From internet-nat-interest at listserv.cddc.vt.edu Sat Dec 10 15:59:20 2005 From: internet-nat-interest at listserv.cddc.vt.edu (internet-nat-interest@listserv.cddc.vt.edu) Date: Sat Dec 10 15:58:52 2005 Subject: [Internet-nat-interest] Internet Research 7.0, Brisbane 28-30 September 2006 Message-ID: CALL FOR PAPERS IR 7.0: INTERNET CONVERGENCES International and Interdisciplinary Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers Brisbane, Australia 28-30 September 2006 Pre-Conference Workshops: 27 September 2006 INTERNET CONVERGENCES The Internet works as an arena of convergence. Physically dispersed and marginalized people (re)find themselves online for the sake of sustaining and extending community. International and interdisciplinary teams now collaborate in new ways. Diverse cultures engage one another via CMC. These technologies relocate and refocus capital, labor and immigration, and they open up new possibilities for political, potentially democratizing, forms of discourse. Moreover, these technologies themselves converge in multiple ways, e.g. in Internet-enabled mobile phones, in Internet-based telephony, and in computers themselves as "digital appliances" that conjoin communication and multiple media forms. These technologies also facilitate fragmentations with greater disparities between the information-haves and have-nots, between winners and losers in the shifting labor and capital markets, and between individuals and communities. Additionally these technologies facilitate information filtering that reinforces, rather than dialogically challenges, narrow and extreme views. CALL FOR PAPERS Our conference theme invites papers and presentations based on empirical research, theoretical analysis and everything in between that explore the multiple ways the Internet acts in both converging and fragmenting ways - physical, cultural, technological, political, social - on local, regional, and global scales. Without limiting possible proposals, topics of interest include: - Theoretical and practical models of the Internet - Internet convergence, divergence and fragmentation - Networked flows of information, capital, labor, etc. - Migrations and diasporas online - Identity, community and global communication - Regulation and control (national and global) - Internet-based development and other economic issues - Digital art and aesthetics - Games and gaming on the Internet - The Net generation - E-Sectors, e.g. e-health, e-education, e-business We call for papers, panel proposals, and presentations from any discipline, methodology, and community that address the theme of Internet Convergence. We particularly call for innovative, exciting, and unexpected takes on and interrogations of the conference theme. However, we always welcome submissions on any topics that address social, cultural, political, economic, and/or aesthetic aspects of the Internet and related Internet technologies. We are equally interested in interdisciplinary proposals as well as proposals from within specific disciplines. SUBMISSIONS We seek proposals for several different kinds of contributions. We welcome proposals for traditional academic conference papers, but we also encourage proposals for creative or aesthetic presentations that are distinct from a traditional written 'paper'. We welcome proposals for roundtable sessions that will focus on discussion and interaction among conference delegates, and we also welcome organized panel proposals that present a coherent group of papers on a single theme. This year AoIR will also be using an alternative presentation format in which a dozen or so participants who wish to present a very short overview of their work to stimulate debate will gather together in a plenary session involving short presentations (no more than 5 minutes) and extended discussion. All papers and presentations in this session will be reviewed in the normal manner. Further information will be available via the conference submission website. - PAPERS (individual or multi-author) - submit abstract of 500-750 words - SHORT PRESENTATIONS - submit abstract of 500-700 words - CREATIVE OR AESTHETIC PRESENTATIONS - submit abstract of 500-700 words - PANELS - submit a 250-500 word description of the panel theme and abstracts of the distinct papers or presentations - ROUNDTABLE PROPOSALS - submit a statement indicating the nature of the roundtable discussion and interaction. Papers, presentations and panels will be selected from the submitted proposals on the basis of multiple blind peer review, coordinated and overseen by the Program Chair. Each person is invited to submit a proposal for 1 paper or 1 presentation. People may also propose a panel of papers or presentations, of which their personal paper or presentation must be a part. You may submit an additional paper/presentation of which you are the co-author as long as you are not presenting twice. You may submit a roundtable proposal as well. Detailed information about submission and review is available at the conference submission website http://conferences.aoir.org. All proposals must be submitted electronically through this site. PUBLICATION OF PAPERS All papers presented at the conference are eligible for publication in the Internet Research Annual, on the basis of competitive selection and review of full papers. Additionally, several publishing opportunities are expected to be available through journals, again based on peer-review of full papers. Details on the website. GRADUATE STUDENTS Graduate students are strongly encouraged to submit proposals. Any student paper is eligible for consideration for the AoIR graduate student award. Students wishing to be a candidate for the Student Award must also send a final paper by 31 July 2006. PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS Prior to the conference, there will be a limited number of pre-conference workshops which will provide participants with in-depth, hands-on and/or creative opportunities. We invite proposals for these pre-conference workshops. Local presenters are encouraged to propose workshops that will invite visiting researchers into their labs or studios or locales. Proposals should be no more than 1000 words, and should clearly outline the purpose, methodology, structure, costs, equipment and minimal attendance required, as well as explaining its relevance to the conference as a whole. Proposals will be accepted if they demonstrate that the workshop will add significantly to the overall program in terms of thematic depth, hands on experience, or local opportunities for scholarly or artistic connections. These proposals and all inquires regarding pre-conference proposals should be submitted as soon as possible to the Conference Chair and no later than 31 March 2006. DEADLINES Final date for proposal submission: 7 February 2006 Presenter notification: 21 March 2006 Final workshop submission deadline: 31 March 2006 Submission for publication/student award: 31 July 2006 Submission for conference archive: 30 September 2006 CONTACT INFORMATION Program Chair: Dr Fay Sudweeks, Murdoch University, Australia, sudweeks@murdoch.edu.au Conference Chair: Dr Axel Bruns, Queensland University of Technology, Australia, a.bruns@qut.edu.au President of AoIR: Dr Matthew Allen, Curtin University of Technology, Australia m.allen@curtin.edu.au Association Website: http://www.aoir.org Conference Website: http://conferences.aoir.org ----- Dr Fay Sudweeks Senior Lecturer School of Information Technology Murdoch University Murdoch WA 6150 Australia Tel: (08) 9360 2364 Fax: (08) 9360 2941 Web: www.it.murdoch.edu.au/~sudweeks Co-Chair CATaC conferences: www.catacconference.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://malagigi.cddc.vt.edu/pipermail/internet-nat-interest/attachments/20051211/b253eadf/attachment-0001.html From internet-nat-interest at listserv.cddc.vt.edu Sat Dec 10 16:00:15 2005 From: internet-nat-interest at listserv.cddc.vt.edu (internet-nat-interest@listserv.cddc.vt.edu) Date: Sat Dec 10 15:59:42 2005 Subject: [Internet-nat-interest] CULTURAL ATTITUDES TOWARDS TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATION CONFERENCE (CATaC'06) Message-ID: CALL FOR PAPERS International Conference on CULTURAL ATTITUDES TOWARDS TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATION (CATaC'06) 28 June - 1 July 2006 University of Tartu, Estonia http://www.catacconference.org Conference theme: Neither Global Village nor Homogenizing Commodification: Diverse Cultural, Ethnic, Gender and Economic Environments The biennial CATaC conference series continues to provide an international forum for the presentation and discussion of current research on how diverse cultural attitudes shape the implementation and use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). The conference series brings together scholars from around the globe who provide diverse perspectives, both in terms of the specific culture(s) they highlight in their presentations and discussions, and in terms of the discipline(s) through which they approach the conference theme. The 1990s' hopes for an "electronic global village" have largely been shunted aside by the Internet's explosive diffusion. This diffusion was well described by Marx - all that is solid melts into air - and was predicted by postmodernists. The diffusion of CMC technologies quickly led to many and diverse internets. A single "Internet", whose identity and characteristics might be examined as a single unity, has not materialised. An initially culturally and gender homogenous Internet came more and more to resemble an urban metropolis. Along the way, in the commercialization of the Internet and the Web, "cultural diversity" gets watered down and exchanges strong diversity for a homogenous interchangeability. Such diversity thereby becomes commodified and serves a global capitalism that tends to foster cultural homogenization. CATaC'06 continues our focus on the intersections of culture, technology, and communication, beginning with an emphasis on continued critique of the assumptions, categories, methodologies, and theories frequently used to analyse these. At the same time, CATaC'06 takes up our characteristic focus on ethics and justice in the design and deployment of CMC technologies. We particularly focus on developing countries facilitated by "on the ground" approaches in the work of NGOs, governmental agencies, etc., in ways that preserve and foster cultural identity and diversity. By simultaneously critiquing and perhaps complexifying our theories and assumptions, on the one hand, and featuring "best practices" approaches to CMC in development work, on the other hand, CATaC'06 aims towards a middle ground between a putative "global village" and homogenizing commodification. Such middle ground fosters cultural diversity, economic and social development, and more successful cross-cultural communication online. Original full papers (especially those which connect theoretical frameworks with specific examples of cultural values, practices, etc.: 10-20 pages) and short papers (e.g. describing current research projects and preliminary results: 3-5 pages) are invited. Topics of particular interest include but are not limited to: - Culture isn't 'culture' anymore - The Internet isn't the 'Internet' anymore - Gender, culture, empowerment and CMC - CMC and cultural diversity - Ethics and justice - Free/Open technology and communication - Internet research ethics - Cultural diversity and e-learning SUBMISSIONS All submissions will be peer reviewed by an international panel of scholars and researchers and accepted papers will appear in the conference proceedings. Submission of a paper implies that it has not been submitted or published elsewhere. At least one author of each accepted paper is expected to present the paper at the conference. Full papers (10-20 formatted pages) - 13 February 2006 Short papers (3-5 formatted pages) - 20 February 2006 Workshop submissions - 20 February 2006 Notification of acceptance - mid March 2006 Final formatted papers - 29 March 2006 There will be the opportunity for selected papers from this 2006 conference to appear in special issues of journals. Papers in previous conferences have appeared in journals (Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, Electronic Journal of Communication/La Revue Electronique de Communication, AI and Society, Javnost- The Public, and New Media and Society) and a book (Culture, Technology, Communication: towards an Intercultural Global Village, 2001, edited by Charles Ess with Fay Sudweeks, SUNY Press, New York). You may purchase the conference proceedings from the 2002 and 2004 conference from www.it.murdoch.edu.au/catac. CONFERENCE CO-CHAIRS Charles Ess, Drury University, USA, catac@it.murdoch.edu.au Fay Sudweeks, Murdoch University, Australia, catac@it.murdoch.edu.au PROGRAM CHAIR Herbert Hrachovec, University of Vienna, Austria CONFERENCE CO-VICE-CHAIRS Pille Runnel, Tartu University, Estonia Pille Vengerfeldt, Tartu University, Estonia ----- Dr Fay Sudweeks Senior Lecturer School of Information Technology Murdoch University Murdoch WA 6150 Australia Tel: (08) 9360 2364 Fax: (08) 9360 2941 Web: www.it.murdoch.edu.au/~sudweeks Co-Chair CATaC conferences: www.catacconference.org