, and will be selling their books at a special conference rate. McFarland is usually able to take credit cards as well as cash. McFarland will also be taking book proposals on Saturday.

We're also pleased to announce that some incredibly cool (seriously, these shirts just rock!) Joss In June t-shirts will be available for purchase in the atrium, as well as a few shirts from Slayage 5, held last year in Vancouver, and some Whedon Studies Association (WSA) coffee mugs.

Joss In June t-shirts (pre-shrunk, and available in men and women's cut) will be selling for $20.00 each. We'll let you know about the pricing for the other items as soon as we figure it out ourselves! However, we will only be able to take cash or checks for any of the t-shirts and mugs, so bring some cashy-money with you.

Also bring some cash for our fantastic raffle, to be held after Rhonda's keynote. We've rounded up some really cool items, including a (relatively) rare Electric Company Spider-Man comic book scripted by Tom Whedon, Joss' father! Other Whedon comics, graphic novels, even a script or two, and more will be raffled off, so bring a few extra bucks for tickets. We'll be selling 1 ticket for $1, 5 tickets for $3, and an arm's length of tickets (measured from middle finger to shoulder) for $5.

Our goal for Joss in June is to break even, and t-shirt and raffle sales go towards covering conference expenses. In the unlikely event that we actually see a profit from Joss In June, that money will be donated to the WSA to further the international academic study of the works of Joss Whedon.

Joss In June Facebook Page

To facilitate communication between Joss In June attendees, and to help those who might be looking to carpool to and from various airports, we have created a Facebook group page for Joss in June, which you can find at https://www.facebook.com/groups/139387929588791/

Since Facebook has a notification feature, we'll definitely be posting updates, etc on the conference there, as well as at the blog and via e-mail. It's also a good place to meet some of the presenters and attendees before the conference, and we'll be posting pics from the conference there, and encourage you guys to do the same.

Tweeting The Conference

Recently, it has become relatively common for people to live-Tweet during academic conferences. We have asked all of our presenters to provide us with their Twitter handles, if they use the service. These handles will be posted on each presenter's name-plate, and we ask that if you Tweet about a presentation, you do so with proper accreditation, via either the presenter's full name or Twitter handle. The hashtags for Joss In June are #JossInJune and #JIJ. We'll be putting together a record of the conference Tweets via storify, so please use those hashtags so we can include your Tweets! Some best practices for conference tweeting have been developed by the American Historical Association, and they have graciously given us permission to repost those here: http://www.jossinjune.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-aha-on-live-tweeting-conferences.html. Please read this over if you are considering live-Tweeting Joss In June.

And, of course, if a presenter or session should ask not to be Tweeted please respect their wishes.

We can't wait to see everyone on Saturday, and thanks to all of you for making this an incredible conference!

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Conference Schedule

Nine days to go folks! The program goes to the printer today, so here's the official schedule for Joss In June

Joss in June Conference Schedule

8:00 – 12:00: Registration

9:00 – 9:10: Welcome

9:15 – 10:45: Session 1 (3 Panels)

10:45 – 11:00: Break, with Coffee & Snacks Served

11:00 – 12:30: Session 2 (2 Panels)

12:30 – 1:30: Lunch

1:45 – 3:15: Session 3 (3 Panels)

3:15 – 3:30: Break, with Refreshments and Snacks served

3:30 – 5:00: Session 4 (3 Panels)

5:00 – 5:15: Break

5:15 – 6:15: Keynote Address by Dr. Rhonda V. Wilcox

6:15 – 6:30: Raffle Drawing and Farewell

Monday, June 17, 2013

Who's Coming?

Now you see why Shelby is the perfect location for Joss in June!

See you soon!

Thursday, June 13, 2013

The AHA on Live Tweeting Conferences

Vanessa Varin and Perspectives on History, the Newsmagazine of the American Historical Association, have graciously given their permission to reprint in full Ms. Varin's excellent article on live-Tweeting at academic conferences from the April 2013 issue.

From the AHA Online column in the April 2013 issue of Perspectives on History

Navigating Twitter's Wild, Wild West
A Crowdsourced Draft of the Dos and Don'ts of Live Tweeting

By Vanessa Varin

Perspectives readers have already read my pitch for a set of live-tweeting guidelines, and I recently put forth the proposal to AHA Today readers. I asked our readers to help develop a working draft of guidelines that would help guide historians as they send out tweets about conference sessions, as those sessions are going on. Readers answered this call with a broad range of comments and advice, many of which intersect with our own Statement on Standards of Professional Conduct, including issues of privacy, attribution, and civility. These connections demonstrate why live-tweeting is not merely an issue proscribed to social media matters, but a multi-layered one that touches upon a variety of professional ethics.

Privacy

Like in many discussions related to social media, our followers covered the boundaries of a scholar's privacy at length. In many cases, a scholar being quoted on Twitter does not have a Twitter handle, and is not aware of the conversation resulting from their work. Joshua Britton (@HistoryGrad) recommended to users, "Don't tweet if the person is not on twitter and doesn't have an opportunity to see your comments." But for at least a few twitterstorians, the lack of a Twitter account does not automatically preclude a scholar from being discussed online. Kaitlin Wainwright (@hellokaitlin) disagreed with @HistoryGrad and tweeted, "Disagree. Opportunity for work to be shared and for presenter to see tweets after the fact without having an acct." Joseph Adelman agreed with Wainwright, pointing out, "Not sure about that. If presenter is aware of Twitter feed and tweets are public, can still see them. And non-Twitter use can be for variety of reasons: anti, non-tech savvy, indifferent. So shouldn't assume anti." A few twitterstorians (including me) agreed that if the scholar does have a Twitter account, is important to reference it as the user quotes the scholar. This allows the scholar to be a part of the conversation, even after the presentation is over.

These recommendations blended into an even larger question about consent: should twitterstorians gather consent from a scholar before tweeting? The AHA's annual meeting media policy requires anyone who wishes to film or make an audio recording of a session to gather permission from panelists ahead of time. Some historians are asking if tweeters should do the same. This includes Claire Potter, who requested, in a comment on AHA Today, that users to "ask people on the panel whether they agree to be tweeted. We seek out permissions for audio and video recording: why not ask people whether they wish to be 'broadcast' via Twitter?" It is an intriguing question that elicits even deeper questions about the role of social media at a conference. If etiquette dictates a tweeter should ask permission before broadcasting a panel, should a blogger do the same? Furthermore, if we ask tweeters and bloggers to ask permission, should any historian who is taking notes during the session do the same? How do we remain consistent? Potter's comment reveals how easily we can fall down the rabbit hole of ethical issues when discussing social media etiquette.

Dropping the Snark

The abundance of comments and recommendations related to basic concepts of professional conduct and civility was surprising. Many users asked me to include a reminder for tweeters to maintain a professional tone online, including @ProfessMoravec, who tweeted, "do tweet constructive criticism do resist the urge to show how clever you are." Elaine Treharne echoed this concern, with a more specific request for users to avoid commenting "on the way a speaker looks or what her personality traits might be according to her hairstyle."

Claire Potter offered some sage advice, writing, "ask yourself before Tweeting: is this something I would say in a department meeting? Then take it a step further: is this something I would put on the right-hand page of theNew York Times under my own name?" Although the history twittersphere is relatively small and self-regulating, it certainly has its share of troubling flame wars and trolls, so it's reassuring to see so many historians concerned about maintaining basic respect online.

Final Thoughts

Although many of our readers brought up fascinating points, there are still numerous questions left unanswered. What are the boundaries of privacy as more and more research presented at conferences can be found freely online, and what rights does a scholar retain in the process? I look forward to watching this conversation unfold over the coming months as we approach the 2014 annual meeting. You can view the conversation and totality in "Live-Tweeting Etiquette" (bit.ly/YM1sCe), a "Storified" collection of tweets on this topic.

— Vanessa Varin is the AHA's assistant editor, web and social media.

The Dos and Don'ts of Live-Tweeting at an Academic Conference:
A Working Draft

Contributed to the AHA's blog and in response to an AHA tweet

Do:

Ask permission. Before the panel begins (preferably a few weeks in advance), ask panelists whether they agree to be tweeted.
Contributed by Claire Potter on AHA Today. Other contributors have questioned whether this is necessary, and the discussion about this suggestion is ongoing.
Clearly identify speakers. Although live-tweeting demands rapid fire tweets, all tweets should clearly identify the speaker quoted in each tweet.
Contributed by Caleb McDaniel on AHA Today.
Collect Twitter handles. Before the presentation, ask panelists for a Twitter handle. If they have one, you can reference the scholar, which allows them to track the conversation and even contribute.
Contributed by @HistoryGrad and @Teffinina.
Listen carefully. If you plan to live-tweet a scholar's presentation, it is only fair to quote his or her words correctly. Of course, the difficulty is that people talk quickly, especially if they are nervous, but if you are making the decision to put their work on an international platform like Twitter, it is only fair that you make an effort to methodically take notes and get their words right.
Use #hashtags. If you plan to live-tweet, create and promote an accompanying hashtag specific to that session (or use the panelists' preferred hashtag, if they've provided one). This way your tweets will carry the same tag and users can follow the topic as its own distinct conversation.
Try Storify. Along the same lines as the hashtag, it helps to Storify any conversation related to the hashtag. Storify allows users to create a timeline of social media interactions (like a Twitter conversation). This platform is particularly helpful for adding context to tweets, and organizing them into a single, common thread for users to read. For an example, we Storified the conversation surrounding this topic into a social media story titled "Live-Tweeting Etiquette" that I highly recommend.
Link to the paper/session. If the panelist has made the work they are presenting available online, post a link.
Contributed by Michelle Davison on Facebook.

Don't:

Insult a panelist or participant. Twitter is a distinct but important form of academic discussion, and in this vein, live tweeters should follow the same code of conduct that governs all professional interactions. Recognizing the unique format of social media, in late 2012 the AHA publications department produced "Policies on Letters to the Editor and Comments on the AHA Website and Social Media" to help guide debate on our social media platforms.
Our respondents roundly eschewed personal attacks. Elaine Treharne, commenting on AHA Today, cautioned twitterstorians to avoid commenting "on the way the speaker looks or what her personality traits might be according to her hairstyle."
Indulge in snark. Claire Potter offered sage advice on AHA Today: "So ask yourself before Tweeting: is this something I would say in a department meeting? Then take it a step further: is this something I would put on the right-hand page of the New York Times under my own name?" @ProfessMoravec offered similar advice, tweeting, "do tweet constructive criticism do resist the urge to show how clever you are."
Manipulate the record. One of the many invaluable aspects of Twitter is its ability to document and archive discussions. Thus, twitterstorians must be fair and balanced in how they cover a panel and portray a panelist's argument, regardless of how they feel about the argument being made.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Important Information About Joss In June!

Only 17 more days until Joss In June, and Dale and I can't wait to see you all!

Hotel Notes

As you may be aware, the conference hotel underwent a change of ownership in early May, transitioning from a Hampton Inn to a Comfort Inn. As a result of this changeover, there have been a few, very minor, hiccups concerning reservations for Joss in June attendees.

Therefore, we are suggesting that you contact the Comfort In Shelby at (704) 482-5666 and confirm your reservations. If you should have any trouble, ask to speak with the hotel manager, Mistie Meadows, and she should be able to straighten things out. Failing that, contact me and Dale and I will do our best to take care of any problems.

If you have not yet made your reservations, we urge you to do so ASAP, as June is wedding season, and Shelby's hotels have a habit of filling up during the season.

Conference Facility Notes

The conference welcome, lunch, keynote, and raffle will be taking place in the Special Events Ballroom (labeled as ballrooms 4-6 on the map below) . The panels will be taking place in Conference Rooms 1 - 3.

Map of LeGrand Conference Center

Technology Notes

Each conference room has built-in screens and projectors, and integral wall ports for VGA and/or HDMI cables. VGA cables will be provided, but if you need to use an HDMI cable, please bring one with you.

If you are planning to use a PowerPoint or Prezi or to read your paper from a screen, You will also need to bring your own laptop. Hookup will be quick and easy, with tech help in each room for every panel, but the conference rooms are not equipped with computers. Lighting in each room is on separate dimmers and can be adjusted as needed for showing clips from Whedon's darker works!

WiFi internet access is free under the LeGrand's guest access, with no password needed. The signal is strong and fast throughout the conference center.

There will be three very tech-savvy folks wandering around the conference (and one will be in each panel) who are official Joss In June Operatives (only much nicer than the one in Serenity). Our operatives are there to help, especially with tech issues, and, like their namesake, will do whatever it takes to solve your problems. Please don't hesitate to call upon them.

Non-Presenting Registration Still Open

We are able to accept full registration for non-presenting attendees for Joss In June until Friday, June 21. Cost will be $40 each, and will include lunch and two coffee/drink/snack services during the day. So if you have friends who might like to come, or for those of you in the local region, have some students or colleagues who might be interested in checking out a very affordable academic conference, please let them know they are welcome! In fact, we'll even be allowing walk-ins on the 29th, for only $20 (payable by cash or check only) each, but without lunch or access to snacks.

Other Information

We're also pleased to announce that some incredibly cool (seriously, these shirts just rock!) Joss In June t-shirts will be available for purchase in the atrium, and a few shirts from Slayage 5, held last year in Vancouver, will be available, as well as some Whedon Studies Association (WSA) coffee mugs. We'll let you know about the pricing for all of these items as soon as we figure it out ourselves! However, we will only be able to take cash or checks for t-shirts and mugs, so bring some cashy-money with you.

Our goal for Joss in June is to break even, and t-shirt and raffle sales go towards covering conference expenses. In the event that we actually see a profit from Joss In June, that money will be donated to the WSA to further the international academic study of the works of Joss Whedon.

Joss In June Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/groups/139387929588791/

Since Facebook has a notification feature, we'll definitely be posting updates, etc on the conference there in the final weeks, as well as at the blog and via e-mail. It's also a good place to meet some of the presenters and attendees before the conference, and we'll be posting pics from the conference there, and encourage you guys to do the same.

Tweeting The Conference

Recently, it has become relatively common for people to live-Tweet during academic conferences. We have chosen not to try and ban this practice at Joss In June, and instead have asked all of our presenters to provide us with their Twitter handles, if they use the service. These handles will be posted on each presenter's name-plate, and we ask that if you Tweet about a presentation, you do so with proper accreditation, via either the presenter's full name or Twitter handle. Some best practices for conference tweeting have been developed by the American Historical Association, and, if you think you might Tweet during the conference, I urge you to read the AHA's article here: http://www.historians.org/perspectives/issues/2013/1304/Navigating-Twitters-Wild-Wild_West.cfm.

That's it for now, and, as always, please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have.