[Air-l] CfP: Digital Cities 5 at C&T 2007

[Marcus Foth]

CALL FOR PAPERS

Digital Cities 5
Urban Informatics, Locative Media and Mobile Technology in Inner-City  
Developments

Workshop at the 3nd International Conference on Communities and  
Technologies (C&T 2007)
June 28th, 2007, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

Personalised mobile devices penetrate new urban spaces with a need  
for innovative products and services that enable the creative and  
consumption process to account for shifting social, cultural and  
psychological conditions. City residents now have the ability to  
communicate within groups, access media and entertainment content and  
manage their ‘digital lifestyle’ through SMS, mobile email, pictures  
and video. These innovative applications of locative media  
incorporate cultural and social patterns of interaction and user-led  
innovations that are yet to be fully explored. In addition to these  
informational and locative functions, locative media and mobile  
technology increasingly serve a discursive function as well. This is  
being manifested in a variety of rapidly emerging content genres  
(e.g., digital storytelling, blogs, e-zines, etc.) which are deployed  
between individuals as well as in networks of individuals. Digital  
cities have been promoted as a civic platform for citizens’ visions  
of the space they live and work in, complementary (and sometimes even  
alternative) to the much more institutional view of conventional e- 
government approaches. Locative media and mobile technology can  
enhance and augment digital cities and connect them in new ways to  
the physical city, enhancing civic participation and deliberation.


Relevant Research Questions:

How can a balance be achieved between the opportunities of locative  
media and mobile technology on the one side and issues of access,  
trust and privacy on the other?

What is the role of locally relevant content (personal and community  
images and narratives) in the establishment of sustainable social  
networks as well as in the context of civic participation?

What can we learn from the communication models of global social  
networking sites such as MySpace and plazes.com in order to animate  
local interaction and civic participation of residents and friends  
locally?

What is the role of location, (geo)graphical representations such as  
maps of various kinds, in supporting people to understand and  
navigate the augmented urban landscape?

What is the impact of these new technologies on the challenges in  
moving from e-government to e-governance, e-participation to e- 
democracy at the urban level? Will these technological developments  
help increase or decrease the opportunities for citizens to play a  
role in shaping sustainable cities?

What are the implications for the architecture and urban design of  
cities and public spaces?


Submission Details:

Interested contributors should submit an extended abstract, 1500-2000  
words long, stating the author’s name, affiliation, and contact  
information. This should be emailed to the workshop organisers before  
April 16th, 2007 and should summarise the author(s) research /  
practice background and interests as well as the work and results  
that will be described in a full paper. Accepted authors will be  
notified by May 18th, 2007. The acceptance of an extended abstract  
implies that at least one of the authors will register for both the  
workshop and the Communities & Technologies 2007 conference. Selected  
contributors will be asked to submit a full paper before October 1st,  
2007. Full papers will undergo double blind peer review and appear in  
an edited book to be published by Idea Group in 2008.

The full call for papers can be found at:
https://ebusiness.tc.msu.edu/cct2007/page4d.html


Please email any questions and inquiries to both workshop organisers.

Marcus Foth
Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
m.foth at qut.edu.au

Fiorella De Cindio
Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy
fiorella.de.cindio at rcm.dico.unimi.it


--
Dr Marcus Foth
Australian Postdoctoral Fellow

Institute for Creative Industries and Innovation
Queensland University of Technology (CRICOS No. 00213J)
Creative Industries Precinct, Brisbane QLD 4059, Australia
Phone +61 7 313 x88772 - Fax x88195 - Room Z6-511
m.foth at qut.edu.au - http://www.vrolik.de/

http://eprints.qut.edu.au/view/person/Foth,_Marcus.html