[Air-l] Fwd: [CI] Many Voices, Many Places - Electronically Enabling Communities for An Information Society:

[Michel J. Menou]

Apologies for multiple postings

Best regards,

Michel J. Menou             mailto:Michel.Menou at wanadoo.fr 

This is a forwarded message
From: larrys at vicnet.net.au <larrys at vicnet.net.au>
To: communityinformatics at vancouvercommunity.net
Date: Sunday, June 29, 2003, 3:29:25 PM
Subject: [CI] Many Voices, Many Places - Electronically Enabling Communities for An  Information Society:

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We invite your participation in --

Many Voices, Many Places - Electronically Enabling Communities for An
Information Society: A Colloquium Research Results, Lessons Learned,
Policy Recommendations

Please circulate this invitation widely to colleagues.

Prato, Italy 15-16 September, 2003 www.ccnr.net/prato2003/. Second Call
for Papers and Participation

The Centre for Community Networking Research, Monash University,
Australia and the Community Informatics Research Group at New Jersey
Institute of Technology, USA , cordially invite researchers,
practitioners and policy makers to participate in Many Voices Many Places
- Electronically Enabling Communities for An Information Society
Colloquium to be held 15-16 September, at the Monash University Centre,
Prato (Florence/Firenze), Italy.

Many Voices, Many Places: Electronically Enabling Communities for An
Information Society is meant as a complement to provide an opportunity
for practitioners, researchers and policy makers from research centres,
universities, cultural institutions, and agencies involved in governance
to discuss and reflect on the role and opportunities for emergent
communities as constrained by physical, distance, resource, political,
and gender barriers for effective participation in an Information
Society.

The format of the session will be reflective and deliberative. Position
papers are invited and more formal papers will be reviewed but
presentation will be as introductions to discussion. For reasons of space
we are constrained to no more than 40 participants as appropriate
participation will be by invitation or by anticipated contribution. 50EU
will be charged to cover immediate operating expenses. Please see the
website www.ccnr.net/prato2003/ for registration & accommodation details.
Mid-September 2003 sees a conjunction of several conferences where the
role and impact of electronically-enabled communities will be discussed,
including: Next 5 MINUTES 4, Amsterdam, 12-14 September Information,
Communication, Society: A Research Symposium, Oxford 17th-20th September;
and Communities and Technologies (C&T 2003), Amsterdam, 19 - 21
September.

----We aim to identify the structures and processes which enable collective
memory, minority knowledge creation, and oral culture inclusive of all
parts of societies and how these may be empowered to enhance effective
social participation. The intersection of the discipline of community
informatics with these dimensions of societal knowledge production (and
the consequential empowerment and development of social capital) will
also be explored.

We are looking to provide a forum where those involved can
discuss/summarize/theorize/and draw conclusions or lessons learned from
some ten years of practical work and research experience in applying
Information and Communications Technologies to enabling (and empowering)
emergent communities (virtual and physical) framed as a contribution to
the World Summit on the Information Society which will be held in Geneva
in December of 2003.

Some Possible Topic Areas for Discussion

What are the "many voices" in the Information Society
What are their barriers to participation and what opportunities do they
present to themselves and to others as communities?
How are these many voices "sustainable"?
Many voices as communities of interest (and of place)
Sustaining these communities
Strategies for Innovation: What Do We Know and How Can it Be Promoted
ICTs and Local Economic Development at the margins: What Do We Know and
Where Do We Go From Here
Do ICTs contribute to Poverty Alleviation and if so, how can this be
replicated?
What is the role of institutions of cultural memory in developed and
developing countries?
Oral to electronically documented -- what is the process and what are the
ethical and other issues?
Telecentres-best practices; cost-benefit assessment; are they a solution
for "universal access"
What contribution can ICTs make to building Civil Society?
Communities, ICTs and Emergent Democracy 
What is the (appropriate) role of the private sector?
Colloquium Publication
Proceedings, including refereed papers, position statements and related
documents will be made available at the colloquium and for broader
distribution in the context of the World Summit on the Information
Society (WSIS).
Full Papers (up to 5000 words, including references) are due 1 August for
refereeing and inclusion in the publication. Abstracts should be sent as
soon as possible. This deadline is final if you wish to be included in
the publication. Abstracts/papers should be sent to Professor Michael Gurstein (gurstein at njit.edu) or Larry Stillman (larrys at vicnet.net.au)   Please also register your expression of interest to as either a speaker or
attendee.

Colloquium committee

Michael Bieber, Associate Professor, College of Information Science, New
Jersey Institute of Technology
Michael Gurstein, (Visiting) Professor, School of Management New Jersey
Institute of Technology
Prof Don Schauder, School of Information Management and Systems, Monash
University
Dr Graham Johanson, School of Information Management and Systems/Centre
for Community Networking Research, Monash University
Larry Stillman, School of Information Management and Systems/Centre for
Community Networking Research, Monash University
Colloquium Sponsors
The Centre for Community Networking Research, Monash University,
Australia
New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA
National Science Foundation

************************
Larry Stillman
Centre for Community Networking Research, Monash University, www.ccnr.net
61 3 9903 1801 fax 9903 2564

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