Society for the Social Study of Mobile Communications


The Society for the Social Study of Mobile Communication (SSSMC) is intended to facilitate the international advancement of cross-disciplinary mobile communication studies. It is intended to serve as a resource and to support a network of scholarly research as to the social consequences of mobile communication.




Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Visual Learning: Communication -- Cognition -- Curriculum

Budapest, Hungary
December 7-8, 2011

Speakers included: 
Laura Cull 
James E. Katz 
Zoltan Kovecses 
John Mullarkey 
Klaus Sachs-Hombach 
Barry Smith 
Frederik Stjernfelt 

Contributions are invited from educational, communication, and media theorists; philosophers, linguists, psychologists, and other interested scholars on the following and related topics: 
  • educational theory and visual learning pictorial skills 
  • pictorial communication 
  • visual intelligence 
  • the visual mind 
  • ontology of images 
  • the image problem in the history of philosophy 
  • visual argument 
  • diagrammatic reasoning 
  • scientific visualization 
  • visualization and higher education 
  • information visualization 
  • image and language 
  • the use of images in foreign language teaching 
  • image and creativity 
  • images in the network age

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Visual Learning: Development - Discovery - Design

Budapest, Hungary
December 1-2, 2011

  • educational theory and visual learning pictorial skills 
  • visual intelligence 
  • the visual mind 
  • scientific visualization 
  • visualization and higher education 
  • visualization and engineering skills 
  • design theory 
  • image and creativity 
  • visual argument 
  • information visualization 
  • images in the network age

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

CFP: Mobile Communication, Community and Locative Media Practices

[ Call for Abstracts ]
Mobile Communication, Community and Locative Media Practices: From the Everyday to the Revolutionary 
2012 International Communication Association (ICA) Preconference Workshop Conference 

Keynote Speaker: 
Mimi Sheller (Drexel University, USA) 

Mobile and location-based networked interactions permeate our world. We no longer enter the Internet--we carry it with us. We experience it while moving through physical spaces. Smart phones, GPS receivers, and RFID tags are only a few examples of location-aware mobile technologies that mediate our interaction with networked spaces and the people in them. Increasingly, our physical location determines the types of information with which we interact, and the people and things we find around us. These new kinds of networked interactions manifest in everyday social practices that are supported by the use of mobile technologies, such as participation in location-based mobile games and social networks, engagement with location-based services, development of mobile annotation projects, and social mapping, just to name a few. The engagement with these practices has important implications for identity construction, our sense of privacy, our notions of place and space, civic and political participation, building community, policy making, as well as cultural production and consumption in everyday life. 

This preconference will provide a venue for innovative scholars from around the world who are doing research in exploring how we experience our locally-rooted mobile networked interactions and mobile communication's impact on community. It will give them a chance to gather and discuss the challenges that this shift in the use of both mobile phones and the Internet poses not only for the users but for those doing research on mobile communication. We welcome abstracts that will focus on the following areas: 
  • Mobile communication and location awareness in everyday life practices; 
  • New urban spatialities developed with mobile gaming and locative social media; 
  • definitions of "community" in a mobile mediated context; 
  • Privacy and surveillance issues as they relate to location-based social networks; 
  • Identity and spatial construction through locative media art / performance design and its impact on communities; 
  • Civic engagement and political participation through mobile social media, new mapping practices and location-aware technologies; 
  • Learning and education potentials of mobile and location-based media
The two-day preconference will be comprised of formal panel presentations, one keynote speaker, opportunities for informal discussions, and time for networking. Thirty – fifty attendees are expected. The preconference will be at the main ICA hotel. The pre-conference registration fee will be $100. 

Abstracts of no more than 500 words are due by November 15, 2010. Please send them along with your name and contact information to Dr. Adriana de Souza e Silva (adriana@souzaesilva.com). Accepted abstracts will be notified by December 1, 2010. Final papers will be due April 1, 2012. 

Lead Organizers: 
Dr. Adriana de Souza e Silva (Associate Professor of Communication, NC State University) 
Dr. Jason Farman (Assistant Professor of American Studies, University of Maryland) 
Dr. Kathleen M. Cumiskey, Associate Professor of Psychology, College of Staten Island/CUNY) 
Dr. Lee Humphreys (Assistant Professor of Communication, Cornell University) 
Dr. Richard Ling (Professor of Mobile Communication, IT University of Copenhagen) 
Dr. Scott Campbell (Associate Professor of Communication, University of Michigan) 
Dr. Yi-Fan Chen (Assistant Professor of Communication, Old Dominion University) 

"Like" us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/ICA-Mobile-Communication-Pre-Conference/211745668890424 
Follow us on Twitter: ICA12MoblPreCon 

For further information, please contact: 
Dr. Adriana de Souza e Silva 
Associate Professor of Communication 
Interim Associate Director, Communication, Rhetoric and Digital Media PhD program 
North Carolina State University 
http://www.souzaesilva.com souzaesilva@ncsu.edu

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

CFP: Visual Learning: Development - Discovery - Design

[ Call for Abstracts ]
Visual Learning: Development - Discovery - Design 
Conference to take place in Budapest, December 1-2, 2011 
Conference organized by theVisual Learning Lab, Department of Technical Education, Budapest University of Technology and Economics. 

Contributions are invited from educational theorists, designers, architects, philosophers, sociologists, psychologists, media theorists, and other interested scholars on the following and related topics: 
  • educational theory and visual learning pictorial skills 
  • visual intelligence 
  • the visual mind 
  • scientific visualization 
  • visualization and higher education 
  • visualization and engineering skills 
  • design theory 
  • image and creativity 
  • visual argument 
  • information visualization 
  • images in the network age
slot of altogether 30 minutes is planned for each presentation. We envisage an ensuing volume of selected papers. 

Submission of abstracts (max. 200 words) and short biographical statements (max. 100 words) by Sept. 20, 2011 (deadline extended). Please send your submissions simultaneously to Prof. Andras Benedek (Head, Department of Technical Education) and to Kristof Nyiri (Professor of Philosophy, Department of Technical Education). Those submitting abstracts will be notified of the decision concerning acceptance by Sept. 30, 2011. 

No conference fees will be charged. Participants are encouraged to arrange their own accommodation. The conference venue (Budapest University of Technology and Economics, 1117 Budapest, Magyar Tudosok korutja 2, Bld. Q, Wing A) is located near downtown Budapest.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

"Seamlessly Mobile?: Mobile Communication @ a Crossroads" (International Communication Association Preconference 2011)

NERD Center, Microsoft Research
Cambridge, MA, USA
24-25 May 2011
  • Patterns of mobile phone use and differences related to gender, age, lifestyle, culture, and/or access
  • Ethics and social responsibility of use, shifts in social expectations of remote vs. co-present others
  • Threats to privacy and issues of surveillance as they relate to technological innovations like GPS & location devices.
  • Research design and methodological challenges, including finding venues for one's work The expansion of online and offline social networking and its demands 
  • Technology, design, and accessibility issues/challenges/expansion and development (i.e. emerging markets)
  • Perceptions of use and imagining use beyond current capabilities (i.e. mobile fantasies, mobile art, mobile personalities, mobile witnessing/activism)

Friday, April 1, 2011

CFP: Seamlessly Mobile

[ Call for Abstracts ]
Seamlessly Mobile?: Mobile Communication @ a Crossroads 
2011 International Communication Association (ICA) Preconference Workshop 

Mobile phones are becoming increasingly adept as ubiquitous tools that serve purposes beyond that of mere voice communication. How we conceptualize mobile-mediated communication alongside computer-mediated communication is less distinct as access to the Internet becomes more integrated into mobile phone devices. Are people moving toward a more seamless integration of mobile and computer media as supporting their communication needs? Is the integration of the Internet into mobile phones shifting how people conceptualize what it means to be "online" vs. "offline"? Does this shift in mobile communication bear any social consequences? 

This preconference will provide a venue for innovative scholars from around the world who are doing research in the area of mobile communication. It will give them a chance to gather and discuss the challenges that this shift in the use of mobile phones poses not only for the users but for those doing research on mobile communication. We welcome abstracts that will focus on the following areas related to these provocative questions:
  • Patterns of mobile phone use and differences related to gender, age, lifestyle, culture, and/or access 
  • Ethics and social responsibility of use, shifts in social expectations of remote vs. co-present others 
  • Threats to privacy and issues of surveillance as they relate to technological innovations like GPS & location devices.
  • Research design and methodological challenges, including finding venues for one's work
  • The expansion of online and offline social networking and its demands 
  • Technology, design, and accessibility issues/challenges/expansion and development (i.e. emerging markets) 
  • Perceptions of use and imagining use beyond current capabilities (i.e. mobile fantasies, mobile art, mobile personalities, mobile witnessing/activism) 
The preconference will be comprised of formal panel presentations, opportunities for informal discussions, and time for networking. In addition there may be invited performances of innovative artists whose work focuses on mobile communication as it relates to the themes of this preconference. 

Abstracts of no more than 500 words are due by November 8, 2010. Please send them along with your name and contact information to Katie.cumiskey@csi.cuny.edu. Accepted abstracts will be notified by November 29, 2010. Final papers will be due April 1, 2011. 

Lead Organizers: 
Dr. Kathleen M. Cumiskey, Associate Professor, Psychology Department, Director of Social Media Lab, College of Staten Island/CUNY, Staten Island, NY USA; Katie.cumiskey@csi.cuny.edu 
Dr. Richard Ling, Head of Group Digital Culture and Mobile Communication, IT University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen S, Denmark; rili@itu.dk 
Dr. Scott Campbell, Assistant Professor and Pohs Fellow of Telecommunications, Department of Communication Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI USA; swcamp@umich.edu 
Dr. Lee Humphreys, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA; lmh13@cornell.edu 
Dr. Yi-Fan Chen, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication and Theater Arts, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA; Y5Chen@odu.edu

Saturday, January 1, 2011

CFP: MINA Mobile Creativity and Innovation Symposium

CALL FOR PAPERS, WORKSHOPS, PROJECT SHOWCASES &
CALL FOR SMARTPHONE, MOBILE AND POCKET CAMERA FILMS

The MINA Mobile Creativity and Innovation Symposium and the International Mobile Innovation Screening provide a platform for filmmakers, artists, designers, researchers, educators and industry professionals to debate the prospect of wireless, mobile and ubiquitous technologies in art and design, education, and the creative industries and on-going development of mobile social media, mobile technologies, mobile production and mobile aesthetics.
This year, the fourth MINA Symposium edition is centred around the question: What are current, potential and inspiring mobile opportunities for the future of universities, of the private sector, of individuals and digital communities? and will seek to answer this question through presentations of papers, panels discussions, workshops, performances and mobile screenings.
MINA invites any submission relating, but not limited to the following:
  • MOBILE & AESTHETIC
  • MOBILE & COMMUNITIES
  • MOBILE & HYBRID ART
  • MOBILE & INTERACTIVITY
  • MOBILE & MARKETING
  • MOBILE & PEDAGOGY
  • MOBILE & MEDIA PRODUCTION
  • MOBILE & SOUND
  • MOBILE & SPACE
  • MOBILE & STORY-TELLING 
Selected papers will be published in the Creative Technologies journal – Special MobileEdition.

FORMAT
Papers and pre-constituted panels can be delivered in-situ and via live web/video-broadcast.

A. For each PAPER submission, please submit:
  • a proposal / abstract of approximately 300 words, including the title
  • a brief biographical (100 words maximum) per author(s)
The paper presentation should be planned around 20 min, plus 10 min Q&A

B. For each PANEL / WORKSHOP / PERFORMANCE proposals, please submit:
  • name of at least three people to form a panel
  • a proposal / abstract of approximately 300 words, including the title
  • any technical requirement, if not standard (computer, Internet, video projector, microphone)
  • each panel / workshop member brief biographical (100 words maximum), including their personal contact information
The panel discussion should be planned around 30 – 40 minute, the workshop and performance format is flexible.

The International Mobile Innovation Screening 2014 will showcase short films produced on and with smartphones, mobile and pocket cameras. In its 4th edition the MINA showcase will include micro-movies and micro-formats (Vine, Vyclone and live streaming apps), travel, mobility and adventure films (i.e. sports or drone videos) including projects realised with GoPro cameras. Selected mobile films will be featured in the MINA showreel, MINA DVD, MINA eBook and MINA’s international partner festivals.
Submisson via http://mina.pro/submit/

KEY DATES
Deadline for paper proposals and pre-constituted panels, workshops submission and screening: 28st of July 2014.
All PAPER submissions, PANEL and/or Workshop, Screening proposals will be double peer reviewed and presenters will be notified of acceptances by: 29th of September 2014.
MINA will take place on the 20th & 21st November (TBC) at AUT University (Auckland, NZ/Aotearoa)

SUBMISSION
Please use the following submission link: https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=mina2014

If you have any questions related to the Symposium please contact Laurent Antonczak [ laurent@mina.pro | +64 211 625 072 ].

If you have any questions related to the Screening please contact Max Schleser [ max@mina.pro | +64 22 692 0872 ].

For further information, please check also:www.mina.pro and #MINA2013 eBook: http://bit.ly/eBook2013

Follow MINA on Twitter: @MINAmobile and LIKE us on Facebook: http://goo.gl/EjnpMV

Creativity and Technology

Creativity and Technology: Social media, Mobiles and Museums

Jame E. Katz, Wayne Labar, & Ellen Lynch (Eds.) 

This book brings together papers given at a major conference jointly organised by the Center for Mobile Communication Studies at Rutgers University (the world's first academic unit to focus solely on social aspects of mobile communication) and Liberty Science Center (the New Jersey-New York City region's largest education resource). Presented by leading thinkers and museum experts, the papers provide an incisive, up-to-the-minute analysis of trends in the use of mobile devices by museum audiences, with a special focus on outreach efforts to under-served communities.

Among the many important contemporary issues covered in this publication are:

  • How social networking and mobility tools can help museums connect with their audiences 
  • Assessments of current tools and systems 
  • How these tools can help enrich and extend the learning experience 
  • The principles that guide new social media applications
  • How to integrate social media applications into contemporary museum practice 
  • What the future holds for mobile media devices and social networking in the museum setting 
  • Data-driven analyses of developments in the field 
  • Insightful distillations of museum experiences to date
  • Forecasts of trends and developments "just around the corner".
Citation:
Katz, J. E., Labar, W., & Lynch, E. (Eds.) (2011). Creativity and technology: Social media, mobiles and museums. MuseumsEtc

Mobile Communication

Mobile Communication
Dimensions of Social Policy

James E. Katz (Ed.)

Synopsis
The mobile phone has given near-transcendent power to ordinary people. All aspects of social life have been touched by mobile technology. An ever-growing host of tracking, immersion, gaming, and commercial applications are becoming available. The community of mobile communication scholars has blossomed from a handful of pioneers a decade ago to a large and dynamic intellectual community that spans the globe. Area researchers have gained much insight into cultural, symbolic, and social interaction aspects of mobile communication as well as its relevance to commerce.

To address the social policy dimension of the mobile communication revolution, this volume presents analyses by leading thinkers in the field. The volume offers novel and keen insights into the topic. Subjects include the role of mobiles in policy formation and evaluation in several areas including the mobile-digital divide and political campaigns. Also explored are processes and policy implications of mobiles in creating or alleviating social problems including social isolation and family dispersion. Other chapters analye social policies for mobile devices, including attempts to regulate the use of the technology and to understand and moderate its potential harm to human health. The contributors' scope ranges across five continents and they address concerns at local, national, and international levels.

Citation:

Katz, J. E. (Ed.), (2011). Mobile communication: Dimensions of social policy. Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers.


Mobile Communication

Mobile Communication: Bringing Us Together And Tearing Us Apart

Rich Ling and Scott Campbell (Eds.)

Description
This volume brings together scholars from around the world to consider how mobile communication is both bringing us together and destroying our sense of social cohesion. There is no question that uses of technology can lead to increased cohesion within personal communities. However, as social networks become inundated with mobile communication users, the contributors argue, they may become isolated and social division can take hold.
Mobile Communication covers a wide range of topics, including the replacement of co-present interaction with mediated contact; analysis of mobile-based cohesion and gender; the role of media choice and its effect on the quality as well as quantity of social cohesion; mobile communication and communities of interest; and mobile communication, cohesion, and youth.

Qualitative and quantitative analyses of mobile use and its impact on social cohesion are also considered. There are chapters on caravan couples in Australia, factory workers in China, young couples in Germany, citizens in Slovenia, and sports clubs in Ireland. There is also research on drunken calls between university students in the U.S., calls among international students in Switzerland who strive to keep in contact, and communications by immigrant women in Melbourne, Australia.

Citation:

Ling, R. & Campbell, S. W. (Eds.). (2011). Mobile communication: Bringing us together and tearing us apart. Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers. 

The Connected Home

The Connected Home: The Future of Domestic Life

Richard Harper (Eds.)


Description
The title of this new book: "The Connected Home" reflects the move away from the idea that smart homes would alter the lives of those living in them by providing technologies to take over tasks that were previously the responsibility of the householder, such as managing entertainment, education – and even eating! Up until around 10 years ago this view was commonplace but time has shown that the technologies to support a smart home have not developed in such a way as to support this premise. Instead, what people do in their homes has moved the concept of a smart home into that of the 'connected home'. The rise of on-line games technologies, video connections via Skype, social networking, internet browsing etc are now an integral part of the home environment and have had a significant effect on the home. The contributors to this exciting new book consider and discuss the effects and ramifications of the connected home from a variety of viewpoints: an examination of the take-up of personal computers and the Internet in domestic situations; an analysis of the changing intersection of technology and human habits in the connected home; the impact of gaming, texting, e-book readers, tablets and other devices and their effect on the social conditions of a household; the relationship between digital messaging applications and real geography; and an overview of how sensing technologies for the smart home might evolve (lightweight medical technologies for example). The book culminates by addressing unfinished ambitions from the smart home agenda, the factors that have prevented their realisation, and addresses the need for extending research into the area.

Citation:

Harper, R. (Ed.) (2011). The connected home: the future of domestic life. New York, NY: Springer.