[Air-L] Virtual Technologies & Social Shaping conference cfp

[David Kreps]

CALL FOR PAPERS

IFIP 9.5 WG Virtuality & Society http://www.ifip95wg.org   
are pleased to announce our next gathering as a part of IFIP's 50th
Anniversary conference, the

WORLD COMPUTER CONGRESS 2010
20-23 September 2010
Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre
Brisbane, Australia
http://www.wcc2010.org/ 

CALL FOR PAPERS
===============
9th Human Choice and Computers (IFIP-TC9-HCC9) Track 2: 

Virtual Technologies and Social Shaping
---------------------------------------

Following on the recent (April 2009) International Working Conference of
IFIP 9.5 Working Group on Virtuality and Society, "Images of Virtuality," at
Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece, this conference will be
a track of the IFIP Technical Committee 9th Human Choice and Computers
(HCC9) stream of the IFIP World Computer Congress, in Brisbane, Australia,
September 2010 http://www.wcc2010.org/ . 

This track will focus on the feedback loops between virtual technologies and
the social groups who use them, how each shape the other and are in turn
shaped by them.
Social shaping, the sociology of technology, science studies and other
approaches of cultural studies to the phenomenon of the information society,
driven by such classics as those of Bijker and Law and Mackenzie and Wajcman
from the 1990s, are arguably now ready for a fresh look, in the context of
virtual environments and global social networking and gaming communities.
The intervening years have additionally seen an explosion of digital and
media arts interpretations, and explorations of the impact of virtual
technologies upon society, and the social use of such technologies upon
their design, and the entrepreneurial trajectories of their appearance in
the global market.

Virtual technologies, crucially, have moved very decisively from the
workplace – whether corporate or home office - and into the domestic sphere,
into our living rooms, playrooms, our kitchens, and our bedrooms. Here the
relationship between virtual technologies and society, and the mutual
shaping processes each undergo, are ripe for fresh study, insight, and
exploration.
The Virtuality and Society Working Group sub-stream of the Human Choice and
Computers stream of the World Computer Congress therefore invites research
and work-in-progress papers that address the choices faced by an information
society permeated by ubiquitous virtual technologies.
Relevant topics and themes include, but are not limited to:

• Discussing issues of responsive and iterative user-centred design,
usability, accessibility, and the ‘permanent beta’ of virtual systems
• Discussing the impact of virtual technologies within the domestic sphere
and the changes to such technologies developed out of use-cases
• Exploring new (e-, or v-) research methodologies and techniques on
inquiring into social action in the context of virtuality
• Identifying challenging social, ethical, and political issues of
socialization in virtuality
• Discussing the role of electronic and digital arts and media in the
shaping of virtual technologies and their uses
• Discussing the role of digital gaming and massive multiplayer role-playing
games in the shaping of virtual technologies and their uses
• Discussing virtual spaces and the role of place in virtual technologies,
and how the domestic as well as the work and civic spaces of the information
society are shaped by, and in turn shape such technologies
• Identifying opportunities and challenges for education, governance, and
entrepreneurship in virtual worlds
• Discussing emerging issues of e-policy and e-quality of life specifically
implicated by virtual technologies
• Exploring social histories and philosophies that deepen our understanding
of term virtuality, and of the relationship between virtual technologies and
society and the mutual shaping processes between them

Additional information on the work of IFIP 9.5 WG is available at
http://www.ifip95wg.org 

Program Committee
==================
Programme Chair: David Kreps, Salford Business School, Salford University,
UK.
Programme Co-chairs: Martin Warnke, Computer Science & Culture, Leuphana
University, Lueneburg, Deutschland, and Claus Pias, University of Vienna,
Austria
Chrisanthi Avgerou, Management Information Systems and Innovation, London
School of Economics and Political Science, UK.
Oliver Burmeister, University of Wollongong, Australia
Simran Grewal, University of Bath, UK
Niki Panteli, School of Management, University of Bath, UK.
Erika Pearson, Otago University, Dunedin, New Zealand
Angeliki Poulymenakou, Management Science & Technology, Athens University of
Economics and Business, Greece
Steve Sawyer, College of Information Sciences and Technology, Penn State
University, USA
Lin Yan, Greenwich University, UK 

Instructions for paper submission
=================================
Papers must not substantially overlap with papers that have been published
or are simultaneously submitted to a journal or another conference with
proceedings. Papers must be written in English; they should be at most 1O-12
pages in total, including bibliography and well-marked appendices. Papers
should be intelligible without appendices, if any.
Accepted papers will be presented at the conference and published in the
IFIP Series by Springer. Submitted and accepted papers must follow the
publisher’s guidelines for the IFIP Series (www.springer.com/series/6102),
Author templates, Manuscript preparation in Word). At least one author of
each accepted paper must register to the conference and present the paper.
All papers must be submitted in electronic form through the web via
http://www.wcc2010.org by the deadline indicated below, indicating for which
HCC9-track they apply. Papers submitted after this deadline will be
discarded without review.

Important dates
===============
Intention to submit: Immediately
Submission of papers: January 31, 2010
Notification to authors: April 20, 2010
Camera-ready copies: May 15, 2010

Intention to submit and submission must be sent also to the two HCC9 IPC
Chairs, and according to your track choice to the tracks chairs:
Jacques Berleur, Namur University, Belgium: jberleur at info.fundp.ac.be
Magda Hercheui, Westminster Business School and London School of Economics,
United Kingdom
m.hercheui at googlemail.com 
Track 2: Virtual Technologies and Social Shaping
David Kreps, Salford Business School, Salford University, UK,
d.g.kreps at salford.ac.uk
Martin Warnke, Computer Science & Culture, Leuphana University, Lueneburg,
Deutschland., warnke at leuphana.de,
Claus Pias, University of Vienna, Austria


  
--------------------------------------------
Dr David Kreps PhD MA MBCS
Senior Lecturer in Information Society

Secretary, IFIP WG 9.5 on Virtuality and Society
http://www.ifip95wg.org/ 

Research Centre for Information Systems, Organisations and Society,
Informatics Research Institute
Salford Business School
University of Salford
0161 295 5884
http://www.business.salford.ac.uk/staff/davidkreps