[AISWorld] Censorship in academia - Censorship is not the answer!

Sun Jan 29 01:24:12 EST 2017

Thanks, Jason, for your prompt action.

It is worrying that a fellow AIS member/AIS Facebook page volunteer would unilaterally decide to censor an important post like the one by Nima without reference to the AIS office-bearers. While a social media policy would certainly help, we may have to consider a more general Code of Conduct for the members beyond the current Research Code of Conduct.

Joseph

JOSEPH G. DAVIS | Professor of Information Systems and Services
School of Information Technologies
Director, Knowledge Discovery and Management Research Group
Theme Leader - Service Computing, Centre for Distributed and High Performance Computing

THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
Room 439E, Building J12 | 1 Cleveland Street
The University of Sydney | NSW | 2006
T +61 2 9351 4291  | F +61 2 9351 3838
E joseph.davis at sydney.edu.au<mailto:joseph.davis at sydney.edu.au>  | W http://www.sydney.edu.au/engineering/it/~jdavis

From: Jason Thatcher [mailto:jthatch at clemson.edu]
Sent: Sunday, 29 January 2017 1:17 PM
To: Joseph Davis; Nima Kordzadeh; Hefley, William
Cc: aisworld at lists.aisnet.org
Subject: Re: [AISWorld] Censorship in academia - Censorship is not the answer!

Dear Colleagues,

Let me begin by thanking Nima, and the many people who contacted me, about the deleted comments on the AIS Facebook page.

Like many of you, I was concerned when I learned of the deletions and immediately emailed the relevant decision makers within the Association for Information Systems (AIS).

Apparently, Nima interacted with a volunteer who helps manage the AIS FB page.  The decisions to delete content were made by the volunteer, absent clear guidance from AIS policy. The volunteer's decision to delete comments was unfortunate because the AIS serves as a platform for the free exchange of ideas across all parts of the Information Systems discipline.

In the coming weeks, I will partner with the VP of Communications, the AIS Comm Director and the AIS Leadership team to craft a social media policy to provide volunteer moderators with clear guidance that is consistent with our values of open and free information exchange.

In the interim, feel free to continue the discussion - on AISWorld or Facebook!

Cheers.

Jason.

-----------

Jason Thatcher

President
Association for Information Systems

 Professor in Information Systems
Department of Management
College of Business and Behavioral Science
Clemson University
Clemson, SC 29634

tel: 864-656-3751
fax: 864-656-2015
skype:  jason.bennett.thatcher
web: http://people.clemson.edu/~jthatch

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________________________________
From: AISWorld <aisworld-bounces at lists.aisnet.org<mailto:aisworld-bounces at lists.aisnet.org>> on behalf of Joseph Davis <joseph.davis at sydney.edu.au<mailto:joseph.davis at sydney.edu.au>>
Sent: Saturday, January 28, 2017 7:26:28 PM
To: Nima Kordzadeh; Hefley, William
Cc: aisworld at lists.aisnet.org<mailto:aisworld at lists.aisnet.org>
Subject: Re: [AISWorld] Censorship in academia - Censorship is not the answer!

I would urge the ECIS 2017 conference organisers to reinstate the comment on the AIS Facebook page.  The central issue here is not where the conference is but that a certain number of AIS community members based in the United States is affected by the executive order.  It is important that the affected academics have an opportunity through a forum like this to let the rest of the community know. This form of censorship should have no place in any AIS forum.

Joseph

JOSEPH G. DAVIS | Professor of Information Systems and Services
School of Information Technologies
Director, Knowledge Discovery and Management Research Group
Theme Leader - Service Computing, Centre for Distributed and High Performance Computing

THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
Room 439E, Building J12 | 1 Cleveland Street
The University of Sydney | NSW | 2006
T +61 2 9351 4291  | F +61 2 9351 3838
E joseph.davis at sydney.edu.au<mailto:joseph.davis at sydney.edu.au>  | W http://www.sydney.edu.au/engineering/it/~jdavis
[http://rp-www.cs.usyd.edu.au/~jdavis/files/Joseph2010.jpg]<http://www.sydney.edu.au/engineering/it/~jdavis>

Home | Joseph G. Davis<http://www.sydney.edu.au/engineering/it/~jdavis>
www.sydney.edu.au<http://www.sydney.edu.au>
Role. Professor of Information Systems and Services Director of Knowledge Discovery and Management Research Group Theme Leader - Service Computing, Centre for ...

-----Original Message-----
From: AISWorld [mailto:aisworld-bounces at lists.aisnet.org] On Behalf Of Nima Kordzadeh
Sent: Sunday, 29 January 2017 8:28 AM
To: Hefley, William
Cc: aisworld at lists.aisnet.org<mailto:aisworld at lists.aisnet.org>
Subject: Re: [AISWorld] Censorship in academia

Thanks for your response, Bill. I believe it has been done by the admin of the AIS Facebook page as I received this private message from him/her after my first try to leave a comment on that post: "The conference is in Portugal not the US." I am not sure how this response is related to the issue though. I responded to that private message and explained the situation, but still my following comments on that post were instantly deleted.

Best.
Nima

*--*

*Nima Kordzadeh, Ph.D.*
Assistant Professor of Informatics
Southern AIS 2017 Program Chair

College of Business
Idaho State University
Pocatello, ID 83209-8020
Office: (208) 282-5731
kordnima at isu.edu<mailto:kordnima at isu.edu>

On Sat, Jan 28, 2017 at 2:17 PM, Hefley, William < William.Hefley at utdallas.edu<mailto:William.Hefley at utdallas.edu>> wrote:

> An interesting question is buried behind your email.  Were the
> supposed deletions a conscious action by an AIS volunteer or staffer,
> or was it done by some admin or informatics (software or program) at Facebook?
>
> bill
>
> Bill Hefley, Ph.D., CDP, COP
> Clinical Professor
> Naveen Jindal School of Management
> The University of Texas at Dallas
> 800 West Campbell Rd., SM 33
> Richardson, TX 75080-3021
> Tel: 1-972-883-5006
> Office: JSOM 3.420
> Email: William.Hefley at utdallas.edu<mailto:William.Hefley at utdallas.edu>
> Books:
> http://www.amazon.com/William-E.-Hefley/e/B002D1CTD0/
> http://www.vanharen.us/index.php?route=product/search&filter_name=Hefl
> ey
>
>
> Faculty Advisor, Project Management Club Member, Academic Senate
> Member, Academic Council
>
>
>
>
>
> On 1/28/17, 3:08 PM, "AISWorld on behalf of Nima Kordzadeh" <
> aisworld-bounces at lists.aisnet.org<mailto:aisworld-bounces at lists.aisnet.org> on behalf of n.kordzadeh at gmail.com<mailto:n.kordzadeh at gmail.com>>
> wrote:
>
>     Dear colleagues,
>
>     As you may know, the European Conference on Information Systems
> (ECIS) will
>     be held in Portugal in June 2017 and as a junior scholar, I would
> love to
>     attend that conference to learn what research projects my
> colleagues are
>     working on. I noticed that the AIS Facebook page has posted information
>     about that conference and has asked: "Have you made your plans to
> join us
>     in Portugal? ECIS 2017 will be fantastic." I left a comment on
> that post as
>     follows:
>
>     "I have not, because then I would be banned from coming back to
> the United
>     States, thanks to Trump's executive order."
>
>
>     That comment was deleted in five seconds apparently by the page admin.
> I
>     re-posted this:
>
>     "I have not, because then I would be banned from coming back to
> the United
>     States, thanks to Trump's executive order. (PLEASE DON'T DELETE THIS
>     MESSAGE LIKE YOU DID LAST TIME.)"
>
>
>     And it was deleted instantly again.
>
>     Given that we, the IS community, are supposed to study and promote
> the use
>     of social media channels for effective communication in business,
>     healthcare, education, etc., and to communicate our ideas,
> challenges, and
>     concerns, is it acceptable that we have such an obvious and
> extreme case of
>     censorship on the main social media page of our community? In
> general, is
>     censorship acceptable in academia?!
>
>     Your input would be greatly appreciated.
>
>     Kind regards,
>     Nima
>
>     *--*
>
>     *Nima Kordzadeh, Ph.D.*
>     Assistant Professor of Informatics
>     Southern AIS 2017 Program Chair
>
>     College of Business
>     Idaho State University
>     Pocatello, ID 83209-8020
>     Office: (208) 282-5731
>     kordnima at isu.edu<mailto:kordnima at isu.edu>
>     _______________________________________________
>     AISWorld mailing list
>     AISWorld at lists.aisnet.org<mailto:AISWorld at lists.aisnet.org>
>
>
>
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