CFP: Oxford's Connected Life conference

CFP:  Oxford's Connected Life conference

http://connectedlife.oii.ox.ac.uk/connected-life-15/cfp/

Connected Life 2015 is a day-long conference dedicated to igniting multidisciplinary exchanges and showcasing exciting Internet research. We welcome students and faculty from all disciplines, including (but not limited to) business, computer science, economics, education, history, international relations, law, linguistics, literature, media and communications, medicine, philosophy, politics, psychology, and sociology. Like last year’s inaugural conference, Connected Life 2015 will foster collaborations within and beyond Oxford in pursuit of an enhanced understanding of the Internet and its multifaceted effects upon society.

We invite the submission of proposals for presentations on ongoing or recent research. Proposals that address our key thematic questions are particularly encouraged: How does our digital society intersect with existing social structures, institutions, and relationships? What are the impacts of digital technology on society and how will these evolve? Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

•     Politics and Public Policy
•     Science and Technology
•     Teaching and Education
•     Gender and Identity
•     Digital Humanities
•     Cybersecurity, Surveillance, and Censorship
•     Big Data Methods
•     Entrepreneurship and Innovation
•     Virtual Markets and Economies
•     Internet Infrastructure and Protocols
•     Social Networking
•     History of the Internet
•     Mobile Technologies
•     Media and Journalism

The above categories are intended only to provide a general direction for what can be discussed. We welcome submissions on any research topic related to the Internet; if you have questions about this, please contact a member of the organising team. Please note that as we are calling for presentations, not papers, proceedings will not be published. Therefore, we are willing to consider abstracts based on papers submitted to other conferences. However, we do recommend that clarification is first sought from the other intended destination(s) for your work.

Submissions for oral presentations should be in the form of either an abstract or blog post of 400-600 words. Please submit via email (to connectedlife@oii.ox.ac.uk) by Tuesday, 31st March 2015. We encourage blog posts that can be published on this website and generate discussion before and after the conference; however, the choice of a blog post or traditional abstract will not affect acceptance.

We are also accepting abstracts or blogs posts (also of 400-600 words) for our Poster and Visualisation Fair, which will be running all day with a dedicated session for questions after lunch. Time and space permitting, any sort of visual is welcome (e.g., videos, interactive displays). We will do our best to accommodate interesting work that fits with the conference theme.

All abstracts and blog posts will be reviewed by a committee of students and faculty from the Oxford Internet Institute. Notification of acceptances will be communicated in mid-late April.

We are pleased to announce that we are able to provide travel support bursaries (of around £100-150) for a limited number of participants from outside the UK and Europe. If you are in need of financial assistance for travel, please indicate this in your submission.

Registration will open in April. Like last year, there will be a registration fee of £10 that covers lunch, tea and coffee, and a reception at the end of the day.

We look forward to receiving and reviewing your submissions! If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to email us at connectedlife@oii.ox.ac.uk.

CFP: 14th Intl. Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia (MUM 2015)

CFP: 14th Intl. Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia (MUM 2015)

Published: March 23, 2015

Announcement and Call for Papers

14th International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia (MUM 2015)
30.11. – 2.12., 2015 in Linz, Austria

www.mum-conf.org

Organized by University of Applied Sciences
Upper Austria and Johannes Kepler University Linz
in-cooperation with ACM SIGCHI

MUM 2015, the 14th International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia, will be held on 30.11. – 2.12.2015 at the Ars Electronica Center Linz in Austria.

Import Dates:

Paper submission deadline: August 21, 2015
Notification of review decisions: October 9, 2015
Conference dates: November 30 – December 2, 2015

MUM is a distinguished forum for advances in research and technologies that drive innovation in mobile and multimedia systems, applications, and services. At MUM academics and practitioners gather to discuss challenges and achievements from diverse perspectives, in a single track conference format. This year’s conference aims to continue the tradition of innovation and excellence in research established by previous MUM conferences. In addition to the peer-reviewed accepted papers, the conference program will include keynote presentations, posters, demos, videos and a doctoral school.

We welcome high quality full and short paper submissions that offer an original contribution relevant to the field of mobile and ubiquitous multimedia. Successful full paper submissions typically represent a significant advance for the field. Short papers offer a focused contribution to the research program. Short papers are not work in progress reports but offer completed, rigorously researched/developed work that makes a significant contribution to the field of mobile and ubiquitous multimedia. Short papers are likely to have a smaller scope of contribution than full papers, but they are expected to make a solid contribution to the field. Paper topics could include, but are not limited to the following:

• Mobile and ubiquitous multimedia applications and systems
• Mobile user interfaces, interaction design and techniques
• Mobile games, entertainment and advertising
• Mobile social network and multimedia services
• Context-aware and location-based mobile and ubiquitous services
• Mobile Augmented Reality systems and applications
• Architectures, systems, and algorithms tackling technical challenges of mobile systems
• Middleware and distributed computing support for mobile and ubiquitous multimedia
• Tools and development systems for building mobile and ubiquitous multimedia systems
• Case studies, field trials, and user experience evaluations of new applications and services
• Social and privacy implications of mobile and ubiquitous multimedia systems

We welcome submission of high quality papers, either in full paper format (max. 10 pages ACM format) or short paper format (max. 4 pages ACM format), that describe original and unpublished research advancing the state of the art in mobile and ubiquitous multimedia. Papers should be grounded in existing mobile and ubiquitous multimedia literature and knowledge, and should be written for an interdisciplinary mobile and ubiquitous multimedia audience.

Submissions should not have been previously published or be concurrently under submission elsewhere. Papers must be anonymized. Submitted papers will undergo a rigorous review process, managed by the Technical Program Chairs. Accepted full and short papers as well as demo, poster and video submissions will be included in the conference proceedings published by ACM Press and included in the ACM Digital Library. Final camera-ready versions of accepted papers must be accompanied by a signed copyright form.

We welcome you to submit to MUM 2015!

Clemens Holzmann and Rene Mayrhofer (general chairs)
Jonna Hakkila and Enrico Rukzio (technical program chairs)

Questions about this call can be directed to pcchairs2015@mum-conf.org.

CFP: Ubiquitous Media Systems

Call for Papers: Ubiquitous Media Systems  

Special issue of the Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research

Guest Editors: Eusebio Scornavacca, Stefano Za, Kevin Carillo

The Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research is planning a special issue on Ubiquitous Media Systems.

As of 2014, the total number of all types of mobile-connected devices has exceeded the world’s population and is forecasted to reach 1.5 devices per human being in 2019 [1]. The pace of the emergence and mainstream adoption of new forms of ubiquitous computing devices such as smartphones, tablets and ‘phablets’ has not ceased gaining momentum - demarking an evolutionary step in the ubiquitous computing trend [2]. The extinction of mobile phones and the proliferation of fluid multi-device platforms such as iOS, Android and Windows 8 have blurred the traditional boundaries between stationary and mobile information systems [3], [4]. 

This dissolution of the traditional segmentation of computing contexts represents a remarkable shift in the fundamental temporospatial nature of IT artifacts [5], [6].

 Indeed, individuals are gradually ceasing to perceive their mobile and non-mobile devices as independent ecosystems, but rather as an evolving collection of interconnected devices that are progressively playing a major role in their daily lives [7], [8]. This significant technological evolution has given birth to a new and complex form of connected IT artifact, Ubiquitous Media Systems (UMS),  that encapsulates various functions and provides fluid information access across a variety of channels; allowing users to accomplish a multitude of tasks and interact fluidly in a ubiquitous ecosystem [4].

As information access becomes fully ubiquitous and the utilitarian, as well as hedonic functionalities of those devices increase, the emergence of fluid and evolving techno-ecosystems poses important challenges and opportunities for ecommerce theory and practice. By gradually blurring physical, social and temporal boundaries ubiquitous media systems allow to deliver new as well as existing online products and services through a multitude of interconnected channels, but also engender radically novel and unthought-of opportunities for e-commerce [9]–[11].

Ubiquitous access to the Internet of things also represents new marketing opportunities for businesses as well as the challenge to deeply understand users’ behavior in this fluid digital ecosystem [12]. Apprehending ubiquitous media systems user behavior is a difficult challenge as the rules that govern its functioning keep being redefined each time a new form of connected device appears on the market [13], [14].

Unfortunately, the understanding of the specificities that surround ubiquitous media systems in the electronic and mobile commerce contexts is also limited in information systems research [15], [16]. There is a general tendency to focus on individual or subsets of devices, functionalities, or sub-phenomena, which leads to a fragmented and distorted understanding of the ubiquitous media systems reality [17], [18]. This new, complex, interconnected and amalgamated form of IT artifact requires a more holistic and encompassing research approach that is capable of capturing the specificities and pervasiveness of ubiquitous media systems.

Subject Coverage

The objective of this Special Issue is to present the current state of research and practical experiences on ubiquitous media systems from the perspective of electronic commerce research. Particularly we welcome interdisciplinary research that is able to connect theory and practice; aiming to break the traditional conceptual research boundaries dividing stationary and mobile systems. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

Usability of ubiquitous media systems

System fluidity – seamless access across multiple devices

The impact of ubiquitous environments on productivity

Legal, social ethical issues regarding ubiquitous media systems

Multi-channel ecommerce applications and strategy

Trust, loyalty, and privacy issues in ubiquitous media systems

Security in ubiquitous media systems

Ubiquitous media systems and new business models

Challenges and specificities for payment systems

Big data and ubiquitous media systems

Notes for Intending Authors

We are seeking original, innovative, and scientifically rigorous papers presenting practical experiences, methodological challenges, or impacts of ubiquitous media systems. Especially empirical research, case studies or theory based qualitative and quantitative studies, are welcome.

Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere.

Author guidelines can be found at http://www.jtaer.com/author_guidelines.doc . All submissions will be refereed by at least three reviewers. Submissions should be directed by email to jtaer.ums@utalca.cl.

For more information, please visit the following web site: http://www.jtaer.com .

Important dates

Full paper submission: 15 December 2015

Notification of acceptance: 15 February 2016

Revised submission: 15 March 2016

Final acceptance notification: 15 April 2016

Camera ready version of paper: 15 May 2016

Publication: May – September 2016

Guest Editors

Eusebio Scornavacca

Merrick School of Business

University of Baltimore

1420 N. Charles St.

Baltimore, MD 21201 – USA

Phone: +1 (410) 837 6624

escornavacca@ubalt.edu

Stefano Za,

eCampus University

Via Isimbardi, 10

22060 Novedrate (CO) – ITALY

Phone: +39 06 85225 553

stefano.za@uniecampus.it

Kevin Carillo

Toulouse Business School

20 Boulevard Lascrosses,

31068 Toulouse – FRANCE

Phone: +33 5 61 29 47 74

k.carillo@tbs-education.fr

References

[1] Cisco, “Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update 2014–2019,” 2015.

[2] K. Lyytinen, Y. Yoo, U. Varshney, M. Ackerman, G. Davis, M. Avital, D. Robey, S. Sawyer, and C. Sorensen, “Surfing the next wave: design and implementation challenges of ubiquitous computing,” Commun. Assoc. Inf. Syst. , vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 697–716, 2004.

[3] S. Vodanovich, D. Sundaram, and M. Myers, “Research Commentary —Digital Natives and Ubiquitous Information Systems,” Inf. Syst. Res., vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 711–723, Dec. 2010.

[4] K. Carillo, E. Scornavacca, and S. Za, “An investigation of the role of dependency in predicting continuance intention to use ubiquitous media systems: combining a media sytem perspective with expectation-confirmation theorie,” in Twenty Second European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS2014), 2014, pp. 1–17.

[5] M. H. Jackson, “Fluidity, Promiscuity, and Mash-Ups: New Concepts for the Study of Mobility and Communication,” Commun. Monogr., vol. 74, no. 3, pp. 408–413, Sep. 2007.

[6] E. Scornavacca, “Incorporating System Portablity into Technology Acceptance Models,” in International Conference on Mobile Business, 2014.

[7] C. Sørensen and D. Gibson, “Ubiquitous visions and opaque realities: professionals talking about mobile technologies,” info, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 188–196, 2004.

[8] R. Scheepers and C. Middleton, “Personal ICT Ensembles and Ubiquitous Information Systems Environments: Key Issues and Research Implications,” Commun. Assoc. Inf. Syst., vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 381–392, 2013.

[9] K. Lyytinen and Y. Yoo, “Research Commentary: The Next Ware of Nomadic Computing,” Inf. Syst. Res., vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 377–388, 2002.

[10] O. Henfridsson and R. Lindgren, “Multi-contextuality in ubiquitous computing: Investigating the car case through action research,” Inf. Organ., vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 95–124, 2005.

[11] R. Lindgren, M. Andersson, and O. Henfridsson, “Multi-contextuality in boundary-spanning practices,” Inf. Syst. J., vol. 18, no. 6, pp. 641–661, Nov. 2008.

[12] a. Ghose and S. P. Han, “An Empirical Analysis of User Content Generation and Usage Behavior on the Mobile Internet,” Manage. Sci., vol. 57, no. 9, pp. 1671–1691, 2011.

[13] IDC, “A Future Fueled by Phablets – Worldwide Phablet Shipments to Surpass Portable PCs in 2014 and Tablets by 2015, According to IDC,” Framingham, Massachusetts, 2014.

[14] A. Oulasvirta, T. Rattenbury, L. Ma, and E. Raita, “Habits make smartphone use more pervasive,” Pers. Ubiquitous Comput., vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 105–114, 2012.

[15] A. Ghose, S. P. Han, and K. Xu, “Mobile commerce in the new tablet economy,” in Thirty Fourth International conference on Information Systems (ICIS2013), 2013.

[16] A. Ghose, A. Goldfarb, and S. P. Han, “How is the Mobile Internet Different?,” Inf. Syst. Res., vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 613–631, 2012.

[17] Y. Bang, D.-J. Lee, K. Han, M. Hwang, and J.-H. Ahn, “Channel Capabilities, Product Characteristics, and the Impacts of Mobile Channel Introduction,” J. Manag. Inf. Syst., vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 101–126, 2013.

[18] Y. Bang, D. Lee, and K. Han, “Access Affordance of Mobile Technology in e-Commerce: Change of Purchase Time Dispersion,” in Thirty Fifth International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS2014), 2014, pp. 1–15.

CFP: Space and Place

Space and Place

The Space and Place Project: 6th Global Meeting

Thursday 3rd September – Saturday 5th September 2015
Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom

http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/critical-issues/ethos/space-and-place/call-for-papers/

Call for Presentations:
Space and place affect the very way in which we experience, understand, navigate and recreate the world. Wars are fought over both real and imagined spaces; boundaries are erected against marginalised individuals, groups and populations, constructing a lived landscape of division and disenfranchisement, inclusion and exclusion — whether it be in terms of ideology, nationality, culture, economic status, religious orientation, gender or sexuality. Space and place, are also the focus of the creation and contestation of uncontainable mobilities — the continual movement and shifting of people, identities, cultures, meanings, information, finances and objects — that are disrupting the nature and constitution of the spaces and places that we have lived in; our homes, our neighbourhoods, our cities, countries and continents. Moreover, the existence of space and place are irrevocably intertwined with, and created by, technologies, communication and culture, politics, economics, power, knowledge and lived experience. Understanding spatial relationships and the tensions and dynamics that both exist within and inform space and place, enables us to gain important insights into the processes that configure the spaces and places that we move through, inhabit and live within, as well as the nature of our existence as it is informed by such a crucial dimension of human life.

Now in its sixth year, Space and Place: Exploring Critical Issues is an established annual interdisciplinary conference project that encourages critical and collegial dialogue about questions of space and place. Recognising that different disciplines and practices express themselves through different modes, media and formats we welcome the submission of proposals from creative practitioners — artists, architects, writers, photographers, painters, film-makers, performers, urban planners and people from related professions, industries and activities and alternative forms of performance, who wish to discuss and showcase their work. Critical accounts and descriptions of problem-solving activities from ongoing projects that function to alter the landscape of space and place — urban renewal, housing development, the development of new forms of mobility, to name just three — as well as from projects that are in development, are also most welcome. We also welcome traditional papers, panels and workshop proposals.

We seek to create a dialogue amongst individuals and groups who are concerned about the nature of space and place, the complexities found in both space and place and the relationship of space to place, along with their meaning. Performances, presentations, reports, works-in-progress, papers and workshops are invited on issues related to any of the following themes:

1. The Situation and Location of Identities in Space and Place:
How is our sense of self and our relationship to others constituted through our existence in space and place? How do human endeavours affect the constitution of space and place and in so doing affect the nature of our sense of self?

2. The Space and Place of the Networked Home:
The concept and structure of the home has, and continues, to occupy a privileged position in human existence. How do the Internet, new media and the build out of connected devices, appliances and other technologies increasingly found in the home change the nature of the home as a space and our place within it.

3. The Creation and Contestation of Existing Spaces and Places:
How have existing spaces and places been created in the past, and how are they lived in at present. Can we say that our existence in a given space or place is ever and always without some form of contestation? If not, then how is our living in an existing space or place contested in the present? What does this mean for our existence as individuals, groups and communities in terms of the spaces and places that we inhabit?

4. The Repurposing of Existing Spaces and Places:
Tobacco curing facilities in Durham, North Carolina, have become chic niche stores for the wealthy and educated; warehouses in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, have become live-work spaces for artists, entrepreneurs and small start-ups; a church in New York City has become one of its landmark performance spaces. What are the processes — local, national, global — that lead to the repurposing of existing spaces and places? How do these processes, and the restructuring that they lead to, affect the existence of individuals and groups who have made use of these spaces and places prior to their repurposing? What do they foretell for future acts of repurposing?

5. Theorising Space and Place:
How do space and place exist? What aspects of human, and non-human behaviour act upon and constitute space and place? From Deleuze to Latour to Hayles; from theories of becoming to Actor-Network Theory to New Materialisms, space and place have become increasingly important dimensions to social and political thought. We welcome any and all forms of presentations that seek to participate and intervene in this critically important dialogue.

6. Representations of Space and Place in the Media, Film, Literature, TV, Theatre, the Fine Arts and Performance:
From the haunted house in horror movies to the foreboding, dark and desolate street in film noir, to the streetscapes of the French new wave and the “painterly” spaces in the films of Michael Mann, to the recreation of historical New York in the literature of Carr and that of Berlin by Kerr, to the implosion of space in the paintings of Alex Colville, space and place have long been privileged, if unspoken subjects for the fine arts, literature and film. We seek presentations by artists, authors, photographers and filmmakers who wish to share their completed or on-going visions of space and place. We also welcome critical readings of these modes of expression and depiction of both space and place.

7. The Spaces and Places of Social Media:
How do social media exist as social space and places of congregation? Are these spaces and places disrupting the fabric of our offline existence, or do they merely supplement it? How do these new places and spaces of sociability affect our sense of self and our relationship to others?

8. The Nature and Production of Virtual Space:
William Gibson coined the term cyberspace in 1984, and described it as a “consensual hallucination.” Can we not, however, think of cyberspace literally, as a space or place? If so, then how, and how does this new spatial construct affect the lives of those who have come to inhabit cyberspace? Do digital natives/Millennials, inhabit a world of spaces and places that is different from Generation X and its predecessors? If so, how, and what does this mean for the spaces and the places —both virtual and real — of the future?

9. Mobile Communication Technologies and New Urban Spaces and Places:
How have mobile phones and tablets changed our sense of space and place and our relationships to those whom we communicate with? Can we be said to be living in a space of greater immediacy as a result of the deployment of mobile communications technologies? Have the mobile phone and the tablet compressed space, or have they extended our presence amongst others across space? Do the mobile phone and the tablet enable us to inhabit new places? If so, then how are these places constituted, and how are they inhabited?

10. Knowledge Clusters, New Industries and the Globally Networked City:
Urban geography and industrial location theory and research have long pointed out that knowledge clusters, information-based industries and the policies regarding their location have lead to the rearticulation of spatial relationships that are detrimental to the existing inhabitants of the places that these industries come to occupy. This occurs as a result of political and economic spatial segregation along with the construction of the transit networks that link these clusters and industries directly to other such places via networks of regional, national and global mobility. What are the processes through which this is occurring in the early 21st century? How are space and place rearticulated through these processes? What are the strategies and tactics that are being deployed to resist the dislocation that accompanies the build out of these industrial networks?

11. Networks of Mobility and their Relationship to Movement, Space and Place:
The twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have often been characterised by the increasing movement and mobility of people, objects, information, cultural meanings and financial instruments through increasingly complex and extensive networks of mobility — both physical and digital. How do these networks change the nature of space and place in the early 21st century? What types of spaces and places exist within these networks? Are we fated to solely inhabit spaces within these networks? Do localised places exist as counterpoints to these networks, or will networks of mobility eventually envelope all forms of the local? How does our sense of self and our relationship to others change as a result of our increased mobility and movement through these networks and across space?

12. The Spaces and Places of Global Tourism:
The global tourism industry is currently valued at over $8 trillion, with annual revenues in excess of $900 billion and 240 million individuals directly employed in the industry. Tourism not only participates as a key industry in the networks of mobility, but in so doing radically reconfigures the existing spaces and places of the destinations that people go to — politically, economically and industrially to name but three dimensions of these effects. How does global tourism recreate the spaces and places of the destinations that it profits from? What are the effects of this recreation of space and place upon the populations who inhabit these destinations?

13. Practice based Proposals, Research and Reports on Space and Place:
As noted, above, critical accounts and descriptions of problem-solving activities from ongoing projects that function to alter the landscape of space and place — urban renewal, housing development, the development of new forms of mobility, to name just three — as well as from projects that are in development, are also most welcome.

Please note: These criteria are by no means definitive. Presentations on any other topic related to the general theme are welcome and will most certainly be considered.

The Steering Group welcomes the submission of proposals for short workshops, practitioner-based activities, performances, and pre-formed panels. We particularly welcome short film screenings; photographic essays; installations; interactive talks and alternative presentation styles that encourage engagement.

What to Send:
300 word proposals should be submitted by Friday 1st May 2015. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 10th July 2015. 300 word abstracts should be submitted to the Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word or RTF formats, following this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation as you would like it to appear in programme, c) email address, d) title of proposal, e) body of proposal, f) up to 10 keywords.

E-mails should be entitled: SP6 Abstract Submission

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.

Organising Chairs:
Matt Melia and Harris Breslow: mattandharris@inter-disciplinary.net
Rob Fisher: sp6@inter-disciplinary.net

The conference is part of the ‘Ethos’ series of research projects, which in turn belong to the Critical Issues programmes of ID.Net. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and challenging. All proposals accepted for and presented at the conference must be in English and will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook.  Selected proposals may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s). All publications from the conference will require editors, to be chosen from interested delegates from the conference.

Inter-Disciplinary.Net believes it is a mark of personal courtesy and professional respect to your colleagues that all delegates should attend for the full duration of the meeting. If you are unable to make this commitment, please do not submit an abstract for presentation.

Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.

Boston University Center for Mobile Communication Studies-- April 9th Expert Workshop

Boston University Center for Mobile Communication Studies

April 9th Expert Workshop

Social media and the prospects for expanded democratic participation in national policy-setting
Expert Workshop April 9th, 2015

Although social media have demonstrated their critical role in electoral politics and many other domains including disseminating political news and information, they have not yet been effectively deployed in helping set national policy. New social media platforms could potentially expand the quality and level of public support in areas such as law enforcement, health, education, and public diplomacy.

To better understand the barriers as well as potential role, both positive and negative, of social media in setting national goals and policies, leading thinkers will be coming to Boston University’s College of Communication on April 9, 2015. With papers having been prepared in advance, the day-long event will allow in-depth analysis of the latest thinking on these issues. In addition, time will be set aside for a mapping exercise to consider what the next steps are in terms of needed future research so that the insights presented at the workshop can help inform other researchers both in the United States and beyond

We have a strong set of papers to be presented and a wide-ranging and esteemed group of participants and guests. The following is our current list of presenters and discussants

Amy Becker, Loyola University
Michael Bruter, London School of Economics
Lauren Copeland, John Carroll University
Deen Freelon, American University
Archon Fung, Harvard Kennedy School
Hahrie Han, Wellesley College
Eitan Hersh, Yale University
Phil Howard, University of Washington
David Karpf, George Washington University
Daniel Kreiss, University of North Carolina
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, Roskilde Universitet
Richard Pineda, University of Texas at El Paso
Benjamin Schneer, Harvard University

This expert workshop is designed to bring leading thinkers in the field together to discuss what is known and what we still need to know about the role that social media can and should play in national policy-setting. Attendance at this event is very limited. For more information, please contact Jill Walsh at mobicom@bu.edu.

As part of our initiative we will be holding a public event on April 8th. For more information click here.

Boston University Center for Mobile Communication Studies-- April 8th Public Event

Boston University Center for Mobile Communication Studies

April 8th Public Event

Social media and the prospects for expanded democratic participation in national policy-setting.
Public Event April 8th at 4:30pm
Boston University College of Communication
640 Commonwealth Ave Boston, MA Room TBD

The Division of Emerging Media Studies and the Center for Mobile Communication are co-sponsoring a public event April 8, 2015 at 4:30pm on the potential role, both positive and negative, of social media in setting national goals and policies.

The power of social media appears at times almost limitless. Indeed, when explaining the reasons for ISIL’s surprising success, President Obama included in the list that they had been “savvy in terms of their social media” (CBS 60 Minutes, 9/28/14). While there is no arguing that social media have affected daily life, their impact on the conduct governance, widely considered, seems slight. This is perhaps surprising since social media offers the promise of expanded participation and more inclusive participation opportunities in governance. Yet although social media have demonstrated their critical role in electoral politics and many other domains including disseminating political news and information, they have not yet been effectively deployed in helping set national policy.

Dr. Michael Bruter will be our featured speaker for the event. Dr. Bruter publishes widely in political psychology, elections, and political behavior. His most recent book, The Future of our Democracies examines the motivations of young Europeans to engage in the political process despite their generation’s tendency to political apathy.

This event will be a wonderful opportunity to learn and network with leaders in the field of emerging media and policy-setting. Reserve your space at the public event for guaranteed seating here.

Please email Jill Walsh at mobicom@bu.edu with any questions about the event.

CFP: Multicultural Media and Immigrant Integration

Global Media Journal -- Canadian Edition Volume 8, Issue 2 (2015) Multicultural Media and Immigrant Integration

Guest Editor:

Dr. Rukhsana Ahmed, University of Ottawa

Multicultural media, also known as “ethnic media”, consisting of print, broadcast, and electronic media and intended for ethno-cultural communities, are important resources for immigrants. These diverse forms of media play an important role in meeting different information needs of immigrants.
For example, multicultural media are important sources of, and channels for the delivery of settlement, government, ethno-cultural, and home country news, information, and services for immigrants.

The proliferation of multicultural media during recent decades has produced much scholarly and journalistic works, which have focused on multicultural media’s function in helping immigrants adapt and adjust to the new host country and preserve their cultural heritage, as well as in contributing to their social isolation in the host country. The role of multicultural media in immigrants’ inclusion/segregation in the host society remains a growing concern among researchers and practitioners. With the changing media landscape through the rise of  the Internet, the proliferation of digital media and the growth of mobile devices, as well as international migration increasing in scale, it has become all the more important for researchers and practitioners to further discuss, debate, and  document different aspects  of the  role  of multicultural media in the integration of immigrants.

This special issue of the Global Media Journal -- Canadian Edition aims to address opportunities and challenges that multicultural media represent for immigrant integration, from a multidisciplinary perspective, including communication, media studies, information studies, geography, political science, political economy, sociology, law, international relations, and other fields. To that end, the special issue will consider theoretical, analytic, critical, empirical, and comparative submissions on topics that include, but not limited to:

• challenges of multicultural media
• concepts and theories relevant to the study of multicultural media
• immigrants’ access to, and experiences with multicultural media
• multicultural media and immigrants’ civic engagement 
• multicultural media and immigrants’ healthcare, socio-economic, and security issues 
• multicultural media and social inclusion: sense of belonging and community building
• multicultural media uses and gratifications 
• multiculturalism, integration, and social cohesion 
• the role of multicultural media in immigrants’ integration into society

The Global Media Journal -- Canadian Edition (http://www.gmj.uottawa.ca/) welcomes high- quality, original submissions on related topics to the above theme. Authors are strongly encouraged to contribute to the development of communication and media theories, report empirical and analytical research or present case studies, use critical discourses, and/or set out innovative research methodologies. The Journal is bilingual (English and French) open-access online academic refereed publication that aims to advance research and understanding of communication and media in Canada and around the globe.

Deadline:

September 15th, 2015

Submissions:

Papers (5,000 to 7,500 words), review articles of more than one book (2,500 to 3,000 words), and book reviews (1,000 to 1,200 words).

Method:

All manuscripts must be submitted electronically as Word Document attachments, directly to Dr. Rukhsana Ahmed (rahmed@uottawa.ca).

Guidelines:

Available at: http://www.gmj.uottawa.ca/for-authors_e.html

Decision: October 30th, 2015

Publication: December 15th, 2015

CFP: Mobility as Waiting

CFP: Mobility as Waiting
Congress of the Austrian Sociological Association (OeGS).

1st-3rd October 2015

Innsbruck, Austria.

The deadline for contributions will be the 31th of March 2015.

Mobility as Waiting

by: Maik Hoemke, Lucerne School of Social Work

Short Abstract

The study will provide solutions for waiting times in our high mobile society. Special attention should be drawn on socially acceptable solutions for waiting times on small stations and stops.

Abstract

We all life in a time of high and hyper mobility. Not only differences between social classes disappear (social mobility), also the ability for translocation (spatial mobility) has increased to a high level and is to be seen as a matter of course. But spatial mobility has a paradox in itself: Mobility is mentioned as permanent travelling, constant change of locations and a missing of abidance. But if have someone a deeper view on spatial mobility, it becomes clear, that spatial mobility is strong connected with standstill and waiting.

But the non-observance of waiting in a high mobile society makes sense, because in social sciences waiting is a kind of crisis, because valuable time will be wasted while waiting. Also waiting in a social context can be mentioned as hesitation, also a negative term in our society. The only positive aspect is to take time in the meaning of contemplation.

For this session different contributions are possible:

• Social debates on waiting times
• Theoretical discourses on mobility
• Practical orientated research on waiting in different situations
• Connections between social and physical mobility
• Differences of (waiting-)time perceptions in different cultures and social classes
• Etc.

Please send contributions to maik.hoemke@hslu.ch.

CFP: Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures

Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures invites essay submissions for a special issue addressing mobility in relation to youth texts and culture(s). We welcome essays that consider registers of race, class, gender, and disability. Essays should be between 6,000 and 9,000 words in length and prepared for blind peer-review.

Mobility invites us to think about bodies, identities, and agency from diverse disciplinary and methodological perspectives. Im/mobility can be many things: geographic, physical, ideological, imaginative, temporal, social. What are some of the ways that we might analyze this amorphous—in fact, mobile—topic in light of young people, their texts, and their cultures?

Submissions are requested by: 30 June 2015.

 Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures invites essay submissions for a special issue addressing mobility in relation to youth texts and culture(s). We welcome essays that consider registers of race, class, gender, and disability. Essays should be between 6,000 and 9,000 words in length and prepared for blind peer-review.

Mobility invites us to think about bodies, identities, and agency from diverse disciplinary and methodological perspectives. Im/mobility can be many things: geographic, physical, ideological, imaginative, temporal, social. What are some of the ways that we might analyze this amorphous—in fact, mobile—topic in light of young people, their texts, and their cultures?

Submissions are requested by: 30 June 2015.

Topics may include:

• Dancing children
• Border crossings and home(land) security systems
• Movement as performance/choreography
• Narratives of upward/downward mobility
• Transformations through mobility/mobilizing   transformations
• Mobile audiences and audiences of mobility
• Movement as affect and affect as “being moved”
• Planes, trains, and automobiles
• Immigration and generations
• Ability and impairment
• Kinesthetics or kin-aesthetics
• Mobilizing youth polities
• Digital movement and mobile communication
• Play and playgrounds
• Containment and freedom of movement

Inquiries may be directed to Larissa Wodtke, Managing Editor: l.wodtke@uwinnipeg.ca

Topics may include:

Dancing children

Border crossings and home(land) security systems

Movement as performance/choreography

Narratives of upward/downward mobility

Transformations through mobility/mobilizing   transformations

Mobile audiences and audiences of mobility

Movement as affect and affect as “being moved”

Planes, trains, and automobiles

Immigration and generations

Ability and impairment

Kinesthetics or kin-aesthetics

Mobilizing youth polities

Digital movement and mobile communication

Play and playgrounds

Containment and freedom of movement

Inquiries may be directed to Larissa Wodtke, Managing Editor: l.wodtke@uwinnipeg.ca

CFP: Selfie Citizenship research workshop

Selfie Citizenship research workshop

  

16 April 2015,

@The Shed, Digital Innovation, MMU

https://sites.google.com/site/selfiecitizenship/home

Organised by Adi Kuntsman, Farida Vis and Simon Faulkner

Sponsored by Digital Innovation, Manchester Metropolitan University,
and The Visual Social Media Lab, The University of Sheffield

The workshop brings together researchers from a variety of disciplines, fields and backgrounds to explore the notion of “selfie citizenship” -- the growing use of the selfie-genre and, more broadly, the networked circulations of individual and group self-portraits for “acts of citizenship” (Isin 2008).

In the recent years we have become accustomed to photographs of individuals with hand-written banners, as well as to various selfie memes and hashtag actions (#NoMakeUpSelfie, #WeAreAllClean, #SmearforSmear as well as #ICan’tBreathe, #BlackLivesMatter and #UseMeInstead, to mention just a few), spread on social media as actions of protest and political or social statements. Their circulation is global, and their iconography is often deceivingly similar, yet their motivations, causes and context vary – some stand against police abuse or military occupation, others call for clearer cities or smaller classrooms, yet others promote a charity cause or a social awareness, and there are those that incite violence or call for a war.  Further, while some perform citizenship as a form of nationalism, other mobilise notions of global citizenship, and yet others operate in contexts where citizenship is absent, in question or violently denied.

Such mobilisation of the selfie genre – understood broadly as self-portraits in viral digital circulation – clearly challenges the prevalent popular view of selfies as narcissistic, inherently a-political and even anti-social. Yet selfie citizenship still remains to be theorised, both as a framework for different understanding of selfies, and as a way to think differently about citizenship in the social media age. This workshop was set up to create a space for an intellectual and political conversation around the notion of selfie citizenship, bringing together scholars of visual culture, social and digital media, and cultural citizenship, into a much needed dialogue that explores the work of selfies, but also charts new directions to think about citizenship as a political, affective, visual and networked phenomenon.

CFP: Workshop “Digital Cities 9 – Hackable Cities: From Subversive City Making to Systemic Change”

Workshop “Digital Cities 9 – Hackable Cities: From Subversive City Making to Systemic Change”

27 June 2015

University of Limerick, Ireland, prior to the Communities & Technologies Conference 2015.

http://themobilecity.nl/dc9/

List of organisers and their backgrounds

Michiel de Lange (Utrecht University, The Mobile City)

Nanna Verhoeff (Utrecht University)

Martijn de Waal (University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, The Mobile City)

Marcus Foth (Queensland University of Technology)

Martin Brynskov (Aarhus University)

Contact:

Martijn de Waal & Michiel de Lange (Digitalcities9@gmail.com).

The workshop’s theme, goals and activities:

 The Digital Cities workshop series started in 1999, and is the longest running academic workshop series that has followed the intertwined development of cities and digital technologies. Earlier years have seen papers presented at Digital Cities to appear as the basis of key anthologies within the field of urban informatics, smart & social cities and civic media.

This year again we are part of the C&T event to further discuss these relevant themes, gain new insights and work collaboratively towards a new publication, and explore opportunities for cooperation in research programs for instance in the H2020-framework.

Abstract

The DC9 workshop takes place on June 27, 2015 in Limerick, Ireland and is titled “Hackable Cities: From Subversive City Making to Systemic Change”. The notion of “hacking” originates from the world of media technologies but is increasingly often being used for creative ideals and practices of city making. “City hacking” evokes more participatory, inclusive, decentralized, playful and subversive alternatives to often top-down ICT implementations in smart city making. However, these discourses about “hacking the city” are used ambiguously and are loaded with various ideological presumptions, which makes the term also problematic. For some “urban hacking” is about empowering citizens to organize around communal issues and perform aesthetic urban interventions. For others it raises questions about governance: what kind of “city hacks” should be encouraged or not, and who decides? Can city hacking be curated? For yet others, trendy participatory buzzwords like these are masquerades for deeply libertarian neoliberal values. Furthermore, a question is how “city hacking” may mature from the tactical level of smart and often playful interventions to the strategic level of enduring impact. The Digital Cities 9 workshop welcomes papers that explore the idea of “hackable city making” in constructive and critical ways.

Call for papers

The Digital Cities workshop invites papers that explore the relation between digital media technologies and everyday urban life, planning and governance. We especially welcome papers within this year’s theme: “Hackable Cities: From Subversive City Making to Systemic Change.”

“Hacking” has long been part and parcel of the world of media technologies. From HAM radio amateurs to US west-coast computer culture, users have been figured as active creators, shapers, and benders of media technologies and the relationships mediated through them (Levy 2010; Roszak 1986; Von Hippel 2005). In general what the term refers to is the process of clever or playful appropriation of existing technologies or infrastructures, or bending the logic of a particular system beyond its intended purposes or restrictions to serve one’s personal or communal goals.

Whereas the term was mainly used to refer to practices in the sphere of computer hardware and software, more recently “hacking” has been used to refer to creative practices and ideals of city making: spanning across spatial, social, cultural, and institutional domains, various practices of “city hacking” can be seen in urban planning, city management, and tactical urban interventions. Worldwide, we have seen various artistic and political movements making use of digital media to appropriate urban places as the locus for theatrical interventions, often politically charged. A prominent book on the future of “smart cities” makes an appeal for “civic hackers” (Townsend 2013). Urban governments around the world have embraced “hackathons” as a new way for the development of urban services. Numerous events with titles like “Hack Your City” (e.g. Sheffield) or similar, have been organized. Municipalities have opened up datasets and created urban APIs or SDKs that allow clever hackers to build apps and services.

What these examples have in common is that the term “hacking” is used to evoke a participatory alternative to top-down ICT implementations in cities. The term “hacking” suggests a novel logic to organize urban society through social media platforms. It suggests a move away from centralized urban planning towards more inclusive process of “city making”, creating new types of public spaces. This logic of “hacking” is touted as slightly subversive, innovative, and is associated with collaboration, openness and participation. As such it is applied to various domains of urban life. The term can be used to highlight critical or contrarian tactics, to point to new collaborative practices amongst citizens mediated through social media, or to describe a changing vision on the relation between governments and their citizens.

Discourses about “hacking the city” are not unproblematic. While the term suggests cities have embraced a new “hacker ethic” of decentralized organization, reputation-based meritocracy and playfulness, at the very same time many “smart city” policies reinstate modernist ideals of centralized overview and pervasive control. As the notion is ported from the field of software development to civic life and organization, it is used ambiguously, loaded with various ideological presumptions. For some, “urban hacking” is about empowering citizens to organize themselves around communal issues and empowering them to perform aesthetic urban interventions. For others it raises questions about governance: what kind of “city hacks” should be encouraged and which ones are unwelcome, and who decides about that? Can city hacking be curated? For yet another group it is a masquerade for neoliberal politics in which libertarian values appear in the discursive sheep’s clothing of participatory buzzwords like “Web 2.0”, “collective intelligence”, “crowdsourcing”, “open source ethics”, or “sharing economy”. Furthermore, a key question that remains largely unanswered is how “city hacking” may mature from the tactical level of smart and often playful interventions to the strategic level of enduring impact.

The Digital Cities Workshop explores welcomes papers that explore the notion of hackable city making both in a constructive as in a critical way. We also welcome the discussion of related concepts that address the relationship between bottom-up city making and issues of governance and urban management.

We prioritize papers that address this overall theme, but works connecting to adjacent themes may also come into consideration. Contact the DC9 chair if you want to discuss before submitting.

Relevant topics include but are not limited to:

• What are interesting examples of aesthetic and/or political event-based appropriations of public space making use of digital media technologies?
• What kind of tools or processes are empowering citizens in the processes of city making?
• What can we learn about this from empirical case studies or research by design projects?
• How can digital media open up existing urban infrastructures for appropriation by citizens?
• What are innovative examples of citizens taking ownership in and management of public interest issues?
• How have or could governments make room for ‘hackable city making’? What are the societal risks of such an approach?
• In what way can (and should) bottom-up city-making be curated?
• The call is also open to other relevant submissions outside the theme of hacking, but relevant to citizens making the digital city, such as studies on civic media, smart citizens, urban informatics, open data, etc.,

Maximum number of participants:

We have room for 20-25 people. A selection of applications is made by the workshop organizers based on the proposal’s quality, thematic relevance, and overall complementarity.

Submissions

Please submit your 300-500 word proposal through the Easychair system:

https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=dc9.

Important Dates

Abstract submission deadline: 2015-03-05 – 2015-05-01

Notification of selected papers: 2015-05-12 – 2015-05-12

Full Papers Due: 2015-06-12 – 2015-06-12

Conference: 2015-06-27 – 2015-06-27

CFP: HICSS Social Media & Learning Minitrack

CFP: HICSS Social Media & Learning Minitrack
Chairs: Maarten de Laat, Caroline Haythornthwaite  & Dan Suthers

Track: Digital and Social Media

Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) 49,
January 5-8, 2016
http://www.hicss.hawaii.edu/

FULL PAPERS DUE: June 15, 2015 via the HICSS conference system
http://www.hicss.org/#!calls/c1cd9


Social Media & Learning Minitrack
This minitrack calls for papers that address leading edge innovation, research methods and design to analyze and support learning through social media. Social media – such as social networking sites, blogging, microblogging, wikis, etc. – provide powerful tools for engaging in networks and communities and that stimulate social interaction for learning around topics of shared interest.  Traditional boundaries (institutional, epistemological and spatial) are fading, creating open spaces that increase possibilities to connect and develop personal learning interests.

This minitrack invites papers that address the use of social media for learning, whether this is planned intentional learning or spontaneous during work or play. Research can be in formal learning settings or arrangements that are non-formal and informal. It can engage the learning of individuals, or learning that encompasses work groups, leisure groups, communities of interest and of practice.

We are interested in papers that examine theoretical issues; provide empirical data, innovative designs or new perspectives on learning; or that look into new forms of analytics to provide feedback about the learning that takes place in social media environments.

We invite empirical and theoretical papers that address current trends and developments in social media and learning, and address such questions as:

• How are we learning in the social media age?
• What measures, techniques, or analyses provide insight into learning on and through social media?
• How do social media support, extend, or supplant other forms of learning?
• What kinds of social media use support individual, group, or community learning?
• How are social media transforming the learning landscape?
• What theories of learning work for social media?

Topics include but are not limited to …

Theories, perspectives and paradigms

• Learning on and through the web, for formal, informal and non-formal learning
• Social learning in networks, communities, crowds
• Individual, group, community, or organizational learning through social media
• Contributory behavior in social media supported learning communities
• Professional learning, lifelong learning, and/or workplace learning and social media
• Open access, social media and learning
• Learning across multiple media, and the role of social media in learning
• Self-directed learning, social learning, adult learning

Design

• Design and use of social media (MOOCs, Twitter, Wikis, Blogs) for learning
• Design and/or analysis of multi-media learning ecologies
• Integration of social media across multiple media (Open platforms, Business Social Media) and existing practices

Analytics

• Methods for analyzing social media and learning
• Tools for automated data capture and analytics on social media and learning
• Awareness and visualization of learning via social media

ORGANIZERS
Maarten de Laat, Open University of the Netherlands
maarten.delaat@ou.nl<mailto:maarten.delaat@ou.nl>

Caroline Haythornthwaite, University of British Columbia
c.haythorn@ubc.ca<mailto:c.haythorn@ubc.ca>

Dan Suthers, University of Hawaii
suthers@hawaii.edu<mailto:suthers@hawaii.edu>