[Air-L] CIRN Virtual Conference Call 2021

[Colin Rhinesmith]

Dear colleagues, please see the following announcement for this year's virtual Community Informatics Research network (CIRN) Conference.

Communities, Technology, and This Moment 2021  
Virtual Conference | 8 - 12 November 2021 
https://sites.google.com/view/cirn2021/ <https://sites.google.com/view/cirn2021/> 

Call for Papers is now Open. Ends 30 June  

Please see the website for more information on categories of papers refereeing process, conference committee, costs, conference publication and The Journal of Community Informatics, and how to submit an abstract.

The theme of the 2021 conference, “Communities, Technology, and This Moment” aims to bring together the rich knowledge, experience, and practice of Community Informatics, Community Archives, and Development Informatics with a focus on data justice, digital equity, and community informatics response to this moment in history. The 2021 CIRN conference will provide a virtual space to explore how researchers and practitioners ethically collect information, including what happens when community information is intentionally left uncollected, and how information systems can be designed in harmony with communities.

This year the CIRN conference will be online, and we propose a series of virtual events consisting of keynotes, presentations, and discussions. We hope that this virtual event covers a wide range of themes that reflect the richness and diversity of the fields of Community Informatics, Community Archives, and Development Informatics. #virtualCIRN. As an outcome, there will be conference proceedings, and selected papers will be published in a special issue of the Journal of Community Informatics in 2022. We also intend, as soon as it is possible to meet physically, to organise a follow up event in Prato Italy at the Monash University Centre.

We call for contributions for the following themes, that could be individual or multiple virtual sessions, depending on the response. Sessions will be offered at a range of times in support of participants from different time zones.

Themes

The conflict or tensions between the individual and collective use of ICT and the implications for design and security issues.
What are individual and community rights, responsibilities, and responses to the age of data breaches, manipulation, and social, health, environmental and other crises?
Who is left behind from the decision-making processes related to ICTs and information practices and uses?
Data justice and digital equity in the age of COVID.
What have the past two years (or more) shown us? How can communities have influence upon policy, design, and practice;
What will remain of privacy and work-life balance after the last two years of “smart” working? How can we ensure the rights of the digital workforce? 
How does the pandemic affect different communities differently? Which existent social divisions might be intensified by measures such as lock-downs and social distancing? How can community informatics support people not only to survive but to live and thrive in a time full of uncertainties? 
Action, agency and technology: Participatory design at this time.

The (new/emerging) relationship between face-to-face and action at a (mediated) distance. 
Has the virtual replaced face-to-face and for what? Has much of our existence in fact become centered around virtual transactions? What has been strengthened? What has been weakened? 
What happens when people are forced to interact through particular platforms, and the effects on unimpeded communication? What about surveillance?
The future of hybrid interactions where some are online, some in person. What are the advantages/disadvantages to hybrid setups, who is marginalized, who is enabled or disabled?
Religion, faith, belief.
What is the place of religion, faith and belief in the current digital area in the life of communities?
How do we deal with what can be  materially and socially damaging beliefs,  fake news, conspiracy theories and so on? 
Environmental informatics.  
Significant environmental actions and decisions are now made at different levels through generating environmental and ecological data and this continues in the COVID-19 era.
This is particularly important in the international development context, but in developing countries as well  What is the relationship with the community informatics agenda?
Can there be a community informatics response to this moment in history?
Is it possible to even think theoretically about this moment? Have all the previous paradigms fallen apart?
What has been the Community Informatics response to date?'
Sponsors: Monash University and Simmons University.

—
Colin Rhinesmith (pronouns: he/him)
Associate Professor and Director
Community Informatics Lab
School of Library and Information Science
Simmons University
https://crhinesmith.com

Senior Faculty Research Fellow
Benton Institute for Broadband & Society
https://www.benton.org

Editor-In-Chief
The Journal of Community Informatics
https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/JoCI/index