[Air-L] (tele)presence and CFP

[Matthew Lombard]

A colleague mentioned that social presence was being discussed 
here so I finally subscribed. Presence folks have typically been 
most focussed on spatial telepresence (the sense - or illusion -
that technology users get of being in a technology-generated, or 
partially generated, space) but there's much more focus these 
days on social telepresence (the sense technology users get of 
interacting directly with real or artificial people or other social 
entities). Although it's not reflected as well as it might be in the 
text of the call for papers below, social telepresence is central to 
many of the potential topics listed. 

There's lots more information, including a detailed concept 
explication statement, on the web site of the International Society 
for Presence Research (ISPR); the url is <http://ispr.info). 

Best,

--Matthew

***Apologies for cross-postings***  

Special Issue of Virtual Reality on "Mediated Presence: Virtual 
Reality, Mixed Environments and Social Networks"   

Guest Editors:  

Prof Luciano Gamberini PhD and Anna Spagnolli PhD (University 
of Padova)  

Matthew Lombard PhD (Temple University)  

Often described as a sense of "being there" in a mediated 
environment, presence is broadly defined as a psychological state 
or subjective perception in which a person fails to accurately and 
completely acknowledge the role of technology in an experience. 
It is a rich, fascinating subject of scientific investigation, artistic 
exploration and diverse application, with increasingly important 
implications for the ways in which people interact and 
technologies are developed. Designing technologies and 
imagining practices to modify, prolong and reconfigure the 
possibilities of being present has been a continuous endeavour of 
the human species, from early attempts at constructing 
communication and transportation devices, to the many current 
technologies we continue to develop to reach other places and 
people. Originally focused on bringing "presence" from the real 
world to a simulated one, the phenomenon is today analyzed and 
investigated in the context of diverse environments and involves 
questioning simple distinctions between "'real" and "artificial". This 
opening to a wide range of mediated environments is 
accompanied by a growing involvement of different research 
fields that are continuously updating and modifying the contours 
of presence scholarship. The phenomenon of presence is 
challenging from a scientific point of view as much as it is viable 
in everyday life, where people participate in simultaneous 
mediated experiences, feeling present or copresent in digital 
locations without any need for explicit instructions and 
orchestrating technical and cognitive resources to control and 
enhance presence. What it means to be present in mediated 
environments is then an extremely relevant and enticing question, 
bearing all sorts of implications for the design and application of 
diverse technologies.    

This special issue aims at illustrating the variety of research 
questions and approaches that are needed in order to tackle the 
phenomenon of mediated presence in virtual reality, mixed 
environments and social networks. Topics include:   

o Presence in shared virtual environments and online 
communities  

o Presence in social interactions with virtual agents and digital 
counterparts; parasocial interaction and relationships  

o Real bodies, avatars and cyborgs  

o Presence and ubiquity with mobile and geo-location 
technologies  

o Presence as a socio-cultural achievement; practices, 
preferences and material resources to manifest presence  

o Linguistic and non-verbal strategies to create, negotiate and 
challenge presence in mediated environments  

o Realistic action in virtual environments  

o Cognitive processes and the sense of presence; neuro-
psychology of presence  

o Presence affordances in digital technologies  

o 3D sound, acoustic environments and presence  

o Advanced broadcast and cinematic displays (stereoscopic TV, 
HDTV, IMAX)  

o Haptic and tactile displays  

o Holography   

o Affective and socio-affective interfaces  

o Presence analysis, evaluation, and measurement techniques  

o Causes and consequences (effects) of presence  

o Presence augmentation through social, physical, and contextual 
cues  

o Presence, involvement and digital addiction  

o Presence applications (education and training; medicine; e-
health and cybertherapy; entertainment; communication and 
collaboration; teleoperation; usability and design; art and 
performance, etc.)  

The special issue will appear in the Springer journal Virtual 
Reality (www.springeronline.com/journal/10055). Submissions are 
invited from authors who contributed to 11th Annual International 
Workshop of Presence, authors who did not contribute to the 
workshop are also welcome.   

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS   

Papers should typically be around 8,000 words and of standard 
journal content: reports of original research, or review papers. 
Submissions will be peer reviewed in accordance with the 
journal's normal process.    

Papers should be submitted online in Microsoft Word format and 
uploaded to http://www.editorialmanager.com/vire/. In order to use 
this system, authors need first to register in it, wait to receive a 
password by e-mail and then log in. When choosing 'Submit new 
manuscript' they are asked to select on article type from a list. 
They must select: 'S.I. Presence'.   

Please direct all correspondence to 
luciano.gamberini at unipd.it,anna.spagnolli at unipd.it and 
lombard at temple.edu.   

DEADLINES (extended):  

Submission of paper: January 31 st, 2009  

Notification of acceptance to authors: March 21st, 2009  

Revised papers received by April 20th, 2009  

Publication: June 2009  
   
-- 
Matthew Lombard, Ph.D.
Temple University
President
International Society for Presence Research (ISPR)

(215) 204-7182
lombard at temple.edu
http://matthewlombard.com
http://ispr.info