[Air-L] Call for Papers: PRESENCE 2018

[Matthew Lombard]

CALL FOR PAPERS

PRESENCE 2018
18th conference of the International Society for Presence Research (ISPR)
Prague, Czech Republic
May 21-22, 2018 (optional demonstrations and guided sightseeing events May 20)

https://ispr.info/call-presence-2018

Conference theme: Challenges

Submission deadline: February 20, 2018

OVERVIEW

Telepresence, often shortened to presence, is a state or perception in which we 
overlook or misconstrue the role of technology and feel present in the environments 
and/or connected to the people or things we experience via technology. It´s 
increasingly relevant to a wide range of media experiences and application areas.

Following a series of 17 successful Presence conference events 
(http://ispr.info/presence-conferences/previous-conferences/), PRESENCE 2018 will 
retain the single-track format and enjoyable social environment of previous 
conferences while featuring an expanded variety of paper and poster sessions, 
panel discussions, keynote presentations, hands-on demonstrations of presence 
applications/services/projects, and informal discussion, networking and fun. 
Members of both academic and industry communities are welcome.

At the end of the first day, all attendees are invited to a social dinner; we also hope 
you´ll join us for all or part of a day of demonstration visits and guided sightseeing 
on May 20 (the day before the conference).

The registration cost is $140, with a discounted student cost of $100. The fee 
includes lunches on both days, coffee and snacks during breaks, and the social 
dinner.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

The term presence has many formal and informal meanings but is used by a 
growing interdisciplinary scholarly community to refer to experiences in which 
technology is overlooked or misconstrued in some way during a mediated 
experience. Long a focus of those who study virtual reality and environments, it´s 
increasingly relevant to a wide range of media experiences. For example, presence 
occurs when we get "lost" in the world of a novel, TV show, movie, video game or 
theme park ride; we´re convinced by the realism of paintings or graphic designs; we 
treat our cars, computers or other machines as if they have personalities of their 
own, and we feel like we´re "with" a person we talk to on the phone or in a video 
conference.

The presence research community has been working to identify causes, 
characteristics and consequences of diverse presence experiences. The 
consequences identified so far - including arousal/relaxation, empathy, enjoyment, 
persuasion and more - make clear the importance and power of presence to 
improve communication across a wide variety of contexts and applications of 
interest to scholars and those who create media technologies and content. 
Presence as a concept and set of phenomena is related to the work being done in 
nearly every field and business sector from art to zoology, with particularly direct 
applications in business, education, entertainment and health. The 4000+ posts in 
ISPR Presence News (http://ispr.info/posts) and thousands more on its 
predecessor, the presence-l listserv (listserv.temple.edu/archives/presence-l.html), 
along with the Presence Bibliography on the ISPR website (http://ispr.info), illustrate 
the breadth of presence applications, and the breadth, depth and value of presence 
scholarship.

The objectives of the conference are to deepen and update the knowledge of those 
already familiar with presence and introduce new scholars and practitioners to the 
centrality, pervasiveness, and value of presence phenomena, theory and research.  
The overarching goal is to help integrate and increase collaborative scholarship on 
presence.

SUBMISSIONS

Topics

We seek original, high quality papers and demonstrations that contribute to our 
collective understanding of presence phenomena and applications in any/every 
aspect of life. Topics of interest include (but are absolutely not limited to):

* Presence theory
* Measures of presence
* Presence and emotion
* Presence and education
* Presence and social interaction
* Gender and Presence
* Neuroscience approaches to Presence
* Presence in gaming and entertainment
* Philosophical perspectives on presence
* Ethics of presence
* Presence technologies and applications (e.g. in business, arts, medicine and 
therapy)
* The future of presence research

Theme: Challenges

Researchers, scholars, technology designers and users, and citizens all face 
challenges related to presence. We invite submission in all of the categories below 
that identify, consider and ideally propose solutions to the challenges people in any 
or all of these groups face now or will face in the future. Data-based projects, 
concept and theory building work as well as personal (first person) reflections are 
encouraged.

Categories

We invite researchers and practitioners to submit their work in the categories below. 
All submissions are to be in APA format (http://www.apastyle.org) and except for the 
separate title page not identify the author(s) directly or indirectly (for blind peer 
review).

* PAPERS: Comprehensive descriptions of research or design work and/or 
theoretical investigation within the scope of the conference; up to 30 pages 
(including references) in APA format. Papers must relate to existing literature on 
presence and make an original contribution to it.

* SHORT PAPERS: Short papers may be up to 12 pages in APA format.

* POSTERS: Visual display presentations. Poster proposals must describe and/or 
contain early drafts of the visual display. Accepted poster abstracts will be displayed 
during a dedicated session of the conference that begins with short oral previews, 
and then published in the conference Proceedings.

* DEMONSTRATIONS/EXHIBITIONS: Step-by-step audiovisual demonstrations 
and/or hands-on experiences of non-commercial work within the scope of the 
conference. Accepted demonstration/exhibition proposals will be presented during a 
dedicated session of the conference and included in the conference Proceedings. 
For the exhibitions of commercial products, please contact us for sponsorship terms 
and opportunities.

* PANELS: Presence 2018 welcomes panel proposals which allow panelists and 
participants to discuss any topic relevant to presence, especially the conference 
theme of challenges. Discussion and paper panel submissions must include the 
following: (1) title, (2) description and rationale (75 words or less), (3) titles and brief 
abstracts (100 words or less) for each panelist, and (4) a complete list of 
participants along with their institutional affiliations and contact information.

Proceedings

All accepted submissions will be collected in the official conference proceedings 
(with ISBN) and will be permanently available for download in the ISPR conference 
archive.

Procedure

Online submissions should be submitted via EasyChair: 
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=p2018 

IMPORTANT DATES

Submission deadline: February 20, 2018
Notification of acceptance decisions: March 9, 2018
Finished, camera-ready papers due: April 20, 2018

REGISTRATION

Registration is $140, with a discounted fee of $100 for students. The fee includes 
lunches on both days, coffee and snacks during breaks, and the social dinner. An 
online registration system will be available soon.

Late registration at the event will cost $180 ($130 for students).

Venues for the optional demonstrations and guided sightseeing activities on May 20 
will be selected to limit additional expenses.

ABOUT ISPR

The International Society for Presence Research (ISPR) is a non-profit membership 
organization founded in 2002 to support academic research related to the concept 
of (tele)presence.

ISPR has sponsored 17 successful international conferences (beginning informally 
in 1998), providing richly social opportunities to share scholarship and applications 
of the presence concept.

The ISPR website (http://ispr.info) serves as a resource for those who conduct 
research, develop theory, design, market, write about, or simply are interested in, 
the concept and phenomena of presence.

ISPR Presence News (http://ispr.info/posts), available via the ISPR website, 
provides current news stories, calls for papers and participation, position 
announcements, and other informative posts every weekday (a total of nearly 4000 
posts since 2009).

ORGANIZERS and CONTACT

Matthew Lombard, Temple University (lombard at temple.edu)
Cheryl Bracken, Cleveland State University
Jihyun Kim, University of Central Florida
SongYi Lee, Temple University
Emil Steiner, Temple University
Kun Xu, Temple University
Hocheol Yang, Temple University

FOR MORE DETAILS 

Please see the full call for papers at: https://ispr.info/call-presence-2018
   
-- 
Matthew Lombard, Ph.D.
Temple University
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
lombard at temple.edu
http://matthewlombard.com