Comments on: Do anthropologists approach YOU? Do you want them to?

By: Jason Baird Jackson

Jason Baird Jackson — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 18:40:34 +0000

In a serious register, I would just note that the meetings of the AAA are already sponsored. The annual report for 2011 shows that Oxford University Press was the largest donor for the year. I believe that that funding was used in a meeting context. Weren’t the tote-bags OUP branded? Wiley contributed specifically to an different recent meeting. The Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference (EPIC), which has a relationship to the AAA that I do not understand, has an impressive roster of corporate sponsors. Such sponsorship has come to be normal in many fields in which attendees control spending decisions–museums, libraries, medicine. Thankfully there are at least open conversations in such fields on the corruption that follows from this established practice. (One can search for “swag ethics” debates in fields such as libraries and technology journalism.)

I am disappointed with the new wiki but am still trying to figure out how to address it fruitfully.

By: Michael Scroggins

Michael Scroggins — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 17:18:34 +0000

@Rex

I love the idea of seeking sponsorship, but I think it might work better at the section level.

For instance…

Association of Senior Anthropologists – brought to you by the AARP
Council on Anthropology and Education – Kaplan
Society for Psychological Anthropology – Pfizer
Culture and Agriculture – Cargill

In seriousness, the AAA blog is at: http://blog.aaanet.org/ A wiki should follow the convention and live at: http://wiki.aaanet.org/

I applaud the idea behind the registry, but pushing it off on a wiki farm is a very bad move. Especially a wiki farm as controversial as wikia.

By: Rex

Rex — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 00:11:35 +0000

Yeah I mean I actually use Wikia wikis all the time for the video games I play. They vary in quality but there are some stellar ones out there. What surprises me is that the AAA is sullying itself by mixing with the hoi polloi. If that’s the sort of thing they are up for, why don’t they let us install OJS on my uni library’s servers and be done with it?

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 23:02:05 +0000

I for one look forward to collaboration with our new academic brethren- their Wiki looks very well peer reviewed. In all seriousness though, academic organizations are never exactly rolling around in money, especially not right now. I can laugh at who the AAA has to share web space with, but I can't really judge.

By: Kethryvis

Kethryvis — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 21:57:35 +0000

i have to wonder if they went to Wikia out of Tech Intimidation. Wikis are pretty easy to set up (okay maybe i'm biased, i used to work for the Wikimedia Foundation), but having someone handle all the "hard stuff" like hosting, installation, etc. is pretty appealing, especially if they'll do it for free, until you figure out if this will work out or not. i'd also like to point out that the Muppet Wiki is hosted on Wikia and that thing is one amazing wiki, and one i'd be proud to share a hosting service with. What does Wikia do? Allow people to set up VERY niche wikis. Some could argue that the information we as a discipline produce is very niche. So perhaps Wikia is a place for us, as a proof of concept, and then the AAA can go the extra mile and set up a full wiki on their own servers, away from Wikia. Or... someone could volunteer to do it. Take agency ourselves to do it instead of waiting for the AAA to do it, and then whining about how they did it.