[Air-l] CFP: Persistent Conversation minitrack: abstracts due 3/31

[Tom Erickson]

CALL FOR PAPERS
[online: http://www.visi.com/~snowfall/HICSS_PC.html ]
    
Eighth Annual Minitrack on Persistent Conversation
Hawaii International Conference on Systems Science (HICSS 40)
Hilton Waikola Village Resort , Big Island, Hawaii
January 3-6, 2007


The Persistent Conversation minitrack and workshop is a yearly
gathering of those who design and study systems that support
computer-mediated communication.

=== AT A GLANCE ===

= Summary of Topic =
Persistent conversations occur via instant messaging, text and
voice chat, email, blogs, wikis, web boards, MOOs, graphical VR
environments, document annotation systems, text messaging on
mobile phones, etc. Such forms of conversation play a crucial
role in domains such as online communities, the sharing and
management of knowledge, and the support of e-commerce,
e-learning and other network mediated interactions. The
persistence of digitally mediated conversation affords new
uses (e.g., searching, replaying, restructuring) and raises
new problems. This multi-disciplinary minitrack seeks
contributions from researchers and designers that improve our
ability to understand, analyze, and/or design persistent
conversation systems.

= Who =
Researchers and designers from fields such as anthropology,
computer-mediated communication, HCI, interaction design,
linguistics, management, psychology, rhetoric, sociology, and
so forth. We also welcome submissions from graduate students.

= Chairs =
Thomas Erickson, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center (snowfall at acm.org)
Susan Herring, School of Library and Information Science,
Indiana University (herring at indiana.edu)

= Important Dates* =
Fri, Mar 31, 2006:  Abstract submission
Fri, Apr 14, 2006:  Feedback on abstracts
Th, June 15, 2006:  Paper submission - [Instructions will be on the HICSS site]
Tu, Aug 15, 2006:  Accept/Conditional Accept/Reject notice
To be determined:  Resubmission of Conditional Accept papers -
Fri Sep 15, 2006:  Final publication-ready papers due -
Fri Sep 15, 2006:  One author must register for HICSS -
----------
   *  For other dates, such as end of early registration and hotel
      deadlines, see the official HICSS conference site

=== DETAILS ===

= About the Minitrack =
This interdisciplinary minitrack and workshop brings designers
and researchers together to explore persistent conversation, the
transposition of ordinarily ephemeral conversation into the
potentially persistent digital medium. The phenomena of interest
include human-to-human interactions carried out using chat, instant
messaging, text messaging, email, blogs, wikis, mailing lists,
newsgroups, bulletin board systems, multi-authored Web documents,
structured conversation systems, textual and graphical virtual
worlds, etc. Computer-mediated conversations blend characteristics
of oral conversation with those of written text: they may be
synchronous or asynchronous; their audience may be small or vast;
they may be highly structured or almost amorphous; etc. The
persistence of such conversations gives them the potential to be
searched, browsed, replayed, annotated, visualized, restructured,
and recontextualized, thus opening the door to a variety of new
uses and practices.

The particular aim of the minitrack and workshop is to bring
together researchers who analyze existing computer-mediated
conversational practices and sites, with designers who propose,
implement, or deploy new types of conversational systems. By
bringing together participants from such diverse areas as
anthropology, computer-mediated communication, HCI, interaction
design, linguistics, management, psychology, rhetoric, sociology,
and the like, we hope that the work of each may inform the
others, suggesting new questions, methods, perspectives, and
design approaches.

= About Paper Topics =
We are seeking papers that address one or both of the following
two general areas:
* Understanding Practice. The burgeoning popularity of the internet
    (and intranets) provides an opportunity to study and characterize new
    forms of conversational practice. Questions of interest range from
    how various features of conversations (e.g., turn-taking, topic
    organization, expression of paralinguistic information) have adapted
    in response to the digital medium, to new roles played by persistent
    conversation in domains such as education, business, and
    entertainment.
*Design. Digital systems do not currently support conversation well:
    It is difficult to converse with grace, clarity, depth and coherence
    over networks. But this need not remain the case. Toward this end, we
    welcome analyses of existing systems as well as designs for new
    systems which better support conversation. Also of interest are
    inquiries into how participants design their own conversations within
    the digital medium -- that is, how they make use of system features
    to create, structure, and regulate their discourse.

Examples of appropriate topics include, but are not limited to:
* Turn-taking, threading, and other structural features of CMC
* The dynamics of large scale conversation systems (e.g., USENET)
* Methods for summarizing or visualizing conversation archives
* Studies of virtual communities or other sites of digital conversation
* The roles of mediated conversation in knowledge management
* Studies of the use of instant messaging in large organizations
* Novel designs for computer-mediated conversation systems
* Analyses of or designs for distance learning systems
For other examples see the list of previous years' papers:
http://www.visi.com/~snowfall/HICSS_PC_History.html

= The Workshop =
The minitrack is normally preceded by a half-day workshop open
to all minitrack authors, as well as those who will form the
core audience for the minitrack. We will know whether the
workshop has been accepted for HICSS 2007 in early April.
Watch the online version of this call for more details: 
http://www.visi.com/~snowfall/HICSS_PC.html

= Instructions for Abstract Submission =
Submit a 250 word abstract of your proposed paper via email to
the chairs: Tom Erickson <snowfall at acm.org>, Susan Herring
<herring at indiana.edu> by the deadline noted above.

= Instructions for Paper Submission =
* HICSS papers must contain original material not previously
    published, or currently submitted elsewhere. All papers will be
    submitted in double column publication format and limited to 10 pages
    including diagrams and references. Papers undergo a double-blind
    review.
* Do not submit the manuscript to more than one Minitrack. If
    unsure which Minitrack is appropriate, submit the abstract to
    the Track Chair for guidance.
* Submit your full paper according to the instructions that will
    appear on the HICSS web site:  http://www.hicss.hawaii.edu/

= For More Information =
* This call for participation, etc.:
	http://www.visi.com/~snowfall/HICSS_PC.html
* History (papers and participants in previous minitracks):
       	http://www.visi.com/~snowfall/HICSS_PC_History.html
* About the minitrack, contact: snowfall at acm.org, herring at indiana.edu
* About the HICSS conference, see: http://www.hicss.hawaii.edu/

=== END, HICSS PERSISTENT CONVERSATION CFP ===
-- 

-- 
------------------------------------------
Tom Erickson
IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
Email: snowfall at acm.org (preferred); snowfall at us.ibm.com(IBM confidential)
http://www.visi.com/~snowfall/