[Air-L] Reminder: Call for papers "Divides: Inclusion & Representation Across the Web"

[Lindsay Poirier]

"Divides: Inclusion & Representation Across the Web"
http://divides2015.org/
Workshop at the 2015 ACM Web Science Conference
http://websci15.org/
Oxford University | June 28, 2015 - July 1, 2015

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While the Web has immensely expanded opportunities for diverse populations
to engage in global discussions and contribute to online content, questions
on how to expand online inclusivity and better attend to a politics of
representation remain pertinent to Web Science.  In their monograph, "Web
Science: Understanding the Emergence of Macro-Level Features on the World
Wide Web," O'Hara et al set forth that the scientific study of the Web
hinges on considering how micro-level actions emerge into macro-level
phenomena. The goal of this workshop is to reflect on these micro-level
actions from the standpoint of users who have been habitually excluded from
or misrepresented in Web environments and to consider how these divides
play a role in shaping macro-level phenomena. In doing so, the workshop
aims to facilitate interdisciplinary discussions that consider how Web
standards, technologies, platforms, and research methodologies could be
improved so as to increase inclusivity and refocus representation on the
Web.

This workshop is framed in terms of 'divides' both strategically and with
caution. Focus on 'bridging the digital divide' has privileged concerns
about access to digital technologies over the design and research decisions
that facilitate exclusion and misrepresentation. While exclusion from the
Web is an issue that needs to be attended to, we would like to broaden the
concept of digital divides. The traditional focus narrows the scope of
'divides' to those who have access to digital technology v. those that do
not, ignoring the diversity of users with access, the role of architecture
in causing exclusion, and the role of certain research methodologies in
establishing a politics of representation. In another sense, the
traditional focus forecloses rich interdisciplinary collaborations;
bridging the digital divide becomes a mutually exclusive activity where
social scientists point out excluded populations and computer scientists
design and deliver. Instead, this workshop will aim to reinvigorate the
concept of 'divides' with a focus on how social scientists and computer
scientists can draw on each other's expertise in order to offer insights on
how Web standards, technologies, and platforms can be restructured to
enhance participation and engagement with the Web amongst diverse
populations. It will additionally consider how research studying the Web as
complex socio-technical system can better attend to those who have been
excluded from or poorly represented in Web environments.

The workshop aims to collect empirical cases that exemplify why an
attention to divides is so critical to Web Science. The organizers want to
provide a forum in which both social scientists and computer scientists can
draw from their experiences in designing and studying the Web in order to
provide concrete examples of exclusion and misrepresentation.


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Submissions
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We are seeking papers that provoke conversation on Web exclusion and
misrepresentation, report on experiences from past or current projects,
that offer ideas for solutions, or strategies.

Relevant topics may include but are not limited to:
* Access and opportunities for engagement
* Inequality of access and inequality of representation
* Visibilities and invisibilities
* Postcolonial/feminist/critical race viewpoints on the Web
* Resistance and quirky approaches to using the Web
* Marginalization on the Web
* Politics of data ideologies, practices, and visualizations
* Politics of Web architectures and platforms
* Examples of Web technologies that consider marginalized users

Submissions should be made via EasyChair:
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=divides2015

Papers should be no more than two pages in Word or PDF format, formatted
according to the official ACM SIG proceedings template (
http://www.acm.org/sigs/publications/proceedings-templates). Please use the
ACM 1998 classification scheme (http://www.acm.org/about/class/1998/).


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Important Dates
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Submission deadline: May 16, 2015 (23:59 Hawaiian time)

Notification: May 26, 2015

Camera-ready: June 20, 2015

Workshop date: June 29, 2015

WebSci15 Conference dates: June 28 to July 1, 2015

Early bird registration for WebSci15: May 28, 2015

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Workshop Organisers
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Lindsay Poirier (Science and Technology Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute), Email:poiril at rpi.edu<mailto:poiril at rpi.edu>

Elzabi Rimington (Web Science CDT, University of Southampton), Email:
emr2g08 at soton.ac.uk<mailto:emr2g08 at soton.ac.uk>

Katharina Kinder-Kurlanda (GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social
Sciences), Email: katharina.kinder-kurlanda at gesis.org<mailto:
katharina.kinder-kurlanda at gesis.org>

-- 
Lindsay Poirier
MS/PhD Student, Research Assistant
Science and Technology Studies
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
poiril at rpi.edu | lindsaypoirier.com