[Air-l] Call for Book Chapters: Designing for Networked Communications

[simonhei at ruc.dk]

[Apologies for cross-posting]

CALL FOR CHAPTERS
Submission Deadline: April 30, 2005

Designing for Networked Communications: Strategies and Development
A book edited by Simon B. Heilesen and Sisse Siggaard Jensen, Roskilde
University, Denmark.

INTRODUCTION

Designing for Networked Communications is to be a book about how we plan, use
and understand the products and the dynamic social processes or tasks upon
which depend some of the most vital innovations - social as well as
technological - in the knowledge society.

Networked communication is proliferating. To-day, not only are existing mediated
forms of communication being remediated in electronic form, but also hitherto
direct forms of communication in complicated social settings are being
supplemented or even replaced by computer mediated communication (CMC). We are
coming to depend on CMC-products. As a result, the way they function and the
way we use them inevitably influences or even determines how we communicate and
how we think about communication.

Designing products for CMC may be seen as a cycle, where tasks require the
creation of artefacts, and where artefacts condition modifications of tasks.
The tasks that we wish to examine are processes of communication between
individuals by means of computer networks (within and across organizations) as
well as the dissemination of information from a sender to a target group. The
artefacts include physical networks, hardware, software as well as the
manipulation of symbols in the act of communicating. Designing is to be
understood in a broad sense as (1) the underlying scheme for the planning,
functioning and development of an artefact, (2) the actual arrangement and
functionality of various elements of the artefact, (3) the development of
strategies and adaptations required for performing tasks by means of the
artefact in the given social context and subject to certain basic conditions,
and (4) the development of creative strategies for social innovation and the
identification of new tasks to be performed by means of a redesign of existing
artefacts or with new artefacts.


THE OVERALL OBJECTIVE OF THE BOOK

The book is meant to further our understanding of ICT-design processes by
identifying strategies employed both by developers and users in the dynamic
processes of creating and using artefacts. The various chapters will present
and reflect on relevant theoretical frameworks and the latest empirical
research findings in the area. Bridging the fields of HCI-design in Computer
Science and Computer-mediated Communication in Communication Studies, the book
will represent an interdisciplinary approach that is valuable for stimulating
unconventional thinking and a creative exchange in and across two important
academic and professional fields.

THE TARGET AUDIENCE

Professionals, researchers and students working in the fields of Communication,
Computer Science (in particular HCI and system development), E-learning and
Computer Supported Collaborative Work.

RECOMMENDED TOPICS include but are not limited to the following
-	Theories and models of designing,
-	Overall strategies and methodologies,
-	Creative and/or sense making strategies and methodologies,
-	Social innovation strategies and methodologies,
-	Negotiation of meaning and collaboration,
-	Learning strategies and environments,
-	Organizational learning and learning cultures,
-	Organizational games and role plays,
-	Problem solving and decision making,
-	Workplace communication,
-	Distributed organizations/ workplaces,
-	Team work and team building,
-	Project management and leadership,
-	Knowledge sharing and knowledge management,
-	General communication for stationary and mobile users,
-	Dissemination of information and information searching,
-	E-publishing and Web-publishing.

SUBMISSION PROCEDURE

Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before April 30, 2005,
a 2-5 page manuscript proposal clearly explaining the mission and concerns of
the proposed chapter. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by May 31,
2005 about the status of their proposals and sent chapter organizational
guidelines. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by October 31, 2005. All
submitted chapters will be reviewed by at least two reviewers on a blind review
basis. The book is scheduled to be published by Idea Group, Inc.,
http://www.idea-group.com/, publisher of the Idea Group Publishing, Information
Science Publishing, IRM Press, CyberTech Publishing and Idea Group Reference
imprints.

Inquiries and Submissions can be forwarded electronically (Word document) or by
mail to both editors:

Simon B. Heilesen, E-mail: simonhei at ruc.dk, Tel. (+45) 4674 3785
Sisse Siggaard Jensen, E-mail: sisse at ruc.dk, Tel. (+45) 4674 3771
Fax: (+45) 4674 3075

Institute of Communication Studies, Journalism and Computer science
Roskilde University, P.O. Box 260, DK 4000 Roskilde, Denmark

For additional information on the project, please visit the Designing for
Networked Communications web site: http://www.ruc.dk/~simonhei/dnc/