April 2017 - Air-L - lists.aoir.org

Communities & Technologies 2017, Troyes, France - Doctoral Consortium and Workshops
by Korn, Matthias 12 Apr '17

12 Apr '17

C&T 2017 – Technology for the Common Good 26-30 June 2017, Université de Technologie de Troyes (UTT), France http://comtech.community/ == ABOUT C&T The biennial Communities and Technologies (C&T) conference is the premier international forum for stimulating scholarly debate and disseminating research on the complex connections between communities – both physical and virtual – and information and communication technologies. C&T 2017 welcomes participation from researchers, designers, educators, industry, and students from the many disciplines and perspectives bearing on the interaction between community and technology, including architecture, arts, business, design, economics, education, engineering, ergonomics, informatics, information technology, geography, health, humanities, law, media and communication studies, and social sciences. For the 2017 round of C&T, we welcome contributions that particularly pay attention on technology that can be deployed for the common good. The conference program includes competitively selected, peer-reviewed papers and case studies, as well as pre-conference workshops, a doctoral consortium, and invited keynotes. We look forward to welcoming you to an exciting conference in Troyes! Myriam Lewkowicz, Markus Rohde Conference Chairs chairs(a)comtech.community == IMPORTANT DATES * May 2: Doctoral Consortium applications due * May 30: Workshop papers due (individual deadlines may vary!) * June 26-30: Workshops and conference in Troyes, France == PRE-CONFERENCE PROGRAMME Workshops and Doctoral Consortium will take place at UTT on Monday and Tuesday (26th and 27th of June). Workshops have varying requirements and deadlines for participation. Please check the individual workshop websites below. == Monday, 26th of June, 2017 * Doctoral Consortium * WS 2: Ethics for the ‘Common Good’: Actionable Guidelines for Community-based Design Research * WS 4: Civic Intelligence in an Uncertain and Threatening World * WS 5: Collaborative Economies: From Sharing to Caring * WS 6: Digital Cities 10: Towards a Localised Socio-Technical Understanding of the ‘Real’ Smart City * WS 12: Refugees & HCI Workshop: The Role of HCI in Responding to the Refugee Crisis == Tuesday, 27th of June, 2017 * WS 1: 3D Printing/Digital Fabrication for Education and the Common Good * WS 3: Embracing Diversity with Help of Technology and Participatory Design (EDTPD 2017) * WS 7: Designing Participation for the Digital Fringe * WS 8: Participatory Design, Beyond the Local * WS 9: Solutions for Economics, Environment and Democracy (SEED) * WS 10: Understanding and Supporting Emergent and Temporary Collaboration across and beyond Community and Organizational Boundaries * WS 11: Infrastructuring Smartness and/or Enhancing Communities? A Workshop for Engaging the ‘Smart’ Vision Critically == DOCTORAL CONSORTIUM The Doctoral Consortium is scheduled prior to the main conference programme, on Monday, June 26, 2017. The Doctoral Consortium (DC) offers research students a special forum where they can present, discuss and progress their research plans with peers and established senior researchers. We especially welcome contributions which are related to the overall C&T conference theme, which is devoted to technology that can be deployed for the common good. This encompasses questions and approaches which are concerned with securing healthy and diverse ways of societal development. However, all contributions falling in the scope of the C&T conference are welcome. Research students wishing to attend the doctoral consortium should submit up to 4 pages, using the ACM templates, addressing the following: * Introduction setting up your research area and specific research question(s)/goals(s) (including key related work); * Overall research approach, methodology, and expected contributions; * Work in progress (including findings to date and next steps); * Questions and issues for discussion, and what you hope to gain from attending the DC; * Short bio. Please send proposals directly to the Doctoral Consortium Chairs: dc(a)comtech.community Yvonne Dittrich, Claudia Müller Doctoral Consortium Chairs dc(a)comtech.community == WORKSHOPS Workshops provide a platform to discuss, explore and advance specific research areas of Communities & Technologies with a group of like-minded researchers and practitioners. Each workshop generates ideas that give the C&T community a new, innovative way of thinking about the topic, or ideas that suggest promising directions for future research. Sukeshini A. Grandhi, Lars Rune Christensen Workshop Chairs workshops(a)comtech.community == WS 1: 3D Printing/Digital Fabrication for Education and the Common Good Oliver Stickel, University of Siegen, Germany Konstantin Aal, University of Siegen, Germany Sarah Rüller, University of Siegen, Germany Verena Fuchsberger, University of Salzburg, Austria Victoria Wenzelmann, Global Innovation Gathering, Germany Volkmar Pipek, University of Siegen, Germany Volker Wulf, University of Siegen, Germany Manfred Tscheligi, University of Salzburg, Austria 3D printing has become an area of intense interest in a variety of contexts in research and practice ranging from industry through education, humanitarian to innovation. At the same time, technologies, materials, usages, and appropriation are in constant flux. 3D printing is, however, just one of the many facets of digital fabrication, the digitalization of more and more sectors and increasingly community-based innovation and open/commons-oriented engineering practices. This workshop at C&T 2017 is intended to illustrate and discuss cases, positions, concepts and experiences related to such developments in digital fabrication, especially in 3D printing. Link: http://www.digifab-commongood.fab101.de/ == WS 2: Ethics for the ‘Common Good’: Actionable Guidelines for Community-based Design Research Izak van Zyl, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa Heike Winschiers-Theophilus, Namibia University of Science and Technology, Namibia Retha de la Harpe, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa This workshop is themed around the ethics of – potentially disruptive – design research in collaboration with social communities. Disruption may lead to conflict and ‘cultural resistance’ on part of communities, despite the noble intentions of research-practitioners and designers. Ethical design is not a novel concept, but it remains fundamental in the contemporary undertakings of innovative and technology-oriented research. During this workshop, therefore, participants will ideate and develop practical, actionable guidelines for conducting design- and innovation-oriented research with, for and in communities (both virtual and physical). Workshop participants will be invited to consider the philosophical-conceptual questions around ‘ethical, collective design’ in the internet age. Participants will especially be invited to problematise the ethical nature of their practice, and subsequently, to build toward critical, empathetic and more informed practice. The workshop aims to involve design-researchers from various disciplines and who carry out some form of community-based work. Link: https://communityethicsblog.wordpress.com/ == WS 3: Embracing Diversity with Help of Technology and Participatory Design (EDTPD 2017) Barbara Rita Barricelli, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy Ines Di Loreto, Université de Technologie de Troyes, France The use of technology, both new and well established, combined with a participatory approach to design might represent an important way to embrace diversity. With diversity the organizers refer to the variety of human differences, caused either by physical impairment, cognitive impairment, chronic diseases, or the so-called neurodiversity. To design for usability, accessibility and inclusion not only means focusing on user interfaces and ergonomic aspects but also consider factors such as acceptability and appropriation. Bodily, cognitive, and emotional appropriation should be regarded as fundamental to the success of a design process that is truly open to the diversity of users. In such perspective, a participatory approach to design may be of great help in the implementation of usable, accessible, and inclusive technological solutions that put the end users and their needs at the center. Link: http://mips.di.unimi.it/pages/view/embracing-diversity == WS 4: Civic Intelligence in an Uncertain and Threatening World Grazia Concilio, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Anna de Liddo, The Open University, United Kingdom Douglas Schuler, The Evergreen State College, United States of America Justin Smith, Washington State University, United States of America Info and Link: tba == WS 5: Collaborative Economies: From Sharing to Caring Gabriela Avram, University of Limerick, Ireland Jaz Choi, Queensland University of Technology, Australia Stefano De Paoli, Abertay University, Scotland Ann Light, University of Sussex, United Kingdom Peter Lyle, Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute, Portugal Maurizio Teli, Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute, Portugal The technologies of the “sharing economy” are becoming increasingly relevant to both the daily lives of private individuals and researchers. As these tools are embedded in various communities (of interest, place, practice and circumstance) to support new forms of connection, welfare, labour and service, there emerge fundamental questions around the opportunities and perils of creation and use. In response, this workshop brings together perspectives and cases from researchers and practitioners across various disciplines to interrogate how different form of collaborative economy might be imagined and created based on the ethics and logic of care. This workshop will serve as an open and active forum for participants of up to 20 practitioners, designers, and researchers involved in related fields. We welcome all methodological, practical, and speculative approaches to considering the relations between sharing, caring and collaborative economy. Link: https://collaborativeeconomiesworkshop.wordpress.com/ == WS 6: Digital Cities 10: Towards a Localised Socio-Technical Understanding of the ‘Real’ Smart City Nancy Odendaal, University of Cape Town, South Africa Alessandro Aurigi, University of Plymouth, United Kingdom We invite scholars, practitioners and thinkers to look at smart cities from the point of view of the inhabitable, and inhabited place. Appropriation of technology is contextual with the physical and digital city experientially connected. It means understanding the cross-agency of design and socio-cultural context. We invite papers that uncover such cases with in-depth inquiry. We aim to explore the interface between urban design and embodied interaction and revisit the work on community and technology in the age of urban informatics, big data, and the Internet of things. We encourage work that displays conceptual rigor in its inquiry; either through grounded theory and allowing new readings of the ‘smart city’ to emerge or to revisit this phenomenon through critical pieces. We welcome stories from the global South that engage the growing work on southern urbanism through a techno-lens. The aim is to contribute to a textured reading of contemporary urbanism. Link: https://dc10web.wordpress.com/ == WS 7: Designing Participation for the Digital Fringe Hilary Davis, Swinburne University and La Trobe University, Australia Jane Farmer, Swinburne University, Australia Luke Hespanhol, The University of Sydney, Australia Joel Fredericks, The University of Sydney, Australia Glenda Caldwell, Queensland University of Technology, Australia Marius Hoggenmueller, University of Munich, Germany Digital participation is emerging as a key issue for researchers, designers, educators, industry and others as government policy increasingly seeks to include people in decision-making about all aspects of their lives. Yet, that tends to focus predominantly on mainstream communities of highly urbanized settlements, often neglecting segments of society lacking access to resources, digital technology or telecommunications infrastructure. Likewise, people from diverse and marginalised backgrounds, or who are socially excluded, such as people living with disability, the elderly, disadvantaged youth and women, people identifying as LGBTI, refugees and migrants, Indigenous people and others, are particularly vulnerable to digital under-participation, thereby compounding disadvantage. This workshop proposes to identify practical, innovative, and sensitive design solutions to support digital participation for disadvantaged communities in urban and regional environments; foster digital skills within and across communities; investigate the role of proxies in digital inclusion; and discuss design strategies for sustaining digital inclusion in the long run. Link: https://digitalparticipationhci.wordpress.com/designing-participation-for-t… == WS 8: Participatory Design, Beyond the Local Maurizio Teli, Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute, Portugal Panayotis Antoniadis, NetHood, Switzerland Chiara Bassetti, University of Trento, Italy Stefano De Paoli, Abertay University, Scotland Ileana Apostol, NetHood, Switzerland Giovanni Allegretti, University of Coimbra, Portugal Michelangelo Secchi, University of Coimbra, Portugal The workshop aims at stimulating and opening a debate around the capacity of Participatory Design (PD) and other co-design approaches to deliver outcomes and methodologies that can have an impact and value for reuse well beyond the local context in which they were originally developed. Projects such as those in the EU Horizon2020 CAPS program pose new questions to PD and, more generally, to any co-design endeavor. The main concerns probably consist in the scalability of participatory practices and their results. How can PD processes and outcomes scale up and become relevant in different situations, beyond the local? How can PD activities and results impact the supra-national and supra-local level? How the circulation of information and knowledge can reach beyond single, and often localized, communities of participants? Link: http://www.mazizone.eu/2017/03/29/workshop-participatory-design-beyond-the-… == WS 9: Solutions for Economics, Environment and Democracy (SEED) Lance Bennett, University of Washington, United States of America Alan Borning, University of Washington, United States of America Volker Wulf, University of Siegen, Germany Quality of life for growing numbers of people on the planet is threatened by a set of integrated, systemic problems in the economy, environment and democracy. The goal of the SEED project is to form an international network of scholar/activists, advocates, and practitioners who seek to address these problems in a similarly integrated fashion. We are approaching this in two ways: first, by developing an online platform that connects our participants and facilitates sharing and assessing ideas and action experiments operating in local, national and international arenas; and second, by organizing a set of in-person workshops and other meetings of participants. This Communities & Technologies Workshop will be the first of these in-person workshops. Our goals for the workshop are three-fold: first, to help shape the plans for the SEED community; second, to present and discuss innovative proposals and work in this broad area; and third, for a key set of our participants from Europe, North America, and elsewhere to meet in person to help establish and further the connections among us. Link: https://seed.uw.edu/2017workshop/ == WS 10: Understanding and Supporting Emergent and Temporary Collaboration across and beyond Community and Organizational Boundaries Khuloud Abou Amsha, Troyes University of Technology, France Erik Grönvall, IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark Joanna Saad-Sulonen, University of Oulu, Finland Claus Bossen, Aarhus University, Denmark Work has been described as being distributed, cross-organizational and multi-actor dependent, volunteer-based, fleeting, opportunistic, in-between and community-based. Work and collaborative work is indeed something that can be unforeseen by most or all of the involved actors. It can emerge and take place temporarily at the boundaries of established entities, and be independent of existing collaboration protocols. Within CSCW the formation of Publics, Infrastructuring and Knotworking has been used to talk about such open-ended collaborative work. This workshop seeks to bring together researchers and practitioners who are interested in how we study and discuss very open and emergent forms of collaboration, occurring in an improvised, temporary communities of action, at the boundaries of established communities or organizations, to address issues that challenge current organization of work. The aim of the workshop is to open a space for reflection on relevant concepts, through the discussion of concrete examples and case studies. Link: https://www.itu.dk/people/erig/knotws2017 == WS 11: Infrastructuring Smartness and/or Enhancing Communities? A Workshop for Engaging the ‘Smart’ Vision Critically Giacomo Poderi, University of Bergen, Norway Ingrid Foss Ballo, University of Bergen, Norway Michela Cozza, Mälardalen University, Sweden Kjetil Rommetveit, University of Bergen, Norway By tapping into the ongoing process of infrastructuring sensors, trackers, data and monitoring devices that underlies the materialization of imaginaries of a ‘smart’ society, this full-day workshop promotes a critical discussion on the assumptions and implications of such process. The workshop will put at the forefront the interplay between technology and society and will focus on topics such as acceptance, disruption, failures, privacy and ethical aspects, with the intention to go beyond the taken for granted desirability and necessity of ‘smart’ and to de-construct the mainstream rhetorics of unproblematic technological fixes to contemporary challenges. We aim at creating a lively and interdisciplinary discussion during the workshop. Therefore, we invite people interested in engaging critically with the workshop’s theme to submit a position paper (2-4 pages) about their works in progress, case studies, empirical results or theoretical analyses. Link: https://infrastructuringsmartness.wordpress.com/ == WS 12: Refugees & HCI Workshop: The Role of HCI in Responding to the Refugee Crisis Reem Talhouk, Newcastle University, United Kingdom Vasilis Vlachokyriakos, Newcastle University, United Kingdom Aal Konstantin, University of Siegen, Germany Anne Weibert, University of Siegen, Germany Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed, Cornell University, United States of America Karen Fisher, University of Washington, United States of America Volker Wulf, University of Siegen, Germany Over 21 million refugees are residing in camps, journeying through Europe or resettling in new countries. The magnitude of the humanitarian crisis calls for technological innovation in addressing the challenges being faced by refugees and humanitarian aid stakeholders. Both innovation communities and Human Computer Interaction researchers have begun to explore the use of technology in addressing challenges faced by refugee communities. This one-day workshop aims to (1) explore research methods that can be adapted and applied to refugee contexts and to (2) formulate a research agenda for future work. For more details please visit our website. Link: https://openlab.ncl.ac.uk/refugeesandhci/ -- Dr. Matthias Korn e-Science / Computer-Supported Cooperative Research DFG-SFB 1187: Media of Cooperation, University of Siegen Institute for Information Systems, Fak. III, University of Siegen Phone: +49 271 740-2293 Cell: +49 173 7232 198 Office: US-D 102 Mail: matthias.korn(a)uni-siegen.de Twitter: @matsch_o0 Web: http://mkorn.binaervarianz.de/

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Techno-Galactic Software Observatory
by Seda Guerses 12 Apr '17

12 Apr '17

Dear Airs, Please find below a CFP for a hands on workshop that we are organizing in Brussels. Best, s. T H E T E C H N O - G A L A C T I C S O F T W A R E O B S E R V A T O R Y Worksession @ WTC25, Brussels + NAM-IP, Namur Call for Participation / Deadline: 23 April ////////////////////////////////////////////////////// From 7 until 12 June, the Techno-Galactic Software Observatory will explore practices of proximate critique with and of software. This worksession has been called an ’Observatory’ because we are interested in different ways to look at software, and at the implications of how it is currently probed and scrutinized as part of its production. Techno-galactic because we want to extend the observation to include different scales of computation, of software communities and their political economies. With the rise of online services, software use has been increasingly knitted into production, while suggesting that these roles constitute separate realms. This has an effect on the way software is used and produced, and radically alters its operative role in society. The shifts ripple across galaxies, through social structures, working conditions and personal relations, resulting in a profusion of seamless apparatuses that optimize and monetize individual and collective flows of information. The diffusion of software services affects the personal, in the form of intensified identity shaping and self-management. It also affects the public, as more and more libraries, universities and public infrastructures rely on "solutions" provided by private companies. Given how fast these changes resonate and reproduce, there is a growing urgency to engage in a critique of software that goes beyond taking a distance, and that deals with the fact that we are inevitably already entangled. How can we interact, intervene, respond and think with software? What approaches can allow us to recognize the agency of different actors, their ways of functioning and their politics? What methods of observation enable critical inquiry and affirmative discord? Working with theories of software and computation developed in academia and elsewhere, our priority is to ground the Observatory in hands-on exercises and experiments that might have an effect on how software is done. At the Techno-Galactic Software Observatory we will explore methods developed in the context of software production, hacker culture, software studies, computer science research, Free Software communities, privacy activism, and artistic practice to experiment with ways to stay with the trouble of software. During three sessions of two days, we will be collectively inspecting the space-time of computation and probing the universe of hardware-software separations. We will try out various perspectives and methods to look at the larger picture of software as a concept, as a practice, and as a set of paradigms. Worksessions are intensive transdisciplinary moments, organised twice a year by Constant. We aim to provide conditions for participants with different experiences and capabilities to temporarily link their practice and to develop ideas, prototypes and research projects together. We primarily use Free, Libre and Open Source software and material that is available under Open Licenses. This worksession calls for software-curious people of all kinds. Constant has invited 9 participants from different disciplines and backgrounds to prepare the subject. To ask questions about software from different types of engagement will require a heterogeneous group of participants with different levels of expertise, skill and background so we are looking for an additional 16 participants to join. You can apply for one or more blocks of minimum two days [see programme below], depending on your interest and availability. P R A C T I C A L I N F O The Techno-Galactic Software Observatory takes place from Wednesday June 7 until Monday June 12 in Brussels and Namur. Participation is free and Constant provides lunch and hosting for all participants. If you would like to participate (or have questions), please send an e-mail to Martino, Seda and Femke at observatory(a)constantvzw.org <mailto:observatory@constantvzw.org> motivating your interest before 23 April. We will answer by May 1 latest. The Techno-Galactic Software Observatory continues a series of encounters, research and situations such as: - Testing the testbed (2017) http://www.constantvzw.org/site/Testing-the-testbed,2739.html <http://www.constantvzw.org/site/Testing-the-testbed,2739.html> - Clouds are not an option (2017) http://constantvzw.org/site/The-Clouds-are-Not-an-Option.html <http://constantvzw.org/site/The-Clouds-are-Not-an-Option.html> - Machine Research (2016) https://machineresearch.wordpress.com/ <https://machineresearch.wordpress.com/> - Software as a critique (2016) https://wiki.laglab.org/Software_as_a_Critique <https://wiki.laglab.org/Software_as_a_Critique> - The Libre Graphics Research Unit (2011-2013) http://lgru.net/ <http://lgru.net/> P R O G R A M M E Wednesday 7 + Thursday 8 June The first two days of The Techno-Galactic Software Observatory will be developed in collaboration with the NAM-IP in Namur and will take place in the surrounding of their collection of historical ’numerical artefacts’. Viewing software in this long-term context offers the occasion to reflect on the conditions of its appearance, and allows us to take on current-day questions from a genealogical perspective. What is software? How did it appear as a concept, in what industrial and governmental circumstances? What happens to the material conditions of its production (minerals, factory labor, hardware) when it evaporates into a cloud? Friday 9 + Saturday 10 June The second two days will focus on the space-time dimension of IT development. The way computer programs and operating systems are manufactured changed tremendously through time, so its production times and places changed too. From military labs via the mega-corporation cubicles to the open-space freelancer utopia, what ruptures and continuities can be traced? From time-sharing to user-space partitions and containerization, what separations were and are at work? Where and when is software made today? Sunday 11 + Monday 12 June The last two days at the Techno-galactic software observatory will be dedicated to observation and its consequences. The development of software encompasses a series of practices whose evocative names are increasingly familiar: feedback, report, probe, audit, inspect, scan, diagnose, explore ... What are the systems of knowledge and power within which these activities take place, and what other types of observation are possible? As a practical environment for our investigations, we will together set up a walk-in clinic in the basement of the World Trade Center, where users and developers can arrive on Monday with software-questions of all kinds. ////////////////////////////////

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CFP Migration and communication flows: rethinking borders, conflict and identity through the digital, Bilbao 2-3 November 2017
by Leurs, K.H.A. (Koen) 12 Apr '17

12 Apr '17

Dear colleagues, ***This is a kind reminder of our April 16 submission deadline.*** We are looking forward to receive your submissions for the ECREA Diaspora, migration and the media section workshop taking place in Bilbao 2-3 November 2017. We will also have a productive session aimed at young researchers (PhD students and postdocs) to share knowledge, to get feedback about their research and to network for future collaboration. Do not hesitate to get in touch with us if you have any questions. Kindly circulate to anyone who might be interested, Best wishes, Koen Leurs, also on behalf of Irati Agirreazkuenaga, Kevin Smets and Melis Mevsimler ***** CALL FOR PAPERS ECREA Diaspora, migration and the media section University of the Basque Country, Bilbao “MIGRATION AND COMMUNICATION FLOWS: RETHINKING BORDERS, CONFLICT AND IDENTITY THROUGH THE DIGITAL” “We are faced with a crisis of humanity, and the only exit from this crisis is to recognize our growing interdependence as a species and to find new ways to live together in solidarity and cooperation, amidst strangers who may hold opinions and preferences different from our own.” Zygmunt Bauman, Strangers at our door (Polity, 2016) ECREA’s ‘Diaspora, Migration and Media’ and ‘Intercultural and International Communication’ sections will organize a joint conference at the University of Basque Country in Bilbao on 2-3 November 2017 that will focus on how research on migration and communication flows can help rethinking key notions like ‘borders’, ‘conflict’, ‘solidarity’, ‘identity’ and ‘culture’. RATIONALE:   Migration, cultural diversity and the media are increasingly problematized. Europe appears to be crumbling down in the current moment as a result of the Brexit vote, the election of Donald Trump and the so-called ‘European Refugee Crisis’. This is illustrated by hoaxes and fake news messages on these themes that serve as popular clickbait on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. As media outlets seek to address these ‘post-Truth’ conditions, populist, xenophobic, Islamophobic, racist and neo-nationalist rhetoric and sentiments have grown excessively across social media. Meanwhile, the number of internal and external European borders proliferates, and digital data are used for surveillance and migration management. Therefore, mediated encounters with diversity, the humanitarianism-securitization nexus and the role of communication flows urgently deserve further academic exploration to advance understanding of some of the major societal challenges of our time. The continuous re-appropriation of Anas Modamani’s selfie with the German chancellor Angela Merkel on Facebook is an illustrative case in point. He took his selfie in September 2015, when Merkel visited the Berlin shelter where he was then living. Modamani is a Syrian refugee who fled from Darayya. After posting the selfie online, he has repeatedly been falsely linked to terrorism. On the basis of physically resemblance, he was for example wrongly accused to be involved in the bombings in Brussel (March 2016) and the recent attack at a Berlin Christmas market (December 2016), see seehttp://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-38599385. The conference aims to cover a broad range of conflict-related themes such as media production and regulation of information on forced migrants in a ‘post-Truth’ era; fake news; the humanitarianism-securitization nexus, migration management, social and political conflicts related to migrant and diaspora communities, radicalization and online counter-terrorism, hate speech and racism, but also solidarities, activism and protest. Digital technologies and innovations constantly offer new ways to approach these issues, both theoretically and methodologically. The organizers invite papers that explore the complexity of migration and communication flows through conceptual interventions as well as qualitative and quantitative studies. PRELIMINARY PROGRAMME The conference will include: • Keynote lectures by Marie Gillespie and Pedro Oiarzabal.   *Marie Gillespie is Professor of Sociology, The Open University, coordinator of the Mapping Refuge Media Journey project (2016-2018). “The "Mapping Refugee Media Journeys" project investigates the parallel tracks of the physical and digital journeys of Syrian and Iraqi refugees. It documents the media and informational resources that refugees use from the point of departure, during their journeys across different borders and states, and upon arrival (if they reach their desired destination)”. For more information, see http://www.open.ac.uk/ccig/research/projects/mapping-refugee-media-journeys    *Pedro Oiarzabal is an Internet and Basque studies scholar, and a migration and diaspora researcher. His research examines diaspora creation and diaspora interaction with information and communication technologies as well as the meaning of identity in both homeland and diaspora realities, with particular emphasis on the Basque case. • A roundtable to establish bridges of dialogue between academics studying the coverage of migrants and journalists reporting on various conflicts in Europe, addressing methodological and ethical challenges. • A YECREA event dedicated to young scholars (PhD and postdoc level): see below for more information. • A joint panel organized with the ECREA ‘Intercultural and International Communication’ division to broaden the empirical, conceptual and methodological scope of the conference and to explore future collaborations. • An elaborate social programme, including a conference dinner and boat tour, allowing participants to enjoy the city of Bilbao. Call for panel and paper proposals To explore the issue of migration and communication flows in an informal and stimulating atmosphere, we invite participants to submit paper and panel proposals to the 2017 ECREA Diaspora, Migration & Media conference. We particularly welcome proposals on the following topics: • Rethinking the category of the migrant: forced migrants, guest-laborers, postsocialist, postcolonial, expatriates • ‘Bottom-up’ digitally mediated processes, such as transnational and local networking and connectivity, diaspora organizations, identity construction, urban communications • ‘Top down’ digitally mediated processes of migrant management: border control, surveillance & control systems for population movements, migrant detention centres, express flights, arrests at the street, lack of public information • The humanitarianism-securitization nexus, human/communication rights, border management, express flights, street arrests, surveillance and political economy • Migrants, media and language: the impact of migrants on linguistic dynamics (particularly in the context of natively bilingual societies), building resilience for new and local minority media structures • Intersectional analyses of migration and communication flows: how do axes of difference, including race, gender, sexuality, nation, location, generation religion, class together co-constitute subordination and identity • Methodological considerations in media and migration studies, including, but not limited to digital migration studies We encourage scholars whose abstracts have been accepted, to submit full papers by 1 October 2017 in order to compete for the first ECREA Diaspora, Migration & Media Paper Awards. There will be one award for junior scholars and one for senior scholars. TIMELINE: Abstract deadline: April 16, 2017 Notification of acceptance: May 16, 2017 Full-paper submission: October 1, 2017 Registration deadline: October 1, 2017 SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: Please send 200-300 word abstracts by April 16 2017. Please include a short biography (max 100 words) Indicate in your submission whether you are interested:  -in the YECREA event -sessions jointly organized with ICC -being considered for the special issue “Migration and communication flows: rethinking borders, conflict and identity through the digital” Submit your abstract + bio to ecreadmm(a)gmail.com, indicate in your email header [Submission last name + paper title] ORGANIZING TEAM:  Irati Agirreazkuenaga, PhD ECREA Diaspora, Migration and the Media Vice Chair Assistant professor information genres, radio speech & corporate communication Graduate Social Communication Programme, Department of Journalism University of the Basque Country, Bilbao, Spain Koen Leurs, PhD ECREA Diaspora, Migration and the Media Chair Assistant professor gender & postcolonial studies Graduate Gender Programme, Department of Media & Culture Utrecht University, the Netherlands Kevin Smets, PhD ECREA Diaspora, Migration and the Media Vice Chair Assistant professor in media and culture Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium  Postdoctoral fellow, Research Foundation Flanders, University of Antwerp, Belgium Melis Mevsimler, MA ECREA Diaspora, Migration and the Media Young Scholar Representative PhD student Digital Crossings in Europe. Gender, Diaspora and Belonging  Utrecht University, the Netherlands ===== General list info and FAQ: http://comm.umn.edu/~grodman/cultstud.html

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CFP: Learning in Digital and Social Media @ HICSS (due June 15)
by Dan Suthers 12 Apr '17

12 Apr '17

Learning in Digital and Social Media a "mini track" at the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, (HICSS-51) January 3-6, 2018, Hilton Waikoloa Village, Hawaii Full paper submission deadline: June 15 We solicit papers on how human learning takes place via interactive and social processes enabled or supported by digital and social media (DSM). To leverage the HICSS context, we seek to bridge disciplines and research communities between system sciences and learning sciences, so within this scope a broad range of research questions, learning settings, and theoretical and methodological traditions will be considered. We are flexible about what constitutes 'learning' (e.g., acquisition or co-creation of knowledge or skills, intersubjective meaning-making, legitimate peripheral participation, advancing community knowledge, collective change) and about the nature of the setting (e.g., face-to-face or online; formal or informal - educational, professional or leisure and mixtures thereof; with diverse technological media mediating networked or community social interaction), but learning and the DSM setting should be considered in relation to each other rather than one without regard for the other. Papers should make a theoretical contribution or establish the value of a methodological or design innovation: it is not sufficient to merely document use of a technology in an educational setting or apply a well worn model without new insights. Within these guidelines, the range of topics we consider are broad. We are particularly interested in: * Deepening the theoretical understanding that underlines processes of collaboration through social interaction (small groups, networks, communities, crowds) in relation to technology mediated learning settings. * How the affordances of technological systems influence or are appropriated for learning via social processes, and how design of affordances can leverage these influences. * How the changing digital landscape affects who learners are likely to be and when, where and how they learn, mediated by digital and social media and other technology. * How learning is (or can be designed to be) distributed and coordinated across multiple digital and social media; * Understanding learning in open practices at the nexus of distributed work, socializing, and knowledge sharing. * How 'Learning in the public domain' takes place (for example through Twitter and other forms of social media), and how this changes our perception of learning and learning design. * Learning analytics in digital and social media: how to understand learning via the traces people leave in social media. Methods for analyzing collective phenomena that arise from interaction in social media. HICSS 51 and the "Big Island" The Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, in its 51st year, is one of the longstanding scientific conferences and is highly ranked among information systems conferences. Diverse disciplines unified by a focus on information technologies are woven together in a matrix structure of tracks and themes. By attending HICSS you are not only reaching the audience of your track and mini-track; you also have the opportunity to learn about what is happening in related fields and meet leaders in those fields. Mini-tracks within the Collaboration Systems and Technologies and the Digital and Social Media tracks are particularly relevant. With five of the world's seven climate zones, and a mixture of Hawaiian and immigrant cultures, the "Big Island" of Hawaii offers diverse outdoor activities, good food, and cultural activities. Please see http://www.hicss.org/ for conference, venue and submission information. Papers are due June 15, 2017 Minitrack Co-Chairs: Maarten De Laat (Primary Contact) University of Wollongong mdelaat(a)uow.edu.au Dan Suthers University of Hawaii suthers(a)hawaii.edu

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Call for Industry Talk Proposals at ACM RecSys 2017 (Deadline: April 15, 2017)
by Christoph Trattner 11 Apr '17

11 Apr '17

Call for Industry Talk Proposals We are pleased to invite you to participate in the Eleventh ACM Conference on Recommender Systems (RecSys 2017), the premier venue for research and applications of recommendation technologies. ACM RecSys 2017 will be held in Como, Italy, from August 27th to August 31st, 2017. The conference will continue RecSys’ practice of connecting the research and practitioner communities to exchange ideas, discuss problems, and share solutions. Industry practitioners are invited to submit talk proposals to the RecSys conference industry track. This track seeks presentations about challenges and practical solutions to significant real-world issues faced by industry practitioners. We especially encourage submissions that describe substantial challenges that were overlooked by the research community and could foster discussion and collaboration. Examples of talk topics include, but are not limited to: * Challenges faced by practitioners that are under-studied in the research community * Novel techniques that solve significant issues in practice * Case studies of real-world implementations * Evaluation metrics and studies * Field and user studies * Lessons learned from real world deployments * Novel recommender system applications PROPOSAL FORMAT AND SUBMISSION We are accepting proposals for 20 minute long talks. Proposals must include the following: * Title and abstract of the proposal presentation (1 page) * Short CV of the presenter(s) (up to 300 words) Talk proposals should be emailed to industry2017(a)recsys.acm.org. IMPORTANT DATES Proposals must be submitted before the submission deadline of April 15, 2017 to receive full consideration. Submitters will be notified of talk acceptance or rejection by May 15, 2017. INDUSTRY CHAIRS * Linas Baltrunas, Netflix, USA * Alan Said, University of Skövde, Sweden -- ------------------------------------------------------- Dipl.-Ing. Dr.techn. Christoph Trattner BSc Assistant Professor MODUL University Vienna Department of New Media Technology E-mail: christoph.trattner(a)modul.ac.at Tel: +43 650 2402801 Homepage: http://christophtrattner.info -------------------------------------------------------

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The CASTAC and the Society for the Anthropology of Work invite nominations for the Forsythe Prize.
by Gabriella "Biella" Coleman 11 Apr '17

11 Apr '17

Hello all, The CASTAC and the Society for the Anthropology of Work invite nominations for the Forsythe Prize. The Diana Forsythe Prize was created in 1998 to celebrate the best book or series of published articles in the spirit of Diana Forsythe’s feminist anthropological research on work, science, or technology, including biomedicine. Please spread the word far and wide that the Diana Forsythe Prize committee is now accepting nominations for the Diana Forsythe Prize. Nominations are due no later than *June 1, 2017*. Self-nominations are welcomed. To be eligible, books (or article series) must have been published in the last five years (copyright of 2012 or later). Nominations should be sent via email to Selection Committee Chair Alexander Edmonds at Alex.Edmonds(a)ed.ac.uk <mailto:Alex.Edmonds@ed.ac.uk>. Publishers, please send a copy of nominated titles to each of the selection committee members listed below. Alexander Edmonds 18 Buccleuch Place 3.24 Edinburgh EH8 9LD UNITED KINGDOM Gabriella Coleman Wolfe Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy Department of Art History & Communication Studies McGill University 853 Sherbrooke Street West Room 265 Montreal, PQ H3A 0G5 CANADA Marcel LaFlamme Department of Anthropology, MS-20 Rice University P.O. Box 1892 Houston, TX 77251-1892 USA You can find a list of past winners here <http://castac.org/diana-forsythe-prize/>. Best, Beth -- -- -- -- Dr. Elizabeth Reddy Co-Chair | Committee for the Anthropology of Science, Technology and Computing | American Anthropological Association Lecturer | Department of Sociology and Anthropology | Bucknell University ear026(a)bucknell.edu <mailto:ear026@bucknell.edu> | (503) 810-2267 <tel:%28503%29%20810-2267> -- Gabriella Coleman Wolfe Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy Department of Art History & Communication Studies McGill University 853 Sherbrooke Street West Montreal, PQ H3A 0G5 http://gabriellacoleman.org/ 514-398-8572

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WEBCAST TODAY: GIP Digital Watch Briefing: Internet Governance in March 2017
by Joly MacFie 11 Apr '17

11 Apr '17

Our regular monthly IG ICYMI. Jovan Kurbalija and team do a remarkable job of summarizing Internet Governance happenings worldwide, plus there are regional reports from Belgrade, Tunis, and Brazil. ============================================== WEBCAST TODAY: @theGIP Digital Watch Briefing: Internet Governance in March 2017 #thegip <http://isoc-ny.org/p2/9111> [image: Livestream] <https://livestream.com/internetsociety/gipdwmar17>The *GIP Digital Watch Internet governance briefings <http://digitalwatch.giplatform.org/briefings>* provide a ‘zoomed-out’ update of the major global IG and digital policy developments. View the re-stream of the *March 28 2017 briefing* <https://digitalwatch.giplatform.org/events/briefing-internet-governance-mar…> at *10:00 EDT* (14:00 UTC). Digital rights were under focus this month, with recommendations by the UN Special Rapporteur on privacy for a legal instrument regulating surveillance in cyberspace, and new leaks that describe the US CIA’s ability to hack phones, computers, and smart devices. The US-Russia saga on cyber espionage continues, amid more breaches worldwide. What were the main Internet governance updates in March, and how will they shape future developments? Local hubs in Belgrade, Rio de Janeiro and Tunis share regional perspectives. *View on Livestream*: https://livestream.com/internetsociety/gipdwmar17 *Twitter*: #thegip https://twitter.com/hashtag/theGIP ================================================= -- --------------------------------------------------------------- Joly MacFie 218 565 9365 Skype:punkcast -------------------------------------------------------------- -

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3 PhD Scholarships: Migration Studies and Technology at the Danube University Krems, Austria
by Noella Edelmann 11 Apr '17

11 Apr '17

PhD Scholarships: Migration Studies and Technology We are currently opening three PhD student scholarships to join our dynamic interdisciplinary research team at the Faculty of Business and Globalization at Danube University Krems. An interdisciplinary approach focusing on public administration and public policy in combination with technical domains, such as business informatics or information systems are welcome. Application deadline: April 30, 2017 Details: https://goo.gl/2xpFv5 Best regards Noella Noella Edelmann BA, MSc, MAS Research Fellow Department for E-Governance and Administration Danube University Krems Dr.-Karl-Dorrek-Strasse 30 3500 Krems Austria www.donau-uni.ac.at/egov CeDEM Conference for E-Democracy and Open Government www.donau-uni.ac.at/cedem JeDEM eJournal of eDemocracy and Open Government www.jedem.org Digital Society Lab http://digitalgovernment.wordpress.com/

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[SAVE THE DATE] May 10, 2017 - Social Network Analysis ADVANCED seminar - Italy, Milan
by Alessandro Zonin 11 Apr '17

11 Apr '17

Hi all, for which of you are based in Italy (Milan) the next 10 of May will take place an advanced seminar dedicated to Social Network Analysis. If you are interested additional details and enrollments here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/social-network-analysis-corso-avanzato-tickets… The attendance is intended in person. No webinar or streaming is planned. Regards -- Twitter @AlessandroZonin <https://twitter.com/AlessandroZonin> Blog: Social Network Analysis <https://alessandrozonin.wordpress.com/>

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Call for YECREA workshop on 'Digital methods for studying algorithms: complicating the socio-technical relation'
by Julia Velkova 11 Apr '17

11 Apr '17

YECREA workshop on "Digital methods for studying algorithms: complicating the socio-technical relation” at Södertörn University, Stockholm organised by ECREA’s Communication and Democracy, and Media Industries and Cultural Production Sections We would like to invite all young scholars - doctoral students, post-docs and junior scholars - to the YECREA workshop organised as part of the upcoming conference on “Digital Democracy: Critical Perspectives in the Age of Big Data” on 10-11 November 2017 in Stockholm at Södertörn University. The workshop will take the form of a half-day pre-conference session on the afternoon of 9 November, and will be facilitated by Annette Markham, Professor of Information Studies at Aarhus University. The aim of the workshop is to provide a platform for young scholars to raise and discuss questions and projects concerning methods for studying algorithms and algorithmic cultures. The workshop aims to gather a multiplicity of perspectives, frames, and questions that can extend our understanding of how to deal with algorithms in research. If you are interested in participating, please submit a brief expression of interest (ca 300 words) in which you provide a short description of your project. Additionally, please provide a bionote stating your name, affiliation and position, as well as the stage of your project. Please submit your expressions of interest to julia.velkova(a)sh.se<mailto:julia.velkova@sh.se> by 1 June 2017. The workshop is free of charge. We encourage workshop participants to also submit a proposal for the main conference. Please submit your abstract also by 1 June 2017 (300-word abstract for individual proposals; or 300-word panel rationale plus individual 200 word abstracts from a minimum of four speakers for panel proposals). All abstracts for individual and panel proposals for the main conference should be submitted through: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ecreadigdem2017 For more information, please consult the conference website: http://www.sh.se/bigdata Workshop organisers: Julia Velkova (YECREA representative Media Industries and Cultural Production Section) Jenny Sundén (Professor in Gender Studies, Södertörn University) Anne Kaun (Vice-chair Communication and Democracy Section)

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