[Air-L] ASIST> 4th Annual Social Informatics Research Symposium (SIG SI)

[Howard Rosenbaum]

[Apologies for cross-posting]

First Call for Papers and Participation:

4th Annual Social Informatics Research Symposium (SIG SI)
People, information and technology: The social analysis of computing

Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science and  
Technology
Saturday, October 25, 2008, 8:30-12:30 PM
Hyatt Regency Columbus, Ohio

The purpose of this ASIST preconference research symposium is to  
disseminate current research and research in progress that  
investigates the social aspects of information and communications  
technologies (ICT) across all areas of ASIST.  The symposium includes  
members of many SIGs and defines "social" broadly to include critical  
and historical approaches and well as contemporary social analysis. It  
defines "technology" broadly to include traditional technologies  
(i.e., paper) as well as state of the art computer systems. This  
year's theme is "People, information and technology: The social  
analysis of computing”

In keeping with the theme of the conference, the symposium is  
soliciting work that focuses on the relationships of mutual shaping  
between people and information as mediated by technology. According to  
Horton, Davenport, and Wood-Harper (2005; 52) “the impetus for  
researchers to consider both social and technical aspects as mutually  
constitutive as a means of understanding technology introduction and  
use has a growing audience.”

This symposium will highlight research focusing on the social  
realities of ICT based information systems (broadly defined) in IS in  
order to better understand the following:

~ How are the design, implementation, use, disuse, and ongoing  
reconfiguration of information and  ICTs influenced by social groups,  
organizations, politics, and culture?
~ How do information and ICTs shape those creating, implementing and  
using them?
~ What are the roles of information and ICT in ongoing social change  
at various levels of social analysis such as groups, organizational  
units, political entities or cultural systems?
~ What are the complex reciprocal relationships among information,  
ICT, people, social groups and the environments that surround and  
pervade them?
~ What are the variations in meanings or interpretations of  
information and ICT across social groups and organizations?
~ What are the moral or ethnical consequences of ICT system  
development and use?

We are particularly interested in work that assumes a critical stance  
towards the notion of mutual shaping – what is involved in people  
transforming information and information transforming people? A  
critical analysis is useful because it “bring into question  
established social assumptions and values regarding information and  
communication technologies (ICTs) and established understandings of  
‘information,’ particularly as they play themselves out and are  
institutionalized in social and professional discourses and  
professional training.” (Day, 2007; 575).

We encourage all scholars, both beginning and established, interested  
in social aspects of ICT (broadly defined) to share their research and  
research in progress by submitting an extended abstract of their work  
and attending the symposium.

This year, the SIG SI is partnering with SIG USE to offer a  
comprehensive full day program. The theme of this symposium fits well  
with the main themes of the SIG USE symposium meaning that there would  
be a full day of exploration of the question of the transformative  
relationships between people, information, and ICTs from two different  
but clearly related perspectives. The SIG SI symposium will take place  
on Saturday morning and the SIG USE symposium will be in the  
afternoon. Collectively, the two sessions can offer a comprehensive  
full day program, although each will work well as a stand-alone event.  
The two SIGs will co-sponsor a networking lunch that will take place  
in between the two events [Cost: Pay-on-your-own. Further details to  
be announced later]. There will be a discount for people who register  
for both symposia.

Call for papers and posters:

Submit a short paper (2000 words) or poster (500 words) by August 29,  
2008

Submissions may include empirical, critical and theoretical work, as  
well as richly described practice cases and demonstrations.

Acceptance announcements made by September 9, in time for conference  
early registration (ends Sept 12th).

Tentative Schedule

Paper presentations: 8:30-10:45 pm
Break: 10:45-11:15 (with poster viewing)
Closing Keynote Discussion: 11:15-12:30 pm
Lunch with SIG-USE: 12:30-1:30 PM

Fees

Members $60 - $70 after Sept. 12
Non-members $70 - $80, after Sept. 12

If you register for the SI Symposium and the SIG-USE Symposium you  
will receive a $10 discount:

Members $140 - $150 after Sept. 12
Non-members $150 - $160, after Sept. 14

Organizers:

Howard Rosenbaum, School of Library and Information Science -Indiana  
University
hrosenba at indiana.edu
Elisabeth Davenport, School of Computing, Napier University
e.davenport at napier.ac.uk
Kalpana Shankar, School of Informatics -Indiana University
shankark at indiana.edu

Day, R. (2007). Kling and the “critical”: Social informatics and  
critical informatics. Journal of the American Society for Information  
Science and Technology. 58(4): 575–582.

Horton, K., Davenport, E. and Wood-Harper, T. (2005). Exploring  
sociotechnical interaction with Rob Kling: five “big” ideas.  
Information Technology & People 18(1): 50-67